« more discussions

• 

  Online publishing vs the majors - pros and cons

  Hello all, I'm new to Shelfari. Looks good!
  Anyhoo - I'm an Australian author and journalist who published my first book through one of the local major publishers (Baby Steps: A bloke's-eye view of IVF - It's on Amazon worldwide). Sold a treatment/sample of the idea in days and had a great experience writing the book (A comic memoir about my and my wife's trials and tribulations in getting pregnant).
  But the publishers did no marketing and v little publicity, which annoyed me, given the huge potential (IVF couples) market.
  
  So I'm writing my new novel directly to the public online at www.curlygibson.com
  It's such a liberating experience to get direct feedback from readers and no middlement to deal with.
  On the downside, it's hard to squeeze any money out of the project, and I suspect I'll have to go crawling back to my publishers once it's finished.
  
  The Question: So will the novel, once finished, be worth more (it has an established market) or less (it's second-hand) now that it's been seen online first?

  Jason D started this discussion 1 year ago. ( reply )

• 

  Dac C 

  Jason, good luck with your venture. I've published with a POD company (BookSurge) and am very pleased with their product. Whoever publishes you, it's up to you to sell the books, as you know.
  
  I enjoy selling, I've discovered. I have no shame. And I've pushed the book on my blog, Dac Crossey's Western Blog (www.daccrossley.typepad.com). I can't see the advantage of a small press, which won't do any marketing anyway.
  
  

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

  show 2 replies

  • 

    Jason D 

    Dac,
    
    you may be right that POD is the puture of publishing - it certainly creates more diversity by lowering overheads and taking the risk out of the publishing process. My original old-school publisher wasn't even a small player - it was one of the top two publishers in Oz. Would a small press take a more personal (and active) role in publishing a book. Hard to say. Still, no-one is going to be as pro-active as the writer themselves!
    Do you publish any fiction on your blog? I've just set up a blog fiction community at www.webjam.com/blookworm - another good place to spead the word.
    
    Cheers
    
    JD

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

  • 

    Robin S 

    Booksurge is not "terrible" they clearly state what they will do for what price and live up to it...but I'm opposed to any publisher that pays a royalty while you pay the majority of the fees. If you are self-publishing - then self pubislh but get 100% of the profit (i.e. difference between sales price and print price). Lighting source is a great "printer" - for POD as opposed to "publisher" for POD like BookSurge.
    
    Robin
    robin.sullivan.dc@gmail.com
    Medieval fantasy series: The Crown Conspiracy (Oct 2008), Avempartha (April 2009)
    Upcoming Book Signings at: http://www.michaelsullivan-author.com/MichaelSullivan_Signings.html
    

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

• 

  Robin S 

  My personal opinion...no matter who publishes (big house, small press, self publisher) you will have to do the majority of the publicity for your book.
  
  My husband is published through a small press and they setup 11 book signings but we are doing all the newspaper interviews/calendar postings, and sending out emails to get people in the seats etc.
  
  Robin
  robin.sullivan.dc@gmail.com
  Medieval fantasy series: The Crown Conspiracy (Oct 2008), Avempartha (April 2009)
  Upcoming Book Signings at: http://www.michaelsullivan-author.com/MichaelSullivan_Signings.html
  

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

  show 1 reply

  • 

    Jason D 

    Robin, you're right about that. Learnt from experience. Seems slightly unfair since the publisher has a PR department to fulfil that role. What they don't tell you is their PR dept will be plugging their major author to the exclusion of most of the small ones.
    
    Jason
    www.blookworm.net

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

• 

  Dac C 

  Robin -- one advantage of BookSurge is that it is an Amazon company. I hear that amazon won't carry any POD except BookSurge.
  
  A second advantage -- they give you an excellent product, a good-looking book. I've seen some small press offerings that were pretty shoddy.

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

  show 1 reply

  • 

    Robin S 

    Hey Dan,
    That's not entirely true - you can always be on Amazon through the Advantage program the issue is that it is just a high discount rate - 55%.

    Their "CreateSpace" is 40% disocunt but it is non-exclusive so you could have a CreateSpace account to get listing on Amazon.com and use LightningSource to get Ingram distribution

    posted 11 months ago. ( reply )

• 

  Annette Hughes 

  Publishers will pick up anything they think they can make money out of - it is after all a business. Trouble is, if your audience has already read your book on line, why would they go and buy it? This could cut a huge chunk out of potential sales by a publisher. On the other hand, if you are Matthew Riley and established an audience with proven (verifyable) sales, a publisher will pick up the second book.
  www.hughesy.journalspace.com

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

• 

  Roger H 

  I am a small publisher, and I do pound the pavement for my writers, but the truth is as said above, as authors in these troubled economic times, the reality is and will be for some time, book sales are going to depend on the sweat equity of all involved. Gone are the days of the 1000 dollar advance and the publisher doing all the work, but for the top 1% who sell by name.

  There are many great choices out there now, of independents who go to bat for their authors. Shop around and find someone you can work with. The new ideal is take time off writing and selling, only for eating and sleeping. the "doers" will rise.

  posted 11 months ago. ( reply )

  show 1 reply

  • 

    Robin S 

    Roger,

    Are you having problem finding "quality writers". I dangled my toes in the water with doing small press publishing myself but the reality is that even after 100's of submissions I really can't find work quality enough to sink money toward.

    posted 11 months ago. ( reply )

• Robin S removed this reply 11 months ago.

• 

  Roger H (edited)

  To a large extent, that is the case Robin, as I would expect, but I have hit a couple of good ones this year. I have a few in the pipe for next year, but I have had a few promising writers fall by the wayside as well, when I asked them to edit.

  I'm in no hurry. The industry is morphing faster these days than anytime in history. I'm not interested in the fast buck. I want to develop a stable of writers who continually out do themselves and keep the fire fanned.

  I'm also working the other end of the process, where I bring in book sellers and readers, to voice their demands to these authors. It is a novel concept to provide the reader what they ask for, not what I or any other publisher suggests they need.

  posted 11 months ago. ( reply )

• To reply to this discussion, please sign in or join now.

Return to top