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Hope for self-publishers!
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I made my mystery novel, IDENTITY CRISIS, available on Kindle and through Scribd and Smashwords on June 2. Since then, I've sold 109 downloads and counting. I attribute many of the sales to posting notices in Kindle and e-reader forums. Those posts caused an initial spike in sales that has since leveled off, but the sales are still coming, slower but steady.The book is available for Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002BWQ676 It's gotten some really great reader reviews (some Sue Grafton fans said they loved it!): http://tinyurl.com/ntfujt
I also recently reissued the book in print through Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/content/3923913 and it should become available through Amazon and other online retailers within a couple of months.
And while we're on the subject of hope for self-published authors, did you hear the news about the self-pubbed author on Kindle who landed a book deal? http://tinyurl.com/m6em98
Hope for self-published authors indeed. :)
I would recommend CreateSpace to any author ready to publish a book. I have an agent but I did not want to wait for the traditional time to sell to a regular publisher. No matter who the publisher is we still have to do most of the publicity. I like having control of the covers. Maryanne
I'm using CreateSpace too, and Smashwords. My blog/IM novel is available for free, for the rest of July!http://www.jesscscott.com
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/28... (coupon code JFREE on checkout)
New media + technology > traditional publishers, for me personally.
congratulations on your books published, Jj, Maryanne, Laura. I'll have to investigate Createspace.
Laurel
http://laurel6346.tripod.com
I am printing my book Dusty Waters: A Ghost Story through Createspace using our own ISBN's from Bowker (my husband and I have started our own company, Field Stone Press), it's been working out okay so far, I can't complain, the rest is up to us to make our little fledgling books take flight...we're actually receiving junk mail!
I am very happy with CreateSpace. Dancing In Water was finished in a few months and I love it. Several publishers have asked me for review copies. i look forward to the reviews. I have one review on Amazon.com so far, written by a reader. If I don't do my next book through my agent and a regular publisher I will use CreateSpace.
So far, I've had very good luck with Createspace. Very inexpensive and you have full control of your work.
CreateSpace did a beautiful job with Dancing On Water.
My friend J.R. Roosenbert, a great artist, did my cover and I am so happy with the final result.
Maryanne
What do New York agents, magazine editors and book publishers look for in new writers? Hello, I’m Bill Manville --former Village Voice columnist, an editor for Helen Gurley Brown at Cosmo, author of six books published by major New York houses -- one a Book-of-the-Month – and columnist for the New York Daily News. Now about to teach “Writing to Get Published” for writers.com Here is what Michael Korda, Editor in Chief, Simon & Schuster, wrote about that: “...the work I know best is your novel Goodbye, which I edited. What first attracted me was the dazzling prose; I was equally impressed by plot and characterization. A considerable literary accomplishment but also a Book of the Month choice, bringing an impressive price at paperback auction. What may also interest your students, I’ve heard you in discussion with writers like Joe Heller, Patricia Bosworth, Lois Gould and Gay Talese, and remember thinking more than once, Bill ought to be teaching it too.”
First class is August 3. For a free online copy of the Writing to Get Published Students Handbook, write me directly: whmanville@yahoo.com:
PS: The Students Handbook contains several first hand reports from people who did self publishing and made their money back, others who did not.
And the reasons why
for more about my own teaching, hit this address
http://www.writers.com/manville.html
I have books that are self published and books published by traditional publishers. I have to do publicity for all of them. At times it's best to self publish so you can chose the covers etc. It is easier work with a traditional publisher but they do not do much publicity maryanne
Shelagh wrote: "There has been a great deal of talk among group members about self-publishing recently. I posted this message on the Fantasy forum, but received no response, so I thought I would add it here:Preston FM will be serialising Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine for Chat City.
Pr..."
I don't mind if you haven't, but I would be interested to hear your thoughts if you tuned in to any of the episodes of Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine. It is now listed on the Preston FM website:
http://www.preston.fm/index.php?option=c...
Glad to hear you are planning to do some more books with them. I guess that means you are happy with them.
