#408 Master self-publishing success, retain control of your publishing journey, and how to market your book, with Michele DeFilippo.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
___
Please note that while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.
___

Michele DeFilippo  0:00  
Because no matter what kind of book you write, there are 1000s of other titles that are very similar. Identify a problem in the world. If you're writing a nonfiction book, let's say this a big problem in the world that everyone is looking for the solution to, that's step one, but then try to determine if you're solving that problem in a unique and different way. Because nobody needs another book. That's exactly like all the other books out there.

Agi Keramidas  0:28  
You're listening to personal development mastery, the podcast that empowers you with the simple and consistent actions to take that will help you create a life of purpose and fulfilment. I'm your host Agi Keramidas. And this is episode 408. Have you thought of writing a book but you're not sure how to navigate the complexities of self publishing by listening today? Today, you will learn about self publishing with guidance from a seasoned industry experts, you will discover how to retain creative control and maximise revenue from your book. And you will find out which are the essential services you need to produce a high quality publication that resonates with readers. Before we dive in, if you enjoy listening and appreciate what we're doing here, the simple quick favour I'm asking of you is to click the subscribe button. Now let's get started. 

Agi Keramidas  1:36  
Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Michelle DeFilippo. Michelle, you have over 50 years of experience in book publishing, you're passionate about empowering authors to navigate the world of self publishing with confidence and success. And with your company 1106 design, you guide authors at every stage of their publishing journey to retain creative control and revenue from their books. Michelle, welcome to the show. It's such a pleasure to speak with you today. Thank

Michele DeFilippo  2:09  
you so much, Agi, I appreciate your opportunity you're giving me to be here and talk to your audience.

Agi Keramidas  2:16  
I'm sure as I was telling you, just before we hit record that I'm sure there are many listening right now that the idea of writing and publishing the book has crossed their mind. And I think they should because it is many of us, if not all of us have a book, at least one book inside them. Bringing it out, has so many benefits. And maybe we can discuss all about that. But let's not go there. yet. I was curious, I would like to start with something about your story. Because you have a vast experience over the these years of of publishing. I want to ask what made you at what point you realise that there was something wrong in the end, that's my own word wrong. It's not your word. But there was something not right in the publishing industry and made you decide that you want to do something, you know, to help people get better informed, and so on.

Michele DeFilippo  3:23  
Yes, well, I independent publishing, self publishing, as it was originally intended, meant the author was the publisher. And that was the greatest opportunity for authors that ever existed, right? For the first time in history, they didn't have to get anyone's approval to produce their book, they could produce the book that they wanted to produce and be in complete control of it, and also earn all the revenue from sales when a book was sold. So that that was the promise of original independent publishing about 2025 years ago. But I started doing these podcasts because over the years, I've I noticed that different kinds of companies started coming into the space, who didn't necessarily know much about publishing they, they were more like serial entrepreneurs who knew how to market very well on the internet. But they didn't necessarily have the expertise in publishing to put out good books. And they also charge the author to produce the book and also took the revenue from sales when a book was sold. So original self publishing meant the author received all the revenue from sales, just like a regular publisher. And so that misinformation that was part of it. The other part of it is that in my business, I get calls every single week from someone who had a bad experience, who tried to self publish, by following the advice that you're likely to find on the internet and either the company disappeared, or the company wasn't paying their royalties or the files that were produced, were would not successfully upload to the printer, all kinds of issues started to occur. And of course, we've all seen self published books that just plain look terrible, right? So I just couldn't stand it anymore. Because I've been in the industry 50 years. And publishing has always been an industry where everyone with expertise got together to produce a book and to produce a quality book that, that people would get something from reading and would enjoy reading. And so it just, I was sitting there, and I was getting annoyed. And, and one day, I just thought to myself, well, I can continue getting annoyed or I can start to do something about it. And coincidentally, at the same time, someone just taught me about pod match, to check out podcasting. And so I went on there and, and I just, they made it so easy to connect with hosts. Because what had held me back before was that, gee, maybe I should do podcasts. But how on earth do I find anybody who would be interested? So pod match addressed that issue and, and I've done about 20 podcasts right now. And I'm just loving the opportunity to remind people what independent publishing is supposed to be.

