My Take on Non-Traditional Publishing
by Morgan Mandel
Celia asked for my take on non-traditional publishing. My first two books, Two Wrongs and Girl of My Dreams, were published by a small publisher, Hard Shell Word Factory. I was allowed to give input on the covers, such as what colors I liked, but had no real say on that or other important aspects, such as price and release date.
For over a year and a half I concentrated on publicizing Girl of My Dreams and spent very little time looking for a home for Killer Career. When I realized I’d wasted valuable time, I sought to remedy the situation. The fastest way to do that was to self-publish Killer Career.
I have to say I worked harder on Killer Career than the other two books combined. Not only did I learn how to start my own company, Choice One Publishing Co., but I also had to control every aspect of getting the novel ready for printing. I chose Lightning Source, a division of Ingram, as the printing company because of their quality craftsmanship, reputation and distribution policy. I chose Helen Ginger as my editor, because I respected her abilities and wanted my book to appear as perfect as possible. Among other things such as which countries my book would be sold, I picked out a cover, the font, even the color and texture of the paper.
The process was very time consuming. Although the stigma is lessening, self-publishing in many circles is still looked down upon, even if you present a quality product. Because of that, I had to make sure my book turned out as professional as possible.
Because I have the full rights to Killer Career, with the help of a friend to whom I paid $60.00, I was able to set up a Kindle edition and name my price for the book. Lightning Source already had set up the print edition at Amazon and at a number of other venues, such as Barnes and Noble.com.
I’ve also made autographed copies of Killer Career available at Tony Burton’s Digital Bookshop at http://digital-bookshop.com , as well as e-books other than kindle. Tony charged me $30.00 to set up the e-books, which seems reasonable to me.
I may set up an account at Smashwords, but haven’t done so yet. I’ll probably offer an e-book there about my self-publishing venture at some point, but so far I’ve been busy on other projects, and I haven’t had a chance to get it ready.
CreateSpace and Lulu were considerations I rejected, since Lightning Source seemed to offer more value and distribution for the investment.
My advice is, if you want to self-publish, think it through and do it right. I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot and I’ve received some great reviews for the book. I may try it again, but first I need to finish my works-in-progress before I decide.
Morgan Mandel
LINKS:
For Killer Career - http://digital-bookshop.com/ for autographed copies of the book
Killer Career, plus Two Wrongs and Girl of My Dreams are all at Amazon.com in print and kindle. The easiest way to find them is to go to Amazon.com and type in Morgan Mandel.
Romantic Suspense, Killer Career, gets 5 stars from The Midwest Book Review
