publishing – Book Me Reviews

There are several good reasons why many authors prefer to self-publish. First, they are able to retain the rights of their work. Next is, they take full control of their content and the marketing of it and lastly, they are able to retain the revenues from the sold books.

Considering that there are many writers now who would like to self-publish, we’ve listed below some self-publishing services to choose from:

Blurb

A popular self-publishing platform for photography-based books (full color and black and white). Blurb lets their user to create, self-publish, promote and sell their books. The author can also set their own prices, therefore, they’re able to select their very own profit margin.

CreateSpace

If you would like to take advantage of Amazon’s popularity, you probably would like to choose CreateSpace which is part of Amazon group of companies. CreateSpace is not just for book authors but are also perfect for filmmakers and musicians. Authors are also allowed to choose their own royalty when they publish via CreateSpace. After your book is uploaded on CreateSpace, it will be available on the market within hours and you get between 35% and 70% of sales.

Lulu

One of the best services the Lulu can offer to users is their free consultation . Yes, they offer free consultation for your books. They also have paid services like ISBN purchasing and distribution, book design, and formatting. Authors can also set their profits by choosing their own royalties and Lulu gets a small portion from your sales.

Smashwords

Smashwords will publish anything and they only need your manuscript and you’re good to go. Plus your work gets available in various formats like ePub, mobi, PDF, etc. With smashwords, authors and publishers also get the highest return which is 85% of the sales.

For more list of Self-publishing services, check out Wikipedia’s list.

What self-publishing services are you using?

Share on the comments below.

If you want your book to get published on a traditional publishing house, take note that you need a literary agent to represent you and your book. However, getting accepted by a traditional publisher is as hard as getting a good literary agent. Someone that will truly be interested in you and your book and won’t just be looking into the money that’s in your pocket.

In order to get to know your agent really well, you need to ask him few questions. Questions that you consider very important when it matters to this business. In case a literary agent has a website, try visiting his website and read some details provided on his website. Some information that you wanted to know about them are sometimes available on their website particularly in the “About” page.

Here are few important questions that you have to ask to a literary agent.

How much experience you have as a literary agent?

First of all, you need to know how much experience they have as a literary agent. That will include the years and their specialties. Just like an author, literary agent also have their very own specialties when it comes to book genres that they can handle very well. See to it that he is the right agent for your book. Established agents usually have more connections and will be able to find a good place to introduce your book.

Do you work in an agency or you work independently?

Before you commit to an agent, make sure you know who is going to handle your book. Some agents, especially those that are working with big agencies will let an assistant handle the work rather than doing it themselves. However, if you work with an independent agent, he’ll be able work on your book personally.

Are you a member of Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR)?

It’s good to know if the literary agent you plan to work with is member of certain Association like AAR, a nonprofit organization for professional literary agents. If an agent is a member of AAR, he must follow it’s requirements and adhere to its bylaws and ethics. Therefore, he is a very ideal agent to have.