Agi Keramidas  6:26  
That's great. And I will also from my point of view, since you brought Padma Utsava, will digress for a moment, and also express my gratitude to this amazing app and platform that Alex Sanfilippo has created. That is one, for me, this is one of the main ways I used to arrange my podcast. So having said that, I will go back and to publishing and I wanted to clarify something. So you mentioned independent publishing. Can you tell me what is the difference between independent publishing and self publishing? Are they the same? Is this something different between them?

Michele DeFilippo  7:11  
Well, it as it started out, independent publishing, like I said, meant that the author was the publisher. But over time, it meant the author was the publisher, and that they would do everything that a traditional publisher would in terms of create hiring the experts to create the book, and creating a good book and earning the revenue, okay. Then the term self publishing started to be used. And, and that term became misunderstood and became Do It Yourself publishing, right? All of a sudden, there was a million people on the internet telling authors that you can design your own cover, you don't need to hire experts, you don't, you don't need to spend money and get any experts to help you, you can do everything yourself. And that has led to just a huge another earthquake in publishing, right? Because now when people buy a book, they can't be sure that it's a good book, the way we used to be able to be confident in that. Now they don't know if it's just somebody who did it themselves doesn't know what they're doing and put out a poor quality book.

Agi Keramidas  8:22  
I get it. And thank you for clarifying that in especially the do it yourself, as you said, having had my own personal experience with publishing self publishing a book last year, my first of all, I found that probably good teaching or mentoring, I found that you're doing your cover yourself. It's not a good idea. Unless you are a graphics designer also tried to do the Kindle version yourself. It's probably a waste of time. Anyway, I realise that there are things that yes, I was self publishing, but there were things that I needed someone else to help me with, rather than doing everything on my own. Of course, I could have done some everything on my own. The quality of it, as you say, it would be very, very questionable, it would mean that I have to fulfil all these roles, as well. Myself, which is rarely, if ever, the case. What do you think?

Michele DeFilippo  9:30  
Well, I mean, it's, it's, we can't be an expert at everything, right? No matter how smart you are, there's only 24 hours in a day. So most of us have to pick something to to work at to be good at to educate ourselves about and, you know, you could do one or two things maybe but, but there's five or six skills needed to produce a good book, and that's where we come in. We have the team in place to just give authors all of those skills in one easy place instead of them having to go out and hire Six or seven freelancers and try to manage the whole process.

Agi Keramidas  10:05  
That's okay, then we will talk about that I wanted before we go there. Can you give me a very brief overview about, let's say, someone are now listening to us? Or thinking that you know, the have I would like to write a book or I already know what it is going to be about or something like that. There. Can you give me very briefly some of the advantages that self publishing has, compared to, you know, the traditional publishing, is there someone that maybe they should, and as I will ask in a different way, because I think in heaven, also experienced in self publishing, I can realise that the advantages are obvious for me, but I want to ask in a different way as well, who is it that shouldn't go down that path and would go to a traditional publishing path, and I'm not going to stay there much. But just for clarification, because we need to mention the, the other side as well, the very traditional that has been for

Michele DeFilippo  11:18  
a long time. Well, the first thing to remember is that you don't choose a traditional publisher, they choose you, right. And they're very, very selective because of the kinds of books and the authors that they take on. We work with a literary agent once in a while, who sometimes has a good book that he can't place with a traditional publisher, for whatever reason. And he told me once that traditional publishers, publishers want someone who has a platform of 100, at least 100,000 social media followers. So unless you're there, and very, I don't think very many people can say that they're there, your chances of getting published traditionally are, are pretty slim. But in addition to that, even if you are picked up by a traditional publisher, they're going to take control of your book, because they're investing the money to produce it, and they know what they're doing. And they want to make sure that the book sells. So they're going to change it editorially, they're not going to give you a whole lot of input into the cover design. And it's still up to the author generally to to market the book. So if you think of all of that, why wouldn't choose independently published, right. But it's a daunting experience, because authors are overwhelmed with the number of services they need, they, some of them may try to do it themselves and quickly discover that they don't know enough about all the things to do it well. And, and so they gravitate to what I call these intermediate publishers, such as self publishing companies, or hybrid publishers, or independent publishing companies, and what these companies are doing, are charging people to produce the book and taking their revenue from sales, which is not very advantageous to the author.

