Publishing our work.

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   taw2012posted 12 years ago

   Hi people,
   Many of us want to get our works published. We spend a lot of time, do hard work and complete the work. Now we want to get it published. Ho to do it? Share your knowledge and experiences...

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      galleryofgraceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Wondering why no one mentioned Lulu.

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         mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         The last person who commented on my self publishing hub used to use Lulu. They have now tried Createspace (again because of a prior misunderstanding regarding proof copies of the books) and found the end result far more impressive. They even thanked me for the recommendation based on this

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      taw2012posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hey people, We have many publishers publishing lot of good books around the world. Which publisher is the best? In the sense - publishing excellent books?

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         psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That would be a very long list. To narrow it down it would help to know genre and length.

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   Eric Calderwoodposted 12 years ago

   Try entering a writing contest.  There are several good contests listed in Writer's Digest Magazine that are high profile contests looked at by publishers as well as other writers.  I had a short story published after winning second place overall in a contest that I entered on a whim.

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      taw2012posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for your suggestion. This is a good Idea. If we win in such contests, our work will be noticed and that would be the first step for a successful writing career. But do these magazines have contests for novels?

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         Eric Calderwoodposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I've seen some that have different categories including a novel category.  I think they usually take the first few chapters as the entry.

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   mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years ago

   Createspace for paperback print on demand books, Kindle (KDP) & Smashwords for eBooks. I sorted all of this out for my Step Dad with a load of help from fellow Hubber Sandy Spider (here on HP) in regard to formatting the eBooks for uploading to Kindle and Smashwords. He is now starting to see small but regular amounts of money coming in as a result (mainly from the eBooks). Sandy Spider does offer her services for a nominal fee, but it is well worth every penny/cent, as she can proof read, design a cover and format your eBooks quickly and efficiently. Createspace is a very easy system for anyone to use if they want to produce paperback books on the print on demand basis. I have written on this subject due to being so impressed with both the eBook and paperback format, and the helpful service Sandy has to offer those who struggle with stuff like formatting eBooks for uploading.

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      taw2012posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I have gone through the websites you mentioned. They are really good. I have to spend come more time to understand those. But through these websites does our work get the value what it deserve?

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         mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Well anything you publish through either Createspace or Kindle (KDP) is automatically sold on Amazon as they are part of the same company, so essentially you are in the best possible place to sell your work. Smashwords distribute to virtually the major eBook stores, so I don't think you could be in a much better place than these to be honest.

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            lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Misty what about the Copyright issue? Do we need to copyright them ourselves or is it done by these places once we submit it to them?

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               mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               They provide you with an ISBN number, (free of charge) which as far as I am aware is your proof of copyright, (along with the obvious publishing date proving it is your own work). We had the additional advantage that two of my Step Dad's books had been published previously through a standard publisher, and he has letters from them stating that the copyright is now reverted to him because they have ceased their print run on those books.

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                  lobobrandonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Ok that's great. Thanks

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      swb78posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Misty,
      I published my first eBook through smashwords.com and was very happy with my experience. I will say that if your not good at editing your work hire it out *smiling*. I spite of holding a top ten spot under poetry for well over six months, I still cringe at some of the obvious grammatical errors I missed. I have two manuscripts I am working on now and I plan to return to smashwords.

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         swb78posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         *in spite*

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         mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for sharing your experience swb78, what I would say is that so far the vast majority of my Step Dad's sales have come from Amazon though (KDP, Kindle Direct Publishing). Smashwords has also brought in sales, but far less, so you might want to try Amazon KDP too if you want a good income from your writing overall. Don't forget this isn't a choice between the two, as they both allow you to use multiple outlets for your eBooks and do not insist on exclusivity.
         
         PS. Don't forget you can still go back to your original document, make edits to remove mistakes, and then re-upload it to Smashwords so the corrected version overrides the one with errors (remember not to unpublish the original though, simply go into the book details and upload your new version so it replaces the original). We have done this several times in order to correct minor mistakes or adjust text in each of my Step Dad's books. You can also do this on Amazon KDP.

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            taw2012posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Misty,
            Which one would give a better income - short stories or novels?

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               mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I just don't know if I had to choose between these two choices, as the best income comes from informational books like gardening, building, pet keeping etc. My Step Dad wrote novels, but is working on a short story right now. We won't really know which is more profitable until we see how the short story income compares with his novels, and even then the pricing is crucial, (do you reduce your margin and increase your turnover, or do you charge more and sell less individual books?)

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   larakernposted 12 years ago

   Yes, I have been researching several different writing contests and some do offer a novel category. This site offers a lot of contests (including novel contests). Good luck!
   http://www.writersdigest.com/competitio … mpetitions

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   My approach is 1) write work, 2) submit to appropriate magazine, anthology or publisher, 3) sign contract, 4) cash check.

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      mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Disadvantage to this being 'one off payment' and 'no ongoing income stream' unfortunately.
      
      If it is a book, publishers will take the majority of the income and give you little in return for all your hard work writing it.

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         psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I disagree.  Publishers pay royalties.  Quarterly or monthly.  I find the income to be quite regular. And all I have to do is write the next book, not edit, package, promote and distribute.

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Well I would love to know which publisher you are using. My Step Dad was accepted by Pegasus Elliot (Vanguard Press), and their royalties amounted to about a pound per book sold. The editing was not great, in fact the final copy that their proof readers had approved still included a good number of small punctuation errors etc, many of which we are still finding to this day some 5 or 6 years later, (which is why now he has the copyright back under his control we have corrected those mistakes and republished, and the profits are far better). As for the promoting, have they specified what promoting they are actually doing for you? Very very few publishers will do the donkey work for you I am afraid. They do a minimal amount, but you have to do the bulk of it if you want to be successful. If you use Createspace they will package for you, but even then you will have to help to promote your own work as like any other publisher they haven't got the resources to promote books unless you are already a well established author like Stephen King or J. K. Rowling etc.
            
            Edit, My original comment referred to the assumption I made that you were mainly talking about magazines etc ("submit to appropriate magazine, anthology or publisher"), not so much books (obviously magazines are short lived much like newspapers, and any ongoing royalties are not going to be much)

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   Well you need to research your publisher. I work with one textbook publisher and several small romance publishers and I am very happy with my income from them. a dollar a book adds up when each book sells a few thousand copies a year. And because I do not spend time on publishing tasks my writing output is probably higher. And for ebooks I am looking at 2-4 dollars per book.  Boy, do I love ebooks.
   
   I don't care much about promotion.  The publishers have distribution, and their own readership.  For my genres (romance, science non-fiction) this is what creates sales. Recreating this as a one person publisher would be difficult at best.
   
   Not everyone has the skills or time to be their own publisher.  I certainly don't.  Submitting to a conventional publisher is still very much a viable option for the working writer. 
   
   For magazines and anthologies I am looking at 20-50 each which is not a hugh amount.  I see short work as mainly a way to increase novel sales by getting the attention of a wider readership.

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   shaylove727posted 12 years ago

   Read my hub The Secrets of Self Publishing..

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