Share Your Book Knowledge
I am currently trying my hand at writing a fictional book. I have looked a little around on the internet to see what is available, but I am hoping someone has some good insight they don’t mind sharing.
I have spoken to two people that have used www.lulu.com, a self publishing company, and I have been reading through their Faq pages. It looks pretty good. I have purchased one book both to read and to also check out the quality, which appears to be just as nice as other books I have purchased in stores.
They offer the sale of your book for 20% of your profit, the PDF download of your book from their website for free (which you can charge for), and you can purchase an ISBN for your book to have it listed at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and some other books stores.
Does anyone know of other self publishing companies or know of any pros or cons of going this route?
It just seems like finding a publishing company to publish your work is most likely a little more difficult than the self publishing.
What about an Editor? I spoke to one person that said they usually charge $1.50 a page.
Any advice is good advice, whether positive or negative, I would really like to hear about personally experiences and opinions that may help me decide what is best for me to do.
I would appreciate all and any input from everyone.
Thanks.
I have spoken to two people that have used www.lulu.com, a self publishing company, and I have been reading through their Faq pages. It looks pretty good. I have purchased one book both to read and to also check out the quality, which appears to be just as nice as other books I have purchased in stores.
They offer the sale of your book for 20% of your profit, the PDF download of your book from their website for free (which you can charge for), and you can purchase an ISBN for your book to have it listed at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and some other books stores.
Does anyone know of other self publishing companies or know of any pros or cons of going this route?
It just seems like finding a publishing company to publish your work is most likely a little more difficult than the self publishing.
What about an Editor? I spoke to one person that said they usually charge $1.50 a page.
Any advice is good advice, whether positive or negative, I would really like to hear about personally experiences and opinions that may help me decide what is best for me to do.
I would appreciate all and any input from everyone.
Thanks.
7 comments:
Does anyone know of these services?
http://www.tatepublishing.com/
http://www.iuniverse.com/
http://www.arborbooks.com/
http://www.bookpros.com/
http://www.wheatmark.com/
http://xulonpress.com/
I keep posting links as I find them for me to remember. Please add any info you have. Thanks.
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/getting_an_isbn_from_lulu.html
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-07-11-n22.html
http://www.rightreading.com/publishing/howto.publish/howto.publish.htm
I've heard great things about lulu, but don't know about those other services. $1.50/pg for editing is a good rate. Some editors cost more. Whatever you do, hire a professional editor! There are different kinds of editors, too, so pay attention. Some (the less expensive ones) simply correct spelling and grammar, others will offer you style advice and such. Which is better for you depends. Also, when looking at self-publishing, don't write off the marketing programs the publishing companies may offer. Getting a book printed is easy. Getting it into bookstores is more difficult.
Also, another word of advice -- letting your friends and family critique your work is almost always worthless, as they will usually avoid telling you bad things (and may not even see the bad things in the first place.) Seek out other writers, preferably in the same genre you're writing. Other writers will be merciless, which is what you want. It hurts, but the pain brings improvement. Also, they'll likely want you to critique their work as well, which is good practice. It will improve your own writing.
Thanks for the info Johnfen.
I know what you mean, I submitted my work-in-progress to some of my family and did get a little help, but surprising my brother ate my lunch. lol
You are right, it is hard to have someone tell you what you write just isn't going to cut it or it doesn't make sense.
Pride dies hard. hahaha
Oh, and here's a bit that I found personally important: give yourself permission to write dreck. Expect it, in fact. You can fix it in the rewrites. Most of what even the best writers write is pure garbage. You only see their best bits after heavy polishing. It's true, and remembering it takes some of the sting out of criticism.
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