Agi Keramidas  13:13  
If you enjoy this episode, can you think of one person that would find it useful and share it with them, I'd really appreciate it, it helps the show grow. And you will also be adding value to people you care about. Thank you. And now let's get back to the episode. 

Agi Keramidas  13:32  
You mentioned already a couple of times those services, those essential services that an aspiring author, or someone who wants to publish refurb published books should reach out and have, you know, professional help, if I can put it like that. Can you outline those services in a nutshell, so that someone listening now can know what to what is needed beyond their own efforts? So what kind of services are we talking about? Okay, well, the

Michele DeFilippo  14:06  
first thing every author needs is an editor, right? Because we can't see our own mistakes when we write. So the services of a professional book editor are absolutely essential. Most of the time when we do a book the author is will come to us and they'll say, my manuscript is just about ready. I've fixed everything that needs to be fixed. And then then our editor takes over and finds hundreds and hundreds of things that needed to be fixed in the authors are just amazed. It's like, Oh, my goodness, I never thought of any of these things. So a professional editor is your best friend, because they're going to look at the book as as the eventual reader will. And they're going to find all the things that that you know, you think you said correctly, because you know what you mean to say, but the reader the eventual reader will read that same sentence and maybe say to themselves, what I don't get what the author's trying to say there. And editors will find that for you. And they'll smooth out the language and fix grammar and punctuation and all of that. And they'll make sure that you don't repeat yourself too many times. We once had a situation where a fiction author killed off one of the characters in an early chapter, and then he magically came back to life toward the end of the book. And the and that's easy to do, right? Because you're, you're not sitting down and writing the book in one session. But the editor said, um, he died in chapter three. What did I miss here, he's now suddenly back to life. So, you know, sometimes an editor will find funny things like that, too.

Agi Keramidas  15:51  
Alright, so editor, that's one. Who else we mentioned that the graphic designer for the the cover.

Michele DeFilippo  15:58  
Yes, and I would just say Follow Follow with tradition, or traditional publishers to write a traditional publisher will always hire an editor, a cover designer, an interior page designer, people don't know that now. Now you hear the word formatting all over the internet. But the book first has to be designed before it's formatted for easy readability. And to be in line with the subject matter that you're talking about. And then after interior design, then we do Interior typesetting. Not formatting. typesetting is a whole different thing, which I could talk about for days. And then we and then after that, after all the corrections are done, then we would proofread it after the typesetting is done, we would proofread the book, one final time to catch all the things that were missed along the way. And then we would make the ebook.

Agi Keramidas  16:52  
That's great. One thing also, Michelle, I want to clarify and we'll carry on with with that, how much when we talk about self publishing for me, and I suppose for many other people, the company that comes to mind is Amazon. So how much associated? is Amazon with self publishing? Can they be self publishing outside Amazon? Or are we talking about putting the book on Amazon through Amazon? Okay,

Michele DeFilippo  17:26  
so Amazon isn't actually a publisher, you are the publisher, or some other entity is the publisher. So Amazon is in industry terms, the distributor of your day, and they they make your book available to the public? Okay, so what was your question? Again? I'm sorry?

