Self-Publishing Blogs

I started this self-publishing blog without much forethought.  The idea just came to me one day recently, while in the midst of preparing 3 novels for publication (two were written in previous years).  At the same time I had been emailing with a few other writers, offering advice on self-publishing. 

I enjoyed sharing what I learned with these few people.  When I looked at other self-publishers’ blogs I thought, hey, I can do that – share what I am learning with a wider world.  So I started Larry’s Self-publishing Blog, to chart my progress getting these three novels published and, along the way, offer useful advice to other self-publishers. 

To be sure there are a lot of self-publishing blogs out there, some good and some not so good.  When you google “self-publishing blog” you’ll find at the top of the list “52 Great Blogs for Self-Publishers.”  However, that list dates from November 2010 and includes several defunct web sites.  Among the living, several “blogs” are nothing more than glorified ads, or offer generic claptrap.  However, there are a few good self-publishing blogs that I reviewed and can recommend.  (I’m sure there are many others as well; I just haven’t reviewed them). 

 

Joanna Penn

The Creative Penn

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/publishing/

Ms. Penn’s blog offers lots of useful information, including “How to publish a book 101.” http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/01/15/how-to-publish-a-book-101/

In “101” she doesn’t mess around, and gives a clear warning up front:

I also get emails from people who have paid $20,000+, have been utterly ripped off and are devastated with the results. This happened to me once, although with a lesser financial impact, and I am passionate about making sure authors don’t fall into these traps.

With big name publishers like Penguin/Random House and Simon & Schuster signing up with Author Solutions to further exploit this kind of vanity publishing, you guys need to know there is a better and cheaper way.

 

Self Publishing With Amazon, Kindle,
CreateSpace, and Lightning Source

by Aaron Shepard

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/

Shepard has his finger on the pulse of these publishing companies, which together attract a substantial share of self-published authors.  He offers a fair amount of detail about how they operate. His focus is on distribution, not print quality, and writes:

The proper question, then, is which company you should choose on the basis of distribution. And for some time, there has been no real contest. Amazon is where self publishers can sell the most books, and Amazon discriminates against books from Lightning—though at this point, I think it’s mostly due to system glitches that Amazon doesn’t care enough to fix.

So, almost any new publisher should start with CreateSpace. See how many books you sell. Then, if selling an additional 10% to 25% would be worth the effort—because that’s likely all you can expect—add Lightning Source—or rather, IngramSpark, its gateway for self publishers. Aside from the hassle of dealing with Lightning’s technical requirements, there’s no reason you can’t use both companies. (But see my blog post on ISBN requirements and my article on CreateSpace’s Expanded Distribution Channel.)

 

Regarding Shepard's assessment, I should clarify that there two companies controlling these self-publishers. 

Amazon – owns:

            Kindle for self-published e-books

            Kindle Scout, which is Amazon’s royalty-publishing arm (they pay the author!)
            CreateSpace, which is Amazon’s division to assist authors in self-publishing, both in
                        paperback and on Kindle

Ingram – owns:

          Ingram Spark – for the small self-publisher

              Lightning Source – for the larger self-publisher

 There is often some confusion about the difference between these two Ingram companies.  Part of the confusion is Ingram’s fault, because both serve the self-publisher and there is no rational basis (that I can see) for having two overlapping divisions. Furthermore, when you sign up for one division on their web site, all the information you have to give them (and it’s a lot) does not transfer over to the other division, though it’s the same company and both divisions are geared toward the self-publisher.  Another blogger, Joel Friedlander (see his blog below), offers this distinction between the two divisions (from a 2013 posting; http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/11/news-update-should-you-use-lightning-source-or-ingram-spark/)

• If you are a do-it-yourself author without experience in book publishing and you are unsure whether it’s something you intend to do for long, consider Ingram Spark for print on demand and wide distribution.
• If you are hiring professionals, have a real plan for publishing and marketing books to a definable audience, and plan to grow your business, consider Lightning Source as an invaluable strategic partner in your growing business

Writer Beware

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/

This blog lists three different authors:  Victoria Strauss, Michael Capobianco and Ann Crispin.  They point out scams bad deals that can hit any self-publisher.  She discusses the lawsuits against Author Solutions that I mentioned in an earlier blog. 

Two other very interesting posts deal with writing contests, how they are often nothing more than marketing ploys and don’t benefit the writer.  Read these before you enter any (more) writing contests (both accessed from above URL).

