Self-publishing a book - not sure what to do?
- Laluev
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Self-publishing a book - not sure what to do?
Therefore, I have reached a bit of a dilemma. I can either:
* Publish the book solely on Lulu with the potential for less publicity but higher royalties.
* Publish the book on Lulu with retail distribution enabled, allowing the book to be sold through retailers such as Amazon. This would result in the costs being doubled, and also a potential issue with royalties (books sold through Amazon via Lulu would only generate forty pence per sale, due to retail costs).
* Publish the book solely through Createspace. This would mean that I could still sell on Amazon, but not through Lulu. My publisher would not support me if I took the decision, and also would mean that I would receive less royalties due to the way Amazon work.
* Publish the book on both Createspace and Lulu through two separate accounts. This would mean that the book would effectively have two ISBNs which might cause confusion down the line. I would however likely to be able to sell the book at a price I would like through both Amazon and Lulu, and gain sufficient royalties from both organisations.
Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated, especially considering the time and work that has gone into the book.
- Vermont Reviews
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Laluev wrote:For the past year or so I have been writing and working on a book which is a biography of my late grandfather. A vanity publisher has stated that they would be interested in publishing it using the online self-publishing outlet, Lulu, and I have paid said publisher over £200 for the cost of proofreading, editing and ultimately publishing it. However, I have since discovered that whilst Lulu would distribute the book on Amazon, doing this would effectively double the price due to retail distribution costs. Amazon also run a self-publishing outlet called Createspace, however they do not distribute to Lulu due to both outlets being direct competitors. Similarly, my publisher has stated that she will not use Createspace. Obviously, as Amazon are the market leader in books, I would be concerned about selling myself short through Lulu if it where to receive less traffic. That being said, Lulu give higher royalties to publishers, so I would be able to price the book cheaper on there than I would on Createspace.
Therefore, I have reached a bit of a dilemma. I can either:
* Publish the book solely on Lulu with the potential for less publicity but higher royalties.
* Publish the book on Lulu with retail distribution enabled, allowing the book to be sold through retailers such as Amazon. This would result in the costs being doubled, and also a potential issue with royalties (books sold through Amazon via Lulu would only generate forty pence per sale, due to retail costs).
* Publish the book solely through Createspace. This would mean that I could still sell on Amazon, but not through Lulu. My publisher would not support me if I took the decision, and also would mean that I would receive less royalties due to the way Amazon work.
* Publish the book on both Createspace and Lulu through two separate accounts. This would mean that the book would effectively have two ISBNs which might cause confusion down the line. I would however likely to be able to sell the book at a price I would like through both Amazon and Lulu, and gain sufficient royalties from both organisations.
Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated, especially considering the time and work that has gone into the book.
I would say that you have already spent a considerable amount of money. And now are at the crossroads you need to decide if you want to spend more or not. Hope it works out for you. I know for myself I always try to get it done for the best possible deal.
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- P_hernandez
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- vigabo
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I'm new here but no novice at self-publishing. I have self-published 4 books. For what my opinion is worth, I would never have bothered with Lulu. Way too expensive and I don't believe they have the reach that other services offer for far less.
I went the route of finding a printer for my first book, which meant I needed to order 100 - 200 printed copies at a time to get a price allowing me to sell at a $5 - $7 profit. Not wanting to be stuck with stock on my shelves, I looked at alternatives for the 2nd and 3rd reprints of that first book (yes, it was and still is popular). That's when I took a close look at CreateSpace and Blurb. Both offer a similar service and when it came down to my costs, I could make the same profit as I had hiring a printer but the bonus was I didn't need to order 100 - 200 books each time! I could order 5, 10, 20 as I needed them for upcoming book signings or talks I was doing. I didn't think twice when it came to printing my next 3 books. I now use CreateSpace solely and I sell in their online store as well. When I use CS, they "send" my info to Amazon directly and all I have to do then is upload my file to Amazon and they create the Kindle version. I sit back happily and watch my commission cheques come in at the end of each month. No pain, no strain.
But now, there is also another option I suggest you look at: Smashwords! This is a brilliant site. It doesn't print hard copies but if you upload your file there, it converts your file to all formats: Kindle, epub etc. And then it gets even better: Smashwords is a distributor. They distribute your ebook to Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and a host of others. The only one I don't bother having them distribute to is Amazon as Amazon will only take 200 books per year from them and unless you're famous, your book will never get to Amazon via Smashwords. So you just do Amazon yourself and send them the Kindle version that Smashwords created. Incidentally, Smashwords service does all this for free. They collect your commissions from B &N, iBooks, Kobo, Nook etc and cut you a cheque or pay into your PayPal every quarter. They take a small portion themselves from those commissions. And you can also sell directly from Smashwords. Oh, nearly forgot to mention that Smashwords also distributes to Overture (library supplier) for you, along with others. Definitely worth checking out before you spend more money needlessly.
One caution re Smashwords: they are very fussy about the .doc file you send them for conversion to eBooks. But they also supply full instructions on how to do it. If you're really stuck, there are independent services you can search who can do digital conversions for you. I use a very affordable relative, but unfortunately, by this board's rules, I cannot supply you contact info here. But I hope you can use the info and encouragement I have supplied above.
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I'm publishing through Lulu and this isn't so much an endorsement as an informative post. Yes Amazon can be pretty cool to sell on if you're looking for free but, if you're actually willing to shell out the money to purchase Lulu's plan, they actually put it on Amazon for you and do a whole host of other things to help get you started. You still have to do your own promotion and marketing though unless you really want to shell out so cash. I chose the D.I.Y option the first time I attempted publication and honestly, I've found that it's a great deal easier to go through an agency (any agency that offers decent help, not just LuLu) the first time around. They help you get established as an author and you can learn quite a few useful tips for free to use in your future endeavors as an author. That and when you have that foundation built, it's easier to self-publish on your own because you're already known at that point. It took me a couple years to learn this and it's hard work to promote and market your own book, but in the long run it's worth it because you've made connections for the future, you understand process from personal experience and when going through the agency you actually get a better understand of the process when it involves a company as well as choices and effects you can make.
Of course you don't have to go through Lulu. There are several other companies out there that will publish for you, just do your research and see which one works best. I do have one final thing to say about Amazon though. Despite the three month rule where you can't publish elsewhere, they do have an impressive promotion packet so hopefully this helps.
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- lisalynn
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That way I didn't spend too much with Lulu, only printing 2-3 copies with them. I didn't use their editing services though, as I found more reasonable priced editing elsewhere.
My best advice, however, is to focus more on ebooks than print, until the book gets more popular. But that's just my two cents.
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- lucia_kizas
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Could not agree more! Marketing is where the real game begins. For now, I am still trying to get a grip on it.lisalynn wrote: ↑14 Apr 2019, 08:57 Createspace has now been merged into the Kindle Direct platform, allowing it to handle both eBooks and POD books. It's a great way to get your work out there. However, simply flopping it out on Amazon won't get you any sales. Publishing is just the start of the process. Now you are not an author, you're a marketer, and that's an entirely different ballgame.