Agi Keramidas  17:47  
You've I think you've already answered this. Because yeah, as you said that it is not the publisher, but distributors, so. But you will need someone to distribute your book. Yes. When it's otherwise there is no, that's how that's why ourselves because that's why I asked you the question, because it is publishing without distribution, what what's the point of it? So you need that as an extension? So my question was, how much of all that is? For how much over that Amazon is? Necessary? How much of it? You know, do you need to get involved with Amazon 10 mistakes by with a distribution or earlier stages? Yeah,

Michele DeFilippo  18:34  
you have to have Amazon, you have to be on Amazon. Every once in a while, we'll run into somebody who doesn't want to use Amazon, but I remind them that 80% of all books in the world are sold on Amazon. So you can't ignore them. But there is we we set up our clients with to print on demand accounts in their own name that Amazon of course, and then there's another one called Ingram spark.com, which is the largest books wholesaler in the world. And they distribute the book to everyone other than Amazon, Barnes and Noble books, a million libraries, bookstores, and so forth. So by using both of these platforms together, and author can have the widest distribution at the lowest cost.

Agi Keramidas  19:19  
That's great. Thank you for that. That's very useful. There is something else I was reading, you talk about some critical decisions that the authors need to make when they consider self publishing. So can you share some of those critical decisions? Let's say someone listening right now again, he or she is in that position that they're about to do it or maybe if we started writing something, what critical decisions in what stages does one need to make those decisions in the you know, journey? Well,

Michele DeFilippo  20:00  
sure, I mean, obviously, if you're thinking about writing a book, you believe you have something to say, that's, that's given, that's a given. But what you should do is some research and, and make sure that the world needs your book to the extent that that you're able to do that research, right. Because no matter what kind of book you write, there are 1000s of other titles that are very similar. So you should, you should identify a problem in the world, if you're writing a nonfiction book, let's say this a big problem in the world that everyone is looking for the solution to that step one, but then try to determine if you're solving that problem in a unique and different way. Because nobody needs another book. That's exactly like all the other books out there. So but if you can be unique, then then that creates your your marketing strategy, right, because now you have a message, you can go out there and tell people that I have a different solution than you've probably heard before. And you can learn all about it in my book. Right. The other the other decision that I think authors should think about is whether or not they're publishing a book as a hobby, or as a business. Right, because there's a lot of information out there, as you know, that that there are cheaper ways to produce a book, shortcuts, cutting corners, if you will. So if your book is a hobby, and you don't intend for anybody to be entertained by it, except yourself, and maybe your family, then you can, you can take advantage of some of those shortcuts. But if your book is a business, if you expect people to spend their hard earned money to purchase your book, then you have to meet a higher standard. And, and, and that's, that's, of course, what we do and what what publishing specialists do. But you're not going to in other words, I see a lot of authors who think they can get away with a lower standard and sell their book. And my message is, you cannot get away with that. buyers know, quality buyers know the difference. And if they feel that their money was wasted. If they find typos in your book, or if the information isn't correct, they're gonna post a bad review, and you can never get rid of that. So if your intent is to sell the book, not only will quality services help you do that, but quality services will help you get good reviews and get that word of mouth advertising. That that's important after it's published.

Agi Keramidas  22:41  
Thank you. I was curious, what is from your experience, the most common mistake you see authors who want to self publish that, that make sure there are many that you've seen, but let's let's start with the biggest one that comes to mind. Oh, there's

Michele DeFilippo  22:59  
there's there's many as you said, sometimes they do not let the experts do what they're trained to do and what they know how to do. It's fine to to be able to say you self publishing lets me do what I want. But there's a middle ground there where hopefully, you can listen to the experts and understand that they've been doing this longer than you have. And and what they're suggesting suggesting is for your benefit, not not just to push you around, so there's that the do it yourself mistake is the biggest of all, because because, you know, it's just common sense that if you're not trained in an area that you're not going to get the same results as an expert does doesn't matter what you know, I mean, I can I can go build a doghouse. But that doesn't mean it's going to be available for sale at Walmart, you know, it's not going to be up to par. So same is true with books. And that's just common sense. And then the, the biggest mistake they make is that they don't want to market their book. And that that hurts my heart because a lot of times, authors are introverts and and they'll say to me, well, oh, well, I can't I can't go out there and talk about myself. i i that's just not something I want to do. But, you know, if people don't know about your book, how can they buy it? So I would think about you know, try to get over that if you can, even even though it's out of your comfort zone, try to get get yourself in a mental position where where you are confident in your book and you can talk about it.

