Print on Demand

Ignore Emma, Debbie, she belongs to the vicars and tarts lot.

Well it's better than magicians and bimbos. *blobs tongue out*

This post is available in quality 80g paper and bound in a professional looking cover for only £8.99 at LAPD sorry PABD/kwiggins. Remember, this site may not last forever, but put this post in a quality binding and you will have me always.

Just another short note on self-publishing. I'm in contact with a woman who's book appears on Binnacle Press. She's a published author, and has congratulated me on being chosen for Book of the Month. However, her contract has run out and, in her own words, she now owns her book again. She's delighted to be marketing it on a P.O.D. basis. She feels that when it was "published" it was no longer her book. But now, once again, it's hers. An interesting viewpoint.

Thats a shame... I have been seriously considering becomming a bimbo of late... What shall I do instead? *muses*

Typical woman, the poor girl has only been here 5 minutes and you're being a bitch.

Well once again David tells it like it is without resorting to the base language that I usually employ. Oh to be eloquent.

Good luck Karl, it sounds like a royal pain in the backside, trying to convince people the world needs yet another book, but all the best with it. Half of my family are taxi drivers. Is any of your book on ABC to read? Also, if there is a reason for italics then the publisher should respect that unless the writer is obviously just trying to create a profoundness in the text that isn't there. Simply changing text per se warrants a full on argument in my view. Can you imagine going to Faulkner, "Nah Bill, it reads okay but, you know, we just don't do italics here." It seems to me like there's a whole industry bandwagon that feeds off people who want to get published, and I'm certainly not saying that's what Karl's been involved in, on the contrary he seems to have been wise and careful about the whole process. But I reckon you have to be very careful as most of these vanity publishers claim to really look after the authors and have their best interests at heart, like all salesmen. The myth of the published author, it appeals to people and sells itself. Actually, it's probably a good racket to get into. Anyone fancy starting a business? Dream Artists Inc. "We give fruit to your labour" [%sig%]

join the vicars and tarts of course, silly.

And for those of you who don't have screens as as wide as a cockney vanity publisher's grin, here it is again in mini-cab-size bytes: http:// w w w. glo be and mai l.co m/ ser vl et/ Ar ticle Ne ws /TPS tory/ LAC/ 200 40 42 7/D EM AN D2 7/TP En ter tain m ent /To pS tori es

Are you talking to me George? *prepared to look hurt*

Strictly speaking I don't think PADB should be categorised as a vanity publisher, marc. One of my colleagues recently met someone from PADB who told him they've actually turned down books offered to them on quality grounds. You don't find many "vanity publishers" doing that.

Jim Reeves had a hit called Bimbo.didn't however have one called Bitch. Vicky have you thought of becomming a bi........perhaps not.

Or was it an e.e. cummings poem?

Tried being a tart Em... it didn't take Flash... er that would be telling

That's another good sign that they might be different. However, a person working for that company, given a reasonable position within the organisation, would describe the company they work for in the best light, no? That doesn't mean what they say is true. I think the best testament must be from the actual writers who pay that company to publish their work, not from the company which clearly needs to make a profit as a business and therefore has to market itself. I'm sure there are exceptions to businesses that specialise in self-publishing. PADB sounds like it may well be. [%sig%]

Bipolar magnet?

I was addressing the Felicitous Emma.

ahhh *looks mollified instead*

Ah, felicitations to you too, Missi. Bitch? Who? Where? I'm not, I'm just assuming that Debbie has a fabulous sense of humour and a very broad mind. Anyway, Flash started it.

Marc, Thanks for the words of support. Unfortunately there's nothing of Cab Driver left on ABCtales. Rightly or wrongly, I deleted them all as soon as the book was published. If I'm selling a book, it would serve no purpose to allow people to read it for free. This isn't a slight on ABCtales, who I owe a lot to, just business sense. However, if anybody wishes to read my work to see if it's the type of thing that appeals to them as a reader, there's still plenty left on the site. Also cab drivers who are interested in perusing the book before purchasing can read the first chapter for free by visiting: http://store.pabd.com/kwiggins I've said it before, and I'll say it again, PABD is totally different concept from vanity publishing. In fact, it is a totally new concept in print-on-demand. You can have your book published for as little as £200, and that figure includes EVERYTHING. While working with them to produce my book they were cooperation personified. Several e-mails a day were exchanged while we finalised all the details. So much so that I now think of Andrew as a friend, even though we've never met in person. Their method-of-operation is such that no money exchanges hands until the writer is absolutely certain that he is happy with all the finer details. No deposit is paid until you finally say, "Yes, I like the way that looks." Yet the whole process takes less than a couple of weeks. If you decided right now that you've got a book in you, you've proofread the manuscript a dozen times and you'd like to see it in print, then you can have your selling page up and running within a few days and the book in your hand by the end of the month. I recommend them highly.

