| Author |
Message |
    
Todd Hunter
Unity Member
Post Number:
1085
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 03:27 pm: |   |
Received this in my inbox today...always exciting...
*****
"Dear Todd,
My name is Mercedes and I work for Xlibris, a leader in the self-publishing industry. If you don’t mind, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about how we can help you achieve publishing success.
Xlibris is partially owned by Random House Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary of Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher. We distinguish ourselves from other self-publishing companies by offering both trade and full-color publishing programs, a wide array of marketing services and a superior copy-editing service.
To date, we have published over 8,000 titles, sold more than 1,000,000 books and paid our authors more than $1,000,000 in royalties. Many Xlibris authors have taken their success and signed contracts with traditional publishers such as St. Martin’s Press, Kensington, and Bantam Books.
Writers choose Xlibris because we are known for excellence. We are so confident you’ll be thrilled with our services that we back them up with a 100% money-back guarantee.
To learn more about how we can help you achieve publishing success, please click here and we will send you a guide to our Publishing Services.
You can also call us toll free at (888) 795-4274 and ask to speak with a Publishing Consultant to learn more. Each month, we run special offers for new submissions. So contact us today!
Sincerely,
Mercedes Bournias
Xlibris Publishing"
*****
Myself, I wouldn't be giving out the numbers like they did...
one can do the calculations and find out that by their own numbers,
they consider success to be approximately 125 books sold (per author),
and approximately $1 per book in royalties...
Yikes! By those numbers, I've already become a success...
I'd better get on the horn with St. Martin’s Press, Kensington, and Bantam Books,
and find out what the holdup is...
(although they DO state they're a self-publishing company...so
I give them that)
Sigh. |
Laurel Johnson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2558
Registered: 01-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 05:09 pm: | |
I didn't get an email but got a snail mail letter. Those are not very good royalties for a subsidy pub. Both 1stBooks and iUniverse do better. |
Matt Dinniman
Wandering Member
Post Number:
132
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 09:17 am: | |
I've gotten a few of those.
What I get millions of are those Bookman's marketing letters. They seem to think of me as an "industry professional," and I get their silly press releases all the time. I imagine if the authors knew they were paying to spam ME, a publishing nobody, they'd think twice about doing it again. |
Fred Dungan
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
519
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 10:31 pm: | |
Which is better? 1st Books or iUniverse? How do they differ?
http://www.fdungan.com/publish.htm
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Matt Dinniman
Wandering Member
Post Number:
134
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 11:45 pm: | |
I don't know which is really better, but I hear as many complaints about 1st books as I hear about PA. Have you checked out Lulu? |
Steven Shrewsbury
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
509
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 05:34 am: | |
I have a few tales in LULU books via CYBERPULP but have not seen them to judge the quality...need to order a few I guess...but lulu makes no bones about being DO IT YOURSELF pub. |
Laurel Johnson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2579
Registered: 01-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 06:02 am: | |
1stBooks costs more than iUniverse.
1stBooks has higher retail pricing than iUniverse. iUniverse has competitive retail pricing. What I mean by that is.....the books on the iuniverse site and on amazon have the same price.
I can't speak for the iUniverse royalties but the 1stBooks royalties are excellent, even if you choose the lowest percentage range.
I can't speak for the iUniverse contract but the 1stBooks contract is author friendly. I had no trouble at all getting my contract with 1stBooks cancelled when another publisher picked up The Alley of Wishes.
My 1stBooks royalty checks were sent in a timely way, quarterly, like clockwork.
If I ever self publish again I will go with iUniverse. |
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
525
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 12:18 pm: | |
The panel that I will be a part of at the conference this weekend is scheduled to discuss that very subject. As a matter of fact, the president a CEO of iUniverse is going to be sitting in on that panel.
If anybody has any specific questions that they would like posed to her (or any other POD publisher representative who shows up), you can post them here or contact me directly. I'll be more than happy to see what I can do.
Who was it that started the fad of capitalizing the second letter instead of the first? Was it iUniverse or eBay? |
Fred Dungan
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
520
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 08:47 pm: | |
Dennis,
Please ask her what happened to the Frankfurt Awards. I heard that Bill Gates withdrew the funding because MS Reader flopped. Is there any chance that the ebook awards will be revived? Is the festival now restricted to print? Can POD authors exhibit paperbacks? Does iUniverse participate?
http://www.fdungan.com/publish.htm |
Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
527
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 04:23 am: | |
iUniverse is probably the most visible POD at the coferences I've been to. I know that they signed a contract with Mystery Writer's of America giving publishing discounts to MWA members.
Seems to me that I've seen some XLibris and 1st Books people around a few conferences too. I have never run across a PA representative though.
I'm not familiar with the Frankfurt Awards I'll see what I can find out. Todd Stone, an EPPIE award winning friend of mine will be there. He's really deep into e-books. I can ask him.
My books (POD) will be available as consignment items through the Borders outlet on site at the conference.
I normally sell about five or six books at a conference but I'm expecting to sell a few more at this one because I intend to price them in the $10.00 to $12.00 range. |
Laurel Johnson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2581
Registered: 01-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 04:39 am: | |
They must have had the Frankfurt Book Fair because a man from Germany contacted my publisher and asked for my email address. He saw The Alley of Wishes there, read it and sent me a rather nice critique. A french and Belgian publisher saw The Alley of Wishes there and asked my publisher for an evaluation copy to consider for foreign rights. That was several months ago. |
Fred Dungan
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
523
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 04, 2004 - 09:21 pm: | |
Far too many writers ignore foreign rights which are normally seperate from domestic rights and have the potential to transform a virtual unknown into a world-renowned author. It's a good way to get around all that "Do you have an agent?/Have you been published?/Don't call us, we'll call you" BS that big US publishing houses dispense without even bothering to read the manuscript you sent them. My first novel, The Gospel According to Condo Don, was published in Northern Ireland where good novels by foreign writers are appreciated for their literary worth.
Translating a work into a foreign language is a much easier task than it used to be. Software programs such as Babelfish make it possible to translate the bulk of your novel by computer. Of course, someone still has to go over it for errors, but its a whole lot easier than starting from scratch (I know what I'm talking about - my last job was working as an interpreter for the county).
http://www.fdungan.com/vigilantes.htm
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