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Sunday, March 30, 2014

My First Experiences in Self-Publishing

In 2007 the University of Alberta Bookstore installed an Espresso Book Machine® (EBM). This is a Print on Demand (POD) machine that can print a small book in minutes. I read about the Venture in a newspaper a few years later, and wondered if it might be worth a try.

I’d had short fiction and nonfiction published in magazines and a couple of anthologies, as well as broadcast on radio. I had enough stories for at least two collections, I thought, but had little luck in getting a publisher interested beyond a willingness to read the manuscript and comment that they liked some of the stories. Short stories are not the easiest form to market at the best of times, and it didn’t seem to me the best of times in the Canadian publishing industry. I tried, at the suggestion of one writer/publisher to turn some of my stories into a novel, but this just wasn’t working for me. I wasn’t willing to spend the rest of my life or even several more years on one book, when I had other books in my head and on the page in various drafts.
So when my son and his partner moved to Edmonton to attend the University of Alberta, I thought the time was right for me to try POD for my first book. On one of my visits, I talked to staff who ran the Espresso Machine at the Bookstore, and found them friendly and willing. Once home again, I organized my book according to the on-line guidelines and e-mailed off a PDF. They offered extra services such as editing and cover design. Because my stories had gone through various readings in workshops by other writers as well as being published in other formats, I didn’t use the editing services. However, I did ask for help with the cover design and they came up with a graphic that suited me. The process took several weeks (I’d had visions of walking in with my content and walking out the same day with a book in my hands, but that wasn’t realistic). I was able to pick up a hard cover proof the next time I visited Edmonton, and then sent in my changes. Because this was my first time, I ended up getting a total of 100 copies (paid for by me, of course) printed at two different times.
The first printing resulted in the books done in good time and shipped to me. The second printing was delayed several months because the Espresso Machine developed problems and they had to wait for parts. This was not so pleasant. However, in the end I was happy with my book and, of course, I had to do promotion, marketing and selling on my own. I didn’t expect to make pots of money on this and didn’t. I still have copies of that book available, and it is in a couple of local stores as well as the local library. I recently found out that the U of A Bookstore shut down its Espresso Machine in late 2013, though I don’t know the reasons.
My second venture into self-publishing was a fantasy novel. I decided I wanted to try a bigger publisher for print copies, as well as publishing an e-book. By this time, I’d heard about other opportunities, and decided to try Create Space, which is an Amazon company. They are very large, have done this a lot and have the process down, with many services offered (e.g. editing, interior and cover design, etc.) at various prices. I’m not a graphic artist, so had thought I might use several of their services. Parts of my manuscript had gone through critiques by my writing group. The whole thing was read also by a writer/editor through the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild Manuscript Reading Service, and a close to final draft went through another editing by my son, who is studying for his doctorate in English. My son also has expertise, experience and software for graphic design and offered to do the interior design of the book as well as the cover (with a photograph I had taken). This worked out extremely well and probably saved me a lot of headaches.
 
The process with Create Space was relatively pain free, all done on-line. A couple of times when I had problems, I contacted their help staff and received a reply within 24 hours. I chose to have a hard copy proof mailed to me (at a price) rather than proof on line, and I’m glad I did. Potentially (if I had chosen to proof on line) this would have cost me nothing up to the point of actually ordering hard copies of my books to sell. Because Create Space is affiliated with Amazon, I could have chosen not to order hard copies at all, and let all sales go through them (Amazon companies all over the world). The process of getting the book onto Kindle (e-book) was actually easier than I’d expected, and I can see why some authors have chosen to publish this way only.
I like the control that a writer has through self-publishing. You decide exactly how your book is going to look. This is not usually the case when your book is accepted by a mainstream publisher. Of course, you have to do any marketing and promotion yourself, but with smaller publishers this is often the case anyway.

I do think it’s important to use editorial services of some kind; having your book read by professional writer or editor is important to creating a quality product.
If anyone has questions about the process I used to publish two books now (I plan to use self-publishing again), I’d be happy to answer them.




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