Methods of Self-publishing

Taramoor

Suppose you wrote a book.

Yes, it's a knockoff of every other sword 'n sorcery book out there but it's 100,000 words you poured your heart and soul into damnit.

Now what?

I understand you can publish works on the Kindle for free, and a quick google shows how.
http://io9.com/5738164/how-to-publish-your-book-on-amazon-kindle

But what are the other methods? Is it cost-effective and reasonable to go to oldschool publishing houses like Tor out of the blue with a manuscript? Are the other e-readers as friendly toward independent material as the Kindle purports to be?

What are YOUR plans for getting your work out there?

tapeslinger

some major publishers have what is known as a 'slush pile' where unsolicited manuscripts go to either die or eventually see publication, but the reality is you are better off with an agent if you really want in with a big publisher. Lulu.Com, Createspace and a few other self publishers offer an a la carte self publishing service. Avoid 'vanity' publishing... remember that you should not be paying for the 'privilege' of being published, but if you are just looking for a way to share, something like lulu is your best bet. I think lulu even has pdf and ebook options.

Baron Dirigible

Be aware that 95% of success in the publishing world will come from nasty things like marketing, exposure, availability and the like. By going with an actual publisher you've basically got people whose entire job is to market your book, other people whose job revolves around getting your book into as many bookstores and as many languages as possible, other people who will organise readings and signings and interviews, etc etc etc. (Obviously, depending on the size of the publishing house, this may just be the one person.) If you go with Amazon to sell your eBook, "getting your work out there" will basically involve you doing all of the grunt work. I realise this doesn't entirely fit the question you're asking, but it's worth pointing out: nobody is going to buy your book if they don't know about it, and you're not going to have that sort of support system in place that you'd get with a traditional publisher.

You'd probably be better off getting a dozen or so copies made through Lulu, giving them to your friends and family, and sending your MS to agents, as tapeslinger suggested. I assume big publishing houses wouldn't be rankled by this if your book wasn't actually up on Lulu for sale, but maybe someone else knows more about this.

Big Dookie

I've read a few articles now that make me wary about self-publishing. They seem to imply that those who self-publish tend to be (for lack of a better word) black-listed from major publishers they may have otherwise been able to do business with in the future. Any opinions on this?

tapeslinger

there is a difference between self-publishing and vanity publishing. My perspective is that much of the prejudice in this regard comes from endeavors such as Poetry.Com and PublishAmerica who try to entice new writers by encouraging them to pay exorbitant fees with the promise of lucrative future sales-- that is what a vanity publisher does. There is a lot less stigma in my experience with regards to using a service like Lulu or Createspace to offer small runs of work that basically pay for themselves since they are print-on-demand user created media. It's the on-demand that makes a bit of a difference-- your average vanity publisher charges exorbitant fees for 'set up costs' and 'publicity'-- which they expect the author to do most of the work for, while giving the author very little control of how their work is used. The flow of money for a professional writer should always be toward the writer, with regards to sales etc. Self publishers like Lulu do not contradict this, where vanity pubs with hefty up-front costs do. Self publishing can be a validating and rewarding process, especially for books that are mostly a personal project or are outside of mainstream markets

Big Dookie

That makes sense. I can't remember where I read it, but it seems like I remember reading an article that talked about how publishers were much more reluctant to become involved with authors who'd self-published before, even if the book they were currently pitching was unpublished. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find it again. It also makes me wonder about self-publishing eBooks, if doing so would cause problems down the road.

I don't know, the whole idea of self-publishing (especially eBooks) is fascinating to me. I guess there's some romanticism there to the idea of cutting out the "middle man" by leaving publishers out of the equation, but there's obviously a lot of risk as well.

tapeslinger

there is a certain amount of unspoken association with being a PT Barnum-esque sucker if you work with a vanity pub, and it could certainly make a few other potential statements -- that you don't handle criticism or editors well, for example, if you self publish even through means that we might class as legitimate. This is certainly true of a few friends of mine who are self published. Others might choose self publication in lieu of trying to find an agent, or because they just want to write and hey a few bucks here and there for ebook sales is just fine.

