Thanks. Yes, self-publishing is an option. I am looking for an official
publisher mainly for one reason, namely that other scientists and researchers
can cite it, since I still cling to the illusion that someone would actually do
it. Normally self-published texts are not considered as reliable or trustworthy
sources. I didn't expect that finding a decent publisher would be so difficult.
-J.
-------- Original message --------From: Tom Johnson <[email protected]> Date:
7/4/20 20:10 (GMT+01:00) To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee
Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Book publishing advice needed
Jochen:The deal being offered strikes me as a bad deal.Background: I have been
practicing and teaching about "Be Your Own Publisher" for nearly 15 years.
There are, in my opinion, some major problems with all publishers today. It
starts with control of the copyright. I think YOU should want to maintain
control of the copyright to your work. It will depend on the contract, but
many or most publishers will try to lock down the copyright in their favor for
all -- ALL -- forms of your work in perpetuity and throughout the universe.
Sometimes quite literally.Second, you should assume -- especially with a small
publisher and you, not being as well known as Stephen King or Daniel Steele
-- the publisher will do little if anything to promote your book beyond a
mention in its catalog and, maybe, some promotional links on Amazon. Given
that, a 5 percent royalty should be seen as a con.Third, given your computing
experience, you should find it easy to format and produce the book yourself. I
have used Lulu.com for years. It is especially good if you want to have both
hardback, paperback and PDF editions. Again the advantages: you keep the
copyright, you can set (and change) the prices and to a degree the royalties.
Also, Lulu and Amazon handle all the backend financial arrangements and
administration and pay directly and quickly. I also use a very good, high
quality digital printer in Albuquerque for paperback editions. It is
Lithexcel. It handles all the printing (one copy to any number) quickly, along
with all the fulfillment and accounting. The folks there will also, for only
$25, set up your book in the Amazon inventory search engine. Finally, there is
Amazon's self-publishing arm. While Amazon might take a bigger slice, the
control over all aspects is in your hands.Here's the problem/challenge with all
of these. YOU have to do the marketing/publicity/promotion. But so what? If
you today sign with any publisher of any size you will have to do the same
thing.Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me with questions. Also you might
want to see https://bit.ly/2ZvihKc
Tom============================================Tom Johnson -
[email protected] for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM
USA505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)NM
Foundation for Open GovernmentCheck out It's The People's Data
============================================
Virus-free. www.avast.com
On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 1:29 AM Jochen Fromm <[email protected]> wrote:At one
end of the spectrum there are the 5 big commercial publishers Hachette,
HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. They only
publish stuff their agents select to make a lot of money. There are also the
big academic publishers like OUP, CUP, HUP and MIT Press, which preferably
publish strictly peer-reviewed content from professors at Ivy League
universities who made their PhD at the age of 20.At the other end of the
spectrum there are "predatory publishers" who publish anything you submit as
long as you pay enough money for it. Open access books can also be very
expensive. Publishing an "open access book" at De Gruyter for example costs up
to 8000 $. You pay for it so that other people read it. It is basically some
kind of advertising of your own work.For my own new book I finally have an
offer from a small publisher in Washington D.C. who is somewhere in the middle
of the spectrum. They are really small and offer 5% royalties. Should I accept
this offer or wait for a better one? It is the only one from more than 25
publishers I have asked, and the publishers at the moment are flooded with
submissions.
:-/https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/mar/26/novel-writing-during-coronavirus-crisis-outbreak-J.-
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