If you are not able to find an agent -- contact Writers Relief. They'll want the first fifty pages of your manuscript. If they like it and think they can find an agent they will have you sign a contract with them. You pay on a month to month basis, as I remember it, and they send your manuscript to 25 new agents each month until someone picks it up. A friend of mine used them and thought they were good.

After having been published by traditional publishers for academic books,  I chose self-publishing for my self-help book because I didn't want to spend energy convincing Goliath that my book was worthy of their financial risk. So I took the financial risk myself. And what a risk I took. According to Psychology Today, 50 books on happiness were released in 2000.  In 2008, the year I began my book on happiness, 4000 books on happiness were published. Yikes! Who knew! I didn't investigate the market before I began because I was set on writing my book no matter what the outcome. Since my book was published I've been asked by so many to help them that I created a workshop this year called How to Write a Book in 90 Days Even if You're an Ordinary Person and Hated High School English. I'm currently working on a book by the same title as well. My mission is to offer support, encouragement and direction to the person who is not looking to become a best seller particularly, and may only write that one book. I have desmystified the process and believe that people write a book for one of three reasons: to get their story told, sold or used to spin gold.

Being a self-publisher doesn't mean that you must work alone. On the contrary, for a respectable product you must gather the same type of team that the traditional publisher has on staff: editor, proofreader, graphic designer, layout designer, printer, fulfillment and distribution, and the most critical part of the team, a publishing coach.

I didn't use any of the POD and other services you mention above although I've heard good things about some of them. For my next book I am considering Lightning Source since they are owned by Ingram Publisher Services, world-class distribution service. The bottom line, as pointed out by Dan Poynter, the king of self-publishing is "It does not matter if you sell to a New York publisher or publish yourself, the author must do the promotion. Publishers do not promote books."

What is a book shepherd? Christine Frank mentioned that she was one. Curious.

Self-publishing is a great option for me, as I have a very small niche audience.  I have used iUniverse and Smashwords so far, and I have friends who have used Lulu.  Lulu and Smashwords I will definitely use in the future!  I've also created a Kindle book on Amazon and it was super easy to do.  I generate more sales from that than anything else so far.

It is so hard to find an agent. If you're not already known, they won't bother with you. Any suggestions on someone good?

Not an author myself but just asked some self-publishing questions from this author I interviewed..u might like to check out:

http://komzreviews.blogspot.com/2011/06/be-my-guest-author-interview-meredith.html

Read, comment, share!

Thanks,

Komz@The Review Girl

I thoroughly recommend CreateSpace. The quality and customer service is excellent and the prices are very reasonable. They deal with all the orders from amazon.com and you can buy however many copies you like to sell through your own site.  It's a print on demand service which I think works out better both economically and ecologically.  I've recently uploaded The Perfect Word and The Pocketbook of Prompts onto kindle for amazon. It took a little bit of swearing, but once I worked it out it was very straightforward.  I was going to create an app for iphones, but discovered Amazon has one so people can put books onto their iphones. Thought I'd save myself the trouble of creating my own app and let amazon do it for me.  Self-publishing, you have to do all the marketing and promotion etc, but you have to do that if someone else publishes you so you might as well keep all the profits by doing the whole thing yourself.  I recommend getting an ISBN - it's very easy and means your book will be in the catalogues of all booksellers regardless of whether or not they stock the book.  For example, I don't sell through Waterstones, but my books are on their online site with a link to my company address so, if people see it there, they can find their way to me or amazon.

Hi Kamy,

We have spoken about this before . . . I, as a book shepherd, am an alternative to these publishing services companies that you mention here. They exist mainly to profit from the author as they mark up services, particularly the very high mark-up of printing. Sometimes they even charge multiple times for the same services -- selling the author her book at above wholesale price when she has already paid the mark-up on printing in a previous step. As always, I would be happy to provide guidance per your request for it.

Christine

I've been pondering this...or should I find an agent?  Not sure.  Book proposal?  So much to think of...Thanks for this post !!

Here's an article everyone should read. It speaks very clearly to life after publishing and what many writers feel about marketing and promoting. Really excellent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randy-susan-meyers/promoting-a-book-advice-and-resources_b_877272.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=236359,b=facebook

I self-published my first novel, The Ebony Tree, in 1995. Then I did my second novel, No Pockets in a Shroud.

I've been published both ways since then, but it is wonderful with all the technology and help you can get now.

My upcoming novel, LA Blues, is due out on 6-28-11. It is published under Urban Renaissance.

Maxine Thompson

I publish via an authors' co-op as well as through normal submit/reject/submit again channels. Depending on where you live, you might find a source. I think print venue is good. People like to hold your book in their hands, get it signed, put it on a shelf. I also have my books on amazon. ISBN number, bar code, price... all on back of book. One of the beauties of a co-op is that all of this is handled painlessly.  Maine Authors Publishing is my source. I think they would work with you no matter where you are... but not too sure. Tell them I suggested you contact them. Jane Karker is the owner. Good luck.

