Anyone seen the news about the Yorkshire vicar who self published his first novel- then got $500,000 from a US book deal? check it out in News. Interesting, no? What do people think about a gamble like this?

Wow! Well I think it's great. Publishers are not always right - they'd been refusing fantasy for children for years saying kids wanted gritty true-life stories of divorce and one-parent families - they nearly all refused Harry Potter, and look how wrong they were. To have enough faith in your own work to sacrifice a holiday or two and to get out there and sell it is admirable - self publishing may be the way to go - just NEVER have anything to do with subsidy or vanity publishing.

After all, you wouldn't want to reach the end of your life and wonder what would have happened if you'd taken the chance, would you?

Well, there is hope for us all then? Does anyone have any experience on self publishing? I was asking on here on another forum page. I would certainly like to investigate further.

Sorry to bring the mood down here, but what you have to know is where you fit in the whole publishing deal. for some kinds of writing I suspect there are more options than for others, and there will be situations in which self publishing would be a good deal, especially if the writer doesn't have a day job, because you are carrying all the work in self publishing. The question, I think, is simple, can you write something, not good enough, but publishable enough, so that publishers of your kind of material are at your bec? and call, rather than you at theirs? In theory, you are, after all, their bread and butter, so just do a little research and find out where your material belongs, and if you're comfortable there. If you're not, think about a completely different kind of writing you might do, and start writing. Am I making sense?

But Becca, don't we all write what we want to write? If I was asked to write say, sexually explicit violent horror with a promise of publication I'd refuse. It would be no better than drugery, and against my principles. Isn't the reason we're writing at all a deeper one than the dream of fame and fortune? From what I can gather articles are a lot easier to place than fiction, but I've never had the inclination to even consider that route to publication. It's good to read of success stories like the one above and know that the powers that be don't always get it right.

Yes, of course we do Nell, really, and good for the Vicar. I guess I was having a little bit of a rave about how much writers have to struggle, and how often things are down to luck, as with the vicar or JK.

I agree with you Becca that before one invests 2000 to 10,000 quid, it would be advisable to be pretty damn sure that one could distribute the books and that people will buy them.

I also agree with you that before considering this option one would need to have sufficient knowledge, free time and energy to give to it and realise that it might take one away from what one enjoys, i.e. writing.

But that having been said, why should we expect publishers to put up their own money on our behalf, unless the alternative has been investigated, and that we are also willing to consider seriously putting up one's own money? The most common reasons are we either haven't got any money or that we are worried we are going to end up with thousands of copies of a book sitting in the attic?

The actual act of 'publishing' i.e. producing a book, is simple nowadays, compared to the days of type setting, when most of the publishers that are around today in the publishing industry were established, and the consequences of electronic publishing have not yet fully been taken on board.

It seems 'distribution' and 'marketing' are the real bugbears rather than the physical act of actually 'publishing' a book or magazine, and 'distribution' and 'marketing' are the very areas where the Internet is in the process of revolutionising too.

I have 'self-published' free newspapers (for a political party) by just sending Quark Express computer files to the printers on a zip disk. That was all there was to it. Colour photographs the lot! All produced within the space of two weeks. All we had to do then was to post them through all the doors.

I do think that 'self-publishing' is well worth investigating for some people and I found the news about the Vicar quite cheery. I imagine it might have been the experience of producing a parish magazine that gave him the confidence that he could do it himself. (but I am just guessing there)

I would liken it to 'self-build' in the building industry; instead of going to a one-stop shop contractor i.e. one employs the individual labour direct. I am not imagining it would reduce any stress or hassles far from it, but the satisfaction and financial gain could potentially be higher as a result! It might also be necessary as a primer to kick-start a first time author. Once having established their marketabilty, then the traditional publisher route is open.

Andrew )

Andrew- I hadn't forgotten that you were asking about self-publishing before. We're just about to have a new section that examines the reality of this in detail from those who know. So watch this (well, another) space- we'll let you know when it appears..

interesting words, Andrew, and it is after all is said and done what is marketable that matters.

I think there is a huge difference between 'Self-publishing' and 'Vanity Publishing'. It seems to me that using a Vanity Publisher should be avoided, if at all possible.

There are other discussions elswhere on other WW Forums on this topic, (see the Icera Stone, Paragon Press/Publishing and Vanity Publishers Forums) and the web site below explains some of the differences.

http://www.societyofauthors.org/vanity.htm

On point of many is that should a book reviewer receive anything published by a 'Vanity Publisher', they are probably not even going to bother to look at it. There is a danger that this might also be a risk with self-publishing, but one would hope less so.

Distribution and marketing remain the major considerations for any serious author, not merely the act of putting a work into print.

Andrew, you're absolutely right.