What is the best self publishing company?

What is the best self publishing company for a children's Book?

• I wrote a children's book. Not very long. On my mac my PDF file is 10 pages long. I have an illustrator, I have an uncle who edited his own book and had his book published. I would like to do self publishing so I can have 100 of the Royalties. Of course I have no idea how this works. If there is someone out there who is a successful self publisher or both self, and published by someone else that could help me? Do you pay your editor one fee or split royalties with the editor and illustrator? Thank you!

• Answer:

  PJM was not accurate. You can have higher royalties self publishing. The industry standard for a commercially published book in stores is 8% of half the retail cost of a book. I have books in stores selling for 16.00. I get 8% of half of that on each sale or .64. I have a self-pubbed book up on Createspace selling for 14.00. I get 25% from the whole price, or 3.50 per sale. You don't want to overprice a soft cover kid book. Parents can buy them for a couple of bucks at Walmart after all. She is right about not using a vanity publisher. They'll charge thousands. There's an author mill called PublishAmerica that claims free publication--totally AVOID them. They'll tie your rights up for 7 years and treat you like cr**. The POD services named below don't charge anything, they get paid if and when you sell a book. If you hire an editor it is a flat fee, no split on royalties. You usually pay the illustrator a fee for the art. (A commercial publisher pays for that, a self-pubber foots that bill.) You can split the royalties, but you need to read a book on how that is done, as I don't know what percentage they're to get if you're partners. Be aware that most self-pub books don't sell more than 20 copies to family and friends. Just because you have a book to sell doesn't mean people will buy it. Self pub books are NOT in stores, only commercially published books. Stores don't have room for do it yourselfers. There are plenty of sharks in publishing looking to BITE your bank account. They prey on new writers, so I'll give the names of two reputable Print On Demand publishing services. (POD) You don't have to pay to upload a book to them. They take a percentage of the sale and you set the price. If it costs them 3.00 to print your book, then you sell it for 4.50 and make a 1.50 royalty. Kid books with color illos cost a LOT to print. B&W illos are cheaper to print. You do have to learn to do interior design. They'll have templates. Your book has to be at minimum number of pages, at least 24 for a 12-page book. You'll squeak by with illustrations. A picture book can be no more than 1000 words long. You need to go to the library and look for books like these in the 808 section: http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Childrens-Books-For-Dummies/dp/0764537288/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1336884398&sr=8-2 http://www.amazon.com/The-Business-Writing-Children-Award-Winning/dp/0938497111/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Picture-Books-Hands-On-Publication/dp/1582975566/ref=pd_sim_b_3 They'll tell you what to pay the illustrator. Just because you've written a book doesn't mean it's ready to publish. It's competing with professional titles--it's competing with classics like Dr. Seuss. You have to make it the best it can possibly be--so get feedback from other writers before rushing to publication! If you are not ready to hear feedback from colleagues, then your book is not ready to publish. It's annoying but true. You can get help at this writer's board. It's safe, free to join and has a great section for kid book writers. They're your new best friends! http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11 Writing for kids is the hardest kind of writing there is. It's also fun. But you have to do your ground work first or suffer low sales and bad reviews. Make sure your work is worth buying! Here's a site that can help you avoid bad guys in publishing: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/ Here's two reputable POD services: www.Lulu.com https://www.createspace.com/ Neither can get your book into stores (only a commercial publisher can do that) but it will be on Amazon. They have templates for interior design and cover help. There's a learning curve, but once you know how, it's pretty simple. You just make your pages look like pages in professionally published picture books. Also, for digital books Kindle, PubIt! and Smashwords. Some kid books are being uploaded for parents to read from their iPads. What you do not EVER do is put "children's book publisher" into Google. There are more scammers and vanity operations on the Net than perverts at a playground. You're better off self-pubbing than going with them. If you need an editor, I'll recommend one. She's a pro editor, charges a penny a word (industry standard is 30.00-40.00 per page) and has experience doing kid books. She's also honest. If your book isn't ready to edit, she'll tell you up front. http://www.vampwriter.com/VAMPWRITER_EDITING.htm She says she doesn't do kid books, but I know she did this one: http://www.lulu.com/shop/diane-bosak/milly-and-the-great-holiday-mystery/ebook/product-17361273.html;jsessionid=34DFC75B12FF1B19808E81302D307449 Hey, you can ask, right? The worst that can happen is she says no. Let her know the word count for the book and tell her JaneyD sent you! ;0)