Hope you’re all having a lovely Monday
A short update on our 3 year pub celebration contest… submissions are closed now and we’re in the process of sorting and then will decide who gets included with how many poems… this will take a while – so please be patient – we will keep you in the loop as we go… smiles
Really looking forward to this
After collaborating with blueflute and Mike Jewett in the last two anthologies it will be a big adventure to do the publishing ourselves this time – first steps in a new land – that’s exciting.
So we will figure things out and by the way are curious if any of you have experience with self-publishing their poetry already.
If so, it would be interesting to hear how it went for you – the tools you used – the whole process – did you do some marketing?
How did you get your book – new and bright and shiny out onto the market?
On which platforms are you selling them? Paper or Kindle version as well?
Care to share?
The comments are open and we’re eager to learn from you
dVerse 
Soooo exciting! Well, my local Writer’s Group is publishing ( I did not really do anything except submit my own work along with the rest of the members, sorry) through Amazon and has both the paper and kindle version. As I understand it took a bit of time formatting but was accomplished with relative ease by one of our wonderful members. I think it is coming out within the week. I wish I could offer more, just thrilled to be included in my first published work. So excited to watch this endeavor at dVerse unfold. With prayers for all the details, Dawn
smiles.. thanks for the prayers… and i’m so excited as well
I did self publish my Red Shoes Artist’s Book Project, I did it with LuLu. Maybe it was just me, but I was a lot of work, but it turned out beautiful. I haven’t tried to sell it. I wanted to publish it as a thank you for the artists who participated. I have been told they have a template now, and it might be easier?
great to hear that it turned out beautiful – then it was def. worth the work
I self published my book, FM Ghost. It was challenging at first, but I was very pleased with the way it turned out. I used Createspace, so the book is for sale exclusively via Amazon and I think some other online book sellers. I did not make an ebook — that was a whole other endeavor I never got around to!
do you know if it’s available in other countries as well? think that is important as for example i cannot order from amazon.com but only from amazon.de
Yes, when you get near to the final stages of publishing you are able to select the countries where you want it to be available.
And to clarify, Createspace does give you the option for ebooks as well (Kindle) … but I found I was faced with several reformatting issues after the physical book was formatted to my liking. It seemed too much trouble for me at the time.
cool… maybe we go with a real book for this one – one adventure may be enough – ha – have to talk to bri – just checked out createspace and it sounds not bad at all
And I can only order from Amazon.fr
My experience was the same as Steve’s. I too used CreateSpace through Amazon. I did look at blurb and Lulu but it was the cheaper option. Relatively easy to use although it does take some time pulling it all together. I also opted not to do the e-book version because of formatting issues and personally liking poetry to be read from a book. I might rethink that next time though. If you have any questions happy to help. 🙂
Here’s the link for what you have to do before you can sell a book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=13685551
Fireblossom has published two books of poetry by her, Hedgewitch and Mama Zen (plus two books just by her.) I think she used some kind of program that Amazon offers, but I’m afraid I don’t have the details. You might check with Hedge.
*Hugs* to you all.
ah thanks dani – that is helpful – will check out the link and good idea to check with hedge as well
I’m really looking forward to seeing the completed project! I have not self-published…yet (smiles), so I have no advice for you on that front, but I would highly suggest that in addition to Kindle, that you also publish on Kobo (and yes, I’m being selfish here…I have a Kobo, but not a Kindle). Just my 2 cents! 🙂
never heard about kobo… have to check that out…smiles
I think it’s probably a bit more common in Canada then elsewhere…I believe it is part of the Chapters/Indigo group.
KOBO is our Canadian equivalent of Kindle ~ If this is not possible, then include Amazon.ca for the international order ~
Even in Australia, I love me my Kobo. (Though I also have an iPad with a Kindle app, iBooks and Google Play.)
