Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are quite a few positive aspects about this book. It does give you a comprehensive guide to the different forms you will need to file for different entities to get your company off the ground as well as a few marketing and distribution techniques. However, you will have to plow through close to 200 pages of pure unadulterated drivel to get to it.

I know this is a book for novices, in fact it was one of the reasons I picked it up, but it is written in such parochial language it almost bordered on insulting. The first half of the book is dedicated to explaining how difficult it is to be a self publisher and the different types of books that can be published (e.g. poetry, cookbooks, memoirs, etc...) It came off more as an extended guide a High School counselor would pass out to her students on career day than an actual guide for grown men to use to start their own publishing company.

It also should be noted that the book is geared towards the publication of non-fiction titles, especially when discussing marketing and distribution strategies. Many examples that were used would not transfer easily into the fiction literature arena. And I also found it quite disconcerting that the author referred to her own titles so frequently. It would not have been so confounding if it were not for the fact the titles she kept referring to were non-fiction titles geared towards the self-pampering of housewives and career women. She often referred to the seminars she attended on luxury cruise ships and the high end department stores where her books were made available. I could not help but wonder what would be the equivalent for fiction titles that revolved around inner city life, blue collar romances or hate crimes.

I appreciated the overall description of the nuts and bolts of the publishing industry and what is needed to actually publish a book under your own imprint. But this information was found much too late in this book and not terribly informative for self-publishers of fiction titles.

For what it's worth, this could have been condensed into a twenty page pamphlet and it would have had the same effect.

I guess I expected so much more. It went on and on about getting the book to look a certain way but hardly any content on marketing and distribution (which are MOST important).

The best book I ever got about self-publishing was FREE from Infinity Publishing who prints self-published titles (infinitypublishing.com). I have every self-published how-to book out there and this one, by far, has been the most informative, step-by-step, comprehensive, and simple book on this topic I've ever read.

This is a must-buy for almost any self publisher because of its excellent discussion of what goes into producing a book of commercial quality -- the subject in which most books on self publishing are weakest. In other words, read this book so you won't give yourself away as a self publisher! I suggest, though, that you supplement it with Morris Rosenthal's book Print-on-Demand Book Publishing, for a more advanced look at the possibilities in print on demand and online bookselling.

Where "The Well-Fed Self-Publisher" (Peter Bowerman) covers the narrow focus of self-publishing for profit-minded non-fiction writers in a great deal of depth, Jennifer Basye Sander's "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing" covers a lot more ground--but loses much of Bowerman's depth of detail in the process. There are plenty of reasons to self-publish, not all of which have to do with wanting to make a profit in a niche market that might not be received so well (or marketed so well) by a traditional publisher. For instance, you might want to preserve family history and memories for your loved ones. You might want to publish fiction, which operates by somewhat different rules than non-fiction (much of TWFSP could apply to fiction as well, however Bowerman makes no bones about the fact that fiction is harder to turn a profit from when self-publishing). You might have a novel idea for a gift product that loosely falls into the "publishing" milieu.

In these cases, you might find Sander's CIGSP to be an equal or better resource. She addresses her book to anyone at all who might wish to self-publish for any reason, and thus covers these aspects better than Bowerman does. There are some other areas in which the CIGSP differentiates itself from TWFSP. Sander comes from a more traditional publishing background originally, unlike Bowerman, and this informs her assumptions. Her marketing suggestions are more mainstream, where Bowerman believes in highly-targeted campaigns that take advantage of whatever niche your subject falls into in order to maximize your return on time investment. Where Bowerman keeps suggestions regarding the choices involved in publishing your book as simple as possible, Sander goes into a great deal of detail regarding everything from paper weights and colors to typefaces and even embossing choices--wonderful if you're planning on creating gift books or the like, but potentially confusing if you're going for the comparatively plain, practical books Bowerman assumes.

Sander's book does a good job of providing an overview of self-publishing and handling the myriad of reasons for getting into the business. However, if you're a non-fiction writer looking to make a serious profit, I think TWFSP would do a better job of telling you what you need to know.

This book was disappointing for several reasons.

Not enough real info as far as how to go about getting a book out there to sell, unless you're doing a stapled or comb-bound type of book you can have printed at just about any local copy shop.

