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We are different then Vanity Publishing. Cooperative Publishing and Vanity Publishing are similar yet they are also different. Authors may have difficulty differentiating the two, since both require payment. We've been publishing for six years. We are a cooperative style / Self-Publishing Company. Authors retain 100% rights to their books, we take no royalties, royalties are based on the distribution options chosen with the Printer. Customers have the choice on the Book Formatting Form to PUBLISH THEIR BOOK ANY WAY THEY WANT TO please read Self-Publication Option #33. Authors have COMPLETE CONTROL OVER THE INTERIOR & COVER DESIGN OF THEIR BOOK. We have a lot of books we're designing / publishing at any given time, and we are selective about what books we choose to publish. We will not publish any books that NEED EDITING, unless the Author has them properly edited. Authors who are not wise there is a chance they may be subject to being taken advantage of, by a REAL Vanity Press! Please read through some of the provided blogs, if you are interested in publishing, and have questions about the different types of publishing. We would feel as if we weren't doing our jobs, if we didn't create this awareness. Follow us on Facebook to communicate via Messenger anytime Blogs about Publishing Subsidy Publishing vs. Self-Publishing: What's the Difference? By: www.writingworld.com Pros And Cons Of Traditional Publishing vs Self-Publishing www.thecreativepenn.com Self-publishing vs vanity publishing. Confused? www.writersandauthors.co.uk https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/vanity/ By: www.swfa.org Vanity or Subsidy Publishing - Better Business Bureau Cooperative Publishing Option | Out of the Drawer and Into Print www.wordsintoprint.wordpress.com Indie Publisher vs. Vanity Press – The Wise Ink Blog www.wiseinkblog.com AuthorHouse - Publishing Industry Terms www.authorhouse.com Poetry books do not sell well. The top 5 poetry books in the world do not sell 5,000 copies a month. Most of the top 5 do not sell 1,000 copies a month. Most poetry books will be considered a success if they sell 500 copies over the author's lifetime. People online searching for a good book do not look for poetry books. Unless they are familiar with the author, nobody ever buys a poetry book.
Consider this: Even writers as great as Edgar Allan Poe had to fund their own poetry publications because the publishers would not touch poetry without money up front. Short stories and novels, sure, but not poetry. Nobody has ever gotten rich with poetry books except the offspring of Kahlil Gibran. His books sold fairly well, then made a huge resurgence in the 1960's. He did not live to see the money. Publishing poetry is art for art's sake. It is not reasonable commerce. Some self-published books have quietly developed their own following and have sold very well. There are a few millionaires who have done so, mostly with romance novels. 50 Shades of Gray is one example. It originally began as a self-published book. It did well enough that a big time publisher bought the rights and made it a household name. It is not common but it is possible, more so in the romance novel arena. Short stories are similar to poetry but not as bad. Novels are the best. Books sell in this order, as far as I understand it: Romance Novels Teen Coming of Age Novels Teen Romance Novels Teen Paranormal Novels (Like Harry Potter) Paranormal Novels Any Young Adult Novel Making $50 to $100 per month on a book would be a very successful self-published book. Eventually, it should snowball into something more. There is no telling how long that will take. There is money in such books, but do not expect to use one to put your kids through college and don't go quitting your day job. Poetry Books will sell, but the sales will be slim and spotty. Publishing your work has never been easier. In such a market, making sales has never been more difficult. One of the most important factors in making your book available to as many points of sales as possible is owning your own ISBN.
