Bass-ackwards into the unknown!

[hafoc]

Well, after a decade of being ignored and abused by editors (and yes, Bax, I know they don't MEAN to) I've decided to say chuck it and self-publish.

Actually, I decided this almost a year ago. But I'm slow to start things, and AFRAID about putting my writings out where anyone can see them, and also there are a number of things I've been waiting for, that are stuck on center, not moving-- so I'm going to have to work around or something.

The first step was reformatting Books 1 and 2 in some format more reasonable to send to the Copyright Office. On my next free workday I'm going to drop the files off at the local office supply place and have them print copies for me. Then it's off to copyright. In the past I ran all my copies on my own laser printer, but (for obvious reasons) it's clapped out by now. Rather than try to hand-feed it through all those pages, or buy a new printer and destroy that right off, I'm just going to pay to have it done.

The second step is contacting someone to do the cover art. I'm going to go with Susan Van Camp if I can afford her- and I probably can; she's above fan art prices but not much.

I might have Ms. Van Camp do the whole cover to my design, or not. I'm not sure about that yet.

Once those steps are done, I can put together Books 1 and 2 on Lulu.com and have them ready to go.

Then I need a website- actually, I'd like to have one now, to get started. I intend to put the individual chapters out there under a Creative Commons License, meaning.. well, read up on it if you're interested. What it means is that the individual chapters will be free. Full downloads from Lulu will be cheap, and the hardcopy will also be available there.

I'm probably being stupid putting the chapters out for free. I don't know; comments on that appreciated. Of course it would be trivial for somebody to pirate them, but I don't care; I want readers more than I want sales. Besides, those who like it will want the hardcopy, I think.

I figure by making it so blatantly easy to pirate, nobody will want to. Why should they?

Of course lots of people make their money by selling free government publications and services, too. That action I would come down on if I could; you can have it free, but no selling. Seems fair, to me anyway.

Comments

[foofers.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yes. Congratulations, best of luck. You are awesome.

[darkkdragon.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely buy hardcopies when they're ready. Aye love your storytelling

[existingphantom.livejournal.com]

Yea! Very good to hear that your self publishing. I'll have to buy all my friend the first novel for christmas, so they will get addicted and go out an get the rest of the books. ;)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Have you considered print on demand (POD) publishing?

I found you via Resar. Sounds interesting, I look forward to reading your work! And I'm quite a fan of Creative Commons (though I am not a *nix fanboy) and applaud your effort. If I'm ever published, I'm planning on doing the same. I've read Corey Doctrow's work on my Palm Pilot via CC and will be buying his books retail if I ever get a decent job again or start selling games in something more than a trickle. (www.sparebrainsgames.com)

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

I'm going POD via Lulu.com. From what I've read of them, they're the way to go with this. Zero setup costs. They make all the right noises about wanting to promote the free flow of information-- and, since they're highly automated, they've actually got the time to follow through on some of that.

Unlike standard book publishing editors. Who, however nice they want to be, are caught in a system that overwhelms them.

I think I'll go both a hardcover and trade paperback edition, although the price difference between them is not that great. This is still going to cost me a fortune to get going, but only because I'm commissioning professional cover art for the books. But that has its compensations. I'm giving money to an artist I want to support, I get to see the beautiful art myself, and I get prints to hang on my wall! Whee!

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

oh, yeah, forgot to add that I'm going to offer .pdf downloads of the books too. Odds are, since that's going to be less-than-paperback cheap, it's the format that's going to sell.

The problem with e-book publishing so far, from what little I've seen of it, is they want to charge printed book prices. At least the traditional publishing hosues used to, when they offered e-format at all. Haven't looked in a year or so, so I'm not sure. Maybe they're changing. I hope so, becayse ya gotta be crazy to pay those prices. An ebook has essentially ZERO production or inventory costs. It ought to be priced accordingly, I think.

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

..and forgot to add too that only a formal download of the full books will cost. I intend to leave the chapters out there for anyone to read or copy, free.

That said, I suppose buying the full .pdf download for.. what, four dollars maybe?.. would be just putting a few bucks in the tip jar. But that's OK. I don't want money, I want my readers' immortal souls! Muahahahahahahahaha...

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

LOL! Unfortunately my soul is reserved for my wife, photography, and WoW, so you'll have to join the queue.

Sounds like a reasonable business plan. I would personally suggest looking at also having Palm/WinCE formats in addition to PDF because Acrobat sucks on my Palm Pilot. I have one of the newest, the TX, and it still sucks.

Most of the time when I read eBooks on my Palm, they're downloaded in text or Word Doc format and being read in Word To Go. I use Project Guttenberg for a lot of my eBook needs, but still have quite a stack of paperbacks etc. to get through.

I definitely think tip jars are good things.