Hot answers tagged self-publishing
16
I'm a huge fan of self-publication and small-press publication, and I think the stigma attached to both is fading. (It's worth noting that my only experience being published is non-fiction with a big publisher, but a girl's gotta start somewhere, and I do a lot with self-publishers in my job as head of a web development shop focused on small business.)
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14
This is basically a question of marketing strategy.
The major pro of DRM is that it helps avoid pirating; the major con is that it limits accessibility and portability, and can annoy readers and users.
So it seems to me that the primary consideration should be: "Is pirating going to cost me so much, that I'm better off risking limiting and annoying ...
12
Easy and fast money in publishing? I'll teach you all the secrets for the low, low price of $99.95.
Just visit: www.its-gonna-be-a-cold-day-in-hell.com
Sorry for the harsh sarcasm, but there aren't any shortcuts.
If you're looking for marketing advice, it would be more helpful if you could describe the specifics of your book: the topic, its intended ...
11
I would recommend JA Konrath's blog on this. While he hasn't abandoned print publication, he sees e-books as a very valuable way to not only make money, but get your work out quickly and with more control over it. Here's a good take from him on publishing: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/08/changing-face-of-publishing.html
The biggest thing is that you ...
11
You can certainly get pretty far by using an online critique group. There are two problems you'll find with such a service:
It's hard to get people who can commit to reading a whole book.
The quality of reviews and feedback that you get can vary a lot, and many reviewers won't tell you anything very useful.
When you hire a professional editor, problem #1 ...
11
All that readers care about is that you present them with a well-crafted compelling story. Length is of minimal importance. Some of the best written and most memorable stories have well below 60- or even 50,000 words. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Of Mice and Men, Slaughterhouse Five, Fight Club, and The Great Gatsby all have less than 60k words ...
10
Ebook publishing is no different than traditional print publishing. You're going to have to write a decent manuscript, find a publisher, go through the submission process, work with an editor and cover artist, and have your work released.
The are lots of benefits of being with a publisher that puts their books in ebook format. Ebooks are generally ...
10
The thing is: Not all publishers wrote their contracts to revert the rights back to the author just because the book went out of print! The fact that they were doing nothing with the book does not necessarily mean that the rights revert to you.
You need to have your lawyer look over your contract. If you can't get hold of your contract (you lost your copy, ...
10
What you're observing is a sea change in values and perceptions in the publishing industry, which has caused the distinction between "vanity publishing" and "self-publishing" to become very murky. This is important because "vanity publishing" did and does carry a heavy stigma, while "self-publishing" is on the road to respectability.
Until pretty recently, ...
9
The closest fit would be Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike". That will allow translations (and expansions, clarifications, electronic versions and so forth) but prevent commercial distribution of the original or any derived version.
9
Having read parts of your writing(s) I must say: your writings are bad. Not pleased to be rude, but your writings is worse than the worst vulgar propaganda. I have no problem with Christians, Jews, Muslims and most religious people. But your book deserves to be utterly reworked.
Although declared that you were writing on religion, in fact, the book is ...
9
What you're thinking of is vanity publishing. A vanity publishing house is one that will publish your book, but you pay all of the costs. You pay for the marketing, the editing, the cover art, etc. Basically all they do is print the book and put it in stores for you.
And to be honest, if you go this route, you're going to be laughed at in the publishing ...
9
1) Traditional publishing with an agent
Pros: You as a writer focus on only one thing: writing. You have an agent who is responsible for shopping around your manuscript. Once it sells, the publisher is responsible for all the overhead: editing, printing, selecting a cover, distribution, marketing, and sales. There is no denying that there is a certain level ...
9
TL;DR: Pick a lightweight, off-white, acid-free opaque paper (preferably book paper if it’s available). Then pick a binding to suit your budget: 3-ring and a nice binder if you’re cheap, plastic comb if you’re slightly less cheap, perfect binding if you’ve got a couple of bucks or professional bookbinding if money is no object.
From just printing it off and ...
9
Unlike the other answers, let me try to give you a practical, nuts and bolt answer.
When you go to self-publish your book, either as an ebook(Amazon, Kobo, etc) or print(Createspace etc), you are asked to give an author name. This field is not automatically filled based on your registered name. So you can fill in any name you want in the author field.
This ...