Imagine that we have a warehouse of books. You want to know what all the books are in the warehouse so you can choose the ones you want to read. You are provided with a list of ISBN numbers. Now you can look up those numbers and find out what each book is. There are huge databases that are nothing more than book catalogs based upon the principle of attaching each book an ISBN. The publisher will spend a good deal of time filling out all of the information in this database so that the book is well represented. Now any bookseller can find the book by name, author, genre, etc. They even have you upload a copy of the book so they can have their computer scan the digital copy for keywords to use. What this does is make your book available to anyone looking for something similar to your book. Once they find it, then the ISBN tells them who to order it from and the pricing. When one self publishes, typically, the company you publish with, Createspace, Lulu, etc. provide you with an ISBN. They do not, however, spend a great deal of time filling out the information on the ISBN. This means that many places looking for your book will not have an easy time finding it. It is our recommendation at Shoestring Book Publishing that it is best to have your own ISBN that you bought and paid for and that you (or your publishing agent) are responsible for filling out properly. Only this assures that you have control over the information and the accessibility to your book. Think about all of the extra hits your book will get just from having a plethora of keywords selected directly from the book's pages. These are the little things that make a huge difference in sales. Do not let a publisher represent this service as some kind of special marketing they do. Any decent publisher worth their salt will properly maintain the information on each ISBN number for every book. You may need one for a paperback, one for a hardcover and even one for an ebook. Having an ISBN for your ebook means that it can be looked up in any library. Why would anyone NOT want that for their book? ISBN numbers are not inexpensive. They can cost up to $50 apiece. I assure you, that is a great amount of marketing you get for such a small investment. Here is a list of independent bookstores in the United States and Canada:
http://www.newpages.com/bookstores/ Authors, who have designed a book, and have assigned that book an ISBN with a barcode, congratulations, your book is bookstore ready! With an ISBN, Any Brick and Mortar Bookstore (An actual physical bookstore, such as Barnes & Noble) can locate your book through Books in Print, (An online database) where your book can be purchased at wholesale to be stocked on B&M Bookstore shelves for sale! If you are listed as the publisher, meaning you've purchased and assigned an ISBN (Through Bowker if you are in the US.) to your beloved book, as opposed to assigning an ISBN through an aggregator like Createspace, or allowing a self-publishing company, or Vanity press to assign an ISBN to your book, which lists them as the publisher; Remember, it is your responsibility to enter your book's information into the online database! Without this information, your book cannot be located by B&M bookstores. It is through this database, which Ingram provides; Physical Bookstores, Libraries, & Academic Institutions can locate your book. Hope you enjoyed reading my blog and that this information was useful! Follow us on Facebook Punctuating Poetry is something that involves poetic license; meaning, any punctuation in poetry is acceptable, even if it is not 'proper' punctuation. There are no set rules on how to punctuate poetry in a book. (No matter what Mr. Know it All Poet might tell you ...)
Yet, as an editor of poetry, I do have my opinion about how to properly punctuate poetry in a book. The main concern should be consistency. That's not to say each and every poem in a poetry book should be punctuated the same manner, but, that each poem should have consistency, therein. For example; If you are editing a poem, and it contains punctuation, such as periods, exclamation marks and question marks, at the end of the sentences, yet, none of the sentences begin with a capitalization. THAT is an example of inconsistent punctuation within a poem. If you choose to use punctuation within a poem, make sure to also capitalize the first letter of the word following the punctuation. If however, you find that you've attempted to punctuate your poem and it just isn't justifying the flow that you wish to represent, then you may remove all of the punctuation, and that is acceptable, because it is consistent. In this case, letting the readers know where to pause in a poem's sentence can be accomplished by line breaks. Whether or not you choose to use punctuation in your poetry, you may capitalize the first letter of the beginning word of each line of your poem. Decide how you want your poems to come across to the reader and which style of punctuation, or non- punctuation suits your poem's style. If you capitalize the first word of a poem and only add one period at the end of the poem, six stanzas later, this is an example of poor punctuation! Help stop reader frustration, and punctuate well! Poetry chapbooks, are on average about 25 pages, give or take a few pages, and are typically saddle bound. Generally, when gathering poems for a poetry chapbook, you would choose poems from your poetry collection, which are based upon a similar theme, such as love, spiritualality, humor ect.
The normal contents for a chapbook include a table of contents, an acknowledgements page, the chosen poems and an author's biography. The acknowledgements should include the names of your poems which were previously published and where they were published. Poetry chapbooks are an excellent way to represent a collection of your best works, such as Poems that have been accepted for publication or have won prizes. Regardless of the material you choose to publish in your chapbook, there are no rules as to what constitutes the contents. Over all, it is best to stick with a theme, but they may contain a varied array of topics, whatever you choose to use, consider the overall mood. You could use an epic poem, to tell a story throughout the chapbook. Maintaining some sort of organization with the placing of your poems is key, because you want to keep the reader interested. Once you place the organization of your poems, read through it and see how well it flows. Reading a poem aloud is a great technique to help decide how well it flows. One way to differentiate your best poems from all the rest is by feedback. Was the poem chosen for publication in a journal? What type of comments did you receive from readers? Always pick your best poem as the first poem to be placed in your chapbook. Keep the number of poems per page to one. You want to make sure each poem receives the attention it deserves. Use a sans serif font for your body like Garamond or Minion and a Serif font is recommended for the title font. Publishing a chapbook of poetry is a good way to inexpensively share your poetry with friends, family, fans, and poets alike. Normal pricing for chapbooks will run about 5 to 10 dollars each. If you are looking for publication with a large or a small press, arranging a chapbook for submission is a good place to begin. Many small presses and literary magazines will accept unsolicited manuscripts in lieu of contests held for chapbook publication. Still, regardless of being accepted for publication by a large or a small press, the author should expect to volunteer his or her own time into the marketing as well. 12 pt. is a nice size font for poetry books, for most fonts like Times New Roman. Be consistent with the design of your book, such as the spacing between the title of the poem, the body of the poem and number your pages, making sure the page numbers match the table of contents. You can use 1' margins all the way around. The best size book to self-publish is 6 x 9, as this is the most widely accepted book size by distributors. Proofread your manuscript several times. Chapbooks are a smart way to display the best of your poetry. You can include a photograph of yourself on the back cover, with a biography, or a description of the book. If you are interested in Self-Publishing a poetry chapbook you can contact us at: [email protected] Authors beginning the journey of book publishing will need to understand the difference between these three types of publishers. We will carefully explain the difference one by one.