Quoth

I was told I should put this here: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/02/02/why-your-self-published-book-sucks-a-bag-of-dicks/

tapeslinger

that is fantastic, Quoth. probably too forceful to help someone understand that, seriously, comic sans is a dogshit font, but entertaining and cathartic for those of us who know exactly what Chuck is talking about.

Lilnoobs

tapeslinger wrote: »

that is fantastic, Quoth. probably too forceful to help someone understand that, seriously, comic sans is a dogshit font, but entertaining and cathartic for those of us who know exactly what Chuck is talking about.

Which is exactly my issue with the blog. It's preaching to the choir, so, what's the point? Comedy? I mostly glossed over when he tried to do the funny. Cathartic I guess. But it's really not going to help anyone improve their self-publishing habits.

tapeslinger

i don't think that is the genuine intention of the post, it appears to be mostly a rant with mildly inflammatory language and a few tips sandwiched in an essay about the general terrible perceptions of self publishing (and why they are sometimes more than perceptions.) to clarify-- I meant fantastic like 'I lol'd' not fantastic like 'someone will learn more by reading this.'

Big Dookie

Okay, I think flopsweat is my new favorite word.

That was pretty funny.

Quoth

If the post manages to stop one shitty writer somewhere from making a book cover using Comic Sans, it will have done the world a great service.

Kamar

Yeah! I mean, if you use it for the cover what will you use for the rest of the book?

TheBigEasy

Taramoor wrote: »

Suppose you wrote a book.

Yes, it's a knockoff of every other sword 'n sorcery book out there but it's 100,000 words you poured your heart and soul into damnit.

Even if it is just a knockoff ... I would at least try to get it published traditionally first. Since I had a look at their site yesterday, I know that Tor accepts unsolicited manuscripts. These are their submission guidelines:

http://us.macmillan.com/Content.aspx?publisher=torforge&id=255#ctl00_cphContent_ctl30_lblQuestion

If you get rejected here or at other publishers, then I'd think about pure self publication. You guys in the US have a more developed ebook market, so that might actually be a viable option. But as others have said, the whole "getting the word out about the book" part is on you ...

Coinage

tapeslinger wrote: »

some major publishers have what is known as a 'slush pile' where unsolicited manuscripts go to either die or eventually see publication

That's not so much the case anymore: for liability reasons, they mostly stopped reading them.

tapeslinger

I said "some." and most are in the genre he mentioned. TheBigEasy mentioned Tor, and Baen books also has online submissions, though I think they steer toward hard sci fi. There are a few, but it is a slow road.

Quoth

Or you can research agents who do accept unsolicited queries, then query them until you find one who is interested. Not a fast road either but self-publishing a novel shouldn't be step 2 in the process, I think. It's not:

1) Write novel
2) Self publish

It's not even

1) Write novel
2) Edit novel
3) Self publish

I'd say it should be more like

1) Write novel
2) Edit novel
3) Write query
4) Edit query
5) Research agents who take similar material
6) Query agents
7) Drink heavily while waiting to hear back from agents, which can take months
8) Repeat until successful
9) If not successful, consider going back to step 2, otherwise
10) Self publish

You can pour your heart and soul into something and maybe make a few bucks selling it yourself, but by going through the traditional process you'll learn a lot and probably end up with a stronger product in the end, whether anyone finally picks it up or not. If you jump straight to self-publishing, you skip all the gatekeepers and end up in the equivalent of a reader slush pile wherein you hope and pray that someone stumbles across it and likes the sample enough to buy it. And you have to be your own publisher and marketer to a much greater degree than someone who is traditionally published, because you have to overcome the initial stigma and prove yourself worthy of attention. And at that point, if you have a good novel, why didn't you just go the traditional route in the first place?