Kindle publishing

[Loki Moirae]

I am currently working to publish a novel I have just finished. I am in the process of submitting it to some agents, however if that does not bear fruit I am considering releasing on the kindle as an E-book.

To get to the point I just wanted to gets peoples opinions on this form of self publishing. Is it considered a cop out? Should I feel ashamed that I could not get my book into print. Should I charge, and if so how much?

Any thoughts at all would be greatly appreciated.

[DarknessofHeavenandDreams]

I don't consider it a cop-out, but others do. I consider it expensive and impossible to advertise, though.

[Miz Lina]

It really depends on what exactly you're hoping achieve with your book. If you'd be happy with a very small readership based almost entirely on people you know personally or have spoken to, then there's no reason not to go for it. If you have ambitions of selling large amounts of books (or, really, anything over a couple hundred), or you really want to be able to see your book on a shelf in a bookstore, then I'd suggest you keep working at publishing traditionally. I know a girl who self-pubbed through Amazon, and while I'm happy for her, I know that personally I would never consider that an accomplishment that I'd be happy with. And, having read exerpts from her book, I can honestly say that there are spelling and grammatical errors that would NEVER have escaped the eye of an industry reader. Not that errors don't happen in traditionally published books- they do, and the smaller the press, the more common the errors- but there's a certain quality control in traditionally publishing that just does not exist within the self-pub market.

Also, just so you know: A publisher, when deciding to acquire your novel, will first look to see if you've published before, and if you have, what those sales were like. A prior novel with only 150 sales is going to hurt your chances at traditionally publishing in the future just as much, if not more, than having not published anything previously. So you're going to want to think about your future goals in this, as well. Self-pubbed books, e-books especially, very often do not make the kinds of numbers that traditionally published books do, for a number of reasons: 1, you're almost completely eliminating the "I saw this in the bookstore and the cover caught my eye" market; 2, People won't buy it if they don't know about it, and how will they know of it unless if you tell them?
There is advertising available for self-published books, but you will have to work twice as hard to hype your book, and to do it by yourself, than you would with a house backing you.

But in the end, it really depends on what you want to get out of it. If you feel that it would be an accomplishment, then don't let anyone tell you it's not- it's your goals that matter.

[Pikachu has Fainted]

Well it depends on what kind of book it is. Ebooks should appeal to adults, because most of Kindle owners are adults, middle- upper class. Now I know this may sound crazy but if you make your book free. You can hopefully establish a fan base, and any future books will be paid for buy your fans. Thats why alot of performing artists release demos or mixtapes. Also by having alot of downloads places like Barnes & Nobles will most likely be more accepting of your book when it does come time that you want to have hard copies of your book sold.

[Sir Icehawk]

If you're a pro, it's a great thing. Can get stuff out there directly to readers bypassing the industry.

If you're not, it's a pain in the butt.

Since you're submitting to agents, I assume you'd like to make some sort of living off this or at least a part time career. I'd suggest accepting the rejections when they come and dance if an acceptance comes. Meanwhile, write shorts. Edit them. Submit them. When you get rejected, novel or shorts, edit them. Write other stuff. Submit.

Submit. Submit. Submit.

I'd avoid publishing an ebook for now, given you're a random person without any street cred when it comes to writing. (Assuming you lack publication credits here.) Why should I spend my hard earned money on some ebook you put out over one by a pro where I can reasonably assume there is some quality to it? That's the problem we face as unpublished writers. It's easier to put stuff out there, but because of that there's a ton more junk out there too.

[Phyla89]

DarknessofHeavenandDreams

I don't consider it a cop-out, but others do. I consider it expensive and impossible to advertise, though.

Publishing an e-book on Amazon is free.

[DarknessofHeavenandDreams]

Phyla89

DarknessofHeavenandDreams

I don't consider it a cop-out, but others do. I consider it expensive and impossible to advertise, though.

Publishing an e-book on Amazon is free.

I did not know that, cool.

How's the advertising for it?

[Klaark]

Get good at summaries and manipulating keyword searches.

[Tympest]

Phyla89

DarknessofHeavenandDreams

I don't consider it a cop-out, but others do. I consider it expensive and impossible to advertise, though.

Publishing an e-book on Amazon is free.

It's free, but best I know you still have to advertise it yourself. I've noticed a few Kindle only books pop up on my Amazon suggestions list but I'd hardly call that advertising.

