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Is Self Publishing Worth the Price?
vonFinkelstien asks: "I have written an adolescent novel and am having trouble getting it published. I have recently started looking at self-publishing, print-on-demand firms like Trafford or the many listed at pdfcreator. Trafford looks legitimate and offers a discount for those who do the layout themselves (I would use LaTeX). But the 'Bestseller Package' (which offers some promotional support) still costs $1399 when you create the layout yourself. Are such services worth the high initial cost ($500-$2000)? If any of you could give your experiences with or advice about these companies, I and other aspiring authors would be grateful."
Have you looked into Iuniverse? Last time I looked through their material it was under $200 for a basic package with no Marketing support. http://www.iuniverse.com
SFWA (The Science Fiction Writer's Association) has an excellent page on the subject at http://www.sfwa.org/beware/subsidypublishers.html. Should give you some idea what to watch for.
On the other hand, if you're talking about national distribution, you're not going to get into the biggest channels unless you're working with a major publishing house.
"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
Should you self publish? Only if you consider writing your hobby and then see it as a one time splurge never to be recooped.
If you want your story out there just put it on the net. If you wanta make money with writing then you need a publisher. A real one. Not just a printer who cuts out the middle man.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
LaTeX is not only for math textbooks, it has macros for quite a few structures you'd want in a book; chapters, headings, Title page, etc. \documentstyle{book} gets you quite far. It also doesn't choke at all on large documents and lets you get on with writing the book instead of spending a lot of time getting Word to be consistent with tabs and whatnot. The output looks very professional, and can be easily converted into PDF.
Oddly, the linked Trafford page uses Javascript to disable right-clicking. I can't imagine why they bother with that.
But your mistake is going straight to the publisher. Go to literary agents working in adolescent fiction.
http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/faqs3.html will give you a good start.
There is a good article by Kevin Kelly on "Printing small quantities of books cheaply."
In addition to heavy-duty self-production he also talks about his experience of
There is also a longer descrition of Kelly's Latest Publishings in Wired - Kell's Catalaog of Cool.
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
I'm not sure why more people haven't head of http://www.lulu.com/
It's a great service and I've used it already to publish a small book to give to family members.
Lulu Enterprises is the latest venture of Red Hat, co-founder and open source enthusiast Bob Young. Lulu.com allows anyone to publish and sell digital files--including books, artwork, and photographs--over the Internet.
Publishing work on Lulu.com is free, and content creators are asked to establish a royalty fee for each item they upload.
Lulu's revenue model is based on receiving a small percentage of each content purchase, as well as on fees for a line of planned additional services, such as editing and formatting.
Since then I have found that same SFWA warnings that someone has posted and this article, which highlights a lot of the problems facing POD and self publishers:
1. Bookstores won't order books that they cannot return. POD's mantra is NO INVENTORY, so they will not take the books back.
2. Reviewers will not review POD or self published works, because they want a pre-release copy to review before the book comes onto the market.
3. Some distributors do strange things (like making the stores have the books on backorder) with POD books, which make the titles even more unattractive to book stores.
One POD publisher that the article mentions is Superior Books. For several years they have tried to merge the old way of publishing with the way of the future (POD). Offering free publishing, selective acceptance, delayed releases to make reviewers happy, and more. However, they have all but given up. Now they will only refer a good author to a literary agent or publish niche non-fiction (perhaps my ESL book would work here).
I will look at small presses which specialize in fantasy and adolescent literature and try to get an agent (which are all but unheard of here in Sweden for authors).
Check out Bob Young's (yes, that Bob Young's) Lulu service. No setup fees.
I've been fielding communications from people like you for almost nine years now over at Speculations, and I keep saying the same thing to everyone: please don't self-publish your work.
With very few exceptions it ends badly for the author, with a garage full of books, an empty bank account, and no chance of a career as a professional author. Pointers upstream to SFWA and Writer Beware are excellent places to start; I would also recommend looking around the Speculations site, paying particular attention to the Caveat Scrivener section of The Rumor Mill.
Above all things, remember Yog's Law: money flows towards the artist. Never pay anyone to read, edit, represent, review, or publish your work; if you do, you're a sucker, not a professional.
