In my quest to publish my book, I am looking at all the angles. The first to be excluded is the traditional publisher. It's just too hard that way. First you have to have an agent, and usually an agent does not want to talk to you unless you are published, so it's a catch-22. And you lose! Also, I went to a writer's conference a few years ago and what I observed about the agents was not good. I always learn a lot in public bathrooms (figure that one out!) and at this conference women were coming into the restroom and crying. Crying. They had to pay for the agent to speak to them and then the agent didn't really want to be bothered with their pitch. Not fair. To reinforce this behavior, I was staying at the same hotel as the agents and during breakfast, the agents huddled together and were definitely unapproachable. Another negative with agents was that after I saw this I was in a workshop when I mentioned to an agent that I was simply going to self-publish. I got a very stern tongue lashing!
That was a few years ago, and times are changing. I haven't been to another conference but I plan to attend again next year, and I think agents will have rethought their tune. I hope so, anyway.
So, traditional publishing is out. For now anyway.
Then there is the vanity presses. These are basically the same as self-publishing, but they cost a ton of money, and the ones I have looked at do not support ebooks. First, I do not have a ton of money, and secondly, I want my books to also be ebooks. Stories I have heard about vanity presses make my wallet faint. One story from a long time ago is this doctor in town wrote a children's book and he spent about $50,000 to have it published. Needless to say, he did not even recoop a portion of his outlay. Another is more recent where I know a woman who published a cookbook, and she has not seen a minute fraction of what she put out.
So, vanity presses are out. More than likely, always will be.
Then there is self-publishing. Here, I can have both an ebook and a paperbook-on-demand. I don't have the final figures yet, but I am expecting to spend a couple of thousands to get the book published. Since I knew I was going to pursue this, I have been saving for this project. I have to do most of the work to get it published, and the only part that I do not know anything about is the reformatting of the manuscript for the publisher's specifications. I have a friend who self-published a book for Amazon, and I believe he said he spent under $1000.
I have looked at the different publishers that publish ebooks, and I believe Createspace is winning hands down. Createspace.com is owned by Amazon, and I have not heard anything negative about the process or the outcome. I have a lot to learn, but slowly I am learning.
So, self-publishing is for me. And more than likely will be forever more.
The difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing is with traditional they do the work; self-publishing the writer (or who the writer hires) does the work. There are two other big parts that separate the two. The first is with traditional, they have an in-house public relations/marketing team to help promote your book; with self-publishing, that public relations/marketing rests on the writer. And from what I understand, if the writer is to hire a PR person, it is very expensive. The second is with royalties. Usually, with traditional the writer gets about 10-15% of the price -- let's say it equals to about $1.00/per copy sold. With self-publishing, not the ebook, but any paperback books sold equals about 30% of the price, so we will say $3.00/per copy sold. But remember, the author is also paying to have the book printed. With the traditional publisher, they are investing in the writer as a commodity. Interesting, huh!
So, in my quest to be published, it appears that Createspace has won.
Until next week....have a great weekend...
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