Sunday 6 March 2011

First, useful post.

Right, well, as the title says, i am going to try to include some useful information rather than just go on about things i like in this post. so, i will talk about probably the most important thing to think about when writing a book, or even a collection of poems. something even more important than plot, structure, or spelling and grammar, which i am aware i have neglected in my posts. and that is publishing. perhaps one of the most daunting tasks for authors, as it can have a huge effect on your confidence as a writer to have something turned down. today though, i am going to talk about a few self publishing options.

The first, is a website called AuthorHouse.com, a brilliant self publishing site, for those who can afford it. they offer spectacular packages, with just as 'spectacular' prices. the packages will include meeting an in house team of designers for cover designs and illustrators, they can read and edit your book for you, do all the work, other than writing it, and will even get you some good advertising, but you are looking at at least $600, or around £800 -  £1000 for this. Brilliant if you have a nice paying job on the side, but for those like me who are just starting out, you don't want to pay that much for something that may never make it.

There are many other sites like authorhouse, which will offer cheaper deals, for less services, and although i cannot bring any to name right now, a quick search on google will bring them up.

However, if, like me, you would rather put in more work yourself, and get more of the profits, i recommend a site called Lulu.com, this is where i have published my first novel and i found it to be very accessible and easy to use. you sign up for a free account, and then go through the process of choosing what sort of project you are doing, you can choose the paper type, the size of the book, whether you want black and white or coloured text, and then you simply upload your file, they convert it to pdf, you get to check everything and go back and change whatever you want, before moving onto the cover. you can upload any picture you like for the cover, and customise the front, back and spine, as little or as much as you like. even before doing this, you can calculate the printing cost of the book, by entering how many pages it contains. Once all this is done, you then decide how much you sell it for. Lulu.com does not ask for any money up front, all they do is remove the printing cost of each book, from the price you sell it for, then take 20% from the leftover profit. to me, this seems more than acceptable, as the money is never technically yours, so you are not losing any money. the books are then printed on an order basis, you order a book, they print a book. as the author, you can buy the book at the low price of however much it costs to print, plus delivery. throughout this, you are in control completely, and out of all the 'free' self publishing sites like lulu.com that i looked at, again, google shall reveal them to you, i found lulu to be the best, not because of the prices, but because of its ease of use, it makes publishing your book fun, not tiring.

Well, that is all for tonight i guess, until next time :)

4 comments:

  1. I have just started back to writing after a few years of not writing at all. I have started with a new project, using all the tidbits of other projects as practice pieces. My dream is to be published by a major publisher, however I have found that Traditional Publishing is not the only route. I am sure most "Mainstream Authors" consider Self-Publishing or Publish on Demand to be less respectable than Traditional Publishing, and while I do care what they think of my work, I don't give a damn about what they think of my business decisions. If a piece doesn't sell in a reasonable time to a major publisher then I will at least get it printed so that I can market and sell the work, I'd like to know more about your experience with LuLu.com and the whole experience, i.e. did you choose any advanced options, and if so were they worth the cost.. send me a message or even post a more detailed entry here on your blog, I'd be sure to read it.

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  2. Well, first off let me say thanks for the great comments, and for taking the time to read my blog.
    I get what you mean about mainstream authors, it is easy for them to think self publishing is less respectable, since they already have their foot in the door. as for a more detailed entry, id be happy to do that. i need to revise my first novel anyway and see if there are any edits i can make, so when i do, i will try to run through the whole process on here, with screenshots if possible. to answer your question, no i didnt choose any advanced options, at least none to my knowledge, the only advanced option i can think of right now, would have been to add an isbn to your project right away, but i wanted to see if i could sell a decent amount of copies before paying out for an isbn. but as i said, i will do a more detailed entry about lulu.com, and i will try to answer all questions in that post.

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  4. Hi Steven,

    To be honest, I haven't been reading your blog, but stumbled accross it when searching "aspiring authors." I am trying to build some more traffic (as in, "any traffic") for a new wiki-site called "buildanovel." It's intent is for any interested people to add and edit in a broad collaborative effort on one or more novels.

    I apologize if I seem to be jacking your blog. Someone I know started up the "buildanovel" site; I thought it was a neat idea, and would like it to spread around. It may be yet another addition to the tradition of inidividual or closely collaborative writing of books, as well as an interesting playground for new (and veteran) authors. Of course, you risk having all your efforts obliterated, but, there it is...

    I do have to say that the site is still under construction, so it's not decked-out, extensively organized, or impressive in any way. In fact, hardly anything has been started yet, though the first novel page is open for editing.

    Hope you find it of interest. Thanks!

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