Who's both CHEAP & GOOD???

[EminemsRevenge]

i have a little fan-base of about a thousand potential buyers, and with word-of-mouth could easily double that, and since my novel is virtually a James Joycean acid trip, it could sell 10,000 copies within a year's time

Because i also have a cousin who is a known rapper, it may even sell more, but since i am now living off of a stipend from someone who believes in the book, i need a POD publisher that doesn't charge too much for a book that would be almost 300 pages in print.

So who do i go to that can not only provide me a low publishing fee, but also an HTML code that i could put atop my sites & on the bulletin boards i participate on in order to maximize sales???

Also...the subjects i cover are extremely controversial, so under the present political atmosphere the POD publisher would in essence have to be someone willing to sell Watchtower to satanists

Another problem...since i use lyrics like Stephen King, do i have to get publishing rights from those music companies on my own, or does the POD do that for me?

 

[Richard]

You'll have to get the lyrics cleared/licensed yourself - indeed, you risk being sued if you don't.

And POD won't get you low book prices anywhere. That's not how it works. Your best bet is probably Lulu - www.lulu.com, thanks to its no-fee start-up.

 

[EminemsRevenge]

You'll have to get the lyrics cleared/licensed yourself - indeed, you risk being sued if you don't.

And POD won't get you low book prices anywhere. That's not how it works. Your best bet is probably Lulu - www.lulu.com, thanks to its no-fee start-up.

1) If i only allude to the lyrics or partially quote them, do i circumvent the risk of being sued

2) Can i name my first-born Rich???

 

[Richard]

No. Possibly. Maybe. It depends on what you're using, the context you're using it in, the amount you're using...there's no real cut and dried easy answer, but 'Fair Use' is a defence, not a right.

 

[Jamesaritchie]

1) If i only allude to the lyrics or partially quote them, do i circumvent the risk of being sued

2) Can i name my first-born Rich???

You can allude to lyrics, but don't quote a word of them without permission. And permission can sometimes cost many thousands of dolllars.

Lyrics are someone else's copyrighted work, and you simply can't use copyrighted work in your own fiction. Those who own songs and poems are particularly likely to sue, and it's unbelievable how much money you stand to lose when it goes to court.

Oh, and if your book has so much potential in the way of sales, why not find an agent and go the traditional route?

The thing about POD is that very few of them sell anything to anyone. You have to do the selling yourself. You can get by without HTML code, if you wish.

 

[EminemsRevenge]

Oh, and if your book has so much potential in the way of sales, why not find an agent and go the traditional route?

Thanks to Ezra Pound, serial publication of the novel in the magazine The Little Review began in 1918. This magazine was edited by Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, with the backing of John Quinn, a New York attorney with an interest in contemporary experimental art and literature. Unfortunately, this serialisation ran into censorship problems in the United States, and in 1920 the editors were convicted of publishing obscenity, resulting in an end to the serial publication of the novel. The novel remained banned in the States until 1933. At least partly because of this controversy, Joyce found it difficult to get a publisher to accept the book, but it was published in 1922 by Sylvia Beach from her well-known Left Bank bookshop, Shakespeare and Company. An English edition published the same year by Joyce's patron, Harriet Shaw Weaver, ran into further difficulties with the United States authorities, and 500 copies that were shipped to the States were seized and possibly destroyed. The following year, John Rodker produced a print run of 500 more intended to replace the missing copies, but these were burned by English customs at Folkestone. A further consequence of the novel's ambiguous legal status as a banned book was that a number of 'bootleg' versions appeared, most notably a number of pirate versions from the publisher Samuel Roth. In 1928, a court injunction against Roth was obtained and he ceased publication.
​

In a bit of synchronicity, i now find myself almost in the same predicament as Joyce...i call what i write philosophical pornography, and in this age of Reich-wing politricks few people will be willing to go out on a limb for a new, radical Black writer

i think that if i get my Work in Progress out there to my fans, it'll provide some income as i work on the follow-up novel, which is more commercial and less controversial. Plus...i grew up in the CBGB scene...Patti Smith had self-pressed records before she had a major label deal, and i didn't do too bad with my band either, so i'll go with what i know.

