I’ve got a little bit of a secret to tell, and I feel like I should get it off my chest. Here goes.
I’m working on a book. Actually, I’ve been working on a few different books over the years, but I haven’t actually had the nerve to push forward and try to get them published. I’m not sure exactly why, but until I get something 100% the way I want it, I’m not going to push the issue. There’s been a surge in self-publishing over the years, and the Internet has been a huge part of that. Turns out that now you can publish your own books in a multiple of different places, and then sell it yourself. There’s now been a big advancement in the whole process however, and that’s going to help a lot.
Lulu.com announced today that they’re going to be publishing books to the iBooks store, and authors get a cut of the profits. There are quite a few requirements by Apple, but after going through a few hoops, you can have your book on the iBooks store, and potentially make some money. So what are you looking at making? Lulu starts pricing at $9.99 – the default for the iBooks store – and then Apple takes 30% off of that. After that, the author takes 80% of what’s left. So if you put the book at $9.99, you’ll take home $5.59 a book. That’s better than some publishing houses, and you don’t even need an agent.
I’m not sure when my book will get out, but this is huge for self publishers. It’s the future, folks, and it’s here now.
via Daring Fireball
