Amazon e-pub, print pub

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shhhman

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This has probably shown up on here a gazillion times before, but can someone tell me what the disadvantages are to e-publishing through Amazon or print pub. through Amazon? Does it significantly reduce your chances of publishing through a traditional publisher? How? Thanks. Just curious.
 

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If you self-publish, you are self publishing. Although there are some exceptions, this probably means you will not be placing that work with a publisher.
 

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This has probably shown up on here a gazillion times before, but can someone tell me what the disadvantages are to e-publishing through Amazon or print pub. through Amazon? Does it significantly reduce your chances of publishing through a traditional publisher? How? Thanks. Just curious.

I assume you're asking how self-publishing affects your chances of getting a contract with a trade publisher, so that's the question I'll answer. If I've got that wrong, please let me know.

If you want to self publish a book and then find a trade publisher for that same book, then you might be in trouble. There are still plenty of publishers and agents who won't consider books which have been previously published. Also, if your self published book sells badly (which most of them do) you've almost proven to trade publishers that it has limited sales potential, and given them another reason to ignore your submission.

This isn't always the case, of course: there are agents and publishers who will consider self published books, and who are happy to overlook poor sales figures. And the numbers of agents and publishers who fall into this group are increasing all the time.

If you're interested in self publishing one book and looking for a trade publisher for another, then you have nothing to worry about. It won't affect your chances at all.
 

shhhman

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YES...that is exactly what I was looking to do. Self-publish because I have several people in close proximity, at my school etc., who are "dying" to read my novel and are willing to pay to do so. My response has always been, I appreciate your interest, but you'll have to wait until it's published. I have received plenty of interest from agents, and it is out with two publishers right now, but my timing is bad. It's a YA/Dystopian, and the market it flooded with them. Just go to any bookstore, and they almost don't have enough shelf-space for these titles. Thanks for all your help. I honestly thought I'd hear a lot more negatives on this question because I'm always reading in blogs to NOT have Amazon sell your book. Just wondered what their reasoning was.
 

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I've published with Amazon and I have no problems with it. In fact, most of my sales are from it. I'd comment on those blog posts asking them to explain.

Anyway, if it's with publishers, I'd hold off and see how they respond before self-publishing. Don't get me wrong--I'm glad I self-published my poetry book. I think it was the best choice for the book. Self-pubbing may also be the best for your book. Or it might not.

Do you mainly want to sell to the people who have expressed interest in the book already, or do you want to reach a wider audience of people you don't know? If you want the latter, you'll need to do marketing on your own. It can be done, and AW has lots of tips, but it's something you need to think over before you decide to self-pub. I hope this doesn't come off as lecturing! I just wanted to offer some insight as a self-pubbed author.
 

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YES...that is exactly what I was looking to do. Self-publish because I have several people in close proximity, at my school etc., who are "dying" to read my novel and are willing to pay to do so. My response has always been, I appreciate your interest, but you'll have to wait until it's published. I have received plenty of interest from agents, and it is out with two publishers right now, but my timing is bad. It's a YA/Dystopian, and the market it flooded with them. Just go to any bookstore, and they almost don't have enough shelf-space for these titles. Thanks for all your help. I honestly thought I'd hear a lot more negatives on this question because I'm always reading in blogs to NOT have Amazon sell your book. Just wondered what their reasoning was.

I don't think you fully understand the situation. If you make the book available for sale on Amazon, then you are publishing your book. You are becoming a selfpublisher. If that's what you want then investigate that option thoroughly so you understand what's involved. Usually it involves hiring out the editing to freelance editors, paying for cover art, doing all the marketing and promotion yourself and then possibly still having only a handful of sales. It's not something to be done just because you want to sell the book to a few friends

If you are trying to get it published with trade publishers, then pursue that option first. By putting it on Amazon, the publishers who are looking at it now will likely no longer be interested. (If it goes on to become a breakout success, then perhaps you might get trade-publishers interested again, but that is a long shot.)
 