Shoestring Book Publishing is a Self-Publisher. We design books for authors, as a service. Can an author design their own book? Sure. Anyone with Microsoft Word can design a book, even of epic professional standards given the knowledge. Authors ready to independently publish a book, need to design it themselves, or hire a company such as us to design it. We design & specialize in Poetry books. We also design Novels, Novelettes, Recipe books, Genealogies, Mad Manifestos ... anything an author can put into words, we can design and self-publish. We also offer Ghostwriting Services. Every book published must have an ISBN assigned. The author may choose to use one of our ISBNs, or provide their own, which we will assign to their books. The author may choose to have us publish their book to one of our accounts through Createspace, Lulu, or Ingram Spark, (Available on Amazon as POD) or, they may publish the book through an aggregator account of their own. We do not charge anything to publish an Author's book. The only fees an author will incur with sales, are the fees which the aggregator of choice charges per each book's sale, which is based on the sales channel each book is sold through. We don't make any money to manage your books' account. We pay an account each year, and every quarter, issue you a Royalty Report, and issue those Royalties to you. Some authors need someone to beat up when their books don't sell, or, just don't want to be troubled with the hassle of managing their own books account. In which case, we are here for you. All of the rights to your book, when designed and published by us, or any other tried and true Self-Publisher, or even published by you, forever from now until eternity remain yours. There is no hidden goobledie gook, giving us any rights to your book. We are a company of integrity, and we do not hide information in fine print like Comcast or Verizon ..... A Vanity Press, will often times charge you for a bulk run of your books, and take oodles of your Royalties. They will not allow you to use any other ISBN other than your own. They are usually more expensive than a Self-Publisher & Hide lots of information in fine print. They are normally very large, and impersonal companies. They are commonly deceptive in their language. They do not emphasize the importance of the fact that they are Independently publishing your book. They include a VERY EXPENSIVE marketing package in their offer to you, and try their best to come across as if they are a traditional publisher and your book has been accepted! It is very easy to tell the difference between the two, simply, a Traditional Publisher will NEVER ask an author for money up front to publish their book. They will offer the author a paid lump sum of money. A Vanity Press does their best to imitate a Traditional Publisher, by first informing you that your book has been accepted for publication, before reviewing the staggering finances. They also require you to sign a contract. Through a Traditional Publishing house you will be offered you a deal, either royalties, a lump sum or both for the publishing of your book. You sign a contract and they make promises as to where your book will be available in actual B&M physical book stores for sale, as opposed to Self-Publishing/Vanity press online venues such as Amazon. Usually, you will need to hire a Literary Agent to get recognized by a Traditional Publishing House. If you self-publish a book through us, we will act as you Literary Agent. A legit Literary Agent WILL NOT take any money up front. They will only get paid if your book sells. How you decide to publish and market your book is dependent upon your goals. Do you wish to publish your book so that it may only be shared with friends and family? Or, do you desire to market your book so that it may be available to a wide spread audience? The mainstream publishing process is like the growth of a bamboo. If your goal is to get your book into physical book stores it is most likely going to take some time, many great authors have spent years promoting their works before they were noticed. In order for your book to be accepted by a Traditional Publishing House, you may need a Book Proposal written for your book. There are varying submission guidelines of each Traditional Publisher. Shoestring Book Publishing offers a Book Proposal Writing Service. The purpose of an agent is to have someone to submit your book file in the proper format which the Traditional Publishing House requires. Other materials which may be required are a Biography, with a Brief Description of your book, and contact information. Each Traditional Publishing Press have varying guidelines, which need to be followed to the T, if you want your submission to even be considered for publishing. Weeks, maybe even months will pass before a Traditional Publishing House will respond in regards to your submission. (If they even ever respond at all.) An inspiring author will likely go through MANY rejections before their book is accepted. This process could take several years. An author can send submissions to major publishing houses on their own, or, they can hire a Literary Agent to do the same. The advantages to Hiring a Literary Agent to sell your book, include experience and connections the LA will have, in comparison to the Author. But, if the author is willing to sling the work on their own, they would not have to pay the Literary Agent a fee/percentage of the sales once the book sells. If you are too sensitive to receive rejection after rejection, before hitting the big one, or, if you are strapped for time, it is best to hire a LA. If your goal for publishing your book is to produce a nice professionally designed book, that represents an original work of art, to share with friends and family as a legacy, and you are not looking to have your book in bookstores, self-publishing is the way to go. You can even Self-Publisher, and submit to TPH in the meantime. If you are interested in Self-Publishing, you can contact us @ [email protected] Follow us on Facebook! Alison Emery |
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