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Anyone know if there’s a foundation or tzedaka that grants money to help with the publishing of a sefer/book?
GoFundMe?
no, but if you find out, please let me know.
With Print on Demand and self publishing (fulfillment by Amazon or others) you can publish a book for less than $100.
They only print copies as ordered. No need to invest in inventory.
Did you try finding a publisher? Why are you self_publishing? I would be upset with any tzedakah that wasted money publishing a vanity product
Most Seforim are Self-Published today and even if you get someone like Art-Scroll to publish it, they dont pay you (And you even have to buy the books for yourself and close family members)
ZD’s is right. Artscroll mostly does big projects with big sponsors. When they do put out a regular book, it is either from a big name person who is more likely to sell big, or from those who can bring in their own sponsors. The traditional model of publishing company does not really exist these days. There are many publishing companies out there, but the way they work, is the author has to come up with all the money to print/distribute etc the book, plus the company takes a fee for the service. The author then gets a % of each book sold, and hopes to come out even, which will only happen if the book goes into a second printing. Or he can look for sponsors for the book. Depending on the quality of the book, it is harbatzas Torah, not wasting money on a vanity book.
I had a close relative who had a book published by Art Scroll (or Feldheim, I forgot which) and thats how I found out he didnt get paid and even his own father had to buy his own copy of the book
My eldest brother has written more than 40 books in the past 45 years (technical, business and secular general interest). Since 2003 he has self published, using print of demand methods, exclusively.
He can publish a 300 page book for less than $100 in start up costs. If he chooses to use and outside editor freelance qualified ones are available for about $500.
I, of course, get stuck with the legal work at no charge.
He has even authored and published several books on how to Self Publish without getting ripped off by either vanity publishers or being forced to buy expensive packages.
It’s great, CTL for the general public, but I don’t think it works for sefarim, at least not yet.
The market for Seforim is very small. I really doubt many seforim even sell 1000 copies
WTP………….
The key is in the marketing
So if you self publish a sefer and get the word out on both social media, flyers in shuls and yeshivos, list it on Amazon, it will work
That is assuming that the target audience of the sefer is on social media and has internet access.
I think people still find their sefarim by browsing the sefarim store or when being sold in back of the beis medrash/shul.
Maybe it will change, but so far, Amazon is, if at all, a supplement to the traditional means of distributing/selling sefarim, and has not replaced it.
Perhaps the model will change, as more and more frustrated authors really want their work out there, but can’t afford the traditional way.
So excited to read your book! I love all Jewish books. So good luck!
Its not that expensive to publish – google around for people that will publish your sefer and have them do only the parts you cannot – i.e. edit yourself, have a friend proofread and so on. Don’t buy any packages, rather use the services you need. Think in under $5k terms.
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