June 9, 2015

Awards Profiteers: How Writers Can Recognize and Avoid Them

June 24, 2015

Almond Press Short Story Competition:  Writing for “Exposure”

 

 

The Book Designer

Practical advice to help build better books

by Joel Friedlander

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

 Friedlander has been blogging for years, and along the way has offered lots of useful advice.  (His web site has an alphabetical list of past topics.)  He also offers, for free, an excellent pamphlet 10 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing. 

 

 

 Included in his list is a warning about subsidy publishers (which I have discussed earlier).  He writes:

Subsidy publishers make money from selling services to authors, not from selling books to book buyers.

 Given Friedlander’s intimate knowledge of writers’ blogs, I found the following comment interesting: 

But today anyone traveling the blogosphere will see that the writers of these [writers’] blogs have not made the leap to become published book authors. Maybe it’s a case of different skill sets. Writing a 500-word blog post takes a different kind of writing skill than trying to create a 200-page book from the wilds of your article archives.    (The Book Designer, June 29, 2015)

 

*  *  *

So some blogs are good, some not so good.  Some bloggers are book writers, but most, apparently, are not.  My plan is to blog and write books.  And while my blog is based on what I have learned and continue to learn from my own self-publishing efforts, each entry will attempt to offer something useful to the newbie in self-publishing. 

 

Beta-Readers

One of the three novels I am self-publishing this year is Consenting Adults Only (CAO).  CAO at this point comes to 76,000 words, a respectable size for a novel.  I have completed a draft of CAO a dozen times, but since the first ‘completion’ I always seem to find something more that needs changing or improving. This is in part due to beta-readers of the work.

Before I turned to fiction, I didn’t even know what a beta-reader is.  Now I know.  A beta reader is someone who reads your work for style, story flow, and anything else that catches their fancy.  A beta reader is NOT an editor or copyreader.  Editors and copyreaders are generally professionals who are paid by the word. A beta reader can be anyone who enjoys reading – a friend, relative, or total unknown you found on the internet - and they may charge nothing (if family or friends) or a nominal amount, e.g., $100-$200, rarely more. 

Click on Wikipedia for concise definition:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_reader

There are many beta-readers out there willing to read your manuscript and make comments to improve it.  I have found beta-readers among friends and relatives, and also through the web site Goodreads, which has a beta-reading discussion group.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/50920-beta-reader-group

 If you google “beta-readers” you will find numerous web sites offering this service.  This is a nice web site titled “What makes a good beta reader?”

http://www.smallbluedog.com/what-makes-a-good-beta-reader.html

One piece of good advice is to choose someone who is interested in your story or subject.  Don’t choose a “Young Adult genre” beta-reader for a story dealing with explicit sex and mayhem.  For my novel Out of Time:  An alternative outcome to the Civil War, one of my beta readers presented himself as an amateur historian, and he was most helpful in his remarks about the story’s Civil War history.  So some vetting of your chosen beta-reader for their interests is a good idea. 

Understand there is NO standard for beta-reading, and the beta-reader may even ask, “What do you want me to look for?”  If they find typos or grammatical errors that’s a plus, but again, they are not editors and editing is not their task.

I have had three beta-readers for Consenting Adults Only (CAO), and each has been extremely helpful.  When you engage a beta-reader, always keep in mind that they only make suggestions; the novel is still yours and you should not make a change that doesn’t seem right to you.  I agreed with about 75% of my beta-readers’ suggestions and made suitable revisions, in some cases minor and in others substantial.  The other quarter of suggestions I more or less ignored or disagreed with.

The first beta-reader for CAO was my wife, a psychiatrist.  She made several suggestions about the two main characters, who have some significant psychological problems.  I needed to better explain why they act way they do.  I agreed, and so added some scenes and descriptive text based on her insights.  (No surprise:  I dedicate the novel to her.)

My next beta reader was an Emergency Department (ED) nurse whom I found on Goodreads (see link above).  My novel’s protagonist is an ED doctor, so this was a perfect fit.  She found a host of concerns, including some things I wrote that don’t ring true in the ED.  This led to more revisions.    

