Self-Published books

[Sha'uri]

As a reader, would you ever consider reading a self-published book written by an unknown author?

With the economy as it is and publishers being far more selective than they used to be, some author's can only get their works out their by self-publishing, which unfortunately isn't the most effective way to draw attention to their books, but at least gets it out there.

Knowing that, if you came across a book by someone you've never heard of, someone who has never had the money to promote and advertise their book, would you still give it a shot?

[Gaelbert]

Honestly? No. I wouldn't. I barely have enough money to spend on books I'm sure I'll like, I hardly have anything to spare on gambles.

[Mauve Shirt]

Only if there's a free preview available and I like the free preview. Or I like what I read in a bookstore.

[JonestheSpy]

Well I've certainly published-the-regular-way bought books that I've know nothing about just because I cam across them in the bookstore and they looked interesting. Now that I think about it, that's how I discovered the amazing self-publshed 'zine Cometbus, and I've picked up self-published comics for that reason to.

Word-of-mouth recommendations are far more important to me than advertising, really.

[snoopy13a]

I don't plan on buying any self-published books in the near future. I suppose word-of-mouth could convince me but by the time I'd hear about it, some publisher would have likely picked it up.

[Themrys]

I only ever buy books of which I either know the author or have read some pages. So the main problem is to get such a book in a bookstore or library so I can read it in advance.
Or give a preview on the internet.

[Comet]

Yeah, giving a taste of the story through the internet seems like the best thing to do. You need to have something to sell your book with. I suppose you could also use a brilliant name or beautiful cover art but those would have to be mindblowing in quality to make me buy an entire book on a whim.

[Walrus]

I've self-published many comic books and made a profit (not a living mind, you, but I got back more than what I spent) on all of them. Comics are a lot easier to hand-sell though, since people can flip through the book and decide if they like the art or not. If you're going to do a novel, I'll echo the crowd here and stress that you ABSOLUTELY must put out a free preview online.

You're also going to have a hard time finding places to stock a self-published novel, since distribution at the major retailers is likely far beyond an independent writer's price range. Online sales (either of a physical book or PDFs) are probably the way to go unless there is a circuit of book fairs, conventions, festivals, etc. that you can make appearances at to hand-sell books.

It also helps to find a good, reliable printer. Over time they really pay off.

[Sha'uri]

I do have 4 books self-published through www.lulu.com, one of which, "Falls the Shadow", is available in paperback, hardcover, and PDF. (the hardcover will actually be available to retailers in 6-8 weeks), as well as being available as paperback on Amazon and as NOOKbook on Barnes & Noble's website.--And there is a free preview of it on the publishers website, as well as tidbits I've posted myself on the group page I created for it on facebook (Chronicles of Midgard)--

I just wanted to know how people felt about self-published author's. The cost of having a hard copy of a book pinted and then mailing it to a publisher, only to wait nearly a year for a reply, only to find that it wasn't what they were looking for, is a bit much. Especially when you don't have the money to afford an agent to promote it. The cost of having to make numerous copies and shipping them out really adds up. That's why when my father-in-law suggested a self-publishing company, I jumped on it.

But now I am running into the problem of getting people's attention. Once more it come to money for advertising. Where I live, I've never seen any book fairs. Heck, they even just closed our Borders and all we're left with is a used book store on the Square. :-(

[Lord Seth]

Especially when you don't have the money to afford an agent to promote it.

Any agent that charges you money to "promote" it (a.k.a. "reading fees") is a dishonest agent. Legitimate agents do not charge you money for things like that and instead make their money by taking part of your royalties (I think 15% or so is the standard) from a book that is successfully published. Not counting the aforementioned cut of your royalties, any agent that is trying to get you to pay them money for promotion or reading is either incompetent and thus needs to make money that way or is trying to milk you for extra money. Either way, they are not an agent you want to deal with.

By the way, a sign of a reputable agent is if they're a member of the Associaton of Author Representatives, which, incidentally, have rules against the above "reading fees."

[Jimorian]

Echoing what Lord Seth is saying. You NEVER pay an agent until they sell your book to a real publisher and then they collect a percentage (usually 15% these days) of the sale (and if they have expenses, they might also deduct those from the sale on top of the percentage or consider it as part of their percentage, both options are legit).

That said, Lulu is a well-established outlet for self publishing, so you didn't make a mistake there. Since I worked in a book store that got bombarded by local self-published authors hawking their books, usually with very tactless manners, I'm overall jaded by the possibility of them being any good. But after editing a fiction webzine and seeing mass quantities of raw manuscripts, my view has shifted a bit.

I no longer expect the typical self-published book to be mind-breakingly bad, but instead the usual problem is that they aren't compelling enough for me to care one way or another. I would need really really good word of mouth from people I trust in order to overcome this bias.

The problem self-published authors have as you are probably discovering, is that there are now so many of you also trying to get word out that the alternate filters to traditional publishers are also overwhelmed. The various reviewers I know face the same problem we had at the bookstore -- an overwhelming number of books coming in from unknowns when the stack of books from regular publishers are already too much for them to handle. So they rely on word of mouth much like readers do to find out about the few diamonds in the rough. In other words, the filters rely on other filters.

