some advice

[rcmommy]

Hello!!! I am new here and I came upon this site while "googling" a publishing company who had contacted me. I have a children's book that I am working on. I want to publish it, but I need to find the best route to publishing. I am totally lost on the what to do and not to do regarding this. I am looking into self publishing. Can anyone tell me what they have experienced. Also, I would love for my book to be reviewed somewhere before hand. Do I need to copywrite my work before posting on a site like this for review. Also can one really make any money publishing and distributing a book.... :p Any advice is appreciated

[wgjones3]

That font you used is cool! Courier New?

Anyway, check out Preditors and Editors and see if there's anything on there about the company. Odds are, the people who contact you aren't neccessarily the people you want to do business with, but that's not always the case.

P&E Website: http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/

[Nighthawk]

As a writer, you owe it to yourself to submit to traditional publishers before you go the POD / vanity press route. Many traditional houses are at a loss for good children's material. You might find yourself contracted by one of those traditional houses, which would entail an advance on royalties as well as royalties on any sales exceeding the advance.

While it is true that there is a potential for greater profits for you as a writer via self publsihing, you'll be selling fewer books. You'll be hard pressed to get your work into brick and mortar stores and, therefore, will be restricted to online sales, assuming the company you contract with supplies to online retailers such as Amazon.com or BN.com, or personal selling, which would include not only what you sell in person, but also through any websites you set up for the purpose of marketing your book.

Can you make any money self publsihing? It's possible. It's also a lot of work. John Grisham self-published his first book before Warner signed him to a contract, though I have no idea whether they signed him because of sales of that book or if publishing it was simply a stipulation of the contract they created when they signed him for his next book.

[DrRita]

Self publishing is the way to go only if you have something so truly different about your work that it would turn a traditional publisher away or if you only want to sell you book locally and are not interested in a larger market. Is there some unique design, material, artistic twist that is so unique to your project that if it isn't produced a certain way the artistic quality of the project is lost? If not, self publishing is not the way to go. Traditional publisher's publish good literature and vanity presses publish whatever the writer wants since he/she is paying the bill. Also the cost is very high on children's books due to the artwork. Could cost from $10-25 per book and there is a printing minimum. It's pretty hard to recap your costs. Unless you have the time, skill and expertise for marketing, you may end up with a garage full of books. Nighthawk is right about bookstores not carrying self-published books unless the author is well known. And they become well known generally through being published by traditional publishers.

As a writer, you owe it to yourself to attempt being published by a traditional publishing house. It's an earned priviledge, one that says your work is legitimate and worthy of publication. I am not suggesting that a self published author is not a legitimate and worthy artist by no means, it's just difficult to get anyone to take you seriously unless you can prove substantial sales in your self publishing effort.

You don't need to copyright to post here but you do need to copyright to publish. You can get the info from the government site on copyright. The forms can be downloaded and you can even do it online.

Hope this helps. Hope to see more of you around.