Then I sought out a beta-read from a friend who is both a retired attorney and a successful author.  CAO also has medico-legal sections in it, so her comments in this regard were very helpful.  In addition she found numerous typos that I (and others) had missed, and a couple of glaring factual errors.  Wow!  How did I (and previous beta-readers) miss those?  But we did.   That’s why you need a good copy editor.  (Repeat with me:  A beta-reader is not a copy editor.)

The most emphatic recommendation of this last beta reader (using her hat as a writer) was to get rid of the prologue.  Prologues in fiction are iffy, and there is quite a bit of back and forth in writing circles on if/when to use them.  Some readers simply ignore them.  Others find them distracting and just want to get on with Chapter 1. See the following web sites, which are short and to the point about prologues.

http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/07/06/pros-and-cons-of-prologue/

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/questions-and-quandaries/formatting/when-to-use-a-prologue

http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/prologue.shtml

I loved my prologue, and she admitted it was well-written, but just not appropriate for the novel.  I am also reminded of Stephen King’s admonition to “kill your darlings” if they don’t advance the story (see his memoir On Writing).  She said my prologue didn’t.  In the end, I (reluctantly) had to agree with her.  It was all backstory, about the protagonist as a youth.  She was adamant the book should begin with Chapter 1, not with a 10-page backstory, no matter how good the writing.  So I axed the prologue and dispersed the backstory throughout the novel.  I lost my “darling” but have a much better novel as result. 

A lot of self-published authors won’t spend the $1000+ to hire a professional editor.  But no book should be published without being first reviewed by one or more beta readers.  Beta-reading is much less expensive, and while not a substitute for professional editing, can be invaluable to your book’s success.

Copyright Issues

One potential landmine self-published authors can hit is copyright infringement.  This is unlikely to be a problem with royalty-published authors because the publisher will catch the problem and make sure it doesn’t get published.  This situation highlights one major difference between self-published and royalty-published works.

Royalty-published books – go through multiple reviews and edits to catch mistakes (and copyright issues)  

Self-published books – not so much; reviews and edits usually severely strained by author’s budget

So as self-published authors we have to make sure there are no copyright infringements.  This all came to light in my almost-finished novel Consenting Adults Only.  The protagonist, a young physician in Las Vegas, plays guitar in local jam sessions.  In one scene he takes his girlfriend to a jam session at Gilligan’s, a coffee house.  The jam leader announces the first song will be The City of New Orleans, and tells the assembled audience some background about the song:

      “There’s a little story,” he said.  “Goodman found Arlo Guthrie in a bar alone one night, and asked him to listen to the song.  Arlo reluctantly agreed, on the condition that Goodman buy him a beer; he would listen to the song as long as it took to drink his beer.  Well, Arlo liked the song and next thing you know, he recorded it.  Became a smash hit in the early 70s.  Let’s play.”

 Then I quote the first two stanzas of The City of New Orleans, which the audience sings while the musicians play the music.

 I did this for several other songs as well, including This Land is Your Land, You Are My Sunshine and When the Saints Go Marching In.

All old songs, no problem, right?

Well, Yes, there is a problem.  As I learned through some belated research, they are all currently copyrighted!  The lyrics were all written after 1922, which is the cutoff for existing copyright on song lyrics.

 

All works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain. Works published after 1922, but before 1978 are protected for 95 years from the date of publication. If the work was created, but not published, before 1978, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.  http://www.pdinfo.com/copyright-law/copyright-and-public-domain.php

 
(See also:  http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-basics/)

I really liked the lyrics I chose, as they played into the interaction with the doctor and his girlfriend during the jam session.  So I (naively, it turns out) looked up the copyright holders on the internet and e-mailed them for permission.  I got only a single response, from Sony/ATV, which holds the copyright to Saints (lyrics I wanted to quote date from 1937).  I was asked to fill out a form requesting permission, but the form asked for information impossible to state at this point:  name of publisher, name of editor, print run, release date of work, and price of work. 

So I did the obvious -- changed all the songs to those written before 1922 (actually, before 1900).  Although I liked my first choices, they were expendable.  My new (old) songs include Simple Gifts, Down in the Valley and Buffalo Gals (Won’t You Come Out Tonight).  They are listed as “traditional” in folk music, and have no copyright. 

So be wary of song lyrics.  And in other copyright areas as well, such as quoting from books and magazines.  Do your research and make sure you are not infringing on someone else’s work. 

