Self Publishing

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Comment by Mari Sloan on November 6, 2009 at 12:44am

From the number of responses it might be that most of the Writer's Box members are very successfully published and don't feel that they need to share with wannabees. This is a forum for people who think they might want to publish in this very specialized way. It's a tough process. There may be people reading this who just read and then say "Querying isn't so bad!"

Comment by Tony Walker on November 5, 2009 at 1:29pm

It would be interesting to see how many WB members have actually published any books.

From the small number of responses, I'd guess not too many.

Comment by Mari Sloan on November 4, 2009 at 11:45am

As an author, your best bet is to join a large organization that sponsors authors in your genre, and ride their coattails. Sisters in Crime/LA has been INCREDIBLY helpful to me, and they rent a large booth for the Los Angeles Festival of Books each year, and each of their members can have an assigned time to sell and sign in it. You can also attend conferences and just keep your eyes open for anything happening in your geographical area. Booths can be costly, so it's a good idea to band with other authors in your genre and rent one together. It helps in manning the booth, too, and in attracting traffic, not to go it alone.

JOIN, join and then join some more. I'm a member of Sisters in Crime and at one time was a member of five local book clubs and thirty different NINGs.

Comment by Mari Sloan on November 4, 2009 at 11:33am

I think what I would like to see at a book fair that I have never seen is a Video Promo booth, which would run the Video Promo for every author selling at the fair in a loop so that readers could just walk by and watch them. I've never seen that and I think it would sell books.

Comment by Blindogg on November 4, 2009 at 11:32am

How does one go about finding book fairs to attend?

Comment by Mari Sloan on November 4, 2009 at 11:25am

Personal appearances work. Book Fairs have worked for me, too, and I WORK at a book fair, spending my time talking to every reader who will talk to me.

I am not a fan of the "self publishing companies," aka "author houses," which I see as victimizing more authors than they have legitimately helped into print. My friend spent $12,000 on publishing services and printed books, was left to try to sell on her own, and STILL had NO distribution when she finished. I see too many other authors finding themselves in that situation. Most of the self publishing houses produce an expensive product that has not been properly edited, and in doing that they are functioning as a substandard publisher that the author pays big bucks for in the end.

To afford to self-publish, you have to learn new skills and actually publish it yourself. Then get a printer that is going to distribute it for you, something you cannot do, and join something that will give you access to personal appearances and expect to work some more. There is no easy way to fame and fortune. I've averaged about 25 cents an hour and was proud to do it.

Comment by Mari Sloan on November 4, 2009 at 11:19am

Oh, and I'm afraid I'm merely notorious and still poor. How many of you have read "Beaufort Falls," and you have easy access to purchase it on Amazon and almost anywhere?

Comment by Clark Isaacs on November 4, 2009 at 10:50am

The sponsorship by self-publishing companies is what pays for a lot of the program. Understand, this is not your typical book fair. This is aimed at those who self-published and are becoming a vast majority of the books being published yearly. Their problem at this point, even if they are good, is publicity, getting an honest publisher who will deliver. Also, understanding how the industry operates, who makes the money, and why it is difficult to get into mainstream.
It is nice to get an order for 25 books, but when the returns come, what do you do next. How can you be sure that those books sold will not wind up in your living room next six months from now?
Admission to the public is a new concept in NYC and the people who are doing the program are willing to share what happened. We shall see.
The LA Times book fair and others like it including the one in Las Vegas are definitely free, but do charge authors to sell their books for rental of a space. It is like a flea market of sorts, but it does work.
Going out and speaking to groups is another way. We invited an author to our local mining club last February. She sold over 200 books in that visit to an audience of about 250 people, not bad. The book was one which was about women miners of the old west.
This is all in the formative stages, and might not pull off at all. However, it is a thought which might aid writers who are looking at self publishing.

Clark

Comment by Blindogg on November 4, 2009 at 9:49am

OK - So we don't charge admission...but that leads to the question of how are we (the great un-backed-by-the-money-making-moguls-of-the-publishing-world) supposed to turn a reasonable profit if we have to rent booth space?
Don't get me wrong - I love this idea and would go out of my way to participate in such an event...but (I assume like most of us) I am working with an operating budget that, at last check of my corporate ledger, was slightly less than zero.

Comment by Mari Sloan on November 3, 2009 at 9:51pm

I can't imagine book enthusiast paying to get in, and after attending the free Los Angeles Times Festival of Books as an author for the last three years, I wouldn't want to require them to pay an entrance fee. What they DO bring is a huge budget for author signed books, and I've watched fans buy book after book, pushing a suitcase around on wheels to carry their purchases.

As an event sponsor you want to make your money on booth rentals, concessions, food and I've always thought there should be paid activities for kids as well as free ones, maybe even movies. There should be a stronger video showing at these events.

The biggest reason for not charging an entrance fee on anything related to books is that it just isn't done for that sort of event. You can make the money in other ways and authors stand a chance of making a bundle out of everyone who gets in for free.

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