Customer Reviews

Start Your Own Self-Publishing Business

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is well organized and the writing is fairly smooth, but it is basically second hand material. You're better off reading one good book about publishing and one good book about self-publishing. There's lots of material here gathered from various self-publishers, gurus and organizational heads in the field, but the author has obviously never self-published and really does not give you a good sense of it. Some glaring errors: the assumption that every self-publisher either lays out his own text in Adobe (InDesign at this point) or Quark Xpress or hands over a Word document to a printer who typesets it for a fee. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way and thousands of self-publishers use the services of typesetters or book designers to format their work before they ever approach a printer.
Other gaffes: 1. a complete misunderstanding of the difference between POD printers (which any self-publisher can use as an alternative to offset printing) and POD publishers like Xlibris.
2. A statement that endcaps and dumps are only given to big publishers with best- selling titles. Didn't anybody clue this guy to the fact that the big chains charge publishers for those endcaps and that if a group of books with a theme (romance for Valentines Day or vacationing in summer) is mounted on the endcaps a bunch of publishers will be paying some segment of the price for that exposure?
The book is well organized and has several worksheets but this is like reading a travel guide to Japan written by someone who has interviewed 12 travel writers and read up on basic research. Most of the information is correct, but it's just not the same as a book by someone who has actually visited Tokyo and Kyoto.

I have to say that most of the time I'll disagree with the one guy who thinks a book sucks when many others have 4- and 5-star reviews. However, unfortunately, this wasn't the case for this book.

I should have avoided the book based on the fact that it was published by Entrepreneur Press. I've had plenty of doses of their extremely dry-as-dust home-business manuals (that they sell from their magazine) and this book was no exception. Not only was this book boring but it offered little useful content.

It's interesting because I've been looking into self-publishing for years and, out of everything I read, the ONLY thing that gave me the most information was a book that I got for FREE from Infinity Publishing (infinitypublishing.com) who prints self-published books.

I accidently came across this book at our local Barnes & Noble. The cover really caught my attention and as I leafed through the book I just knew that I had to own it.

Having been dissappointed with other similiar books, it was refreshing to buy a book written by three authors who really have mastered their craft.

If you want to get into self publishing, this is the right book for you. You won't be dissappointed.

If you are serious about entering the self publishing field, then this is the right book for you. It is very complete, well written and obviously the authors have actual experience int he field.

I have bought other books about self publishing by supposedly experienced self publishers and was wholley dissappointed. One clue should have been that those books are not available in book stores or libraries. This one is. Never buy sight and unseen and good luck trying to get a refund with those other books!

The collaborative effort of Rob Adams and Terry Adams, Start Your Own Self-Publishing Business: Your Step-By-Step Guide To Success is a no-nonsense instructional guide to the nuts and bolts of getting a self-publishing business off the ground. Individual chapters clearly outline outsourcing options, the potential of e-publishing, identifying one's target market, dealing with taxes when creating a publishing house, bookkeeping and production costs, advertising and marketing, and more. This is a truly first-rate primer for anyone seriously considering entering the highly competitive, exceptionally volatile, and technologically evolving world of self-publishing.

As a non-neophyte self-publisher, I have read several books like this. By a fair margin, Dan Poynter's offers the greatest value. This Entrepreneur Magazine book provides an adequate survey of the various steps you need to take to self-publish a book. But the authors lack the insight and humility that people who have actually gone through the travails of self-publishing would have. Instead, it relies on interviews with a scant four self-publishers, whose comments pop up in chapter after chapter. It reveals to you that getting a review in the New York Times Book Review could sell 10,000 of your books, then lets its favorite interviewee note a few pages further on that it's not likely that the Times will decide to review your self-published book, but send it anyway just in case.

Listen to me: trying to get reviews for a self-published book can be an exceedingly frustrating task. You can waste a lot of time, effort, and copies to no avail. Better advice: sift carefully through all the lists in this book but especially in Poynter's to find the few potential publications that have a real interest in your subject, then focus on them. No harm in sending a press release to everyone else, as is suggested in this book. And still your best shot at a solid review will come from personal connections or other unfair advantages you might have. Or sheer luck.

The underlying point: a self-publishing business makes little economic sense in the vast number of cases, partly because there are too many self-publishers, who just add to the amazing glut of books of all kinds that is driving the organized publishing industry crazy. For every success story, I will bet there are scores of disappointed self-publishers who sell a few dozen copies of their books every year. So what readers really need is not another book that tells you how to self-publish a book but rather one entitled: "Turn Your Crummy Self-Publishing Business into a Successful Independent Press".

Not easy.

This book was one of the first I purchased once I decided I was going to self-publish several non-fiction books in my professional field. It is a very good basic summary of the wide range of topics that you must become at least familiar with should you decide to enter the field of self-publishing.

But that is what it is, a start. I learned a great more detailed information by reading the books of several key authors in the field of self-publishing such as Aaron Shepard and Morris Rosenthal.

Still, this book was good because it helped me realize what specific areas I needed to learn more about.

Kevin Sivils

This is an excellent resource for anyone thinking of self-publishing a book, with good practical and technical advice. The chapter on choosing a printer is particularly good, as this is an area where it is easy to be overwhelmed by all the details and specifications. Even though we decided to go with a Print-on-Demand option, it is good to know these details, and it also gives a basis for comparing the various POD companies. The section on promotion and marketing is also very good.

The book also has several checklists and sample documents that have been very helpful to me in publishing my own forthcoming book, and I ordered a copy for a colleague, who has also benefited from it. I highly recommend this book.

I purchased several books on this topic. The information is helful but I find out that there is a lot more to learn the more I read. You may want to explore what other useful information you may find online. After reading on this topic I find same or similar info in the books. For instance: That POD is not going to be very profitable since, it prints only few copies at a time. (Also how will you know that the POD company is not cheating you and is accurately reporting purchases and your reinbursement?)
The dissapointment comes from the fact that many of these books tell you that if you want to start your own publishing company, you would need at least $5000 and then some more. POD then is the cheapest way to get your book out and yet as I read in these books, the least profitable since, you would have minimal control over the price etc. I guess you will have to find out what works for you.

This may not be the perfect book on starting a publishing business, but it is a great reference and definately worth owning. Especially if you are Really starting out. This is one of several books that I reference often. Mine is full of bookmarks for the pages I go back to often. It's an easy book to read and to use. It's one that will stay on my shelf for a long time. When getting my first book published, it was a great help.

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