Perhaps the real questions are do you want to wait a year or two to find an agent, and another yr or 2 to get an editor, and then a publisher?
Oh. Your editor just quit and you're agent's a dink. And you have to start over. How many years of your life will that take?
Or.
You get all your ducks in order and get that brass ring REAL publisher, that drops your book off market and makes it nearly impossible for anyone to buy--the very same year it's published!
These things are what I saw in my research before publishing, and also that many of the "self-publishing houses" had/have atrociously bad contracts. They are my books not theirs, if they wish to lease fine, if not, then a quick release of a few weeks should be doable.
You will be doing a lot of your marketing no matter who publishes it, but if you want to be certain it's out there long enough [takes about 5 yrs? for a Christmas Box or Joy of Sex] to become the next author-published goody that hits HUGE,.
So, you may consider joining we the author-published [also known as self-published and POD]. But, author publisher is cleaner, truer, and hasn't the baggage.
Check out the great contract at www.InfinityPublishing.com and call [I think it's still 877-BUY BOOK] and ask for their SAMPLE BOOK which is a perfect bound sample of the actual POD/print as they're purchased that they'll print for you with all the info to your questions. Their contract--if a huge house pick you up--can be released without any fuss, and within a few weeks. Not years.
And/Or invest in your own isbn's [www.isbn.org / www.bowkerlink.com] and upload to Ingram's www.LightningSource.com which prints and/or distributes pretty much all the big REAL publisher books and ebooks, as well as mine, to most booksellers online and brick and mortar.
And they don't stiff you with a ton of books to get waterdamaged in the garage or basement. You can order at cost and they'll ship for you to whoever needs to see your book, when you're marketing.
But they fulfill all bookseller [Amazon, BN, etc] orders without you, if you like. I like. I love.
All this requires learning more entrepreneurship skills and coordinating or doing your own editing, layout, and packaging.
All of my releases are still growing, and I'm set up now that if I want to write story or text, do layout, cover, and upload to them and have it go on sale within the same week. No. No bull....
Do look check them out, because putting your energy into--as the man said above--a dying system may not make you any happier.
Do you want to publish? Believe me the validation is there when you see your properties on sale across the net worldwide, and when you get your royalties, monthly, if you make sales.
Instead of 2-4 times a year from the majors, I believe it is.
This way is much work but there is much satisfaction and peace of mind, as well. And the years you spent chasing NYers or whomever, who by the way have been putting out badly edited and researched books, too, for a decade or more, have NOTHING to say about author publishing. Highly frustrating.
They are the big marketers nothing more.
So, you could use those years to learn epublishing and get your publishing company or a consortium group together and work on your books as a group.
Neale Sourna
www.PIE-Percept.com [publishing]
www.Neale-Sourna.com [author site]
www.Writing-Naked.com
www.LightningSource.com [national and worldwide print and distribution--ebooks (Adobe PDF/EPUB, MS, Palm), print books of all binding, interior color, and distributes to the new airport POD book kiosks]
Labels: bowkerlink, ebook, infinity publishing, international, isbn, lightning source, linkedin, neale sourna, perfect bound, pod, print book, worldwide