Agi Keramidas  24:40  
As soon as you brought marketing up. Do you have any advice for specifically marketing a book? You know, the principles of marketing, of course, are very similar to many areas but specifically on a book that is self publishing. What is it So, let's say what do you advise the people that you work with that self publish a book? Well,

Michele DeFilippo  25:07  
the first, the first fundamental requirement for marketing is to put out a good product, right? Whatever your product or services. And that also applies to books, right? Because if people look at your book, and they immediately decided it's a low quality, self published book, then all your marketing dollars are wasted. Right. So that's the first requirement, you've got to give people their money's worth, if you want them to be happy with with your book. So creating a quality book with the help of experts also gives you confidence, because now you know, your book is the best it can be. And that makes it easier for you to get out there and talk about it. So we have two marketing approaches on our website, we have some marketing resources where the author can take advantage of it and educate themselves about how to market the book themselves. And then we also introduce people to three marketing experts that we trust and that we know are going to give them good honest advice and not just take their money, if they want to have an expert hands left for them.

Agi Keramidas  26:22  
And apart from odds, sir, we say is there any other way that you think it's useful or necessary for someone to use the market the book?

Michele DeFilippo  26:38  
You mean ads on online ads?

Agi Keramidas  26:41  
Whatever ads? What exactly you meant earlier, when you said about marketing experts? That's why I assumed you mean some kind of advertising, of paid advertising.

Michele DeFilippo  26:53  
Yeah, well, some people do that. I've also heard some people waste a lot of money on ads that don't have an effect. So if you're going to do ads, you better work with somebody who can prove that they can get results for you, not just just someone who's going to shotgun out a whole bunch of ads and spend a lot of your money and not get any results. The one service we offer is is the author marketing training. And that's where one of my one of my marketing experts will actually work with you and show you how to market your own book on social media. And that's much less expensive, because it only costs your time. Right. So they'll do research and they'll show you where your audience is likely to be found online. They'll come up with book reviewers, blog writers, platforms, where people are discussing your topic and so forth so that you don't waste your time trying to talk to everybody you focus on where your audience is online.

Agi Keramidas  27:58  
That's really important indeed. So thank you for saving that resale I also wanted to ask you now that when I was thinking about you know the topics that I could discuss with you since I have very recent experience personal experience of self publishing my book A there was I was doing that actually happened December of 2023. So you know, not so long ago I still have fresh the memories of you know, the the loans son we say when the book became live on on Amazon and Kindle there were so many things that I learned but the one that I'm I feel more compelled to ask you about because I still up to now haven't figured it out completely or why it happened to watch that. There were Amazon created a mix up in the country. So people in some countries for example, in my country, Greece, where there is no Amazon site, there is no specific Greek Amazon so they need to order it either from the German one or the English one or something else. So there was a mixup because they couldn't even get the Kindle version, which I thought that you know, if you direct someone to the American, Amazon, the amazon.com and say, Okay, here's the Kindle version, I thought or I assumed that anywhere in the world could purchase the Kindle version, as well. However, I found out that this was not the case. So it became very interesting having people messaging me and saying, You know what, we can't get the book was a very Yes. So eventually it happened, but I think there was some precious time that lost during a is the launch to push the book further up? So I don't know if you have any idea about it? If not, that's alright. It was just something. Probably I wanted to get it off my chest.

Michele DeFilippo  30:11  
Well, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that happened to you, I'm really surprised that Amazon doesn't have the Greek version of the platform, it seems an awful lot of people there

Agi Keramidas  30:23  
they are. In Europe, there are, I think, five different countries that the biggest country so not every single country has their own version of Amazon.

