More Authors Turn To Web And Print-On-Demand Publishing

CNN:

When she was turned down by several traditional publishing houses, Genova decided to follow a different route: self-publishing via Web-based companies. When she informed one of the literary agents of her decision, his response was daunting.

Read the whole story: CNN

Comments

[BlackJAC]

03:50 PM on 04/07/2009

Conversely, though, the slush pile of queries that a given agent or publisher receives is huge and grows every day. Consequently they've adopted the same attitude TV had in the '90s: If It Doesn't Immediately Blow Me Out Of The Water Right Out Of The Gate, It's Jettisoned Like An Expended SRB From The Space Shuttle. Also, their tastes shift constantly--I was at this one mystery writers' conference, and the guy who runs Justin Charles & Company said that the "not at this time" phrase on the rejection letter means "not at the exact microsecond I stuffed this rejection letter into the envelope, so try again next week."

Ultimately it's the professionalism cachet. STAR TREK was the one TV show you could write for without having an agent, but that would dock you points when they went to consider your episode.

[iamnumba1]

12:15 PM on 04/07/2009

Kindle is the future of publishing...clean and green.

[BlackJAC]

03:40 PM on 04/07/2009

Plus a $300 replacement cost if you lose the thing.

[Fabini]

09:19 AM on 04/07/2009

I published two books on-demand and I am working on my third. It is a great deal of fun and personally rewarding. No, I'm not getting rich and I am on no best seller lists, however, the satisfaction quotient is very high.

Here are some links to on-demand publishers. There are many more. Type "on demand publishing" into a search engine.

AuthorHouse http://www.authorhouse.com/WhyAuthorHouse/default.aspx
Blurb http://www.blurb.com/
BookSurge http://www.booksurge.com/
CreateSpace https://www.createspace.com/

[jsinclair]

02:31 AM on 04/07/2009

This is my business, too, publishing-on-demand, and people need to think carefully about a couple of things not mentioned above.

One of the most important is will you really get paid all of your royalties? I've known people with very bad experiences in this regard with both Lulu AND AuthorHouse. There are also some companies that are scams. And a problem with quality control when "anyonne with a couple of hundred dollars can publish".

Buyer beware. But, also, publishing on demand is the wave of the future (and present). The big publishing houses should be reevaluating their ideas about publishing--but so far, they're not.

[aristippe]

01:42 AM on 04/07/2009

The next wave of publishing; download my book direct to your kindle.