Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Self-publishing. . .The Way to Go?

Like most of us, I've been watching the new trend in publishing. The world of self-publishing. I've been reading all sorts of cool stuff. And I imagine you have too. For me, it's too soon to jump into that pool yet, but I'm testing the water, paying attention to other authors who have already done it. . .and are having amazing success.

Today, I'd like to share a story about just one of them. The fabulous Julianne MacLean. She took a book she wrote (she calls it the Book of Her Heart) that both her publisher and agent didn't think would do well in the traditional market and is doing great things with it.  

The link below is an interview she did with Write to Publish, a blog I just discovered yesterday. Hope you find the information Julianne shared as informative and helpful as I did.

http://write2publish.blogspot.com/2011/03/making-best-of-both-worlds-julianne.html

Happy Wednesday all!

 

13 comments:

  1. Yeah self-publishing is a lot easier when you have an agent and an established audience. Doing it with nothing is much, much harder. So you're better off going the traditional route if you can and then after you've established yourself you can maybe self-pub if you want.

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  2. Thanks for posting this. It's both nervewracking and exciting to see how the publishing world is changing, on an almost daily basis. The best part is that readers still want good books to read. :)

    Donna

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  3. I totally agree,RM. If you have an established readership the self-publishing avenue is an interesting alternative. Unpubed authors, though, should beware.

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  4. I don't know, I'm still highly wary of anything with the labels "Self-published" or "Indie". I'm sure there are some amazing works out there that should have been published traditionally and weren't for one reason or another.

    But I still think, overall, the writing industry is weakened with the ease of e-publishing these days. Far too many people go that route when they have no business doing so, and that makes it harder for those around them who did put in the time. E-pubbing is still a super hard way to build up a following for most peeps, I think.

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  5. I just found and am now following your blog via The Write Lawyer and also am following Write to Publish the same way.

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  6. Thanks for the link. My experience with traditional publishing has made me sit up and take notice of self-publishing. I've giving myself eight months to study up, because I have one particular project that I want full control over and I suspect that based on the subject matter, I might have trouble selling it to a traditional publisher.

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  7. What a great blog - thanks for the link. I am still on the fence about self publishing but am seriously considering putting a few novellas into e-book form. Stuff that I doubt would ever be traditionally published but might be interesting. I'll see.

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  8. It takes courage and determination to submit our work to a publisher, how nerve-wrecking it must be to do all the work by ourselves and self-publish.

    BTW, I'm hosting Roland D Yeomans today, who self-published his book THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS and is sharing his journey with us as well as a four book giveaway!

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  9. This is definitely a hot topic right now. Did you read about the "Kindle Millionaires" on nathan Bransford's blog? Interesting. For me, however - I'm really going to try the agent route and traditional publishing first.

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  10. Great post. I'm sitting on the fence as well about self-publishing. I'm not opposed to it, but I have to think what is my ultimate hope? Dream?

    I want to see my book sitting on the shelves at a book store--that's my dream. I'm going to hold onto it just a little longer. But, I'm keeping an open mind.

    I have a book out with an agent right now who's peddling it to editors for me. So far, all we're getting is rejection after rejection. It's hard. Getting published traditionally is almost comparable to winning the lottery. BUT, if I stop buying the scratch off tickets, I'll never, ever win. I'll keep buying and hoping, I guess.

    ~Angela

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  11. Good for you, Angela! Rejection is so hard, but as hard as it is, you've got to go through all the Nos to find that one YES. And all you need is one.

    Good luck. I'm rooting for you!

    And thanks everyone for your comments. I'm so interesting in all your points of view and to know what you think about the shift in publishing. Watch and wait...that's what I'll be doing over the next little while.

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  12. I suppose it's worth remembering that it's not an either/or scenario. Theoretically a writer could go the traditional submission/query route with one book while selling other work online - especially in the case of shorter works like novellas or specific genres like erotica which both do particularly well in the e-book market.

    Like others I'm trying the traditional path first, but definitely wouldn't rule out other avenues in the future!

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