HELP - Options - STUCK

[joshuachrisstoff]

Gidday

I am in the process of publishing my first book.'
Getting thru editing was great, went according to my plan, they changed much but that was all cosmetic and very little was done with my style. That may turn out to be good or bad.

Anyway, we are now on the cover and arguing but I know they will come around to my way of thinking which I do think is somewhat inspired and I m not just being petulant.

On to the real here.
I have to pick ONE free option from the followig four. I may have only a short few days to choose, they haven't said yet.
If two or more are wonderful, then I will free one and buy one, buy even two, if we decide they are really worth it.

***********************
NOTE: Amount is still in U.S. Dollars.

#1 Bookstore Returnability Program – 12-month Term (Paperback only)





The inability to accept book returns has been a major stumbling block in the self-publishing arena from the beginning, but new Bookstore Returnability program has leveled the playing field by making books returnable through Ingram. When you choose to enroll in this program, you make your work more attractive to booksellers everywhere and increase the market availability of your book.

**This service can be purchased for $699.00



#2 Web Design Services (Starter) or Web design additional page





Reach out to a worldwide audience with the Web Design Marketing Service.

Having a personal website means that you can be viewed by anyone, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year – as long as they have Internet access. It is one of the truly efficient ways of marketing your work. With your own website, millions around the world will know about you and your books; you can link your website to forge stronger business relationships with online bookstores, book clubs and author organizations; you can practically level the literary playing field with the more established authors; the possibilities, it goes without saying, are endless.
**This service can be purchased for $349.00

#3 Marketing Starter Kit




This comprehensive package contains innovative marketing tools to help create a high level of awareness of your book and generate sales. Invaluable for book signings, it provides you with a method to reach out to your readers and inform them about your book. With a little bit of everything, the Marketing Starter Kit is designed to help you reach a wide-variety of readers and is a great addition to your marketing plan, or it can even serve as your main marketing strategy.

Your Marketing Starter Kit includes the following materials:



· Fifty (50) 4” x 6” postcards with your book’s cover on one side, and short summary, and ordering info on the other

· Fifty (50) 2” x 7.25” bookmarks with the book’s cover on one side and your author photo, short summary, and ordering info on the other

· Fifty (50) 2” x 3.5” business cards with your book’s cover on one side and title, your name, and ordering information on the other
**This service can be purchased for $149.00

#4 Press Release Campaign for 100 media outlets




A compelling way to create media awareness and gain media exposure.

The most effective and accepted means to achieving media exposure is through a press release. Press releases are succinct and informative articles sent to media personnel that reveal a newsworthy story. Members of the media rely upon the press releases that cross their desks every day to fill out every column inch and every broadcast second.

A well-written and well-timed press release will motivate members of the press to cover your story, affording you the opportunity to reach hundreds, if not thousands of potential readers. And when this audience takes an interest in your story, they will act on their desire to learn more and purchase your book.

**This service can be purchased for $349.00

***************************
Now I have removed the name of th company. If you think you know it, please don't discuss it here, I have one free option and that I really need help with.
Once we have it published and sold the first million or two <GRIN> I shall detail the process from start to finish, all the ups and downs and give hem a rating.

****************************

I am non US resident or citizen, if that colors your judgment.
So no book tours, no signings, none of the general hands on things.
I have a website which is rather poor but then I should be able to get help locally for that, maybe a school kid os such.

I am not sure the bookmarks and postcards are worthy at this time. Maybe book 2 or later for them. That is not something people will buy day 1 even if they love the book, they are more likely to buy them after they read it and"ENJOY IT", correct?

So that leaves two options.
The media release, supported to 100 industry professionals could be very valuable if they support the work... could be a big if I guess.

The #1 option does make a lot of sense. could that really be the final decision point the bookstore uses to decide if they risk buying 5 or 500 books? At least if they can return it, they won't take too much of a risk if it flops and they have 5,000 copies that don't sell.


PLEASE... any and all opinions from school kids to octopuss mums, no, old people, wrong octo's.
octagenarians 80 yo peoples!

Please feel free to tell me what you think. I have to pick one and that maybe in short order, possibly b4 the end of the month!

[joshuachrisstoff]

Just on the publisher, they maybe just a vanity publisher but they do seem to have reasonably high standards.
At one point they said my stuff had to be up to the best cos otherwise it would negatively impact on their reputation. That just told me that they think they have already got something to lose and ongoing they have something to lose. That encouraged me.

As above, I will write a full report on my interactions with the publisher, vanity or not, and name them at that time. I must say that I had serious reservations at the very start but as time has progressed, I am more and more comfortable with them.
In the end it is the quality of the work that will determine if it sinks or swims. All the packaging in the world can't disguise lemons.