Michele DeFilippo  30:34  
Well, I didn't know that. But but the one of the early gurus in self publishing used to tell the joke, he said, a bookstore is a lousy place to sell a book. Because a lot of authors don't know that Amazon takes 40% of the cover price right off the top, and for listing your book. And so when a book is sold right away, you lose 40%, to Amazon and other retailers take at least 40% and sometimes as high as 55% of the cover price. But fortunately, now there are some other ways to sell your book. Ingram Spark, the platform I mentioned before, has just come out with something called a shareable purchase link. And you can put a link on your website that allows people to order the book, and Ingram Spark will print the book and ship it to the buyer for you. And you won't have to pay that wholesale discount. Excuse me. They do charge shipping and handling shipping and handling fee. But it's still less than 40%. And so there's more money in your pocket as well as more control if you use those shareable purchase links.

Agi Keramidas  31:49  
That's great. Thank you, Michelle. I, there are a couple of final questions that actually I always ask my guests since I started doing the podcast a long time ago. But before I do that, where do you Where will you direct a listener who wants to find out more about your service?

Michele DeFilippo  32:13  
Okay, well, I'm happy to talk to anybody, anytime, you can reach me at my website 1106 design.com. And if you go there, I will give you a free copy of my little book called publish like the pros, you can put in your email address, and I'll let you download a PDF version of it. And this is just a quick read, it's only ADA pages. But it's a survey of all the things you need to know about self publishing a book, it goes into a little bit about the financial side of things and, and how you can make sure that you earn as much money as possible when that book is sold in a retail environment. And I will talk to anybody anywhere, anytime. If you'd like a free consultation, you can tell us a little bit about yourself in your book by filling out our contact form. And we're happy to talk to anyone.

Agi Keramidas  33:05  
That's great. Thank you. And so let me ask you, I have two questions I always ask to my guests. And the first one is What does personal development mean to you?

Michele DeFilippo  33:16  
Oh, gosh, be in. I opened my first business in 1980 when I found myself living in Phoenix and not able to make more than minimum wage. So I started a business and that really has been a personal development journey from from the very beginning. When you're in business, there's always something that you're learning and new challenges that you're meeting. So just put one foot in front of the other and try to meet each challenge as he comes along.

Agi Keramidas  33:51  
That's great. And a hypothetical question. If you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self. One piece of advice you would give him

Michele DeFilippo  34:01  
be brave, be braver when you feel afraid, but just get through it and push through it and do whatever it is you're you're afraid of doing because on the other side of that is a lot of growth and development that you never imagined.

Agi Keramidas  34:20  
Michelle, is there anything that you were hoping I would ask you today and I completely missed it?

Michele DeFilippo  34:27  
No, you asked great questions. Thank you. I can't think of a single thing.

Agi Keramidas  34:33  
Reverend, thank you as well. I want to thank you very much for your time for sharing your wisdom and experience with us and with the listener who is an aspiring author. I would like to think because I think we mentioned it in the beginning that each of us if not all of us have a book inside so decking without getting it out into the world. is important, in my personal opinion. Before we conclude, what's one piece of advice, you would give someone listening now that has listened to the full, the whole conversation what's one, preferably actionable piece of advice you would give her or him?

Michele DeFilippo  35:21  
Well, I would just say focus on quality. If you're going to do a book, do it well. And if you have to save up the money to do that, then then delay and save up until you have the money to do it. The solution to affordable self publishing is not not to put out a lousy book and hope to get away with it. Because customers will not let you get away with that. So just, you know, don't don't go into debt or anything to buy a book because the book industry is very competitive. But if you if you must wait until you can save up money to do it right, then then that's always a good strategy, because you're doing the right thing for your customer, you're helping them and it's the right thing to do to give people their money's worth when they bought your book.

Agi Keramidas  36:11  
And before I end today's episode, if you enjoy this podcast, can you think of one person that would find it useful and share it with them? I'd really appreciate it. It helps the show grow and you also add value to people you care about. Thank you. And until next time, stand out don't fit in!