[Closed] Publishing/ self publishing

Start a blog?

Seems that more and more people are getting book deals by nature of being popular on t'interweb. If it's good, people will talk about it, and if it's not so good, you're not out of pocket.

iBook store?

Y'know, I was thinking more proper hold in your hand book thingy.

lulu.com does the self-publishing thing. The alternative is getting an agent who'll put your work in front of publishers. Short stories are not popular in the British market...

pick up a writing magazine - Writers' Forum or Writing Magazine and they'll have a list of companies that will help you self publish - for a fee of course

Good luck

I used to be a buyer for Waterstone's so I can tell you several ways to get it on the shelves.

[b]method 1,[/b] Get an agent to flog it about for you- this involves getting copies of your book to as many agents as possible who are taking on at the time. This changes regulalry as each agent has to read the thing so is only taking on work when they have time to read a text and then time to sell it. An agent will expect money to do this, but much like an employment agncy this comes out of your advance. On the plus side the honus is on them to sell it, just on you to write it.

[b]method 2,[/b] You hound the publishers yourself- don't bother with big boys as they usually just use agents, instead try smaller indipendants, these tend to specialise in genre's. If they are V'small the budget for promotion is minimal and you will be reduced to turning up in stores and ordering copies for yourself that you never collect in the hope that it migrates onto the shelves to take an example entirley at random. If they are a well regarded moderate indipedant most book chains will take a cahnec on them and get in some of their stock regulalry. Go to your local bookstores and see what publishers are being stocked and apply to these first.

[b]method 3,[/b] You pay to get it printed, bound and all that jazz using publisher to design it. You get this distributed by a book wholesaler like Bertrams who put on barcodes etc and ensure that it is availabe to any store that wants it. All you have to do is ensure that they have enough copies to start with. This is in my opinion the easiset method, but you will have to front the cost of actually making the book and it will have to be in enough quantities for the distributor to take a load. You do also run the risk of having them all sent back if none of them sell and paying the cost of the warehousing.

Where are you based? Many universities have small book publishing operations - it might be worth contacting some.

www.vanitypublishing.co.uk

See if you can get a pod cast of Jerramy Vines show from last week as he discussed this subject.

cool, thanks

I work for a large publisher, and have been a book buyer for High St, supermarkets and book clubs. And I can honestly say getting pubbed ain't easy.

You're highly unlikely to sell anything that's been vanity published to any retailer other than Amazon, who will list it, which in itself won't help it sell. Plus most vanity company's editing, design and marketing efforts are minimal at best. However, if you're happy to pay the cost, you will end up with a bound book in your hand.

Your best bet, as Practical Matt says is to get agent representation, though that in itself is tricky, as they're drowning in submissions themselves. You could try some of the smaller publishers as well... I would also try a site like Authonomy (associated to Harper Collins), which is a peer site, and if something gets enough attention then it may get picked up by HC. Persistence without being annoying is key. Really polish up and self-edit the first chapter of your story, and send that out to agents and publishers. You'll mostly get ignored, but if it's well written, it's got a chance.

And as Corroded says, short stories aren't exactly commercial at the moment. Are you able to expand your novella at all?

I too worked in a bookstore and I second what PracticalMatt said.
However on the agent front it is considered really bad matters to send out multiple copies of your books at once...basically you can send one out wait for the 'No Thank You.' Then can send out another...
On self publishing: I know 2 authors who self publish, both find it very hard to sell books. It is a job in itself promoting your work. You really need to self promote, have cool posters, and flyers and bookmarks (all of which cost money of course). But, you can also go to bookstores and ask to do booksignings. If you do end up doing this you MUST BE OUTGOING! Don't just sit there and expect people to want your book/ come up to you. Be gregarious and chatty, then go 'oh then there's my book...' The biggest problem was authors coming in an expecting their books to just sell... And be creative about your book signings, having themes, or contests can really get people involved. (I was on the promoting/sales side of bookselling rather than the buying)
I'd be really interested in how you get on as 'some day' I will be looking to publish too...

If you have not already done so, getting the book Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2011 is a good idea with lots of help and ideas.

I am going down this same route, although the book I am just about to finish is non-fiction. It does help to have an on-line presence. My strategy is to publish my masters degree dissertation for free, get some word-of-mouth publicity, and then look for small publishers who publish in this genre.

I may self-publish in a few months time if I have no luck, but you can self-publish in a manner whereby if Amazon sell a copy, one copy is printed and sent out to the buyer, as opposed to you having to order lots of books up front.

Mrs Grips - [i]However on the agent front it is considered really bad matters to send out multiple copies of your books at once...basically you can send one out wait for the 'No Thank You.' Then can send out another[/i]

Honestly, it's not bad manners, it's the norm. You should cast your net as wide as possible. Submit it in volleys if you find it more manageable, but you have to be very proactive.

Just for the record, you could get your book model stocked (ie a constant minimum order maintained by each store) and a shelf talker (the little bits of plexi that sit underneath face out books with a synopsis of the plot) by paying for it with head office or you used to be able to. I don't think it's cheap though as you may be paying to absorb the risk to the retailer.

Mrsgrips is right re promotion- if you get a wholesaler to do the distro you can make it work by then plugging it everywhere and getting posters & ads out.

Maybe look at other ways of getting your stories publicised so as to raise your profile a bit first.

Short story / creative writing competitions - submit some of your stories to people compiling a compendium of stories if they fit a certain theme.

It may be aiming a bit high but the Sunday Times magazine has a short story in it every week, I've got no idea how they select those but they seem to be from a range of authors.

Good luck though 🙂

[i]It may be aiming a bit high but the Sunday Times magazine has a short story in it every week,[/i]

Ha, I was thinking more a short run of properly bound books that I could palm off to friends and family whilst not looking them in the eye, because of worrying about their reaction to the rude bits...

DirtyLyle- That's actually really good to know. It makes things far easier.