1. It is very difficult for an unknown author to get in touch with the Traditional Publishers and whatever you send to them is called Unsolicited Mail or submission.

2. Every blogger is ready with a “novella” nowadays in a matter of days, as research has become easy ‘on the net’ and so invariably every Publisher faces a problem of “Spam” novel.

It took me four years to write, re-write, edit and re-edit the book and finally settle with Lulu.com as the publisher.

Although I have to do most of the Promotional Activities for the book on my own, I am happy with the response that I have got for my book and the newly edited version of my book is available at http://www.lulu.com/content/3990391.

The book is available for download only for One U.S. dollar printed version for USD 10/-. Although the printed version seems expensive, I am happy that the interest in the book has staryted growing among the Indian – Thai -American readers.

All this has been made possible by this new technology called Print-on-Demand.

Kishore Joshi
“Author”
One Step At A Time (Manzilein)
By
Kishore Joshi
http://www.lulu.com/content/3990391

Darc, Glenn – Let it be known that you guys are awesome. As far as Oasis goes, whether it gets published (traditionally) or not, it won’t be the last book I write. And the next one(s) will be even better.

William – I really like Lulu. It’s one of two POD places that I’d consider using. Also, I don’t worry about embarrassment anymore. I’ve got thick skin and a desire to write.

And I also have a couple of other projects going that will require self-publishing. One of which is the alluded-to memoir of my grandfather. He assembled it using a 286, typewriters and many photocopiers. There are only a couple of spiral bound copies floating around, and I’d love to make a good hardcover or softcover available to the extended family (and he had 5 kids, so there are plenty of us). So I’ll still be discussing self-publishing on this blog whether Random House comes beating down my door or not.

Anything is possible.

What are the dangers in self publishing?

1. Public Embarrassment – Only if you have typos and grammar errors
2. “Death of writing carrier” – Nope. Not at all. This is a new era, being written by us. Agents won’t care about your 800 self-pubs if they find one they like
3. Loss of “First Printing Rights” ability to sell to a “real” publisher – most likely if you land a real pub, you won’t sell many anyway. Your old material won’t be worth purchasing for your new pub company.
4. Hidden Costs – Lulu all the way. Low, low up front. Easy to put on Amazon. Quality work. No hidden costs.
5. Obscurity – It’s hard for most published authors to get noticed. Heck, most of them don’t have a blog anywhere near the quality of yours.

Buying a book is an “impulse-buy” decision. You can still see people picking up a Kahlil Gibran over a Dan Brown book in a book store in India – although Kahlil Gibran has never been advertised, never been talked about.

Godfather, Fountainhead, any Sidney Sheldon book and Mills and Boon get picked up everyday in India without even trying.

It is important to note that some of the Popular Authors have died more than hundred years ago.

I think, for an author, it is important to be honest while writing the story, give it your best and let word of mouth work or use any other promotional method to promote the book.

It doesn’t matter whether you go the trditional way or not.

Learn the value of patience. Try your best, always!

Kishore Joshi
“Author”
One Step At A Time (Manzilein)
By
Kishore Joshi
http://www.lulu.com/content/3887376

The odds for unpublished author to get a reasonable publishing deal (and as a former acquisitions editor I know this) are very small, and if you are ready to share your work and you’re willing to take responsibility for selling, why wait?

If your goal is to sell the book to a publisher, produce it the same way a publisher would — hire an editor and a professional designer. You’ll also need to plan to actively market your book. A professionally produced book with a solid sales and a good review or two is absolutely going to be more attractive to a bigger publisher than a manuscript from an undiscovered writer (though if you’re successful in selling it you might not want to give it up.) Publishers are not looking for great writing, they are looking for something that they can sell.

Good Luck!
Julie Trelstad
Publisher, Plain White Press

I only suggest to you that you try publishing Oasis traditionally because, A) I thought you wanted to be a professional published author in the traditional industry, and B) I think Oasis is good, strong writing and would be a commercial success. But you’ve stated different goals here than I understood, and we’re all different, striving for different things, with different objectives. If self-publishing is the best route for you to go with your work, and you’re going to hit your objectives best that way, then by all means self-publish.

And I’ll say no more about it.