Most outdoor writers feel the urge to do a book. What is the range of possibilities, and what are their real and hidden costs? Some of the possibilities will be examined in this article and the costs considered in a follow-up.
Most outdoor writers feel the urge to do a book. What is the range of possibilities, and what are their real and hidden costs? Some of the possibilities will be examined in this article and the costs considered in a follow-up.
Self publishing has the advantages that you control of your book through the writing, design, production, advertising and sales functions. Depending on the complexity of the book, number of photos, need to go on location trips, etc., the cost of a self-published book can range from $5,000 into the tens of thousands. Costs can be reduced if you do the design work and present publication-ready copy.
Assuming that you already have a computer with sufficient capacity and a mid-range digital camera, I recommend a $5,000 cash reserve to produce a 200-page book. This need would be less if your book is a collection of columns or more if the book necessitated your making research trips.
The next category is "print on demand titles" from AuthorHouse, Lulu and others. Advantages are that you do not have 1,500 books to store, and printing costs are less than if you did contract printing. Some companies offer softcover, hardcover and electronic books in your package; and the company, for various fees, will advertise and promote your books. Despite less printing costs, the promotional and design costs will usually run the price of the book to the $5,000 level. No advances are given on such books, but you will get a royalty on each book sold by the publisher or through outlets like Amazon.com.
Poets often pay to have their works included in anthologies - usually under the guise of some sort of contest. Outdoor writers are sometimes hooked into this method of publishing, which is little more than a scam. While true that the books are published, they have almost no sales outside of copies sold to the people who contributed to them.
Publishers will sometimes advertise for writers to do books. Usually these are specific format books, such as the "for dummies" series, guide books and the like. Their objectives are to find someone who is local in order to cut expenses (although they typically do not pay expenses) who is desperate enough to write the title at a loss in hopes of some day making money from royalty payments. Some advances that I have seen being offered recently would just about cover the costs of paper, printer inks and perhaps some photography expenses. It is also common that there are "nasties" in such contracts that obligate the author to do updates as required or restrict his ability to write about this subject for other markets.
Negotiated contracts can occur when the author asks a publisher, "Would you consider this title?" Most commonly the answer is, "No." If you get a "Yes," a contract is offered with a specified advance, royalty payments and so on. The advance is usually paid in installments, unless the book has already been written. Outdoor book advances are small, compared to other segments of the book market. My recent ones have been in the $4,000 - $5,000 range with royalties of between 10 and 15 percent. Books with only local, rather than national appeal, garner even smaller advances.
Some publishers pay the writer a flat fee for the book. There will be no royalty payments. The writer needs to push the limits of his client's willingness to pay. For reasons that will be explored in a follow-up article on the apparent and hidden costs of doing a book, I do not feel that I can accept such an assignment for less than $10,000 for an illustrated 200-page book.