Contributed by:
Tabitha Dial, YourHub.com
Article Contributed on: 5/6/2006 8:22:07 AM
In response to a blog entry I made this week, where I pondered the possibility of
trading in my Jeep for a book deal, YourHub.com user
Joe McDaniel wrote the following comment (
Stephanie is another YourHub.com user-- she was one of the first to start a blog here):
Tabitha & Stephanie: Have you considered self-publishing? I am looking into that as an option. I understand you can publish for less money, print less in an initial run, and print to order. And you can target your own market via the internet. Your thoughts?
My thoughts:
I've thought about it. I've seen it done. But is it for me?
No, no and no. If I want to self-publish anything, it will be for small (almost certainly VERY small!) circulation-- more to entertain than to gain income or notoriety.
I do know someone who's boasted "considerable success" from self-publishing a guide to golfing in Scotland (he does other things for his living, like take people there for golf excursions)-- though I've also heard there are about 3,000 copies of it sitting in the garage, waiting to be sold.
That's all second-hand news.
It depends on what you want to publish. A book of poetry would be a possible option for me, though I'd rather work years and years at getting into several different publications and then, when I know I've really got something incredible, I might put together a manuscript and approach publishers (poets very rarely have literary agents-- there's really no money in poetry, with a few exceptions).
But even with the many people I know, from Columbine Poets and Denver Woman's Press Club and Colorado Poets Association members to people from college and people from Parker and people from YourHub.com, I expect I'd be lucky to sell 100 copies of any book I self-publish.
Self-publishing means self-marketing. It means my book almost certainly won't appear on the shelf of any bookstore. Really, the only people who will find it online are those interested in buying something I've written, anyway. And would you search for a book you didn't know existed? Or for an author you didn't know existed?
Not likely.
And I have to be able to touch and look through books I buy-when it hasn't been recommended to me and when it's not something I was planning to get any way.
People familiar with publishing, including writers, have another name for self-publishing, or print-on-demand. It's a bit ugly and you might want to have the kids leave the room: Vanity press/publishing.
Sure, you get a nice book out of it.
But you really must work hard to sell it. It's not for me.
A travel book about your vast experience in South Africa might be a good possibility for self-publishing for you, Joe. Non-fiction is an easier sell than fiction, and a much easier sell than poetry.
A travel book would be an easier sell (I assume) than, say, your autobiography. Not that you can't or won't have a best-selling memoir, Joe! But more people know about South Africa, you see, than they know about your posts, personality and adventures... for now...