A B N A Vets Forum Createspace

Just curious if anyone is actually considering this. I still haven't received my rejection email, but I'm waiting. Plus we who didn't make it get a free proof of our novels.

The only concern I would have is marketing, but in all honesty that isn't a big concern for me. I'll just make the posters go to local book stores and try and bargain a deal to sell them.

Plus online is moving in, slowly pushing print out of the way. Plus the idea of printing on demand of order is nice, so you wouldn't have to buy a minimum of 200+ copies.

And our own space on amazon is a decent idea.

There's also the fact of published authors starting out self published and then gettting picked up. I think it was mentioned that Sgtephen King was self published at some point.

I'm seriously debating going this route just to get a jump start. I can handle the marketing aspect from my end through animated features I'm working on, and using youtube and flash sites such as newgrounds.com to get readers. When I first came up with the idea of an animated series based off my novels and set up auditions, I started getting emails of people interested in the series and wanted to buy them if they were available.

I'm 24, so I'm new to this. I finished the first book in 01 but rewrote it in 05. I'm working on my 4th book at the moment. But anyway, I'm new to this world and really don't have that good of an idea on how to find agents, reliable ones anyway. Before I jump to anything I want to look at all my options and analyze them well.

Opinions? I will be posting the first book when I get home from work here. I'm tired of getting positive reviews from my target audienced, and getting a fan base. It's nice and flattering and all but it doesn't help me improve. It just confirms for me that I have a targgt audience and that they would read it. But it's not helping me as a writer, I'm far from perfect and I  just feel I'm an average writer.

So yeah, I'm kind of relieved now that I'm not a semi because now I can go back to following my own path and displaying my first novel without the fear of ABNA getting pissy about it.

Help would be muchly appreciated.

-Adam

Hi Adam. 

I would suggest to anyone who gets a rejection notice from the contest to definitely wait before making any decision to go the Createspace route.   I wouldn't make such a big decision in the wake of a rejection.

Last year I decided to get serious about finding an agent, and I can tell you one thing, looking for an agent is a marathon of rejection.   It's tough.  And getting a rejection is tough -- I know.

Here is what I would suggest:

Go back through your novel reading it as if you were the one reviewing it.   Mark the areas that you think need improve it, and make another revision.

Go to the Absolute Write forums: 

Absolute Write is a great place to learn about the industry side of things as well as meet other writers.  The Bewares and Backgrounds forum is a definite must for anyone searching for an agent or publisher.

Search for an agent.   You can find a great agent listing at agent query: 

If you are new to searching for an agent, read up on the absolute write forums on how to write effective query letters and go about the process.

There's really a lot to learn about that side of things.  I think its well worth doing some research before making a decision to self-publish.

This is a critique group -- post your book here, and let your peers help you!

Don't jump at that POD stuff.  It taints you in the eyes of agents and publishers.  And you might very well agree with them, in a year or two, when your writing is better. 

If you've never experienced real critiquing, you should know -- you need it.  Everyone does.  I've had input on all my work from dozens of people who know at least a bit about what works and what doesn't.  I revised my entry with intensive assistance from two writing buddies on my fantasy group.  I couldn't have done it without them.  I wouldn't dream of querying any work without having reliable reviewers from among my peers read it and critique it.

If you put up a few chapters, I'll be happy to critique them.  It'll be the real deal, too -- I'll tell you what I think works and what doesn't and why in both cases.

About self-promoting in bookstores.

What booksellers don't like about POD is it's non-returnable.  If the book doesn't sell, they're stuck with it taking up space on the shelf where they can put another book that's more likely to find buyers. So they're not easily persuaded. On-line marketing might indeed be a good option for you.  But I still think you should work on the writing side a bit more before you make any big decisions.  You have people saying they'll read your book, but will they actually pay $15 for it?

Even conventionally published authors have to do quite a bit of their own marketing, so you're one-up on a lot of the rest of us if you're comfortable with that.

