I'm working on publishing a book!!

[Deeth Irteen]

..Well, almost. I've finished my rough draft, and have started typing up the 2nd draft. I'm currently deciding on which publisher to go with.

Right now, I'm torn between PublishAmerica and IUniverse. I'm kinda leaning toward PublishAmerica 'cause it's free, but I hear they've got some rocky history.

What do youg guys think?

[Ωbright]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

Ah, so you're going the self-publishing route. All I really know is that I know a couple of people that use LULU.com. Rick Cook has 2 novels on there, so maybe he can offer more in the way of help or advice?

Well I CAN say this: I've purchased both of Rick's books through LULU, and they look nice.

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

LULU? Does that stand for something?

[peachy]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

What's the point of self-publishing over getting published by a real publisher?

Like does your **** actually get distributed when you self-publish (generally) or is it more leaning towards the line of thinking "My book is published, yeah!" Like is there some sort of internal drive that you have that pushes you towards publishing whatever you spew out of your head into the world? I guess it would be nice to have like a physical copy of something that you could give to your family or friends to show them what you've done because nobody would read something from a computer or from like a manuscript.

p.s. If I were going to self-publish, that Lulu.com site looks pretty slick.

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

Gee, aren't you nice.

the reason I'm going with slef-publishing is...I don't have enough cash to do it the expensive way.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

Self-publishing can be very expensive if you don't know what you're getting into and you don't read the fine print of those "self-publishing" websites. I haven't used or looked much into the services you're thinking about, so I can't render an opinion that would be worth anything on them.

But concerning Lulu: In all I have absolutely no complaints with Lulu's self-publishing service. It is "free" insofar as you can upload your manuscript following their guidelines and make a cover using their basic templates that may not have that professional look to them, but are at least passable. Even to the point that you can sell the book on Lulu.com's webstore, it's all free.

They're gonna push all kinds of extras at you that most people simply can't afford and that you almost definitely do not need if you're just getting it for yourself and maybe a few others. If you just want to have a "real" book without all the extra hassle, you can do it through Lulu at cost of the book. Depending on how you set up your manuscript, you're looking at probably about $10-$20 after shipping to get your hands on a printed, bound copy. The quality of the print and the page stock has been excellent in the things I've bought from Lulu, including my own books.

And to be quite honest, to get a bound manuscript in lesser quality from whatever varius printer shops you have around you is going to cost you just as much or more. You retain all the natural and full copyrights to your work you may have. If you elect to go with a free Lulu ISBN so that you can sell the book to other people on their webstore, Lulu will technically be your publisher, but they have no obligation to you and you have none to them, so you can pull your book "off the market" whenever you choose and they have no legal right to stop you. It's a print-to-order self-publishing service, which is why they can operate at cost for small, one-book projects. It's also why the cost per book will be between 50 cents - $2 more expensive, because they aren't setting up their printing presses to do more than one book and it's not as cost-efficient that way.

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

Nobody gives a rat's ass about my book. Mumble Grumble.

[Ωbright]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

Welcome to the wonderful world of publishing.

[Cutter De Blanc]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

What's the book about?

I always think of that Eragon kid when I think of self-publishing books.

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

What's the book about?

I always think of that Eragon kid when I think of self-publishing books.

Where oh where to begin? Oh, I know!

Take a moment to picture the classis fantasy stereotype: Light (which is the province of the good guys) vs Darkness (the province of the bad guys). The good guys always triumph over evil, usually through the power of (cringe) love.

My book takes most of that crap and throws it out the window.

It's light vs. Darkness, but seen in a different way. Like most fantasy books, Light's currently dominant, and there're gods of light and a religion established around them. However, under the surface, The gods of light are greedy, vain, extremely territorial, and a host of other nasty things. Under the face of the religion of light, the religion's a mix of:

The Roman Catholic Church,

Polytheism,

The Nazi Party,

The Witch Hunts, and

The Spanish Inquisition.

The usual punishment for not wanting to "praise" the gods of Light is DEATH.

Now, as the Gods of Light are spreading lies and chicanery, the Gods of Darkness, known as the Pantheon, are trying to free humanity from their hidden tyrrany and torture. So, they create a group of 12 Demigods, each one aligned with 1 element and 1 sign of the Astrological zodiac, to go convince humanity to turn to darkness. By doing so, when the humans die of natural causes, their souls go to the underworld. Once all the humans are out of the world, the Pantheon will burst out of the underworld, destroy the world, and defeat the gods of light in one big fight to the finish.