(This blog will resume on Monday, June 29)

 

In my previous blog entry (June 24, 2015) I gave some background to my self-publishing history, including the two books below.

Suffice to say today it’s a whole new world compared with the 1990s and early 2000’s.  There are now millions of self-published books, and a large industry has grown up to serve the world’s wanna be writers.   Whereas I didn’t have much choice when I picked Author House in 2001 for “We Can’t Kill…”, now we have a huge menu of options for self-publishing (see first few blog posts). 

And there’s the rub, I think.  The indie author is a sitting duck for “publishers” wanting to produce your book.  But mostly they want to sell you services, NOT sell your book.  Not that we don’t need these services; in most cases we do (especially editing).  It’s just that too often the pitches are for over-priced services, including some you don’t want or need.    

I recently considered using “assisted publisher” Archway for my new novel, Consenting Adults Only.  http://www.archwaypublishing.com

Archway interested me because it’s a unit of Simon & Schuster, and they offer one-stop shopping like other assisted-publishers.  Like the others, they will take your manuscript and cover, turn it into a print book and e-book, and sell you copies at a ‘discount’.  Their base price for these services, without editing or any marketing is $2,000.  (Add in professional editing and marketing and the price can zoom to well over 10K; check out their web site).  I figured the base price was at least double what it would be if I went a al carte, say, with Create Space. 

But it wasn’t just the cost that deterred me.  I looked at the “Archway” contract and was surprised to see that the only place on the contract with the words “Simon & Schuster” was the heading on the first page.    Turns out it is really a contract with Author Solutions, an Indiana firm which is the publishing arm for many self-publishing fronts, including Author House, Xlibris, iUniverse, BookTango, and Archway (see complete list in link below).  And the terms weren’t good. 

One item in particular was disturbing.  They set the list price of the paperback, even when it's print on demand.  (The author gets to set the price of the e-book.)  The Archway sales person I talked to on the phone said this was necessary to make sure the company makes a profit on each paperback.  To see how crazy this is, check out Archway's "Motive to Kill" on Amazon; this is a 288-page ordinary paperback with a price of $18.99!  Not many people are going to buy an unknown, self-published author's paperback for $18.99.  (And the hardcover?  35.95!)

The basic problem is that the business model of AS-affiliated publishers is not to sell books to readers, but to sell books and services to its authors.  I still get calls every month or so from Author House to “buy more books,” “buy publicity campaign,” buy this and that.  Invariably the caller knows only the title of my book and nothing else; he or she is clueless about what’s inside.    

So I’ve come to learn that publishers who work under the rubric of Author Solutions are mainly marketing firms, with the customer base not the readers but the authors.  This situation is well known to a lot of folks, but not to everyone, so beware.  In my research I found there are two class action suits against AS.  The following two blog posts do not paint a pretty picture.

https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/author-solutions-and-friends-the-inside-story-2/

https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/authors-guild-dumps-author-solutions-and-pretends-it-was-all-a-bad-dream/

Quite frankly, my experience with Author House 14 years ago was not bad (this was before they hooked up with AS).  The only real issue I've had since then has been the marketing calls, but the callers are polite and I have no trouble declining their offers, so it's no big deal.  

In truth, if you don’t much care about author autonomy or paperback sales, don’t want to mess with web sites like Create Space's or with hiring free-lancers, and have the money, then there is nothing wrong signing up with an AS-affiliated company.  It is one-stop and you will get your book published.  But note the caveats:  You don't much care about author autonomy or paperback sales, etc. 

The loss of control when signing with an AS-affiliated company and the extra expense, plus all the negative comments from unhappy authors, have dissuaded me from that type of relationship.  Fortunately, today the options are much better for writers than a decade ago. 

So I’ve gone from ordering books from a printer (early 1990s) to publishing with an assisted-publisher (Author House, 2001) to now doing most publishing tasks a al carte, using CreateSpace as the publishing platform.  I am constantly exploring other platforms, and looking for new ideas on how to produce a book – as long as I feel they are in the author’s best interest.

My basic message is to stay flexible and in control of your book.  Investigate all your options.  Don’t sign a contract unless you understand and feel comfortable with the terms.  No one will care as much about your book as you do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This blog entry is long so I’ve divided it into two parts, one today and the 2^nd part tomorrow.

