| Author | Message | ||
     Emanuel Veteran Poster Username: Emanuel Post Number: 713 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
So 904 Diva, Have you decided how you are going to publish your novel? Has the advice here been helpful? | ||
| 904diva Regular Poster Username: 904diva Post Number: 46 Registered: 06-2008 Rating: N/A |
The advice has been sooo helpful... kinda. Now I'm super confused. I truly value you all's opinion because you were once were I am. I just don't know which route to go. I have a little money to spend... just don't know which way is the best way. What do you suggest? | ||
| Emanuel Veteran Poster Username: Emanuel Post Number: 714 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
I self-pubbed my novel "Where is the Love?" I bought ISBN #s, paid a graphic designer to create the cover (and a website), and had the books printed (and a small set-up fee) through print-on-demand printer Lightning Source. The books were automatically available at online bookstores because Lightning Source is a division on Ingram Book, a wholesale distributor. I liked the freedom of choosing my own price for the book and how the cover would look. It was a struggle to get brick and mortar chains to carry it though. I didn't sell enough books to make a traditional publisher happy but I managed to make a small profit. It got great reviews too, and I got a bit of local fame. When sales maxed out, I took it off the market in hopes of revamping it and selling it to a publisher one day. Now I have a new manuscript. I am paying an independent editor to edit it and get it submission ready. Then I will submit, edit, submit, and submit to publishers and literary agents for at least a year and a half. Now I have the patience to wait out the process of traditional publishing. The benefits of this method (having someone else pay for the printing of your books, distribution that gets your books on bookstore shelves, a bit of marketing, and professional editing) outweigh the freedom of self-publishing in my opinion. After a year and a half, I will decide if I want to self-pub or just start from scratch with a manuscript I can sell. There are pros and cons to each approach. You just need to decide what works best for you. Some people swear by self-publishing or vanity publishing. Many of those people have made bestseller lists and have later gotten traditional publishing deals. My advice is this: 1. Let a professional editor read and review your manuscript (one that has worked with traditionally-published authors). 2. Research all vanity publishers before deciding to go with one. 3. Don't be in a rush to see your manuscript in print. Get it right first so that the finished product doesn't get slammed by book reviewers. 4. Get a copy of "The Writer's Market" and submit your manuscript to all publishers that accept your genre if they are okay accepting simultaneous submissions. 5. If you self-publish, REALLY self-publish by doing it yourself instead of working with a vanity press. You can control the price of the book, how the cover will look, and you will get all of profits. 6. Understand that any non-traditional publishing will limit who will review your book and what bookstores will carry it, which will make it harder to sell and harder to market. | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 13978 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: |
Geeze, 904diva. Are you still posing the same questions after all this time? How many times does Emaunel have to advise you in regard to your options????? | ||
| 904diva Regular Poster Username: 904diva Post Number: 47 Registered: 06-2008 Rating: |
Well, Cynique, since you hadn't noticed, I didn't post a question! Emanuel asked ME a question in which I responded... to HIS question. I think I have information overload or I'm listening to too many different people... especially people who butt in on a personal post of answering a question someone asks of you. | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 13979 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: |
No such thing as a personal post on this board. That's what e-mailing is for. No denying that Emanuel apparently enjoys expounding over and over again on this subject. But don't include me as someone you've been listening to because I haven't supplied you with any information. I had nothing to add to the numerous replies you have previously received in regard to your ongoing dilemma.  | ||
| Troy AALBC .com Platinum Poster Username: Troy Post Number: 1920 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
Emanuel, it is good of you to offer this advice. Of course answering this question completely in a post is virtually impossible. "I just wrote a book, what do I do next" is perhaps the most common question I get via email or phone. It is an impossble question to answer for each person. If I reply, I usually just say that and point them to the resources in AALBC.com. Going forward I may save your response (crediting you as the source) and just forward it to people. 904diva of course you'd be confused listening to a bunch of different folks (some of whom don't know what they are talking about). Publishing and selling a book, while not rocket science, is a complicated process; which is why I recommed people read a book as their primary source of information, pay someone else to do everything, or publish via tradional means. But even in all of these methods it would make sense to learn the business anyway. The 2010 version of the The Writers Market came out a couple of months ago. It is one of the most commonly sited sources of Book selling and publishing.  | ||
| Emanuel Veteran Poster Username: Emanuel Post Number: 716 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
Troy wrote: ...is why I recommed people read a book as their primary source of information, pay someone else to do everything, or publish via traditional means. Exactly Troy. If your goal is not get paid as a publisher but to get your work out there to as many readers as possible, this is exactly what you need to do. This is why I am so intrigued with Greenleaf Book Group's business model of having authors pay for printing but providing the means to get books in brick and mortar stores through good distribution. I don't think any other printers or subsidy publishers offer that. Plus the books look great! BTW, feel free to use the post as a source. I'm sure others with even more experience to contribute as well. | ||
| 904diva Regular Poster Username: 904diva Post Number: 48 Registered: 06-2008 Rating: N/A |
Thank you to those with POSITIVE remarks. I do have The Writers Market... just not 2010. Again, thank you to those who have given me advice. To the other one... Child Please! | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 14013 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: N/A |
If it's advice you want, here's a some: Pull yourself together and stop chasing your tail. "Diva", my ass. A true diva would've had this book out months ago and would now be flaunting her accomplishment with shameless self promotion!  | ||
| 904diva Regular Poster Username: 904diva Post Number: 49 Registered: 06-2008 Rating: |
Wow Cynique, who pee-pee'd in your Cheerios? Must be nice to be an award winning accomplished author. But me... I'm on a budget. I can only fork over the $2000 it's going to take me to self publish maybe once a year. I'm not a big baller like you, with all those wonderful novels you've published. So... for MY money and since I am a new author, I'm making sure to cross my t's and dot my i's. As far as me being a Diva, again, in the words of Ocho Cinco... CHILD PLEASE! Being a diva has nothing to do with publishing my book... it's what I am. Don't hate. Maybe if you're nice to people, I'll even give you lessons, LMBO!!! | ||
| Cynique "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Cynique Post Number: 14041 Registered: 01-2004 Rating: |
Well, I see why you've been relegated to self-publishing, "904diva". You're terrible at seques and your attempts at sarcasm lack originality, which doesn't bode well for your skill at writing dialogue. So, as far as you giving me lessons, thanks but no thanks. And, believe me, a true Diva wouldn't solicit niceness from anyone. I make no claim to being a best-selling accomplished author. My motto is: "those who can do, those can't, teach". I know excellence and talent when I see it. I don't think it's being unrealistic to expect wanna-bes to exhibit a modicum of this or the imagination it takes to do more than shifting from foot to foot, standing around with a manuscript in your hands, asking everybody else what to do. OK, hit that single star button now. |
