Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Hi Everyone,
I'm torn. I have been researching POD verses traditional publishing for a good two years now and have a lot of friends who have done really well with it. Originally when I wrote my memoir I was going to go POD all the way. I have a fan base, the town the events take place in has been open to me doing readings and selling the books there as well as some bookstores in NYC. I've had three editors go through it. One was a friend, one a well known writer (through a large publishing house) and editor who I admired greatly, and yes I paid her for her services. The third was a PHD in British Lit who made her living as an editor. Until the manuscript fell into the the writer's hands I was going POD, she immediately told me to send it to a small press. It was well written but a hard sell because, as she said, "the memoir market is shaky." It is also written in scrapbook form. Think On the Road but with teenage girls. The third editor was done with traditional publishing and suggested that because I have a small following I would probably do best, doing it myself. The book is finished and the intro was written by a writer with a music background and a few books published by a very well known small press under his belt. He also said that the book was well written and could probably be picked up. Now this has me completely confused. I was going to do it POD to keep the book as factual as possible. The road trip is transcribed as/is with grammar edits, the journal entries and letters are the same. My fear with going to the traditional publisher would be that they would want to somehow change it and that I feel would not remain true to what the story was supposed to be. And of course there's the emotional aspect as well. Do I not want to change it because the people I write about are dead? They can't tell their stories. So I decided to ask you, your input. I've read through all eight pages of tagged entries on POD and I'm so overwhelmed. Should I distance myself for a while or do I just go forth? And to what do I go forth to?

I think the big question here is, at least for me, can you still get published (traditionally) once you go POD or have you ruined your chances all together?

I too have a memoir and have been looking into POD through CreateSpace which is owned by Amazon. I'm sure through several mediums including a blog, I can achieve some impressive numbers but it can never measure up to the potential book sales that traditional publishing offers.

Also, to offer some feedback regarding your concerns about POD, etc. I think the first thing you may want to do is to establish your objective. Your goals, and dreams, for your memoir. Are you going to rely on the income stream for your basic support. Did you have any expectations of your book hitting the NY Times BSL? That sort of stuff. And again, is there no turning back?

I'll say this though. We earn much more with POD. Actually, it's more than double per book and the cover price is way less. I'm going to do some more research but I believe POD is the way. At least for me...and taking in to account the economic condition we are in, my chances are so slim. Even if I write the perfect query, have a great story, and a fabulous book proposal.

Thanks Skyhawk. I've done a bunch of research on POD and publishing as well as talked to people that were in publishing themselves and the consensus was that POD was no longer the scarlet letter of the publishing industry. Especially when so many small presses are starting to go that way. They seemed to think that you can make it with POD but it definitely takes a lot more work than anyone is expecting. And when trying to sell to bookstores, they want the book at wholesale, which I think is something createspace has worked out.

The reason I wrote my book was because I promised my cousin before she passed away that I would. To me, I don't care if I sell 5 copies or 500,000. I wanted to get it out there. It wasn't about the money for me with this book. I also know that I have a fan base out there that is interested in it, which makes me feel a lot better. I'm about to write a blog about it in a moment. I just got confused with all the different feedback.

Thank you for helping me organize my brain. I'm going to go with my first initial thought and go POD. I have a publishing company that uses POD and does a bunch of events in the city to promote the books so I'll probably go that route.

POD then based on your objectives sounds like a good plan however, given your "fan base' a/k/a author platform, you may very well get the attention of an agent provided you haven't gone down that road already. Of course, you would have to submit a well prepared book proposal which if you haven't done yet, I would be happy to forward you mine, which you are welcome to copy any part thereof as it is also a memoir. Just look at the format and change the details and you'll be all set. It's 14 pages long and took me a year to get it right so it may as well go to some good use! I'm going POD as well with CreateSpace. What has all that research yielded in terms of the best people to go with?