@OP - You'd probably do better exhausting all the traditional publishers you can find first and then going with Amazon if you want to see this in regular print in book stores. If you're only planning on selling a few hundred copies, then self pubing might work out for you. Just make sure you've got an agent first with the traditional publishers and polish your work as much as you can.

[Hiei the Epic]

truth be told i know it can be a pain in the a** to work with editors (been there and done that) but it's worth it.

i've only ever published via editors and legit companies. they are harsh-- they'll make you rewrite and edit and change things a billion times over, and you need to be open to aggressive critique-- but when it's all said and done, you can be proud that your book was worth something to them enough that they'd publish you.

self-publishing has (from what i've seen) little to offer in the way of satisfaction. i could write the crappiest book in the world and self-publish. when someone says, "i'm self-published" it kind of reads like "i'm not good enough to actually get published, so i went this route".

[Tympest]

Hiei the Epic

truth be told i know it can be a pain in the a** to work with editors (been there and done that) but it's worth it.

i've only ever published via editors and legit companies. they are harsh-- they'll make you rewrite and edit and change things a billion times over, and you need to be open to aggressive critique-- but when it's all said and done, you can be proud that your book was worth something to them enough that they'd publish you.

self-publishing has (from what i've seen) little to offer in the way of satisfaction. i could write the crappiest book in the world and self-publish. when someone says, "i'm self-published" it kind of reads like "i'm not good enough to actually get published, so i went this route".

I don't know that I'd agree with that last bit. While, yes, there are a lot of poorly written self published books, there are also a number of them that are quite good but might have been passed over for something "safer" and more likely to turn a profit. I've done reviews for an author who's first couple of books didn't do terribly well so his publisher is dropping him after the third. The thing is, he isn't a bad writer so much as he doesn't get much advertising and he writes towards a fairly small market, both of which cut down on his sales potential. If he self published the fourth book in the series I'd still buy it because I would expect that he'd gone through the effort to write it as well as the others and get an editor to help polish it.

[Cogent Dream]

DarknessofHeavenandDreams

Phyla89

DarknessofHeavenandDreams

I don't consider it a cop-out, but others do. I consider it expensive and impossible to advertise, though.

Publishing an e-book on Amazon is free.

I did not know that, cool.

How's the advertising for it?

From what I've heard, it's print on demand. So you advertise for yourself and whenever someone orders a copy, Amazon prints one and you get a portion of the cost.

OP, honestly, if you think the book is good, you should work off the agent's comments, refine the work and keep trying. Once you self-pub that book, you can pretty much give up on publishing that book the traditional way.

[Loki Moirae]

Thanks for all the advice. I had not expected to get this much response. For the time being I have decided to continue with trying to publish the traditional way as it seems to provide me with the best options.

I am considering writing a short story though and releasing that as a free book on the kindle in an attempt to get my name out there. Do you think this will have an adverse effect in my search for an agent if it does not get any recognition.

[Sir Icehawk]

See. That's my thinking. If I was going to put an ebook out there, I'd do so on the kindle and through apple's. Write one specifically for this as a freebee in the same way I'd post older (not published) stories and such on my future website.

[marshmallowcreampie]

DarknessofHeavenandDreams

I don't consider it a cop-out, but others do. I consider it expensive and impossible to advertise, though.

Same here. If you want to self-publish, that's fine. However, if you expect to make a career of writing novels and you want to make enough to live on, going to an industry is better. It is possible to make a good amount of money from self-publishing, but be prepared to do a LOT more work. Whether or not you go to an agency to publish, you'll still have to do most of the advertising yourself, but as Darkness here said, it is a lot harder if you're self-published. Interviewers and book reviewers are often less likely to review a self-published novel, and a lot of big bookstores may not carry self-published works. I think it's a credibility issue, when you send to an agency and they accept, it shows that out of hundreds of books, yours was good enough to stand out and good enough for the folks in the agency to put a big investment in. Literally anyone can self-publish and there's no quality control, there's no reason for book reviewer Janet Smith at the Fantasy World magazine to think your book is so special.

But with that said, there is something to be said about someone who can be successful with self-publishing. It means you had the business savvy and the know-how to make your book successful without having the backing of a big publisher, which is a huge thing. But again, unless you know exactly what you're doing and are willing to pay for everything on your own, it's very difficult.