How was your self-publishing experience?

Question

For anyone who's self published a book who did you use as a service and what was your experience with them? Not as far as sales afterwards, just during the production phase, were you happy and feel like you got good service, or was it a nightmare? Thanks to all in advance.

Answer 1

Self-published at www.authorhouse.com, and it was a good experience. They did exactly as I asked, in a timely manner, and quality work to boot. When I told them what I wanted on the cover, they said "Well, we'll see what we can find," and then delivered EXACTLY what I asked for. The editor, formatter, whatever -- mine was really nice and took the time to make sure she understood exactly what I meant. The only thing I didn't like was paying for it (of course) -- basic publishing of a softcover with absolutely nothing else (no marketing tools, nothing) is $698. I spent about $1200 or so. Thank you, Mr. Visa, wherever you may be. Also, you keep all rights to your book -- the only rights Authorhouse gets are formatting rights, and that's no biggie. In other words, if your book does really well, you can turn around and sell it to a "real" (ha ha) publisher. For a shining example, you could always get my book, "Elsewhere: a collection" from the shopping part of their website.
Good luck!

Answer 2

I've heard the writer only gets 25 percent of the book sales. Since family and friends are the ones that buy the book, the self publishing houses are making lots of money. For your information, 1 out of 220 self published books sell more than 500 copies.

Answer 3

I was a marketing manager for Barnes&Noble and I can tell you from a bookselling standpoint it would be very hard to get your book into the big bookstores. They won't carry your book except on-line. You may have some luck with your local bookstore but trying to have it distributed regionally would require you and a vehicle to go to each bookstore individually. It's not a good idea to self publish unless you have a very good distribution plan.

Answer 4

maximum possibly self-positioned up. you would be problematical pressed to discover an agent who represents poetry - in basic terms the rip-off brokers value in improve costs, solid brokers flow on value. Poetry does not sell properly and as a result, publishers are not paying for it except you're a longtime author or you have been waiting to get your call available by utilising strengthen publishing credit in the past. The poets i be conscious of of have a tendency to self-positioned up. you would be waiting to get a selection of of poetry printed by utilising a solid press in case you have had your poetry printed in professional paying mags to get your call available. i be conscious of of a few poets who've completed this and are starting to be a poetry sequence printed by utilising a solid pub this form; usually a small pub. i choose for to advise particularly which you analyze the publishing marketplace. No offense, however the actuality taht you think of literary brokers are high priced and value costs shows which you have have been given completed inadequate analyze, if any.

Answer 5

I heard too many horror stories, so I went to a printer and hired them to print the books. Now I get all of the profits, not the printer. cheeringangel.com