Self-Publishing

[John(txic)]

Have any of you good people gone down this route in recent times?  

 

Doing a search on this Forum brings up many threads, but most of these seem to be several years or more old.

 

Suggestions, experiences and anything of interest?  Please share.

[Gunner 87]

1 hour ago, John(txic) said:

Have any of you good people gone down this route in recent times?  

 

Doing a search on this Forum brings up many threads, but most of these seem to be several years or more old.

 

Suggestions, experiences and anything of interest?  Please share.

Hi John(txic).

Last year I wrote and looked at publishing a short non-fiction story and made a number of errors that, in hindsight, should have been remedied at an early stage, and which, had they been, would have saved both time and money.

The biggest mistake was, having decided to self publish, submitting the manuscript to be formatted before being proof read by a professional third party. I had reviewed and altered the daft many times and so when I sent off the book was pretty confident it was just a simple case of formatting the script so as to be compatible with the various files required by Amazon. I also chose a package which included a cover design and submitting the work.

When liaising with the project manager it came obvious that a number of points, or grammar, had to be clarified. I discovered there can only be a certain amount of change to the script once the book is formatted. Rather belatedly I had an offer of a proof read from a family friend and when the book came back it was apparent the whole process would have to be started again and this, in turn, would cost. Luckily the company were very understanding and on cancellation they refunded me a proportion the initial package price.

In short, if you are looking to self publish and going to submit the book for formatting make sure it is the final draft you send away.

A second issue I had to decide on was whether to have the book reviewed by a legal professional to ensure I was not at risk of litigation for discussing the actions of others and using third party material. 

I'm sure you are well aware of these points but I thought to let you know how I fared anyway.

Gunner 87

[edit] I have sent you over a pm that might be of interest. 

 

Edited 17 July , 2023 by Gunner 87

[knittinganddeath]

My husband used Leanpub. It started as a self-publishing site for computer books but also includes other genres. Authors keep 80% of the sticker price. IIRC it has a kind of work-in-progress option so you can publish initially and then make edits and/or continue adding chapters until the book is finished.

[EastSurrey]

Last year I used Parkers, a local firm in East Kent that had been recommended to me, after the publishers of my 2 previous books, and a couple of others , turned my third book down as insufficiently commercial. It is 'The real "General Mitford",  a biography of Major General Mitford of 72nd Brigade, 24th Division & 42nd Division. It proved the most convenient, as I was able to e.g. go through proofs on the spot, but it was probably not the cheapest option. You certainly need to have a fully finished typescript, to avoid unnecessary extra costs. I was happy to be my own editor. With paperbacks, unlike hardbacks,  you don't have to worry about fitting in to a particular number of pages. One thing I wish I'd known earlier was the quality that was possible for illustrations. I limited myself to maps and drawings, when it looks as though some photos could have been quite adequately reproduced. I managed to reduce the costs from the first estimate by showing the margins, etc. used for my my previous two books. I didn't go for an ISBN number, as it was quite an extra expense, but if you use someone like Amazon, you have to have one. Parkers essentially took my typescript , laid it out, designed the covers using illustrations I supplied, supplied proofs, and then printed me 100 copies. I can then order extra copies for the cost of the printing.

Michael 

[Bernard_Lewis]

I've had six books published, five "traditional" and one selfpublished. 

I selfpublished with what was Amazon CreateSpace. 

I'm reasonably competent on grammar etc so skipped the cost of a proofreader. The hardest part was getting the formatting right (in Word) for CreateSpace's standards.

Beyond that it's much harder "doing it yourself" than letting a "proper" publisher handle most of the promotion, getting it into bookshops etc. I only sold face to face or over the web.

I had 300 printed and sold the lot at £14 a copy (I gave a small discount for face to face sales). It's now selling - second hand - at a hefty premium. 

Given the choice, I'd always go "traditional". Much easier with a good publisher.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neath-Record-Breaking-1988-89-Season/dp/153551308X

Bernard 

[John(txic)]

Thanks for your input, folks.

 

I've heard of LuLu: does anyone have experiences of them?

[Moonraker]

I'm a regular contributor to the KDP Community that advises publisher-authors on self-publishing through Amazon KDP. The website offers various tutorials ("the KDP University") that help an author to publish an ebook, paperback  and hardback at no cost. The stumbling block is marketing the finished product. Amazon handles orders, posts copies and pays royalties.

Unfortunately most of the books we see are hopeless,written in poor English, occasionally on a mobile phone, and often they are stationery products such as journals and notebooks inspired by "easy money" tutorials on YouTube.

Follow the Community for a few days. You will see we do not suffer fools gladly  but will readily help those who have made an effort to acquire the necessary skills.

[John(txic)]

That looks of interest, Moonraker - thanks.

[Moonraker]

Decide whether you want to publish an ebook and/or paperback - a hardback isn't usually worth it. With the former the text will "flow" depending on which device it's being read on; the latter requires more time and skill in formatting the text to avoid widows & orphans (solitary lines at the top and bottom of pages; stubs  (very short last lines of paragraphs);  and so on. There's also the need to paginate, which taxed me a little.