I have worked for several printers in the past, one in particular specializes in short-run self-published books. Suprisingly inexpensive, especially if you do the layout yourself. Has excellent documentation on website on how the prepare the files + tips (click on the information link).
http://www.gorhamprinting.com
You ought to check out www.imprintbooks.com I have published two novels with them and been very happy with the outcome. Am I wealthy enough to retire and write, yet? Nope. Will that happen any time soon? Who knows? A lot of it goes to why you write in the first place. If you write for yourself, because you need to write, and getting it out there--even if it's just to a handful of people--is part of that need, self-publishing is a road to get there. The world is full of nay-sayers and people who only go for sure things maybe you need to ignore them and get your book out however you can.
There have been alot of interesting comments on self-publishing in this thread. Some are pretty good, some are bitter, and more than a few seem to be coming from people who haven't really followed the publishing industry since the early to mid 90's. I've been studying the publishing industry for about 5 years now, started my own publishing company, produced 1 of my own books, 1 almost finished, and 2 other author manuscripts in the chamber for production. I've got alot to share about the publishing thing - good, bad, and ugly. Mostly through word of mouth, I've sold several hundred copies of my first book, a collection of poetry and short stories. It's been my guinnea pig to build from.
For starters, if you're going to self-publish your book, you'll want to do so with the knowledge that, at worst, the endeavor serves as a huge time and money sinkhole. At best, you'll set out on what will become a great success story. And if you're smart early on, you'll be able to break even. I've got alot to share and I've been writing on this post off and on for several hours now in and around last minute work stuff, so if it seems a bit jumpy in parts, forgive me.
The publishing industry as a whole has been undergoing a slow, steady shift as a result of current technologies and changing trends in information distribution. According to a study done by the Publisher's Marketing Association, while large publishing companies have barely held their own over the past five years, the 80,000-plus independent publishers in the U.S.A. have grown at a rate of 22 percent per year. Their combined revenue now amounts to approximately $30 billion per year. The numbers aren't earthshattering, but they're enough to have the majors already nervous about what the future holds.
When it comes to self-publishing your book, before you embark on this endeavor, do alot of homework.
Go download this PDF; it contains what many startup independents would consider the quinessential reading list for how to crack into publishing, whether just for your 1 title or as a small press: http://www.wexfordpress.com/tex/pub.pdf
Investing in all or even at least half those titles can save you literally tens of thousands of dollars in the long run.
Although, by default, when you pay for the production of a book, even though you are the publisher, it does NOT make you *A* publisher. There's a huge difference. I'm going to hit on some key points and do so in real broad strokes, so forgive me for any details I may gloss over.
FORM A CORPORATION - cheapest alternative would be to set up an LLC in your state... roughly $50 for your local biz license, $100 or so for the State Corp Commission registration. Get your EIN number from the IRS as well. Set up as a company and you'll have a legitimate means of using all of your invested monies as a tax writeoff against what you're earning with your day job. The profits and losses within an LLC flow back to the owner(s) in the form of K1-statements from when you file the company's taxes. These K1s are then used when filing one's own taxes. In the early days, you're almost always going to take significant losses, thus significant gains on income tax refunds.
CONTENT EDITING - I don't care if you've spent half your life as an editor for your local newspaper, it's a bad idea to act as the editor of your own work. Do as much editing as you can on your end then contract an outside editor to go through the whole manuscript. Be sure it's someone that is accustomed to real content editing and not just proofing/spell checking. The editor will ultimately help turn your book into a streamlined readable work. Not working with an editor foreshadows failure.
ISBN Numbers - can be purchased in blocks from RR Bowkers.. sorta like IP addresses. Anyway, if you're going to self-publish, you're going to want your own ISBN numbers. Some of these all encompassing services will offer to put an ISBN number on your work; avoi
OK, let's assume it's #2, and you really think your book has something special to say, and your main goal is to get it to some readers without losing an arm and a leg. Then I'd suggest simply putting the PDF online and bypassing the whole print publishing thing. If you do a good job promoting your web site, you may reach 100-1000 readers a year, and you'll do it without losing your shirt.
The reason self-publishing has worked for me is that I am able to reach physics professors through the web and inexpensive print advertising in trade journals. Basically I try to get them to come to my site and download the PDFs to see if they like them. All it takes is one professor who likes them, and then I get a wholesale order for 20 or 200 books. I hired a printer, paid him a bunch of money, and filled my closets with books. I'd recommend against the vanity publishers; they take a really hefty chunk of your money. Although my method has worked for me, it's been capital-intensive --- right now I have about $10,000 worth of inventory in my house. (For tax purposes, you're supposed to account for inventory at the price you paid for it.)
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