Monday, March 23, 2015

How to Switch Publishers

...or, Going Self-Pub




When my publisher went out of business, I had no choice in the matter. I had to find a home for my books.

Musa Publishing informed its authors on February 20th that it was closing its doors. On March 1, all publishing rights reverted to us. So now, what to do with my books?

Submit to another small publisher. I never seriously considered this venue. 

Small presses are great. Loved mine for example. But, since bad ones plague our business, research is paramount and I didn’t have the time. 

Besides, I was already half-way to self-publishing so why blindly look for another small press like a desperate petitioner.

Self-Publishing. I’d tested these waters with Out of Magic so I wasn't totally naive. Only 95%. Luckily, I had help in the form of KMDwebdesigns.com.  Kelly Shorten and Michael Mand were a part of the Musa team and we are all very familiar with our relative quirks. I highly, highly recommend their services.

I bought the cover photos and Kelly re-created them perfectly. KMD formatted the interior for print and e-book.

I had an account with KDP and Createspace. I named my publishing company Shamira Publishing and moved through the various decisions on size and marketing. I bought my own ISBN for print but let KDP chose the Kindle versions. For now, I’ll go with Amazon as my only format. I sold a dozen or so at B & N etc and wasn’t really impressed. Besides, Amazon has all formats available for Nook and Apple so why bother.

Wilder Mage and Mage Revealed are live, print and e-books, joining my first short story, Out of Magic in that self-pubbed goal. 












Amazon - Wilder Mage

Amazon - Mage Revealed




Nothing is permanent in this life. Especially computers and business ventures. 


But good friends are forever.


8 comments:

  1. Glad you knew what you were doing (95% right?) and were able to publish them on your own. Congratulations!

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  2. Awesome! Congratulations! Also, how sort of terrifying, but you've totally got this!

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  3. So now that you have "your own" publishing company, you'll need to branch out and find other writers ;)

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  4. Glad you knew what most of what you had to do to make the transitions. Best wishes and much success.

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  5. Sorry to hear about your publisher, but it sounds like you've moved forward nicely. Best wishes for much success. =)

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  6. Amazon has formats available for Nook and Apple? I'm days away from self-pubbing a short story and I was afraid that they only sold mobi files. I don't have a Kindle so I thought I'd have to beg a friend to download and proof for me. I'm terrified I'll mess up the format somehow and won't know until I start getting nasty complaints from reviewers. I'm glad it's all worked out so well for you. I have a CP who was also with MUSA. She hasn't decided what to do yet...

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    Replies
    1. If you publish via Amazon, the customer can download the Kindle app for IPads and IPhones and read any book. You don't need to send it to Apple or B&N.
      I had a few sales at other markets but not like Amazon. I wish it wasn't necessary but ya gotta go where the market is.

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