Anyone gone down or thinking of going down this road?

donfers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/24/self-publishing?intcmp=239

what do you think? worth a go? why not?

How would you go about it? best site to use?

EileenG

I couldn't get the link to open, but assuming you are talking about self-publishing.

It does seem to be the next big thing in writing, and J A Konrath is an example of how it can work. But there are a lot of people out there who have wasted a huge amount of time and money in it.

If you are doing it, I'd go the e-pub route, rather than Lulu or any of the Print-on-demand sites. The CEO of Lulu is on record as saying that the average sales from their site is 50 copies per book. You hear about the successes, but most people who spent money and didn't recoup it tend to keep quiet about it.

E-publishing is at least cheaper, but though you can do it yourself, there's a very steep learning curve. You need to be able to format your book so it will work on Kindle, Nook, ePub and several others. I know one IT genius who is considering setting up a business doing this for new authors.

On the plus side, the income from e-books is higher than paper books and e-books have a longer shelf life.

However, one thing that is the same no matter what way you publish, you must have a great book. It is possible to self-publish a bad book, but it's not possible to make people read it (I just found out that not a single one of my relatives have bought my book "It's that oul Star Trek stuff, isn't it? No thanks") and all it needs is a couple of bad reviews to make sure no-one does buy it.

donfers

EileenG wrote: »

I couldn't get the link to open, but assuming you are talking about self-publishing.

It does seem to be the next big thing in writing, and J A Konrath is an example of how it can work. But there are a lot of people out there who have wasted a huge amount of time and money in it.

If you are doing it, I'd go the e-pub route, rather than Lulu or any of the Print-on-demand sites. The CEO of Lulu is on record as saying that the average sales from their site is 50 copies per book. You hear about the successes, but most people who spent money and didn't recoup it tend to keep quiet about it.

E-publishing is at least cheaper, but though you can do it yourself, there's a very steep learning curve. You need to be able to format your book so it will work on Kindle, Nook, ePub and several others. I know one IT genius who is considering setting up a business doing this for new authors.

On the plus side, the income from e-books is higher than paper books and e-books have a longer shelf life.

However, one thing that is the same no matter what way you publish, you must have a great book. It is possible to self-publish a bad book, but it's not possible to make people read it (I just found out that not a single one of my relatives have bought my book "It's that oul Star Trek stuff, isn't it? No thanks") and all it needs is a couple of bad reviews to make sure no-one does buy it.

link edited, hope it works now

some wise words there eileen, i agree with you

I think a lot of people just like the idea of having a book published regardless of sales, I can imagine a lot of those who have sold 50 copies aren't too bothered as perhaps the whole thing is just a vanity project for them and they are satisfied that they have their artifact safely sealed away in the digital vaults for posterity - incidentally I'm curious about the whole formatting business - do the platforms or websites you use to publish not provide support on how to do that? (or maybe the betters ones would go the whole haul and do the formatting for you, no doubt for a higher fee)

CD.

It also depends on the price and what not.
I am self publishing on Amazon and there was a thread there recently about the price of books, some people said their book sold nothing at 4.99 but it sold like mad at .99 and some found that some of their books priced at .99 sold less than more expensive versions.

Currently, one of the ebooks, Whispers in the Shadows is free because it is a collection of short stories from my blog, something I plan to do every 20 short stories, I'm not charging for it because it is free on my blog, why should i charge for that?

However, Amazon does not allow you to set the price lower than .99, there is a way around it (reporting a lower price elsewhere, in my case i published it for free on Smashwords as well)

In terms of sales, I have sold 43 copies on the American site, which charges now compare that to 1047 on the UK site where it is free. On amazon.co.uk i am number 1 in the free short stories (at the moment, it switches between me and rudyard kipling) and earlier on i was 101 of all free books on the kindle and 84 for free fiction books on the kindle.

You can see there is a massive difference between the sales of the two books which are, other than the price, identical.

I have also seen an increase in downloads since i changed to the current cover, in the past week i went from around 200 downloads to what i am at now.

Also, compare it to Smashwords where i only have 150 downloads or so.

I have a single review on the book (on .co.uk) and it is, luckily a positive one, but other authors have found that reviews in general increased sales, including negative ones (one of the theorys was that people might download it just to see if it is really that bad)

My reasons for going down this route is purely laziness to be quite honest. I went through the process of sending off to agents and either got form replies or no replies and after editing and what not i realised that sending out again would be at least a three month process before i heard from anyone. I was talking to an agent for awihle and it seemed really promising, so much so that she requested the full manuscript, then, closed the agency to submissions and sent me an email telling me that she wouldn't have time to take me on, which was dissapointing.
And really i just couldnt be bothered going down the agent route again, chances are that i will again, once i have another manuscript done and edited.
I currently have two manuscripts that i can edit and self publish if i want but its just getting around to it lol.

