Publishing Options For Atherean Defenders
I’ve always said that if I publish Atherean Defenders, it would be free, and I meant it. If I self-publish the title, you’ll never pay one red cent for it. Unfortunately, that also means that there won’t be a print edition when it’s initially released. To be honest, I can’t afford it on my own.
If I self- publish, I can make Atherean Defenders available as a PDF, for those of you who want to hold a copy in your hand. I was even thinking of a promotion where I could assist with printing costs for those of you who wanted a hard copy, although I hadn’t thought of anything yet. Also, if Atherean Defenders is self-published, it will be available on the Amazon Kindle, as well as other major online book retailers, such as Smashwords. Truthfully, I don’t know if Amazon will let me give away the title on their site. I doubt it, though.
My primary concern with publishing Atherean Defenders has always been retention of rights; I’m not giving anyone the rights to do anything with this story without my permission. Retaining creative control means more to me than making a ton of money (at this point), so I never even considered the idea of publishing the story. All the research I’ve done, and I doubted a publishing house would take a chance on me anyway. I’d rather write the story and let the readers decide if I was any good.
But a publisher approached me; retaining my rights is no longer a concern. Plus, I trust the publisher.
If I sign this contract, Atherean Defenders is realized in both online and offline formats. The book becomes available—in print—on Amazon, and God willing, every other retailer out there. I also gain some serious marketing muscle in addition to my own efforts. The trade-off is; the book will no longer be free.
So that’s what it comes down too. I self-publish, the book is free, but electronic only. I go with a publisher, the book becomes available in print, at a cost.
So the question I put to you is; do you like this story enough to pay for it?
Either comment or message me (keep it clean, please), and I promise I have thick skin, so any constructive advice would be welcome. Thanks for following along and replying, in advance.
(c) Avery K. Tingle for Akting Out LLC
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If you can go traditional while maintaining the rights you want to keep and the return is good enough (of course depending on success but self publishing is the same), I say go for it. It's more respected currently and probably a lot of included benefits. Yes, I love free fiction but I am also willing to pay for work I enjoy. You've already given away Uprising as it is which is a good contribution to the free community.
If you go with a publisher, I assume they will do some marketing beyond placing it upon a few bookshelves in book stores? No point in getting fancily published if no one knows the book exists.
If you were just doing it for the print copy, there is always Lulu and CreateSpace. You can even get an ISBN and distribution with those if your good. The amount you earn would theoretically be higher per sale but the downside is that you would have organise editing, marketing and covers at your own expense to stand out of the crowd.
Regarding free ebooks, both Amazon and Apple iBooks allow free content but there is nothing wrong with charging for those.