You can count me in to help out with the magazine, if you want. 
Anyone else writing a book?
- Thread starter Goliath
- Start date
Hi Benny,
I once had a press. Don't do it!!!!
just kidding (or am I?)
Seriously, I think you might want to assist someone else in their mag/book publishing first so you can learn the ropes. They chafe! It's best to know this going in.
There is no money to be had. You can only make money by selling ads. The books never even sell enough to break even, unless you are already established. Bookstores have limited shelf space and don't like to take risks. Magazine racks of you corner bookstore are willing to make space for local efforts, but to hit the bigtime, you already have to be there. It's a nasty Catch-22.
I published 3 books and 4 issues of a magazine. If anyone wants back issues, I have some... ABOUT A THOUSAND! It's taking up closet space. Really, I have sports jackets that need this space. I just can't bring myself to remainder them, but something has to happen to them. Maybe after I die the family will send them to be pulped. I should probably tell them it's OK. I just can't do it myself.
Anyway, think for a long time, and learn the ropes first. Danger Will Robinson! I mean it.
And will it get you published to publish other people? No. All publishers are aware of the back-scratch-fever. It only works for the academies, where "editors" take turns publishing each other in a publish-or-perish environment. That is way, way outside the mass market.
There is, I believe, only one way to become a publisher. You have to be rich first. In the 19th century in America, all you needed was a press and some paper, and hours ruining your eyesight setting type (or in the case of Wm. Blake, the chemicals will make you half-crazy). But in the 21st century? It's locked up. No entry.
Oh and nobody can afford to hire you, so if you do want to learn the ropes, it has to be voluntary.
Think about it. What do you know about marketting books and magazines? Sure you make a catalog, but to whom do you send it? Do you know the price of printing these days? It's insane!
sorry ... hot button ... trust me, you can make more money sweeping floors and keeping the pennies you find.
Thanks for your insight, snakespeare, but I don't intend to do the printing or own a press. I intend to compile magazines full of short stories that people want to read and send the compiled PDFs to a printer to print them and then to a distributor to distribute them through newsstands and subscriptions.
I won't be as big as Dell (Asimov and Analog, Ellery Queen, etc)) and I never expect to be. I expect to earn enough money to live on so I can write my own original fiction and publish it through the usual process.
Am I really asking for that much?
I won't be as big as Dell (Asimov and Analog, Ellery Queen, etc)) and I never expect to be. I expect to earn enough money to live on so I can write my own original fiction and publish it through the usual process.
Am I really asking for that much?
Nothing is gained by not trying.
All of that sounds reasonable, up until the part where you talk about getting it to a distributor.
Distributors don't work for free, and newsstand space isn't free, either. Do you have a friend in the business or anything? You may find that distribution costs are extremely prohibitive.
I'm still interested, as I said in my PM, however you might want to set more realistic goals here.
Distribution is just an outsource so I don't have to do it myself, since I don't know anyone anywhere. I could do it myself but it is likely to run the costs higher so outsourcing is better. All magazines generally outsource printing, subscription control and distribution through third parties...it's the way the business works. I already have a couple of printers lined up to approach through my job and I will be doing research on the distribution and subscription side of things shortly.
I'm not saying the printing will be a problem. A small print run is relatively inexpensive. It's getting the thing distributed that will likely cost a lot more than you expect. Many distributors will want at least half the cover price as compensation. The more copies you run, the cheaper it gets per copy, but the total cost obviously adds up fast.
I may be able to contribute eventually. Right now the only thing I have that I've written is a novel.
Kind of backwards I know. I have ideas for a half-dozen short stories I plan to flesh out over the next couple of months to try to get my name out there and make selling the novel easier.
It's been a while since I checked in. I'm so broke I actually can't afford the photocopies, packaging, and postage to submit my book again, so I'm stuck waiting till the next paycheck. I'm realizing more and more, though, that I want not just to be an artist and a writer, but to do art and writing for a living. I know it's not easy to do, but it suits me. I'm considering starting a second book, on the opposite end of the spectrum -- I'm considering...this is embarrassing to say... a memoir. People who know me and the things I've gone through have commented over and over that I should write a book -- and I must admit, brief as it has been thus far, I've had an interesting life. I've always thought of memoirs, especially as written by young people (as so many seem to be these days), as generally self-important, self-indulgent nonsense. Recently, though, I've found myself wondering if the experience wouldn't be therapeutic for me -- if perhaps I should be a little self-indulgent. It'd be less about me and more about my family anyway (to bad the perfect title My Family and Other Animals, is already taken!)
Plus, they do sell!
I don't know. The thought is at once enticing and intimidating. I've never written anything longer than a 20 or 30 page essay, I've never written about myself, and while I've been told I have good prose, the last time I had my writing evaluated was in college years ago. Plus, I'd have to change all the names to protect the guilty and do this all under a pen-name and in secret so as not to alienate my family! I wouldn't want anyone to know it was me!
Where on earth does one start???
Plus, they do sell!
I don't know. The thought is at once enticing and intimidating. I've never written anything longer than a 20 or 30 page essay, I've never written about myself, and while I've been told I have good prose, the last time I had my writing evaluated was in college years ago. Plus, I'd have to change all the names to protect the guilty and do this all under a pen-name and in secret so as not to alienate my family! I wouldn't want anyone to know it was me!
Where on earth does one start???