It's vital to peruse a print-out of one's near-final draft (the eye sees text differently to when it's on a screen) and get someone else to look at it. If it's to be a paperback, saving it as a PDF will present everything as it will appear in the printed version. Print out the PDF and peruse that. Get a proof copy of the actual book to check that it looks like you want it.

[John(txic)]

Is there an up-front cost to pay, Moonraker?

 

[Moonraker]

No. I paid only for an extra two cartridges of black ink to print out my drafts onto scrap paper! One can spend a lot of money buying services to format, edit and index your text and to design your cover, but there are many charlatans out there; several of the regular contributors to the Community offer honest, professional services, but at a price and very, very few author-publishers recoup anything like the cost.

BTW Amazon CreateSpace that Bernard mentions above is no longer available.

[Ron da Valli]

Amazon Create Space is now KDP.(Kindle Direct Publishing). It's basically the same set up run by Amazon. I have used it to publish 22 books. There are tutorials to help you get started. It is completely free. You sell via Amazon but they take a large cut. You can buy author copies at cost price which is the best way. 

Self Publishing | Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

Here's a link to one of my books:

Rhyl Lads In Foreign Fields: Rhyl's Great War: Amazon.co.uk: Porrino, Mr Darryl: 9798795970790: Books

 

[Gunner Bailey]

Since 2019 I've self published four books. Three on grenades and one about a WW1 soldier. 

I have built the books using a very old copy of Microsoft publisher (must update that), had my wife do the proof reading - something she is brilliant at, and had the books published by an academic publisher in Exeter. All are ISBN numbered - something that is not expensive if you buy a block of 10 numbers. I had some help from a friend who formatted the covers for me, which saved a little money at the printers.

Overall I have found it a really rewarding process and doing face to face sales at militaria fairs very pleasurable. 

Writing the books is fairly easy if you love the subject. The key part of the process is without doubt the proof reading. The author just cannot do it themselves.

[Bernard_Lewis]

When I lunched my rugby book I bought copies in bulk from the Amazon publishing outfit (as was) and disabled all other sales channels. This avoided the risk of people buying direct from Amazon while the copies I'd bought mouldered in my garage.

I set it up so that an order to Amazon sparked an email to me and I then toddled off to the post office to actually despatch one of my copies. So you need to be around to do that speedily.

After I'd shifted most of my bought copies (mainly face to face) I enabled the Amazon option so that they despatched any new orders (which they printed one at a time as each order came in) taking the pressure off me.

Overall, this worked for me but going down the traditional route with a pukka publisher is far, far easier (assuming your pitch hits the mark!) and you end up with a more professional product.

I've been lucky since, I believe, a self published crime (or whatever) novel is pitched into a torrent of similar books, from top authors down to people who shouldn't waste their time selfpublishing publishing a very poor book (but good luck to them). As I'm the only plonker who had written about the Swansea Workhouse or Swansea in the Great War, publisher's were more receptive to producing it - though the likely audience was small (probably less than 2,000) there was no competition, really, for such niche, not done before subjects.

Bernard 

[Moonraker]

1 hour ago, Gunner Bailey said:

... All are ISBN numbered - something that is not expensive if you buy a block of 10 numbers...

One can get free ISBNs when using Amazon KDP.

[John(txic)]

Obliged, one and all.

[Gunner Bailey]

20 hours ago, Moonraker said:

 very, very few author-publishers recoup anything like the cost.

 

 

My books are in profit. Sales have been worldwide despite managing most of the sales myself. I did have bulk orders from a couple of military booksellers as well. My initial print runs are starting to sell out and I'm working on a second revised edition of the Rifle Grenade book.

Edited 21 July , 2023 by Gunner Bailey

[Bernard_Lewis]

Well done, Gunner! 

I've made modest profits on my books though it's a hobby, really. If I depended on the book income to feed my wife and I, we'd be down the local food bank in no time! 

Bernard 

[Ron da Valli]

12 hours ago, Bernard_Lewis said:

When I lunched my rugby book I bought copies in bulk from the Amazon publishing outfit (as was) and disabled all other sales channels. This avoided the risk of people buying direct from Amazon while the copies I'd bought mouldered in my garage.

I set it up so that an order to Amazon sparked an email to me and I then toddled off to the post office to actually despatch one of my copies. So you need to be around to do that speedily.

After I'd shifted most of my bought copies (mainly face to face) I enabled the Amazon option so that they despatched any new orders (which they printed one at a time as each order came in) taking the pressure off me.

Overall, this worked for me but going down the traditional route with a pukka publisher is far, far easier (assuming your pitch hits the mark!) and you end up with a more professional product.

I've been lucky since, I believe, a self published crime (or whatever) novel is pitched into a torrent of similar books, from top authors down to people who shouldn't waste their time selfpublishing publishing a very poor book (but good luck to them). As I'm the only plonker who had written about the Swansea Workhouse or Swansea in the Great War, publisher's were more receptive to producing it - though the likely audience was small (probably less than 2,000) there was no competition, really, for such niche, not done before subjects.

