Self-Publishing

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ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I've talked at length about my novel that I finished last summer. I've had some friends red-pen the hell out of it and I'm pretty happy with the manuscript, overall. Right now, Quotemander Prime's looking it over and red-penning it himself. I'm terrified of the results.

No, but seriously, being published is my biggest dream. I keep dreaming of the day that I walk into a bookstore and see something of mine on the shelf. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a big seller, it's just a sight that I want to see.

So far, I've submitted the book to two publishers. The first, Pyr, rejected it but was kind about it. She said "Dill [the main character] has such a strong, colloquial voice, and I'm sorry to say I didn't connect with it." The second, Ace, I'm still waiting to hear back from. I sent it in September, but they have a 6-month submission waiting period. To say that I'm getting antsy is an understatement.

At this point, I'm starting to think more and more about self-publishing. Quotemander said something to the extent that because of the internet, e-books, etc, it's much easier to self-publish.

And I've considered it. But...well, the thing is, it feels more of an accomplishment or an acceptance if a big name publisher (or even a relatively small publisher) accepts it, distributes it, and I see it in Chapters or something. There's the chance of losing the rights, but I'd like to believe that's not as big an issue as it used to be. Plus, as I said, there's something to be said about the pride and accomplishment of having a book published.

Still, I'm starting to rethink it. There's options out there like LightnightSource, Lulu.com, and Amazon's CreateSpace. I already have a flipping gorgeous cover the for the book. It'd be just a matter of finding someone who could design the rest of the cover and such.

What do you guys think?
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Dave said:
Why?
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Are you asking me? Hey, focus on Nick here!

Lulu problems: Over-priced for customers, charges authors at Lulu's profit level rather than at cost, dwindling stock making the company's future uncertain, promotional materials that do nothing for you, giving preferred status to some authors over others. They're going downhill, having to sell chunks of their paper stock to catch up financially. Best not to get involved at this point.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Tinwhistler said:
I've enjoyed pretty good success with my book and the self-publishing route.
That said, I'm on a couple of kindle publishing forums, and my level success appears to be fairly atypical, so I'm not sure if I can recommend it or not.
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I think it really comes down to the book. I've noticed that the more books a person has, the more each can draw attention to others.

For as much as I'm getting into it, doing the research and making big goals for this year, I'm not yet any sort of success story. I have a book of short stories--even with big names like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, their short story collections don't do too great. I've been getting consistent sales since I raised the price (thanks, Tin--I will never understand people) but each day mine is struggling to stay in the top 100,000 (currently in the top 75,000, but I expect that to change by the time I return to the interwebs on Monday), while Tin's novel seems to be doing quite nicely in the top 10,000.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Not that you need to know, but I'll be ordering both your books now that I got my overage check. I'm looking forward to it. Tin's book is getting really good reviews from what I can see. Even the negative ones are only slightly negative.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Well, I'm gonna keep trying for now, I think. A friend of mine on Facebook put it rather succinctly: there's a lot of "antsy" vanity books out there. He's right. I feel like, if I can just get this published, that it would be a respectfully successful thing.

So today, I sent a query to a literary agent, Ethan Ellenberg. Plus, I'm still waiting to hear back from Ace/Roc publishing. Fingers crossed, folks.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Well, I'm gonna keep trying for now, I think. A friend of mine on Facebook put it rather succinctly: there's a lot of "antsy" vanity books out there. He's right. I feel like, if I can just get this published, that it would be a respectfully successful thing.

So today, I sent a query to a literary agent, Ethan Ellenberg. Plus, I'm still waiting to hear back from Ace/Roc publishing. Fingers crossed, folks.
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Probably should wait until I get it back to you.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I sent them only the first 50 pages, which I've actually been going through and fixing some spelling errors and such. But yeah, before I send it out to another major publisher, I'll wait for ya.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Well, I'm gonna keep trying for now, I think. A friend of mine on Facebook put it rather succinctly: there's a lot of "antsy" vanity books out there. He's right. I feel like, if I can just get this published, that it would be a respectfully successful thing.

So today, I sent a query to a literary agent, Ethan Ellenberg. Plus, I'm still waiting to hear back from Ace/Roc publishing. Fingers crossed, folks.
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Firstly: I respect your decision on continuing the efforts.

However, I feel obligated to share this article with you and you won't hear another word from me about it.
 
HowDroll

HowDroll

Quotemander Prime said:
Firstly: I respect your decision on continuing the efforts.

However, I feel obligated to share this article with you and you won't hear another word from me about it.
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Interesting article. Thanks for sharing. I actually went to one of J.A. Konrath's book signing parties in Chicago a few years ago, so it's interesting to hear that he's found success with an alternative publishing route.

Nick -- regardless of the route you end up taking, if you ever want another pair of eyes on your manuscript, please feel free to send it my way. I've been in a couple of fiction writing critique groups before, and marking up someone's baby with a red pen is something I've always derived sadistic pleasure from.
 
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