BootsnAll Travel Community

Anyone out there familiar with On Demand Publishing? I just started investigating it. Basically, rather than pitch a book to a publisher and go through the whole rigamorole of literary agents and editors and print runs, you can have books published on demand, as people order them. This gets rid of the costs of printing multiple books that may not necessarily be sold.

I know that CafePress, which does on demand t-shirt and gear printing, is diving into the world of on demand publishing soon. Ant has also turned me onto BookLocker, which also does on demand publishing, complete with ISBNs and a marketing strategy, for manuscripts they deem worthy enough.

Anyone else out there familiar with the On Demand Publishing biz? Are there any other places? Anyone ever done it?

e.

http://www.theglobaltrip.com

e

I know a few people that have done self publishing vs the traditional route. And folks have debated this a lot over the years. There seem to be few camps/ideas

1) Don't self publish - a poor man's book - the only way in the publisher way, blah, blah, blah.

2) Don't goto a publishing house - they rip you off and are one of many authors. blah, blah, blah

3) Depends on what you are trying to accomplish and what your resources are?

There are a lot of things todo to get book sold besides the writing of it and it falls on your head if you self publish. Not that it can't be done...it can and has. But the distribution channels in the big one...how will people find it and buy it if is not in Big box bookstores etc?

I know JenLeo has some opinions on this...I see if I can scrap her away from her desk to contribute.

And I'll see if I can get some people that have self published to share there experiences...

BootsnAll is Blogging all over the place:
http://www.BootBlog.org

There was a big article in the wall street journal like 2 weeks ago about self-publishing. Some people do well, others don't. Some of the net companies that do it also help you market your book. But it looks like self-marketing is extremely important. I would rather shop my stuff around and then use the net as a last resort. Surely if you are in NYC as well you must have some connections to someone in publishing.

Yes, I'm in NYC, and I do have contacts in publishing. I've worked in publishing myself. But it's not like publishing companies just GIVE a book deal to someone.

I've learned the key to getting a book deal is to gain credibility first. Jen Leo, BootsnAll's insider in the world of travel publishing always stresses the importance of namebuilding, which I totally agree with. And the way to build a name is through years of writing small articles for magazines and newspapers - which I'm in the process of doing now - this is, also something that must be broken into.

This might explain why some books by first time authors have copyright dates in them 4-5 years apart: the first when he/she finished the manuscript, and the second for when it was actually published, after the whole rigamorole of trying to get a book deal.

So, I'm doing what I can...pitching magazines and newspapers for climbing up the writing credibility ladder, and pitching literary agents and publishers for my book. A fellow BootsnAll writer here in NYC has tried four years trying to get a book deal with no success yet. I'm only on my first year.

I've handmade a couple copies of my book, which satisfied me for now. I use them to pass off to interested readers, including stranger off the web who've just discovered my writing style and want more. For me, it's not about the money, it's just about telling a story and entertaining others. I was just looking into ODP as a possible way to continue my "self-publishing" for when I run out of my handmade editions.

e.

http://www.theglobaltrip.com

Hey Eeyartee you have a cool site.

Thanks dustyshoes! If you wanna see my site as a designer/editor, it's http://www.eeyartee.com

e.

http://www.theglobaltrip.com