Page 65 - WritingMadlyV3

Nicholas Boothman
Friends and Influence People. A self-help book is first and
foremost an invention, so you have to be a creative
inventor.
Who is going to sell my book?
When you self-publish, your portion of the prof-
its go to you after paying all the expenses such as
printing, editing, designers, photographers, publi-
cists, book tour, travel, consignment fees, commis-
sions and so on.
Most traditional publishers take care of all these
expenses and then pay between 6% and 12% of the
retail price in royalties to you, and from that you’ll
probably hand over 15% to your agent—for life.
Self-publishing and e-publishing offer far better
royalty rates; however, a traditional publisher/
agent may well take your book to an event like the
Frankfurt Book Fair and sell off the foreign rights.
This is huge.
There are hundreds of books about baking cakes.
But one day, Anne Byrn wrote The Cake Mix Doctor—a
book with a simple twist. By doctoring up packaged
cake mix with just the right extras—a touch of sweet
butter here, cocoa powder there, or a dash of poppy
seeds and vanilla yogurt—she produced a series of
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