Customer Reviews

The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote and Sell Your Own Book (3rd edition)

5 star:		(119)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I first saw the title of this book, I thought the subject matter had to do with publishing your book through a POD publisher or a vanity press. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is a basic instruction book on how to become your own publisher and the cost-effective means of publishing your book. (In fact, Tom & Marilyn Ross devote only a few pages to PODs and vanity presses, saying that if you are looking to sell your book to the general public, these options may not be the best choices.)

This book takes you from the beginning of setting up your own publishing business (which is needed even if you plan on publishing only you own works), the different requirements for publishing a book (like obtaining an ISBN and EAN as well as copyright and Library of Congress registration), finding and selecting a book printer, how to go about distributing you books (which you can do yourself or by going through traditional distributers), and even how to market your book.

While a good starter book that whets you appitite about the book publishing industry, it falls far short of providing you everything that you need to know in order to do this properly. The authors constantly make reference to the Literary Market Place; a book that, while it is available here on Amazon, comes with a hefty ($) price tag. And while they do provide some inforamative lists, they admit that the lists is not complete and refer you back to the LMP.

The book does discuss e-publishing, but only in a scratching-the-surface kind of way. I had to look at other areas to find the information about e-publishing only to discover that I may not want to bother with that at this time.

The most disappointing aspect of the book that I found was that most of it (about 70%) is dedicated to trade or self-help publishing. If the book you are planning to publish is a fictional novel, this is going to be of little help to you. When I realized that a topic being discussed was geared for trade publications, I just skipped the topic to save me time.

To summarize, this is a great book if you are a beginner and want to explore the publishing world. It's even a great book if you are planning to publish a trade publication. However, I would recommend that if you have any knowledge or if you are seriously pursuing self-publishing you may want to look at other books in this topic to supplement this one, especially if you are planing on publishing works of fictions.

As of January 29, 2004: I had previously rated this book at three stars. After reading a number of other books, I have since upgraded this to 4 stars. The reason for this is that this book has been more complete compared to the other books that I have read, plus Tom and Marilyn Ross continue to provide assistance to others online. I am still withholding a star because I think they should have addressed fictional works as much as they did trade books.

Given the solid-five star rating in the Amazon reviews, I expected this book to be a real gem. Instead, while this book has some helpful tips, much of the book is composed of:
-common sense advice;
-self-promotion by the authors, including references to other books or organizations affiliated with the authors;
-no-brainers such as "use the internet for research", "try a search engine called 'Google'", etc.; and
-home-spun "witticisms" or "words of wisdom" in the form of quotes from various authors & publishers.

To wrap up, this book is decent, and probably worth the money and time to buy it and read it, but you need to wade through a bunch of verbiage to find the parts that are interesting and relevant to you.

Tom & Marilyn Ross are experts at promoting themselves, and it shows throughout their book. They take every opportunity to hawk other books published under their label, and their consulting services, etc. There is some useful information in this book, but you have to wade through a lot of silliness to find it. Here's a ridiculous tip from the Ross's: "While at the airport, request that an announcement be made for [your name], author of [your book title], call..." I'm sure that's how Tom Clancy got started <sarcasm>.

This book is primarily targeted to writers of non-fiction. Logical, since non-fiction fares much better in self-publishing endeavors. About their biggest advice for novelists is to read Lawrence Block's "Writing the Novel." Along with such brilliant insights as "Good description elevates a book from the pack." Duh.

The authors are also nauseating in their praise of Amazon, no wonder Amazon gave them a favorable review. A friend of mine self-recorded (i.e. "self-published") a CD and listed it on Amazon. It was a good, professional product, but she found Amazon's service to be almost non-existent.

Dan Poynter's book on self-publishing might be a better buy. The truth is, POD technology is changing this field so quickly, it's hard for anyone to stay up to date. If you must read the Ross's book, get it from your local library. Save your money for a writing class, or perhaps a marketing class at your local SBA office or community college.

"The Complete Guide to Self Publishing" is by no doubt valuable source of information to any self-publisher. It embraces the whole area of modern self-publishing: the today's publishing scene, start-up considerations to get you off on the right foot, creating a quality product that attracts buyers, PR issues, selling books the usual and unusual ways, nontraditional venues for generating more sales.

The book gives example of properly-fillied copyright registration, ISBN application, and other essential forms, gives the self-publishing "project plan", gives the list of most valuable organizations and information sources for self-publishers in the U.S.A. and Canada. It also lists selected book manufacturers, marketing contacts and other helpful information, including structured bibliography/recommended reading and glossary and definitions of widespread publishing acronyms.

When I first filled my copyright registration form, I made lot of mistakes, and the processing of this form has been delayed half a year due to these errors. I could have avoided this if I've followed the precepts given in this book.

The only thing that the 4th edition of this book misses is a reference to Internet-based discussion lists, which is also a valuable resource for self-publishers.

Please note that the book is big. Nevertheless, the price is surprisingly low, comparing to other self-publishing manuals. I would however recommend "How To Start And Run A Small Book Publishing Company: A Small Business Guide To Self-Publishing And Independent Publishing by" Peter I. Hupalo prior to reading "The Complete Guide to Self Publishing".

I've just self-published my first book, Why Struggle? life istoo short to wear tight shoes. I would never have considered thisoption if I didn't this treasure of a book to reference. My favorite section is the outline in the back of the book that details what to do in each phase of the process. Tom and Marilyn have created an amazing book that covers everything imaginable for self-publishers. I've only implemented some of their suggestions and I've sold over 300 books in less that two months. Because of this book,my dream has because a reality and it wasn't a painful process.

Maybe it's because I had already read Dan Poynter's book as well as How to Publish and Promote Online and several others, but I was pretty disappointed in this book. I found very little new information.
I wish I had passed on this one.

On a shelf of reference books about self-publishing, I find this volume to be not only very substantial (400+ pp) but extremely useful as a practical reference. As others have noted, however, it is in some particulars out-of-date. While the examples provided using real cost figures may be helpful, one must bear in mind that the numbers may no longer be relevant. As others have said, the authors ought to give us an updated version. There are, for instance, no index references for "digital" or "PDF," but the authors say, "There is a growing interest and activity in electronic prepress. Many manufacturers are working out the bugs. . . . " Does anyone do it any other way anymore?

The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing is a powerful resource for all aspects of self-publishing from the beginning idea to having the book in hand, to marketing and selling it yourself. It's jam packed with hints and lessons learned over time-I think-by trial and error and Tom and Marilyn have come out the winners. I especially liked the way they back up each chapter with hard facts, examples of how to do it and stories of those who've made their book a success like all self-publishers want to. Like Marilyn says "Keep at it. If one idea isn't a hit try something else." Web sites, Wisdom and Whimsey at the end of each chapter shows you new sites to check out, gives you thought-provoking quips and summarizes the theme of the chapter. The endless contacts, rich appendixes and web sites are well worth your purchase of the guide. This resource is a must for any author or self publishers desk and library.

No other book provides the scope and depth of coverage of this book. However, the edition I read was dated 1994, and was probably written a year earlier. Many of the references are out of date, or incomplete in that they do not provide current e-mail or website addresses -- if at all. Nor does the book take into account fully enough the revolution in the internet that has taken place since the pub. date. The Rosses owe their many admirers an update.

This is one of two invaluable books I've been using since I self-published. My book is just out and I already have local a dozen national reviewers, TV programs and magazines lined for reviews, interviews and articles. And I am just getting started. Need I say more? Read it! Do it! Done!