Tag: marketability

Why Self-Published Authors Should Own Their ISBN

The basic answer is that owning the ISBN to your book makes you the publisher, which is the purpose of self-publishing for most authors who pursue the route.

Let’s look deeper into the ISBN and why I strongly suggest self-published authors own theirs. I’ve written on this before, but this time I am including advice from Sue Collier, the coauthor of The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 5th Edition. She has been working with authors and small presses for nearly two decades, providing writing, editing, production, and promotions work for hundreds of book projects. 

This how serious I want you paying attention to this right now, lol. | Photo by cottonbro studio.

The ISBN is the set of numbers at the back of your book on the bar code that captures information regarding the book’s publisher, title, language, edition, and version. It is necessary for anyone publishing a book they want to sell.

The number is issued to the publisher, so in traditional publishing, the author does not worry about this, as their publisher will be the book’s publisher of record.

In self-publishing, you can choose a free ISBN assigned by your print-on-demand company, such as Amazon, Lulu, or Ingram Spark. In this case, the company will appear as the publisher of record. For instance, a free Amazon ISBN means Amazon is the publisher, and so on.

Buying an ISBN or getting the freebie is totally up to the author. In fact, a freebie might be ideal for beginning authors on budgets who just want to see their books in print.

Still, the ISBN holds much more weight than these print-on-demand services have let on.

“The POD publisher services companies will try to tell you that it doesn’t matter whether you use their assigned ISBN or obtain your own. But it does because using their ISBN will ensure they are listed as the publisher of record in BIP (Books in Print) as well as with any distributor. Consequently, all orders and inquiries will go to them.”

– Sue Collier

A free ISBN is fine if you only want to publish a book and maybe sell a few copies here and there. However, if you see yourself one day selling your book in bulk to corporations, bookstores, and libraries as the publisher of record, you want to purchase an ISBN so that it belongs to you. Collier explains why:

“Let’s take a few hypothetical situations: Suppose a corporation is interested in purchasing one thousand copies of your book, contacts the Internet publisher (whoever you published through), but you never hear about it. What if a distributor wants to take it on but finds the economics aren’t feasible? Tough luck.”

Sue Collier
Owners of Upscale Foot Spa in Atlanta

Corporations do business with businesses, not individuals. Owning your ISBN with your own imprint positions you as a serious business. If Lulu is your publisher, Lulu is who corporations will contact for the kind of transaction in Collier’s example.

Why?

Because any organization with specific orders or inquiries regarding your book will approach the publisher of record. If you own your ISBN, that would be you/your company. If you do not own your ISBN, that would be whoever you published with.

“In addition, if a POD publishing services company is listed on your book as the publisher, your book may immediately be disregarded by bookstores and potential reviewers as a poorly done vanity press project.”

Sue Collier

Amazon does not vet the manuscripts uploaded to its publishing platform. Consequently, it is flooded with mediocrely written books with poorly designed covers, poor editing, and even worse formatting. When corporations see a book published by Amazon, they automatically throw it into this slush pile.

“Does it really matter? Yes, it does. Here’s the bottom line: If you don’t purchase your own ISBN under your own publishing company name, then you are not the publisher. If you use a publishing services company and let them assign your book an ISBN, they are the publisher, not you.”

Sue Collier

Grabbing the free ISBN from Amazon or whoever you publish with is not a sin. It’s okay. You will still be able to sell your books and do well.

It is, however, very limiting for self-published authors who want to sell their books beyond Amazon’s virtual shelves, have their own imprints, or be the publisher of record for their work so they can sell in bulk and process large orders through businesses and corporations.

Check out more Indie Author Basics articles here.

Is Your Book Marketable?

As I learn more about self-publishing and strive to develop and sell better books, I realize how important it is to write a marketable book. As I speak with other writers who want to self-publish, I realize how important this stage is to the process.

Traditionally, publishers will turn down a book if it’s not marketable. In self-publishing, there are no gatekeepers to make that decision, as the author has more creative control.

The disadvantage to this, however, is that the self-published book that doesn’t have a market also doesn’t sell well, and the author learns the hard way why publishers tend to be so selective.

“No matter how you decide to publish, your book, ultimately, ends up a product in the marketplace—a product for sale. Yes, your creativity, authenticity and even inspiration make it stand out from the pack. However, often, more than these things, a bestseller is created by your ability to:

write a book that is unique in a category

write a book that is necessary in a market and category

write a book that targets a large potential audience

successfully target and promote to a market.”

Nina Amir, How to Write Marketable Books that Feed the Soul

Publishing is challenging, period. It doesn’t matter if you are self-publishing or publishing traditionally; it’s hard work.

But it’s even harder to push a book that has no market.

One way to discover this is to ask yourself questions.

Are there other books similar to the one I am writing that have been successful?

Years ago, I spoke with an author who said they wanted to write a cookbook that is also a self-help book and a memoir.

It would be difficult to market this kind of book because it has no clear focus, and there is no evidence of someone combining so many different genres in one book and doing it successfully. It is confusing, and there is no audience for it.

We frequently want to produce the most innovative and unique story ever written, which causes us to overthink. The concept that we have a completely original idea that has yet to be realized is a fantasy. It is not real. Each story idea has been tried before. What distinguishes a book is our unique perspective.

It’s YOUR voice that makes it different. It’s YOUR voice that makes it stand out.

Photo by Oladimeji Ajegbile

What’s the competition like?

What are the top five to ten books in your categories that are doing well? This is not to compare yourself to them and feel bad about it. This allows you to determine whether there is a need that you can supply. In what ways is your narrative set-apart? Are there any gaps in the market you can fill? The lack of this type of market analysis is why self-published books fail to sell. There is a lot of inventiveness, but more business principle implementation is needed.

When I chose to publish Black History Facts, I knew I wanted it to be both instructive and straightforward. I didn’t want it to be so nerdy or long that the average individual became bored and stopped reading. I based this on other nonfiction history books that are comparable to mine but that I get bored with over time.

I also considered young readers early in their black history journey. Is there something a young person could read on their way to the longer, more advanced reads? I wouldn’t recommend Black AF History to my thirteen-year-old niece. It is an excellent education, but I know she’s not going to read 432 pages. I took all of this into consideration.

What are people’s reactions when I talk about my book? Do they gasp? Do they want to know more? Do they ask follow-up questions? Are they checking in to see if I’ve finished it yet?

If people keep asking about your book, that’s a clue that it is marketable because of its demand. If your logline or first few sentences intrigue them, you might have yourself a winner.

Another thing you could do is to use your blog as a test platform. Share a few chapters of a story and see what kind of engagement and feedback you get. I’ve written a few books from this blog by doing that, including Black History Facts.

“Publishing is a business, and the business owner needs to be as certain as they can be that the products or services they offer for sale will sell and make money for them. It is no different from a boutique owner deciding to stock one dress style and not another – or a building contractor using the same sub-contractors because they have demonstrated a superior service in the past.”

Nina Amir, How to Write Marketable Books that Feed the Soul

While editing, cover art, and formatting are must-haves for any book, writing a book that people want to read, one that is marketable, is the first step to self-publishing a book that sells.

Check out more Indie Author Basics articles here.