Once your
book is published and distributed, you will need to have
a plan for either keeping it alive ("on the back-list" is
the industry terminology) or phasing it out. Books generally
don't last forever, so having an exit plan is probably a
good idea -- even if it's hard to visualize before you've
even finished your manuscript!
Depending
on how it's published and distributed, you'll also need a
way to distribute the physical copies. You'll need to have
a fulfillment service or business office and shipping facilities
to get those copies from your garage to the wholesalers'
warehouses, and you'll need to have a billing and collection
system in place. And if you sell copies through a website,
you'll need a way to process orders and accept credit cards.
A traditional
publisher can handle these details for you, but they cost
money, and ultimately that cuts down on the money available
to pay the author for writing the book in the first place.
Clearly,
this isn't the top-of-mind material you'll be dealing with
in the early stages of planning for your book, but it
pays to spend a little time thinking about the
life cycle of your book up-front, because it can have a meaningful
impact on some of the early decisions.
Depending
on how it's published and distributed, you'll also need a
way to distribute the physical copies. You'll need to have
a fulfillment service or business office and shipping facilities
to get those copies from your garage to the wholesalers'
warehouses, and you'll need to have a billing and collection
system in place. And if you sell copies through a website,
you'll need a way to process orders and accept credit cards.