Now, bear in mind, what I just described is just the backdrop. the real story follows the tale of a boy named Alphonse, who gets wrapped up in the conflict when The Gods of Light send Angels to kill him (for reasons I won't reveal yet). He gets saved by 2 teenagers named Dilan and Malissa (yes, I know the names aren't spelled right. I did it on purpose), who're 2 of the members of the Zodiac, the Demigods created by the Pantheon.

My book, despite having a child protagonist, is not for kids, for reasons I won't dive into yet.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

Everything you just said makes me think you're trying too hard to flip the common tropes on their collective heads.

Stop thinking about ways you can "be original" or "be unique" with regards to cliches and common fantasy elements because those concepts are so mismanaged and misunderstood. If your story is worth anything at all, it matters less what's original or unique or different because what actually matters is that you've done something people want to read or watch or listen to or play.

Just write the story you want to write, and if it's worth anything the "unique" and "original" elements will write themselves without you actively trying to shoehorn them in. Square peg, round hole. Just write your square peg and then you'll discover your square holes, and probably a few other misshapen pegs that fit into their own misshapen holes.

And I resent that "Nobody gives a rat's ass about my book." line because I gave you some very useful advice about self-publishing, in the interest of your book. If you want people to have interest in the book itself instead of the vehicle through which you want to deliver the book, then make a topic about that, or derail this topic, as you've done.

I'll give anyone's writing a shot on this forum, so if you'd like an opinion, feel free to PM me or post up some of this story and I will give it a very honest, critical critique that will likely be of some use to you.

And again, stop trying to drive home how your story does everything "differently." It doesn't sound genuine, and suggesting plot elements but withholding information (for reasons I won't reveal yet) is just a tacky way to assert that your plot elements and twists are mind-blowingly unique and original without providing any kind of truth to the statement.

[peachy]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

I think it's pretty funny that when presented with the question "what's it about" you decide, rather than a solid, concise description of what the book is about, to go with 250 words describing the clever cliche-anti-cliched world you've come up with followed by cliched story elements.

Make sure you can operate under the constraints of convention and form before you decide to move on. It's like watching someone who wants to be a poet start off with free verse: they're like clumsy lovers, fumbling around in the dark, groping and sucking whatever orifice they can find.

I don't want to seem like I'm knocking your writing or your desire to publish and share what you've written, but I can pretty much guarantee that you should probably stick to not publishing or really think about sharing anything besides short stories until you've refined your craft enough to where you don't really give a damn about being published because more often than not until that point the writing is really really bad.

On top of that, how come writing can't be a really intensely personal, private thing? I always feel like a million and a half of all the English and MFA students I meet (it's twice as worse with other people) think that the entire point of writing and the whole creative process is for other people to see it. Maybe I'm just me, but most of the time I won't even share with people the names of my characters, let alone a god damn sentence of what I write.

[edit]Also if you really badly want to be published don't publish **** yourself, at least not to start. Send stuff to a local creative writing journal or newspapers or whatever, send your manuscript or whatever to a real publisher. Get rejected. When you finally do get published, then you'll have something you can actually celebrate about, something that you can actually show your friends and family because you can actually call it an accomplishment.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

When you finally do get published, then you'll have something you can actually celebrate about, something that you can actually show your friends and family because you can actually call it an accomplishment.

I want to rage at you right now. Because you are actually a very close-minded individual who actually cannot see the value in something he actually knows little about. Actually.

[Vanilla Iced Tea]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

Take a moment to picture the classis fantasy stereotype: Light (which is the province of the good guys) vs Darkness (the province of the bad guys). The good guys always triumph over evil, usually through the power of (cringe) love.

My book takes most of that crap and throws it out the window.

It's light vs. Darkness, but seen in a different way. Like most fantasy books, Light's currently dominant, and there're gods of light and a religion established around them. However, under the surface, The gods of light are greedy, vain, extremely territorial, and a host of other nasty things.

And the fire crystal is blue and the water crystal is red?

[Cutter De Blanc]

Re: I'm working on publishing a book!!

PLOT TWIST