Many people ask me what the difference is between working with us and other publishing options and I thought it might be helpful/interesting for you to know in case you are trying to choose a publishing method for your next book. There are reasons to choose all of these methods. The problem is most people don’t know what they are getting into when they sign on the dotted line.
TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING
You can go to a traditional publisher and they will work their ass off to make sure the book is great. Why? Because they take 90% of the revenue. They want massive book sales and don’t care if you have a back end and make money from speeches or clients because they don’t see any of it. In fact they are threatened by a lot of it and would prefer you didn’t sell anything else because it might compete. People might pay you instead of them.
Reason to choose: Distribution is your main goal. Your revenue is going to come from book sales and having a national platform. (Lots of small sales at a high dollar). You are happy to work for and invest a considerable about of time and money into marketing your book even though most of the revenue goes to the publisher (you understand the publisher doesn’t do marketing) because you are going to use this opportunity to grow a very broad and shallow platform.
AUTHOR-FUNDED
– You can go to an author-funded publisher and hand them a total piece of crap and they will happily publish it. Why? Because they make all their money on the front end. They don’t care if the book sells or sits in your living room for a decade unread. You have the freedom to sell other products but because you probably have an inferior book, you won’t be able to.
Reason to choose: You have an amazing book coach and/or business coach and you know you have written the right book for you. You want it to be professionally produced and edited and you know your magic isn’t being a publisher so you are willing to invest to let an expert do that.
SELF-PUBLISHING
– You can do it yourself but you are probably going to create something sub-par if only because it’s your first time doing it and you aren’t an expert. Even if you do your best, it’s probably going to look amateurish because you are an amateur and you’ll get amateur results.
Reason to choose: You wrote a book for your own personal needs. Catharsis. Wanting to document a process. A dissertation. There is no business behind it or other goals. You just want to say you wrote a book and you don’t really want to spend much money on it because it’s not important that it makes a difference or reaches people (except maybe your mom on Christmas).
DIFFERENCE PRESS
– The way we are different is we care about your book the way a traditional publisher would AND we do all the quality work an author-funded publisher would because we aren’t taking the risk a publisher takes. You get a high quality book. The revenue from it. And you are set up to leverage the book to grow your business your way because you aren’t competing with a publisher who doesn’t want you to sell things they don’t benefit from.
Reason to Choose: You are a one-stop shopping person. Having a book coach that’s housed inside a publisher means you won’t be pulled in multiple directions and you get the book that serves your business and the people you are meant to help.
Still not sure which is the right way for you. I have recommended all of these methods to clients. Fewer than half of the people I talk to are a good fit for publishing with us. Drop me a note in the comments or send me an email and we’ll get you sorted. While I love our approach it is not the right fit for everyone. I’d be happy to help you figure out the right fit for you. No strings attached!