People tell my wife she should write a memoir, too. I tried to help her once. She's not really a writer, so I was ghostwriting it for her, based on her dictation. She didn't get very far before it was just too painful to continue.
That said, I do think people who have persevered in spite of traumatic pasts can be very inspirational, and if that's the kind of story you have to tell, I think people will enjoy it. As for where to start, the memoirs I've read have usually framed the story in terms of a particular, pivotal event around which the rest of the book revolves. Beginning at the beginning tends not to be very compelling unless it's something like "I was born in a high school bathroom and tossed into a dumpster."
If you can think of some particular event or theme in your life that is an essential part of who you are today and the lessons you want the reader to take from your story, I would start there.
Well I'm writing a sort of memoir as well. It focuses mostly on the horrible time I went trough in school. I'm writing that to raise awareness and for it to be therapeutic for me, so that I get some of that stuff out.
What I've done so far is I got the very start locked with a short bit about me that I had told to me. For the rest I do a short, as in very short bit about me and the time leading up to where i started school, and that's where the I get into the meat of it since that's what I've chosen to focus on and tell about.
It's all up to you what you write.
What I've done so far is I got the very start locked with a short bit about me that I had told to me. For the rest I do a short, as in very short bit about me and the time leading up to where i started school, and that's where the I get into the meat of it since that's what I've chosen to focus on and tell about.
It's all up to you what you write.
I tried to give you good advice, bro. I hope you don't find yourself wishing you had read my post more carefully. I know about the desire. But you should investigate all the ins-and-outs before you decide to do it.
Yes, I outsourced the printing. Where did I imply otherwise? I'm not a printer. And I had a distributor. All he wanted was for me to sign an agreement. Naturally, this meant that libraries pay full, bookstores get 40%, big orders get 50%, but the distributor gets them all at 60% discount. Well, that doubled the cost of the books right there.
But guess what? The distributor has no requirement to advertise. In fact, all promotion came back on me! OK, so I tried that. I sent free copies to magazines who would review it, hoping some good reviews would inspire librarians and bookstores to buy. No more than a dribble!
By the way, if you publish books, you are a press whether or not you have a press.
So anyway, how will generate sales?
And who will sell the ads? For that matter, who will buy them?
And what is a good price to charge for an ad?
Like I said already, perhaps you would be better off working for someone who is already doing it and figuring out his or her system. Because dreams are good, but to make them real it takes a lot of work. And I tell you, hard as I worked, I was not able to keep my thing going. I had kids to feed and the initial investment (from a friend) ran out. So there were books and magazines, nobody to read them, nobody to sell them, and me working as a security guard to bring home some semblance of bacon.
I wish you luck. And congrats on your matrimony!
^^ You should try selling your remaining stock on Ebay or Etsy or some such thing.
Snakespeare, I'll be selling short story magazines like Analog or Ellery Queen, not books--and distributors want a lot more for books than they do for magazines because of the higher price point. And I have looked into distribution for pay magazines, the people who have been doing it for 25+ years and distribute major magazines to newsstands and bookstores etc, and I found the major subscription agency who do all the Dell magazines to handle that for me when I get started.
When I'm ready I'll contact them for pricing information and see what it will take to get my magazine off the ground. For advertising there's the usual writing magazines/newspapers etc and the other story magazines themselves. I'm not dismissing your advice, I'm just tailoring it to my needs as a magazine press, rather than a book publishing press. Though they are similar, they are also very very different.
When I'm ready I'll contact them for pricing information and see what it will take to get my magazine off the ground. For advertising there's the usual writing magazines/newspapers etc and the other story magazines themselves. I'm not dismissing your advice, I'm just tailoring it to my needs as a magazine press, rather than a book publishing press. Though they are similar, they are also very very different.
Except for the fact that most of what he said was more relevant to the book side of publishing than magazine publishing.
Also, Snakespeare, perhaps I should have asked this earlier, but what magazine did you put out? Was it a niche market magazine like Butter Today or Furniture Monthly?
snakespeare is trying to offer helpful advice. There's no need to take an attitude with him.
So, I felt restless yesterday afternoon and went through all my bookmarked agents, found one on my list that accepts query letters via email, and sent it along at about 4pm. By the time I checked my email this morning at 5:45am, I had a response asking to see the dummy. Yes, my query letters are just that good, I suppose!
So, thrilling news, my second stab is underway, but there's one problem: The agent asked if I had a dummy in the form of a PDF I could email. I looked up how to make PDFs, and it's easy enough to do by electing the print option. However, I can't seem to figure out how to combine multiple pages, horizontal no less, into one coherent PDF. Does anyone know how to do this? Or should I just email her and say I don't know how to make it into a PDF, but that I can send it to her in the form of a storyboard made in comic life, along with some full size images to show the quality of my art?
Help? Suggestions?
So, thrilling news, my second stab is underway, but there's one problem: The agent asked if I had a dummy in the form of a PDF I could email. I looked up how to make PDFs, and it's easy enough to do by electing the print option. However, I can't seem to figure out how to combine multiple pages, horizontal no less, into one coherent PDF. Does anyone know how to do this? Or should I just email her and say I don't know how to make it into a PDF, but that I can send it to her in the form of a storyboard made in comic life, along with some full size images to show the quality of my art?
Help? Suggestions?
I'm on my way!
Get this wonderful utility and then you can bring your Comic Life file directly to PDF.
Congratulations! I hope this editor is smarter than the last one.