Smashwords boasting about one of it's authors

[sparkchaser]

You might be surprised.

 

[Peder]

It's too hard to find the gems in the tailings pile so I rely on publishers to find the good stuff.

OTOH, the authors who present their books in this forum for Shameless Self Promotion do provide a narrower selection which is not at all difficult to check out, so maybe I'm one of the few who appreciates the thread. It is not much different than looking at the many more books on display at any conventional bookstore and passing up most of them. I think paying upwards of $20-30 for someone else to winnow the field is getting to be a tad exorbitant.

 

[sparkchaser]

How many diamonds in the rough have you found there?

 

[Peder]

How many diamonds in the rough have you found there?

One diamond, a fair number of emeralds.

I Prefer the Sunrise by Anna Rae Aberle is a very pleasant read.

 

[Richard Falken]

I am not too excited about publishers in general. I still see a lot of things I would have not published in the shelves of the bookstores (Spain is one of the countries with most title publishing but less readers).

On the other hand, I find that the idea many writers have of publishers is too idealistic. They think that, once they have been published, they are bound to success. Fact is success comes mostly from advertisement and market-techniques, and even those married with a publisher have no guarantees at all. A single writer is just a line or two in the catalog of a publisher that suspects most titles are not going to generate revenue enough to pay themselves. A book is a money sucking blackhole until proven otherwise...

 

[Meadow337]

I am not too excited about publishers in general. I still see a lot of things I would have not published in the shelves of the bookstores (Spain is one of the countries with most title publishing but less readers).

On the other hand, I find that the idea many writers have of publishers is too idealistic. They think that, once they have been published, they are bound to success. Fact is success comes mostly from advertisement and market-techniques, and even those married with a publisher have no guarantees at all. A single writer is just a line or two in the catalog of a publisher that suspects most titles are not going to generate revenue enough to pay themselves. A book is a money sucking blackhole until proven otherwise...

This certainly applies to books the publisher doesn't feel obliged to back with more money in the form of advertising. That is reserved for books that they anticipate will sell lots of copies. One hopes they know how to tell the difference. There is still nothing stopping you from proving them wrong. And having a physical hard copy that was actually published by a publisher still holds more cachet than one you published yourself. Rightly or wrongly.

 

[WriterJohnB]

I quite agree, Sparky. I have the content for a book I want to publish (and need to find the time to do so) that is very niche. It's a historical collection pertaining to one particular, very small region in Pennsylvania. Not many would buy it b/c the market is so small; but I want to put it out there to preserve these historical articles. In cases like this, sellable is not an issue. It's good to remember that books are not about sales (although in business, certainly that is true). Books are about information, preservation, entertainment, pleasure... . And ultimately, books are for readers, not publishers. Which, sort of, takes us back to the original topic posted here.

Ok, I'm putting away my soapbox now. Back to work. I have an un-sellable book to publish, I'm sure.

Don't despair. I wrote a historical slave novel set in my area and published it thru CreateSpace and Kindle. I can buy hard copies from
Amazon and promoted until now I'm invited to local historical gatherings and even lecture once a year in a small museum. I sell quite a few copies this way, but it is time intensive and more of a hobby than a business.
On the other hand, I just published my daughter's first novel, She's My Ride Home, to kindle and it took off immediately, selling hundreds the first week. But it's in a hot genre just now - girl/girl romance - and I brought it out for the beginning of summer (beach reading). It looks like she'll do quite well with it.