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If I may put my two cents in a bit belatedly, the big danger of
self-publishing is having the wrong idea of what you're getting -- and
not getting. I was in a fiction writer's discussion group many years
ago, in which one woman was excited because her book was going to be
published. Knowing the woman, and seeing a copy of the book, I realized
that she had gone to a subsidy publisher on the assumption that the book
was going to be marketed, distributed, etc., exactly as if it had been
bought by a regular publisher like Random House, etc.
On the other hand, as others have said, if you KNOW that all you get for
your money is a bunch of copies of your book dumped in your lap, and you
have a plan for marketing and distributing them, then it can work in
your favor. After all, one other thing you DON'T get with a subsidy
publisher is anybody telling you to rewrite your text according to what
will sell.
I wouldn't call Trafford and similar POD publishers "vanity"
publishers.... POD is changing the publishing world and dismissing what
they offer as being in some special "vanity" category, ignores the
service they provide serious writers with highly marketable books.
The value of these services -- regardless of the competency of the
writer -- depends on what you want done, what you can afford, what you
would prefer to do yourself and what you would prefer to have experts do
for you. Marketing your book is hard, time consuming work. When doing
your marketing plan and looking at ROI, consider how much reseach time,
learning curve time, production time and sweat equity you can reasonably
contribute. A company that provides one-stop shopping can usually demand
a premium.
And just thinking about all this makes me want to call a full service
caterer for my next xmas party!
-------------------------------------
Laurel Hickey
2morrow writing & document design
lhickey -at- 2morrow -dot- bc -dot- ca http://www.2morrow.bc.ca
POD has valid uses, to be sure. It can be had at much lower prices than
what Trafford charges, however. Trafford and other vanity publishers are
charging for their value-added services, and I question whether their
services are as valuable as they want you to think....The same for any
other situation where the author is competent to manage the marketing
end. So the question comes down to short-run/POD
vs. lower-cost/longer-run/offset. And that decision has to be made case
by case.
Dick
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