Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Publishing a Novel
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Old 06-16-2016, 04:35 PM
Ashokan Ashokan is offline
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Barringer is a self publishing company, in that they charge you to publish your book. A traditional publisher never charges the author; they pay the author, often with an advance. 95+% of all the authors in The Villages self-publish, for several reasons:
1) They can't get a publisher or agent interested. There are just too many books seeking publishers, and even agents won't get interested unless you are famous or they know you or someone specifically recommended you.
2) Many authors are of retirement age, and don't want to waste 2-3 years with a traditional publisher. I use this term purposely. The agent (if you get one) will want a one year contract, during which he or she will attempt to market your book to a publisher. If not successful, you've wasted a year. If successful, the publisher could then take up to 2 years to produce your book (one year minimum)
3) They have had experience with publishers who produced their book, and then were disappointed by the total lack of marketing efforts by the publisher, plus the fact that royalties are only 10-15%. Most traditional publishers today do nothing to market books they publish. It's all up to the author. So, many authors figure, if they have to do this anyway, why not keep more of the profit (up to 70% or more with Amazon).

You have already made the decision to self-publish. Now the question is, with whom. The fees charged by Barringer are very high, and you can do this much cheaper with CreateSpace. I'm not familiar with Barringer, but will tell you that a lot of these self-publishers have contracts that a dog shouldn't sign. For example, they price the book so high that no one will buy it - except the author, at a "discount." Be very very wary. The business model for many of these companies is based on selling services and books to the author, not books to the general public. Google "Author Solutions" to see the kind of headaches authors have encountered with self -publishers.

I agree with the comments about professional editing, but it's expensive. Get the best editing you can afford, but don't expect to recoup the money you invest. Have no illusions with your self published book. The writing is the easy part, the marketing is the hard part.

You seem unaware of the myriad opportunities in The Villages to meet with other self-published authors, get advice from people with experience, and learn from their mistakes. There are 12 writers groups alone in TV, with others just outside TV. Your type of question comes up all the time. The umbrella organization is called Writers League of The Villages. It has a web site, Writers League Club - Home. WLOV members have a wealth of experience with self-publishing.

Good luck with your book.