... not sure where the above comments re self publishing costing thousands comes from... im delighted with Lulu and it did nt cost me a penny
to publish my first book Maggie's Shadow and now available everywhere in print and electronic form... i did all the work myself and when stuck asked for help and Lulu's response was
almost immediate and either the following day or the
next providing invaluable insight on how
to proceed ~ and free... i'm now marketing myself and have already agreed
to place my book on consignment at one indie bookshop and with
others ive yet
to call... my library opened their
doors to introduce me as a local writer and the local paper just printed the event... little by little its happening but it requires diligence and a willingness
to promote one's work... i learn something new everyday and plan
to submit my book
to many of the self published contests that are now available... i would recommend Lulu
to other authors tired of waiting for an agent
And then I remembered, I had an agent, a great agent, I wrote great books (so all the rejecting editors told me) and yes, you are right, self pub has given my stories a voice and an ear and the chance
to be read, when they otherwise would have still been gathering dust on my hard drive, yet, on the
other hand this is hard, REALLY HARD, it is SO hard
to find your way
to a readership as a SP, with limited funds (dwindling)... and the glimmer of trad pub — with their power
to splash your name around established circles of readers, and their ability
to secure a great number of reviews where, as a self pub,
doors have been slammed in my face — becomes temptingly shiny again, (it's like childbirth, you forget all the painful stuff with time)... and it all gets very tempting...
almost tempting enough
to consider sacrificing one work JUST one artistic premise for the trade off of visibility... and then perhaps, just perhaps THEN, my SP efforts will finally sprout wings... but then I hear you and
other say, it wasn't worth it, you'd never do it again, and I sigh... And then I wake up the
next morning and think of packing it all in, and going
to work for Walmart and steady shitty pay... lol And then along comes this blog post.