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

How Do You Choose A Book?

B

Summer flash fiction

Status
Not open for further replies.

Paul Whybrow

Full Member
Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
I've been self-publishing my poetry, short stories, novellas and song lyrics online for about eighteen months. I initially used the Smashwords site, as it was through the founder Mark Coker that I learned most of what I knew about e-publishing. Smashwords makes the process of distributing one's work easy. I published all of my titles on Amazon about ten months ago, though resisted the temptations of their Kindle Select programme - largely because of unease about their business practices.
In the last two years, many traditional publishers have opened their own digital imprints, finally admitting that ebooks aren't going to go away. They are still selective about who they'll publish, but in theory the advantage of having one's book on a well-known publisher's site should add credibility and increase sales. The downside that affects authors, is that instead of getting all of the profits from sales by self-publishing, your publisher will only give you 25% of what they make. Granted, this is more than the pathetic 15% which is common for traditional books, but digital files cost very little to store and distribute, compared to having to print, box and store hard copies in a warehouse, with attendant transportation expenses. Essentially, book publishers are taking 75% of a writer's earnings for not doing very much. This has caused rumblings in the writing community, and the Alliance of Independent Authors has recently launched a campaign for publishers to increase their payments to 50%.
During the many submissions that I made to literary agents and publishers in the last seven months, I approached a few who handled digital books. One of these was Tirgearr Publishing in Ireland : http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/index.htm
Although their catalogue looks like they specialise in romances and erotica, they do publish a few thrillers, so my novel would fit in and they were looking to add more of this genre. Their submission procedure required sending off the entire manuscript, which was a bit unusual. I heard back from their founder Kemberlee Shortland after a couple of months, showing some interest in my novel and asking for a clean version of it. By this she meant for me to remove all of the hyperlinks that I'd inserted into the text. These are considered to be desirable features for an ebook, but Tirgearr doesn't use them in its books and they were distracting their reader from appraising my novel. I sent a clean copy off, and am waiting on a response.
I checked out Tirgearr and they appear to be a legitimate operation, though I found a forum where Kemberlee was taken to task over her publishing experience. I attempted to find out more about them by emailing one of their most prolific authors via her blog, but she hasn't responded. I wanted to know how well they promoted her books, and if she'd made any money through being with them.
Do any of my fellow Colonists have any experience of using digital publishers? Are there any advantages or disadvantages of signing a contract with a company and giving them exclusive rights? Or would I be better off staying independent, and doing more work on promoting my books and myself on blogs, social media and forums?
 
All I'll say is why pay someone to put your book online (ebook) when you can do it yourself for free?? I had interest from them too, until I realised they ONLY do ebooks, and so I decided not to touch them. I can publish online myself ;)
 
Well I have recently made the decision that no one but no one can sell my work like me. So... I will be making my debut in the self-publishing world on the 1st August. I don't want just digital though, I want all formats including audio book.

I appreciate that a lot more hard work is coming my way, but I know that in the long run, this is the right decision. Unless I am being offered a substantial sum, i'm not willing to part with my rights. I am overwhelmed with the support and encouragement I am receiving and I am going to use every lat bit to drive this forward.

Unfortunately as I am a self-pub Virgin, I can't tell you what is best from experience. But when it comes to my own work, it will be independence all the way ;)
 
I self-pubbed three short stories last year. I did them through Smashwords and really enjoyed the easy process. Two hours to fully edit my manuscripts according to his styling guide and they took care of distributing the book to a dozen e-book stores and managing all my sales/downloads in one place. I agree with Alistair: why pay someone to do something I can do myself?
 
TBH the first two novels need heavy re-writing, and I used more period speech in them ;)
 
Hey if it works it works. Mines is full of slang, period speech, robotic speech posh speech, regional dialect and so on, but the feedback, well... let's just say people are imitating it rather than commenting on it ;)
 
I just saw your prices @Monique GOLAY at Lulu. $23 for 137 pages is like 4 times as expensive as what mine and others sell for. Merlin and Ceridwen sells for $12.64 with 328 pages, so you might want to do some comparisons unless you are having booming sales. I've sold maybe 6 in 2 years at my price... :rolleyes:
 
Hey if it works it works. Mines is full of slang, period speech, robotic speech posh speech, regional dialect and so on, but the feedback, well... let's just say people are imitating it rather than commenting on it ;)
It's true. They are full of that! If done well, it can be your trademark!
 
I just saw your prices @Monique GOLAY at Lulu. $23 for 137 pages is like 4 times as expensive as what mine and others sell for. Merlin and Ceridwen sells for $12.64 with 328 pages, so you might want to do some comparisons unless you are having booming sales. I've sold maybe 6 in 2 years at my price... :rolleyes:
Mine is $13.43 for 609 pages. But I'm not selling it publicly yet, so that's without mark-up...
 
As for period speech, I've toned mine right down until it almost disappeared as 2/3 of people didn't want it; it's a hard call.
 
I also plan to self-publish.

For a long time, I wanted the prestige of traditional publishing, feeling that self-publishing was not quite "making it." Then, I realized that I really just don't care for the publishing machinery industry.

Besides, all my favorite bands are indie, so why not support self-publishing, too?
 
I also plan to self-publish.

For a long time, I wanted the prestige of traditional publishing, feeling that self-publishing was not quite "making it." Then, I realized that I really just don't care for the publishing machinery industry.

Besides, all my favorite bands are indie, so why not support self-publishing, too?
1381703429_Iron-And-Wine.jpg
All hail the Sam Beam Indie Beard.

I agree about traditional publishing — that's still my plan. Until I run out of agencies to which to submit, that is...
 
I'm going for world domination off my own back ahahahahaaa ;) Gutted I can't grow an indie beard :/ I'll ask my brother to grow one for me, but he is pretty smooth faced so I know it will be a fail from the outset. He couldn't even grow a mo for movember!!
 
I'm going for world domination off my own back ahahahahaaa ;) Gutted I can't grow an indie beard :/ I'll ask my brother to grow one for me, but he is pretty smooth faced so I know it will be a fail from the outset. He couldn't even grow a mo for movember!!
Boom.
20150508_185917770_iOS.JPG 20150508_185942719_iOS.JPG
I was halfway there, last time.
 
Forgetting potato soup lol. You're just saving it for later, right?
I tried that excuse, when I did this one in college:
mb.jpg
It was found not to be a valid excuse.:rolleyes:

It was also universally agreed upon as unacceptable that I bit my moustache, to trim it...
 
Oh gross :confused: To be fair, I used to chew on my own hair, but I was much younger (like elementary school) and did not do it with the intention of trimming it.
Did you ever get told to stop it because it would wrap round your insides and kill you? lol We used to get told that in class... Also swallowing gum, that'll turn to cement in your stomach and kill you :p
 
Not the bald head, or dismembered mannequin part... I actually had hair to the bottom of my back, at the time. I struck magnificently-billowing poses in front of industrial fans.

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. :p
 
Did you ever get told to stop it because it would wrap round your insides and kill you? lol We used to get told that in class... Also swallowing gum, that'll turn to cement in your stomach and kill you :p

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!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

How Do You Choose A Book?

B

Summer flash fiction

Back
Top