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For my stuff? Yes. For anything else? No way. I can imagine what a disaster that would be. When you mentioned that it'd be trivial for me to find the stuff for a German breakfast around here I chuckled. I often don't remember to eat. I'd probably starve to death if it wasn't for the other half. The reason I take a couple of weeks to mail books? That takes the "can do routine tasks" gene. That thing is nowhere to be found in my DNA. If I wasn't married I'd be hopeless. A German breakfast is when I paddled out of my room and there was food down in the public area. Kind of hard not to notice as you needed to walk around the tables. Grab a plate and walk along the line and make something. If it wasn't in front of me I'd not remember to wander to where it was.
That hard drive I mentioned in the book? It's still sitting here on the floor. I will finally get that cleaned up now just by being home.
To be a publisher I'd need somebody to be able to do the routine stuff. Which would mean the other half. She has a job. The reason she doesn't like me selling anything? She'd be the one doing it. She's a particularly smart girl. She ain't buying in to that. So she'd like me to put the stuff I work on out for her own reasons. Which is likely the main reason why I'll do it. But she does know that if anything routine is involved she'll have to do it.
That disaster would be epic. That I have zero doubt on.
I'm pretty sure the reason I don't put my book up for sale on eBay is I know people might order it and that'd cause me to have to mail them. Easier to lie low. In the end I'll give them to the kid and he can sell them. He has that gene. So I'm pretty sure I know how it'll go with the following ones. Except the fiction ones. Those are different.
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"Vanity Press." A term invented by the publishers to tar books. The logic is pretty clear. I noted you used that term. I've noted others using it. Care to see my take?
1) Option 1. Have an established publisher do the work on your book. They then take the bulk of the profit. So in this scenario you're doing the hard work on generating the content and they do the easy work of putting it out there. Yet they get the money. What do you get? "The ego stroke of having your book published by a big publisher."
2) Option 2. Do it yourself. Use the "Vanity Press." Except you get the profits.
Which sounds like more vanity? I'll go with #1. I'm firmly convinced the large publishing houses created that term for their own selfish reasons.
The publishing market has changed. The large publishing houses no longer have that power. Similar to the record companies in so many ways. Today you have the ability to do what they used to control - get it out there. It's different in many ways but effectively it isn't. The "print houses" have access to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., I could have used the print house I utilized for the book and gone a different route. I elected not to. For my own reasons. For the fiction books I will. For the reasons specific to them.
Firstly, the market is now e-books. So you create your book. They have all the tools to help. They'll even get it edited if you'd like. I obviously skipped that step. It was intentional. Regardless, once your book is done you upload it. Then it goes out there as an e-book. On all the usual sites. Each takes a cut for those sold. If people want printed copies they can buy them. "Print on demand." "Just in time manufacturing" right? Order a dead tree edition and they print it and mail it. Author doesn't need to do anything.
So what exactly does a publishing house, in the old sense, provide? Pretty much nothing that isn't available via the new. The only thing that is different is you pay the costs up front. Which is fine because you get the profits.
Take a look:
https://www.bookbaby.com/
That hard drive I mentioned in the book? It's still sitting here on the floor. I will finally get that cleaned up now just by being home.
To be a publisher I'd need somebody to be able to do the routine stuff. Which would mean the other half. She has a job. The reason she doesn't like me selling anything? She'd be the one doing it. She's a particularly smart girl. She ain't buying in to that. So she'd like me to put the stuff I work on out for her own reasons. Which is likely the main reason why I'll do it. But she does know that if anything routine is involved she'll have to do it.
That disaster would be epic. That I have zero doubt on.
I'm pretty sure the reason I don't put my book up for sale on eBay is I know people might order it and that'd cause me to have to mail them. Easier to lie low. In the end I'll give them to the kid and he can sell them. He has that gene. So I'm pretty sure I know how it'll go with the following ones. Except the fiction ones. Those are different.
====
"Vanity Press." A term invented by the publishers to tar books. The logic is pretty clear. I noted you used that term. I've noted others using it. Care to see my take?
1) Option 1. Have an established publisher do the work on your book. They then take the bulk of the profit. So in this scenario you're doing the hard work on generating the content and they do the easy work of putting it out there. Yet they get the money. What do you get? "The ego stroke of having your book published by a big publisher."
2) Option 2. Do it yourself. Use the "Vanity Press." Except you get the profits.
Which sounds like more vanity? I'll go with #1. I'm firmly convinced the large publishing houses created that term for their own selfish reasons.
The publishing market has changed. The large publishing houses no longer have that power. Similar to the record companies in so many ways. Today you have the ability to do what they used to control - get it out there. It's different in many ways but effectively it isn't. The "print houses" have access to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., I could have used the print house I utilized for the book and gone a different route. I elected not to. For my own reasons. For the fiction books I will. For the reasons specific to them.
Firstly, the market is now e-books. So you create your book. They have all the tools to help. They'll even get it edited if you'd like. I obviously skipped that step. It was intentional. Regardless, once your book is done you upload it. Then it goes out there as an e-book. On all the usual sites. Each takes a cut for those sold. If people want printed copies they can buy them. "Print on demand." "Just in time manufacturing" right? Order a dead tree edition and they print it and mail it. Author doesn't need to do anything.
So what exactly does a publishing house, in the old sense, provide? Pretty much nothing that isn't available via the new. The only thing that is different is you pay the costs up front. Which is fine because you get the profits.
Take a look:
https://www.bookbaby.com/
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