The questions posed to each author are at the bottom of the first part of this series. To see the article and questions, please click here: Independent Vs. Traditional Publishing
My first publisher was a small Mom and pop shop out of Reno, Nevada: Beagle Bay Books. They were fantastic to work with. I co-authored the book and we each received a small advance (under $500). However, they were committed to show our book at book conventions, entered and landed a book award for us and ran a full page for us in Radio and TV Reports. This resulted in at least twelve radio interviews, at least eight magazine and blog entries. They also helped organize speaking events at book stores.
Our book Monster Lies... A Woman's Guide to Controlling Her Destiny was published in 2002 and for the last nine years Beagle Bay has continued to list and show our book. They made it easy to get bulk copies for our speaking engagements and have always listened to our ideas for marketing. Great people. They show our book at book seller shows, have it listed on their web site and work closely with us if we get on radio, blog radio or are in local press as a visiting speaker. We were mentioned in Woman's Day Magazine, on several major city radio drive shows and in the Independent Publishers Awards.
I have this book listed on my web site, Google, Amazon and blog about it when given guest blog rights.
We were contracted to do just one book but my co-author went on to publish with them one more book in our genre: motivation for women. I have migrated from motivational books to humor. Their interest was motivation for woman. My latest book, Scrambled Leggs....a Snarky Tale of Hospital Hooey is a fictionalized memoir. It was not in their area of interest, so I self-published.
The recognition of being with a traditional publisher is fantastic. Although I do not know how much longer having a REAL publisher will matter. There is still a remnant of people who respect an author who has been published traditionally. In fact, I was included in a special group of published authors at a monthly luncheon in my home town. I would not have been included if I was "only" self-published. For me it was not the money (which was modest) but the position it put me in to talk to other publishers and agents. As a published author I was able to sell a small three book deal on humor to a UK publishing house, Nightingale Press. 'Previously published' opens a lot of doors.
With a traditional publisher, I had no control over the book cover and pricing. That was a tough one to swallow, but hey, they were paying for the paper and binding, shipping and selling, so I gave them that. It was their investment on the line, too.
Author Interview: Dorinne Davis Click here
Author Interview: Debra Ann Pawlak Click Here
Author Interview: Geoffrey Hopf Click Here
With a traditional publisher, I had no control over the book cover and pricing. That was a tough one to swallow, but hey, they were paying for the paper and binding, shipping and selling, so I gave them that. It was their investment on the line, too.
Author Interview: Dorinne Davis Click here
Author Interview: Debra Ann Pawlak Click Here
Author Interview: Geoffrey Hopf Click Here
Author Interview: Betsy Balega Click Here
I am a published author with Macmillan, UK. Admittedly my books were tech books - computer education from the students' point of view. I also contributed to books by Wiley, IDG and Kogan Page. I never made any money from my own books with Macmillan,but got a very generous 'kill fee' from IDG!!
ReplyDeleteI am writing novels for teens and couldn't find anyone to publish them, so I did it myself and have sold a few copies through Internet advertising. My goal is to write and hopefully reach a wide audience. I'm on my third novel and have just released a parents' guide to the Internet (104 pages). I wrote this with a view to offering it to corporations as a PR item. No luck so far. I have some books on Kindle and Nook - they are selling, but not enough to pay the utilities. But I have to write and so maybe my grandchildren will inherit the profits when I'm gone and famous.