Self-publishing a book - not sure what to do?

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Laluev
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Icon Self-publishing a book - not sure what to do?

Post by Laluev »

For the past year or so I have been writing and working on a book which is a biography of my late grandfather. A vanity publisher has stated that they would be interested in publishing it using the online self-publishing outlet, Lulu, and I have paid said publisher over £200 for the cost of proofreading, editing and ultimately publishing it. However, I have since discovered that whilst Lulu would distribute the book on Amazon, doing this would effectively double the price due to retail distribution costs. Amazon also run a self-publishing outlet called Createspace, however they do not distribute to Lulu due to both outlets being direct competitors. Similarly, my publisher has stated that she will not use Createspace. Obviously, as Amazon are the market leader in books, I would be concerned about selling myself short through Lulu if it where to receive less traffic. That being said, Lulu give higher royalties to publishers, so I would be able to price the book cheaper on there than I would on Createspace.

Therefore, I have reached a bit of a dilemma. I can either:

* Publish the book solely on Lulu with the potential for less publicity but higher royalties.

* Publish the book on Lulu with retail distribution enabled, allowing the book to be sold through retailers such as Amazon. This would result in the costs being doubled, and also a potential issue with royalties (books sold through Amazon via Lulu would only generate forty pence per sale, due to retail costs).

* Publish the book solely through Createspace. This would mean that I could still sell on Amazon, but not through Lulu. My publisher would not support me if I took the decision, and also would mean that I would receive less royalties due to the way Amazon work.

* Publish the book on both Createspace and Lulu through two separate accounts. This would mean that the book would effectively have two ISBNs which might cause confusion down the line. I would however likely to be able to sell the book at a price I would like through both Amazon and Lulu, and gain sufficient royalties from both organisations.

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated, especially considering the time and work that has gone into the book.
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Vermont Reviews
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Post by Vermont Reviews »

Laluev wrote:For the past year or so I have been writing and working on a book which is a biography of my late grandfather. A vanity publisher has stated that they would be interested in publishing it using the online self-publishing outlet, Lulu, and I have paid said publisher over £200 for the cost of proofreading, editing and ultimately publishing it. However, I have since discovered that whilst Lulu would distribute the book on Amazon, doing this would effectively double the price due to retail distribution costs. Amazon also run a self-publishing outlet called Createspace, however they do not distribute to Lulu due to both outlets being direct competitors. Similarly, my publisher has stated that she will not use Createspace. Obviously, as Amazon are the market leader in books, I would be concerned about selling myself short through Lulu if it where to receive less traffic. That being said, Lulu give higher royalties to publishers, so I would be able to price the book cheaper on there than I would on Createspace.

Therefore, I have reached a bit of a dilemma. I can either:

* Publish the book solely on Lulu with the potential for less publicity but higher royalties.

* Publish the book on Lulu with retail distribution enabled, allowing the book to be sold through retailers such as Amazon. This would result in the costs being doubled, and also a potential issue with royalties (books sold through Amazon via Lulu would only generate forty pence per sale, due to retail costs).

* Publish the book solely through Createspace. This would mean that I could still sell on Amazon, but not through Lulu. My publisher would not support me if I took the decision, and also would mean that I would receive less royalties due to the way Amazon work.

* Publish the book on both Createspace and Lulu through two separate accounts. This would mean that the book would effectively have two ISBNs which might cause confusion down the line. I would however likely to be able to sell the book at a price I would like through both Amazon and Lulu, and gain sufficient royalties from both organisations.

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated, especially considering the time and work that has gone into the book.

I would say that you have already spent a considerable amount of money. And now are at the crossroads you need to decide if you want to spend more or not. Hope it works out for you. I know for myself I always try to get it done for the best possible deal.

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Post by P_hernandez »

I feel like Amazon would give you a better audience span than LuLu based solely on the fact that they are considerably larger. The royalties may be smaller with Amazon, but you're getting more exposure and possibly selling more through them. Good luck! I hope it turns out well!
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Post by RobinStock »

I totally feel you on this. I kind of agree on the advice above - Amazon is huge and I think the international exposure is worth it... Question...if you're doing all the work on the self-publishing, what service is your publisher providing? Editing, mostly? Will they help you promote the book? Do you lose part of your royalties by working through the publisher? I've not worked with one of these vanity or e-book publisher, so I'm genuinely interested in the process.
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Post by vigabo »

Hi!

I'm new here but no novice at self-publishing. I have self-published 4 books. For what my opinion is worth, I would never have bothered with Lulu. Way too expensive and I don't believe they have the reach that other services offer for far less.

I went the route of finding a printer for my first book, which meant I needed to order 100 - 200 printed copies at a time to get a price allowing me to sell at a $5 - $7 profit. Not wanting to be stuck with stock on my shelves, I looked at alternatives for the 2nd and 3rd reprints of that first book (yes, it was and still is popular). That's when I took a close look at CreateSpace and Blurb. Both offer a similar service and when it came down to my costs, I could make the same profit as I had hiring a printer but the bonus was I didn't need to order 100 - 200 books each time! I could order 5, 10, 20 as I needed them for upcoming book signings or talks I was doing. I didn't think twice when it came to printing my next 3 books. I now use CreateSpace solely and I sell in their online store as well. When I use CS, they "send" my info to Amazon directly and all I have to do then is upload my file to Amazon and they create the Kindle version. I sit back happily and watch my commission cheques come in at the end of each month. No pain, no strain.

