Publishing
2009-02-12
I've used this post title before. In fact, I might as well repost the text from that article. I won't, but I could.
As you will have guessed, I'm considering using Lulu to self-publish a book. In three and a half years the main thing that's changed is which book it would be, and that doesn't make much difference.
I'm still concerned that self-publishing would hurt my chances of being published 'properly', but on the other hand I'm still mindful that having a real publisher behind me is unlikely to happen. In particular, I have a pretty demanding full-time job these days and while I'll make time to write I don't really want to be chasing publishers around.
Yet if the book could be published by a real publisher (and if it isn't that good I should be releasing it anyway, really) if and when I did get one they'd do the marketing and logistics, and the book would sell some copies. Not many, I dare say, but more than it would have by being available on a few online booksellers and publicised by word of mouth alone.
Another point is that once a publisher accepts a book, you know that someone with an appropriate amount of industry experience and/or responsibility considers it worthy. Without that I could be printing junk, which wouldn't do anyone any favours; it would be vanity publishing in the worst sense, despite the advantages of Lulu over traditional vanity presses.
The main disadvantage as I see it is that the Print-on-Demand route necessarily ends up with much higher unit costs. The main objective would be for the book to be circulated and read as widely as possible, and although I'm not planning to make money from the book, not at this stage at least, if it's priced out of the market it won't achieve either.
Any thoughts?
Would you buy a £10-12 book on the recommendation of a friend? Perhaps more importantly, would you buy a £10-12 book on my recommendation (me being a little biased, after all) and give it a fair chance (hopefully recommend it to your friends...)?
[Feel free to answer those questions with or without considering that it would definitely be mid-hard sci-fi or lowish fantasy, or if I'm prepared to start something new just for this project, modern horror]
On a related note, anyone got any decent criticism/editing skills? Even once someone has persuaded me that a book would be worthy of publishing, I'd probably be looking for someone to do a bit of editing on a profit-share basis.
As you will have guessed, I'm considering using Lulu to self-publish a book. In three and a half years the main thing that's changed is which book it would be, and that doesn't make much difference.
I'm still concerned that self-publishing would hurt my chances of being published 'properly', but on the other hand I'm still mindful that having a real publisher behind me is unlikely to happen. In particular, I have a pretty demanding full-time job these days and while I'll make time to write I don't really want to be chasing publishers around.
Yet if the book could be published by a real publisher (and if it isn't that good I should be releasing it anyway, really) if and when I did get one they'd do the marketing and logistics, and the book would sell some copies. Not many, I dare say, but more than it would have by being available on a few online booksellers and publicised by word of mouth alone.
Another point is that once a publisher accepts a book, you know that someone with an appropriate amount of industry experience and/or responsibility considers it worthy. Without that I could be printing junk, which wouldn't do anyone any favours; it would be vanity publishing in the worst sense, despite the advantages of Lulu over traditional vanity presses.
The main disadvantage as I see it is that the Print-on-Demand route necessarily ends up with much higher unit costs. The main objective would be for the book to be circulated and read as widely as possible, and although I'm not planning to make money from the book, not at this stage at least, if it's priced out of the market it won't achieve either.
Any thoughts?
Would you buy a £10-12 book on the recommendation of a friend? Perhaps more importantly, would you buy a £10-12 book on my recommendation (me being a little biased, after all) and give it a fair chance (hopefully recommend it to your friends...)?
[Feel free to answer those questions with or without considering that it would definitely be mid-hard sci-fi or lowish fantasy, or if I'm prepared to start something new just for this project, modern horror]
On a related note, anyone got any decent criticism/editing skills? Even once someone has persuaded me that a book would be worthy of publishing, I'd probably be looking for someone to do a bit of editing on a profit-share basis.
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