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 :)
