/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.597412]

this sounds too good to be true, there has to be a catch. and how does one actually get popular on it, like selling work successfully?

[Anonymous No.597420]

Think of all the books you've bought in the last five years. How many of them were Lulu-printed books?

0.

You don't get popular by printing through Lulu. If you have to print on Lulu, it means you aren't good enough to have a real publisher who is willing to promote your book through regular distribution channels. And that means no one will buy your book because it sucks.

[Anonymous No.597432]

>>597420
so not worth it then?

[Anonymous No.597438]

>>597432
If you want well-printed, book-format versions of something you've written to give to friends or hand out in the streets, it's awesome. Cheap, good quality. If you think it's going to make you famous, you're wrong. As long as you're not expecting instant moneyz to come rolling in and just want to see your name and work printed between covers, you should do it.

[Anonymous No.597441]

>>597438
say I do want to be famous, what then?

[Anonymous No.597448]

>>597438
This.

A friend of mine sold 500 copies of her art book last year through Lulu, but then again she already has a small fanbase. Some of the other arthurs asked her to create illustrations to use on book covers and they would not go over $10-20 for it, which obviously speaks volumes about how many books they normally sell themselves.

>>597441
Start calling legitimate publishers and find an editor.

[Anonymous No.597450]

>>597441
then get published by an actual fucking publisher

[Anonymous No.597463]

>>597448
just call 'em with a pitch?

[Anonymous No.597467]

>>597463
Well yeah, basically. It helps a lot if you already have a draft of the book finished.

[Anonymous No.597471]

>>597467
mmhmmmm...okay, it's that simple. thanks

[Anonymous No.597474]

protip: lulu is a vanity publisher

if you try to get some shit published by a legit publisher and they find out you already put the stuff out there, the may reject it on the grounds that it was already self published

at any rate, they will be all like "LOL newfag" and think less of you

[Anonymous No.597475]

>>597463
what are ya 12? troll?

Write a blurb and send it to as many agents as you can in a SASE and hope one gets back with you. Then if agent likes your work, have agent sell your work. next step, make some $, though probably not alot, so REPEAT

[Anonymous No.597479]

ITT: nobody knows how submission packets work

jesus christ just google submitting a novel to a publishing house

your best bet is to get an agent first though

you best study this shit for years before you actually try anything though

[Anonymous No.597481]

This may seem ignorant, but I'll give it a go anyway. How exactly is the book business? The music business is obviously getting worse and worse because of the internet. It might be because I live in the middle of nowhere and my generation is against intellectualism, but it would seem like making money off of being a writer would be a horrible idea, even if what you wrote is somewhat good.

[Anonymous No.597483]

Any publisher that uses "Lightning Source Press" such as Lulu is a scam.

You will never find a book published by Lulu in a real bookstore, like Barnes and Nobel or something. It's because Lulu actually makes it less profitable for book stores to carry their publications. Also, Lulu publishes a lot of shit, and book stores know this. When someone comes to Boarders or something wanting them to carry their book published from Lulu, all they think is "oh great, another talentless moron who couldn't get a real publisher to touch their stupid shit. I bet it's got spelling errors everywhere."

I worked an an independent book store, and a girl in middle school came in asking if we would carry her book in our store. We couldn't because (1) it's not profitable, since if a book doesn't sell within a certain period of time, we return it to the publisher, and you can't do that with Lulu books, (2) young adult books regularly have a standard price of about $10, and her book cost three times that much, (3) the book's dimensions were simply too big to fit in the Young Adult book shelves; not only was it 500+ pages in length, but it was too tall to fit on the shelf, and (4) publishers are supposed to root out the garbage from the publishable stories, but publishers like Lulu makes the book store owners make those incredibly awkward decisions with the publisher right in front of you.

[Anonymous No.597490]

>>597483
>with the author right in front of you.

Fixed. When people talk about lightning source press, I fly into a rage, and I started mistyping things.

[Anonymous No.597501]

>>597481
the average writer (novelist) makes less than minimum wage if you calculate earnings to work hours, only the famous ones get to make a living. a popular maxim (don't know if it's true) is that there are more professional baseball players in america than career writers

as for how "dirty" the business is, book publishing is fairly safe compared to the shady dealings of the music industry, screenwriting, etc.

organizations like the AAR etc. can ensure that your stuff doesn't get stolen by dishonest agents, and that they meet certain criteria

I've actually been reading how-tos/agent/publisher mags+websites for years and most would be writers go about the business all wrong

vanity publishing like lulu, where YOU pay for the books to be printed, will get you nowhere

[Anonymous No.597523]

>>597501
Yes, but if you are putting all those hours into your work then it technically isn't work. I don't think anyone would honestly put all their time into trying to become a "career writer" if they didn't have a strong passion for it.

[Anonymous No.597538]

>>597523
sure, you can't be a writer if you don't have the passion for it

but passion doesn't pay bills, money does

publishing companies don't keep midlist writers anymore so if you don't hit some bestseller lists within your first five years, your career is over

you could whore yourself out as a ghost, blogger, whatever, but all dreams of commercial success will be vaporized

[Anonymous No.597578]

>>597538
>publishing companies don't keep midlist writers anymore so if you don't hit some bestseller lists within your first five years, your career is over

That's true with the big five publishers. But an independent publisher is willing to publish great literature, even if the author's track record isn't so great.

[Anonymous No.597600]

>>597578
my point was that you won't make a career out of it that way

[Anonymous No.597608]

How do I go about supporting up and coming writers? I get most of reading recommendations from various top 100 lists or Amazon recommendations..

[Anonymous No.597610]

>>597600

Maybe not a career where your day's bread and water depend on it, but aren't independents also less strict on deadlines?

There are authors who's barely a name until a hit to their works a decade or so later.

[Anonymous No.597617]

The only new author I've been supporting of late is Robyn Young.

Loved Brethen and Crusade.

[Anonymous No.597639]

Just wanna throw this out there: I bought a lulu-published book a month or two ago. It's a copy of The King in Yellow, the play, as written by Thom Ryng and performed at the Capitol Theater back in 1999.

[Anonymous No.597653]

>>597608
Find an independent press and buy books from them. They care more about quality writing than most of the big name publishers who only care about celebrity memoirs like "Going Rogue" and Dan Brown books. I found out about Soho Press a few months ago and I read their most recent title (pic related) and really enjoyed it.

[Anonymous No.597692]

>>597479
i see this as the best option

[Anonymous No.597701]

Unless you already have some sort of fanbase or market, self publishing is only good for friends or family or little things like that. My friend sells her sketches and artbooks using self publishing and usually makes a couple hundred during the initial releases.

Googling pros and cons of self publishing, guide to self publishing, etc, will also tell you a lot.

Also, look up any self publishing company and then "scam" and you will be treated to a delightful host of "My book sold a bunch of copies and *insert company here* has yet to pay me as their TOS says they will..." so even if you make decent sales, you might get screwed that way.

I used a self publishing company (it was a much smaller one than Lulu or whatever the Amazon affiliated one is called now for a third grade class I ended up subbing for almost the whole year after the teacher broke her hip - it was for fun, cute, not too much in terms of cost, and made nice copies of the stories they wrote.

[Anonymous No.598663]

bump