A few years ago I edited and formatted a small book by a friend for publication by Booklocker.com. (See http://www.booklocker.com/books/1396.html.) The company did a nice job within the limits that POD allows. Cover price is high, but that goes with the territory. As near as I can tell, the company lived up to its end of the bargain. I would deal with them again, on the sort of understanding you describe (that is, realistic -- a convenient alternative but not likely to be profitable).hand said:Looking at using booklocker and seeing if anyone else has used them....
1. Booklocker is a legitimate POD publisher. Naturally, read the contract and consider the costs. Lulu.com might be a more economical choice. Avantine Press might offer better cost structure. Others might have specific relative advantages. Get facts.WackAMole said:...
I guess I feel a bit like im selling out if I give up and go with the POD option, but since it worked so well for Natalie Collins im almost tempted to give them a try.
Thoughts?
ResearchGuy said:1. Booklocker is a legitimate POD publisher. Naturally, read the contract and consider the costs. Lulu.com might be a more economical choice. Avantine Press might offer better cost structure. Others might have specific relative advantages. Get facts.
2. POD can be a reasonable way to make a manuscript available as a nicely printed, bound book, without a large financial commitment. (That apparentlyworked for the AW group and Atlanta Nights.) But cover prices of POD books are high, they are only stocked in an occasional bookstore (local author area of a local bookstore, that sort of thing), and they are not taken seriously by reviewers. Still ... sometimes those negatives may not be all that significant -- but with the proviso that few POD authors are likely to even make back the up-fronts costs.
3. Selling out? Maybe. Depends on the nature and potential audience of your manuscript, your purposes as a writer (seeking wide audience and recognition? or seeking to make printed books available for local or small niche audience?). "Selling out" is a pejorative term. Maybe "giving up too soon," or "not exploring all options" fits better. Or maybe "taking a practical but potential-limiting shortcut."
4. Depending on your interests and abilities (want to run a publishing business? have the knowledge and time? ok with the risks?) self-publishing (that is, contracting for a print run with you as the publisher, owning the ISBN and taking delivery of the printed, bound books and taking responsibility for distribution, etc.) might be a better choice than POD. POD can be used as a less-risky self-publishing option (no garage full of books), but requires planning, setting up of a DBA or other mechanism for your publishing imprint, purchase of a block of ISBNs, and so on.
I might add that I know at least one fine novelist, Bill Pieper, of Sacramento (a teacher of writing and a writer), who has had a couple of books produced as PODs, as part of a small publishing cooperative. His latest has been published in the standard way by an established regional small press. He is gaining local recognition. Time will tell what comes of that.
All for whatever it is worth.
--Ken
JennaGlatzer said:I have bitten my tongue about Angela Hoy for a long time.
I will continue to do my best to bite my tongue... except to say this.
I published two titles through Booklocker. We had a fine business relationship. Things deteriorated. When AW was pulled down by a scammer, Angela took that opportunity to tell lies about me/AW and post my private correspondence. Among other things, she claimed to have been banned here (lie. She's never been banned here) and said that they no longer publish my books (purposely misleading: I asked her to stop publishing my books because one got picked up by a real publisher, and the other became outdated too fast). She posted my correspondence without context, so writers were not able to see what she had threatened me about (she was threatening to sue me for not taking down a thread like this).
I never wanted to say anything bad about someone who could be perceived as my "competitor." But guess what? I don't own Absolute Write anymore, so I can now say this: of all the writing site owners, there was only ever one who acted like my competitor, and that was Angela. The rest of us got along beautifully and helped each other at every turn. Particularly when the chips were down.
I tend to try to give my business to people who I want to support. So if I had it to do over, I obviously would have gone with a different e-publisher if I were going to go that route again.
JennaGlatzer said:No problem. Have you been approaching agents and publishers? I know it can feel like a long haul, but there is a huge difference between commercial publishing and vanity POD/e-publishing. I've definitely found it to be worth it to hold out and find good homes for my books.