Looking for someone to talk about POD/self-pub on my blog

Feathers

Have posted a comment to your blog which I do not feel belongs here. I'm still a bit puzzled as to what your blog is actually trying to aim at. I think you have a great start and idea for your blog but I'm not sure that perhaps, quite now, is the time for a guest speaker/interview on Self-publishing and all the very complexed issues that go with POD publishing. Even in the time that I myself have been blogging in this area, it has become popular and quite intense from people partisipating from all walks of the industry.

Hi Feathers,
I agree with Mick, the topic of publishing options, can be polarizing and intense at times, especially with regard to fee-based/POD. You've got to be well prepared.

Also, please take this in the constructive light as it is intended, but some of the information you've included so far isn't quite where it needs to be. For example, in conventional self-publishing you don't pay money to a group as you do with fee-based/POD, rather you, the author, start a publishing company and handle all of the details.

Also, many people would say that conventional is a better bet, not the worst, compared to fee-based because the profit can be siginificantly higher.

Lastly, no matter what method is chosen, the author will be expected to do a majority of promotion. Traditional publishers will help, but many of them also expect you to have a lot of recognition before they'll even take you on.

When you are ready for guests, if you have trouble finding sources, you might want to talk to Sally Shields, the author of the Daughter in Law Rules. She is published by a fee-based company and had a good experience. You may also want to talk to someone on the other side of the coin who can advise people as to what to look out for. Try over at Writer Beware Blog for that.

For conventional self-publishing, you can go to http://www.parapublishing.com to the success stories and find lots of people who've gone that route.

I hope this has helped.

Feathers said:

If conventional means starting your own publishing business, then what's the term for paying a group?
-Feathers

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Ah, there's exactly where it gets sticky, tricky, and unfortunately confusing to many people. The publishing industry as a whole cannot seem to choose a term and use it across the board when it comes to this topic. Part of this is because some groups within it can't even agree on the definitions, you'd think would be rather simple-self-publishing.

The situtaion you're refering to is using a company like iUniverse, Booklocker, or Outskirts. You pay, they handle all of the tasks a traditional publisher does from a production standpoint.

Years ago, these companies started calling themselves "self-publishing" companies. But when you think about it, if you are having someone do everything for you, it's not really by your "self" and that's the big arguement from people who support conventional self-publishing (also called independent self-publishing).

However, in Google searches now if you search self-publishing, these companies come up most, almost to the point of taking the term away from the original meaning (the convential method).

The other popular term is POD Publishing. This comes from the fact that a majority, if not all of these kinds of companies focus on printing books as needed.

In all reality, lots of publishers use POD as it is simply a method of printing. Also, there's nothing to say that if someone needed a larger offset run, that iUniverse and those like them, couldn't find a resource for that too. It's just that that isn't their typical business model.

Finally, another term which some people use is fee-based publishing. That's the one I like and the one I find least confusing, however, it isn't as easy to reference in other sources, to link to, like the others etc.

Sorry, I know this got reeeeallly long, but hope it helps once again.