I assisted my friend who self-published three books with Authorhouse and Xlibris. The process was easy enough and the initial cost was reasonable, but the cost goes up when you want corrections or changes. I agree with what someone else said about promotion being your biggest problem. Of course these companies will offer for a price to promote your book and even for a price set you up with a website for a year. I didn't really see any results to speak of. In fact, we could have sent out press releases to the media and contacted local book shows. I would self publish and handle my own promotion unless I could find a more profitable way.

You're welcome Jeanette.  There are always variations to the theme, [figure out what works for you and don't feel obligated to do it all]

this is a video from a site I have been contemplating putting my ezines on.....it talks about the future of ebooks whats new and innovative etc. you can also go to the site itself and look at some of the cool magazines and other features it offers....http://pro.yudu.com/illustratedbooks/samples.html

C J-Thank you for spelling out the social marketing maze!! I have been trying to wrap my mind around everything but there is so much information that people take for granted we know that I was TOO confused.

I self-published three books on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. I'm not an expert, but feel free to ask me any questions. I also post about self-publishing on my blog here and my author blog.  Self-publishing is a challenge, but it's worth the effort.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts Carleen, I wandered over there myself, but have not done anything there yet been busy with other things.....

Hey Kamy, I am about to self-pub using www.achapteramonth.com, which was started by novelist Victoria Christopher Murray. I'll write a blog post about it.

I agree with you--all of this info can make your head explode. I have found Joel Friedlander to be an invaluable resources. If you are not familiar with him, check out www.thebookdesigner.com. I have recently published a book, "How to Recognize Your Future Ex-Husband" and he was incredibly helpful (via a private consult as well as following him on Twitter (@JFBookman). Good luck!

when it comes to erotica self publishing is so the way to go since you can if desired create a complete persona for writing under both in your books and to blog short stories and an ask column...I use [Erotique's Tales of Erotica], you also give yourself the ability to add graphic merchandising [erotic art such as posters and greeting cards, derived from your book covers and there are a bevy of affiliates out there for strategic alliances.....I am currently creating a new space for Erotique as the original blog site I wrote on is now defunct ore near enough most writers have left it....So I intend to move everything over to.....well that part is undecided...

I like the idea. I took a peek some months back at Create Space. It seemed incredibly easy to do, and think they are part of Amazon? Anyway, it's been on my mind for self-publishing erotica and poetry. I liked that you could also design your book. I dabbled a little in book design, so that idea was attractive. I'm not an expert, but I would say... "why not?"

THANK YOU, CAMY. My contract with my agent expires in August -- coming up right after my 40th birthday -- and I promised myself that fortieth would mark my place in womanhood -- accomplished, successful, and an author. Since I have received no good news from Publishers/editors, I have been considering the same thing. And these are all options we have -- and I have been starting discussion with self-published writers on self-publishing -- so I can't wait to see what others more experienced in this area have to say about the best options.

I priced the first book at 99 cents for several reasons.  I did not want to give it away for free (that is what the sample is for). It was my first endeavor on epublishing and I wanted it to get the word around for the series. Thirdly, and this my main point. It is a Young Adult novel and I want Young Adults to read it, and they often have limited funds (as do my kids and neices and nephews). I wanted it priced so any kid could afford to download it. I don't expect to get rich--just like seeing new downloads on my sheet every day.  I need to promote it more and am working on it. I think promotion works some--some of it is just serendipity as with any book and some may disagree with me and that's ok. But that was my pricing reasoning.

Ohhh, I just saw some of the other posts. I am going with the free Create Space ISBN, because (1) I am a poor writer (lol) and (2) at this point, I only intend to sell it on Amazon and purchase copies for myself to hock at local book readings.  I still have my complete copyright (and this was worth the $35 to register it with the US Copyright Office--I did it electronically--the peace of mind is priceless). If at some point, I decide to publish it elsewhere, it will be a different edition and then I will buy an ISBN for that edition/publisher/etc. 

One thing I want to point out if you are new to this (as I am and am still trying to just hang on to the learning curve) is that it is not as complicated as some would make it out to be. You CANNOT believe everything that is said on the Internet re epublishing. I found if I just stuck to each site's (in my case, PubIt, KDP and Create Space) instructions and formatting advice, I was okay. I finally had to shut out all the other voices from websites and books and muddle through it myself.  That is when it became so much easier.  There are some companies/sites/etc that will make it look SOOO complicated and then at the end when you really feel despairing, they will offer to do all the complicated stuff they just described ad nauseum--for a hefty little price. In other words, there are some who want to make you think you cannot do it on your own and try to intimidate writers new to the e world, so you will hire them to do what you can actually do yourself.

So my advice is to read up on it, but realize some of it is bull and do your own thing.  No one will ever be as dedicated to my work and perfectionist about it as me.  Yes, I have a few less hairs on my head. But I did it. The next time around, I'm sure it will be a little easier and better and so forth.

Practice makes perfect, ladies! Start getting those ebooks loaded. If I CAN DO IT, anyone can. I have never had a formal computer class in my entire life.  And my book is selling!  Go For IT! We all need to learn it all anyway--might as well take the bull (book) by the horns (pages). This is the new world, and I love it!