The business side of book writing

Let me give you some statistics about book publishing.

In 2013, Forbes published a story that estimated 600,000 to 1 million books are published every year. (I know that's a wide range, but the story reported that there are a lot of conflicting sources.) Further, about 50 percent of the published books are independently published. (An independently published book is one published by the author. My books are independently published. The flip side to independent publishing is when an author contracts with an agent, who then works to sell a book to a publisher, who then buys the manuscripts and . . . maybe . . . publishes it.)

The Forbes article also suggests that the average book sells less than 250 copies (I've seen other sources that project 150 as a goal) and a book has less than a 1 (One) percent chance of being physically stocked in a bookstore.

Add to this another stark reality: People don't read. A 2015 Pew Research Center study showed that 72 percent of adults read all or part of a single book in 2014. This does not tell us how many adults actually read a single book cover-to-cover, but I've heard a statistic kicked around that 50 percent of American adults don't read a single book cover-to-cover during any given year. Most of those who do read books are younger adults.

So, what you've got is a market that is saturated with a lot of books in a culture that really doesn't read books like it once did.

Do not, and I repeat and repeat again, do not write a book if you want to make money. At best, writing and publishing books is a hobby, and hobbies like golf or fishing or collecting toy trains are going to be an expense.

Yes, you might write that one book that falls into the right lap at the right time and makes millions of dollars just like a poor kid from a poor neighborhood makes it to a Major League roster with no real explanation of how it happened. It can happen - it's just really, really unlikely.

Write because you have a story to tell or a message to communicate. Let a few honest people read it. Listen to them. If it's a story worth telling, you have two options.

• One, you can go through the pain-staking process of finding an agent, who may or may not be able to sell your book to a publisher, who then may or may not decide to publish your book. It can be a process that takes months or years with no promise of success.
• Two, you can pay-to-play and independently publish your book with a lot of companies that now specialize in independent publishing. This gets your book on the market much faster, but also puts all of the writing, editing, and marketing on you. It's like starting a business - a very risky one.
• Note, even if you go with Option One, above, you may ultimately come back to Option Two because Option One doesn't work out. Publishers just aren't taking big gambles, and agents aren't either.

I chose independent publishing because of a friend named Paul Stutzman, who wrote a fantastic book called Hiking Through. The book follows Paul's Georgia-to-Maine through-hike on the Appalachian Trail following the death of his wife. Awesome story. I encourage you to read it. Paul originally independently published his book, someone read it, and it found its way to Revell. Revell publishes Christian lifestyle books.

Based on Paul's experience, I independently published Brookwood Road and Elm Street, figuring that if they were indeed cream they would rise, find their way to a publisher, or a screenwriter. Otherwise, I would have two fun books for my grandchildren to read one day and that would be just fine, too. I love to write just for the fun of writing.

Brookwood Road has now sold more than 1,000 copies and Elm Street more than 500. I'm in the black financially, but I've had to work hard to get there, I've made some rookie mistakes, and it's taken a lot more marketing strategy than I ever imagined. But, the one thing I've learned is that book publishing is more about the satisfaction of a hobby well-managed like building a nice piece of furniture in a workshop rather than being on the NY Times Best-Seller List or making lots of money.

www.scottdvaughan.com