It may be a little early for me to be worrying about it, but I've been giving some thought to what it is I would want to do with my book. I've been listening to a podcast about writing in an attempt to jump-start my efforts, and one of the things they talked about was submitting to an editor. I've always rather planned to self publish, but I ran across an article saying that when you self-publish, you really don't get much in the way of sales, usually. It made me consider submitting to publishers again.
But really, it all comes down to what I want to *ultimately* accomplish with my book. I don't want to become a writer, so there's no need for me to go at this from a business direction, where I would want to sell a lot and make a lot of money. From that perspective, there's no real reason for me to try and get published if I don't care about making money. I can just self-publish and make a really simple go at it, get my book out there and be done with it. But having such small circulation is a little bit disheartening.
Still, should I care about circulation? If I want to just get the story out there, I could throw it up all over the internet. I wouldn't make any money, but at least I'd get some circulation. But then again, it would be nice to have a physical book in my hand, even if I didn't get the 'presige' (and go through the *enormous* process) of getting a book sold to a publishing house. Etc. Etc.
Well, what do you all think? Should I just self publish, sell to some friends and family and call it good? Is there some compelling reason to get a traditional publishing deal? Ideas, anyone?
-N
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5 comments:
And the problem with wild success, Oprah book club, the bench with Leno or Conan, and such accoutrements is what, exactly?? If you just want a creative outlet, is there a place like Mugglenet's Fan Fiction site that would get you the kind of attention you want?? I'm not sure what you want to accomplish but becoming a professional writer is definetly serious work and effort.
dad preecs
The problem with wild success, generally, is that I'd have to work for it. And I normally try to write for fun. It's certainly nice to imagine some massive success by accident, but that's a rare, rare thing.
Besides, if I get it published, then, what? I don't want to use that exposure to do more writing, not really. I suppose it would be nice to have someone (else) in charge of a publicity campaign in order to get my one book out there.
I suppose there's something to be said for not selling myself short right away; if I don't play, my chances drop to zero as opposed to insignificantly small.
...is it obvious I've been going back and forth on this a lot?
Matt's Bff Cory Doctorow says that the problem authors have is not piracy, but obscurity. We saw him interview last night about his new book Little Brother. He says he published in print and online under a creative commons liscense. Granted, he does run BoingBoing, but he says more ppl read his book online than in print (freeness), and for him it is more about getting the ideas out there. He already has a modicum of fame and fortune though, so he can be generous with intellectual property.
Matt says he has posted a lot about this, I am sure you can track down his take from BoingBoing.
You might be interested to hear Bart's take on this as well- he spent the month of March writing a book (about McCain and the FCC) with real intent to get it published before elections.
Yes, I too have been wrestling with precisely this issue. My plan is to "self-publish" but in book form, although rough drafts are posted online under the same Creative Commons license that Cory Doctrow uses.
My research suggests we could get 100 copies of a good looking paperback book for between $500 and $1,000 from the right publisher, if you don't fall for the optional extra $$ items.
This then serves as the foundation for any "calling card" efforts you make, looking for speaking gigs, other places to get ideas in play.
Such books have ISBN numbers and are listed on Amazon & Barnes & Noble (although that may change and it pays to read the fine print carefully).
The best deal I've found so far is from booklocker.com, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet and will do more checking . . .
Hey, bart. I've seen some of that to. I've only looked at a couple of places, Lulu.com and iUniverse.com, but if you're interested, I found a web site that purports to review self-publishing websites.
http://online-book-publishing-review.toptenreviews.com/iuniverse-review.html
According to them, iUniverse is pretty good, and from what I've read, if all you want is a quick turnaround time and low startup overheads, it's pretty cheap and fast to do. I haven't done too much research yet, though, so you may know more than me.
-N
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