Self-Publishing a book

[5fish]

Eric, we no longer need gate keepers in publishing. What do you mean "not every book deserves to be published?" Says who? Not published by a profit-making company, maybe. But I can put forward my own effort and expense and publish if I want to. The public can buy or not, but its my choice to put it out.

Maybe, you should send one of your books( or a link) to Eric insult edited by moderator JerseyBart

 

[NavyHistorian]

I think both Navy and Eric are out of line.

Navy, why do you think publishers publish? Its to make a profit -- its a business! They have no obligation to publish anything they do not expect to improve their financial position.

Eric, we no longer need gate keepers in publishing. What do you mean "not every book deserves to be published?" Says who? Not published by a profit-making company, maybe. But I can put forward my own effort and expense and publish if I want to. The public can buy or not, but its my choice to put it out.

DaveBrt: Yes, you are correct: they are running a business. I didn't mean to blame them for that. But some good historical research can go wanting if a publisher doesn't think they can make money from it. Self-publishing is way to 1) make that research available and 2) ensure that it is not lost or needs to be rediscovered all over again. And, most certainly, you can get some poorly-written or poorly-created books in the process; not everyone is a writer, illustrator, cartographer or designer; but I have a number of typo-ridden, professionally-published books on my shelf that are shoddy in design with tough-to-read maps.
I have before me two self-published works that exemplify this. One is a small monograph by Alan Dube, only forty pages in length, recounting his father's experience as part of the 7th Naval Beach Battalion at Normandy. I purchased it from lulu.com because this was an aspect of the landing about which I had never read. Being so small, and only a personal account, I expect no publisher would touch it; the cost was under $7, so there wasn't much of a profit margin. The other book is 250 pages, entitled "Custer's Lost Officer," by Walt Cross. I had read a fair amount about Custer and the Little Big Horn, but had never run across this research; why it was not picked up a major publisher is beyond me, because the book is well-written and informative, and the research fills a gap in the story of that battle. I assume Cross, like myself, simply did not want to go through the hassle of a publisher. So here are two bits of history that would have gone wanting were it not for self-publishing. Are they "professional?" Not as far as layout and artwork are concerned, but they are quite acceptable and enjoyable, and both are good stories. I also have two other books (that shall remain nameless) in which the writer was either allowed or encouraged by their editor to pad the research with useless chapters to beef up the page count and make the final work look more impressive. Fine, that's marketing; but they were infuriating to read and, in the end, I came away feeling cheated: in one case there simply wasn't that much of a story and in the other, realized halfway through that I could skip every other chapter of fluff and enjoy the core story.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

@Eric Wittenberg did you start out self-published but we're later picked up by Savas? If so, when/how did you make the jump?

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

What do you mean "not every book deserves to be published?" Says who? Not published by a profit-making company, maybe. But I can put forward my own effort and expense and publish if I want to. The public can buy or not, but its my choice to put it out.

agree with your point the public will ultimately decide the worthiness of the product.

You two have more confidence in the discerning public than I do.

follow your passion and write what you wish to write to satisfy yourself

Sometimes, after writing a labor of love, you have to look you baby in the eye and realize it's ugly. No matter how good your research, if your writing is terrible the work needs to be rewritten and edited until good or it shouldn't be published. If you can't then donate copies to the appropriate historical archives.

Can you self-publish a lousy book? Sure. But should you? IMO no objectively bad book should ever be published by anyone. Do it well or don't do it, especially if you expect people to give you money for it.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

@Eric Wittenberg did you start out self-published but we're later picked up by Savas? If so, when/how did you make the jump?

No, Josh. My first book was published by a now defunct company called Thomas Publications that was based in Gettysburg and specialized in Gettysburg books. Books two through five were published by university presses (3 by Kent State and one by LSU). After that, I did three with Brassey's, which is now known as Potomac Books but has since shifted its focus away from Civil War stuff. Two were done by other smaller commercial presses. Since then, it's either been Savas-Beatie or The History Press. The one I just finished will be published by a new publisher called Fox Run that I want to help.

I've never self-published. And I did it the hard way: through good work that passed muster, particularly in the peer reviewed world of university (academic) press publishing. My first book won an award. I earned the privilege to have my work published.

It is indeed a privilege and not a right.

I very carefully chose the word "inflicted" in my prior post. There's a reason for it.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

Can you self-publish a lousy book? Sure. But should you? IMO no objectively bad book should ever be published by anyone. Do it well or don't do it, especially if you expect people to give you money for it.

Amen, brother. Well said.

 

[ami]

Reminder this is not a thread about who should and shouldn't publish a book, or what should and shouldnt be published. . The OP is looking for tips on publishing a book.

 

[bdtex]

Hey all, not sure where I should put this post...please feel free to move this as needed

I've mentioned before that I'm working on my first book. Looking for some direction as far as the self-publishing route...anyone have any experience with this or going the ebook route on Amazon? The book is no where near done but I'm trying to get a plan put together for the future.

Thanks for the input!

I hope nothing you've read in this thread discourages you from finishing your book and pursuing publication.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

I hope nothing you've read in this thread discourages you from finishing your book and pursuing publication.

