Okay, I need your opinion on self-publishing

[Mizmoon]

You may remember me as the author whose non-fiction book was *almost* published by a major house ... editoral director loved me and my book but the marketers didn't think it had enough appeal, thus it was rejected at the eleventh hour. I was broken before, it took so long to even be considered it was a painful blow, but now I'm feeling better and trying to figure out how to move forward.

As I see it, I have two choices:

1) Put it in a drawer, forget about it, and try to publish it again in a few years. Maybe news events or public opinion will change and make conditions more favorable for traditional publishing.

2) Self-publish thru iUniverse or one of those types of services. Now, I could probably do okay if I self-published. I do some speaking engangements now and then, and have a well-trafficed website.

DUers are generally literary types ... what do you think is the better option?

[flamingyouth]

1. A friend of mine recently self-published his book

He has been very happy with it. I will check with him and ask which service he used. It turned out great. :hi:

[Mizmoon]

3. Please do

Seriously, I would very much like to hear about author's experiences with this type of thing.

[flamingyouth]

6. Here's the website:

http://www.authorhouse.com/

So far, it's gone well, but his subject is quite narrow.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

2. My sister self-published a book

on medical transcription. She sold it via Ebay. After eight years she still gets orders from all over the world.

Go for it.

[wryter2000]

4. I've been published with some small presses

One has earned me a lot of money. The others haven't. What I would say to you is that if you're into marketing your book, self-publishing could work. If you're the sort of person who likes to button-hole someone and say, "Here's a book I wrote, you might be interested." If you're willing to spend lots of time going around to book signings where you might sell 1 or 2 books, go for it.

I had a neighbor who had written a book to help people cope with the loss of a pet. She had hundreds of copies in her garage. She sold a lot of them, but only because she hustled. If you like to hustle and you believe the message in your book deserves massive amounts of your time, go for it. Otherwise, save it. Work on it. Hope you'll find another publisher.

[ForrestGump]

5. Never done it, but I understand that

it can be highly suboptimal. Some people have had success -- huge or more modest -- with self-publishing, but there're a lot of fly-by-night and even more established rip-off companies out there looking to take advantage of authors. I guess I'd just be very wary, very skeptical, and do a lot of research first. Sending the manuscript out to other publishers might not hurt, either, in the meantime...even multiple simultaneous submissions, if the prospective publishers allow.

[tjdee]

7. Self-publish, no contest.

As someone above said, if you feel you can do the footwork of selling your book, go for it. Depending which self-publishing route you take, you may get some help in that regard.

Do your homework and find a reputable service--iUniverse and Xlibris are the two big ones (edited to add ONLINE, there are lots offline, and you could just do it all yourself), and iUniverse has a "Star" Program which on the surface seems pretty impressive (also, Amy Fisher just published there, hope that doesn't scare you LOL).

Self-publishing is a GREAT choice I think.

Edited again to add:
I would buy your book....so look at that, you've already made a royalty of what, .34c??? :)

[Mizmoon]

8. Thanks!

I'm going to start singing *I'm in the money - I'm in the money* ...

[wryter2000]

11. Don't know if you're still reading this thread

One thing that won't happen is that you'll make a lot of money. If you're very good, you'll sell lots of books and have a feeling of satisfaction, but no one gets rich by self-publishing. Most people who write books don't get rich, anyway, even with a NY house behind them.

Don't quit your day job.

[politicat]

9. And now the bad news...

With some editors, self-publishing or Print On Demand publishing can be the kiss of death. Unfortunately, these editors don't wander around with a big pair of purple lip prints on their foreheads. Basically, the editor gets to think "This person wasn't properly submissive to our almighty authority and circumvented us... therefore this person can continue to circumvent us and never get a bit of help from us again." It's a risk you have to consider. I know two fiction authors who are consistently running up against this problem.

There's also the issue that "you get paid to write, you don't pay to publish..." If you're willing to do the work, and see it as an investment, then go for it, but if you don't know how to market yourself, you're setting yourself up for some disappointment.

What is the subject matter? Perhaps you might try querying it out to a specialty house instead and including the reference from the editor that loved it?

Pcat

[TaleWgnDg]

10. what would I say about "self-publishing?" . . .

well? Get a lawyer. Yup. There's too damn many scams out there. Don't sign a friggin thing unless you get a lawyer, period.

========================================
"Everybody needs to have a good abrogado."
-- GWBush adds an unnecessary "r" to the Spanish
word for "lawyer," turning it into the word for "abolished,"
White House, Oct. 2, 2003
http://www.mp3.dubyaspeak.com/abrogado.mp3
http://69.56.179.3/dubya_mp3/abrogado.mp3

(I find this amusing b/c GWBush bashes
lawyers so damn much. What an a**.)
========================================

[HEyHEY]

12. Did you check out New Society?

[jmowreader]

13. "Self Publishing" ain't

A "self-publishing" house is better known as a "Vanity" or "Subsidy" press. In the same way that "Neocon" means "Nazi," vanity and subsidy publishing means the same thing. You send them your book and some money. They set up your book, apply an ISBN from their ISBN pool, print some, then let you buy copies of it to try to sell.

If you decide to take your book to another house, or to print it yourself, you don't get two things: a portable ISBN and the file your book was printed from. (On edit: ISBN portability means that if Smith Printing ran the first edition and Jones Graphics the second, the book will appear in "Books in Print" with the same ISBN. But if Smith owns the ISBN on your book, when you take it to Jones you'll need a new number. This pisses everyone off and makes people think your book unimportant.)

iUniverse looks about the same except for two differences: they're hooked into the Internet, so they might actually be able to move some books; and they have a Xerox Docutech instead of a printing press. A Docutech is essentially a huge computer printer; you can send a file to one and get a decent-looking book in quantity one if that's all you need. Xerox refers to Docutech as the top of their copier line, but EVERYONE who has one has a raster-image processor on it; said RIP hooks the Docutech to a computer network.

If you have a website with high traffic counts, forget "self-publishing" through a house and do it yourself. Here's how:

a. Finish the book and get it laid out in either a Quark, PageMaker or InDesign file.
b. Find a Docutech house. Get a bid for the printing of your book, then double the printing cost to come up with a price. (Docutech doesn't get cheaper the more you print--it costs the same per unit to print one as it does to print a thousand, whereas on a Heidelberg you're spreading the cost of the prepress, plates and makeready across the whole run.)
c. Put an ad for your book on your website. State it's "four to six weeks for delivery."
d. Once you have enough orders built up, call the Docutech house and have that many books printed. Then ship 'em out.

[Bossy Monkey]

14. Well, for people like me, self-publishing is an acceptable option...

but if you almost got published by a major house, you're 90% of the way there and it would be crazy to quit now. Unfortunately, we're a little short of information. Do you have an agent? If not, get on immediately. The editorial director should be willing and able to provide you with some names of people s/he works with. By no means should you quit and by no means should you self-publish. The fact that you got so close means you're almost there; just keep trying.