Just to make this point once more - we at PABD are not publishers at all, vanity or otherwise. Marc, if you'd like any quotes from the people publishing with us I invite you to take a look at our testimonial page. We're rather proud of it. PABD gives authors all the tools they need to be publishers themselves, from editorial services to book design and ISBN registration. We actually register ISBN numbers supplied by us in the name of the author purchasing it, making it perfectly clear who the publisher is. We have told several people that we could not help them publish their books, mostly for quality reasons, one because of legal issues (yes, we do check). Italics have been re-instated now (sorry Karl). We had to find a way to make sure that they were printing correctly when people were submitting manuscripts with 'tilted copy' rather than 'true italics'. We have since solved that issue. We have several authors producing books with us who have had the copyright returned to them after having being published by traditional publishers. The quote of the woman Karl mentioned above is typical for most of them. Authors feel empowered by owning their work again and being able to do with it as they wish.

In answer to your question, Vicky, Deborah runs a website that promotes self-published or print-on-demand books, so could be a valuable source to several of us who are thinking of publishing (or have gone ahead and published) our own books. If your book meets the site's criteria, Deborah will publisize it for free. Now there's a deal.

I think she might have gone off the idea now...........probably thinks you three are bonkers.........in the nutty sense ........not the fruity one.

Have I just about got that right, Deborah?

Oh, the site, sorry. Check it out on: www.binnaclepress.com There are some great books there, all with links to the author's selling pages. (Sooz, you've changed your e-mail address, but you get your arse down there).

But are you really sure you're not vanity publishers? No, only kidding. All the best with it.

So who is she Karl? *getting back to the point*

Bonkers in the nutty sense? Don't you mean conkers then?

No I'm not sensitive and I hate anything to do with white rabbits and small men with things up their sleeves. Sorry to have conned you into believing that I was something more 'outre'; a plaything or faded Magician's bauble which resembles something cunningly fashioned from discarded pieces of lego and a second-hand Barbie doll. I am nothing more than a book promoter and a tapper of keyboards.

Hey, Debbie, I think you've just proved you are much, much more than that, please stick around, please!!!

A kind of bookies runner then?

I'll send you a bottle for that post.

hic!

And some free photo's

Hic! Oops, comma emergency!..Flash...you've just done a booboo on a thread in which a publisher is participating. It's curtains for you. *calls to fish to close curtains*

karl which company did you use and was there are an initial large cost ? I am getting together a couple of anthologys for a few different groups i am working with and looking for info on this sort of stuff. Has anyone seen where bohos web site has gone?

stephen, i personally wouldnt touch boho with a boho bargepole, and i dont know how the site karl is using is, but he seems to be plenty satisfied with it. It certainly looks reasonable enough price wise... you can find it here

Deborah, you must promise me you'll never go far from this site... *writes note to send large bottle of gin to funny lady*

oh sorry... i mistook boho for bluechrome. My apologies S, I dont know how boho are.

Is it Photos...........Gosh i'm rubbish aren't I?

Thanks Marc And while I certainly thank Karl for his kind words, he's got one little detail wrong: You can actually publish your book for as little as £65.90 plus p&p. I suspect that it's easy to spend that sort of cash on postage submitting your work to traditional publishers. I would recommend to everyone who is suspicious about self publishing to have a chat with a published author, especially to mid list authors. We get daily mails from authors who have been published in the past enquiring about self publishing their books with us in future simply because they see it as the better option, both from a financial and from an ownership point of view.

It's parked around the corner and his meter has been running for five minutes.

Boho is an imprint of Bluechrome and as such is indistinguishable.

ah well... then i wouldnt touch boho either. Thank you so much... should I ever be "interested" in POD, then I shall avoid both.

What's wrong with Blue chrome Liana?

Urm... well it *looks* cheap.. the editing is on the dodgy side to say the least, and the paper used is rubbish. The covers look dreadful... in short, it looks like it has been produced on a teenagers desktop. But that's just my opinion. I think if I was going to go the self publishing route, I would be embarrassed to hand something like that around. I'm sure it's fine for many people, but not for me.

As this is continuing, you should be aware that ABC is in discussions with PABD, and has reached preliminary agreement with them, to be partners. If you are going down the self publishing road then of all the companies out there I can recommend PABD most highly - however do be aware that it is self publishing and you will only sell what you sell yourself.

Check the back of your copy of the anthology Liana.

What's wrong with them Liana? I'd be interested to hear your views. Have you ever had dealings with them? They're not POD by the way. Boho publish poetry only, sd - they're updating their site at the mo, I think. Bluechrome are excellent, very friendly and efficient, although their rejection rate is high. [%sig%]