Quote:
Originally Posted by scalem X  4 -Charlatans who want to sell books with rubbish, with or without a free lucky charm. |
This above quote is a very common theme in the self-publishing route. I've read some good things about the self-publishing but the bottom line is always bucks. How much are you willing to lose your shirt, skirt, pants, or whatever in order to see your book published? Let's face it, they're not cheap.
Besides, the term "self-publishing" has been bandied about too many times that it becomes a dilution and a distortion of what it really means.
Vanity publishing: you pay your publisher to publisher your work for you. No editorship. No proofreading. No nothing. (However, you might get somebody to proofread your stuff.) It's printed out. But no guarentee that your books will be lined up on bookshelves at bookstores everywhere. (And I'm talking in US not UK.)
Self-publishing: You don't pay to get your book published. Get a printer, ink, paper. Viola! Your book is published. No editorship though. You could get somebody to proofread your stuff. Now that you got your book printed out in more than several copies. Where are you gonna put them at? Your warehouse? Can you afford to rent a small one? And distribution is also key.
Small Press: They're not vanity publishing. From what I've read, it would cost the publisher himself more than a pretty penny to print copies of one book and distribute them to certain bookstores that would take them to sell.
Bookstores are notoriously picky. They put out books that are traditionally published on shelves to sell, and then sent back the ones unsold for discount. Very few books that are vanity-published, small press, and self-published were on their shelves. The vanity-published won't allow for discounts. (At least, that's what I've read so far.) Is that unfair? Sure it is. I'm not putting these endeavors down. These are the realities of the publishing world.
Personally, I'd stick with the traditional route than "self-publishing". Vanity publishing can help if you're already published and have a fan base to get reprints. That's what happened with Peter Atkins and Dennis Etchison with theirs. Another thing that would work for you is if your book is nonfiction.
I based all these from what's happened here in the U.S. not in the U.K..
