Self-Publishing?

[ewlyn.livejournal.com]

Greetings everyone!  With my first novel in it's final revision, I have been trying to decide what to do next with it.

I noticed that the upcoming May issue of Talking Writing is going to be about self-publishing.  Previous issues have had a lot of interesting essays written by various writers on whichever topic they are covering.  I'm hoping the May issue will have some insight into if self-publishing is the way to go or not.

Does anyone here have any experience with self-publishing or/vs getting published through a publisher which they would be willing to share with me?  Or are there previous posts here which someone can point me in the direction of?  I'm new and still exploring this community.

It would be much appreciated.

Comments

[kassidy62.livejournal.com]

I think I know who you're talking about - the author who promos through blogs and such? Builds herself a relationship with the blog and the people on it? I wish I were a tenth as successful as she apparently is:)
Nowadays the author is expected to promote herself. Extasy does do promo and gets their authors reviews, but as far as I know, all the ebook places expect the author to self-promo. I did more in the beginning than I do now. It's very time intensive and doesn't always win readers the way you'd hope. Good Reads is popular, I think, as an author hangout, where you can publish reviews and link to blogs, etc. I submit my work to get reviews for my works, promote here and there and let it go (not what publishers want and expect of the author, I'm afraid). I have a website, a facebook account, and a twitter account. I've found almost no venue to appeal to Amazon's readers, personally. I seem to do better there than elsewhere, where I frequently sink like a stone:)

Worth noting that most epublishers send out their catalog to 3rd party sellers, where you'll get some exposure but less money.

Also worth noting is that I've heard that ebook publishers sometimes have much less in the way of edits than you'd expect. That was not the case for me at eXtasy - I was edited quite thoroughly.

[ewlyn.livejournal.com]

All of this is very valuable insight. Thank you.

I have heard a number of people mention that it is important to find someone to edit, edit, edit for you if you choose to self-publish or go with an ebook publisher. And then get someone to edit again before you submit the final draft. :)

It's nice to know that this is not always the case!

I will definitely be checking out eXtasy if I am not successful with publishing houses/decide to try the ebook route.