Hi I'm new to he community so Hi to everyone and good luck with your writing. I was wondering if anyone has experience of self publishing and can offer some advice, in particular the companies of Lulu and Author House. Thanks
I recently self published my first book through Amazon.com's self publishing arm, CreateSpace. It was inexpensive, very author controlled, and the product has been very good. My avatar is the cover of the book.
Thanks for the reply. May i just ask how difficult it has now been to market your book and to raise the profile. is it selling ok? Great cover btw
Depending on the audience, traditional publishing is quickly becoming more difficult (dealing with rejection/delays/etc) than self-publishing and traditional provides less money for equal sales since the houses take so much of it away. The big draw to traditional publishing is obviously advertising (which could get you more money because of more sales) and a name, though. There are pros and cons both ways. Also, I have no experience at all with publishing other than knowing someone who works for a big Christian house (but not in the publishing department). My info comes from reading various blogs and articles and keeping up decently well with the industry since I hope to self-publish eventually. One more note: I'm accustomed to calling publishers 'houses' since that's a common term for them. Sorry if that's confusing.
no prob, since that and 'press' are common terms for publishing companies... as for author house, that has a 'not recommended' listing on preditors & editors... go here and scroll down to it, to see why: http://www.invirtuo.cc/prededitors/peba.htm i am also curious as to why you would want to go the vanity press route, instead of seeking an agent and paying publisher... do you have a built-in market for your books, or are you accomplished in promotion and marketing practices?
A lot of my friends write small self published small indie RPGs, and things like cookbooks for larps. Self publishing is great if you are planning to sell to a small specific audience. For example, pretty much any small hobby. From my friends experience I know that Lulu service works just fine, both for authors and costumers. I have ordered a bunch of books from them myself, and even ordering overseathere has never been any problem. You might learn a bit of typography to format you book neatly, but it worth the effort.
Thanks for all this advice everyone, really helpful. My first choice would be to publish through traditional means and I do have an agent, however even with the agent I am finding it difficult to convince "Houses" to take on an unknown author even though I get positive feedback. This is why I enquired about self publishing to try and build up a solid base of independent book sales to build upon.
If you have a blog, an avid readership and a group is fans you stand a better chevron with traditional publishers. I think if you have a couple good selling books self published they might actually take you more seriously.
if you have an agent, why are you finding it difficult to convince them, when that's the agent's job?... and is the agent sending you the responses s/he's getting from publishers?... have you thoroughly vetted this agent?... does s/he have a good track record for books of your type?...
Self-publishing is actually an increasingly viable option. For anyone who thinks that today's ebook self-publishing is akin to yesterday's "vanity publishing", I suggest you do some research. Here are some excellent names to start with: Joe Konrath Amanda Hocking David Dalglish H.P. Mallory I know for a fact that the first three self-published authors on this list support themselves with their writing. H.P. Mallory self-published her books on Amazon last year and just landed a three-book deal with Random House (who contacted her after seeing how well her self-published books were selling). Amanda Hocking sells like crazy--the self-published world's Stephanie Meyer, pretty much. I am traditionally published. I plan on releasing a self-published novel this year, if all goes well. While many people will tell you that traditional is the way to go, I think the truth is that these are two equally valid paths. I am choosing to experiment with self-publishing, despite currently being entrenched in the traditional publishing world, because I will earn more money per book sold that way. A lot more. Even if I charge half of what my publisher does! Now, if you choose to self-publish because you're impatient, don't want to bother with editing, or know in your heart that your writing isn't good enough to attract the interest of a traditional publisher, I'd recommend you concentrate on improving and worry about publishing later. But the fact is, there are self-published authors who are now outselling traditionally published authors and actually earning a living doing what they love.