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Old Hack

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YES...that is exactly what I was looking to do. Self-publish because I have several people in close proximity, at my school etc., who are "dying" to read my novel and are willing to pay to do so. My response has always been, I appreciate your interest, but you'll have to wait until it's published.

Those "several people" who are keen to read your book will probably translate to five or six sales. They definitely won't translate to enough sales to warrant your self publishing the book, unless you're content to live with very low sales or are prepared to make a huge (and probably expensive) marketing and promotional effort.

I have received plenty of interest from agents, and it is out with two publishers right now,

Hang on. Have you sent it out to both agents and publishers? If so--STOP! If you want an agent, then only sent it out to agents. Don't send it to any more publishers: if you do find an agent you'll have reduced the number of publishers they can submit it to, and might well cause them to reject your book.

Also, if you're actively seeking trade publication and have had such a great response, why are you now wondering about self publishing?

but my timing is bad. It's a YA/Dystopian, and the market it flooded with them. Just go to any bookstore, and they almost don't have enough shelf-space for these titles.

If your book is good enough it doesn't matter how many books are already published in your genre: publishers will always want well-written books. If you self publish then what's on bookshop shelves is almost immaterial, as your book is extremely unlikely to reach those shelves.

Thanks for all your help. I honestly thought I'd hear a lot more negatives on this question because I'm always reading in blogs to NOT have Amazon sell your book. Just wondered what their reasoning was.

If you're interested in a trade publishing deal then submitting to agents is the best way to get one. If you want to self publish then that's a great choice: but it's very hard work, often for very little reward.
 

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YES...that is exactly what I was looking to do. Self-publish because I have several people in close proximity, at my school etc., who are "dying" to read my novel and are willing to pay to do so. My response has always been, I appreciate your interest, but you'll have to wait until it's published. I have received plenty of interest from agents, and it is out with two publishers right now, but my timing is bad. It's a YA/Dystopian, and the market it flooded with them. Just go to any bookstore, and they almost don't have enough shelf-space for these titles. Thanks for all your help. I honestly thought I'd hear a lot more negatives on this question because I'm always reading in blogs to NOT have Amazon sell your book. Just wondered what their reasoning was.

What Old Hack said.

I have self published on Amazon and have no complaints. If you are serious about it I would recommend uploading your book on Createspace.com. You can then sell your book as both a paperback and ebook through Amazon.

It sounds like what you really want is to find a trade publisher, but to also have a handful of people read your book. If you really hope to find a publisher then a few sales to acquaintances seems a poor reason to self publish. Why not simply forego the sales and let them read your work as a Microsoft Word doc. or pdf file?

The little bit of money you would make isn't worth damaging your efforts to find a trade publisher. If that doesn't work out you have the option to self publish later, but as others have noted you will want to research what that means first.
 

shhhman

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I really appreciate all the insight...but let me clear some things up because I obviously wasn't very clear the first time. The amount of people interested in reading my novel consists of former students, teachers, principals, etc. Certainly not not an abundance, but also not just a handful either. I have researched self-pub before, so my question was simply why does it receive such a bad rap sometimes? I realize that once it goes online it's been published. I'm a published playwright, so I get it. I have had some beta readers read it in PDF with mainly favorable reviews. I haven't sent it out to many publishers. Only TWO have it right now. It's been mainly agents. Believe me, I'd rather have an agent behind me working a deal than trying to do it myself. With my plays, it's very straightforward and easy, but novels are a bit more complicated. The e-pub idea just came to me after reading about some people's success doing it. I'm not ready to abandon the traditional method quite yet. Thanks again for everyone's response.
 

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Basically you need to decide, are you getting an agent, submitting to publishers yourself, or self-publishing? Any of these might be a good option, but you need to decide which you want to do right now and stick with that. IMHO given that you have already started doing two of the three, starting to do the third as well is not going to help matters.
 

shhhman

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Of course I'd like to reach a wider audience. I was just curious about the success some people have going the e-pub route. That's all. Not generally in it for the money. Thanks for sharing your ideas! :)
 

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The is epub with a large press, epub with a small press, and self-pub epub--amongst other options.