I agree completely. There's always room for another good book. It's the bad ones that concern me.

 

[bdtex]

I agree completely. There's always room for another good book. It's the bad ones that concern me.

I think that's why we have the Book & Movie Review Tent forum.

 

[bdtex]

As Moderator: A reminder about the reminder posted above:

"Reminder this is not a thread about who should and shouldn't publish a book, or what should and shouldnt be published. . The OP is looking for tips on publishing a book."

 

[1stMN]

No, I'm in no way discouraged. I'm getting a lot of the tips I need, so thanks all!

 

[Phiip McBride]

Since 2013 I've published one Civil War novel a year using Amazon's Create Space program, and their Kindle publishing program . I highly recommend Create Space. As others have described, the software is user-friendly and the cost is from zero to whatever you are willing to pay for extra editing, formatting, paper proof copies, and other services. I used Create Space's free cover options for Book #1, but have since used cover designer Karen Phillips for more "flash."

Those who point to the need for competent, if not professional, editing are on target. One of the fallacies of by-passing publishing house gatekeeping is loss of quality control. I choose not to pay a professional editor for what has become a compulsive hobby, but if I were writing novels or straight history books to pay the bills, then I would find a way to pay a proven copy editor. Among my worse moments have been finding typo errors in my finished novels--even after multiple volunteer readers, and my, and my wife's, own reading and rereading the manuscript, and the printed paperback proofs. Yet, those pesky little blips keep popping up, book after book.

The great thing about using Amazon's Create Space is that my Civil War novels are posted for sale on the world's largest bookstore right there with the big guns of Civil War historical fiction: Jeff Shaara and Ralph Peters, and others. That's been a huge ego boost to me personally. But, flipping the coin, with literally millions and millions of titles for sale on Amazon, it's easy for an unknown "wannabe" author to stay lost among the masses of titles.

We self-published writers have to market and promote our own books. Self-promotion is a built-in contradiction for most of us who are introverted enough to spend hundreds of hours by ourselves writing a book. Yet, we gotta do it and we have to be creative and persistent. For instance, see what my signature here includes? I also write an ongoing blog about writing and the Civil War and related stuff. I set up a table and sell my novels at Civil War reenactments.

All because, without almost ceaseless self-promotion, the stream of book sales becomes a trickle and the trickle can dry up quickly. So far, I only dream of a river of sales. But I know at least one self-published Civil War writer, Jeff Brooks, who has seen a river of sales for his excellent novel, Shattered Nation.

As to my success as an indicator of what one might expect: I write for the niche audience of readers of Civil War military fiction, and the unintended audience of my circle of friends and family. I've been surprised that as many women as men seem to read my books. The Amazon royalties are enough that I have to include the income on my IRS form, and I can take my wife out to dinner almost every month on my book sales. But I'm sure not buying a new car or going on a European vacation on the royalties.

Interestingly, at least to me, my Kindle sales are consistently more than my paperback sales on Amazon. Of course, Kindle downloads are a $3 or $4 per book cost to an Amazon customer, compared to a $15 paperback cost, plus shipping.

I hope this post will encourage other committed writers to jump into the self-publishing waters, but to do so with both eyes watching for rocks and alligators. While I've found a lot of personal gratification in self-publishing, the ego-crushing, pocketbook-crunching boogers are out there and the waters aren't clear.

 

[E_just_E]

the public will ultimately decide the worthiness of the product.

Not quite. That's the issue. Esp. if the garbage in question is published by a tenured professor in a History Department some place. Lots of that garbage out btw...

 

[huskerblitz]

Not quite. That's the issue. Esp. if the garbage in question is published by a tenured professor in a History Department some place. Lots of that garbage out btw...

It will always filter through. Bad reviews here or places like Amazon can make or break it. Regardless of who or what the topic a bad book will get bad reviews. Sure may take some time and a few mad buyers, but that is how things work. Have more faith.

 

[clayfeeter]

Be sure to spend the money to have it professionally edited if you decide to go this route. There's not a writer alive--including me--who doesn't need the services of a good editor. A good editor can make a mediocre book good and a good book great. And if you think you don't need an editor, you are deluding yourself and setting yourself up to have your work shredded by critics as a result--and it would be entirely appropriate if it was under those circumstances.

What Eric said!!! I publish a watersports magazine and besides me giving stories the first edit we then have TWO other proofreaders go over each story!!... and ten go over it again after the pages are layed out!!!

 

[clayfeeter]

Ps. Is this book about the 1st Minnesota?

 

[1stMN]

Ps. Is this book about the 1st Minnesota?

They get a chapter, yes I'm still developing exactly how I want this book to look like but they are slated to be involved, of course

 

[1stMN]

Well, thank you everyone for your input and tips! You've all been very helpful and have given me a lot to consider...which is what I was hoping for. Thank you!

 

[clayfeeter]

They get a chapter, yes I'm still developing exactly how I want this book to look like but they are slated to be involved, of course

Marketing wise it's always attractive to list reg. rosters at back of book