sharing the same dreams

[lauralh]

• You know what I can't do? Stuff I think is stupid just for the irony value.

• I can't stop thinking of the Sex and the City essay where Carrie keeps going over to Big's because he has AC and it ruins their relationship for a while.

• I realize that most publishing companies are simply subsidiaries of the big houses in NYC, but there are quite a few independent houses that still sell widely. My question is, how hard would it be to start one up? What strategy would one use? Because god, would that be a dream situation, running a publishing company with my friends. Maybe that's too ambitious; maybe a PNW version of Vice crossed with Something Awful is more like it. Or just take one of the small publishers in this city and make it bigger, by hiring a couple of editors from Random House or Tor or something. I'd probably need like a million dollars, though, any takers?

Comments

[thisgirliknow.livejournal.com]

Depends, would you publish my book?

"How to be Friends with a Gay Man"

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

probably so, that's the whole point. publishing books, i mean.

[suxdonut.livejournal.com]

dood ive just been reading 'sex and the city'...haha it's rad. i love 'all too true' tales that involve sex and dating...gossip is good even if its strangers!

lets do it, baby

[bythesea.livejournal.com]

it cant be as hard as it was lets say 100 yrs ago, when it was all done by hand, all you need is a computer and a good printer and a lot of paper, and then go get a loan.

[bewing.livejournal.com]

I know one guy who is publishing (mostly just as a gift to the world -- although it is $6 a "book") one author's work, via email, in PDF format.

I also know an author (Carol L Dennis, Dark Horse Publishing) who is self-publishing all her own work, and selling it through amazon, and through all the other distributors.

So apparently it can be done for a lot less than a million. The equipment you need to print professional quality books in small runs is available. It's just that you have a lot of competition already.

[bewing.livejournal.com]

Oh, by the way, Carol Dennis also provides full publishing & distribution services to anyone who wants to pay for a run of books to be printed. Unfortunately, her website seems to be down currently, or I'd point you to her. If you want, I could give you an email address (a couple years old) that may still work.

[bewing.livejournal.com]

Oh, jeez. Bad me. It's Pale Horse Publishing.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

er
google returns Child Custody Books ?

[bewing.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Is THAT why she never responded to my critiques & suggestions? Looks like she's going through a messy divorce! She's actually a Fantasy & SciFi writer (mostly Fantasy). That's probably why she killed her old website, too. I guess she's kinda busy, then. ;)

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

I think self-publishing is kind of bullshit personally. I want someone else to take care of the PR for me you know?

wellll....

[discogravy.livejournal.com]

you could self-publish and hire a PR firm.

[bitchness.livejournal.com]

Dammit. Your post forced me to get "If I had a Million Dollars" stuck in my head. Gah.

[bixxy.livejournal.com]

PR and marketing are inescapable, even for people who publish with the big established houses. Large publishers decide which books are going to sell well before the books ever even hit the shelves. An author publishing with a large house does him- or herself a huge favor by undertaking his or her own marketing campaign. Otherwise the book sells a few thousand copies and then goes out of print, never to be seen again.

Starting your own publishing company is frightfully easy. Really. I started a magazine and watched it take off with a life of its own in no time flat, and killed it after about five years. It's scary how easy it is.

The biggest expenses in publishing are printing the finished product, and marketing the finished product. Read Dan Poynter's book about starting your own publishing business. He tells it like it is, including about what it's really like for authors who publish with large publishing houses.

I'm convinced that self-publishing is the way to go, since an author really has to do his or her own marketing no matter what. I figure I might as well self-publish, do a bunch of the marketing work that I was going to do anyway AND keep ALL the money instead of little or none of it.

[bewing.livejournal.com]

I would suspect, however, that most distributors and big retailers wouldn't deal with a self-publisher who didn't already have a track record with the retailer or distributor. Catch-22?
On the other hand, the internet is all about selling direct -- and eliminating the traditional middleman.

[a-muse-d.livejournal.com]

that is the ideal career. working for a publishing house as a proofreader or some sort of editor.