I'm one step closer to being published! Questions for those who have been published. - Page 2

The Don · 15th May 2012, 03:11 AM

Mummy and Daddy Don went the route of self-publishing for Mummy Don's books. After being quoted £000's to get the books published they decided to do as much of it themselves (they are retired so have the time) so.....

Daddy Don proof read the books (there are three) about a million times and got them in a format the printers were happy with. By taking responsibilty for this, and pagination, they saved a fortune
They found a printer who would print the books 50 at a time to order, quickly at about £3 a copy
Daddy Don spent months pushing the books to UK libraries, blogging etc etc
They can make a (small) profit selling the books at £7 a pop

After 5 years of hard graft Daddy Don (Mummy Don died in the interim) has sold a couple of thousand books. Currently he ships 10-20 a month in hardcopy and about twice that as eBooks. There have also been 3,000+ loans of the books from the libraries in the UK.

Based on the strength of the UK sales he now has two book deals in Portuguese. One for Brazil and another for the rest of the Portuguese-speaking world. These deals came with a small advance (€2000-3000 for each) and now that they have sold a few thousand copies (it helps to have a publisher to help with promotions) a small royalty cheque comes in from time to time.

The primary objective was to get my Mum's books in front of people. Thanks to the enormous amount of effort my Dad put in, they've managed to do this and turn a small profit (as long as you don't count my Dad's time) with the added bonus that my Dad has something to do since the death of my Mum which both keeps him busy and reminds him of her.

Self-publishing doesn't have to be a financial disaster if you have the time, application and perseverance.

JWideman · 1st June 2012, 04:34 PM

Originally Posted by C_Felix

I want to avoid Publish on Demand?

No, you want to avoid being a sucker and giving someone a bunch of money to print your book and make you buy copies.
Print On Demand, or POD as it's more commonly called, is just a way to keep startup costs low. Beware, however, as a lot of the scammers claim that they are a "POD publisher". This is a lie. They are POD printers. There's no such thing as a "POD publisher". There are legitimate services that provide POD printing, and there are legitimate publishers that use POD. These are not the same things, nor are they the same thing as a "POD publisher".
Hope this helps.

Skeptic Ginger · 1st June 2012, 09:17 PM

I mentioned this in the other thread but it's worth noting here. It's just some trivia about "50 Shades of Grey" which is a rather poorly written book that became a best seller. It was originally written as free fan fiction on the net and even used the Twilight names, Bella and Edward and included some of the other characters. After being available for free and getting 30,000 hits it was rewritten as a book with the names changed. I found that interesting. Giving it away for free is not necessarily a death nell for future commercializing of a book.

truethat · 2nd June 2012, 04:47 AM

My book is a test prep book that is part of the class. If you view POD as a marketing tool you can do very well with it. I don't think you necessarily are crossing some taboo if you are writing they type of book the OP is writing. If you want to be a great writer and part of literature, then this is not necessarily the way to go. However I would imagine that 20 years from now, these won't even be true. Part of what these POD places push is marketing techniques than can be helpful if you don't know what you are doing. But you'd be better off just asking other POD writers what worked for them than paying out a ton of money for "marketing" plans.

15th May 2012, 03:11 AM	#41
The Don Philosopher Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Cymru Posts: 8,223	Mummy and Daddy Don went the route of self-publishing for Mummy Don's books. After being quoted £000's to get the books published they decided to do as much of it themselves (they are retired so have the time) so..... Daddy Don proof read the books (there are three) about a million times and got them in a format the printers were happy with. By taking responsibilty for this, and pagination, they saved a fortune They found a printer who would print the books 50 at a time to order, quickly at about £3 a copy Daddy Don spent months pushing the books to UK libraries, blogging etc etc They can make a (small) profit selling the books at £7 a pop After 5 years of hard graft Daddy Don (Mummy Don died in the interim) has sold a couple of thousand books. Currently he ships 10-20 a month in hardcopy and about twice that as eBooks. There have also been 3,000+ loans of the books from the libraries in the UK. Based on the strength of the UK sales he now has two book deals in Portuguese. One for Brazil and another for the rest of the Portuguese-speaking world. These deals came with a small advance (€2000-3000 for each) and now that they have sold a few thousand copies (it helps to have a publisher to help with promotions) a small royalty cheque comes in from time to time. The primary objective was to get my Mum's books in front of people. Thanks to the enormous amount of effort my Dad put in, they've managed to do this and turn a small profit (as long as you don't count my Dad's time) with the added bonus that my Dad has something to do since the death of my Mum which both keeps him busy and reminds him of her. Self-publishing doesn't have to be a financial disaster if you have the time, application and perseverance.

1st June 2012, 09:17 PM	#43
Skeptic Ginger formerly skeptigirl Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Shifting through paradigms Posts: 40,497	I mentioned this in the other thread but it's worth noting here. It's just some trivia about "50 Shades of Grey" which is a rather poorly written book that became a best seller. It was originally written as free fan fiction on the net and even used the Twilight names, Bella and Edward and included some of the other characters. After being available for free and getting 30,000 hits it was rewritten as a book with the names changed. I found that interesting. Giving it away for free is not necessarily a death nell for future commercializing of a book.
	__________________ (*Tired of continuing to hear the "Democrat Party" repeatedly I've decided to adopt the name, ~~Pubbie Party, Repubs~~ "Republics" and Republic Party in response.)

2nd June 2012, 04:47 AM	#44
truethat Philosopher Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 8,622	My book is a test prep book that is part of the class. If you view POD as a marketing tool you can do very well with it. I don't think you necessarily are crossing some taboo if you are writing they type of book the OP is writing. If you want to be a great writer and part of literature, then this is not necessarily the way to go. However I would imagine that 20 years from now, these won't even be true. Part of what these POD places push is marketing techniques than can be helpful if you don't know what you are doing. But you'd be better off just asking other POD writers what worked for them than paying out a ton of money for "marketing" plans.
truethat Philosopher Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 8,622	__________________ “Do not argue with an idiot they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain

1st June 2012, 04:34 PM	#42
JWideman Graduate Poster Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 1,241	Originally Posted by C_Felix I want to avoid Publish on Demand? No, you want to avoid being a sucker and giving someone a bunch of money to print your book and make you buy copies. Print On Demand, or POD as it's more commonly called, is just a way to keep startup costs low. Beware, however, as a lot of the scammers claim that they are a "POD publisher". This is a lie. They are POD printers. There's no such thing as a "POD publisher". There are legitimate services that provide POD printing, and there are legitimate publishers that use POD. These are not the same things, nor are they the same thing as a "POD publisher". Hope this helps.