Your Adventures In Self-Publishing

[hudwrite]

Hello,

I'd like to hear from those of you who have recently published a full book of poems, not a chapbook. Which publisher did you choose (e.g. iUniverse), what was it like working with that entity, how much did you spend, how did you promote your book, and what kind of response have you received?

Thanks.

[discoantfarm]

The son of a friend published his book through Wingspan press. They did a good job on his book and it didn't take long. His idea of promoting it though is to leave copies of it in coffeehouses. I don't think self publishing outfits really do promotion. I looked at their website and a couple of others I've heard good things about. What most of them term promotion is stuff like sending out review copies and making bookmarks. If fact, this site is clear that promotion is your job. I've known a couple of people who used Authorhouse and Xlibris (or iuniverse - they a lot alike), and what passed for promotion there was sending out 'press releases' which are evidently either spam emails or one-sheets in a big bundle. When they put out 500 books a month, how much promotion can they do?

[Dichroic]

Kie - how do you publish a chapbook, then? What's different between that and self-publishing a book?

I've been debating if there's any point in putting my Spoon River stuff between covers. On the one hand, I think the online medium actually suits the format better. On the other, if nothing else chapbooks would make nice holiday presents for family :-) There's about 45 pieces currently and still going; if I did self-publish it would make sense to keep going until it's three times that length and then cherry-pick the best. It just seems kind of pointless.

Edited to add: but yeah, from what I've heard about them vs other places, I would definitely go with Lulu.

[Dichroic]

Kie isn't in this thread. I think you may be asking me that question?

Sorry, yes, still fairly new here and learning people's names. Sorry and thanks.