Thanks for the feedback Maryanne
Actually, yes... I have published one book with Create Space and two with Amazon DTP. I have plans to do two more with each process. These are all reprints of some of my older titles, I should note.
Brenna
Has anyone published with Amazon.com's CreateSpace? I am in the process of publishing Dancing On Water the book I wrote last November for NaNoWriMo.com.
I would love to hear from someone who has used this publisher. I have 9 books on Amazon.com, but this is the first time they have done a book for me.
Maryanne
That would save a lot of trees and some trips to the bookstore. We in the rural areas, many miles from the bookstores would like that. VickieG
It's to the point now where almost all POD printing will go nowhere. Amazon's Book Surge and Ingram's Lightning Source are trying to control the POD market. Both have already been sued numerous times for restraint of trade and other things, but they still keep doing it. Too bad POD printing can't be done the way it was designed to be done. The original concept is that titles would be displayed in actual bookstores, probably electronically, then when a book is decided on, you pay the fee, bing bam boom here's your book. Of course, one would have the option of simply buying a CD of the book, or downloading it online. Most people I know still prefer real books for pleasure reading, though for information type books, they work well online or on screen.
Ivy wrote: "From my understanding BookSurge and CreateSpace are both owned by Amazon. I'm publishing though CreateSpace now and BookSurge for some reason keeps emailing me about publishing."I'm not familiar with CreateSpace. But I learned that Amazon is the parent company of BookSurge, which was started up to do covers for the books. I heard that even if you use Amazon to publish, they will ask you to sign a waver for BookSurge to do your cover. that's why I used Booksurge, to keep it all in one place. I'm a newbie. I could have my facts wrong, but that's what I read on the net. VickieG
Debbi wrote: "Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Hi, Debbi. It was ok. We had a few bumps in the process, which delayed my finished book a couple of times but there was no extra charge as the bumps belonged to them. I s..."Debbi wrote: "Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Hi, Debbi. It was ok. We had a few bumps in the process, which delayed my finished book a couple of times but there was no extra charge as the bumps belonged to them. I s..."
Debbi wrote: "Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Hi, Debbi. It was ok. We had a few bumps in the process, which delayed my finished book a couple of times but there was no extra charge as the bumps belonged to them. I s..."
Deb, they sell packages. Once you choose a package, the price never changes, unless you have too many changes for them to make then you have to renegotiate the publishing of the book. I was always asking to make sure that there were no extra charges to my corrections. The printing is on demand, as you said and the author only pays a fraction of the cost compared to a buyer. I hope this helps. VickieG
From my understanding BookSurge and CreateSpace are both owned by Amazon. I'm publishing though CreateSpace now and BookSurge for some reason keeps emailing me about publishing.
Ivy wrote: "I'm curious about BookSurge too"Hi, Ivy. It is nice to meet you. They are very nice and walked me through the process step by step. If I didn't understand something, they patiently explained it. There were just some mistakes made and I didn't understand why. Later, my daughter, a graphic artist, said that some of those mistakes could have easily been made. Like I approved my final proof online then they printed my first copy from a previous proof, which still had the errors in it. I was frustrated as Christmas was creep up and I so wanted my extra copies to give to family as gifts. The book turned out nicely and probably no one else will ever notice the mistakes, which didn't get taken out. Thank you for asking. VickieG
Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Hi, Debbi. It was ok. We had a few bumps in the process, which delayed my finished book a couple of times but there was no extra charge as the bumps belonged to them. I so wanted my book out bef..."I haven't used them, but I'm considering doing so. I was going to use CreateSpace, but their system can't handle the file size of my cover art. When I inquired about it, they referred me to BookSurge. I assume they don't charge authors for publishing services, just editorial and other extras, correct? (Since they're actually a print-on-demand press, I would've assumed they only charged for printing copies of books.) If there's an upfront charge with BookSurge for publishing, I'll probably go with Lulu instead. So, did they charge a fee for publishing your work? Did you have to get your own ISBN?
