What's your idea of self publishing? Give a scenario of self publishing
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My idea of self publishing is completing my manuscript, getting all the required such as the ISBN, Bar Code and the ICCN and taking everything to the printer. Once my book has been printed collect the finished product and delivery it to my sources for sale.

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  • Hi ladies,

    Popped in to offer a little food for thought. I spent 16 years writing a memoir and after querying for a year, I decided to self- publish. I researched all the options avail, pros and cons, and decided on "BookLocker." An exceptional company, wonderful people (email only) and the cost is definitely affordable compared to what's out there. AND I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER!!! Be sure to check them out before you make a final decision. I basically did everything myself, write, edit, format book, etc. They had to approve my work, and once approved they guided through the process. Had my beautiful cover done by a family member. My "self-published" POD book came out on Dec 5th. It's gorgeous! And I left for Australia on the 8th for 3 weeks. Right now I'm in the process of sending out copies to people who help on my journey, plus gathering information on reviewers, which is #1 on my to-do-list. Oh, BookLocker posted me on their website, I'm also on Amazon and B&N, and they dealt with the e-book. Sold 8 books on BL so far, but won't know the others until they have funded BL which could take 3-4 months. Checks cut on the 5th of each month. That's kind of it in a nutshell . . . You can visit my blog where I tell all on "My Journey into Publishing My First Book." Much success to you all! :)

    Nancy MacMillan @ http://blogofavetswife.blogspot.com/

  • You have the freedom, within {the sites you go with} submission guidelines. For instance Barnes and Noble doesn't give direct sales reports. You have to either wait for you affiliates {in my case I sold to them through Smashwords} quarterly reports, or go through a different company and pay 100 dollars, per report, per book.

    So make sure you do your homework thoroughly, before choosing a publishing site to go with. Also, each site has their own submission guidelines tailored to their sites and their distributors. Read them thoroughly before making any concrete decisions.

    I've had excellent results through both Smashwords and Amazon thus far.

    Lulu, I'm still waiting on.

    Smashwords sell directly from their site, and distributes  through Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, Apple, Page Foundry, Diesel, and Baker-Taylor and are negotiating with Amazon.

    Amazon has Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon and many other countries. In Amazon's direct sales report, you can view the over all sales on site, or download the prior three months sales. I like keeping track of how many units have sold. Also, since I'm part of KDP select, it's in the lending library, so I can also keep track of how many times it's been borrowed and I get a small price for each borrow.

    So make sure you know exactly who does and doesn't have direct sales reports available to you. :)

  • Yeesh! That first 48 hours stretched in 6 days.

    I have to have hubby resize the cover art and then resubmit.

  • My idea of self publishing is writing the material that I want to write and not what some big time publishing company wants me to write. Having a say on what the finished prodect looks like and how it's represented and not having to rush through a manuscript just so I can reach my deadline on time. Complete freedom....that's my idea of self publishing.

    ____________________________________________

    Payback Time in paperback

    Payback Time for Kindle

    My Blog<--------go ahead and check it out if you want.

  • Exactly. These days about the only good I see from that is the possibility of a big screen contract for movies and such.

  • Yes, Catrina, that is something I have noticed. The large pub companies require the author to do an awful lot of self-promoting these days! So what is the point of letting them take my profits? The marketing is the service that makes the traditional publisher attractive. But I heard that they now want authors who can present their book with a ready-made "platform" for selling it! I'm like, excuse me? So what am I paying YOU for? And if I have to turn in a polished MS...it doesn't add up.

  • I'm still waiting {72 hours now} for the "email that will ship within 48 hours, containing the next step" for my Print copy from Createspace.

  • My experience of self-publishing so far is to do it all up to the printing and distributing which I leave up to Createspace. They do a fine job and I really like POD! Print on demand seems very civilized! Very economical and sensible in many ways. Amazon makes it practical. For me, to not use these resources would be silly. Anyway I do not have the resources to print and deliver. Thats all there is to that. And why in the world would I want to? But I can see why someone else would. It does afford total control, and in that scenario you could go on to become a publisher of other people's works. That is an idea that interested me at first...it would even be possible to market oneself as a middle man between authors and POD companies like Createspace. But I am producing so many books of my own that I could not possibly do that now. And I have to ask myself, once again, why do it? Self-publishing requires me to constantly MAKE DECISIONS. So I am learning to make practical and realistic decisions, and differentiate between real possibilities and dreams. If I want to succeed, I have to avoid being a wanna be and be a get-it-done-in-real-time person. I have never become so realistic in my life! 

  • Yup that pretty much covers it. The author is already responsible for turning in a polished MS even in traditional publishing and the author is the promoter these days.