Peg Herring, Mystery Author

 It occurs to me that I should have discussed why people choose traditional or self-publishing, so I'm going to take a step back and do that. When I finished my first book, there were two options for publication, traditional publishing or vanity publishing. Vanity publishing requires that an author pay for her work to be presented to the world. It's been around for centuries, and some pretty important writers started out that way, but it was definitely a no-no for "serious" writers. Traditional publishing, getting an agent, waiting for her to shop the book to publishing houses, and hoping for an offer was, at that time, the only way to get any kind of credibility. I did it that way. It took years, but the result was good. The publisher who signed me up got me reviews from prestigious places like the Historical Novel Society and Kirkus Reviews . I was thrilled that my first review in HNS (For Macbeth's Niece ), got a star, meaning the reviewer thought it rose above

...you'll often wish you'd spent more time making it better. ...you'll want to keep your day job. ...you'll be surprised how little your friends and family care. ...you'll find out how many people don't read books like yours--or don't read at all. ...you'll learn that typing THE END is only the beginning.

This is an excerpt from my presentation on publishing. It's by no means exhaustive, just a little help to get you started.   There’s a book that tells you EVERYthing about the self-publishing process. It’s around $15.00 but worth it. Let’s Get Digital - https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Get-Digital-Self-Publish-Should/dp/1475212607 Before you get too excited about all the money that’s going to roll in, you might want to read this article: “Everything You Wanted to Know about Book Sales but Were Afraid to Ask”- https://electricliterature.com/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-book-sales-but-were-afraid-to-ask-1fe6bc00aa2d#.a3ar05u8a Site to find free-lance editors, cover artists, etc. Reedsy. You tell them what you need, they match you with someone who can do that. https://reedsy.com/#/freelancers To make Kindle E-books : Kindle Digital Platform- https://kdp.amazon.com/ To make paperback books through Amazon : CreateSpace - https://www.createspace.com/

There was an article in the Sunday paper yesterday about a young man who'd chose self-publishing. He had a cute idea for a children's book, and after being rejected by traditional publishers, he went to work and got it together himself. And ordered 1000 copies of the book. I wish I'd met him before that point in his brand-new career. Here's my understanding of the scam some "helpful" publishers use to make money off earnest, unknowing writers: They "help" you publish your book, charging you every step of the way. They encourage you to buy a bunch of copies because "When this thing takes off, you're going to want them on hand!" They often charge the author full or nearly full price per book, so he gets no profit unless he jacks up the price, making dutiful friends and relatives shell out more than they should for a book in order to be supportive. Bookstores don't want them, because people don't want to pay big bucks for a b