Hi, Debbi. It was ok. We had a few bumps in the process, which delayed my finished book a couple of times but there was no extra charge as the bumps belonged to them. I so wanted my book out before Christmas, and because each send back caused a two week delay, I ended up disregarding a couple things, which I was not real happy about. Since it was my first book, I found myself anxious to get it done. It's not perfect but neither am I, so I guess we match. Are you considering them, or just curious? Did you use them? If so, how was your experience? VickieG
Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Hello, I'm new as of today. I self-published a poetry book through BookSurge.com. the end of 2008 and it's still sitting there. "The Silver Dragon (Hepatitis Awareness Poetry) My very first book..."How was your experience with BookSurge?
I see your point, Andy. Thank you. That's why it's a good idea to talk to people who are in the know. I have so much to learn. No wonder my book is going no where. It's so much easier just to write the words but then, what good are the words without the sharing. VickieG
Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Andy wrote: "Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Hello, I'm new as of today. I self-published a poetry book through BookSurge.com. the end of 2008 and it's still sitting there. "The Silver Dragon (Hepatitis ..."
Vickie. not trying to sound smart here, but why would someone want to buy the book, when they can hear the poems on website for nothing? Unless your talking about excerpts and only if you've a nice voice.
you could try windows Movie Maker (or others) - get some stock pics relevent to your poems, some relevent music, then voice over with excerpts.
Just a wee suggestion.
Dave wrote: "Oh, by the way,I can make You Tube type trailers, depending on complexity and whether or not licensed music can be obtained, they can be rather inexpensive. Of course, some of my animated ones can ..."
animation? I tried that and it drove me nuts :P
Once I get my sanity back (ish) I'll try again. It does take a long time to get it right.
I will keep that in mind, Dave. Thank you for the suggestions. I have a lot of work to do to lengthen these poems and make them doable. Unfortunately today is errand day and I will not be able to work on them until later this evening. All help is most appreciated. Thanks, vickieG
Oh, by the way,I can make You Tube type trailers, depending on complexity and whether or not licensed music can be obtained, they can be rather inexpensive. Of course, some of my animated ones can get a bit costly, mostly for the time it takes to animate them.
Andy wrote: "Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Hello, I'm new as of today. I self-published a poetry book through BookSurge.com. the end of 2008 and it's still sitting there. "The Silver Dragon (Hepatitis Awareness Poe..."Thank you, Andy for the warm welcome and the well wishes for my book. I’m happy that I found this group and wish I had found you all sooner. I had thought about doing some short readings on my web page; would that be the same thing as a trailer? I would have never thought about looking on the net for Chapbook publishers but I will pursue it for promotion ideas, as you suggested. It’s wonderful to be able to communicate with someone in Scotland. Thank you so much for your help, VickieG
Things can be made to work. One good line can be used as the hook to make it work. It all depends on the style of music that will work best. Being in Tenn. it would probably be easiest for you to do something with if it was done as modern country.
Onelildeltagirl wrote: "Hello, I'm new as of today. I self-published a poetry book through BookSurge.com. the end of 2008 and it's still sitting there. "The Silver Dragon (Hepatitis Awareness Poetry) My very first book..."
A very warm welcome to you, Vickie. Pull up a chair and warm yourself by the GoodReads fire. (I only say that 'cause it's cold here in Scotland just now.)
I really hope your book does well. I don't see why a home-grown teaser trailer can't be made for your efforts. This could be stuck on your website etc. Anything helps in promoting, unless it's poor quality. (I guess the feedback, or lack of will tell.)
I noticed when I was looking online for Chapbook/short story publishers in GB, they appeared to mostly point to poetry. You could search there for some promotion ideas.
Wishing you all the best.
Andy
ok, thank you. I'll send a few in a few minutes. I'm still looking for some more. My style may not work in song, but you can judge for yourself. VickieG
Use tootall1121@yahoo.com or same at gmail.com Everybody needs a hand up when it can be offered, what goes around comes around.
You are so nice to think of doing this for someone you don't know. It would be wonderful if I could find one I've written that suits that purpose. How do I get a poem to you? do I just post it here or send by email to you? I'll go look through my poems and see if I can find one that might work. Thanks, VickieG
My friend is not a singer. She's a highly skilled musician and composer. Top shelf, with contacts in many genres of music. I've discussed the possibility of making one of your poems into a song, and she's willing to do it, for free, as a favor to me. I don't know your work, we'll need to find one that's got something to say, but can have an interesting melody and more importantly, a good, strong repeating hook line. The idea of doing this is to get you noticed, then your poetry will sell.
