Self publish isn't a good thing, I know. Getting published by a traditional publisher is better. I know. But there is some things that lead to the decision of self publishing: I live in a country where there is more authors and publishers than readers. Bad thing, no? The big publishers only publish books from: a) foreign and best seller books, b) famous people, c) people that know famous or influential people. Once I saw in a TV program the editor of one of those big publishers, showing a pile of manuscripts sent to the publisher. Those packs never was opened. Never, they don't read even the query letter, and that pile was going to recycling. And one year before they're asking to writers to send the manuscripts :/ Medium publishers are the same of the big ones, but if they see a self-published writer with a good work they can publish it. It happened with Andre Vianco. He get fired of his job, get the money he received and printed the book, selling it to friends and in conventions. People started to talk about and now he's published by a medium publisher. He's a lucky guy. And the small publishers are all "vanity press", only printing services that name themselves "publishers". All those small publishers ask for money, in a direct or indirect way. I have a short-story published in an anthology by a small publisher. Every author was obligated to get 15 books and sell it like a self published. The book never goes to a book seller. Royalties? What's royalties? Want to make money with the book? Buy it from us with 30% off and sell by yourself. And their prices for the service. Ouch! No revision. Well, they make revisions: put the text on MS Word and voilá! Revised! Cover? If you draw or do photomanip you can get a better cover by yourself. Book on book sellers? It's another service, you need to pay for it too. Convert to e-book? Another service, another bill. In the end what you're doing with this "publishers"? Self publishing! Why not try and agent? Agent? What is this? We don't have these type of things here, sir. Yes, agents are a new thing here, and the most part are religious / non-fiction / romantic / poetry. Agents for sci-fi and fantasy are... unicorns. People say that they exist but you never see one. And why I don't try to send the book to publishers or agents in other countries? My English is poor, I can't write a book in English. And I don't have money to pay the translation :/ Because all those things I decided to go to the self publish way. Hard? Yes, I know. But I'm a self-employed artist trying, every day, to sell my products. I will have a new product to sell. Harder than the others, but I can try. I make part of two fan clubs, Harry Potter and Doctor Who, and I'm the part that go to events with a stand. So, I can sell my goodies on nerd events. What's better than a nerd convention for a sci-fi/fantasy book? Next month I will attend a convention, a big one. My book isn't finished, but I can distribute flyers with my blog/facebook page, where I put the step-by-step of the creation of the book. Exactly the same thing I do for my goodies (plushies and other handmade things for nerds and geeks). I can draw a "omg look at this!" banner with the chars. I know that I will have a lot of work. Revisions, cover, design of the book, promotional work. But it doesn't scare me. I draw, so I can make the cover. I know how to design the file for a book (the professional way), and some friends will help with revisions. And I know that my book isn't a perfect work that the big ones will fight for. It's only a scifi/fantasy (another) about dark elves (another!) with a little different concept. A sort of book that can give me a lot of haters, like the ones the Meyer's vampires received. And I like challenges and to make things by myself, to learn new things. I think I will have funny moments (and others not so funny) with it.
I would point out that self-publishing is not a bad thing, and trade publishing is not always better. It all depends on the author, the book, and the goals the author has for both.
You seem to come already disgruntled, discouraged, and with a lot of assumptions about how people will judge you. I dunno. I think you need to chill and realise there's no "one way", and no "right way" to do things when it comes to writing and publishing. Only whether you get readers and get read matters at the end of the day. Let people call you unworthy for self-pubbing all they like, but if you have a million readers, why would you need to care about their comments? Just get your work out there. You already sound like you're willing to put in the hard work and you're not choosing it as an easy way out of editing and revising your book, so you're good to go. But I dunno. Don't go in expecting everyone to judge you. You've lost half the battle already if you yourself do not genuinely believe this is the best way for your book. And if it is the best way for your book, then let the haters hate and go for it. The difference is attitude. Are you gonna see everything as an uphill battle where you're gonna have to bite and kill and justify yourself to everyone around you? Or are you gonna see it as an exciting new challenge and new chapter to your life and to your work? Are you gonna focus on all the judgement and harsh words that yes, you surely will get? Or are you gonna focus on the fact that by pushing on, you'll get your work published, and your work will be read and - gasp - loved. Yes, even loved. Enjoy the journey. It's gonna be hard, but it's gonna be exciting as hell. Think of it as a long hike where you're there to learn and develop and while you're at it, take in the scenery and with every step relish the fact that you're on this journey and look forward to that view when you finally reach the peak Don't think of it as an uphill struggle. As for myself - I would consider self-publishing quite seriously whenever I do actually finish a novel. Simply because I have lost faith that trade publishers really do that much to get your book seen and generate hype for you. The smartest thing to do would be to go both ways - write some for self-pubbing, and writes others to submit to agents. If the ones that you send to agents are successful, your self-pub stuff will gain prominence too by virtue of being linked to the same name, and you'll still get 100% of the profits from the self-pubbed books while benefiting from the marketing and promotion done on the trad-pubbed book. I think a lot of authors do this nowadays.
Are you in Iceland? Benefits: no gatekeeper. Drawbacks: publicity and getting on store bookshelves is a challenge.
Thanxs for all the words, people I love you all. @mammamaia, I live in Brazil. Things here don't work in the right way the most of time :/ This. If my book become loved for someone it will be like... win the lottery Getting on store here is a challenge even if you get a publisher :/ And the royalties, IF you get paid, are only 5%. Yesterday I spent time looking into the website of each know publisher here, to see if they have any information about "send us your manuscript". Maybe I'm wrong saying that is hard to publish here. I found three that have this information, don't ask money to publish and accept my genre. From these three one is an interesting case. It's a big publisher, I saw a lot of testimonials from people that send the book and don't get published. From the published ones I don't see anything. And the people that received a "No" they say the response is exactly the same, they don't even put the name of the author in the letter, only "Dear author, you have potential, but your work isn't what we want now." After 6 months waiting for a response. The other is like "they will ask for money after you sign the contract". The third is an interesting case. It's a publisher that publish only sci-fi, fantasy and mystery/horror. They don't ask for money, and put your book in some bookstores, and participate in big nerd conventions. Maybe I try to send the manuscript to them, to see what happens. But a time ago I called one of the editors "old, toothless and moody dog", because he don't respect authors that aren't members of the scifi readers club (toothless because his writing are really bad) In any case I'm preparing my path as "lonely warrior" And, making self publish allows me to do a thing that I want with this book. Once it's a fantasy/scifi story in a medieval world, I want to make a "medieval manuscript" for me, printed in hand made paper, with leather cover. The "collectors edition" But I need to finish the book first. Going back to work...
bom dia, larissa! i understand the difficulties you face there... but it's not impossible, as you are learning... that said, no legitimate publisher will ever ask you to pay a single real... they pay you, not the other way around... so, any publisher [or agent] who asks you for money for any reason will be a scam, not a reputable firm... yes, finish your book before you start thinking about how to get it published... tchau, maia
Here we have a lot of no legitimate publishers that are legitimate. Yes, it's an offense to the logic. Even a big publisher ask for money (as I know, they only want US$ 8000 to publish a book :/ ) if you aren't a famous person. Even if your book is good. I think I can finish it until June, because I need to finish the illustrations, them I'll send to the scifi publisher. If I receive a No, self publish will do what I want
those would not be 'regular' publishers... they would be what is called 'vanity press'... traditional publishing houses never take money from writers, they give it to them, for the rights to publish their books and make money from the sales...
