Q&A with Martha Rodriguez discussion

Hi folks,
Just thought I'd put up another discussion topic so here it is. Chit-chat away with eachother about any topic that comes to mind. One rule: Have fun!

Should we stay on the topic of rerading/writing?

Deb wrote: "Should we stay on the topic of rerading/writing?"

Hi Deb,
Yes, we can stay on that topic or anything else we want to talk about.

Has anyone used a print-on-demand group, and if so would you mind sharing your experience? I'm considering but have concerns about the quality and control.

I'm looking for a publisher for my first PB. I would very much like to go with print on demand too. I do know that 4RV is a small reputable press that goes that way but they aren't accepting children's stories right now. Did you try Muse It Up Publishing? They're out of Canada. I'm not totally sure but I think they're P.O.D. too. I do know that they're reputable!

I feel strongly about P.O.D. Not only does it save the trees from unnecessary destruction but it saves costs for both the publisher, author & consumer!

I do know many people who have used P.O.D. & have reviewed their books. The quality of the books are great!

Patricia and Deb,
At first I considered P.O.D. but after much research, I decided to go with a local printing house in my home town. You can call me old fashioned, I guess. With my home town printer, I got the great customer service that I wanted, a better price per book (believe it or not... although you do have to take the risk that people will buy your book) and was able to keep the money in my community. It was a great experience and I think it would be hard for me to go any other way... but never say never, right? Oh, I didn't say never! :)

Martha,
Right. Never say never. Unfortunately, my town doesn't have any kind of publisher. It's just a newspaper & a place that calls themselves a printer. I called this printer a few years ago & all they print are wedding invitations & the like. I'll have to call again, maybe things have changed & a P.O.D. has popped up!

Deb wrote: "Martha,
Right. Never say never. Unfortunately, my town doesn't have any kind of publisher. It's just a newspaper & a place that calls themselves a printer. I called this printer a few years ago & a..."

I guess I should consider myself lucky, then! Best of luck finding the right fit for your book. Have you tried the P.O.D on Amazon, CreateSpace? https://www.createspace.com/

I have considered CreateSpace but since my book is a picture book I'd have to pay them an additional 100+ dollars for the interior pictures. I think I should find one that will do the pictures for me at no additional cost. I'm thinking about FutureWord.

I know, the dollars quickly add up. If I hear of any other places, I'll let you know. Maybe some other folks will have some ideas, too.

CreateSpace was one of the ones I was looking at. There is also a group called Bookow, that, it appears, sets everything and can do a cover w/spine, front and back that can then be uploaded to CreateSpace. One of the things I'm concerned w/is doing it myself on CreateSpace and not doing it correctly. My goal is to have print versions available to readers who don't have ereaders, or just want print books.
Thank you both for your thoughts, if I find out more I'll report back.

Good luck Patricia! Definitely keep us posted.

Oh yeah, and if they can put sequins on the cover...Bonus!

Definitely BONUS!! Hey, I asked a friend who went with P.O.D. and published through Lulu.com. She said she had a great experience with them. I asked her to join us here. Hopefully she will but if not, check them out if you haven't already.

Thanks, Martha. I will take a look at Lulu. Tell your friend I said thanks as well.

I have published two books with lulu.com. It is easy to upload and you can play about with everything before signing off the final book. You can also set massive discounts on the lulu site to keep your costs down.

If you have any specific q's please fire 'em at me and I'll try to help.

Thanks so much,MJ. I'm going to take a look at the Luly site and then I'm sure I'll have some questions. I truly appreciate the help!

I checked out Lulu once & you had to buy either your copyright or ISBN. It might have changed since then though. I sure hope so. I like the quality of their work!

You get a free ISBN or you can buy your own. Quality is good but font needs to be 14 minimum. I have a little trick to keep the costs down; ignore their templates and upload your own settings, it drastically reduces the page count.

That's great news, MJ! Do you know if they do in - house illustrations or do you have to pay extra for that?

A copyright is $35 if you do it online and not through the mail.

Thanks.

Plans are "this close" to being finalized for my first school visit. I can't wait to read A Reel Cool Summer to the kiddies. The great thing is that they are learning about book publishing and want to ask me questions about that, too! So excited and nervous!

I use Lightning Source based in the States for POD. I have also had books printed the old-fashioned way, resently by Friesens in Altona (near Winnipeg). LS did a good job on my picture book. For more information go to http://www.susanross.blog.com. I can't type anymore right now. The cat is crawling all over the desk. Lucky for him he's cute.

Okay, the cat's gone. Did you know you can easily get an ISBN and CIP for free? I paid $50 for the copyright. I think next time I'll get it in the States. In Canada all you do is give them the title and JUST the title(which, by the way, is not copyrighted). I don't understand how that would stand up in court. The U.S. wants the whole book. That makes a lot more sense to me. I'm going to read with the rabbit now. No, I'm not kidding.

Susan wrote: "Okay, the cat's gone. Did you know you can easily get an ISBN and CIP for free? I paid $50 for the copyright. I think next time I'll get it in the States. In Canada all you do is give them the titl..."

Thanks for the info, Susan.

Thanks for the recommendation, Frank. <3

Hi folks,
I found out today that Lulu.com is having a short story contest (600 words or less). I entered my short story "An Angel without Wings." today. If you are interested in entering, here's the link:

http://www.lulu.com/blog/2011/11/01/l...

