出版与作家生涯2010news.ycombinator.com编辑精选
Ask HN：自出版书籍的建议
Ask HN: Advice for self-publishing books
导读
这篇 HN 问答讨论自出版短系列书的实操：找代笔后，如何选按需印刷还是传统批量印刷、编辑设计排版要花多少钱，以及先出 Kindle/iBooks 是否适合测试需求。评论者提醒先做市场与盈亏测算，再用 POD 软发布降低风险，并重视营销和分发。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先用市场调研估算受众规模、购买习惯和渠道转化率，再决定印量和电子/纸质形式，别凭感觉投入。
- 02
用按需印刷做软发布：无前期库存成本、可随时改稿，适合在正式批量印刷前测试需求。
- 03
把营销与分发成本写进单本书盈亏表；传统分发链可能吃掉大部分售价，不能只算印刷费。
- 04
写类型小说可研究 J.A. Konrath 的 Kindle 廉价多本策略，用稳定产出和平台分发积累读者。
HN 评论精选
用按需印刷先低成本软发布、测试市场，再考虑传统批量印刷。
我写过并自出版两本书，两本都用 Lulu 按需印刷，因为无需前期投入，只花时间，还能随时修改改进书稿，这点非常重要。书写好、编辑、排版并在 Lulu 发布后，Lulu 可收费帮你进入 Amazon、Barnes & Noble 等大型和小型线上零售商；我也在挪威或芬兰以及全球小众线上店见过自己的书。你也可以两种都做：Lulu 也能做传统批量印刷，只是更贵。我不理解为何有人不先测试市场就承担大风险做传统发行；POD 软发布正适合测试，除非你很确定已有需求且有多渠道营销计划。
economtricks查看英文原文
I have written and self published two books: Zero to Superhero http://3.ly/9tBV and EconomTricks http://3.ly/KN4y. I went with Lulu, a POD (Print on Demand) service for both books because there is no initial investment required (none, only your time) which allows you to make changes and improvements to your book on the fly. I can't tell you how important that is! Once you've got your book written, edited, formatted and released to the public via Lulu, Lulu (for a fee) will get you into the big online retailers like Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and a bunch of small ones. I've seen Zero to Superhero in online stores based in Norway (or was in Finland?) and niche online vendors elsewhere in the world. And you can have it both ways. You can have a conventional run done as well from Lulu (pricier though). It's a win/win. I probably sound like a pitchman for Lulu, but it's a great service. I can't understand why someone would take a big upfront risk and do a traditional launch without testing the market first (and a POD soft launch is perfect for that). You'd have to be pretty darn sure that you've got pre-built demand for the book, and that your marketing plan is a solid multi-channel one (you'll need that anyway). Good luck to you.
先量化受众、渠道和销量，再做盈亏模型选择印刷方式，并警惕分发成本吞噬利润。
你做市场调研了吗？受众规模与构成如何？他们偏好电子书还是纸质书？习惯逛书店还是网购？或者根本不读书，而读杂志、单篇作品、小册子？你的营销渠道能覆盖多少潜在受众、预期转化率多少？据此预计能卖多少本。只有得到大致市场数字，才能做单本书盈亏表，并对 POD、传统胶印等不同印刷技术做假设分析。营销和分发是关键；传统出版商的分发尾端会吃掉约 60% 到 70% 的售价，如果不密切关注分发链，利润就可能被吃掉。老笑话：在出版业赚小钱最容易的方法，是先投一大笔钱。
cstross查看英文原文
Have you done your market research? What's the size and make-up of your intended audience, do they prefer e-books or chunks of dead tree, do they habitually browse bookstores or buy online -- or do they not tend to read books at all, but prefer a different written format (magazines, piece-works, chapbooks, or the like)? How much of the potential audience do you think your marketing channel(s) can reach and how high a conversion rate do you expect to get? From that point, how many books do you expect to sell? Only once you have a ball-park figure for the market can you run a title P & L sheet and use it to do what-if modeling considering different printing technologies (POD, conventional offset, or whatever). Intro to P & L calculations: http://www.bizmark.net/publishing.htm Hint: marketing and distribution are key. The distribution tail eats around 60-70% of a conventional publisher's lunch -- the SRP for which books are sold -- and it you don't pay very close attention to your distribution chain you'll run the risk of seeing it eat your profit margin. (As the old joke puts it, the easiest way to make a small fortune in publishing is to start with a large one.)
类型小说作者可研究 Konrath 的 Kindle 廉价多本分发策略。
如果你写小说，建议读 J.A. Konrath 关于这个问题写的所有内容。他的策略是建立一批廉价类型小说并通过 Kindle 分发，他做得非常成功，而且显然乐在其中。
patio11查看英文原文
If you're doing fiction, can I suggest reading everything J.A. Konrath (jakonrath.blogspot.com) has to say on this issue? His strategy is building a stable of cheap genre fiction distributed via the Kindle, and he is both killing it and clearly having a ball doing what he loves.
自出版前应读专业指南，并考虑用 Lightning Source 这类覆盖大渠道的 POD 供应商。
强烈建议读 Aaron Shepard 关于自出版的书，并建议用 Lightning Source 作为 POD 供应商，因为大多数大牌零售商直接或间接用它；很少人知道这一点，这也是要读 Aaron 那本书的原因。
bakbak查看英文原文
I strongly suggest you read book written by Aaron Shepard on self publishing ... Visit : http://www.newselfpublishing.com/ and http://www.newselfpublishing.com/books/PODProfit.html I would also suggest to go with Lightning Source as your POD provider as most of the big names go to them directly or indirectly (very few people know this and that's the reason you should read that book by Aaron) - Good Luck
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