Wasn't so concerned with dovetailing. I was more curious as to why those in this thread were excited about Musa rather than self-publishing. As I said, I'm new here, but found it odd that no post mentioned that alternative to a new company.
As others have said, it's because this thread exists specifically to discuss Musa. The assumption is that if people are researching Musa they've already decided they want to go with a publisher rather than self-publishing; that's the base assumption of all the Bewares threads, actually, that one is asking questions about Publisher A or Agent B because that's the route they want to go.
If you truly have spent a month or so reading the forum, I'm honestly confused as to why you're even asking this question.
My apologies if I gave that impression. It wasn't my intent. I do think the concerns are valid, hence my questions. And possibly my definition of "better" is different than yours.
Perhaps they are. By "better" Giant Baby means larger, with a longer record of being in business successfully, more name recognition, a larger audience, and bigger distribution.
Well, as you mention, this is a "Musa" thread. I would ask the same questions of any publisher.
What question? "Why should I go with you instead of self-publishing?" Why would you ask that? The benefits of each are pretty clearly established in all sorts of places. It's not a publisher's job to sell themselves to writers or to help you decide how you want your book published. That's up to you. (Also, many, many of us do not particularly WANT to self-publish; we want the benefits of a real publisher, so the idea that publishers should be desperately begging writers for just a second of their time is rather silly, don't you think? They have much more important things to do, like fill bookstores with books readers actually want to buy and read. And readers--around whom the business revolves and for whom the business exists--want them to keep doing it, so that the readers themselves do not have to plow through thousands of titles of unedited slush looking for the one readable book that might be there.)
Being new, Musa is forthcoming with answers. Established publishers, not so much. My current publisher is one of the largest on the planet. They pretend to listen, then do what they want. Musa seems to actually listen. I'm friends with authors who've had multiple novels published through Random House and Simon and Schuster. In the mid 90s, they were very much into working with the author. Not so much today.
I'm published with both Random House and S&S, and that has not remotely been my experience. Not
remotely.
I'd rather go with a publisher that I can work with. Having gone down this road already, I think, rightly or wrongly, I know my audience. I know what they expect. I know what covers work, and what interior design works.
I think authors often think they know this, and are often wrong, but if you're so confident you know better than a publisher, why are you considering publishers?
Plus, marketing for fiction and non-fiction are extremely different.
In my real life, I save movies for a living. Every movie I salvaged got a distribution deal. No small feat. 98% of movies made, don't. I feel that Hollywood and publishing aren't so different, in the end.
I don't know Hollywood well enough to make that judgment absolutely, but it's certainly not the impression I've gotten from everything I know about publishing.
Just dipping my toe in at this point. Of course looking at others. No, not submitting to an agent. I admit, I don't know much about the publishing world outside of my limited experience and stories from friends who are neck deep. But in the film world, an agent that accepts unsolicited screenplays isn't much of an agent. Granted, they do the best they can, but in the end, need to pay the rent. That can cause all sorts of problems, and won't get you the best deal, I'm afraid. The slush pile is a hard row to hoe. Possibly your experience is different, and would love to hear about it.
And this is proof that your belief that the two industries are the same is completely erroneous.
I suggest you read some of the other threads in this forum--
"How Real Publishing Works" is a good place to start, right here in Bewares--and learn more about publishing before you apply the standards of another industry to it.
ebooks are a new world for me. I'm just asking questions to get a feel for it. I didn't mean to offend anyone.
No one is offended. We just don't understand why you're being combative and aggressive about the way discussions here are going and telling us all there's something wrong with that, when they're going the way they should according to the policies and standards of the community and what our members are comfortable with. You've essentially walked into our costume party and demanded to know why we're all dressed funny, and seem to feel we should change outfits to suit you.
I haven't seen you ask any questions specifically about epublishing/ebooks, either, just about what makes submitting to a specific epublisher better than self-publishing. (And if you want to learn about ebooks/epublishing, why not try the
Epublishing forum, where your questions would be appropriate and would be answered and discussed?)
In addition, if you'd read this thread you must have known Celina was out having surgery, so your demand that she answer your questions now was rather...well, aggressive, again.
Have you read the
Newbie Guide?
Welcome to the forums! I do hope you stick around. If you want to learn about publishing there's no better place for it, IMO.
