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Marketing subsidy press POD books

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Shelagh
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PostSubject: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:21 pm
"I use the term subsidy press rather than the more common vanity press because I don't think there's anything vain about an author who's put a tremendous amount of effort into writing a book wanting to see it published even if they have to subsidize the cost. I believe subsidy presses provide a valuable service for these authors, as long as they don't push rip-off promotions for advertising the book. There may be a difference between paying a subsidy publisher to promote a book and flushing the money down a toilet, but I don't know what it is."

This quote was taken from Morris Rosenthal's blog.

http://www.fonerbooks.com/2005/06/author-expectations-and-subsidy.html

From the same blog:

Quote:
One of the biggest subsidy publishers, iUniverse, recently went public with their numbers in a Publisher's Weekly story.Lee Goldberg did a nice write-up on his blog. The bottom line number that potential iUniverse authors should be aware of is that less than one half of one percent of the titles they published in 2004 sold more than 500 copies. That's pretty long odds to contend with. The average title sold less than 50 copies, including those printed for sale to the author.


Before you decide to use a subsidy publisher, ask yoursef this question, "Do I believe that I can be one of 0.5% (1 in 200) of authors who sell more than 500 books?"

Would you be in the list of top 100 out of 20,000 authors? Or would you be among the 19,900?
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E. Don Harpe
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PostSubject: Re: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:44 pm
Take out the top 5% of successful authors, the Rowlings and Kings etc, and don't use the figures for the subsidy presses, and see if you can find out the average number of books sold by authors who are published in the traditional manner. I think you will be surprised to find that the average is quite low, and that it isn't just subsidized books that don't sell.

T'would be interesting to see the figures, though, wouldn't it?
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lin
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PostSubject: Re: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:00 pm
Before you decide to use a subsidy publisher, ask yoursef this question, "Do I believe that I can be one of 0.5% (1 in 200) of authors who sell more than 500 books?"


There is another question actually. "Is what I will get out of having a book in print worth the amount of money I will spend to have it published?"
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P. Gordon Kennedy
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PostSubject: Re: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:11 pm
The odds that a major publisher will accept a manuscript are like 2% or less and even most books that are accepted don't sell thousands or millions of copies. For the avarage author, selling a million copies of their book just isn't going to happen. However, I believe everyone has the right to have their voice heard; every author has the right to publish their work. POD subsidy publishing has helped and continues to help thousands of authors realize their dreams of having their work published and being published is tremendously satisfing, especially after the amount of work that goes into writing a book, even if it's not destined to sell thousands and thousands of copies. Smile
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flashgordon
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PostSubject: Re: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Sat Apr 26, 2008 7:58 pm
Personally, I would either exhaust all of the publishing houses out there (including small or micro publishers) before I went with a subsidy press. And then I would rather go with Lulu or CreateSpace then a subsidy press.
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lin
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PostSubject: Re: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Sun Apr 27, 2008 12:41 am
Agreed.

In this climate of "options" I don't understand why people feel they are limited to people who charge them to publish books. Or those that charge so dearly.
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Malcolm
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PostSubject: Re: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:25 pm
My guess is that some folks race to Lulu and other self-publishing companies simply because they don't want to put in the time and effort required to find and agent and/or a mainstream publisher.

Or, perhaps they don't want to wait for a mainstream house to take 1-2 years to get the book out when Lulu will have it "out" within a few days. Perhaps it will also be out of contention for meaningful sales, reviews, awards and readers, but it will at least be a physical book.

Ultimately, I took the iUniverse route with "The Sun Singer" because I was tired of arguing with publishers about whether a book about a teenager would get any adult readership. But going to iUniverse wasn't the first stop on the road.

Malcolm
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lin
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PostSubject: Re: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:13 am
I am definitely aware of the time probelem with mainstream publishers.
I don't want to wait two years to get out on the rack. I want to do it in a month.

And yeah, I get REALLY tired of the wheeze you get from publishers and agents.
Most of these people I wouldn't have a cup of coffee with and if I did I'd probably end up bitch-slapping them.

I'd like the idea of going straight to the public. I've have noticed over the stretch of my checkered career, that when I can get one-on-one with the market, it treats me well. It's the intermediary morlocks I have trouble with.
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thehairymob
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PostSubject: Re: Marketing subsidy press POD books   Tue May 06, 2008 6:42 pm
I tried to get my childrens book Teddy the Bear published for several years as well as others but to no avail. That is why I went with Lulu and now I have two books published. The other one is a adult book called A Winter Journey. I don't expect riches and fame but to have someone read them is a good feeling. It's even better when the say they enjoyed what they read.Very Happy
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