 

[Jamesaritchie]

Book

Thanks to Ezra Pound, serial publication of the novel in the magazine The Little Review began in 1918. This magazine was edited by Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap, with the backing of John Quinn, a New York attorney with an interest in contemporary experimental art and literature. Unfortunately, this serialisation ran into censorship problems in the United States, and in 1920 the editors were convicted of publishing obscenity, resulting in an end to the serial publication of the novel. The novel remained banned in the States until 1933. At least partly because of this controversy, Joyce found it difficult to get a publisher to accept the book, but it was published in 1922 by Sylvia Beach from her well-known Left Bank bookshop, Shakespeare and Company. An English edition published the same year by Joyce's patron, Harriet Shaw Weaver, ran into further difficulties with the United States authorities, and 500 copies that were shipped to the States were seized and possibly destroyed. The following year, John Rodker produced a print run of 500 more intended to replace the missing copies, but these were burned by English customs at Folkestone. A further consequence of the novel's ambiguous legal status as a banned book was that a number of 'bootleg' versions appeared, most notably a number of pirate versions from the publisher Samuel Roth. In 1928, a court injunction against Roth was obtained and he ceased publication.

​

In a bit of synchronicity, i now find myself almost in the same predicament as Joyce...i call what i write philosophical pornography, and in this age of Reich-wing politricks few people will be willing to go out on a limb for a new, radical Black writer


i think that if i get my Work in Progress out there to my fans, it'll provide some income as i work on the follow-up novel, which is more commercial and less controversial. Plus...i grew up in the CBGB scene...Patti Smith had self-pressed records before she had a major label deal, and i didn't do too bad with my band either, so i'll go with what i know.

On the contrary, publishers don't give a rat's left whisker what color you are, what your politics are, or anything else. This isn't 1922, and if you have a book a publisher thinks will sell, they will publish it.

And it isn't reich-wing, it's right wing. In case you haven't noticed, they don;t control publishing, and publishing companies delight in publishing controversial books.

But what you are doing may very well kill any chance your book has for huge sales.

And also in case you didn't notice, Joyce's predicament is to sell extremely well year after year. Court injunctions and bannings aren't allowed today, but I really wish they were. Had these things not happened to Joyce, it's highly likely no one would ever have heard of him.

I wish you luck with your book, but if there really is a perceived market for it, commercial publishers will grab it in a heartbeat.

Not that I'm a big fan of anything Joycian. I think the man was the worst writer ever to put pen to paper. But many do like his work, and publishers do not shy from controversy, only from books they don't think will sell. They're usually right.

 

[EminemsRevenge]

On the contrary, publishers don't give a rat's left whisker what color you are, what your politics are, or anything else. This isn't 1922, and if you have a book a publisher thinks will sell, they will publish it.

And it isn't reich-wing, it's right wing. In case you haven't noticed, they don;t control publishing, and publishing companies delight in publishing controversial books.

Have you listened to the Howard Stern show lately???

We are DEFINITELY living in a reich-wing society

i'm afraid you have no idea what Black is!!! Anyway, since this book is pure ART, the 10,000 copies it would have sold with a big time publisher would have been all on me anyway, so why not reap the benefits of PODing it?

Back to Black...i was working with a "reputable" editor who was out to transmogrify my story into something beige...kind of like Coltrane going into the studios to have an album produced by the Partridge Family

Sometimes an artist has to take that leap of FATE...2 Live Crew did it, so why can't i

 

[Perks]

You seem to be fairly resistant to advice, but you are very energetic and persistant! Your energy radiates out of plain, old board postings and that's hard to do. So, I'll be following your updates on these boards because I find you a very interesting guy.


Good luck!! Burn it up, friend...

 

[PVish]

Consider self-publishing

POD works best if you think you'll sell under a thousand copies. If you think you'll sell more than a thousand, complete self-publishing works best. You'll make more money in the long run. I have published both ways and find this to be true.

Some PODs will not take controversial/pornographic material because of potential legal problems. The POD I've used reserves the right to refuse submissions based on content.

It is easier to get a S-P book into an independent bookstore. For a bookstore to take a POD, you already have to have an established local readership. Again, this is from my personal experience.

I suggest you run 1,000 copies and see if they sell. If they do, run more. If money is a problem, see if some friends will back you for a percentage of your profits. If you can afford it, run 2,000. The more copies you run, the cheaper with S-P. With POD, your copy price generally stays the same.

If you really think you'll sell 10,000 copies, S-P is the way to go.

 

[EminemsRevenge]

You seem to be fairly resistant to advice, but you are very energetic and persistant! Your energy radiates out of plain, old board postings and that's hard to do. So, I'll be following your updates on these boards because I find you a very interesting guy.


Good luck!! Burn it up, friend...

Guess i have a knucklehead streak...that attitude cost me two record contracts, but there's something so Jamaica about living life on your terms

As http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=EminemsRevenge&tab=weblogs&uid=294874481 shows, i have SEEN the indy route work, and since this book is a bit too artsy for a regular publisher, it takes a lot of chutzpah to rage against the machine

Gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out.....