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Financially speaking, how beneficial is self-publishing an e-book which sells 100,000 copies, compared to having a traditional publisher?

(Just to clarify... I'm approaching this from the perspective of self-publishing= e-books etc)
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categorycreativity
typeunderstand
tynamite
tynamite's avatar Okay here's my experience with writing books. I've written two novels.

The first thing people say and want, is talking about getting published. However the thing is that publishers don't want to publish things that are original. All they want is a cardboard cut-out formula is what happened before. The next Harry Potter, the next Percy Jackson. That's what sells, and that's what fills up cinemas. If you're planning on writing a teenage story, unless you're planning on watering down your content and writing as idealistic and unrealistic as Jacqueline Wilson, you can forget it. You are not getting published.

To be creative, you have be artistic to do what you believe is right; because to be published, you have to rid yourself of your originality. You might get lucky by finding a legitimate independent publisher who will give you press like Book Guild, or you could go it alone.

If you're going to get published independently, you have to face the inevitable fact that you are not going to make a living off writing. You are doing it for the love, and are getting the recognition you deserve, of all that the publisher has the means to give you. Considering how many popular books were rejected from several publishers such as Harry Potter, you have to accept what comes and not get your hopes up. If you manage to find success all by yourself, that is great.

I write about the things I don't read about, and read the things I don't write about. I write realistic depictions and read fantasy books. I don't read romance and horror, and most books about modern life I am disappointed in for not being realistic. There's Jacqueline Wilson, war stories, and child abuse books. There's no inbetween. Publishers have rejected my 1st book due to the weird narration, and my 2nd book because it ruins a supposedly fantasy story by making it realistic, harsh and adult. I cannot elevator pitch my stories. "Inception. It's like The Matrix but about the matrix is a dream, and our world is the external reality.." "My Super Ex Girlfriend: It's like The Breakup but the ex has super powers." If you can elevator pitch your books like that, you will get published.

If you want to sell a book that doesn't follow a formula or be creative, you have to go independent, and never changed the content of your book for anyone. Be careful of vanity publishers who say they want to publish you, but require you pay fees or waive your copyrights to them.

It's much easier to get people to buy your books than it is for music (piracy), but it's much harder to find people who like reading books.

Talking personally, I feel really lucky. I've got people from abroad from California, Canada, and 2 others who will buy by 2 novels when they come out this month. One will be used for a youth writing club to help children from bad backgrounds who want to learn how to write. They'll be able to analyse my writing, ask me questions, and I'll give them lessons about writing and explain myself. The same club has kids who are willing to make my novel into an audiobook or act some of the scenes out as they know that I'm talented at writing. This question has 8 followers and I know that none of you are going to read my work. None of my friends will read my work and my family as they don't like to read; but I feel happy as I am more successful than I could have ever hoped to be. I'm not creative for the flashing lights, and that it what it's all about.

There is something else you could do to make your book really popular. That is to make it an ebook. I refuse to make my writing into ebook as I believe that it diminishes the experience of reading it. Another thing I have found by researching authors who write ebooks who explain about pricing, is that the cheaper they make their ebooks, the more money they make. That is really astonishing. Making your ebook $1 makes you much more richer than it would if you made it at $5. That's astonishing news.

If you're promoting your ebook, you don't need a publisher really, as you've got the internet. People nowadays have really short attention spans and don't read books any more because of video games. By making your book an ebook, you will not be affected by this problem. If you get your ebook readable on a Kindle, people won't have any problems in reading it, in the fast paced schedule that they have.

Conclusion

I'm not going to make any money for my printed novels, but I'm going to sell them anyway, as if people aren't willing to buy it, they don't deserve to buy it. If I can't get people to buy my book for £3-5, then obviously I am doing something wrong. Also because I adopt this attitude of being self sufficent trying to sell my books instead of tweeting it and awaiting retweets, is that I am having those successes that I said I had. I would never of had them if I had ever of put it online for free to read. You have to get out of your seat, walk out your house, and do things of your own accord. I'm trying to make an impact on the world. (This is why piracy is bad.)

However a girl I know who wants to write a poetry book, is going to make her work an ebook, so she can selflessly share it to the world to benefit all humanity. She's going to be that person who gets her work read by more people than I ever could, because she's making her work an ebook and because it's free. She cares about being against war, women's body image (she's 14), and the homeless; because it's their lives, self esteem and also that they have nothing, respectfully, being considered. Her writing is designed to make the world a better place, and my writing is designed to document the world that we live in. You could relate to both of our work in different ways. I cannot speak for her, as I do not know her reasons for why she writes what she writes, but I do know that she's trying to make the world a better place.

We both have something that either one of us doesn't have, money and readership. It's up to you to decide what you want to do. Why do you want to distribute your work the way that you do?

We both have the same values. I'm against all the things that she is, and we both are trying to make the world and the people around us a better place, but we both do it in different ways.

Even though we agree with our premise, we could never do the things that the other one does, or write about the things that the other one does; but still we have different reasons for why we do things.

They key is to think carefully about what you want to do, and what way you can do things to make you happy. Just make sure you are making the right decision.

Whatever decision you finally make, you can be sure that I won't agree with it. When do I ever agree with anyone's premise for doing the same thing that I do?
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