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Self publishing... (Reply to this comment)
by captaind
... I'm slightly skeptical myself after my own experiments with SP, but that's probably part of the prolem - I only dabbled instead of viewed it as basically a full-time job. If I ever get the impulse again to venture into the self publishing field, I'll be sure to get this book! Fantastic review.
CaptainD
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Nov 10 '06
8:40 am PST
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Re: Self publishing... (Reply to this comment)
by owling
Do I recall correctly that you were publishing fiction with a POD publisher?
Bowerman on self-publishing fiction:
"It's a tough road for any novelist, but especially a self-publishing one." He is very clear about the fact that it's hard enough to SP non-fiction, and that success stories in fiction are extremely rare.
Bowerman on self-publishing with a POD publisher:
"As I see it, POD is great for two scenarios ... :
1. If your goal is simply to get in print ...
2. If you're a publisher with out-of-print titles into which you'd like to breathe new life."
The printing costs with POD are so much higher that you cannot get your unit cost low enough to do effective marketing and publicity. Also, if you use their services to layout and package your book, they keep the costs down by not giving you the kind of quality for money you could hunt down yourself--and a professional appearance is key to self-publishing success.
So, if that's the case, you were already crippled in two major areas. Add in "dabbling" in your marketing and publicity--which in self-publishing are the ONLY way you'll be successful--and there was no way you were going to make it as a self-publisher.
You have every reason to be skeptical, simply because it's a very tough thing to do and there are a lot of companies out there (such as POD publishers) who'll tell you all sorts of unrealistic things about how well you'll do. That's why this book is so good--instead of giving you lots of cheerleading to make you think that you'll be successful in your endeavor whatever your topic, ability, or resources, it makes it clear exactly what you need to get ahead (and that not everyone can do it!).
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Nov 11 '06
4:53 am PST
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Re: Re: Self publishing... (Reply to this comment)
by captaind
It was Lulu.com, who handle everything in terms of the printing, packaging, and selling side of things. You set the selling price of each unit, adn thus your cut - the printing "costs", or at least what they charge you, is known before. You do all the proof-reading, formatting etc. I actually think I would have tried a bit more with them but had technical difficulties (they wouldn't accept my PDF files) so ended up giving up on them. I always thought that the fiction market would be much harder to succeed in, but once I've actually finished my novel I'mgoing to keep dogging publishers till I find one that thinks my work is publishable!! :-D
I'm hoping that will happen before I'm 90...
CaptainD
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Nov 11 '06
1:08 pm PST
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Very informative (Reply to this comment)
by stactom
I have always had the attitude that self-publishing was fruitless but this review convinced me to read this book first before I wandered into the realm of publishing my own work.
Nice review.
Tom
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Mar 17 '07
5:17 am PDT
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