I'm not sure if it would or not. What type songs does your friend sing? My poems are much like flash fiction in rhyme only shorter.
Hey one, any of your poetry lend itself to being a song? In about ten days a friend will be back from her trip, I could probably get original music put to it. That's always the best way to make poetry sell.
Dave wrote: "Poetry is always a tough sell. There are things you can do, press releases, promotions, readings, things like that. location is another problem, if you're not in a large city, it's going to be a re..."I have purchased a domain name and am getting ready to start my own web site. In the meantime, I have a forum on delphi on which I post my poems and communicate with other writers. I live in a small town, rural area in TN. I have some ideas, but haven't put anything together yet as I have been getting over an illness. Thank you for your help, VickieG
Shelagh wrote: "There has been a great deal of talk among group members about self-publishing recently. I posted this message on the Fantasy forum, but received no response, so I thought I would add it here:
Pr..."
I will mark my calender. Thank you
Poetry is always a tough sell. There are things you can do, press releases, promotions, readings, things like that. location is another problem, if you're not in a large city, it's going to be a real pain to do a lot with it. You do have your own website and such don't you?
Hello, I'm new as of today. I self-published a poetry book through BookSurge.com. the end of 2008 and it's still sitting there. "The Silver Dragon (Hepatitis Awareness Poetry) My very first book! I have no idea where to start promoting it. The writing of it was easy. I've been reading here and getting some ideas to work on. I really would like to see my book help someone by boosting their morale. Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions I've read so far. Hugs, VickieG
I know of a printer that does small runs of books on regular presses, if anyone is interested. The minimum is a hundred. They can do a variety of things, including hardcovers. I've seen their work, it's first class. They can also provide other services, of course any time you have someone do something for you, it costs money. They do not provide editing services, but they can get your book listed with Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and the like. They can just do the printing, or much more. They're not cheap, but are reasonable for the quality. One thing I think a lot of self publishers do is neglect quality for a good price. Quality still sells, even if people have to pay more, many will for quality. A pet peeve of mine is people and publishers that print their books in such a small print it's hell to read, especially when they don't use a bright white paper. I'm not talking large print, just reasonable for most people to read easily. When I read for pleasure, I want it to be a pleasure, not hard so difficult to read that it takes the pleasure out of it.
One thing you can do rather than being a self-publisher, is to actually become a publisher. The world doesn't have to know that you're also the publishing company. Set up an address with one of those mailbox places that can sign for packages and such, the kind that also gives you a street address. Get an 877 toll free number, Costco works with a company that provides that at very little cost. Get letterhead made, or even make it on your own computer. Look like a publisher, albeit a small press, to the world. This helps get around that self-publishing stigma. Who knows, you could even find great books to publish by other authors. Stranger things have happened.
Jackie wrote: "Andy,
I live in Surrey, and the libraries are run by the County Council. It was an evening thing, so didn't affect the normal day to day happenings.
Thanks Jackie, I'll certainly push out intro letter to head of libraries in the dirrerent areas; once I get the printing problem sorted out by Lulu. It sounds exciting. :D
"
Andy,I live in Surrey, and the libraries are run by the County Council. It was an evening thing, so didn't affect the normal day to day happenings.
Jackie wrote: "Thanks Andy
We've also had given some quite successful talks at libraries. One in particular arranged for forty people to come along. They had food and wine there too - works every time "
Jackie, I don't know where you are geographically, but in Scotland the libraries are government run. I reaally don't think they would allow food and wine. Great idea though. Has given me food for thought on other venues.
Debbi wrote: "My other hate is when people want your hard work cheap or for nothing. Aaaaggggghh. Is it just me?
It's most definitely not just you, Andy. Writers should be paid for their work, just like everyon..."
I reckon on drawing the line for promo reasons (reviews etc). With the exception of giving a free copy to whomever the book is dedicated to.
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