8
I just joined the site, so you may have already acted on this, but I would definitely recommend going with self-publishing, as long as you don't use a subsidy or vanity publisher. You can go to sites like Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords, or Barnes&Noble and find information on self-publishing e-books or go to CreateSpace for print books. All of ...
8
Although Ralph is 100% correct in his statements I notice his answer kind of assumes your expectations, when you have asked what your expectations should be.
So to deal with your bullets:
Options: Anything from producing a PDF using OpenOffice to as complicated as you want to make it. You can publish e-books on Lulu, Amazon or directly into a "sharing" ...
8
DRM has been pretty harmful in my experience with creating and selling information products.
I used some fairly heavy handed DRM when I first started out. I realized this was a mistake after taking feedback from my customers and analyzing conversion rates. I ended up doing a lot of testing on implementations of DRM to determine what worked and what did ...
8
Here's another way to think about it. Why should you use your real name?
Use it if... you want anyone who Googles you to read you (or more likely, your reviews).
Use it if... you want everyone in your social network to read your reviews, or you.
Use it if... you want every prospective employer to read your reviews, or you... as part of standard screening ...
8
I think that there is definitely an advantage to publishing to other venues/formats. From a simplicity standpoint, I use Smashwords to distribute my e-books to other markets, such as B&N, Kobo, and Apple. They don't pay as frequently (once per quarter), but they do make it a lot easier to get into more markets. I also like having the ability to generate ...
7
If you use one Lulu or Infinity Publishing, you'll have self-published your book and lost your first publication rights. Definitely not a plus if you're planning on selling it to a publisher.
If you just wanted a couple copies printed, you can go to Kinkos or something like that to have it printed. Most online places I know of are self-publishers, not ...
7
Michael Wallace has just signed a five book publishing deal with Thomas & Mercer, the new publishing imprint from Amazon. He writes mystery/suspense and has been solely self-published until now.
Michael Sullivan has signed a five book deal with Orbit Books. He writes fantasy novels and has been solely self-published until now.
J. Carson Black just ...
7
This is entirely a matter of choice. There are a number of famous authors who write in other genres using a pen name, and they have proven to be just as successful in their new genres. As long as you are writing under just one pen name, you shouldn't really encounter any problems.
If, however, you choose to write under more than one pen name, then you might ...
7
No, you don't need to set up a business to self-publish a book. In the U.S., royalty income and all related expenses to publishing the book (e.g. paying a graphic designer to create a cover, advertising, travel expenses for a book tour, etc.) are reported on Schedule C of your personal tax return.
EDIT
Regarding Social Security and Medicare taxes, you ...
7
Amazon will send you a 1099 that will identify the amount of royalties that they paid you. If you are just now starting, I would strongly recommend setting aside at least 30% of everything you earn in royalties as soon as you receive it. You are now considered self-employed, and the self employment tax as 15% of your royalties, and the Social ...
7
Critique groups are great for getting typical reader reactions, and for spotting major flaws. That's certainly immensely helpful for improving your book!
But a critique group is much shakier when it comes to figuring out how to fix things. When a reader tells you "I read [Scene X], and had [Reaction Y]", that's an extremely reliable report; he's giving you ...
6
Plainly speaking: your book is one amongst millions. People won't find it by sheer serendipity. And they won't bother picking it up unless something persuades them they should.
To sell a book, you've pretty much got two options: you either need to succeed on strength of your writing, by selling the book to a publisher who'll do the marketing for you; or ...
6
According to the Publishing FAQ I found on Amazon, customers have to specifically request the new version:
If you’ve already purchased your book and subsequently revise the content and re-publish the updated version, you don’t need to re-purchase the book to get a copy. At this time, it’s not possible for publishers to receive the updated file without ...
6
I can't speak to any small companies that might be popping up out there, but I can bring my experience with CreateSpace, which is the Amazon POD service. I recently used CreateSpace to provide a print version of one of my books, and when I received the proof copy to review I was truly quite impressed. I compared it side-by-side with a trade paperback that I ...
5
I suspect the sort of company you are looking for isn't out there, but I will happily retract my answer if someone can point out an example. I would be interested to find out such a company exists.
What you're looking for seems to be along the lines of the standard self-publishing model, but with two caveats:
The ability to attract investors for a book
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