Self-Publishing - One Writer's Experience

Self-publishing still has a stigma attached to it, especially in the world of traditional publishing companies and literary agents. But, in the world of writers it is slowly becoming a means to an end. The amount of manuscripts editors and agents are bombarded with seems to be increasing every year. This, in turn, gives authors less of a fighting chance to grab that golden publishing ring.

For various reasons, I took the less traveled path and chose to venture into the world of self-publishing. You see, I wrote a lullaby over 30 years ago for my children when they were babies. They were difficult to get to sleep and then would wake during the night. I sang this lullaby over and over and over. Now, we sing it to my grandson. My daughter thought I should turn it into a children's bedtime story. Since it was a family project I felt a print-on-demand company would be best.

I researched several companies including Mayfair, RoseDog, Xlibris, AuthorHouse and BookSurge, Morris Publishing and Bookstand Publishing. I even created a spreadsheet comparing each company and the services they offered along with the prices. This is easy enough to do and it gives you a quick view of who offers what. What was very interesting, to me anyway, is that the companies who quote ala carte prices list the service of copyright for $170.00. If you do this yourself, it is $45.00. So, it is important to research what services you can do yourself. Also, when looking these companies over, don't forget to ask if you retain the rights to your book and if you have control over setting the retail price of the book. One of the companies I researched created the retail price and it would have been around $20. There is no way a bedtime story from an unknown author would sell for that amount.

Finally, make sure the sales rep and management are on the same page. The first company I chose was AuthorHouse. The sale rep quoted me a price, I signed a contract and then he came back to me and told me management wouldn't agree to that price. He offered me higher price for the same package which I accepted and signed another contract only to be told by the agent that management wouldn't back that price either. He came up with a third offer, but it was all just too unprofessional for me. It's possible that this situation was an isolated case, but always check and re-check. I was an assistant controller of a manufacturing company and if management didn't back their sales reps we'd have been run out of business.

Karen and Robyn - Writing for Children offers helpful tips about writing, marketing, self-publishing, and much more. We also offer children's health tips from Dr. Heny Lee (President of the American Acupuncturist Assn.) Karen is a freelance writer and co-author of the bedtime picture book, "Day's End Lullaby" For more information visit: http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com