The Business of Creativity and Publishing

face-89346_640When I was publishing my book, The Year of YES!, I sat down and looked at my options for publishing from a business perspective.

In my research I discovered that in order to go the traditional route with a traditional publisher I would have to meet all of this criteria to manifest my dream:

  1. Build a ginormous social media platform.
  2. Have a newsletter list of at least 4,000 people.
  3. Find an agent.
  4. Pay an agent 10-20% to find a publisher.
  5. Find a publisher.
  6. Agree on a contract.
  7. Surrender Creative Control over my book.
  8. Surrender my copyright and ownership of my book.
  9. Wait 18 months for them to get it on the shelves.
  10. Pay for most of my own marketing.
  11. Earn as little as .25 cents a copy in royalties.
  12. The profit motive is about the publisher, not the author.

Now, the only upside I could see is that traditional publishers have a wider distribution network, they would cover upfront printing costs and include my book in their seasonal catalogs.

The real pull of traditional publishing is that it had been my childhood dream to be “chosen,” by a publisher and that would give me validation and I’d “be a success.”

But, it would take years! And I’m kind of into creative control. And ownership of my work.

If I published the book myself I would have to pick up the initial costs of editing, design and marketing. True.

But, today’s reality in publishing is that my profits will most likely come from people reading the book and choosing to work with me as a coach or joining Maxcelerators. I couldn’t afford to wait years for the residual profits to come into my business. I needed it to happen right now.

From a business perspective it was a no brainer to launch my own publishing company, Sioux Ink.

Sioux Ink is a publishing hybrid that allows authors creative control over their work, as well as maintaining their ownership of the copyright; provides professional, high quality, editing and design services and a turnaround time that will allow you to increase the profits from your professional services by using the book to establish credibility and drive traffic to your platform.

Sioux Ink will only accept a book we’re proud to put into the world. Message me at tracee@traceesioux.com for a chat about whether Sioux Ink and your book is a publishing match.

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