Bernard 

Thanks for the tip about disabling other sales channels Bernard. I never thought of that!

[Bernard_Lewis]

There ain't no flies on me, Ron! 😂👍

Bernard 

[Gunner Bailey]

I'd like to add that back in about 2016 I asked a fellow member - Bruce for advice on self publishing and he was very helpful, as I'm sure any of the forum's self publishers would be to anyone thinking of taking that route.

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

@John(txic) I have only ever published the one book, A Lancashire Fusilier's First World War, an edited version of my GF's WW1 diary, and was completely naive about the project when I first embarked upon it. Would I ever have done it if I had not been so naive? I'm not sure, but I have learned an awful lot along the way, and found the whole process, as well as the subject matter (which was quite new to me when I first started), completely fascinating.

I am lucky enough to have  amongst my friends a professional proofreader and also a man who publishes his own local history and walking books, and a few books of the same ilk for other local authors, and, because both are very good friends indeed, and knew that I was doing this project for charity, they both provided their services for free. But, like others who have commented on this thread, when it came to marketing I was entirely on my own.

Simply because it was the route most familiar to my publisher friend, I went down the route of getting a number of books printed at the outset, rather than the print-as-you-go route. I am not sure whether I would do that again, though having the physical books to sell does provide a very effective incentive not to desist with the marketing.

I do not know for sure, but would guess that the cost of printing each book is slightly more if you go down the print-as-you-go route; if you get a number of copies printed up front, on the other hand, you have the conundrum that the more you get printed the cheaper it is, but how many can you realistically sell?

I have sold just over 300 copies so far, the vast majority to arm's length purchasers rather than friends who have taken pity on me, but that still leaves the attic floorboards groaning under the weight of a fair few more. At £15.00 per copy, I would easily have recouped my printing costs by now, and would be well on the way to recouping the charges of my publisher and proofreader if they had charged for their work, but in fact I have chosen to donate a certain amount to my chosen charity out of the sale of each book, rather than waiting until I have recouped my outlay before beginning to make donations; as a result I may never recoup my full outlay, but, looking at it the other way, there aren't many hobbies that you can pursue without some outlay, and if I ultimately prove to have made an investment which I do not fully recoup, I consider that I will have had good value from that investment in terms of the interest, education and experience that it has provided. It's just as well, though, as @Bernard_Lewis has observed, that I am not depending on income from sales to make a living!

As for particular tips, if you want to include any coloured illustrations (as I did, in the form of my GF's hand drawn sketches of trench layouts, some coloured maps and postcards etc.), and you decide to go down the route of having a number of paper copies printed at the outset, the advice of my publisher friend was invaluable in assisting me to keep printing costs down by ensuring that the coloured illustrations appeared only on certain page numbers; I gather that each sheet produced by the printer comprises 32 pages, 16 on each side, and my friend's knowledge of the way the sheets are folded enabled me to ensure that the coloured illustrations appeared on as few sides as possible, meaning that the other sides could be printed in grayscale, which is, of course, cheaper.

Also, if you can, do leave the proofreading to the very last thing; after my GF's book had been proofread I was still finding out information which I couldn't resist including in the book. By then I had learnt how to format the text myself by watching my publisher friend do it, so I was able to do the work using his publisher's software rather than asking him to spend more time on the project, but, as I also felt that it was quite impossible to ask my proofreader to spend more time on it, I have to accept full responsibility for the fact that a number of typos were re-introduced into the text at that stage.

Best of luck for your own project, if I have not put you off!

[John(txic)]

Not at all, old chap.  Just deciding which path to follow.

[Gunner Bailey]

15 hours ago, A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy said:

As for particular tips, if you want to include any coloured illustrations (as I did, in the form of my GF's hand drawn sketches of trench layouts, some coloured maps and postcards etc.), and you decide to go down the route of having a number of paper copies printed at the outset, the advice of my publisher friend was invaluable in assisting me to keep printing costs down by ensuring that the coloured illustrations appeared only on certain page numbers; I gather that each sheet produced by the printer comprises 32 pages, 16 on each side, and my friend's knowledge of the way the sheets are folded enabled me to ensure that the coloured illustrations appeared on as few sides as possible, meaning that the other sides could be printed in grayscale, which is, of course, cheaper.

 

Great post and very useful. 

I think the issue of cost and colour illustrations depends on the type of production process. My printer always asks for a breakdown of pages before giving me a quote. This comes out like this:

Pages - Headlines (mainly first couple of pages)

Pages - With plain text only.

Pages with Colour photos only

Pages with Colour and Monochrome photos - illustrations

Pages with Monochrome photos and illustrations only

Blank pages (normally at end) 

I've always had accurate quotes and have never been asked for more money after the print run.

So I think cost related to colour may depend on the printer so possibly three quotes should be sought before ordering a print run.

[Moonraker]

As we were talking about Amazon KDP: this ridiculous claim has caused anger and derision within the KDP Community - and hardly  any of those making comments have been fooled. The "Daily Fail" indeed.