The history of one of my self-published books shows how far things have progressed for the indie publisher.  In the 1980's I wrote series of short vignettes about ICU patients, and published several of them in various magazines (including one in The Saturday Evening Post).  In 1990 I put 20 of them together in a book titled “Pickwickian” and Other Stories of Intensive Care.  I was able to interest a literary agent, who liked the book and worked diligently to find a publisher.  No luck (and he tried for a year). 

In 1991 I self-published the book.  I already had my own publishing company (Lakeside Press) that I had set up for two previously-self-published books on faulty house construction (ours).  All this was well before the internet:  no Amazon, no CreateSpace, no e-books, no print-on-demand.  I sent the Word file and a local artist’s cover to my favorite book printer, then took delivery of 1000 copies (I think that was the minimum). 

 

I mailed “Pickwickian” to reviewers and actually got several great reviews, including one in the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine (http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=705567).

But absent the internet, it was simply unreasonable to spend money marketing the book so, as expected, it went nowhere (except I still have a few dozen copies in the basement; see below).

Ten years later I decided to reissue the book with a different, and catchier, title:  “We Can’t Kill Your Mother!” and Other Stories of Intensive Care, which is also the title of one of the stories.  I also updated the book and added three more stories.  By then I had published 12 of the stories in magazines, including 5 in The Saturday Evening Post.  I commissioned a new and brighter cover, and began searching for a ‘publisher’.   This time I didn’t even try for a royalty publisher, but instead went with Author House, which is still in business today (more about which later).  I sent Author House the text and cover, and they printed the book.  This time it was print-on-demand, so I didn’t have to take delivery.  I don’t remember how much I paid for the services, but was not unhappy with the result.  The book went on Amazon and I did a bunch of marketing via the internet, but didn’t spend anything on advertising.  This remake of the book, under new title and ISBN, was again favorably reviewed.   I also got a Certificate of Merit from Writer’s Digest after entering the book into one of their contests.  But, as an indie author with a niche book, sales have been (to be kind) modest.  It’s still available in paperback and, since 2011, in e-book format.  

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Kill-Your-Mother-Intensive/dp/1456799487/lakesidepress

 So in 2001 this was already my fourth self-published book, with the first three done via regular book printer (with cartons of books physically delivered to the author – ugh!).  By then I had also published several medical books with traditional publishers, which sold reasonably well, and was able to deduct self-publishing expenses from income for the other books.

My writing over the next decade was mostly medical, for doctors, but in 2011 I began writing novels, and thus re-entered the world of self-publishing.  In the next blog entry I will explain how my early experience relates to today’s self-publishing world, and what you can learn from it. 

 

My first two blog entries gave a brief overview of the self-publishing world.  It’s obviously more complex and varied than can be conveyed in a few simple paragraphs. Below is a link to a blog entry on Book Garage, titled “Pros and Cons of being an Indie publisher,” aka self-publisher.  It is well worth reading for an overview. 

http://bookgarage.com/blog/2015/06/16/pros-and-cons-of-being-an-indie-author/

Book Garage is an interesting organization that seeks to link the three segments of self-publishing for mutual benefit:  author, publishing services and reader.  You have to sign up to get their newsletters, but the blogs (such as the one above) indicate a wholly transparent effort.

http://bookgarage.com/

My Progress:

I am just about done with self-publishing Out of Time:  An alternative outcome to the Civil War.  I first put this 97,000 word novel on Amazon Kindle in 2014, but after retirement went over the book again and made some changes for greater clarity.  I uploaded the revision in April 2015.  (This is one of the great advantages of e-books; uploading a revision costs nothing.)  Kindle, of course, is not the only e-reader out there.  Seeking the widest possible e-book distribution, I recently uploaded it to Smashwords, which distributes to all the other e-readers.  The book is now in their Premium Status program, which means it meets certain criteria for cover quality and formatting.    

Satisfied with my revision, I decided to also produce a paperback.  Many authors forgo print publishing, since it adds expense and (usually) generates less sales volume than e-books.  However, Out of Time is a niche book, and I want to be able to send physical copies to potential reviewers, who prefer paper over digital.  So I sent the Word file to CreateSpace for print publication, and this version should be out soon. 

To upload a book to Kindle and Smashwords, you have to have the text in proper format.  I always use a professional for this task.  My cost for both files (one for Kindle and one for Smashwords) is $100; there are plenty of free-lancers out there who do an excellent job.  I also paid $100 for a professionally-designed cover, done with my recommendations for the pictures you see here. 

