Brad begins the book with a very simple question about publishing: “Why not?” As he proceeds to describe how technology is making high-quality publishing affordable for practically everyone, Brad outlines several reasons people may choose – or find themselves driven – to publish:
1. To fulfill a
professional, personal, or educational goal to be an author, not just a writer.
2. You will
never achieve your publishing goals if you don’t publish.
3. To tell a
story or share a message. Several to 1st World Library
authors relate in their own words the importance of telling their stories –
from a Holocaust survivor to soldiers and sailors to business executives and
enthusiast historians.
Brad also suggests some critical strategies for being successful on the front end of any publishing effort – the writing:
1. Write what
you know. Anne Wayman has a great little essay on this
topic at http://freelancewrite.about.com/cs/gettingitdone/a/writewhatyoukno.htm
2. Find a niche
and fill it. Brad suggests that writers who want to become
published authors ask themselves these essential questions:
a.
What is your
burning interest?
b.
Who has needs
you might fill by exploring that interest?
c.
What
information can you provide those people that they can’t currently get?
d.
How are you
going to reach them?
3. Passion. “To have a
breakthrough product,” Brad suggests, “write for yourself, not for the market …
Writing from passion, while more risky on the financial end, can be easier,
more fulfilling, and probably has a better chance of making a significant
difference to our culture than producing a book solely through market
research.”
Once the writing is done, the hard work begins – publishing a book that honors your creativity with the quality necessary to achieve your goals. Since as much as 90% of the publishing process comes after the manuscript is done, Brad tells writers that they must prepare for and be willing to go the distance:
1. Understand your
choices in today’s publishing
industry:
a.
Traditional
publishing … which rejects fully 98% of the manuscripts produced each year.
b.
Self-publishing,
which encompasses a spectrum from:
i.
Total self-publication – a time-consuming process that requires
extraordinary discipline and knowledge to avoid the many pitfalls of this
option.
ii.
Subsidy and vanity presses, which frequently require significant up-front costs
and rarely produce books of a quality sufficient to earn reviews or sales.
iii.
The new
publishing paradigm, author services
publishing, which pairs aspiring authors with experienced professionals.
Author services publishers guide writers through the self-publishing process
and provide access to the services that make your book everything it can be,
including unbiased editing, multiple copy edits, professional layout, and
stylish cover design.
2. Choose among
the right publishing technologies and
binding, which have marked differences in methods and quality that Why Publish? details.
Brad wraps up with a chapter on book promotion, and then reminds us that, because of new technologies and new publishing options, “Today, anyone can be a published author. The difficult decision isn’t whether to publish; the difficult decision is whether to do it right, to take the high or the low road to this goal.”
According to Tom Borders, founder of the Borders book store network, “Why Publish? is a very candid assessment of the publishing industry. Brad fills a significant niche in the scheme of book publishing. For many authors, Brad's solution is the best way.”