Please share your publishing experience! Self-pub? Indie/Small Pub? Traditional? Print-on-Demand?

Many writers are curious about the different publishing routes, and want to hear actual stories and experiences. PLEASE share with us!

If you self pubbed or did print-on-demand (POD), how much did it cost? What service did you use? (some listed below)
What about those of you who went with an indie or small publisher? What's your cut?
Strictly an E-publisher? What's your cut?
Who went the traditional route? And your cut of the sales?
Did you use an agent? Their rate?

Issues writers are curious about (please share!):

How much control did you have over: cover art, editing, price, distribution, marketing
How much did the cover art, editing, distribution and marketing cost you?
How much marketing did your publisher do?
What other expenses did you incur?

Finally, how did your route work for you? Sales numbers anyone? Would you do it again?

Here is what I heard of some (I know there are many) of the self publishing services out there (it might depend on what package you purchase):

Outskirts Press you get 100% of the profits of the book, plus you set your own price.

iUniverse pays 20% of the profit

Xlibris pays you 10% of the retail price

lulu - has anyone used them?

Morris Publishing - anyone have experience with them?

A list of indie /small publishers can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_small_presses

And finally, fellow She-writer Jennifer Dinn Korman wrote a great blog "Becoming Your Own Publisher" found here:

http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/becoming-your-own-publisher

Here were her expenses:

Creation of Publisher $
Creation of Publishing LLC (State of CO) 50
Register RNP domain name (Dotster) 15
RNP website domain mapping(WordPress) 10
Purchase of 10 ISBN numbers (Bowker) 275
Total $350

Publication of Waltzing Jimmy Jackboy $
Direct Book Cost:
Author’s Express Publishing Program (Booksurge) 299
Cover Design 500
Interior Design (Sonya Unrein) 500
Library of Congress Control Number 0
Elect. Copyright Filing (US Copyright Office) 35
Direct Book Cost $1,334

Marketing:
Register Website Domain Name (Dotster) 15
Website (annual fee and design: Squarespace) 178
Marketing $193

Total Cost for Robbers Nest Press and Waltzing Jimmy Jackboy $1,877

source: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/becoming-your-own-publisher

Again, PLEASE share with us!!! Thanks and Cheers! *clink* *sluurrrpp* Jan

Here's my run-down:

I am represented by Jeanie Pantelakis at the Sullivan Maxx Literary Agency. She takes 15% of my earnings. MuseItUp Publishing is my publisher. They started a year ago, but now represent many authors and titles. They release your work in e-book first, then have one year to determine if they will release it in print (for sale online - if Barnes & Noble or another bookstore decide to carry it, that is up to the seller). I get 40% of the profit. If they don't release it in print within a year, I then get the print rights back. I have to add that my publisher and fellow authors there are AWESOME!!! Anyway, they pay for cover art, editing, formatting, publishing, limited marketing (they submit it for reviews to certain sites, fellow authors set up blog tours together, press releases) and they will give us buttons and banners to put online. Basically the only things I pay for is additional advertising I want to do, things to give away, my websites and business cards and other marketing materials (I use Vistaprint). They provide me with Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) to send out to other reviewers I want to send it to. I am not sure if they pay for copyrighting, because I had it copyrighted before I signed with them. They also get the ISBN number for it. Not sure about sales - my book comes out in February, 2012!! www.veiledvirtues.com www.museituppublishing.com www.janfischerwade.com

For more info, please see my previous posts on: bling to market your book (vistaprint); book blog tours; press releases and sites to submit them to; and buying online adversiting.

Tags: #publishing, costs, indie, marketing, pod, publishing, self, traditional

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Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 16, 2011 at 7:24pm: Thanks so much for sharing your story Amanda!! Best of luck to you!!! Cheers! Jan

Comment by Amanda Rose Adams on October 16, 2011 at 6:45pm: My book Heart Warriors comes out in April. I spent a couple of months looking for an agent. I had somewhere between 15-18 (can't remember because they phased in and out) interested in fulls or the proposal. Then one of the many, many who passed came back with a "deal." Let's just say it was weird. First that she rejected me then came back with this deal and second that she refused to rep my book without this deal.

So, not feeling totally good about this offer, I bought myself some time since I had a few agents on the line doing reads but without any offers. I also sent queries to two smallish/medium publishers telling them that I had this offer and wondering if they would give my proposal a look, just in case.

