Monday
Sep012008
Self publishing, should you or shouldn't you?
Monday, September 1, 2008 at 10:04PM
Now, I try to never give advice on something I haven't experienced either firsthand or watched happening.
In a former life I needed a handbook to immigration published that wasn't attractive enough as a proposition for the big publishers and e books online hadn't been invented yet, so I had but one choice.
I did my research about who to go with and settled on one with glowing reports from all the authors who'd used them.
Self Publishing Your Novel
Here's what I discovered in a nutshell.
1. You will sign a contract which is strongly biased toward the publishing company, and have very little control over the finished product or timespan.
2. With slogans like "your book your way" they lure you in, take your thousand dollars before they even see what you're publishing, although they claim to be picky about what they publish. That's the last time you will feel like a paying customer.
3. Although you must write, proof, edit, and then format the doc according to their strange tastes yourself, or pay someone to do this for you; when you send it complete with artwork and layout, so that nothing remains to be done, checked, or changed ( a process that normally takes 1 to 2 or more years) they will ignore your written and signed instructions.
Producing covers that look like a middle school project although they have quality photo files and layout from you. They claim to offer advice on size of book, distrubution, price, etc. But once you make your choice they'll remind you that the premier pack, costing double what you paid, for very little benefit, is what you should have gone for, so they could have offered better a service.
4. You may find as I did, that distrubution channels they boasted of fail to materalise.
That the proof copy of your book produced in some flar-flung cheaper land (and looking cheap too) will need to be shipped to you to sign off, and it will be sent at your cost, you pay the shipping. Unless you choose ordinary post from Outer Mongolia or Upper Canada, taking two months to reach you.
That although it's a proof copy, if you make any changes to it, including any changes needed because they fail to do what you asked, you will pay extra for this.
I found myself asking what exactly the fee you pay is for, as all layout, formatting, covers, writeups, are done by the author.
They give you an ISBN number that's about it.
Then when you print copies for sale you do so at a premium before you can resell them.
Any copies they sell through their channels will leave you with very little of the cover price.
You will wait to get royalties paid out for months.
So is it worth it? Well many people have no choice as was the case with my book. If traditional publishers don't pick it up because it doesn't meet their list or they can't make big money on it the self-publishing or print on demand route can be an option.
You may be better served doing it all yourself on lulu.com and then just paying to print as many as you need. Amazon have booksurge publishing which may in the future give you a benefit of selling on Amazon as they may block the other self publishing houses.
Have you googled the company you want to use with name "......... publishers scam rip off"? Do your research first before you sign.
Here's good advice from a publisher
Do you have a self-publishing story or complaint or comment? Write to us below under comments and well publish it on here.
A great site with all the research done for you.
Wisequeen
Reader Comments (8)
Gary Eby
http://www.squidoo.com/groups/publishingclub | qlcoach@adlandpro.com | 68.185.2.158
This is an excellent article on self-publishing. Another point to keep in mind is that most major book stores will not take on self-published work. However, Lulu.com is a great way to get your book out there. I started with them before a publisher picked up my work. Feel free to share your ideas at our online club. Also thanks for the DM from Twitter. Bye for now…Gary Eby, author and therapist.
Hello,
My name is Ryan Mettee and I’m an online marketer for OneCoach Inc, the leader in small business growth, offering coaching and consulting services to small businesses around the world. I read your blog recently and loved the content. It seems like a popular online destination for entrepreneurs. As you know, small-businesses are the fuel of the economic flame in the United States. In these tough economic times, how do small business owners succeed in business?
John Assaraf and Murray Smith have co-authored a New York Times bestselling book titled The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life. This book is a twenty-first century approach to business growth and success that shows business owners that the only thing holding them back is a lack of confidence and certainty that they can succeed. This book attempts to crack the entrepreneurial code and serves as a guidebook with a proven step by step process to help entrepreneurs take ownership of their economic destiny.
Assaraf, a New York Times bestselling author, business coach, and mega successful entrepreneur is responsible for building multiple multi million dollar enterprises including Bamboo.com (one of the fastest internet IPOs in history), Re-max of Indiana, and OneCoach. He’s also made featured appearances on Larry King Live, Ellen DeGeneres, and Donny Deutsch. Assaraf starred as a principle teacher in the blockbuster phenomenon The Secret, which told readers what to do to improve their lives. The Answer applies the same universal themes of the Law of Attraction and visualization from The Secret and applies them to business growth.
I’d like to invite you to conduct a book review of The Answer on your blog. We believe such a review would captivate your readers – the New York Times did - and ultimately help small businesses owners excel, even in the current economic environment. John is also open to conducting a phone-interview, conference call, or tele-seminar for your site. I can shoot you over a digital version of the book for your review and other assets. I look forward to your response.
Best,
Ryan Mettee
Online Marketing Specialist
OneCoach, Inc.
512 Via de la Valle, Suite 201
San Diego, CA 92075
858.792.1250
rmettee@onecoach.com
Dear Ryan. I'd be happy to review the book for the benefit of our readers, as entrepreneurship and innovation in business is something I'm passionate about.
Wisequeen
[...] Donna Jackson Self publishing, should you or shouldn’t you? [...]
Thanks to Liz Strauss for including my post on self-publishing in her 100 party links on the occasion of her blog birthday! Here's wishing you many more Liz!
This really is an excellent article. One route that many people are taking now is to do their own publishing in ebook form, and then sell the ebook themselves. With third-party payment services like PayPal, this makes the whole process easier. It doesn't cost much, and you reap all of the benefits.
Thanks Miranda for the comment. I have done the e book on my relocation books. The dream of many authors is still to hold their book in their hands though and this leads many unsuspecting authors into the hands of crooks who pose as agents and publishers.
Self-Publishing is good online but bad offline.