New Forum to discuss publishing your books

[norman]

hey guys and gals

i got my 1st book in the mail 2 days ago to proof read and correct some typos
but it looks great from there i took it to a local book store to see about book signing
i got scheduled for a book signing sept 18th
the lady at the book store said she would buy 12 books
to where i can make a little profit

and i have another book store interested in a signing as well
but i read up above about taking your poems off of sites
that's the only time i've heard anything of it
in fact i asked them about a link to post on poetry site where i'm a member
and nothing was said on that order anyhow here's the link to my book

"This Country Boy's Loves"
you can find it at

http://www.publishamerica.net/sc/produc ... a08f44a6c3

hope you enjoy
norman

** Note from wordtamer... I couldn't get there using the link above so I'm adding this link. Norman you can correct the link above if you prefer: http://www.publishamerica.net/product92843.html

[wordtamer]

Congrats, and have fun at the book signing.

As for taking down the poems from poetry sites, I believe that is covered in the non-competition portion of the contract you signed.

20. Non-Competition: During the term of this agreement, Author shall not, without the written consent of Publisher, write, print, or publish or cause to be written, printed, or published, any part of the Work in any format, including as another edition of the Work, revised, corrected, enlarged, abridged, or otherwise.


I got my sample contract to look over yesterday and decided I'm turning down the offer.
8% royalties for the first 2000 books and only a 20% discount for buying my own book is nuts.

I'm looking at self-publishing my manuscript with create space. They are owned by amazon.com and will list the book there. I can set whatever price I want for the book and get about 40-45% and can buy the books for myself for about $3.50 each.

[wordtamer]

Well... I decided to withdraw my manuscript from PublishAmerica... sent them this note:



Dear Emily,

Thanks so much.

I realize that you are busy and I am sorry to have wasted some of your
time but I have decided to withdraw my manuscript from consideration.

I submitted it on recommendation of friends who have been published by
PublishAmerica, but after further research, and reviewing your sample
contract, I have decided to pursue a different course.

Regretfully,
John Flournoy


> Dear John Flournoy:
>
> I am happy to inform you that PublishAmerica has decided to give your
> book the chance it deserves. We are offering to publish "Across the
> Miles and Years".

[wordtamer]

Hi Guys,

I decided to self-publish my book at createSpace.com, since PublishAmerica is essentially the same thing and I can price the book a little cheaper than I could even buy it for, from PA.

I have uploaded it now and am just waiting for them to review the files and send me a proof.
It will be available here: https://www.createspace.com/3470566
Once I approve the proof.

I've been so busy working on this manuscript that I haven't had much time to write. Once this settles down I should be back and ready to do some writing.

-john

[wordtamer]

*whew*
Just an update. It has been quite a learning process. Turns out I had forgotten the "cover page" and all my pages were one off in the book.

Fortunately, the createspace people reviewed it and pointed out the error before I even had to buy a proof.
Had some difficulties trying to get my custom cover converted into a PDF and finally broke down and used their "Cover Creator" to upload my images and it worked great.

I thought I had to pay a fee to these guys, but it turns out if you do everything yourself and don't need any "hand-holding" there is no charge to setup your title.

I think I will be recommending createspace.com to everyone - but I'm withholding judgement until I have a copy of the book in my hand.

[thekid]

Great for you John. I haven't been in this are a for a while so I missed a lot of the conversation. Just let me know what I need to do get your book.

[wordtamer]

Thanks Marvin,

It will be available here: https://www.createspace.com/3470566

And I will probably be setting up a discount code for rhymingplace.com members to knock a couple of dollars off the price... so it will be $6.95 instead of $8.95. I was never really interested, nor expected to make anything from the sale of the book so I priced it as low as I could for the extended distribution model. I'll only make about $1.00 per book extended distribution, $2.00 on any amazon sales and a little more directly from my store, but like I said... i'll discount it for anyone who is a member here and wants to buy it.

I think the price is pretty good for 114 pages 5.5 x 8.5 inches.
One of the reasons I went with createspace vs. PublishAmerica. I was able to price it lower than even my cost per book from PublishAmerica based on the sample contract they sent me.

-j

[thekid]

John,
Does your book become registered in the Library of Congress? I am looking forward to getting it.

[wordtamer]

I'm not sure, I think you have to send them two copies of your book and fill out a form to get it registered.

However, it is assigned a free ISBN by createspace and since I went with the expanded distribution, it should be listed with Ingram distributers and be fully available to any bookstore. They also take returns from bookstores which is a big deterrent for PA books. Apparently they don't, so bookstores don't want to take the risk of being stuck with books.

I doubt it will be in any bookstores though LOL. I'll be lucky to sell a few copies to friends.

I should be getting my proof soon, it was shipped yesterday - if all goes well I'll be online next week!
I was kind of thinking of buying a block of 10 ISBNs and starting a small press. It isn't that expensive and you can put your small press name in as the publisher

[thekid]

Well I think the next important step would be to register it in the Library Book of Congress. This way it will be copyrighted and no one can steel your material.

[wordtamer]

Hmm, interestingly enough you can now file online:
http://www.copyright.gov/eco/tips.pdf
And the fee is US$ 35.00.
Instead of sending two copies of your book you send it in electronic form.

I wonder if I can just put all my poems in one big file and register all of them at once.
-j

[thekid]

Wait until the book is finished and then you can pay one low price when they are registered as one unit but find out if this company sends it in themselves. I think they may do it for you.

[Oraculus]

Thank you all for such informative notes and posts; being in India I was wondering if they'd help me? I have several books and some poetry volumes I am considering to publish, and will contact creative space...DW

[wordtamer]

Createspace.com is cool if you want to self publish.
The have different plans ranging from 1) Free - you do everything to 2) very expensive - they do everything.

I went the free route and had to format the book and design the cover and do all the editing myself.
But free is good!

Besides, it's poetry... I think the editing might be good if it was a novel, or a work of non-fiction, but not really for poetry. As long as everything is spelled right people are pretty loose with punctuation in poems.

-j

[thekid]

Hey John, where do you go for the FREE Do It Yourself process on Createspace.com I can only find Standard Value Solutions with the lowest being $299.00