Publishing a manuscript

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NormanL

I have had a manuscript that i have had written for some time on my 12 years in Vietnam.... politics... corruption... etc. .. Have had horible experiences with a number of publishing places in that NO ONE (of them) will give me a bottom line and NOT ONE(of them) will discuss in full, the marketing, etc... Some of them have been... Publish America... Xilibris... IUniverse and others... Is there truly any place that I can go to publish.... a place that is honest? or should i just forget about any publishing.. I want to write two other manuscripts but wanted this one taken care of first.
 

Julie Worth

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If you want to go that route, try lulu. They won't discuss anything with you either, but everything you need to know in on the site. And they're honest.
 

Deleted member 42

I'm going to move this thread but --

1. Have you tried submitting the ms. to agents or actual commercial and academic publishers?

2. If you want to self-publish, do look at Luna.
 

ResearchGuy

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. . . Is there truly any place that I can go to publish....
Allow me to recommend that you spend some serious time with the latest editions of Writer's Market and Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents.

If you have decided that you do want to self-publish or subsidy-publish, study one of the top books on self-publishing (Dan Poynter's or Tom and Marilyn Ross's). Self-publishing is a business and is not for the unprepared. Subsidy publishing of course requires payments--the companies are businesses and are run for profit, theirs, not yours. Be aware that such books are very difficult to sell and are invisible to the book trade, hence the advice to start by studying resources on commercial publishing. You will learn a lot from pursuing commercial publishing, even if you end up taking a different path.

--Ken

p.s. I have laid out other useful information in a booklet I have made available via Lulu.com. FWIW.
 
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Popeyesays

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I have had a manuscript that i have had written for some time on my 12 years in Vietnam.... politics... corruption... etc. .. Have had horible experiences with a number of publishing places in that NO ONE (of them) will give me a bottom line and NOT ONE(of them) will discuss in full, the marketing, etc... Some of them have been... Publish America... Xilibris... IUniverse and others... Is there truly any place that I can go to publish.... a place that is honest? or should i just forget about any publishing.. I want to write two other manuscripts but wanted this one taken care of first.

Are the two other books totally linked to the one you have finished? If they are you should put them on the back-burner and start an unrelated stand-alone book right now. It will take you a year or eighteen months even for a successful search for a commercial publisher.

You should consider self-publishing as the last-ditch effort and start querying, publishers and agents right now.

It's a long haul, it requires patience and persistence. If you're not willing to do that, self-publishing is a fourth best solution. Not second best, not third best, FOURTH best--maybe fifth.

Regards,
Scott
 

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. . . self-publishing is a fourth best solution. Not second best, not third best, FOURTH best--maybe fifth.

Regards,
Scott
What would you say are second, third, and maybe fourth best?

The only possible choices seem to be old-style vanity publishing (Dorrance, Vantage), new-style vanity publishing (PublishAmerica), subsidy publishing (iUniverse, Trafford, Author House, and so on), or leaving the manuscript in a drawer. How would you put those options in order between commercial publishing and self-publishing? Do any of them fare worse in your view than self-publishing?

--Ken
 
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Popeyesays

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What would you say are second, third, and maybe fourth best?

The only possible choices seem to be old-style vanity publishing (Dorrance, Vantage), new-style vanity publishing (PublishAmerica), subsidy publishing (iUniverse, Trafford, Author House, and so on), or leaving the manuscript in a drawer. How would you put those options in order between commercial publishing and self-publishing? Do any of them fare worse in your view than self-publishing?

--Ken

Well, Ken, I write fiction and self-poubbing fiction is a different ballgame than self-pubbing other stuff.

Sticking to fiction, I would consider e-pubbing second best, Doing a strict POD publisher as third best, serializing it somewhere as fourth-best and self-publishing it as fifth best. I think the hopes of having the book gain a readership decline in that order.

Non-fiction is a different ball game, and I'll defer to you on that point.

Regards,
Scott
 

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The only possible choices seem to be old-style vanity publishing (Dorrance, Vantage), new-style vanity publishing (PublishAmerica), subsidy publishing (iUniverse, Trafford, Author House, and so on), or leaving the manuscript in a drawer. How would you put those options in order between commercial publishing and self-publishing? Do any of them fare worse in your view than self-publishing?
This reflects a little bit of misunderstanding about publishing models. There are really only three: Commercial publishing, self-publishing, and vanity publishing. "Old style" and "new style" vanity publishing and "subsidy publishing" are merely PR renamings of vanity publishing. The only differences among them are in degree, not in kind: They all retain legal title to the physical books as they come off the press and require the author to pay money for publication. It's then just a question of "affordability," not the nature of the publishing relationship.
 
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