Do you go with a small publisher or self-publish?
An author friend of mine asked for some help. Her question was: do I go with a small publisher or self-publish? For me it's self-pub but read my thoughts…
Don't pay a publisher any money! Everything they can do; you can do.
1). Editing! Pay an editor! Quality is important. Here's the name of the person I used on my last book, SHOCKWAVE. She's not free...For me she was worth it. I'm going to work with her again on my next book.Deborah Levinson, she a friend of mine on my Facebook site. She is good.Norm's Facebook
2). Cover work! check out the cover for Shockwave, my thriller and short story Jumpers. Nice work...Contact James Rone at [email protected] tell him I sent you. He's an art student in Phoenix.
3). Use Amazon...they are the largest book distributor in the world.Amazon Kindle for ebook. Look up Kindle Direct Publishing.Amazon's Createspace for paperbacks. Here's the facts...1% of my sales are from paperback. Yes, it true...it all about ebooks now. I self publish on Createspace so I have paperbacks to give away.
4). Product Description: I looked at a pile of book descriptions on Amazon. I believe what I've done works. I combined what I liked from a number of successful authors. Look up my books on Amazon and you'll see the description I use. Lots of stuff for people to read...
5). Price…the ebook price for a new book is $2.99 your older stuff $0.99. However you might consider starting at the $0.99 price point. I know it's cheap but that seems to be the market, check out authors on Amazon not the big names, the indie authors. HEADS-UP - This may be shifting. Some authors are raising their ebook price to find the sweet spot, the right number of sales at the maximum price to generate the most profit. Remember, at $2.99 on Amazon you get 70%. At $0.99 it's only 35%.
6). Go to Smashwords and format your ebook yourself from their guidelines. They have the best outline for formatting an ebook and publish on Smashwords. That gets your book into Apple's iPad, B&N. Sony. Diesel and Kobo...
7). Start a blog, use Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and any other sites you have time to post stuff on.
...that was a lot of stuff...hope it helps.
all the bestNorm
Shockwave
Into the Basement
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Thanks for your thoughts John. I'm not opposed to the small publisher, for that matter any publisher just as long as they remember who the customers are. The external customer is the reader. The internal customer is the author. Addressing the external customer; it feels like we are being gouged when an ebook sells for as much as a paperback or close to it.
Addressing the internal customer, the author or artist. Don't rip us off.
If you find a publisher that supports your principals, then go with them. For me I'm self publishing and it's working. I would go with a publisher if they could reduce my workload so I have more time to write and still give me a percentage that I feel is fair. It's a partnership, not servitude.
All the best
Norm
Most of the work on my Kindle comes from self-publishers. Times are a changin' :)
Norm Applegate's Blog
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This reminds me of my only attempt at self-publishing back in the beginning. A popular horror writer (unnamed because he apologized) named me on his website as a "Mud Dweller" for not going the acceptable route. Again - so glad that's changed.
:)