Is it possible to self publish a high quality book?
Self publish or get an agent? A unique situation:
I am a first time author (though I have a book of published freelance articles) and I’m working on a niche book that I can market myself. I also have access to a first class graphic designer that’s willing to lay it out for free. Distribution is my biggest challenge.
I want to publish an attractive, perfect-bound hardcover book with color photography. I don’t need to have photos on every page and the other pages can be 1/c. Can I get a beautiful book if I self publish? It seems like most companies that print for self publishers do tempated paperback novels.
Will I be able to make a profit this way?
Thanks!
Self publishing is never the right choice, and it just got a lot harder. I would never never never never ever self publish.
First of all, it is very expensive to self publish. Then the marketing of it is very expensive if you want people to know your book is out there and buy it.
Now the latest news is this. Amazon bought BookSurge – one of the more expensive self-publishers. They now say that within a few months or so, they are going to remove the BUY buttons from every non BookSurge self published book on their site. That is going to make it twice as hard for you to sell your books – without having Amazon as a place where people can go to buy them.
They will leave your button on under the following conditions. You pay them 29.99 annually PLUS 55 % of your cover price PLUS you have to purchase the books from your own self publisher and ship them at YOUR expense to Amazon for them to keep on stock and send out. That is ludicrous. If you add in what your own self publisher charges per book, you may end up making zilch or even being in the red. Most likely in the red.
It is just going to drive the price of self published books – already too high- up even more. That will mean fewer people will buy them. Where self published books used to sell 100 copies on the average, that number will go down.
Self publishing is a black hole. Remember Uncle Jim’s Law – When publishing, the money should flow TOWARD the author – not away from them.
To that I add Persi’s Law #1 – If you believe in your book and in yourself, you owe it to yourself to spend at least twice as long trying to publish it traditionally as you did writing it.
With this latest development – which I just got a notice about this week – self publishing just took a turn for the worse.
Pax-C
Using Images to Bring Your Book to Life
|
|
Self Publishing $19.95 Self Publishing |
|
|
The Self-Publishing Manual $20.19 The Self-Publishing Manual |
|
|
The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing $13.48 The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing |
|
|
Handy Guide to Self-Publishing $9 Handy Guide to Self-Publishing |
|
|
Top Self Publishing Firms $16.77 Top Self Publishing Firms |
|
|
Self-Publishing for Dummies $12.98 Self-Publishing for Dummies |
|
|
Self Publishing Made Easy $17.49 Self Publishing Made Easy |
|
|
New Smart & Simple Self Publishing $11.65 New Smart & Simple Self Publishing |