Hi all,
Putting the cart somewhat before the horse, I was wondering whether anyone had any experience of self-publishing? I'm not looking for vanity presses, more am wondering about the numerous print-on-demand services out there. I'm also not looking at selling the book, rather I think it may be cool to have a hard copy of my own work. Also, someone I know is also doing NaNoWriMo, and I think it would make a cool surprise xmas present to (assuming he finishes) make his novel into a book.
So, does anyone have any experiences, positive or negative, to share? Recommended publishers/presses?
I've been looking at Lulu (http://www.lulu.com) and Blurb (http://www.blurb.com/), but haven't made any decisions yet. Hell, I've 43000 words to go on mine, and the other person has almost as many to go...
Cheers,
Ian
PS: I hope to attend the upcoming Costa on Sunday as will finally be back in the UK; looking forward to meeting fellow nano'ers there.
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41,882 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 15 05
I had very good feedback about the job Lulu did with a one-time copy of a fanfiction anthology that I prepared and ordered for the winner of an anime convention's writing competition. I think the entire process took 2 weeks to print, dispatch and receive the finished article in the U.K and the guy was pleased with the quality, so I can vouch for them somewhat in an off-hand kind of way I suppose :) I certainly agree that it sounds like a fantastic Christmas present idea!
There's always the CreateSpace option for winners too, as noted in today's Breaking News, and a lot of the feedback for that from previous years seems to be positive in the relevant forum thread - http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3286025
----------2006: So You've Fallen in Love - 1,477 words.
2007: Not-So-Lonely Road of Faith - 11,522 words.
2008: Faux - 13,366 words.
2009: The Coleridge Tape.
jayintheclouds.livejournal.com / twitter.com/jayintheclouds / facebook.com/onsentamago
21,686 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 15 50
Aha, I hadn't noticed the CreateSpace posting... Looks like an excellent option, and the rates seem competitive for any extra copies I want.
I wouldn't touch the DTP (i.e. ebook) offering though - I can't believe they can justify keeping 65% of list price!! It's an ebook - there's virtually no overhead in publishing or distributing!
Thanks for the info - both really useful,
Ian
37,570 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 01 22
I Lulu'd a couple of previous nano efforts last year.
I'm very happy with them now but it took a lot of work to lay them out and I have at least 3 duff efforts where I didn't get it right, each costing about a fiver plus Lulu's exorbitant postage - so it ended up being quite a lot of money for something that was - basically - just for my mum. If you are less fussy about how they look (or you have experience laying thing out for publishing - which I did not) I imagine it would be a fairly painless process. It was certainly a rewarding one.