Key Tips for Academics Wanting to Write for the General Public: A short guide for post-ac, alt-ac, or academics
In this five-part series, I am sharing insight on the path for post-ac, alt-ac, and current academics to create a book for a general public or trade audience. Writing a trade book can be an important stepping stone in an academic career or used as a pivot point for those interested in transitioning out of academia. Below is Part 4 of this series. You can read Part 1 by clicking here, Part 2 by clicking here, and Part 3 by clicking here.
In Part 3 of this series, I discussed the process of creating and designing your manuscript. Prior to publication, it is necessary to take care of a few little things. If you’ve decided to self-publish, you’ll also need an imprint. An imprint is the trade name your book is published under and is usually found on the book’s spine. For example, you may decide to incorporate as an LLC and list your company name on the spine of your book and in the copyright section. This gives credibility to your book and is also necessary information to include when obtaining your ISBN and Library of Congress Catalog Number (more on those next).
If you have any desire to sell your book in stores, it is necessary to purchase unique ISBN numbers. Generally, avoid using the free ISBN numbers on Amazon because they aren’t uniquely yours and can make it more difficult for your book to be “found” by prospective buyers. Most people acquire 10 unique ISBN numbers, because you need one for each version and edition of the book. So when I published my book, Biology Everywhere:How the science of life matters to everyday life, I needed a different number for the paperback, hardback, e-book, and audiobook versions, and it’s cheapest to buy 10 numbers at once. Bowker sells these and can also provide unique barcodes as well (which you’ll need if you want to sell in stores).
This is also the point where you’ll set the price of your book. Pricing is definitely an art, not a science. Too low suggests that the book is of low quality, and if it’s too high, no one will buy it. The good way to find the happy middle ground is to ask people you know what they would pay for a book like yours. When pricing, you also need to think about your market. You can ask more for a nonfiction book, even more if you are marketing it as a textbook — but there is a point of no return. When deciding on the price of Biology Everywhere, I went with a mix of what I would pay for a similar book, what my friends told me they would pay for a book like mine, and the current market prices for comparable books. Since I produced Kindle edition of Biology Everywhere, I also needed to follow Amazon’s guidelines for pricing e-books as well.
The other important number that you’ll need to obtain prior to publishing is a Library of Congress Catalog Control Number or LCCN. If you want your book to be available through libraries, you must have an LCCN. The other trick here is that you can only get an LCCN before your book is published. Finally, you’ll need to take all of your design files and submit them to the United States Copyright office to register the material in your name. One of the benefits of self-publishing is that you get to keep the copyright, after all!
Now you’ve made it to the final step: printing! There are many of print on demand (POD) companies. POD companies print books as you need them. You upload your files and say how many books you would like, the size, paper quality, and if you want hard or soft cover. Many you’re probably familiar with — Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Ingram-Spark, and Lulu. Most companies offer good printing but differ in available options and overall quality. For example, KDP has an advantage because you don’t need to tie up your money in a bunch of copies that are sitting around waiting to be sold. As orders come in, Amazon prints and ships your book and sends you a royalty check. You can still order books to have on hand for events, but it is not required. However, KDP does not allow for the option of a hardcover edition and there are fewer options as far as paper quality. Furthermore, some independent bookstores may decline to work with you since Amazon is a major competitor for bookstores.
I opted to pay a little extra and go with a local POD service. I was able to meet with the printer in advance, pick out my paper stock, and see firsthand examples of finished products. I also saved on costs because I did not have to pay to have books shipped to me, but could pick them up when they were completed. Having books on hand also makes it easier for me to take books to speaking events and distribute them on my own to local bookstores and other establishments, which was part of my overall goals for what I wanted to do with Biology Everywhere.
I wanted to have a quality book that I could feel good selling to people. The con is I have A LOT of books in my basement right now and spent thousands on the first printing. I also had to invest the time and energy in setting up my online store to sell books and pay for and apply for sales tax licenses (in Colorado I need one for each municipality where I sell books). However, I keep over 90% of sales from my online store … whereas I’m making about 35% of sales when I sell a physical book on Amazon. Again, what you do comes down to what you want the book to look like, how you plan to market it, who your audience is, and how much capital you are willing to invest in it.
In this part, I focused on the easily overlooked details that are important for publishing your finished book, like the importance of getting an LCCN prior to publishing. In the final part of this series, I’ll go over marketing strategies and how to effectively use your book to pivot your career. Be sure to sign up for my mailing list at www.biologyeverywhere.com so you don’t miss the final installment in this series!
Dr. Melanie Peffer is the author of Biology Everywhere: How the science of life matters to everyday life. She is interested in how people learn, understand, and engage with biology content. Visit www.biologyeverywhere.com for more information about her book, advice on writing for the general public, building an Alt-ac career, and upcoming speaking engagements.