Online Publishing/E-Publishing. Thoughts?

[Tecdavid]

Basically, I'd like to know what everyone's thoughts are regarding online publishing. Recently, I heard of an author who, after many failed attempts to find publication traditionally, found what she was looking for through a service of Amazon's. I really don't know many details about this at all, but I wondered: does online publishing offer anything that traditional publishing doesn't? Are there any reasons it could be better or worse than traditional publishing? Has anyone here had any experience with it?
I ask because I think it's good to keep an eye on changing trends, and I trust the opinions, advice, and thoughts of Chrons' users more so than anyplace else on the internet, when it comes to matters like these.

 

[Kissmequick]

Firstly, I'd suggest if you're going to think about going this route, read, read A LOT about it, and not just those saying 'It's the new wave', etc etc. It's probably not the answer to all your multi million selling dreams, but, if you go in with the right attitude, it can be rewarding.

From what I've discovered

(some of the) Pros:

You're your own boss.
No one to give you a crappy cover that you hate etc
Complete creative control
You get a higher % of the sale price


(Some of the) cons:

You are your own boss -- and you're bankrolling this. Editing, cover etc. If you don't pay for these, or at least don't get pro standard, it will really show. You're out of pocket unless you sell well. You take the risk the publisher normally does.

You also get to do all the rest that a publisher usually does: marketing, promo, cover copy, formatting, file conversion...the list goes on. There's a reason many successful self pubbers take the traditional deal when offered -- it gives them more time to write

Sales: Almost certainly will be less. A lot less. Meaning that while you get a bigger %, overall you'll probably make less. A few Self pubbers do have pretty good (or tremendous) sales, but the vast majority will struggle to make double or triple digits. If your book is in bookshops as well as online, being backed by a big pub with their knowledge of PR and marketing, then you have a much better chance of sales. (Not everyone has internet access , not even in the States, where I think it's at 20% that don't. That's a lot of people who can't get your book) You're also more likely to get reviews (many reviewers won't look at SP) etc etc


So, think about it, research, a lot, decide then. Can you afford to get edited, a good cover? Are you good at promoting yourself? Do you enjoying paginating MSs? Do you just want it out there, or do you want good sales? (Or both?) How much time do you have to promo? Is creative control the most important thing?

All questions only you can answer.

 

[Brev]

Great post kissmequick.
In the end it's about what you want from it, and what you're prepared to put in to it. I was talking to a self published author friend of mine about this. He was happy to admit that he wasn't going to make much money, but he took a lot of pleasure from knowing that his work is out there for people to read.

 

[Parson]

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/foru...ng-sept-11-aug.html?highlight=year+publishing

This was discussed with a "successful" self publisher here on this forum a while back. It speaks about some of the positives and a few of the negatives about it.

Successful - The author sold several thousand copies of his book.

 

[Glen]

On-line publishing has been a good move for me, but perhaps not for obvious reasons.

I enjoyed getting some kind of closure to writing a 130K+ word book. Having the ms sit around doing nothing seemed like a waste of effort. I suppose this is close to the Seth Godin concept of shipping. By putting the book online I felt I had accomplished something and could move on.

I am not sure I would have completed the second book if the first was still sitting on my desk. I expect I would have spent even more time editing and polishing. Now, before any chron aspiring writer chokes on their jaffa cake, yes, of course, editing and polishing is essential for any work - but I'm not sure this particular book was worth it. It was more important for me to get to the next book than spend more time on the first.

The little feedback I have about book two suggests it is better written than the first. That's good news for me. But is it good enough yet to spend time searching for an agent or a pulisher? Probably not.

I have been able to think more about my writing game plan. My aim is to get book two on-line, plus another 'throw-away' horror plot line that I've been working on. I may then finish the trilogy and get that on-line too. this plan gives me some clear goals to shoot for with hard stage gates. If I only wrote and didn't publish on-line it would be easier for me to be lazy and let delivery drift, perhaps fooling myself into thinking I was waiting for inspiration, or that the ms needed another round of editing. My reasoning here is that the writing will get better, not worse with experience. Then, beyond this (or perhaps in parallel to some of it) research and write what I consider to be a good plot/story. I have a couple in mind, only one of which is sci-fi. This is the one I'll try hard to get published.

Along the way I've learned a bit about the market place, and have built a website which I think will help me when I start to seriously market myself to agents/publishers.

I suppose I am saying that I expect a lower level of quality from an on-line book, but there is still some level of quality. By striving to that point I hope to improve my writing such that I feel ready to strive to the next level of publishing on paper.

This is not to say that it has been a bit disappointing for my book not to go gangbusters on line and pay for my mortgage. I probably had higher hopes when I put it up there, and my motivation has changed since. There have still been some good moments - for my story to find its way to the top of the on-line slush pile, get into the hands of someone I have never met in the States, and for them to give me a five star review was, for me, some small vote of confidence. It makes me feel like the writing can not be entirely rubbish, and that one day I'll get somewhere with it.

 

[Tecdavid]

Thanks for the info. I really didn't know much about it at all, but this paints a picture that probably shouldn't be taken lightly, so cheers.