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Sponsor |  jenner1066 | Dec 17, 2004 1:55pm | The Writer's Digest magazine often features profiles of agents and what they're looking for. Agencies will often publish online which of their agents have represented which writers.
Dunno how sage this is, but start trying to get familiar with which agents specialize in your field. When the info is available, Publisher's Weekly magazine (most libraries subscribe to this -- it's incredibly expensive for your own subscription) book reviews will cite the agent who handled the book. Then concentrate on narrowing the field of agents to those who represent your genre.
Might as well start your Excel spreadsheet now! :D |
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Sponsor | | aristo-cat | Dec 17, 2004 9:04pm | | Thanks Jenner1066, that is advice I kind of knew but needed confirmed. Do you work with an agent? |
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Sponsor | | jenner1066 | Dec 18, 2004 7:49am | | No, in fact, I ended up not, since most felt my book was far too long. So I've ended up starting my own small press and will have to figure out everything on my own. |
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Sponsor | | aristo-cat | Dec 20, 2004 10:04pm | | Interesting! Have you had success distributing your book? |
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Sponsor | | jenner1066 | Dec 21, 2004 8:25am | | For starters, it'll be web-based sales with me mailing the books out. After the book is printed and available, I plan to sign up with the Amazon Merchant deal. |
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Sponsor | | aristo-cat | Dec 22, 2004 11:11pm | | So, are you going to print your own book and have it bound or are you going to turn it all over to a press? I'm told that it is cheaper if you do your own xeroxing and then seek a book binder instead of a publishing house. I hear that vanity publishers can be expensive. |
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Sponsor | | jenner1066 | Dec 23, 2004 9:35am | Since I've established my own publishing company and am not using a vanity/subsidy press (boo-hiss), I'll go it the way the "big boys" do. I've gotten my own ISBNs, have typeset the entire manuscript, and have had a 4-color cover designed. It will all go to a printing house, where they'll offset and bind them. They will then ship the books back to me.
The price of producing a book differs dramatically by method and print-run. 200 double-sided photocopies at Kinko's, say, will run you about $10.00 per book. The price hardly varies much. Offset printing in runs of 1,000 can get that price down to about $3 per book. This is important because you have to determine your mark-up based on distributor and bookstore discounts which run from 55% to 65% of the cover price -- and all completely returnable to you. In any case, the goal is to make some profit -- even if it's only 70¢ a book.
As my own publisher, I invest all the money, but I retain all rights and profits, too. This is not so with most subsidy publishers, who let you pay all the fees, but also retain rights to your book AND ususally do a very slipshod job of typesetting and binding.
Are you thining of producing your own book? |
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Sponsor | | aristo-cat | Dec 27, 2004 10:31pm | | I'd love to produce some. I have the market, the books and it is just a matter of the gumption to put out the money and take the risk to actually do it. Also, since I also hold a job and a half, one of them as a paid writer, I find I don't have enough time to make a decent effort. I think it will just have to be down the road for another day. Although, you have inspired me. Set up must have been expensive. Why typesetting? Don't you use a computer to produce your type? Do printers actually use ink or do they use laser printers? What genre are you writing? |
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Sponsor | | jenner1066 | Dec 28, 2004 3:14pm | Yes, my full-time "day job" is writing, too. It can take it out of you, for sure. If you're not quite ready to do the "invest your retirement fund" thing, like I'm doing, you might want to contact Goblin Fern Press up in Wisconsin (see their website goblinfernpress.com [goblinfernpress.com]). I met the owner, Kira Henschel, at a conference this fall, and she's absolutely delightful. I think they offer all sorts of great publishing services on a kind of a la carte menu. Maybe that could be a good route for you?
Oh yeah, the type is set on the computer. I used QuarkXpress. You could also use the Adobe DTP program. That way the printer can output camera-ready film (or its equivalent) and it doesn't vary one bit from what you supply. MS Word will not show you an accurate image of the final layout. Lines will shift; words will break. You have to convert everything to PDF to get it in a fixed format.
Traditional printers use ink; some POD places use "toner."
High fantasy is what I've got going right now. How about you? |
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