Agent or self publishing?

[BiscuitLover09876]

How on earth do you start?

I've being doing a free online writing course to help me and am halfway through the book. I really think I can do something with with.

If you do self publish, how do you make sure you get a decent proofreader?

OP I think it's long road. I recommend reading this. www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Publishing-Dummies-Jason-R-Rich/dp/0471799521?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

I have a family member who has been a journalist his whole life and has now written a book (proof read by someone he knows in the industry). He's pitched it to many publishers but no interest yet. After reading this book about self publishing to see if I could help with the process, it really put me off. I think you have to outlay a lot of money to get it published in a sellable format. There's no guarantee you will ever make your money back.

I have another family member who is starting out in writing and has written a children's book. He was offered a hybrid publishing contract by a publisher. He has paid for some of the publishing, and the publisher does all the leg work to get it published and promoted. The cost is much less and it comes with their expertise. It's early on in that process so there's still no guarantee that he'll earn back the money he's invested, but he chose it over self publishing.

It does feel a bit hopeless!

I'm going to mostly disagree with pp's advice (sorry)

The top review of the recommended book is a 1 star which says the book is well out of date and doesn't even mention kindle???

I'm baffled.

Not at PP of course, more that 'they' have the audacity to keep selling the book?!

Op... self publishing is as easy as paying someone $10 on Upwork to format your book and pressing maybe 5 buttons, or as complicated as having a PA to manage releases, a designer on retainer, a team of proofreaders and someone to personally manage your facebook ads.

What do you want to achieve?

If it's mainly about prestige and you're doing this for you, find an agent.

If it's not about prestige, and you're either doing this for you or you want to make money / start a career, self publish all the way. Take the time to learn about it like you would any new venture.

If you just want to publish a book to say you've published a book, it really is very simple. Find a freelancer to format (Upwork, Fiverr etc) which is about the only technically complex part of it... and either make your own cover on kindle create (or an app like canva) or again, pay someone $30-$50 on Fiverr to do it for you. I used GermanCreative there for my first cover and that book has made thousands. I've also used a homemade Canva cover in my early days and the book passed five figures within a couple of months. I then recovered because I had the money, but when you don't have the money you do what you can with what you have.

Proofreading is fairly easy to find, and again, you generally get what you pay for. I've used people overseas and the results were fine for the genre. I now use an American friend who is excellent and I'm yet to find an error in any of her manuscripts, I use her for book 1s in a new series. In the past I've done it myself using grammarly / pro writing aid and text-to-speech.

If you want to try to make money, try to start a career, try to get people reading your work etc then first, join the Facebook group 20booksto50k and absorb everything in the modules. Familiarise yourself with the KDP interface.

Then you'll need to work out if your book is written to market, and if it's not, brainstorm ways to see if you can make it more 'to market'.

Once you've honed in on a potential market, study the covers and the titles and the authors already dominating, and what they're doing to dominate.

Don't publish until you're as confident as you want to be that your book has potential readers and everything about the book (cover, title(s), blurb, keywords, in that order) signals you have exactly what those readers are looking for.

How much you spend on the process is almost entirely up to you. Active marketing will cost money ($5 a day facebook ad can be enough for the right book, $40-$100 newsletters in certain genres) unless you are writing in a genre with a big social media presence, in which case join readers groups and engage. Passive marketing (cover, title, blurb, keywords) is free. Covers range from $5 for text slapped over an image to $500 for a high (but not top) tier Urban Fantasy.

It boils down to want you want to achieve. If that's seeing your name on a book and holding that book in your hands, it won't really cost anything.

He has paid for some of the publishing, and the publisher does all the leg work to get it published and promoted.

This sounds exactly like vanity publishing. Op, if people want you to pay them to publish your book, run for the hills. Don't even engage.

In the past I've done it myself using grammarly / pro writing aid and text-to-speech.

I would advise against this. Grammarly is fine for the occasional letter or report, but it's not enough for a book.

A good professional editor (not just a proofreader) will give you feedback on your structure, pacing, style, weak points and all the rest of it. Some specialise in self-published books. Have a look on the CIEP website, or ALLi -- lots of resources there.

I have to agree with @DoeRay the first poster to respond seemed to be pushing you to vanity publishing and that doesn't make any sense. The only person guaranteed to make money out of that is the vanity publisher.
As for using a professional editor, there are pros and cons. Not least the cost involved.

@IknowThisIsRidiculous

OP I think it's long road. I recommend reading this. ]]

I have a family member who has been a journalist his whole life and has now written a book (proof read by someone he knows in the industry). He's pitched it to many publishers but no interest yet. After reading this book about self publishing to see if I could help with the process, it really put me off. I think you have to outlay a lot of money to get it published in a sellable format. There's no guarantee you will ever make your money back.

I have another family member who is starting out in writing and has written a children's book. He was offered a hybrid publishing contract by a publisher. He has paid for some of the publishing, and the publisher does all the leg work to get it published and promoted. The cost is much less and it comes with their expertise. It's early on in that process so there's still no guarantee that he'll earn back the money he's invested, but he chose it over self publishing.

This post is complete nonsense, and as a pp has indicated, the book on self-publishing they’re basing their advice on is completely out of date. Self-publishing need necessarily not cost you anything other than paying someone to format and cover design — an insignificant sum — plus whatever you might choose to spend on marketing.

The journalist is highly unlikely to get anywhere by sending his MS direct to publishers — most will only accept manuscripts via agents.

And the family member who has written a children’s book sounds as if he’s been bamboozled by a vanity press — you never pay a publisher to publish your work, and if this person had an agent, he or she would know that.

Get an agent if you want to publish traditionally. If you want to self-publish, follow @DoeRay’s advice.

I wrote and published a series of four books, POD print on demand. A friend did the editing etc as that was her job etc.

This way we got the books out swiftly and without anyone vetoing etc. Self publishing worked for me.

@BiscuitLover09876

How on earth do you start?

I've being doing a free online writing course to help me and am halfway through the book. I really think I can do something with with.

If you do self publish, how do you make sure you get a decent proofreader?

A proofread is the least of your problems. The issue with self-publishing is that it's almost impossible for the book to get out to the public.