Help Please! Digital Publishing - Do It Yourself or Use A Publisher?

[Jason Byrne]

That's really a bummer in the dismembered mannequin part. That was the seller for me. Huh. Though I can only imagine the Fabio-esque pictures that ensued with the long hair.

Wait, what?
Hahaha, it was a hit when we crashed an artist's cocktail party, late one night a floor above us in the studio building. I would say it's a shame there aren't any pictures left from those days, but not so much, from a 'destruction of evidence' standpoint.

College...

 

[Jason Byrne]

Nah, my mom just told me it was nasty and to stop. Took me a bit to break my habit (I was doing it subconsciously). Though I did believe that eating watermelon seeds would make watermelons grow in my tummy!

I heard that one too, about watermelon seeds.

I also knew that a human would die after losing 5 pints of blood, but I did not know your body regenerated lost blood cells, and I thought this was a lifetime maximum allotment.
I was like "I've already gotten so many scrapes, playing outside! How do people live to middle age?! I don't have long left..."

Bringing this up, many years later, my parents were horrified I had never asked them, to clear this up.

 

[Karen Gray]

OMG BOAK!!!!

 

[Karen Gray]

I heard that one too, about watermelon seeds.

I also knew that a human would die after losing 5 pints of blood, but I did not know your body regenerated lost blood cells, and I thought this was a lifetime maximum allotment.
I was like "I've already gotten so many scrapes, playing outside! How do people live to middle age?! I don't have long left..."

Lol that's sooo cute!
On the flip side, I didn't realise I was only 1.25 pints away from death... hmmm

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I heard that one too, about watermelon seeds.

I also knew that a human would die after losing 5 pints of blood, but I did not know your body regenerated lost blood cells, and I thought this was a lifetime maximum allotment.
I was like "I've already gotten so many scrapes, playing outside! How do people live to middle age?! I don't have long left..."

LOL oh man, that was good. I bet that made for some fretful nights, wondering which of your scrapes was going to mean the end.

 

[Jason Byrne]

LOL oh man, that was good. I bet that made for some fretful nights, wondering which of your scrapes was going to mean the end.

I had some nasty ones! I scraped the skin off the bone of my shin, trying to jump over the wall of a wood-hauling trailer. Cut the inside of my arm on a bayonet... you can still see that one... I remember thinking I was going to bring canes back into style, around age seven, walking on a sprained ankle all summer. I estimated I would make it to about twelve, before I ran out of blood.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I had some nasty ones! I was a child physically unable to feel fear! I scraped the skin off the bone of my shin, trying to jump over the wall of a wood-hauling trailer. Cut the inside of my arm on a bayonet... you can still see that one... I remember thinking I was going to bring canes back into style, around seven, walking on a sprained ankle all summer. I estimated I would make it to about twelve, before I ran out of blood.

Dang! I can't tell you how many times I've sprained my ankles over the years. I owned my own pair of crutches throughout middle school and high school, and we were wary about selling them in college!

I used to lay in bed, wondering if the seeds of the watermelons I ate weren't white enough (since the white ones don't grow). It got so bad that it would take me forever to eat watermelon because I had to pick all the seeds out! (And I'd still have trouble sleeping that night.)

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I'm a firm believer in the self-publishing movement, and think that it can be the best way to go - if one can crack the problem of marketing. I've noticed that the writers who have the most success are those who already had a thriving social media presence, or who could afford to pay for an expensive advertising campaign. The main reason that I was thinking of going with a digital publisher, particularly one that's part of a well-known book firm, was that they already have an established internet address as a place to find good books. It's like the difference between selling your goods at an open air market from a stall, and having an upmarket department store carry your products.
I've published forty-three books of poetry, song lyrics, short stories and novellas on Smashwords and Amazon, but uploading a file started to take on the feel of emptying a bucket of water into an ocean of other books. I've seen various figures quoted for how many English language novels are published in traditional book form worldwide, but it seems to be about 1,000 a week. For comparison, I once counted 600 new fiction titles appear on Smashwords and Amazon in a day. My point is, that it's very easy for one's book to disappear. Obviously there are things that can be done to attract attention to it, such as an eye-catching book cover, intriguing title and compelling blurb + the all important reviews. Experts stress the importance of having a well-written story, and that is vital if you're going to sustain interest, get a good reputation and thrive, but the quality of one's prose isn't what hooks readers in the first place.
Some of you will already be familiar with indie writer J.A. Konrath, whose website and blog are well worth a look : http://jakonrath.com/ He's a hugely successful writer, who self -publishes and despises traditional book publishers. He's delightfully prickly and isn't afraid to say what he loves and loathes. His sales are well over a million, a figure that he reached in 2013, so he knows what he's talking about.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Dang! I can't tell you how many times I've sprained my ankles over the years. I owned my own pair of crutches throughout middle school and high school, and we were wary about selling them in college!

I used to lay in bed, wondering if the seeds of the watermelons I ate weren't white enough (since the white ones don't grow). It got so bad that it would take me forever to eat watermelon because I had to pick all the seeds out! (And I'd still have trouble sleeping that night.)

AWWWW...

 

[Marc Joan]

I'm taking my son to get a wart removed from his knee quite soon. It's a cryotherapy procedure, i.e. involves using liquid nitrogen to freeze the wart. My son knows about freezing bananas, etc, in liquid N2, and hitting them on the edge of a desk to make them shatter, so I told him that he had to take care not to bump his knee for several hours afterwards, to prevent it spectacularly fragmenting. The expression on his face ... priceless.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Really Marc, tisk tisk. Did you get a photo of his expression? Priceless I should think.

 

[Bernard Stacey]

I had some nasty ones! I scraped the skin off the bone of my shin, trying to jump over the wall of a wood-hauling trailer. Cut the inside of my arm on a bayonet... you can still see that one... I remember thinking I was going to bring canes back into style, around age seven, walking on a sprained ankle all summer. I estimated I would make it to about twelve, before I ran out of blood.

He he!
A sort of haematological Logan's Run!

 

[Emurelda]

Wow. Like 'your face will get stuck that way' or 'you'll go blind.'

Of course, it wasn't particularly good for this girl...

Wow..eurgh...how did you find that !?

 

[Jason Byrne]

Wow..eurgh...how did you find that !?

College summer holiday about ten years ago, no life of which to speak, and the Discovery Channel.