Smile, I'm in the same boat as you, going up river without a paddle. I continue to incur expense funding by my husband's meager mid manangement income: money for a web site, money for a software design for the web site, money for postage, money for posters, money for bookmarks, money money money. I've yet to sell enough books to recoup the initial publishing costs. I'm on an email list for "Planned Television Arts" which provides promotion, but I'm afraid of the cost. On the other hand, I am a do-it-yourselfer because I like control, but sometimes I spend good money after bad, as with paying for design soft-ware although it was included in host packaging. Indeed, how do writers make a living? This year I will keep more accurate records of these purchases for tax deductions. LLL

Hi just some more places to research backgrounds:

Absolute Write.com (Their message boards are awesome)
Of course there is Preditors and Editors

And Writer's Beware Boards (I think) Sorry if you all know about these places, but since I got burned way back when, I want to help others gather as much infor as possible!

Dana

Whether you self-publish, subsidy publish, or let someone else do it for you, I don't think it is wise to give up your day job until you already have an established income from your writing.

Before I started my own publishing company, it seemed a much better way to deal with my creative works. After all, traditional publishers take your works, and you get 7-15% (if you're lucky). With your own company, the initial outlay might be more (and it is!) but eventually, you expect to be making a much greater profit.

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't trade the learning experience for anything, and I did enjoy learning how to record, master, and edit audio for the recorded version of my manuscript. Plus I love knowing that I have the knowledge to get my work into published form.

HOWEVER (caps for emphasis) sometimes I am pretty sure that if I could stand the stress of finding a qualified agent who didn't just care about the bottom line..... [Note: About 8 years ago I had an agent tell me that if I wasn't already a successful writer, she wasn't interested in talking to me! Creates a conundrum, doesn't it?]....I would let someone else worry about dealing with manufacturers and getting exposure for the product.

The 7% royalty sounds a lot better to me all the time. Marketing is not my favorite thing to do in this world. It is expensive and quite often feels like it is falling into a black hole somewhere. Whatever loss I might take financially by going through an agent might be worth it in terms of stress.

If I was having to worry about paying my bills with my writing like your friend, I think the stressometer might explode. Plus my writing would probably suffer. The only writing I do well under stress is poetry - angst and all that.

Smile, about all you can do is encourage her in her efforts and be ready to help her scan the want ads if she doesn't 'make it big'. At least she has the guts to try. People don't like to have their dreams taken away from them, they have a tendency to become very angry if you try. If she's your friend, and you want to keep her friendship, I'd suggest staying as neutral as possible. If you 'actively' encourage her, try to help and it fails, she might 'blame' you. If you try to discourage her, she'll be mad at you for stepping on her dream. Looks like a no-win situation from here. But I do say positive is always better than negative, and who knows? She might make it. Weirder things have happened in this world.

Dannye, That's so true about reading in between the lines. I really needed your message tonight because I was deliberating over whether or not to go ahead and publish my 2nd book with Lulu or sign on with iUniverse. I had decided against iUniverse because I don't want to put out $900 Canadian for anyone's service at this moment when I haven't recouped my investment from my first book. But I had a talk with the iUniverse guy on the phone tonight and he was very persuasive -- that's his job :-)

I want to think twice about it because I'm pretty sure that I can get the book out on Lulu myself. The marketing is all going to be up to me anyway, although iUniverse offers an editorial review.

Has anyone here used them? I just do what Stephen King suggests -- first, I do as much work as I possibly can. Then I put the book in a drawer for a couple of weeks. I go back to it, freak out, make changes and then give it to several people I trust to read. Are the editors at iUniverse going to be that much better at critiquing stuff than my highly intelligent and literate friends?

Thanks :-) Sigrid

Lynn, The press releases with AuthorHouse really were a waste of time and money! I was so green that I paid them 750/US for the expanded promotion and 45o for Internet promotion. Can you spell I-D-I-O-T? Well, enough crying over spilt greenbacks.

I am finding that I'm getting a response by following up one by one on the list of 550 newspapers, radio stations and TV shows that AH sent me. But as you said, most of the people that I talk to never saw or read my original press release. Fortunately, I'm also getting a response outside of my region.

I'm glad to hear that you did receive publicity, but I wonder why it was only local. Your story should have international appeal... Are you working on anything else now? I've forgotten if I've already asked you that :-)

Best, Sigrid

Hi Sigrid, yes, my book has international appeal and the public needs it, because abuse crosses all ethnicities, ages, and socio-economic classes. I sold a book to someone in Holland and Australia, but that was via my own effort. The reason the publicity is only regional is because I am my own agent, publicist, etc, and I don't like to travel! I am sorry to hear that authorhouse made IDIOTS out of both of us! I was shocked when I saw that I paid for a press release that I had written! Brenda, thanks for the input on publishing. Where were you when my book was being judged by WD? Does everyone know that the original Chicken Soup was self-published? LLL

Hi Danny, yeah, it's true, the agents want you to already be published and the publishers want you to have an agent. Sig, have you agreed to iUniverse yet? How much do they want for editing? Oh, guess what? I checked on my book at Amazon. First of all, a recent review that had been there wasn't. Second of all, the verbage changed and it says it takes 4-6 weeks to get my book. Well, talk about freaking out! I emailed customer service because I don't know who else to email. I don't know why they changed stuff around, and deleted a reader's review! Do you all check on your product via amazon and bn from time to time? LLL

Back to my friend, There's an update. It appears that she will be okay. It turns out that a case she filed against a business where she fell a while back is supposed to pay her a lot of money soon so she plans to survive from that for a while as she promotes her book. She is a good writer btw and I have tried to be supportive so we are still friends.
smile

Hi Brenda, I'm afraid to give you the score because what if it is really bad? Tell me what a good score is, and if it's close, then I'll reveal. I do know that a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" was one of the winners that year in the same genre, so who can compete with that? The evaluation sheet that comes along with the score was very positive, as if the judge had read the whole book. Words like "encouragement, optimism, recovery, bravely, honestly, hope, effective use of flash back and dialogue keep the reader engaged but not overwhelmed. Unlike many titles of this genre, this book is written from a position of healing." All true, but no win. Brenda, what is RTIR? And how do you go to Amazon to see if the sales spike? I never received a reply from Amazon as to the deletion of the latest review and the 4-6 weeks ordering delay. Does anyone know of an email address that would be appropriate? Thanks Lynn