How do newcomers publish books?

I met many friends who asked me how to publish my own books.

actually, this is both a simple question and a complicated one. It is simple, because the process of publishing books is fixed, which is nothing more than writing-editing-publishing-printing-sales; It is complicated because there are many different situations, including the author's situation, the work's situation and the sales situation, which are very different. Because of this complexity, the knowledge of publishing books is great.

Only those who really know the inside story of China's publishing industry can ensure the quality of books, and achieve low cost and even considerable income.

the classification of a book: is there any market potential?

Generally speaking, books written by ordinary people can be divided into two types: one is books with market potential, and the other is books without market potential.

The so-called book with market potential is a work that can reach the basic sales volume of the current market and bring profits to the publishing institution after being planned, edited and published by the publishing institution and then sold on the market. The greater the profit, the greater the potential of this work. According to the current market situation, an ordinary book with normal pricing should reach the level of profit, and its sales volume should reach at least 5 copies, which can only be achieved if the operating conditions of the publishing house are small; If private companies are allowed to operate, their breakeven point will generally reach 7-9 copies. Because compared with publishing houses, private companies need to bear additional publishing management fees, and their foreign distribution discounts are lower.

and all the above are ideal. If we consider the return factor (the return rate of humanities and social sciences books is about 1%-25%) and the sales return factor (the sales return period of books is about 6-12 months), if the print run of a book can't reach the level of 8,-12, copies and its expected sales volume can't reach the level of 15,-2, copies, general publishers and private companies will not invest.

Many authors have found many publishing houses and companies after finishing their works. Perhaps these institutions are also willing to receive these enthusiastic authors, but the results are often not satisfactory to the authors, or they cannot be published, or the conditions are very harsh. The core problem is often that, in the eyes of professional publishing organizations, the market potential of these authors' works is not enough, at least they are works that make you full of best-selling hopes.

Many of our authors will ask: Since it hasn't been published, how do you know it won't sell well? But the publishing agency asked the opposite question: Since it has not been published, how can you be sure that it will sell well? Most publishing organizations judge a work by experience and feeling. Of course, this judgment may not always be so correct-otherwise, some very successful works will not slip through the net of some publishing organizations-but this judgment of publishing organizations is generally more correct and objective than the author himself.

I have met a large number of authors, especially very young friends who have just started writing novels. They always think that their works are the best. More than one author told me personally that his works should sell at least 5, copies, even if there are no 5, copies, he can sell at least 1, copies! This kind of confidence, on the one hand, makes more experienced publishers feel very admired, on the other hand, it also makes people feel ashamed-because behind this kind of confidence is actually a kind of blindness!

Every parent thinks that their children are the best, and almost every author, expert and writer I meet thinks that their works are the best without exception. The mood is understandable, but because of this mood and self-confidence, it is not objective to evaluate yourself, thus affecting the normal publication of a work, and in the end it is yourself who suffers. Of course, in such works, there is no shortage of gold covered by dirt and dust. Because he is a newcomer, because he has never published a work, no one knows the pearl, so the light of gold is covered-until a publisher who appreciates him appears. Such examples are not without them.

to put it bluntly, my core meaning above is to tell the author who wants to publish a book to have an objective evaluation of his work.

So, what works have market potential? Objectively speaking, what is a work with market potential is a difficult question to answer. A reporter asked a famous publishing planner: What kind of books can become bestsellers? He replied, "If I knew what kind of books could become bestsellers, I would publish all these bestsellers, and I would monopolize the bestseller list." This answer, on the one hand, is his modesty, on the other hand, it also shows the uncertainty of the market. Before the publication of Who Moved My Cheese (Chinese version), it had been transferred to several publishing companies, and no one cared. It was not until the scholar culture and art company took a fancy to the book and made great efforts to turn a seemingly ordinary little book with few words into the top book of the year. The Capital of a Life-Personality Factors of Success and Wealth (edited by Orison Madeng and edited by Bao Gangsheng, China Archives Publishing House), which was ranked among the top ten non-literature bestsellers in China in 21, had an initial print run of just over 1, copies. Therefore, in the publishing industry, it is almost the same as predicting what stock will rise to what price to assert with complete certainty that a certain book will sell tens of thousands of copies. For bestsellers, there are general rules and laws, but few people can determine the exact sales volume of a book in advance. (This is also a topic that this paper can't complete. Hehe:)