Well, one passed, and the other emailed me with all kids of questions about the deal. Turns out the deal was shady without being totally evil. It was a print-on-demand that didn't offer any advances and the royalties in the contract were suspicious. At the same time I was communicating with Victoria from Writer Beware, and in the end I just walked away from that deal. Sadly, I lost of a couple of agents who were considering in the mix.

I kept querying agents, but then in April (all this had happened in late Feb/early March) the publisher who helped me think through the bad offer ended up getting to my ms and offered me a deal with a perfectly appropriate almost generous advance. So, I'm on the train to mainstream publishing.

Ironically, I had five agents still reading when I got the deal, but since I got the deal myself I went forward without an agent. I've stayed in contact with one of those five agents and will send her the full and proposal for my next book, which might or might not be a good fit for my current publisher. We'll see how that goes.

So, my road to publication was strangely short (I started querying agents the week before Christmas and had a signed contract by mid April) but also somewhat precarious in that I almost got a bad deal (P.O.D.s have practically no bookstore distribution). I ended up with a better deal, but only because karma was being very kind to me this spring. It could have easily gone a different way.

Comment by Barbara Ehrentreu on October 14, 2011 at 7:07pm: I have to tell Lea, though. So she knows about it too!! I couldn't believe we weren't there. Shame on Wikipedia for not seeing how awesome we are!!!

Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 14, 2011 at 6:56pm: Great move Barbara! Thanks for taking the initiative and adding Muse there!

Comment by Barbara Ehrentreu on October 14, 2011 at 4:40pm: I meant MuseItUp was not there. Ignore the first.

Comment by Barbara Ehrentreu on October 14, 2011 at 4:38pm: The sad thing is when I went to the Wikipedia link MiseItUp was not there! So I added it. I didn't tell Lea yet:)

Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 14, 2011 at 12:37pm: Thanks Barbara! I wholeheartedly agree with you about Muse and Lea!!! Thanks for putting in your 2 cents here!!!

Comment by Barbara Ehrentreu on October 14, 2011 at 12:00pm: I also just had my first YA novel published by MuseItUp Publishing and I am very happy with them? The publisher, Lea Schizas goes out. Of her way to let us know any new things she might be doing. She involves her authors in almost all decisions she makes. According to my contract I make 40 per cent royalties and my book, though it only was released last month, will be in print in November! I didn't pay for anything and the publisher sends our books to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and several other ebook distributors. My print book will be in Canadian book stores, since this is a Canadian company. I have used a little money for promotional materials,but they sent my book for reviews. We do get to send out for more reviews too! I love it there and will be subbing my next ms there!! This is a publisher who is only a year old, but we have grown to almost two hundred authors in every genre.

Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 14, 2011 at 11:36am: Thank you so much Dee! This is really helpful to hear from experienced authors like you who have gone different routes! Jan

Comment by Dee Garretson on October 14, 2011 at 11:17am

Hi all,

I'm going down both paths, traditional and self-publishing. My two middle grade books are published with HarperCollins Children's Books. There is a description of them here: http://deegarretson.com I had an agent when those books were sold, so she got the traditional 15%. We didn't agree long term on my career path, so I gave notice on my contract with her. I am looking for a new agent for my latest book, also one for 4th - 6th graders. If I earn out my advances, I will get a royalty rate of 10% on the hardcovers and 8% on the paperbacks.

After much thought, I decided to selfpubish my historical mystery, The Gargoyle in the Seine instead of going the traditional way. I originally queried agents with it and had two offer to work with me on revisions. Their ideas were very different from each other and from my own. With no guarentee of a sale even if I did the revisions and knowing the earliest the book would come out would be 2013, I decided to go ahead on my own. I just put it out in ebook and paperback so have no real numbers to give you. I'm excited about it but know I need to get the word out on it and that will take time.

If you self pubbed or did print-on-demand (POD), how much did it cost? What service did you use? (some listed below)
What about those of you who went with an indie or small publisher? What's your cut?
Strictly an E-publisher? What's your cut?
Who went the traditional route? And your cut of the sales?
Did you use an agent? Their rate?

Issues writers are curious about (please share!):

How much control did you have over: cover art, editing, price, distribution, marketing
How much did the cover art, editing, distribution and marketing cost you?
How much marketing did your publisher do?
What other expenses did you incur?