I'm a publishing consultant for a publishing house. ask me anything (aside from the address, I won't be naming my company and will act neutral).
Since this is Bay12, I will spare some bullshit I use to get sales from people, and tell you exactly what to expect. Your own motivation will get you through writing, at the end of the day. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
First thing off the bat, there's a ton of publishing houses, and even more aspiring authors. Some publishing houses don't know their crap, like Kinkos, some are barebones like Createspace... Some of them sleazy like Page Publishing, and tons of them way more expensive, like most of Author Solutions' imprints.
Second, writing is an easy activity to enter. Everyone can write a story. At least a few sentences. End it? Enjoy the stress. Don't rush yourself, or else quality will drop and you're doing your readers a disservice.
Now, how expensive is getting your book out there? Xlibris, one of the more transparent-yet-expensive imprints in the publishing business have a 'Basic' publishing package starting at $899.00 and their most expensive is $15,299.00
Too expensive for you? You can try a traditional publisher - good luck getting one, as traditional publishers are also limited on their funds and they look at authors like they look at investments - typically when investing stocks on a good market, you want to hit a stock that's both cheap and has projected growth ratios. Meaning to say, they'll hit on the popular authors first, perhaps smoke some weed and get a few from the wayside very rarely, and throw out the rest.
There's a hundred million and up books in the world. Your chances to get seen by a traditional publisher is close to nil if you have no history.
Now, going back to Xlibris, what's nice at least is that, after you pay for the packages, you only rake in
NET royalties. Some companies promise high royalty percentage, but ask their consultants if those are net royaltie or gross royalties, or if you have to pay an annual stocking fee. Everything else in Xlibris otherwise is either profit for business continuity purposes, or payment for internal channel distribution. If you can't stomach only getting 25% net off a 15 dollar book per sale, then writing is not really a good investment for you. Same goes with 50% off a 5 dollar ebook, and 10% off the same 15 dollar book, if bought from Amazon, or anywhere else but there website.
What they usually recommend is that, if you're writing a novel for fun, grab a basic black and white, and if you're writing for profit, grab a Premium package. Premium costs $3,999, and only has the slightest touch on marketing promotions - your own website, a listing from their own app magazine BookMad and a press release on approximately around a hundred channels who will hawk your book to the public that 'it's out'.
Now, why market a book? There's millions of books out there - what makes your book unique? How do you let other people know it exists? By marketing it, and making a noise, of course.
Then there's the issue of Copy Editing - on Createspace, it's a DIY, so no copy editing services unless you buy for it. Xlibris has some inhouse copy editing, but prices vary on wordcount, and of course, if it's included in your package. Traditional publishing? A team will work with you, but you basically need a name for yourself before you can even grace their steps.
If you even forget to capitalize the letter 'i' when referring to yourself on this topic, it's a massive hit on your credibility as an author (Sorry, but I needed to point that out for this example).
Kathi Macias has a better
article for this thing than I do, but if you have any questions as a fellow Bay12er, I'm happy to answer any of those.
Know this: It's not easy becoming an author, and it's no guarantee to excellence above your peers.
edit: NECROOOOOOOOOO
Author
Topic: Should i become a writer? (Read 7313 times)