Cool
yes – hey – i just saw your wedding pic on fb with the on sale sign on your shoes… so good… smiles
🙂 thirty years ago today
now that is a reason to celebrate… where’s the champagne… smiles
tonight 🙂
Yes .. I saw the pics as well, so I say congrats here too 🙂
thanks – saw your kayak pic – that was “COOL”
🙂 or cold
Hi.. I would also love to know about self-publishing.. I love ebooks.. but sometimes a real book is more fun.. The good think with Kindle is that you can read it on so many platforms.
Tonight I was at the local library and listened to a real publisher, and it was fun as he told us about some books and experiences… that was a really different process.. Next monday I start my course in creative writing 🙂
oh – very cool – both – the creative writing course and being able to listen to the publisher… and if i have the choice, i prefer real books over e-books – though i have some poetry books on my iphone – so i can read a poem or two while i line up on the supermarket check-out
Ha.. I read a lot of novels on my reader.. 🙂 but reading them in the queue in the supermarket would be novel..
Good one, Bjorn
I self-published “Jacaranda Rain” on Amazon’s CreateSpace. It’s quite easy to use–clear directions all along. Poetry is not easy to format, though. I’m not sure where I have the instructions. The beauty of CreateSpace is that it will automatically convert your document to Kindle. I started with Kindle–much more complicated. My downfall as I’ve mentioned is marketing. I’ve done a poor job of promotion. Very poor. I just don’t like it. If I could afford to, I would hire a publicist, but that’s not in my budget right now. I’m in the process of editing my second novel on CreateSpace. I ordered the proof copy and strongly recommend doing that for the final edit. It makes it so much easier.
I agree — self marketing is very difficult!
yes… i agree as well… self-marketing is difficult
cool news on the possibility to convert a document to kindle..
I have bought one of your books on Kindle and will write a review as soon as I have read it.. 🙂
thanks so much, Bjorn
As a former independent poetry publisher (within Australia, in the days when there were only printed books) I concur that marketing (or what we used to call distribution) is the hardest part. And poetry in the English-speaking world is such a niche market anyway. I think, for the dVerse anthologies, at least there are so many individuals here who can promote it through their own blogs and networking platforms, and review it on Goodreads and Amazon. Also, I suggest our esteemed publishers look for ways to advertise to public libraries.
Hi Claudia,
I have done both. Three ways actually.
1. Sent my manuscripts FROM THE WRITTEN STONE and HIKAYAT to a publisher. They liked them. And published. And nominated both for awards here and there. The process was simply straight forward. They edited. Did the layout. which I had a heavy say in it as I commissioned illustrations myself. I earn royalty from this book.
2. For Srikandi, a government agency commissioned the work. I wrote, hired an editor, commissioned illustrations, did the layout with an agency and supervised printing with a local printer. This is my most successful book, financially.
3. For NAGA, I went to XLibris Australia. I wanted to try self publishing and in Malaysia, e books are still pretty much unchartered territory. I personally commissioned illustrations for cover and inside, had a designer in India (a good friend) do the cover design. I went through all pages and had two editors go through the book. The book is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble as well as XLibris. They are efficient and helpful but pricey. Marketing is through my talks, Facebook, twitter. I am currently lobbying for the book to be included in all Malaysian libraries. And I am doing a book launch end of the year. XLibris has reasonably good support in terms of videos, and reach to South East Asia. But one needs to be wary and careful not to go overboard with their marketing packages.
I will not try self publishing novels again, not because such publishers are not good, but I have offers to publish my work now from traditional publishers. And I actively send manuscripts to manuscript competitions. Have had some small success with this so I will continue doing this until I get one published by winning a manuscript contest!
But I am sure I will self publish my poems next year, I am compiling them – perhaps with XLibris or Lulu.
All the best with the anthology 3rd Year. Sorry I missed it, my new career as a PR consultant is not giving me anytime for much poetry at the moment!
For all my books, my whole family is involved one way or the other. My mother being a history major, heads research, my sisters do first edit, my daughters give input on how it feels to teen or young adult readers because the whole idea is to reach out to the next generation. Inas my second daughter did the cover illustration for NAGA which Apratim, my good friend in India then incorporated into the design.
