Id like your opnion on self publishing.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lisa Miller on April 7, 2014 at 1:08am

I do not have an agent or anything like that. So I love to write. So I looked on line to see who could help me publish my book. At the time Xlibris came up. The next time Outskirts Press came up. The author of the book has to come up with all the money to publish and market. so it can get quite pricey. The author has to do all marketing. Which again is time consuming and pricey. being self published is totally on the author herself/himself.

I love writing and meeting my readers. But trying to setup bookk signings by myself is discouraging. Being self published is hard. 

I do like some aspects of it. If there are any mistakes it is all on the author just as if there are any positives it stands out for the author. 

If a person is willing to work hard self publishing may work.

Either way you feel like your heart and soul are walking outside you.

I hope this helped.

Lisa

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on April 7, 2014 at 2:56am

I published first through AuthorHouse, and like Xlibris and Outskirts, I paid them to publish my book. That is the only time I paid a publishing company to publish a book of mine. I have since published 1 book though a mid-range publishing company, and I'm not all that happy with it. That book is probably my worst selling book. I am in the process of publishing a trilogy though a small publishing company - book 3 will come out this summer. I am much more pleased with this company. He can do more than I can do as far as advertising, and he can get my books on more outlets than I can, but best of all, his work in my regard is visible to me. My thought is if I can see it, others can too. whereas the other company - I never see any advertising from them anywhere. The only thing I see from them is an initial release announcement.

On top of all that, I have published 2 of my books through CreateSpace all by myself. My only expense was buying my cover. The publisher of my trilogy gets those books on more outlets than I do, but that's only because I am kinda lazy about SmashWords. Maybe I'll get my two books there too someday. We'll see.

All in all, I will never pay another company to publish my book. They don't care about my book, they only care how deep my pocket book is. When I told them that I'd lost my job (I did get another one), they stopped calling me with these fantastic ideas for getting my book out there.

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on April 7, 2014 at 2:57am

I published first through AuthorHouse, and like Xlibris and Outskirts, I paid them to publish my book. That is the only time I paid a publishing company to publish a book of mine. I have since published 1 book though a mid-range publishing company, and I'm not all that happy with it. That book is probably my worst selling book. I am in the process of publishing a trilogy though a small publishing company - book 3 will come out this summer. I am much more pleased with this company. He can do more than I can do as far as advertising, and he can get my books on more outlets than I can, but best of all, his work in my regard is visible to me. My thought is if I can see it, others can too. whereas the other company - I never see any advertising from them anywhere. The only thing I see from them is an initial release announcement.

On top of all that, I have published 2 of my books through CreateSpace all by myself. My only expense was buying my cover. The publisher of my trilogy gets those books on more outlets than I do, but that's only because I am kinda lazy about SmashWords. Maybe I'll get my two books there too someday. We'll see.

All in all, I will never pay another company to publish my book. They don't care about my book, they only care how deep my pocket book is. When I told them that I'd lost my job (I did get another one), they stopped calling me with these fantastic ideas for getting my book out there.

Permalink Reply by Kristin on April 7, 2014 at 3:03am

Thank you Lisa and Anna I definitely will take in consideration the responses from you both. I want to publish my book but I really wanna take the time to ask for opinions and figure out what's best! As far as self publishing I'm not sure that' it is something that's ideal for me at the moment but I will see. I want what's best and I know it's going to take a while to figure out what is.

Permalink Reply by Stanley S. Thornton on April 7, 2014 at 4:20am

Like the others, I published my first book, Christianity: Myths and Legends through AuthorHouse...I spent thousands of dollars getting published, just as did Lisa and Anna.  in the end of 2012, as I was coming close to the completion of my first fantasy novel, He Walks with Dragons, I decided I didn't want to pay them thousands of dollars, so I went to my city hall and set up my own publishing company, Mystic Dragon Publishing. My books are carried by Ingrams, so my books are available everywhere...even as far away as Australia.

My expenses for a new book are about $1100...that includes my cover artist, my copy editor, my own ISBN#, and paying to have my ebook versions professionally made for me...Since I'm still unknown, most of my copies I personally sell at events I attend, but I'm hoping that changes as I come out with more books... 

A good way for a self-published author to get promotions, is to find groups of other authors...Just this past Friday I had a radio interview in Canada, all because two author friends asked if I would be interested. 

Permalink Reply by Kristin on April 7, 2014 at 5:26am

Stanley that's awesome that you've set up your own company sounds like it's also a good thing to get to know people so things like radio interviews can take place. :) im definitely gonna start talking to more people like I've said before I need all opinions possible. Thank you for your response.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Miller on April 9, 2014 at 2:01am

I prefer Outskirts Press over Xlibris. 

Outskirts Press was very friendly and helpful. They answered all my questions.

My book through them turned out much better. Looked more professional.

They send out emails to promote your book. For me it was a better experience than Xlibris.

It seemed to me Xlibris wanted more and more money and did not care about my book.

Outskirts wanted my book to look good. The better it looked then I would probably come back to them and bring friends. I liked their attitude much better.

I think this is more what you wanted.

Permalink Reply by Kristin on May 8, 2014 at 1:01am

Tanya, thank you for your response, I wish you every success with your books too.
 

Permalink Reply by Kristin on December 1, 2014 at 9:16am

Thanks for sharing Norma how did you self publish did you go through online or physical publishing. I have no idea where to start.
 
Norma Padro said:

Hello.

Self publishing is better for me. I needed to share my work with the world right away. I didn't want to be held back by anything. I began by publishing my photography work. Then I began writing and published that. Now I'm publishing my art work. I love it. I have published over 40 books and counting. I had a lot of work to publish and still do. I can't say that it's better than anything else, but for me it's worked just fine. One thing also is that I can publish my work the way I want to. I don't have to wait for anyone to give me the ok. I create and publish. That's all. I hope this answered your question.