To beg publishers or to self publish???

Carinamc

So look for an agent instead of self publishing?

femur61

Carinamc wrote: »

So look for an agent instead of self publishing?

Personally, I am looking for an agent or go direct to the publishers, they have guidelines on their websites.

Plenty of people self publish, I think the message is don't get hooked by self publishers who charge loads of money with the promise of book sales. You could go print on demand so you don't overprint like one of the other posters said they were advised to do.

It is up to you but if you go main stream publishing they publishers takes the hit if books are left unsold. The beauty of self publishing for some, you have total control of the book.

If you self publish, you have to market the book yourself and you will find it hard to get into book shops. Also, you will find it hard to get critiqued and you know if it is a positive ciritique from a well known resource then that is a great marketing blurb to have on the back of your book. Be under no illusion self publishing is hard work but can be satisfying to see your book in print. It can be very cheap there are loads of self publishers on the market.

maccored

surprised no-one has mentioned www.lulu.com. no upfront money required and you can buy your own books at a discount. even proper publishers charge authors for copies (mine charges 7.50 per book to me, so Lulu is actually cheaper.) Downside is (as mentioned already) that you have to sort your own distribution. Upside is you can charge your own price rather than having to go with the publishers price.

Geniass

maccored wrote: »

Upside is you can charge your own price rather than having to go with the publishers price.

There will always be a minimum price acceptable to the printing company, obviously.

maccored

Geniass wrote: »

There will always be a minimum price acceptable to the printing company, obviously.

the min is much less than the publishers minimum

Geniass

maccored wrote: »

the min is much less than the publishers minimum

Good to hear there's competition in the market, and a book printers will most likely, imo, be better than those that claim to publish for those that want to go the self publish route.

Brian Lighthouse

There's a crowd in London that are a subsidiary of Oak Tree Press (London) - not the Irish Oak Tree Press, that is completely different. I was told that they specialise in finding unpublished authors and you can send them your book.
I don't know if it is a 100% vanity operation, or if they are a more traditional operation, but I do know that a chap I interviewed once was delighted to hear back from them that they accepted both of his books to be published. They were published in both paperback and as ebooks, but I don't know how they sold. I think one local shop has stocked them.
I just got the website now: http://www.andrewsuk.com/
Check it out

£450 - one-off fee for print on demand, fiction up to 80k words. Interesting indeed - compared to the prices mentioned on this forum already: http://www.andrewsuk.com/pod/

maccored

Geniass wrote: »

Good to hear there's competition in the market, and a book printers will most likely, imo, be better than those that claim to publish for those that want to go the self publish route.

in this digital age, surely its best to digitally self publish rather than spend money on physical books? Publishers do both, and market them around the world - which is brilliant ... but if a writer hasnt got a publisher, free digital publishers (who charge you a minimum per sale and let you keep the extra with no money up front) has to be the way forward. I dont know if its worth going to a printing company and spending a grand or two printing up a batch of books.

Das Kitty

I learned at the weekend that traditional publishers look at the top ebook sellers and approach authors. You'd need to be selling a lot.

Traditional publishers don't like cross-genre when they see it in the slush-pile, but it sometimes works well in self published ebooks.

Trojan

Don't pay large amounts to a publisher without understanding exactly what you're getting. Here are some services you might want to pay individuals or a company for:

Line & copy editing, proofreading
Typography & layout
Cover design
Printing, publishing to ebook format & online stores
Marketing

If you are getting some or all of these from a 'vanity publisher', it may actually make sense to go with them, but ensure you're getting your money's worth. It may be financially advisable to find freelance editors, etc to perform these services.

Whatever you do, make sure you get a 3rd party to copyedit & proofread your work.

Geniass

Brian Lighthouse wrote: »

I was told that they specialise in finding unpublished authors and you can send them your book.
I don't know if it is a 100% vanity operation...

That's pretty much what vanity publishers do, and I use the word publisher lightly.

Brian Lighthouse

Geniass wrote: »

That's pretty much what vanity publishers do, and I use the word publisher lightly.

But, Geniass, but, but, but, their parent company is Oak Tree Press UK????
Now I'm totally confused, there is an Irish Oak Tree Press which has nothing to do with the UK one, and there's even a - completely independent of the other two - US one.
AARRGGHH!!! Why did I get involved in this discussion. I genuinely thought I might have been helping. I've just confused myself and a whole host of you guys. Thanks.

Are there any real publishers who read this forum?
Perhaps, by revealing yourself with a wink and a nod you could let us know what's going on?

I have a funny feeling that the availability of printing technology influences that many books which would have returned to pulp are being flogged as a print-on-demand. If you can remember that ten/fifteen years ago, anyone with a digital camera were calling themselves photographers, and now it appears that anyone with a large enough photocopier - simplistic, I know - can call themselves a publisher.

Ara Shure! None of that will bother me, I'm a mean old miser and I'm not spending a penny on publishing books. I'll happily wait until Random House and Penguin and even that nice man from a Dublin publisher that I heard on Newstalk once carry out a bidding war for my material. I'm not in any rush.

Brian Lighthouse

Das Kitty wrote: »

I learned at the weekend that traditional publishers look at the top ebook sellers and approach authors. You'd need to be selling a lot.

Makes sense.

Das Kitty wrote: »

Traditional publishers don't like cross-genre when they see it in the slush-pile, but it sometimes works well in self published ebooks.

Translation please? Way too much jargon.

On another note, are you starting a VOAT?

Das Kitty

Brian Lighthouse wrote: »

Translation please? Way too much jargon.

Cross-genre: More than one genre in a single book.

Slush-pile: What agents and publishers call the big pile of manuscripts submitted to them, which they have to read through.

I'll assume you know what an ebook is :P

On another note, are you starting a VOAT?

I hadn't the chance to give it the thought needed until today. It's up now.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=95535306#post95535306

Brian Lighthouse

Thanks Das Kitty, for the explanations.
Thanks also for sorting the VOAT.
Stuff, respect 'n' all. Word.