There are folks who try to concentrate of reviewing self-published works, but there would have to be so many of them doing it that readers would need a reviewer of reviewers to start to find out who to trust, etc.

So while it's now easy to get published, I always warn those who are thinking about this route to consider one thing. A VERY successful self-published book will sell fewer copies than a resounding failure at a big publisher. A moderately successful self-published book may just outsell a weak title at a small press.

The extremely few cases of self-published authors that make it big still pale in comparison to the number of new authors who make it just as big or bigger via traditional publishing every year, so even though the process seems much tougher to go the traditional route, the odds of success are still vastly superior to self-publishing on any scale you can measure it on.

Still, good luck, it looks like you have a very clear and realistic expectation of things, and that puts you FAR ahead of most of the other self-published authors I've ever dealt with.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Considering that I've recently found out that some of the better fan fiction is about 200 times better than most published and well-promoted books out there... The answer is no. In my experience, most people with writing talent and desire to write only have the capacity for short-medium length stories, not full-length novels.

These days the only time I shell out for books if 1. Someone recommends me something they think is good, 2. I borrow it from a library and like it a lot, and 3. It comes in a series.

So far I really only own Tom Clancy, Harry Potter, Andy McNab (a legit ex-SAS writer of thrillers) and a bunch of random assorted biographies, military history and humor books. Although it doesn't help that I'm a college student and move around once a year on average so I don't want to pack lots of heavy stuff I barely use.

[Worira]

No, I would not. Sure, there might be some good ones in there, but if I'm reading the slush pile, I'd better be getting money, not the other way around.

[Nerzi]

As a reader, would you ever consider reading a self-published book written by an unknown author?

Never. Not unless the author was someone I knew personaly (and well) or there was really really good word of mouth about it.

[Kislath]

I buy mostly nonfiction books, and self-published nonfiction is widely accepted and almost commonplace. All that matters to me is the subject matter.

[Themrys]

The cost of having a hard copy of a book pinted and then mailing it to a publisher, only to wait nearly a year for a reply, only to find that it wasn't what they were looking for, is a bit much.

Wait...what? You don't send hard copies to publishers, you send manuscripts. Parts of manuscripts. Or no, you don't, you need to get an agent first.

And none of this should cost you any money. They should only take percentages of the money they help you earn.

[erikun]

I have, through Half-Price Books or the Border's closing sale. Note, however, that I only spent $2 or so on each of them. I've ran across some pretty bad writing when buying books, so I am not very inclined to spend $5-$10 (or more!) on a name I'm not very familiar with.

[Sha'uri]

When I said hard copy, I meant manuscript. I was thinking in terms of the paper being sent as opposed to say a digital copy in that many of speaking. Sorry, I should have clarified.

[Turcano]

In my experience, most people with writing talent and desire to write only have the capacity for short-medium length stories, not full-length novels.

That shouldn't be a barrier; the age of pulp is over, but there are still a lot of anthologies published and a competent agent would focus on those.

[Lord Seth]

Wait...what? You don't send hard copies to publishers, you send manuscripts. Parts of manuscripts. Or no, you don't, you need to get an agent first.

Somewhat. Each individual agent or agency differs in exactly what they want in initial submissions, but usually they want a query letter, a synopsis of the story, and (possibly) a small section of your manuscript in your initial submission. And a self-addressed stamped envelope if it's send via postal (some accept e-mail). You definitely want to check to see if they have a web site, as they'll have information on exactly what they want in the initial submission. If they like what they see you'll then send them the full manuscript, and if they still like it they'll try to find a publisher for it.

And none of this should cost you any money. They should only take percentages of the money they help you earn.

Yeah, going through a literary agent is actually less expensive than going the self-publishing route.

[Jimorian]

That shouldn't be a barrier; the age of pulp is over, but there are still a lot of anthologies published and a competent agent would focus on those.

Actually, there's not enough money in short fiction for most agents to even bother with unless it's a favor to a long-time client. At most they'll look over the contract and offer suggestions for changes, but most of the time, it's author/editor interaction directly.

[Don Julio Anejo]

That shouldn't be a barrier; the age of pulp is over, but there are still a lot of anthologies published and a competent agent would focus on those.

Nonono, I meant something a little different: many people who can and do write unfortunately can only put out high quality prose for a fairly small text (i.e. less than a few hundred pages) and anything after that - quality suffers greatly. Although I'm not a writer, publisher, agent or even an English major so this is purely my subjective opinion.

[Themrys]

When I said hard copy, I meant manuscript. I was thinking in terms of the paper being sent as opposed to say a digital copy in that many of speaking. Sorry, I should have clarified.

May be my bad English, sorry.

However, a short excerpt shouldn't cost too much to print out, and if they do request a full manuscript, chances they want it shouldn't be that bad. Or so I think.

Nonono, I meant something a little different: many people who can and do write unfortunately can only put out high quality prose for a fairly small text (i.e. less than a few hundred pages) and anything after that - quality suffers greatly.

You mean those people who have ideas that, for some strange reason, don't provide enough plot for more than about a hundred pages?
Sometimes I suspect that published fantasy authors have the same problem and just add description to get more pages.