I also rope in journalist friends from the region – Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore to do the first reading after the manuscript is completed. Their feedback really HELPED me fine-tune my work..
CreateSpace and KDP are my preferred packages – they’re swift and accessible worldwide quickly 🙂
Well my relatives (Aunt & Uncle) older; are Yogi s and have been published of course they say nothing like paper hardbacks, kind of an elitist attitude. We discussed online blogging and digital publishing but they did not show any interest in modernizing. And were moderately snippy about the internet.
One of my poems is frequently used at funerals. However that is public readings, it is quite long. (Never submitted that poem.) I still like both (a book in hand and digital) and am a virgin to publishing myself. I read both hardcover and digital. I get kindle on my laptop. Running 2 different versions. I like the bigger screen. There is one company wanting me to do a children’s book. However they are not offering to help subsidize.
I would install whatever software necessary to buy or read authors I have an interest. There is also places like Issuu sections online where you can read until your eyes fall out and you pay as you read and a lot of selling and marketing are combine all in one place. A few are free. There are lots of categories and magazine publishers there too. (No hard copies of course, I suppose you could special order for a few)
Very good information! I’m planning to self-publish in the not-distant future, so I’ll be watching this process very closely.
Easy as can be to publish on createspace or amazon kindle, just follow step by step and you can have it done in no time. After like close to 50 books, I can do it in my sleep.
As a former graphic designer and print shop owner I did self publish my first book of poetry – old school print format. And I did the layout and graphics. It was an intensive labour of love. Digital publishing has some a long way but the marketing is what is always so important. Readings (virtual and in person), media and keeping people reading and talking about it!
I am so looking forward to sharing this project when it is done – so exciting! Congratulations and if you ever need a hand, just holler!
As a few of you know Rosemary and I are two of the four voices of the anthology we just self published, She Too: Four Voices in (Almost) Harmony.
I had published chapbooks before through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing so I was not afraid to take on the challenge of publishing She Too.
However because it was not just my own work I felt the stress to do a super good job of getting our book out there. So after we published the book as an ebook on Amazon I also formatted the ebook through ePub so the book could also be available though iBooks & Google Play.
We are still in the process of publishing the book through Create Space in order to have a paper version in addition to the ebook.
Each format requires tweaking the manuscript and jumping over different challenges. But in the long run it is all worth it. After all the main goal is sending poetry out into the world so why not leverage sales by making it available through the venders that provide the service.
Things to note:
Amazon’s KDP does not allow page numbers and you must have a clickable Table of Contents. It also favors word doc., not docx. so something to watch when you are creating the manuscript.
ePub is very easy to use especially for us that are creating the manuscript with Apple’s Pages program. However, creating the Table of Contents is very tricky. Unlike making the TofC with Header 1 you must make a whole new header that does not exist right now in Pages. That header title is Chapter or Chapter title (the exact name is not coming to me right now) The easiest way to make this, is to use ePub’s template and copy and paste the header in, then create the new header and apply it to each header that you want to be listed in the Table of Contents.
To make a PDF you now need to do two things to the manuscript. You need to have page numbers and you need to have a clickable Table of Contents. Page numbers are easy but the only way to make a clickable T of C is to buy Acrobat XI (I think that is the number I have). There are many steps to the process of making the T of C clickable so if you go that route and you want to know how email and I will give you step by step directions.
To make the paper copy though Create Space there are a few tricks that will help you. First keep your page numbers but you do not need the Table of Contents to be clickable anymore. What you will need though is “facing pages” if you are using a word program that has that option consider yourself darn lucky. (Mine does not.) If you do not then you need to move the manuscript to Open Office, if for no other reason than to alter the manuscript so it has “facing pages.” Note the Table of Contents will change if you move the manuscript from word to open office so move the manuscript back to Word to make the T of C.
Another note… Create Space has cover templates for you to use. But if you find you do not like them they also offer a blank template for you to use via Photoshop.
I hope this helps.
hey… just catching up… thanks for all the great feedback… will read through it in the evening..