Publishing Advice

[Travis]

All,

Those of you that are wise and have experience in having a book published, my first manuscript was accepted by a publisher and they want a retainer fee to help promote the book and writer, which is guaranteed as long as I am with them. Is it necessary to pay a retainer fee to promote and publish? I am told they feel they can sell my work; your advice, please as I am uncertain to spend a great deal of money just to publish a book...yes, this is my dream but again, I have reservations...your thoughts and advice are much appreciated!

~Travis

[heinzs]

I published my book without a contract to sell. Even then it cost me over $500. I have become wiser since then. The question is, are you dealing with a commercial publisher or are you "self publishing" through a publishing house? If it is a commercial publisher they normally pay you and get the brunt of the profits from the sale of your book. If you self publish, you pay them, but there are no guarantees your book will sell in either case.

For self publishing information, I recommend our founder, Berlie. She is doing this now for a living at self-pub.net. There is a link to her site in the upper right corner of the PP pages.

I must qualify that I never intended for my book to become "commercial". It was published for my personal edification, and so far I have sold 3 copies and given away 20. I would do it all again, but publish through a different source than the one I used.

Pops

[Travis]

Thanks for the advice. Pops! It is a commercial publisher but they assign someone to promote and work with the writer and the contract they sent me was very well drafted but the fee to promote was too much for me to do at this time. I may just go ahead and self publish on Amazon or look elsewhere and go from there.

Thanks again,

~Travis

[heinzs]

My publisher also wanted to charge an unreasonable fee for promotion, which I declined. They contact me every few months trying to get their hooks on me... lol. I'm very happy with just buying the books and giving them away myself.

Pops.