Saul the Heir of Isauldur
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hello. I have a gaping question about publishing: you self-published the Ryiria Revelations online at first. Did you have to go through any copyright paperwork beforehand? And how DO you self publish? I've always thought the process to be a bit esoteric, since I know so little about it. Thank you, Saul
Michael J. Sullivan
Hey Saul, thanks for stopping by and asking the question. Well, first off I should say that I didn't "just" publish the Riyria Revelations online at first -- I did both ebook and trade paperback versions. The paperback versions utilized POD (print on demand), which significantly decreased the "upfront" costs of the book.
As for copyright - your book is copyrighted the second you put it down on paper. What you are referring to is "registration of the copyright." When you are traditionally released the publisher will fill out that information on your behalf. When you self-publish, yes you should register the copyright (it only costs $35) and literally takes 5 minutes to fill out the on-line form to do it. Generally you submit the copyright just after the final manuscript is submitted, but it can be done anytime. Recently I noticed that my publisher missed doing the copyright registrations for one of my books, so they applied for it just a few weeks ago. Again the "registration" has nothing to do with "date you made the piece."
As for how you self-publish there are MANY MANY steps between a written manuscript and a finished product, when you are self-published you are wearing BOTH hats so you have to (a) educate yourself as to what publishers do (b) hire freelancers to do those things that you can't do on your own (like cover design or copy editing) and (c) take the book through the same process that a publisher would and produce a book that stands toe-to-toe with anything that is released through the traditional channels. Then you have to make it available for sale. Most of your sales will come from Amazon and I recommend kdp for distribution of the ebook to Amazon and CreateSpace for distribution of the printed trade paperback. If you want to post on other sites, there are "aggregators" such as Draft2Digital and Smashwords which will push your ebook to places like iBookstore, B&N.com (nook), Kobo, etc. I always recommend "direct" (no middleman) for Amazon, and then if you want to use the aggregator for Theo there sites it'll make your life a lot easier. Of course you can go to each online store and do direct selling, but that is a bit more time and effort to go through.
As for copyright - your book is copyrighted the second you put it down on paper. What you are referring to is "registration of the copyright." When you are traditionally released the publisher will fill out that information on your behalf. When you self-publish, yes you should register the copyright (it only costs $35) and literally takes 5 minutes to fill out the on-line form to do it. Generally you submit the copyright just after the final manuscript is submitted, but it can be done anytime. Recently I noticed that my publisher missed doing the copyright registrations for one of my books, so they applied for it just a few weeks ago. Again the "registration" has nothing to do with "date you made the piece."
As for how you self-publish there are MANY MANY steps between a written manuscript and a finished product, when you are self-published you are wearing BOTH hats so you have to (a) educate yourself as to what publishers do (b) hire freelancers to do those things that you can't do on your own (like cover design or copy editing) and (c) take the book through the same process that a publisher would and produce a book that stands toe-to-toe with anything that is released through the traditional channels. Then you have to make it available for sale. Most of your sales will come from Amazon and I recommend kdp for distribution of the ebook to Amazon and CreateSpace for distribution of the printed trade paperback. If you want to post on other sites, there are "aggregators" such as Draft2Digital and Smashwords which will push your ebook to places like iBookstore, B&N.com (nook), Kobo, etc. I always recommend "direct" (no middleman) for Amazon, and then if you want to use the aggregator for Theo there sites it'll make your life a lot easier. Of course you can go to each online store and do direct selling, but that is a bit more time and effort to go through.
More Answered Questions
Noah
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hi, Michael. I noticed while listening to Death of Dulgath and now while listening to Age of Myth that some of your scenery descriptions remind me of Ireland. Also, some of your place and character names are reminiscent of ancient Ireland (Nog, Meav). I recall that in Revelations you had a king named Ethlred. My question is, are you a British Isles history buff, and have you perhaps taken a trip over there?
K.S.
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
First, I want to say that Royce and Hadrian are some of the most fun characters I’ve read. Can’t wait to read more. Me and some friends have been publishing our books as a team. We have good feedback so far, but are struggling to find readers. Do you have any advice for us? What were some of the challenges when you first started and how did you overcome them? Anything you share will be much appreciated.
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