Submission

I know self-publishing still has a bit of a stigma about itself since you have to put up money to see your own book in print, but it's actually done me some good and I would recommend it under the right circumstances.

My first book I wrote - not using NaNoWriMo or SoCNoc - had a sci-fi twist to a wrestling story, and there's very little audience out there that would want to read something like that. (The rejection letters from agents and publishers helped solidify that for me.)

So I went to iuniverse.com and they just so happened to have a deal where you pay $199 and you can get hardcover availability included with the trade paperback setup. A friend of mine did the cover, I had total control over how the book read, and I still have the rights to it if I want to do something else with it. Now it's up on amazon, bn.com, and all the other online booksellers. It's not tearing up the charts, but it's mine and I'm happy to see it up there.

For the book I'm writing now, I'd like to get that submitted to traditional publishers, but I'm not going to rule out other self-publishing houses just in case.

By the way, I got solicited by Xlibris since I requested more info on them - they're the self-publishing wing of Random House - and the salesperson was very interested when I told her about the challenge I'm doing and suggested they should do some special deals to accomodate NaNoWriMo and SoCNoc writers...

I think if Xlibris was to do a deal they would get alot of takers on it since they are a wing of a traditional publishing house.

I am glad you had such a positive experience with self publishing.
And yes it should always be an option for those that just wish to get their books out there.

Goodluck

My idea of hell is being trapped in a room with no books!

I agree that self-publishing definitely has a place in the industry. I think the problems come when writers expect the wrong thing from self-publishing.

No Excuses. Just Write.
WIP - Freeing the Flame: 31/66 scenes of scene review #3.
Eve's Vineyard: 3,375/6,000 (Sept Zing Thing)

Good to hear your story, ghwriter.

I agree with Kerryn. There are good reasons for self publishing - if what you are writing fits a particular niche market that you know really, really well and can market to that audience, if you just want something to give to friends and relatives (particularly if it's autobiographical) or if you know it won't sell in huge numbers, but still really want to see it in print. And combined with all these, you need to be absolutely realistic about the profit/loss you are likely to make, the loss you could make if things turn out for the worst, the work you are going to have to put into marketing and accounting and the reasons you have been rejected by established publishers.

If you have been consistently rejected, then there is probably a good reason for it. It may not be that your writing is bad - it may be that like ghwriter your work falls between genres for example. But a book they can sell millions of copies of is unlikely to not get bought somewhere somehow. Of course there are exceptions to that, but publishers do tend to have an idea what they are doing.

"I am a genius and think this is the great kiwi novel and going to make me millions of dollars and my mum/best friend/dog read it and they think so too" is a really bad reason to self publish.

Of course, distinguishing between self-publishing and vanity presses is extremely important, but that's another issue.

http://www.pterodaustrodreams.org/

Guys, I have more good news from the world of Xlibris. Just got off the phone with my publishing consultant and she informed me about the latest deals that writers here may want to take advantage of.

For the month of June, they're doing two specials. One is a two-for-one special, where you publish two books for the price of one. And the other is a free upgrade, where you can buy one program at the normal price and upgrade to the next program up for free.

She also told me - and this is what could possibly seal the deal for a lot of you guys - that there's no deadline on when you have to submit your work for publishing. So you can take your time with the editing and make sure it's the best it can be before sending it in.

Not bad, huh? If you guys want to get more info from her, let me know. Christine's good people, and she's willing to work with NaNoWriMo and SoCNoC writers...

So remember all the talk about XLibris? Forget it.

I decided not to go with them, they've literally priced themselves out of my range, not just for the services but for the retail value of their books. I just can't fathom asking friends and family to spend 20 bucks on a 190-page novel.

Off to Aventine Press for me. Only $400 set-up fee and the books average to about $12.95 for a paperback with $22 - $25 for a hardcover. Much better...

That doesn't sound bad at all, glad you found someone else to go through that suits you better :-) Let us know how it all turns out.

WIP: Ayden: 92,043/95,000 (estimated total).
Rough Editing: Lifelines: 104/104 pages.

J.C Hart

Have you considered lulu.com? I'd be interested in your thoughts in comparison to XLibris and Aventine.

No Excuses. Just Write.
WIP - Freeing the Flame: 31/66 scenes of scene review #3.
Eve's Vineyard: 3,375/6,000 (Sept Zing Thing)

I looked at LuLu, went through their whole setup and it just won't work for me. The main thing that I'm looking for - in addition to a hardcover setup that I can add to down the road - is decent retail prices for the books. And LuLu is in the same boat with Xlibris on that end. I just can't fathom asking my friends to plunk down $20 for a 190-page paperback book. $12.95 is much more reasonable and with only $400 required for the setup, it seems that Aventine is for me...

Have you looked at BookSurge? They're the POD arm of Amazon and while I've heard their paper stock quality isn't as good as Lulu's, the main advantage of BookSurge is that their titles sell through Amazon. I've not tried it myself so I don't know how costs compare, but it might be worth a look.

http://glitterburn.livejournal.com/

My first book sells through Amazon as well, and that one's from iUniverse.

After hearing about amazon's attempts to disable "buy" buttons for other POD books in order to coerce printers into using theirs, I'm not looking forward to working with Booksurge.

Besides, a friend of mine printed his book from Aventine Press and he couldn't say enough good things about them. He said that they're a small company but very personable and helpful, and I can vouch for their quality since I have my friend's book...

Thanks for sharing your experience thus far. It'll be interesting to see how things go!

No Excuses. Just Write.
WIP - Freeing the Flame: 31/66 scenes of scene review #3.
Eve's Vineyard: 3,375/6,000 (Sept Zing Thing)

ghwriter1976, I believe you have your prices wrong for lulu. I have a book there at 220 pages for $10.95 and there is a hard cover as well for 20.97. The price depends on what royalty you want.
The paperback is: 14.93 NZD, factor in shipping from the US and you get 19.99 - 24.99. Same price as a mass market paperback in the book stores. The hardcover is 28.61 NZD and that's about $30 cheaper than a hard cover in NZ.

Have you heard about Booksie? They have a publishing house as well. Free to publish. http://www.wordclay.com/

Amazon also has a self publishing arm that's guaranteed to get you into their on-line stores.

http://writerspress.co.nz/writersblog/

http://www.leepletzers.net

I'll check out wordclay, and I got to talk with the main guy at Aventine Press. He couldn't have been nicer, and he was very accomodating with answers to any question I had. Very nice person, and since I bought the book that my friend wrote, I know the quality is very good...

Can't say I'm impressed with the quality that Lulu puts out. Their paper is very thin, you can see the words through the page. The binding on paperback is not that flash, and they don't book justify the pages...they're just left justified. Which means the words on the left had page often trail off too close to the middle spine...

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia"