I haven't found much to write about with respect to Disney related thoughts lately. I've had some other stuff on my mind, and found myself drawn to the ideas of self-publishing. I love books, and I love reading and writing, and I've kicked around the notion that perhaps I could start my own small press publishing operation.
With that in mind, and some thoughts about coming up with a different model, I started to research the self-publishing industry and some small presses, and was interested to find out how easy it is to publish your own work these days. Anyone can publish a book for Kindle, iPad, Nook, Sony e-Reader and other platforms by using services like Smashwords, CreateSpace, and Lightning Source. The up-front fees are manageable using these models, and the amount of money that is being generated from some mid-list authors using these models is impressive.
Dean Wesley Smith has a very informative blog which includes plenty of posts on self-publishing. J.A. Konrath is also blogging about his experiences becoming his own publisher. My friend Annetta Ribken also blogs about her experience in getting her collection of short stories published at WordWebbing and has plenty of useful information if you're inclined to do something like this.
I have a novel completed from several years back, and several others in varying stages of production. I also have a handful of fair to middlin' short stories. What I've noticed is that a lot of authors are publishing their short fiction and selling it electronically for $0.99, which to me seems like a lot for a single short story. Annetta Ribken collected her flash fiction short shorts in a book called Not Nice and Other Understatements and sells it for $2.99 through Kindle, or more for a print version at Amazon. So I'm debating whether, and when, I should begin trying to publish my own fiction. It's one thing to be an established author like Konrath or Smith, or even like Tim Pratt or Michael Jasper, and another to be unpublished and trying to break through.
We'll see what happens. In the absence of any Disney stuff that is intriguing me enough to blog about, this entry will have to suffice.
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2 comments:
Being an author, historian and public librarian, I can see the appeal of self-publishing.
I would hate to not have a great WDW history book to add to my shelves, but an ebook might be the easiest way to get something published.
Just like the blogging world, I do wish a lot of people would get a copy editor to look over their stuff before publishing it. It is an unfortunate "permanent" mark on your record.
I have a two-volume set that someone wrote about a unique part of WDW and it is an amazing resource with tons of images, but they didn't do a great job of writing or editing it. It felt like a series of looooong blog posts that had spelling and grammatical mistakes.
I am glad the info is available, but it is disheartening to read it.
I agree with respect to the copyediting. Even some books I've read from small press publishers could benefit from some editing, telling me that the editing they're getting from their publisher isn't very good. I don't know about blogs; most of the ones I've read are pretty decent as far as editing goes. Of course they are short entries for the most part. (Maybe mine is an example of one that could use some editing, but I usually do these between patients and I don't plan them out - they're all first drafts pretty much.)
Thanks for the comment!
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