Write write write and get good feedback (again, that's what this group is for) and keep developing your marketing ideas.

A few months from now you may be in a position to decide what approach to publication works best for you.

 

Once I get home from work I intend to. I've experienced some real critiques, mainly from college professors though, but naturally it isn't enough. I will be more than likely going the true publishing route. And this current book isn't really up to par with my writing now. It was finished in 05, and my writing is much more descriptive and smoother now. Although I rushly edited this to make thew ABNA deadline.

I just didn't like the thought of one top reviewer who doesn't even like sci-fi deciding the fate of my novel.

www.shatteredheaven.com is the url for my site for my series. So off hand much like Jace it does have a taste of anime. Namely the art, it is a mix of military conflict with a futuristic feel. And like transformers (because as a kid giant robots were cool imo) I gave it that type of feel only they're just machines that are piloted.

I've become truly involved with this series, 3 books, a graphic novel somewhere in my room, and now in production the actual animated series which will be on my site as of March 1st. I want to fix it up as much as possible and much like Pinocchio I want to become a real bo...err umm, author.

Home from work.

Anyway, posted the prologue to the 3rd chapter of my novel Shattered Heaven. And let the advice begin.

I finally got my rejection mail today.

Like you, Adam, I'm not sure about Createspace. If I go the self-publishing route, I think Lulu would be my choice, mainly because of distribution through Amazon.

Quote:


I've been looking at Lulu as well, and one thing I like about their site is they offer mutiple options. Createspace only offers softcover books, where Lulu offers hardcover and softcover. So with Lulu, you could print in both softcover and hardcover and leave the decision to the reader which format they would like to purchase.

I've been doing some math, and to print my ABNA book... it would cost $6.19 per unit with Createspace, not including any commission they might take from the sale. Like I said this book is avail in softcover only. After doing some digging at Lulu, and a hardcover copy of the same book would cost $15 per unit. But the average hardcover charges anywhere between $25-30 which is a lot higher than what you would charge for a paperback.

Both sites offer ondemand publishing, and through Lulu you can obtain an ISBN to have the book sold through Amazon or Barnes & Noble... so the right to sell through the site isn't exclusive to Createspace. So because of this, I'm really leaning towards working with Lulu should I decide to take the ondemand online publishing route.

Josh

Hi Adam,

I'm new to the writing industry also and still have so much to learn.  One of the things I've learned is the only way to find the reputable agents and publishers is research.  I saw that someone mentioned absolutewrite to you.  There is also They have a really good site and also in a lot of cases you can click on the agent and/or publishers name and get to their website.

 

A friend opened his own company to publish his YA novel. He went through some tough negotiations with Amazon (commissions, etc.) but his novel is listed with them now. Max and the Gatekeeper.

He investigated several POD publishers, including Lulu, and figured he was better off financially with his own publishing company. He's doing a fantastic job of marketing with schools and bookstores, and the book is selling well.

Createspace means they would show my ABNA entry as is, but I want to make a few changes. Makes it tough to decide whether to go with them or not. I guess it depends on whether my novel would be available for others to view.

 

Hi V King,

I'm new to the writing industry also and still have so much to learn.  One of the things I've learned is the only way to find the reputable agents and publishers is research.  I saw that someone mentioned absolutewrite to you.  There is also They have a really good site and also in a lot of cases you can click on the agent and/or publishers name and get to their website.

 

P&E is a great site to check things out.

You may also need to take a look at these:  and

 

 

CreateSpace assigns an ISBN as a matter of course, and for a 30% commission instead of a 20% commission, you get listed on Amazon-- and you can bet it will be a faster and better-assembled page than most POD books get. I did some math and for a $15.99 trade paperback listed on Amazon, you get around $3.50... it came out to a 22% royalty.

I think Lulu's primary advantage is hardcovers-- last time I checked (which was a while ago) you had to pay for an ISBN.