Seeking feedback on self publishing options

forsusan

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Hello excuse me if any of this has been discussed before. I'm considering self publishing a roughly 7,000 word book, which I think covers topics like self help, raising a family, independent living, surviving on a small income, etc. Some advice has been avoid create space-too expensive, consider blurb.com and lulu.com for print. Any feedback on these, and are there any suggestions for e book self publishing? I was thinking about doing a blog to promote the book. I'm more familiar with blogs than websites. Should I do both? Thanks in advance.
 

Marissa D

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The problem is that a 7000 word book is too short to be a print book, or at least to be bound in a traditional book fashion with a spine, etc. Look at it this way: I'm just finishing up a short story which is coming in at just under 7000 words. It's 24 pages in standard manuscript format--and printed both sides of a page, that would be twelve sheets of paper. So discussing the relative merits of lulu and CreateSpace for your project is moot here, because they won't be physically able to produce your book (and not sure where you got your information on CreateSpace, but it's wrong--putting a book up on CreateSpace is free.) That leaves you taking it to a local print shop to be printed and stapled (think of the booklets on local history often put out by historical societies), but that means that ALL distribution will be on your shoulders. Honestly, you're best off forgetting publishing it in print (unless you want to print a few copies locally in order to have copies to give to friends) and focusing on producing it as an e-book.
 

WriterBN

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Hello excuse me if any of this has been discussed before. I'm considering self publishing a roughly 7,000 word book, which I think covers topics like self help, raising a family, independent living, surviving on a small income, etc. Some advice has been avoid create space-too expensive, consider blurb.com and lulu.com for print. Any feedback on these, and are there any suggestions for e book self publishing? I was thinking about doing a blog to promote the book. I'm more familiar with blogs than websites. Should I do both? Thanks in advance.

Marissa D makes some excellent points about print.

As for e-books, KDP covers the biggest market. However, self-help books do very poorly (and those are full-length), unless you're a celebrity or an expert in a particular field.

If you want to publish it as an experiment, that's certainly possible, but you have to be realistic about sales.
 

forsusan

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Thank you both for responding. Below is what I copied and pasted here from a response from one of the moderators about create space being too expensive. (I can't figure out the other way to copy and paste parts of messages.)

"I suspect your best bet is to self-publish it. You might look at lulu.com or blurb.com for print versions; printing small books via Amazon's Create Space is prohibitively expensive."

My priority at this point is e-publishing, not print publishing. I have some experience with blogs and selling/marketing on the internet. However I have no experience with building and maintaining websites. The book was written by someone who was raised Pennsylvania Dutch. I would try to market it to religious, independent living, home schooling groups, etc.

Who would be good for e-publishing a small book? Create space, KDP, lulu, blurb?

It would be nice to make some money with this, but it would be an experiment. I think it's important that it's available to the public.
 

Marissa D

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I expect that was meant was that CreateSpace's production costs would make them set so high a price on the book, relatively speaking for its size, that no one would want to buy it--not that they would charge you to publish it through them.

The main e-book outlets are KDP, Barnes and Noble (Nook), Kobo, Apple Bookstore, Smashwords, and Google Play. There are book aggregators (like Smashwords and Draft2Digital) that will post your book to multiple outlets in exchange for a percentage. CreateSpace and the others are for print.
 

cornflake

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Note that says 'printing.'
 

forsusan

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Thanks again everyone! So I guess the next step is to contact that list of e publishers to see what their terms are.
 

forsusan

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The book has been edited except for content. Any advice on how to approach these businesses?
 

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Thank you both for responding. Below is what I copied and pasted here from a response from one of the moderators about create space being too expensive. (I can't figure out the other way to copy and paste parts of messages.)

If you click the "quote" button in the bottom left corner of the post you want to quote, it will appear with quote-tags around it. Then all you have to do is delete the parts of the text you don't want to quote, and you're good to go.

As you only have 7,000 words to work with, your options are limited.

As has already been suggested to you elsewhere, you must first ensure that you own the rights to publish this work. You didn't write the words, you don't automatically own them. Please ensure this is the case, because otherwise you could find yourself in expensive and uncomfortable trouble.

Your next best step would be to put them up onto a blog, I think. You're not going to find a reputable publisher willing to publish them as you don't have enough for a book (for that you need upwards of 40,000 words, usually many more). You might find a periodical willing to publish some of the pieces as stand-alone articles but the subject-matter limits your audience considerably.
 

forsusan

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I've contacted KDP about the book length. Also Susan left her entire estate, all possessions, etc. to me. Having stated that I'm sure you'll advise me to see a lawyer.
 

BenPanced

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I've contacted KDP about the book length. Also Susan left her entire estate, all possessions, etc. to me. Having stated that I'm sure you'll advise me to see a lawyer.

Yes, no matter how it's stated. If there's a specific statement in her will/estate documents, see a lawyer. If there isn't any specific mention, see a lawyer. You'll want to speak to somebody who's versed in intellectual property law as it's a different animal than estate or personal property law.