If you are going to self publish you can either get an editor or find someone who is really awesome at editing and willing to do it for free. it will be worth the extra cost of getting an editor, I was lucky in that my sistor can be a ruthless editor who can read and edit at the same time and she highlighted mistakes which i could then edit in the space of about three days or so (while she was in work lol) so that was quite handy. She was not shy about saying if somethign was wrong or crap so I knew i could trust her to be honest.

as Eileen said previously, those who do not do well keep quiet about it, the only ones you hear of are the ones that did very well, it's like advances, you hear about extremely large ones or none at all.


Personally, i am extremely pleased with the sales i have ranked up (about 1200 in total) because thats 1200 people who i have been exposed to and who may enjoy my writing. when i first published it i would have been happy if i had ten downloads but it wouldn't have really bothered me if no one downloaded it at all.

Though i may not continue down this route in the future, for now i am happy because i am not really doing it with the goal of making money (at least, not yet, that is a long term goal though) right now i am mostly trying to build an audience of some sort. my goal isnt to get an agent/publisher through this route, it is more a case of the more people that read my writing, the more feedback i get the better i become.

also, apologies for any spelling errors, it's late and i'm fairly tired. I also apologise for the length and ramblyness.

Dublin141

I also have to say that negative reviews are a blessing in disguise. I remember when I started, I had all five star reviews on my first book for months, including one by a well known reviewer. I sold a little, but it wasn't until I received my first one star that the book took off. A lot of readers on the forums say they won't trust books with all good reviews because they assume it's family and friends. I don't think all readers are that cynical, but you never know.

I started around the same time as Amanda Hocking and watched her fly past everyone, but most of those who sell would probably be considered midlisters. I know quite a few writers who have given up along the way, and others who have taken two years to sell more than a couple per month. It's completely unpredictable. Thrillers and romance as a whole tend to do well, epic fantasy seems to sell well at higher prices, book bloggers are the hitmakers, and Goodreads is a great place for writers as well as readers. Covers, blurbs, and samples need to be spot-on for the most part. If you're going to do it, then upload to Amazon and Smashwords. PubIt isn't open for us yet, but Smashwords distribute to Barnes & Noble (and Apple, Kobo, Sony, etc.) The taxing issue is a necessary evil if you're selling.

Regarding formatting, it's easy once you learn how. Smashwords have a great but simple guide, and that works well for Amazon formatting too. I use MobiCreator now for Kindle because it is so simple. I'm setting up print versions using Createspace because people have asked, and that has probably been the biggest pain in the hole. There are a lot of reasonable cover artists and editors. Quite a few of them work or have worked in the publishing industry but lost their jobs or are setting up a business so they can leave their day-job, some are starting out, and there are also a lot of scammers. I have to admit that I didn't spend a cent on epublishing until I had already earned money, so I haven't lost out myself, but I know people who have spent a great deal on editing and covers and may never earn it back. It's a risk you take.

As for bad books - what's a bad book? The likes of Konrath and Hocking get slated for their writing skills, but they're selling like mad. It looks like there's something out there for everyone. I've read some highly rated books that made me want to claw my eyes out, but so what, other people enjoy them, and that's what counts. I do hate to see well-written books being ignored, but that's the way of it.

I feel like epublishing is worthwhile, but it's not going to stay exactly the same forever. There are lots of changes in store, and although I think next Christmas will see massive growth over last year's crazy sale boost, you never know what will happen next. Overall, self-publishing is a huge learning curve, it takes a lot of hard work, and if you get into the promotion side of things (I don't) then it can take up a lot of time. While I love it, it isn't for everyone, and people tend to have crazy expectations. Writing isn't a sprint, so prepare for the long haul regardless of what road you take.

EileenG

Dublin141 wrote: »

I also have to say that negative reviews are a blessing in disguise. I remember when I started, I had all five star reviews on my first book for months, including one by a well known reviewer. I sold a little, but it wasn't until I received my first one star that the book took off. A lot of readers on the forums say they won't trust books with all good reviews because they assume it's family and friends. I don't think all readers are that cynical, but you never know.

In that case, do you fancy going to Amazon and giving me a negative review?