by WILLIAM RICHARDS How many books have you self-published? None  Have any of your books been published by a traditional publishing house? Popular Libraries Why did you decide to self-publish?  More control, less money grabbing agents and publishers. What is the one question you would like to ask other self-publishing writers? Nothing specific :except reports on sloppy or greedy publishing.

by KAREN WALKER How many books have you self-published? One  Have any of your books been published by a traditional publishing house? No Why did you decide to self-publish? I tried for almost two years to find an agent. Couldn't get past the query letter phase. After spending 10 years on the book, I didn't want it to just languish in my desk drawer. Self-publishing was the only option left. From your own self-publishing experience, what do you believe other self-publishing writers must do to increase their chances for success? First of all, you have to let go of the idea of financial success. There is an awful lot of hard work associated with marketing and publicizing a self-published book, but from what I understand, traditionally published authors have to do the same things. They just have a built-in credibility factor. The self-published author has to prove they are credible when they put themselves out there to market. From your own self-publishing experience, what do you believe other self-publishing writers must avoid if they want to succeed? Research very carefully what self-publishing company to utilize. I found a wonderful book that analyzed 40 companies and helped me make my decision. Can't remember the name of it, but it's by Mark Levine. What have you enjoyed the most about self-publishing? Being able to make decisions about each and every phase of the publishing process. What have you enjoyed the least about self-publishing? The fact that I had to resort to self-publishing. Still harbor fantasies of being "discovered" by an agent or publisher. What is the one question you would like to ask other self-publishing writers? I'd like to see their to-do list of promotion activites and advice.

by JULIE BELLER How many books have you self-published? One  Have any of your books been published by a traditional publishing house? No Why did you decide to self-publish? The book we wanted to publish is a non-fiction book by a paramedic, about his experiences. We hope to market within the large (over 900K paramedics and EMTs alone in the US, not counting firefighters and ER personnel) and very interconnected  EMS population. There are a few books out there of this type, but most of them tell of a specific event (9-11) or are more technical/how-to type books. We heard that non-fiction does as well or better as a self-published project than it does via traditional publishing, and the author has a huge network of EMS friends and professional contacts, as well as venues such as teaching and conference seminars to publicize and sell his book. He's also more than willing to put in the time and effort needed to do the grunt work as well as appearances, writing letters, making phone calls. For these reasons, we decided that waiting for the 1-3 years it would take through a traditional publisher provided no advantage. The author is also a talented graphic designer, and wanted the control over his cover and marketing campaign that you only get if you do it yourself. From your own self-publishing experience, what do you believe other self-publishing writers must do to increase their chances for success? Do the research. You have to become an expert in copyright, Library of Congress requirements, ISBNs, selling on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, using social networking tools like email, MySpace and Facebook, and the printing process itself. You have to understand and abide by things as disparate as copyright law to forum etiquette to book store signing behavior. You can't see yourself as being above the sometimes crass business of selling yourself and your book, but you do have to know where to draw the line between salesmanship and professionalism. From your own self-publishing experience, what do you believe other self-publishing writers must avoid if they want to succeed? After a lot of reading, we decided against the quasi-self publishing options of BookSurge or Lulu. They seemed to offer the worst of both worlds of traditional publishing and self-publishing - lack of control, lack of quality, waiting for very small payments, being at the mercy of someone else's accounting systems with no way to really verify the numbers, delay, delay, delay. The lack of respect for their products and the uphill battle to get them into physical bookstores was also a big drawback, even though a lot of our marketing will be in very non-traditional venues. What have you enjoyed the most about self-publishing? The feeling of adventure in setting off into a whole new area that neither of us had any previous experience in other than as consumers. What have you enjoyed the least about self-publishing? Editing. What is the one question you would like to ask other self-publishing writers? Do you see sales and marketing as beneath your perception of yourself as an 'artiste'? If you find self-promotion distasteful, I recommend against self-promotion. Indeed, even traditional publishers are not going to take to that very well, but you're sunk if you go into self publishing with that mindset.