Have you been bitten by the writing bug? Then it is possible that you have a finished book, or about to finish. And that's when you're in doubt about what to do with it. Do you know the publishers to publish a book? Or better to go the traditional method and send it to publishers to see if you have any luck?
If you want to know the options you have, we will tell you about all of this below. Shall we start?
Traditional publishers vs self-publishing publishers
As you know, when publishing a book you have two options:
- That a publisher notices your work and wants to publish it, whether in paper or digital. This option has the advantage that you will be better known since your book is sold in many more bookstores or points of sale than in self-published form, but the royalties you will receive from the books will not be too high (unless you sell many books).
- That you choose a publisher to publish your book. Here you have the option to self-publish, which can be free or paid. Advantages? Greater benefits and almost absolute control of your work; but you will not have as much impact or visibility as the above.
Publishers to publish a book
If you want to self-publish your book and do it through a publisher, here are several options you could consider:
Bubok
It is one of the first self-publishing publishers that was born in Spain and has been maintained over time. At the time it came out, the alternatives that existed were foreign, that's why it began to be successful.
Actually, The author hires the services he needs, from ISBN management, layout, proofreading, style correction, printing of copies, etc. In other words, it offers you different services that you can choose or not to release the book with the publisher's seal.
Red circle
Another of the best-known, and also used, publishers to publish a book is Círculo rojo. It is one of the oldest there is but we must warn you that it is not cheap.
And is that Their prices for printing copies are usually expensive. Furthermore, many authors criticize that, despite paying for some extra services such as grammatical or style correction, in the end this is not done, or is done minimally.
Apart from printing books, other services offered have to do with promotion, marketing, legality...
Why then do many opt for it? Well mainly because It is a renowned publisher, which has unique services (creation of booktrailers, audiobooks...). It also has the possibility of entering the Librotea book website, the leader in Spain and which is part of the newspaper El País.
KDP extension
In this case we are going to talk to you about the option that Amazon gives you to publish your own books. It is one of the most "economical" ways to self-publish, but because They don't really "charge" you to publish with them. Now, to do it, the most recommended thing is:
- Have your book corrected.
- Have it laid out.
- Have a front and back cover.
And all of that can cost money. But in itself, uploading it to the platform would be free and in exchange it would be available on Amazon of all the world. Which implies that you would have to promote it so that people knew about your book and wanted to purchase it.
It has two options: the print version (where they give you the minimum price of what it would cost to print a book and so you can decide what benefits to obtain), and the Kindle version, where you set the price based on the profits you want to receive. .
Universe of letters
Another option, in this case even linked to Planeta as can be seen on its website. We are talking about a self-publishing platform that offers different editorial packs at different prices so you can choose the one that best suits you to carry out your book.
At the beginning Universe of letters It started as a literary crowdfunding project, in which the authors sought help to carry out their project and, when it reached the appropriate amount, the company made it a reality by releasing the books. But now it has evolved into a publishing house to publish a book itself.
Lower case
We ended up with another of the publishers to publish a book with Lowercase Letter. This one is different from the others because focuses on individual services, That is, it offers an individual budget for each project, so that you choose what you want to hire or not to self-publish.
It may actually look a lot like Bubok.
What if you want to publish with strong publishers?
In the event that you prefer to publish with stronger publishers that still follow the traditional way (having the authors contact them by sending their works).
Some of these publishers are: Random House Mondadori, Grupo Planeta, Anagrama, Alfaguara, Oz Editorial, Ediciones Kiwi…
Here are some tips:
Arm yourself with patience. Much patience
The normal thing is that the publishers take about six months to respond to you, if they do. In fact, many advise that, if you have not received a response after six months, consider that your book does not interest them.
Think carefully if it's worth it to you
Sometimes, for the simple fact of publishing with a “big” publisher, we think that things will go great and that everything will go up. but it is certainly not like that. For them You are just a number, no more, no less. And if you break their expectations, that is, you sell much more than they expected, they will not pay much attention to you.
Large publishers plan their releases
With this we want to tell you that you are not going to publish when you want, but when it fits into their agenda. Which means that You can publish a year or a year and a half ahead.
Now that you have clearer options and some publishers to publish a book, do you dare to take the first step and contact them? Do you recommend any more?