The joy of self-publishing begins when you realize that you are not only an author but also a business owner. This frightens some people right out of the book publishing arena, but for others the sense of control more than compensates for the extra attention they have to pay to business matters.

Name it!

Give your new company a name that sounds like success.

Include a word such as "books," "publishing," "publisher," or "press"to define your company as a publishing firm. Some examples:

Your name plus "Press" or "Publishing" or "Books" (Karl Ottens Publishing)

A name that reflects your publishing mission (Healthy Heart Books)

A name reflecting your geographic scope without limiting your company to a specific city or region, unless that reflects the subject matter of your books (Three Rivers Publishers)

A name with a mood your books portray (Dark Matters Press)

To reduce the risk of legal snarls you can encounter if you choose a name someone else is already using, do a preliminary search on the Web, pay a visit to the United States Patent and Trademark Office--or find a legal firm that specializes in trademark searches and applications.

It will cost you about $350 for a complete trademark search. A trademark application costs $150 plus $245 for each category you use for filing your  trademark. One source we found on the Web is Thompson & Thompson.

Some self-publishing authors ignore the trademark issue on the assumption that their book has such limited circulation it is highly unlikely to infringe on anyone's trademark rights and that the most severe penalty an author would have to pay would probably be to obey a "cease-and-desist" order issued by the court. We don't give legal advice; we just pass on to you what we've heard.

Other tips for establishing a business entity

• Check with your bank to see what you need to do to deposit checks to your account that are made out to your new business entity.  In most states all that is required is a "dba" (doing business as) form you can pick up at the counter of the county's tax office. Your state may have more stringent requirements.
• Some city, county, and state governments require even small home-based businesses to register. In many states only regulated businesses must register, and the only businesses that are regulated are those involving safety, health or other public concerns.
• Get a post office box for your self-publishing company if you're within reasonable distance to pick up your mail. It's a little bit faster and a lot safer to have your mail delivered to the post office than to a rural mailbox by the side of the road.
• Hire a designer or design your own letterhead to support your company name.

Don't take unproven, costly steps. For example, don't...

• Rent an office
• Buy an ad in the Yellow Pages
• Buy an ad on local television
• Buy an ad on local radio
• Buy an ad in a local newspaper
• Rent a billboard on the highway into town
• Write your book ad in the sky and have an airplane fly it over the city
• Buy an ad in a national or regional magazine
• Buy an email list
• Pay thousands of dollars for a professional web page design
• Put a sign in your front window
• Hire 2-3 people to help you fill orders
  

  Of course, if you KNOW one or more of the above is going to put your book in the lights, ignore our advice. It's your book!

Advertising methods book publishers and authors have used successfully include the following:

• Direct mail and email to carefully targeted lists
• Display ads in publications whose subscribers have an obvious interest in your book's topic
• Distribution of postcards, business cards, posters using your book's cover art (be sure your cover artist will allow you to use original artwork to promote your book