New Forum to discuss publishing your books

[wordtamer]

We have a few poets here who have gone through the trouble of getting their work published.

It would be helpful if those folks would discuss their publishers, the process, the joys and or pitfalls of being published and also promote their books.

-j

[thekid]

I have had 4 books published; 3 with PublishAmerica and 1 with XulonPress.com PublishAmerica was a free service where XulonPress has a fee and they are specifically a Christian Book Publishing Company. The titles of my books are In the Prose of Passion: Book of Prose and Poems, On the Path with God,, Come Walk With Me and My Purpose in Life You may go to Amazon.com Barnes&Noble.com or Borders.com but for anyone who would like to purchase one I recommend going through me. I can get a whole lot better price than you can purchasing them anywhere on line including the publishing company. I know writers who also went with lulu.com so I don't know what the best way is to get your book published, It all depends on your needs and what you are willing to pay.

[wordtamer]

That's awesome Marvin... 4 books...dang!

I'm curious about PublishAmerica... I read their site information and it's cool that they don't charge you a fee to publish.
I saw they had a marketplace online with a LOT of poetry books. You said they list with B&N and Amazon?

Do you know if they provide any kind of editing service, just to help with any spelling issues, wrong word issues, (such as using "to" when you should use "too") and improper capitalization, or use of punctuation.

My poems need a lot of editing and that's mainly what has stopped me from going forward - plus not having enough good poems LOL.

[thekid]

John, they claim to have an editing department but every time they sent me the unpublished version for my looking over, I seem to find either mistakes I originally made or areas where they combined sentences when they should have been separated. I just learn to do a thorough check over before I approve the final version. I do though sign an agreement that what I send is what I want because sometimes my writings are supposed to go against the normal grammar. Maybe that is why I do find mistakes that I missed. The only other thing you should know that the contract you sign is for 7 years, so they basically co-own the rights so you can't have anything that is published in their books displayed on sites like PoetryPoem without their consent which makes sense, you want people to buy the book and if they can get it off the net for free they will not buy the books. The other thing is that their prices are a little pricy in comparison to other companies. My Xulon book was way cheaper for basically the same size book but what I do is I purchase a lot of books in the beginning at half price and then sell them for cheaper than what people can get at the retail outlets or online and I still make a huge profit plus they get them personalized. On all three Publish America books I have averaged about $500.00 profit per book and I hardly ever have promoted them. I still haven't made a profit from my Xulon book yet because of the fee I ended up paying. You need to weigh all the plusses and minuses and what fits what you want.

[wordtamer]

Wow.... so if i want to publish a poem in a PublishAmerica book I have to track down any places I might have posted it on the web and kill it...
Well, lol, shouldn't be too hard. I deleted my poetrypoems site, poetrycastle is gone, I had a few on your site, Candace's site and poemhunter but otherwise they are all here in a non-public forum.

Being in a non-public forum shouldn't matter since the publisher won't see it and only an admin on this site can see them.
-j

[thekid]

I think I may have accidently left some on PP but I don't think they check. If you want I can always send you one of my books FREE and you can see what you think of their quality. It is always nice to see the actual product. Just PM me if you want.

[wordtamer]

I'll buy one from you if you sign it for me... do you have a paypal account?
I'd like this one: Prose of Passion: Book of Prose and Poems
-j

[thekid]

John, I don't have a paypal account but if you e-mail me at MarvinL709@aol.com I can explain how we can do this. I have 3 copies of that book left so I'll reserve one for you and I'll throw in my second book for free. And of course I will personalize them both.

[thekid]

John, the books are their way. The shipping is $2.77 so the total cost is $17.77 but don't send anything until you get the books.

[wordtamer]

Thanks... looking forward to seeing them.
-j

[thekid]

I just had to order 6 more of "In the Prose of Passion" as I sold my last 3 this week. I do have 1 copy for me but I refuse to sell that just in case there is a time when my first is no longer available, if that ever does happen.

[norman]

nice info here guys

i got this info on my book yesterday and thought i'd share it with you as well


Dear Norman Hale Jr.,

Surprise!

Today we are preparing to ship to you a free copy of This Country Boy's Loves. You should expect it on your doorstep before too long, because the book is now ready for release!

This is an important moment in an author's life. To see your own book for the very first time is an unforgettable and unique experience, one that on behalf of all of us at PublishAmerica we wholeheartedly congratulate you on. Many authors tell us that they make it a day of celebration, befitting a life-long dream that has come true. We hope that you do, too!



And now, hang out the flag. Today is the day you can really say, "I am now a published author!"

Congratulations!
PublishAmerica Author Support Team

now i'm just waiting for it to show up in the mail lol
hope this helps
norman

[norman]

oh by the way marvin
was that 500 a year on those books
or how long have they been published?
just curious!

norman

[wordtamer]

Congrats Norman!

[wordtamer]

Well, I got the call from publish america saying they had reviewed my manuscript and an acquisitions editor would be contacting me with a contract and additional information....

But... I think the prices are too high.

If I publish myself on createspace, I can set the price for my 100 page book of poetry to $7.99 and still make 2.60+ on the sale of each book.

Also, they are an amazon company so amazon will definitely list the title, and probably also make it available as an eBook for the kindle.

So, I am seriously thinking about turning down the contract offer from publish america. I'm waiting to verify what the cost per book will be. With create space I can buy my own book for about $3.50 a copy, but there is an up-front charge to setup the book of a bit over $250 if you have it in a publish-ready PDF file.

$499 if you want them to design the book for you from your manuscript.

More info coming soon... If I had taken the time to publish a few of the poems in a magazine or two I could probably have a shot with one of the small presses. Their per-book price is also quite low.