How badly was I procrastinating today when I had homework to do?

I decided I'd rather publish a book that I'd written years ago but never really finished up instead. It's called The Zone: A Tale of Epic Retrospection, and now it has an ISBN number and I can even list it on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble for free if I want to.

I'm not saying you should buy it... in fact I'm not expecting anyone except for myself to... the cover is a bit blurry and I've already found 3 small typos that I should probably go back and fix. Just thought I'd document how easy it is to publish a book. All you really have to do is upload a PDF, choose your book style, design yourself a front and back cover. Set your selling price, and you're good to go. I think Trevor and I both have the same proud feeling to be a "published author/artist", even if nobody is going to actually buy the thing.

PS: Yoda, I know you want a physical copy of A Golden Hope in true novel form... so either get it published, or I'll buy the rights to it off of you and do it myself, because I want one too :P.


Posted by Yarcofin Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:28:52 (comments: 6)
 
Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:37:33
So did the illustrations get done, or...?  The cover is good except for the subtitle which looks like it was put on there with MS Paint, and there's some off-black surrounding the characters.

I've been aware of Lulu, and it seems like an easy way to get a bound copy of something.  A Golden Hope I consider unfinished.  I've reread it a couple times, and there are areas where it is simply inadequate.

My main difficulty with getting back to it is that I have a lot of backstory and afterstory that I don't know what to do with.  My preference is a re-write (though the story would remain largely unchanged) as I am simply a much better writer now that when I started (I was far better when I finished the first time than when I started).
 
Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:36:38
Congrats! That's great to hear. I hope it does well.

I have a few questions:

1. Did you self-publish? Or did you go through another publisher? Also, is your work fully creator-owned?

2. How did you get in published and what did you have to do to get a ISBN number so you can sell it on Amazon or Barnes and Nobles?

I'm also trying to publish a graphic novel. A lot of it is done but I'm having a tough time finding a publisher. And I really don't know how to publish on my own like what you did on putting it on Amazon/Barnes, etc.

So any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks.
 
Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:47:10
Congrats!

Where can I find a torrent of it? Nyaa

I don't want tos upport the beast!

 
Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:36:02

1.  Technically it is self-published, but Lulu Inc acts as the publisher on your behalf to interact with Amazon and the other retailers. 

     You retain all rights to your work. You own the copyright. You get to set the price for your book. Your pay is classified as royalties since Lulu is printing the book for you. After you submit your book, it calculates based on your options/number of pages what the cost will be, then you can mess around with the profit you want to achieve. For my book, I think it was something like $7 to cover printing, $3 profit for me, $1 profit for Lulu. For eBooks it is the same, but there is no printing cost so you just get 80% of sales.
     You have the option to sell your book through another publisher or independently, as long as your price is equal or greater than the price on Lulu.        You have the option to pull your book off the site at any time.


2. Basically you just upload it and anything is accepted, nothing needs to get approved. You have to make a copyright page which is pretty easy, just copy stuff from another book but make it relevant to yourself. Then you need to design a front and back cover, or use one of their pre-made ones. It's all customizable.

You do not need to get an ISBU, but Lulu provides you with an ISBN free of charge, as long as you agree with their ISBN Agreement here: 
http://www.lulu.com/en/help/isbn_faq#lulu_isbn_agreement
 
Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:08:18
Thanks for the info.

I guess it's safe to go with them then. As long as I get to own the copyright and have full creator-ownership, than that's all I really need.


 
Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:57:18
I looked on amazon but got:
    Your search "The Zone: A Tale of Epic Retrospection" did not match any products.
help please
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