I also spent a few hundred dollars on beta-readers, who read the text and made many helpful suggestions.  Finally, I spent $350 for an interior design package with CreateSpace; there is no point in publishing a dull-looking book that will only turn off readers.  My total cost to date for Out of Time is thus about $850, which seems like a lot, but you can spend much more (fancier cover design, multiple professional edits). 

 

Kindle e-book:

http://www.amazon.com/Out-Time-Alternative-Outcome-Civil-ebook/dp/B00K34RINA/lakesidepress
 
Smashwords (for all other e-book formats):
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/552121

Print version:  Coming soon from Create Space

After you have written your book, there are several avenues to self-publishing.  If of course you have found a royalty publisher, this blog is not for you.  HOWEVER, many authors who have published with royalty publishers choose to go the self-publishing route for their next book.  Reasons vary, but usually come down to a desire for more control over their work, including pricing, marketing and royalty payments.  They simply did not have a good (or lucrative) relationship with the royalty publisher.  (Another reason is that the royalty publisher who took their first book doesn't like the second one.)

Before getting into the avenues of self-publishing, you need a mirror.  Look into it and ask yourself this question.  How much do I want to do on my own as opposed to hiring or contracting other people to do the work?  That single question should determine the path you take to self-publishing.

AFTER THE WRITING:
--You can do practically everything yourself to get published (from editing to cover design).
--You can do some parts yourself (editing, which is usually the most expensive contracted service) but have others do the cover and interior design.
--You can hire a book producer to do everything for you, once you submit a Word or pdf file.

BEWARE!  With millions of self-published books, the market is huge and many businesses have sprung up to help you publish.  Like anything else, you need to investigate before you jump into any deal to publish your book.  You could end up spending very little or several thousand dollars, with the same result.

IF you don't want to bother with any learning curve, or want someone to do everything or most everything for you, there are many companies willing to "publish" your book.  CAVEAT!!!!  They are NOT publishers in the traditional sense, but are what I call book producers.  They will produce your book, but how it turns out very much depends on how much you are willing to spend. 

A true publisher cares (or should care) about the end product, because the only way they make money is selling books.  A book producer doesn't have the same interest.  If your book is poorly edited, they'll still produce it.  If your book has a crappy cover they'll still produce it.  Run-on sentences, unreadable prose, sloppy grammar?  Same thing.  They'll still produce it.  Why?  Because they make money selling you services.  They don't expect to make any money selling books.  That's NOT their business model.  Their business model is selling you services, which can add up to thousands of dollars.  With a royalty publisher, the business model is selling books.

ROYALTY PUBLISHERS - business model is selling books.  You pay nothing, they take all the risk. Examples:  Random House; Simon & Schuster.

BOOK PRODUCERS FOR SELF-PUBLISHERS - business model is selling you services; you pay for everything, they take no risk. Examples:  Author Solutions (many affiliates, including Author House, iUniverse, Archway); Create Space (an Amazon.com company); Ingram Spark and Lightning Source (Ingram divisions)

Always keep this in mind.  It will help you navigate the plethora of companies out their barking "We want to publish your book!"  Nah.  They don't.  They want to sell you services.  They don't care all that much whether your book sells or not.  Yes, they will make a little more if you do sell books, but they don't count on that to make a profit..

Larry Martin

Larry's Self-Publishing Blog

My first entry.

This is for people who want to follow a saga in self-publishing.  I have already self-published several books, including titles BEFORE the internet era.  That's when you had to take delivery of 1000 books!  And try to sell them without any of the tools we have today.

I have self-published with:  1) Basic book printers (1990s); Author House; Create Space;   Smashwords; Kindle.  And I am always investigating other companies including (recently), 52Books and Archway.  You'll hear more about these later.

So the other night a friend asked, "How do you self-publish?"  And I thought, well there's a lot of writers out there, so I'll keep a blog on my self-publishing activities, and perhaps help other writers who self-publish or plan to.

I am a retired physician and over the years have written some 16 books and plays.  The only 'best seller' has been a medical text book.  All books and plays are listed at

www.lakesidepress.com/books.html

Right now I have 5 self-published books either in print and/or e-book format, or about to go into one of these formats.

The blog will cover my path to writing, editing, publishing and marketing these books. 

Larry Martin