Authors and Self-Publishing

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Why don't you guys go over to a "How To Dominate" thread and ask Sam O'Conor about it? I believe he self-published.

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He is not self published.

Guys - I am a publisher. I publish magazines, not books, but I have a very good understanding of the book publishing biz because its very similar. I recently had a discussion with Tommy Angelo about his choice to self publish, like Tommy as long as you understand the risks and dont expect a huge reward its a viable solution if you want to keep your distribution controlled, perhaps limited to a handful of retail stores that you sell directly to as well as your own website/amazon. If you sell more than a few hundred copies of a poker book using this format your a rare survivor. After on-demand publishing costs your lucky if you make $5/book, sell 300 copies and profit 1.5k which in my mind is ridiculously low for the amount of work required to self publish. Tommy's decision goes beyond book sales measurements, I think he made the right choice but most people don't when they try this method.

The only time self publishing might be profitable is when the author orders a large quantity of books from the printer, stores them in a warehouse, and spends a year negotiating distribution deals with the major wholesale distributors. Then releases the book and invests marketing dollars for on-premise displays, PR push, etc etc etc. I don't know for sure but I think this was the route that Bary Greenstein took, only problem is he has admitted already the book hasn't turned a profit (which is probably fine for him, a tax writeoff might be as valuable as a small profit - they don't call it vanity publishing for nothing!)

I hope this explanation clears up some of the misunderstandings, I'll try to remember to check back on this thread soon.