I am critically aware that the 'path' to the market can disrupt or enhance one's chance to succeed, hence all the help you guys give me will ensure great success.

We have finalised the book's title:
Even amongst specials: 'They Call Us SPECIAL.

[Lily]

Congratulations on the book, Joshua. All these options seem very expensive to me. But then my policy has always been never to pay a penny towards publishing. That way even if your royalties are disappointing, you haven't lost any money.

This actually saved me from making a very bad mistake with a scamming publisher early on in my career. I was all set to sign the contract, when I realised they were insisting that I register the copyright myself, which would have cost some thirty dollars. Deal off!

If I were self-publishing a print book I'd go with Lulu or Createspace. I already have a few ebooks on Amazon and Smashwords, which didn't cost me a penny to upload. But in the final analysis only you can decide how much you can afford to spend, based on what you're likely to get back in return for your investment.

[joshuachrisstoff]

Thanks Lily.
There has been a lot of stress in negotiations at all stages, from day one itself. Maybe there were personality clashes. I had a head bang with the first guy. I have another head bang with their marketing rep or guru. I am quite sure that both of these guys were saying "I want your money" perhaps "all your money and right now". I felt the two were 'high pressure' guys.

Without knowing what you guys know about the publishing process it is hard to KNOW if this is standard or industry best practice. From my POV, I am more into the quality issues and much less time critical, and, I have very little money to spend. Like total is less than 5 grand, I think these guys were thinking it was a decision between 25 grand and 100 grand.
Finally, with guy one, I got him to understand that if book one fails to generate any real revenue there is no options for me to pay for book two. As in flash marketing campaigns or TV ads etc. Same with a high priced editor, it maybe the right thing to do with book 2, but if book 1 doesn't provide the cash, I have no more.
Maybe I have disclosed here or not, but I live on welfare, as yanks would say, thru great ill health. Stress really aggravates my condition also.

Last first. I have come to believe that you do have to spend money to make money. As a general philosophy, you understand. If you don't put in, you can't expect to take out.
When I saw it was possible to get an advance, even significant ones, on NF projects, that scared the hell out of me. In my mind that would increase stress, tension and pressure exponentially for me.

Me writing it, doing some self editing, is quite a fine 'put in' effort for me. I don't necessarily see me having to put up cash. With this first work, of course no one has ever heard of my name, and I find it extremely difficult to get beta readers, maybe 100 would be nice to get a good spread of views. When I advertised I said one word reviews [good, bad, indifferent] were possible, likely and even encouraged. I still had great difficulty in getting even family to assist. Two did but I can't guarantee they have even finished the thing, maybe two years later on. It is a tuff life and I now know that writing it is ONLY maybe 10% of the whole job. Editing, even artwork, thru printing, even formatting, and of course, marketing have been HELL!

Lily, I am sorry you had the bad experience. It almost looks like you now regret not being able to even put in a little cash, maybe on special projects because of the bad first run ins.
I am open to each concept at the time it is discussed. I may go and may not, I do each evaluation and then commit on merit. But that maybe just me too.

Lily. Could you specify the FREE step by step with Amazon and Smashwords, please?
From what I read of all the various options I have seen so far, including Kindle and Createspace, I definitely felt that all wanted cash, possibly a lot, maybe at least $5,000 per project. Now I am investing about that all up to be published E and Trad, but that is by no means what they asked me to put in, thinking I had it as discretionary. I certainly have not, managing the 5k by selecting only vital services and those spread well apart.

Tell me about the free process that can and will get a work at least E published, please?
Even if it doesn't work out for me, I see it as a magnificent resource for the next 1,000 newbie writers who are dying to get in here, once you have that posted! <GRIN>

[Lily]

Hi Joshua and Happy Easter! I have no regrets about not shelling out the 30 dollars for copyright registration, the very opposite. Shortly afterwards I was able to attract a good publisher, where I was never asked to pay a dime.

Here are some links to Lulu, Smashwords and Amazon where you can publish for free. No money required upfront at all. Their expenses (which are reasonable) come out of your royalties when someone purchases your book.

You do need some technical expertise to be able to work through the entire process by yourself. The formatting can be tricky, so can the cover. However, all of these companies offer very reasonably priced services, if you need someone to do either part of it, or all of it, for you. Good luck with whatever you decide.

connect.lulu.com/t5/Lulu-Basics/How-much-does-it-cost-to-use-Lulu/ta-p/32086

kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2J7LFVIIC06SQ

www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords

[joshuachrisstoff]

Thanks.

Yesh, I think what killed my enthusiasm was all the buzzwords they used. I had no idea and there were dozens of them.