  1. Corgz
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    Corgz Senior Member

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    Can i have a 1 self published book and still have a good chance with a publisher?

    Discussion in 'Publishing' started by Corgz, Apr 12, 2012.

    Okay, so,,, say i have a book and i send it to a self-publishing website and i order ONE jsut so i can see what it would look liek as a published book, and then start sending it to publishers...

    Would that ONE copy ruin my chances?

    Sorry if its a bit confusing...
     
  2. AmsterdamAssassin
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    AmsterdamAssassin Contributing Member

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    Once you self-publish something, you published it, so the First Publication Rights are gone. Plus, you don't need to publish something to see what it looks like as a book. At least with an e-book, you can format the manuscript yourself and load it through USB in your E-reader. If you want your manuscript to be accepted as an original work by a publisher, don't put more than a few pages online, or they'll consider it pre-published and in all likelihood reject it on that basis alone.
     
  3. Pythonforger
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    Pythonforger Carrier of Insanity

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    Bottom Line:Why would I publish a book that has already been published, and in such a format so that it is 500% cheaper, easy to pirate and more convenient to use?
     
  4. Edward M. Grant
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    Edward M. Grant Contributing Member

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    I believe the OP was talking about PoD, which is generally more expensive and lower quality than trade-published books. I'm pretty sure that you can upload your book to a PoD site like Createspace, buy a proof copy and not then distribute it anywhere so no-one else would ever be able to buy it.
     
  5. mammamaia
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    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    if you only want to see what it looks like as a book, you'd be much better off having it printed locally, than making it available as a pod, imo...

    but i don't know why you'd want to bother spending time, effort and money to do that... if you want to see it published, do what serious writers and the pros do, and query agents, or publishers directly, if it's not fiction, and wait till it's really published to see how it turns out...
     
  6. funkybassmannick
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    funkybassmannick Contributing Member

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    You made it sound like you were trying to publish the same book twice, but I'm wondering if you meant that you want to self-publish ONE book, and then traditionally publish a SECOND book. If that's the case, I don't think it will help or harm your changes of getting the second book published. The fact that you are "self-published" doesn't mean anything positive, since anyone can self-publish. Likewise, failure to sell your first book doesn't mean you're a failure as an author because maybe you're just bad at publicity, which is why you would want to go the traditional route.

    I recommend all new authors go traditional for many reasons. 1) You need to train yourself as a writer before you are ready to publish, and it is all too tempting to self-publish before your craft is fully developed, while an agent will better know if your work is ready for the market. 2) Self-publishing requires a lot of knowledge about how the market works. You will learn this best through the experience you gain while going traditional. 3) To sell books, you need to develop a name for yourself. Publishers know how to do this really well through promotion and advertising. It's easier to use them to develop your name and your fanbase, and then if you still want to self-publish you can do so on future titles.

    It sounds to me like you're just antsy to get your book in print. Patience, young grasshopper. Develop your craft for now and then find an agent. Use agentquery.com and make sure they are members of AAR.
     
  7. psychotick
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    psychotick Contributing Member Contributor

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    Hi,

    I'm partly with funkybassmannick, if you want to self publish one book and then wonder about the effect on publishing other books with trad publishers, the fact that you self published shouldn't matter so much. What will matter though is your sales.

    If you go the self pubbing route, you've fairly much committed yourself to it, so think carefully before you take the leap. Because the first thing a publisher / agent is going to ask you when you tell them you've already self pubbed one book is - how well did it sell? They won't care how it was pubbed, only how well it sold. And most self pubbed books don't sell hundreds of thousands of copies. In my case only two of mine are in the thousands, and I wouldn't dare take those sorts of numbers to an agent. So unless you sell massively, self pubbing will kill your chances of getting a trad pubblisher.

    But if what you actually want to do is just publish the same book, one copy for yourself and one through a trad publisher, you can do that through a local printer. Many are happy to do small print runs, especially those who deal with students. My thesis for example was an eight book run, which was just enough to put a couple of copies in a couple of academic libraries and keep another one for myself. It wasn't very dear either.

    Having said that, if you actually do go down the actual full self pubblishing of the book route, even for only one copy for yourself, no. An agent will not take on that sme book. Its already out there. Someone could copy it, steal it. They could assume that it's only sold one copy because no one likes it. They might look at a second book, but not that one.

    Cheers, Greg.
     
  8. Trilby
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    Trilby Contributing Member Contributor

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    Use your imagination as to what it will look/feel/smell like published and then try and nab an agent or publisher to bring your dreams to fruition.

    If you are unsuccessful at getting it published then get that one tangible book published.
     

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