Thoughts on selfpublishing

When I am ready to publish I'm definatley considering self publishing to be honest with you...It is (from what I've heard and read) very difficult to get published otherwise and the strings that CAN come with is also somehting that doesnt interest me so yea I'd definately give self publishing a go when the time comes

I made two resolutions this fall, one was to start walking again (at least 4 days a week) which I started but haven't quite accomplished the four days but it's been awhile so it's a painful process. The second was to really focus on my writing. While I was out walking the other day my writing was in my head. I came up with something to add to a story I am submitting to an anthology, another idea for a short story to submit to a contest, and then I came up with the idea of publishing my poems in a book called "My Life In Verse". I know poetry doesn't really sell so I'm not sure how I'm going to go about publishing it because I need wide exposure if I want to be successful. Lulu.com might be my best bet. And then there is that novel I have been putting off editing (I'm on my 7th I think). I intend to get an agent for that, but will submit to publishing houses as well. Self-publishing and POD kind of scare me. I don't feel like I would be successful going those routes.

I would love to do it, I just don't have the slightest clue on how to go about accomplishing that.

I did it, through Lulu. It's fun and rewarding, especially because I used it to start my own indie publishing company, but it is hard work. Not the actual publishing, although that's not a cake walk, but the marketing is hard. Lulu offers a marketing package for a fee but you are still going to be the one doing the leg work. You will be the one contacting newspaper reviewers, you will be the one taking copies to local booksellers, you will be the one arranging signings. They offer a package but that's all it is - literally, a package. Another similar self-publisher is Book Surge, which operates through Amazon. I don't know how their program works. Traditionalists will discredit self-publishing but one real advantage to it is if you market your book well and sell a couple hundred copies, you can use that as leverage to sell your book (and yourself) to an agent. Even naysayers can't deny that a book that has sold two or three or five hundred copies with only the author marketing it is going to be a tad more impressive to an agent than a book that your friends and family and Literature professors say is great. Logic says if you could sell 200 copies by yourself, an agent and a major publisher could sell a hundred times that many using the tools at their disposal. The problem with self-publishing, the problem that traditionalists will point out over and over again, is that it gives every cheerleader with the ability to rhyme the opportunity to publish a book of poetry. But every cheerleader with the ability to rhyme is going to sell her book of poetry to her family and a few close friends and no one else. A genuinely talented author who couldn't get representation to save his life, however, can sell hundreds.

I think self-publishing is a great idea. Not only is it hard to get published, but if you're not already a big name, publishers don't do much marketing for you. You'll have to do the work yourself either way, so why not keep more control over your book? I'd like to get published the traditional way if I can, but I'm also self-publishing an online novel. It's posted in installments (twice a week for now, though I will probably switch to three times soon) so readers have to keep coming back! I haven't made any money yet, but I haven't been doing it for two months, and there are other people who make quite a bit of money doing similar things. If you'd like to see my story, it's published at http://clarekrmiller.digitalnovelists.com.