It is pretty impossible to say how any given option will work without knowing more about the book and the author's expectations, skill set, and budget.
 

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I really appreciate all the insight...but let me clear some things up because I obviously wasn't very clear the first time. The amount of people interested in reading my novel consists of former students, teachers, principals, etc. Certainly not not an abundance, but also not just a handful either.

Almost everyone has a wide network of acquaintances who promise to buy their books when they're published. Very few find that all who promised to buy their books actually do.

You might be different, of course, and sell to all of these people. But chances are, you won't.

To give you an idea: an acquaintance of mine recently self-published her first novel. It's a good novel, and she published it as well as she could. She was convinced it would sell well because she could count over three hundred friends and acquaintances, and she taught too, so had a few hundred students who she thought would buy her book.

In the first three months after publication, her book sold four copies.

I have researched self-pub before, so my question was simply why does it receive such a bad rap sometimes?

Because while self publishing can be a brilliant thing for some people it's proved to be a misery-making thing for many others. Many people go into it without first knowing what's involved, and many people go into it with high sales expectations, only to be disappointed.

I realize that once it goes online it's been published. I'm a published playwright, so I get it. I have had some beta readers read it in PDF with mainly favorable reviews. I haven't sent it out to many publishers. Only TWO have it right now. It's been mainly agents. Believe me, I'd rather have an agent behind me working a deal than trying to do it myself. With my plays, it's very straightforward and easy, but novels are a bit more complicated.

It doesn't matter how many publishers have your book now: what matters is how many you've sent it out to. If it's already been rejected by the publishers an agent would submit it to, you've left that agent with nothing to do.

The e-pub idea just came to me after reading about some people's success doing it. I'm not ready to abandon the traditional method quite yet. Thanks again for everyone's response.

E-publishing isn't the same thing as self publishing. And it's trade publishing, not "traditional"--please read the guidelines.

Of course I'd like to reach a wider audience. I was just curious about the success some people have going the e-pub route. That's all. Not generally in it for the money. Thanks for sharing your ideas! :)

Read a few of the self publishing diaries. The numbers are there.
 

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Of course I'd like to reach a wider audience. I was just curious about the success some people have going the e-pub route. That's all. Not generally in it for the money. Thanks for sharing your ideas! :)

Since you're not in it for the money, it doesn't really matter what route you take. You can reach that wider audience by posting- 'publishing' everywhere.

If, on the other hand, you see a possible career in writing, then you need to find an agent who will place the work- and subsequent ones.

I'm a bit curious about the couple of publishers who have the MS. Most mainstream publishers no longer accept works 'over the transom', as it cost money to have even an intern wade through the slush pile.
 

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Almost everyone has a wide network of acquaintances who promise to buy their books when they're published. Very few find that all who promised to buy their books actually do.

You might be different, of course, and sell to all of these people. But chances are, you won't.

To give you an idea: an acquaintance of mine recently self-published her first novel. It's a good novel, and she published it as well as she could. She was convinced it would sell well because she could count over three hundred friends and acquaintances, and she taught too, so had a few hundred students who she thought would buy her book.

In the first three months after publication, her book sold four copies.

I had the same experience, except I did sell about thirty paperback copies. almost everyone I knew said they wanted a copy and encouraged me to make the story available. Not everyone was quite as eager to pony up the cash to pay for a copy.
 

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Since you're not in it for the money, it doesn't really matter what route you take. You can reach that wider audience by posting- 'publishing' everywhere.

If, on the other hand, you see a possible career in writing, then you need to find an agent who will place the work- and subsequent ones.

I disagree with both these points. Self publishing doesn't necessarily reach a wider audience. Both trade and self-publishing have various advantages in reaching an audience, but a trade published book is more likely to do better, initially at least.

If you are looking at a career in writing, many authors are finding self-publishing working better for them than trade, and many others are taking advantage of both routes by doing a hybrid approach.
 
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