Let's Give 'em Something to Talk About

Saturday night I was part of the panel discussing publishing at the Borders store on Brentwood. In honor of Small Press Month, the St. Louis Publishers Association sponsors these 2 hour workshops at various Borders stores around the area. (Though we may need to find another location next year. Will there be any Borders stores left here?) Anyway, each speaker has 30 minutes to discuss their topic and take Q & A. My assigned topic was self-publishing versus traditional publishing. Bob Baker had presented this area the previous Saturday in Sunset Hills, so I went to that workshop so I could see what he covered. Because of his background and success in self-publishing, I knew that his presentation was not going to work for me. I started from scratch and covered the pros and cons of each type of publishing. I think that it went okay.

I love attending these things because I always learn something myself. At this session I found out that even if I were to print dad's book through Lightening Source I could still have a local printer do 25 copies or so for me to sell. Otherwise you have to buy your books back from Lightening Source, which sort of rubs me the wrong way. So I'll price the book both ways and see what happens. The beauty of using Lightening Source is that they will get your book into distribution since they are owned by Ingrams, the largest book distributor in the world I believe.

Speaking of dad's book, the designer has sent me two sample layouts to consider. But both of them are in the 8 1/2 x 11 format, which makes me think he did not get the email telling him I want it to be 6 x 9 or so. I have sent him an email through our Workroom in elance, so we'll see what he says next.