Publishing

Dante’s Opinion: What do you think about self publishing books?

Time for another batch of questions. You ready? I am.

First question is from Firepaw_The Storyteller of Life:

What do you think about self publishing books? Do you think it might be the future of publishing? (Please explain)

Okay, so I self published a couple of books. I always thought it was a good way for people to be heard. Publishing companies of course are better able to filter out not so good products. But, there are a lot of good writers that simply would not be able to get with a publisher for one reason or another. So yeah, I think it’s a good thing. As for it being the way of the future…I can agree with that too. Many self publishing companies will allow you to do things for free but also have professional services for things like marketing or even looking at your work for you. I think self publishing, especially free services, are a way for authors to get something out there. In the end, there’s not much difference between going to a publisher or doing it yourself if you pay the self publishing platform for various services. I wouldn’t be surprised to start hearing about big publishers offering self publishing opportunities. I don’t think we’re close to that but it could happen in another decade or two if success stories continue to pop up from self published authors.

Felix:

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Updates On My Book

Some recent developments have happened that I would think you would be interested in. I haven’t checked on the book on the publishing site dashboard in months. I decided to log on to check royalties and…well that’s it. Anyway, I was notified of a few changes they made for options on publishing.

First of all, they now give the option to go glossy cover or matte. I changed over to matte. So, yeah. I looked up glossy vs matte and, based on the several articles from professionals and every day people, I decided to go with it. If you prefer glossy…well…mm.

Now, when I first published the books separately, you got free distribution for the publisher site as well as Amazon.com. Nice. If you wanted to go beyond that, you had to pay. I paid for the books and got extra distribution for bookstores like Barnes and Noble as well as libraries and academic institutions. When I made the combined book, I didn’t do the extra distribution. But now, CreateSpace has made it free so I’m back, baby! Basically, this means you can find me just about anywhere. Keep in mind it may take a little while for things to filter out to embrace the new changes. Also keep in mind that books are printed once ordered so stuff like the matte will be updated; you won;t have to worry about getting a glossy cover.

As for the Kindle version, I noticed that the formatting was absolutely terrible. So, naturally I went in to change it. It is currently unavailable and will be back when I feel like it’s just right so who knows? Thank you for your patience. Heck, you better be patient if you don’t want a low quality book. I really should get myself a Kindle so I have some freaking idea of what stuff really looks like vs just using the little preview thing they have on the internet. Yeesh.

Oh, and I am looking into doing an audio version of it. Before it was like “maybe”. Now, the idea is growing on me. We’ll see. Project for 2014. Most likely going to be done with my voice vs hiring someone. I said this before (don’t remember if on this blog) that I feel like I can really sell my message. I don’t trust anyone else with my words. Downside is, like I know I’ve said here on the blog, is that I hate my voice. Either my hate for my voice or the desire to go audio will win a fierce battle in the next few months.

That’s it. For more stuff about my book, go to the page My Book to get links and forms of discounts for it. Thanks, and I love you unless you hate teddy bears.

-DALANEL