But now, there is also another option I suggest you look at: Smashwords! This is a brilliant site. It doesn't print hard copies but if you upload your file there, it converts your file to all formats: Kindle, epub etc. And then it gets even better: Smashwords is a distributor. They distribute your ebook to Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and a host of others. The only one I don't bother having them distribute to is Amazon as Amazon will only take 200 books per year from them and unless you're famous, your book will never get to Amazon via Smashwords. So you just do Amazon yourself and send them the Kindle version that Smashwords created. Incidentally, Smashwords service does all this for free. They collect your commissions from B &N, iBooks, Kobo, Nook etc and cut you a cheque or pay into your PayPal every quarter. They take a small portion themselves from those commissions. And you can also sell directly from Smashwords. Oh, nearly forgot to mention that Smashwords also distributes to Overture (library supplier) for you, along with others. Definitely worth checking out before you spend more money needlessly.

One caution re Smashwords: they are very fussy about the .doc file you send them for conversion to eBooks. But they also supply full instructions on how to do it. If you're really stuck, there are independent services you can search who can do digital conversions for you. I use a very affordable relative, but unfortunately, by this board's rules, I cannot supply you contact info here. But I hope you can use the info and encouragement I have supplied above.
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Post by AishaTBN »

If it's possible for you now just simply switch to Amazon because that will give your a book a lot more publicity.
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Post by Finchlark »

I have used both Lulu and Createspace on several occasions and I actually find royalties higher on Createspace, and prefer them to Lulu. They have greater selection of paper, sizes, and covers and I like their dashboard where you can see exactly what is selling. If you select Global Distribution with Lulu that includes amazon, but it can take several weeks for your book to appear, and woe betide if you decide to change something - then you have to buy another proof copy and wait another few weeks. It's much easier with Createspace as you can approve a digital copy at no cost and changes are within 24 hours. For me, I would say Createspace every time.
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Rachel McClellan
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Post by Rachel McClellan »

I'm a fan of Createspace for my print books, but I format and upload my ebooks directly to Amazon and their Kindle Unlimited program. I don't even bother with other outlets. I make triple in Amazon's KU program compared to when my books were wide. This is just my experience though.
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Post by RBLW »

Hi,
I'm publishing through Lulu and this isn't so much an endorsement as an informative post. Yes Amazon can be pretty cool to sell on if you're looking for free but, if you're actually willing to shell out the money to purchase Lulu's plan, they actually put it on Amazon for you and do a whole host of other things to help get you started. You still have to do your own promotion and marketing though unless you really want to shell out so cash. I chose the D.I.Y option the first time I attempted publication and honestly, I've found that it's a great deal easier to go through an agency (any agency that offers decent help, not just LuLu) the first time around. They help you get established as an author and you can learn quite a few useful tips for free to use in your future endeavors as an author. That and when you have that foundation built, it's easier to self-publish on your own because you're already known at that point. It took me a couple years to learn this and it's hard work to promote and market your own book, but in the long run it's worth it because you've made connections for the future, you understand process from personal experience and when going through the agency you actually get a better understand of the process when it involves a company as well as choices and effects you can make.

Of course you don't have to go through Lulu. There are several other companies out there that will publish for you, just do your research and see which one works best. I do have one final thing to say about Amazon though. Despite the three month rule where you can't publish elsewhere, they do have an impressive promotion packet so hopefully this helps.
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Post by Lincoln »

It is worth looking at draft2digital to publish. It is free, their system is incredible, and they have good royalty returns. I've never gone with anything like lulu. I used them one time to print out a batch of books, and the books felt cheap and crappy so I've never considered going back.
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Post by Gifty Naa Akushia »

That's a good idea to publish your book, I advice that you refer to the archives of onlinebookreview.com Scott published an article on how to publish a book.
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Post by vinsam »

self-publish on your own :?:
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Post by lisalynn »

Createspace has now been merged into the Kindle Direct platform, allowing it to handle both eBooks and POD books. It's a great way to get your work out there. However, simply flopping it out on Amazon won't get you any sales. Publishing is just the start of the process. Now you are not an author, you're a marketer, and that's an entirely different ballgame.
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Post by KCWolf »

I started out using Lulu and made the switch to CreateSpace with my first endeavor. And, with the second I used both, however, I just used Lulu as a pre-release edition before uploading to CreateSpace and Amazon. That way all the "kinks got worked out" early, like when pages were printed crooked and there was a typo on the back cover. ;)

That way I didn't spend too much with Lulu, only printing 2-3 copies with them. I didn't use their editing services though, as I found more reasonable priced editing elsewhere.

My best advice, however, is to focus more on ebooks than print, until the book gets more popular. But that's just my two cents.
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Post by lucia_kizas »

lisalynn wrote: 14 Apr 2019, 08:57 Createspace has now been merged into the Kindle Direct platform, allowing it to handle both eBooks and POD books. It's a great way to get your work out there. However, simply flopping it out on Amazon won't get you any sales. Publishing is just the start of the process. Now you are not an author, you're a marketer, and that's an entirely different ballgame.
Could not agree more! Marketing is where the real game begins. For now, I am still trying to get a grip on it. :)
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