No discussion about why you would want to trademark a title (she says she'll discuss it, but never does).

Endless mentions throughout the book of the author's other books, which, with the one exception of the first one she actually sold herself, add nothing to the education of the reader as far as self-publishing goes.

Too much time/paper spent on the pros/cons of self-publishing, instead of info on how to go about doing it.

There is a little useful information in this book, but borrow from the library first, before buying.

First - What's good: - I was going to be snide and leave this part blank but that is unfair. It does cover the Self Publishing industry quite broadly. It will give you an overview (only) of many aspects of book publishing (and other things).
Now - The problems: - As noted by another reviewer - almost insulting. ***NO NEW information I haven't seen in several other excellent books on this field.** **NO depth.** NO real desire or help for those wanting to thinking outside the box. VERY much focused on Non-Fiction! Very little appreciation of changes to the industry since about 2003 or 2004 - its a rapidly developing world - this book is either dated or the authors would prefer not to provide insight into those changes. The **feeling** I got was 1) this is how "It" has always been done; 2) that is how "It" should be done to be good, 3) if you try anything new "It" won't be very good and you will fail. It reminded me greatly of career planning guides given to sophmores and juniors in high school (in the 1960's and 1970's) which seemed to say - don't think outside the box and you will be very happy in your 8x8 cubicle.

There are MANY other EXCELLENT books an this subject - See Aaron Shepard, Dan Poynter, Morris Rosenthal, The Rosses - take your pick. I just wish I hadn't picked this.

I purchased this book over others because I have met the author at a conference. She's a nice, smart lady and is good with a crowd. I expected a lot of the book, and really didn't get everything I expected.

I did get a broad understanding of how the publishing world works. That was helpful. I would have liked more resources though - tools for marketing and distributing a book and examples of letters, press releases, etc would have been helpful. I felt like this guide skimmed too much of the surface without diving in deep.

Also, it is not as helpful to someone considering the POD route to publishing, as a lot of the book is focused on the aspects of publishing the POD's like iUniverse do for you. I would really like to see a book focused exclusively on succeeding with a POD publisher.

All in all, this is still a worthwhile read. It helped me understand publishing as a whole, and it made me question my decision to go with a POD. This was helpful - I do feel like I am a much more informed consumer (and prospective publisher) as a result of reading this book.

I checked this book out from the public library so I'm glad to return it. It doesn't appear like it's been revised recently and that's a good thing. They need to let this dinosaur remain extinct.

The author was very condescending and most of the book is telling you how tough it is to be a self-publisher, like she is trying to discourage you. I've now self-published 4 books and yes it's hard work but had I read this book first I might have not even bothered trying!

Plus according the the author she's only self-published twice--once in the 80's and another time where she was printing the books at Kinkos! So how exactly she was chosen to write a book about self-publishing is odd.

The self-publishing she writes about is old school. Doing it how she suggests would take you years and cost $10,000-$20,000! It makes sense she feels this way since she really comes from the old school big publishing house world where she worked as an editor and it takes an army of corporate drones to publish one book.

She did have some decent information on formatting and a press release template which was nice. It's also a good read to understand how crazy the old-school self-publishing and big publishing companies really are, that is why I rated it 2-stars.

But if you want to learn how to self-publish in the 21st Century, pass on this book. I suggest Aaron Sheppard's Aiming At Amazon or Morris Rosenthal's POD book.

"The Compete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing" has been my bible as I write "Tales of a Codependent Pet Owner; My Life with the Poodle from H _ _ _ and a Deaf Dalmatian."
Writing a book is a huge undertaking. Jennifer, with her sage advise and experience, coached me through the self-publishing process and all the "non-writerly" essentials to assure that my creative efforts were not in vain.
Don't self-publish without this book!

Cathy Turner
Author of (soon to be self-published) "Tales of a Codependent Pet Owner"

This book gave an adequate treatment of self-publishing but I expected more of the nitty-gritty coverage on the topic of preparing your book for publication. For those who are interested in the steps to self-publishing their book starting with a blank sheet of paper I invite them to read my recently published book (February 2011)Self-Publishing Your Book--A Nuts And Bolts Approach