Publish The Thought

from the so-simple dept

For years, it's been possible to "self-publish" a novel if you had the money to get the books printed. That's not the hard part. The hard part is getting anyone to actually notice (or, even better, buy!) the book you've written. However, one of the nice things about the internet is that they've made it easier than ever to publish your own book, and to even get it listed at Amazon.com. Of course, considering that very few of these authors ever sell more than a handful of the books - and many are hoping that the books will get them noticed by larger publishing houses, you would think it would make a bit more sense to offer the book as a free download somewhere. The purpose of the self-published book (for most writers) appears to be to get them attention, not money. In trying to do both, they may be hurting themselves.
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  • identicon
    Mark Murphy, 1 Jul 2003 @ 5:49am

    Think 'Second Edition'

    The free download option you cite would seem to be more of a "poison pill" than selling the book through a POD publisher. After all, what book publisher is going to want to shell out its own money to publish a book others can get for free? Certain publishers (O'Reilly and Baen come to mind) might actually like that model, but that's only relevant if you're publishing in tech or scifi, respectively.
    Having published one book via a traditional publisher, I am considering other books through POD, at least on the first go-around, if I run into hiccups with getting a book deal. Basically, I self-publish the first edition, with an eye toward getting a more traditional publisher involved for a second edition, or follow-on works, or stuff. In this case, it's as much about control as anything else -- traditional publisher agreements are tilted in favor of the publisher.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    CHIA GARCIA, 1 Jul 2003 @ 9:32am

    No Subject Given

    Mike, all authors should be entitled to make monkey from their work. No one ever said self publishing, or any kind of publishing for that matter was easy. Even large publishers are having trouble making any kind of return on their investment in publication. This problem is not unique to self publishers. Ask anyone who ever published anything for wrox or IDG. No, seriously...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 1 Jul 2003 @ 9:57am

      Re: No Subject Given

      I wasn't saying they shouldn't be "entitled" to make money from their work.

      My point was they need to determine what the goals are of self-publishing.

      If it's to get a big enough audience to show a big name publisher that they're worth taking a chance on, then I think charging for the book may go against that goal.

      However, I don't think there's anything wrong with a publisher who just wants to self-publish and can promote the book themselves. If that's their goal, then go for it.

      But, if they're trying to show enough readers to interest a publishing house, then, they're working at cross-purposes.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael Ward, 1 Jul 2003 @ 9:56am

    This isn't Publishing; it's Printing

    There's nothing wrong with using a service to print copies of your book for you.

    That's all they're doing for you, though. The truly hard part is getting reviews, publicity, visibility.

    Michael Ward
    Hidden Knowledge

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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