出版与作家生涯2017medium.com
我们为什么选择自出版《Aviary》食谱书
Why We Are Self-Publishing the Aviary Cookbook
导读
这篇讲一位餐饮作者为什么自出版《Aviary食谱书》，并从Alinea食谱书的出版经验中算了一笔账：精美食谱的印刷成本远低于封面价暗示，传统出版与自出版的收益结构差别很大。对写作者的价值在于理解出版成本、版税和自出版可行性，别只被出版社品牌或“厚重精装”迷惑。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
别用封面售价倒推印刷成本：一本零售50美元的获奖食谱书，单本印刷、塑封并运到美国仅3.83美元。
- 02
决定传统出版还是自出版前，按实际销量和到手收入算账；同样销量下自出版利润可能远高于传统版税。
- 03
若选题有明确受众，可先用预售验证需求并回笼资金，再花钱请编辑、排版和小批量印刷。
- 04
自出版是用选题自由和控制权换掉出版社的支持；可先传统出版一本再试自出版，看清自己更需要哪种支持。
HN 评论精选
精美实体书的印刷成本远低于封面价，定价更多由消费者心理支撑，数字与实体成本差被高估。
作者的核心发现是：相对封面价，精美食谱的印刷成本并不高。他引述一位印刷经纪的话：一本当时零售50美元、拿遍奖项的食谱，单本印刷、塑封并运到美国只要3.83美元；对方甚至以为他嫌这个价格太高。由此推论，数字出版与实体出版的成本差可能远小于多数人想象，厚重精装书的高价更多来自消费者心理，而非生产成本。
nkurz查看英文原文
The heart of this piece is the author's realization that (relative to their cover price) glossy, expensive cookbooks don't actually cost that much to print: "Until one-day I got lucky. Just by chance I spoke to the print broker who actually worked on the exact bid for that famous book. And he told me precisely: that super amazing cookbook that I truly loved, which at the time retailed for $50 and had won every award imaginable, cost $3.83 per book to print, shrink wrap, and ship to the US. I thought he must be mistaken and I said so. “No way.” He replied, “well that was the first edition, I’m sure the cost has gone down since then.” He thought I was implying that $3.83 per book was too high!" One implication of this is that the cost difference between digital and physical publishing is probably much less than most people think. While a weighty tome may literally feel like it's worth a hefty premium, this is due more to consumer psychology than anything inherent to cost of production.
自出版在同样销量下可能带来远高于传统出版的利润，且启动成本可控。
出版业会慢慢瓦解。传统出版写一本很成功的书可能只赚3—4万美元，平均更低，只有5%能过六位数。我写一本用户获取的书时选择自出版：预售赚约6万，完稿期间又卖6万，现在每月4—8千；若签出版社卖同样数量只能赚约1万。我花400美元找自由编辑和排版，花700美元印首100本，大部分卖电子书，利润已超14万美元。如今几乎没理由不自出版。
austenallred查看英文原文
The publishing industry is slowly going to unravel. If you write a very successful book with traditional publishing cut you might make 30-40k. Average is lower. There are power laws at play, but as few as 5% make it past six figures. So when I wrote a book about step-by-step user acquisition (https://secretsaucenow.com) I self-published. Made $60,000-ish in presales, sold another $60,000 while I was finishing the book. And now pull in 4-8k/month. If I signed a deal with a publishing company selling the same number of books I would have made ~10k. Instead I found a freelance editor and typesetter ($400), printed the first 100 ($700), and sell the vast majority as eBooks. It's done well, but not earth shatteringly well, and I'm up above $140k in profit. There is very little reason nowadays, IMO, to not self-publish.
传统出版有预付和支持，但自出版换来选题自由；建议两种路径都试再选择。
这是关于出版业底细的好文。我前11本书由主流出版社出版，感激预付款和写作支持，但最终决定要自由写任何想写的主题，新书都自出版，先通过lulu.com，现在通过leanpub.com。我鼓励人们写书，过程很有趣；建议先用出版社出一本书，也试试leanpub等自出版平台，自己决定更喜欢哪种。
mark_l_watson查看英文原文
Great writeup on the under-belly of publishing! The first 11 books I wrote were published by mainstream publishers (McGraw-Hill, J. Riley, Springer-Verlag, Morgan Kaufman). While I am grateful for the advance monies paid and great support in writing, I eventually decided that I wanted the freedom to write on whatever topics I wanted and all my new stuff is self published, first through lulu.com and now through leanpub.com. I encourage people to write a book (or books). It is a really fun process. I would suggest using a publisher for a book and then also try self publishing using leanpub.com or some other platform. Decide for yourself with you prefer.
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