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Thank you Martha.

Thanks Martha.

Thank you, Martha.

Hi folks!
So sorry that it's been quiet around here. I traveled to Washington, DC and NY last week. Lots of great sightseeing and food! Bad part was four days without internet access... or was that the good part? :)

Trying to get back in the swing of things. Hope you'll stop by and read an interview of yours truly here: http://bit.ly/vAEE81

I want to thank Cindy Meyers-Hanson for interviewing me on her blog. She's interviewing children's book authors the entire month of November. Please follow her on Twitter @mchanson714 or on GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

Have a great week!
Martha

Glad to see you back!

Patricia wrote: "Has anyone used a print-on-demand group, and if so would you mind sharing your experience? I'm considering but have concerns about the quality and control."

Hi, Patricia.

I use Createspace and I find the service and quality really good. In spite of that, I went through a painful learning curve with my first book, learning how to proofread, get the right format, font, cover etc. but the advantage is that there is no cost at all as you are playing around with all this. You do all the work online, you pay only for the proof copy that is sent to you (a few dollars + postage), you either accept or refuse the proof copy. There is nothing like seeing the first proof copy in your hands, to realize, once you have picked yourself up from the floor :-), what further work needs to be done before the book can be offered for sale.

My advice is don't hurry to accept the first proof copy. I went through about five proof copies for my first novel, but with the second one I knew what to expect and I sweated the small stuff so much (proofreading, continuity, getting a professional book cover for a modest price, etc.) that the first proof copy was the right one.

After publication, the createspace books come up on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk or even Amazon.France without any hassle. Createspace also helps with a free ISBN, getting you the library of congress cataloging number (this is a paying service) and getting a Kirkus review (another service for which you have to pay). You can see the review I just got for my recent novel The Imitation of Patsy Burke at : http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-rev....

I agree with Deb that if you have a book with lots of pictures, it will be more complicated than for a novel, so I can't advise how good Createspace is for books with lots of illustrations.

Good luck,
John

Wow, so great! We had 447 entries in our giveaway of A Reel Cool Summer here on GoodReads. What a great way to spread the word about our book! Thanks to those who entered!

Oh, I almost forgot! Hope you'll stop by Sher A. Hart's blog, "My Best Part." She is featuring me and a giveaway of one copy of my book for "Gratitude Giveaways" through November 27th. Here's the link: http://bit.ly/tQa6il

Hi,
I need some advice. Currently, I'm reviewing a book that is formatted & printed really bad. For instance, in a few places the printer has a period + a comma next to each other. In some places no punctuation at all. In other places you can see where the author starts a new paragraph but the printer just leaves several spaces & starts the new paragragh on the same line. My question: should I tell the printer about this or do I tell the author & let him tell the printer? Thanks!

It's not the printer, it's the author. It's poor editing. The printer just prints what he's given. It's not his responsibility to edit the book.

I have to agree with Susan that it's up to the author to be sure that their work is perfect before it goes to the printer.

So, you guys think I should tell the author then? I thought for sure that the printer was just lazy printing it out the way the author had it. There aren't any spelling errors in this, just punctuation. Like the comma being next to a period, like I was telling you. Thanks for the input! :-)

Tell the author. The printer just prints. He's not an editor.

If there's one or two errors it's no big deal. If the book is riddled with mistakes tell the author you are unable to review the book until it is reedited. Better that than a bad review. Is the book good?

Deb, thanks for stopping by Sher A. Hart's blog and posting a comment/entering the giveaway! http://bit.ly/tQa6il

Deb, yes, I'm with Susan. I would tell the author and he/she will probably appreciate it. Probably doesn't want his/her book out there with typos, etc.

Susan,
The book really isn't that good & I'd never read it again. It starts out with some men being shipwrecked on a deserted island. Then, you have a lion that's jaw is swollen from a poison thorn attacking the men. The leader of the men is able to calm the lion & remove the thorn thus making the lion friendly toward them.

Now, we're on a deserted island. They're attacked by somebody else & are rescued by a prince who takes them back to his kingdom (which is huge) on this deserted island.

Enter a witch that wants all of the princes lands (yes, we're still on the deserted island)and gets all these other tribes to start a war with the princes' kingdom in a bid to get his lands.

Enter a wizard, talking crows, other kinds of talking animals, etc. all on this deserted island.

I'll say one thing. The writer (from Spain) really has an imagination!

Anyway, thanks for the input, guys. I've never run into this problem before. I'll contact the author today.

I personally would warn the author that the review will not be favourable and ask him if he still wants a review. Otherwise you need to give an objectively unfavourable review. Your other option is to pass it off to another reviewer to see if he/she would like to review it.

I'll do that, Susan. Thanks!

Hi folks!
I apologize for not being around here lately. Wish I had a few extra pairs of hands and an extra 24 hours in each day!

I've been working on converting A Reel Cool Summer to an ebook and trying to schedule some school visits to read to the kiddies. I'm hoping the conversion will be ready this week or next and my first school visit is in January. So excited about both!!

What have you all been up to? I'm guessing shopping for Christmas presents!

Are you doing the conversion yourself? If so, I'm impressed. Tell me if you get a positive response from the concept. I'm old-school.

Hi Susan,
No, I'm not doing it myself, I'm working with Readers Favorite. They are a book review and promotion website that reviewed my book recently. They have this new conversion service and so far, they are wonderful. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks Martha.