Monta Tervedis!

I am getting ready to publish (waiting for mother's and younger brothers' approval on my book), and I have been debating Subsidy publishing verses Amazon Kindle Publishing. I was wondering if any of you out there have had experience with either, and what you would recommend. Obviously, I would like to be able to have hard copies of the books in my hands to distribute to friends and family after working on the book for over three years, but I don't want to spend too much money and I certainly do not want to wait another two years before the publishing is finally completed... Any and all advice would be greatly appreciate to a novice in the world of publishing...

Many Thanks,

Esílis

Congratulations on getting so close to publishing! That's always exciting.

Definitely use Amazon Kindle Publishing. Publishing your books through Kindle costs nothing, and has no effect on whether or not you also print hard copies of the book. I also use Smashwords (Although, I highly suggest not looking around the site too much. Since anyone can publish anything nowadays, it's full of inappropriate books.) The good thing about Smashwords is, you can get into their premium catalog and your ebook will be distributed to Barnes & Noble for Nook, on iBooks, and other large ebook retailers.

Now, personally, I would stay away from any subsidy publishers. Typically, they charge far more than it actually costs to do your book, and chances are, the quality won't be worth it. Plus, you have to be really careful. There are so many scam companies. You have to always make sure you retain ALL rights to your work. Trust me, contracts are highly confusing.

I always recommend CreateSpace. A couple of us have used it, and I've done all my books through it. It's owned by Amazon so your books are automatically listed for free. You can set everything up for free (Though I recommend purchasing their $40 pro plan since that cuts down the price of books and gives you more royalties. It pays for itself in the end.). The downside is, you have to do everything yourself. Cover design, interior design, etc. They do offer services like that, but those are pricey.

Hope that helps!

Thanks! I'm very exited to finally have my book done (I've already started to work on the second and third books, but I'm looking forward to not having to divide my attentions between writing and editing).

Thanks for the advice! I'll take a look at Smashwords, the idea of being listed through Barnes & Noble is very appealing.

Ok, Dorrance was recommended to us by a man who works with publishing. Mel Cohen. He has done a lot of work for Michael and Debi Pearl (Don't know if you know them). I was considering Dorrance because it's the oldest subsidy publishing company in America. Their prices would probably be higher, but one doesn't become the oldest subsidy publishing house in America by scamming people (or so I think...).

I really would like to have some hard copies of my book, however, so do you have any thoughts on how I could do that?

Thank you

I don't know anything about Dorrance other than the quick look I just took at it. I looked up their books on Amazon, and I did notice they are very highly priced. That is another problem with subsidy publishers. The list prices they set on the books are so high its makes selling a lot harder. One other thing is, from my experience, if you need to make any editing changes or something like that, it's quite expensive. But maybe not every subsidy publisher charges for that. Definitely do a lot of research on any company you might consider using. You can usually find a lot by Googling it and reading what people have to say on other writing forums. I guess I originally said I'd stay away from subsidy publishers is because I've worked with one in the past. It's not that they were a bad company, it's just that I spent a couple thousand dollars to do it (got my first job just to pay for it), and never came close to making that back. Unfortunately, knowing what I do now about publishing, their services weren't worth what I had to pay. (If anyone needs more details, you can PM me.) But I won't discredit every subsidy publisher because of that.

CreateSpace is a printer, so that it how I get all my hard copies. They only do paperback though. Well, you can specially request hardcover copies, but that's pricey. The quality is good, and the price you have to pay as an author is very reasonable. (The price I pay for my thickest book, which is 466 pages, is $6.44 and it's sold for $12.99.) And another upside to CS is that you set your own price for your book, so you can keep it at a reasonable price for buyers.

Oh, and if you use both Smashwords and Kindle Publishing for publishing an ebook, I recommend following Smashwords' Style Guide: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52 That makes it really easy to format your book. I pretty much use the same file for both Smashwords and Kindle, I just have to change the copyright page since one will say Smashwords Edition.

Thanks for the informative posts, Makilien.

I LOVE publishing, so I'm always happy to help.

I have heard a lot about CreateSpace from people on here. I haven't heard of Dorrance though.

Thanks for all the helpful information, Molly!

I am here to second Molly whole-heartedly. Having used Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords, and CreateSpace myself, I can testify that she speaks the truth. All three would be excellent services to fill your needs, Esilis, and they are wonderful user-friendly companies to work with. CreateSpace allows you to order as few or as many hard copies as you need for yourself, as well as lists your book on Amazon, so it is very flexible. As Molly said, the prices are budget-friendly; the only set-up costs you will have are ordering proofs and purchasing the ProPlan, if you choose to go that route.

I would also second the recommendation for purchasing the ProPlan, especially if you are ordering many copies yourself. I ordered about 25 copies initially, and the savings on that order was enough to make back the ProPlan. If you're not ordering many copies yourself, it might be an expense you can spare. It just depends on how many copies you want to sell and what your goals are for publishing.

Wow, thank you everyone for the informative and helpful posts The idea of not spending several thousand dollars of my parent's money (they said they would help me publish) sound extremely appealing. I will probably be working on publishing all summer (depending on whether or not I enter the novel writing contest, and whether or not I place), so I will look into all of these options. Once again, I am very pleased that I joined this writer's forum, I have learned way more than I even imagined I would. You are all extremely awesome. When the book is finished, you all will be the first to know about it...

Excellent. It is our honor to be of service - to God be the glory!