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Furry Publishing
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Shoobie
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Joined: 01 Mar 2005
Posts: 64
Location: Fairfax County Virginia

PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is a nice article. Good post! Smile
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JonaWolf
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Joined: 18 Oct 2002
Posts: 38
Location: Wild Rose Country

PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shoobie wrote:
A agree whole-heartedly with you, JonaWolf. (BTW, how's the website?)


My website? Well... Let's just say that web page design is not is still not one of my strong points. I made something that works (I think) but it is rather simple and plain and I've pretty much given up on trying to make it into something better. I just don't have the skills and knowledge needed to improve it, or the time to do it for that matter. *shrugs*

As long as people can get to the reading material on my site I think I'm going to leave it alone. I'm less likely to screw things up that way.

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Shoobie
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Joined: 01 Mar 2005
Posts: 64
Location: Fairfax County Virginia

PostPosted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good to hear. Well, if you need any problems hammered out again, just let me know! ^..^
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JonaWolf
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Joined: 18 Oct 2002
Posts: 38
Location: Wild Rose Country

PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the offer of help. I'll keep it in mind. Your assistance proved invaluable the last time. Smile
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Osfer
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 50
Location: The Kingdom of Love

PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Up to a few months ago I'd have agreed with Anthony's categorisation of LuLu.com as ego stroking, but som research and careful weighing of priorities have made me change my mind in that regard.

Digital printing technologies still lag behind traditional printing methods in all aspects except two: digital printing has advantages for small-press publications and continuing publications. A quick LuLu.com number-crunch shows that a 6"x9" paperback with no ISBN or frills costs roughly $13 to produce. On top of thiscomes the author's markup, on top of that comes LuLu.com's markup which is a quarter of the author's royalties and on top of that come shipping costs. A single book could then cost between $20 and $30 before it actually arrives on your doorstep, as opposed to $6.99 for a cheap pulp paperback in most shops.

However, considering that the furry fandom is very much a niche market with even smaller sub-niches, this may not be so great a problem. There are very few furry books out there and considering the vast variety of species, orientations and dispositions favoured by the members of the furry community the books that are out there aren't likely to strike every fur's fancies.

I'm no publisher myself, although I'm in the process of putting together a paperback anthology of furry fiction, to be printed through LuLu.com for expediency and because I simply haven't the capital to back up my ambitions. If the sign-ups on my website are any indication, I expect to ship some twenty copies in the first month, and maybe ten or twenty more in the two months after that.

Considering the high manufacture cost at LuLu.com, this means very low profits and therefore the authors can only be paid peanuts -- but at least they will be paid and they will be published and this publication, ego-stroking and small-fries though it may be, will still be a microcosmological imitation of the Big World of the press.

And this is an interesting development. The APAs and Fanzines of old have been made largely redundant as media due to the Internet and other digital media, but in response to this there has been a clamour for traditional media. Having a paperback version of a beloved story that is available on-line for free is worth some money for the luxury and comfort of it.

Consequently, the publication I'm putting together has less to do with making money and far more with filling this gap. Thanks to LuLu.com I can actually perform this experiment without needing to make too great a financial investment and without running too much of a risk. I, for one, think this ia grand.

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Osfer
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 50
Location: The Kingdom of Love

PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Production costs for a 100-page perfect bound book at LuLu.com are about $7, so it could easily be sold for as little as $10, which isn't so bad.

The audience I suggest is very much one to which the small press can cater. They're prosumers -- consumers who do their research on the 'net and know exactly what they want to buy.

From the responses I've had so far about FANG I'm fairly convinced that there are twenty to forty people out there who are eager enough for a paperback with works from some of their favourite authors and some they've never heard of that they're willing to part with around $20, maybe a little more, especially since they understand how much higher the production costs are compared to traditional big press printing. In the case of Maranatha, a number of people actually asked if I could offer a paperback.

It isn't a question of buyers having to be coerced into buying FANG instead of Harry Potter or any other book for that matter. FANG doesn't have any competition. Sure, SofaWolf made two paperback anthologies of sci-fi stories, but they were spaced months if not a year apart.

Thanks to digital printing technologies , FANG can move fast. Current projection is for it to be released four to six times a year, depending on material submitted. And assuming that there's around twenty or thirty people willing to buy each issue (a number that can be easily reached, if only because authors whose work is printed tend to promote the book among friends) so that the publication can break even.

So the answer is, the specific, very small audience base that I'm targeting does want to spend that money, because FANG and Maranatha are unique products. In the case of FANG, it is the first attempt at a serial paperback anthology in the vein of old-school science fiction pulp paperbacks. In the case of Maranatha, those who want it have already read the story on-line for free and ismply want the pleasure of a paperback edition.

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Last edited by Osfer on Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:41 am; edited 1 time in total
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Osfer
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 50
Location: The Kingdom of Love

PostPosted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for your support, I'm crossing my fingers myself.

Considering how small the royalties I'm paying the authors are I can stand to make a little loss, though I should break even if I sell about twenty copies of each book.

We'll see how it goes. I'll be sure to mention the project's progress from time to time -- though I'll try not to spam too much Smile

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jsage
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Joined: 13 Jul 2005
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 4:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't know if this link will be of any help to anyone http://www.authorhouse.com/ContactUs/Publish.aspx
but a friend of mine used them to publish a book of his called Twilght: Planet Fall. I recently looked and you can find it at both barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com so apparently they can't be that bad for publishing.
Hope it's of some help to anyone wanting to publish their work.
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Osfer
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 50
Location: The Kingdom of Love

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 9:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

/Sounds reasonably interesting. Unfortunately it's only for North American citizens Smile
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beno
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Joined: 29 May 2005
Posts: 352
Location: Liverpool, UK

PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just thought of something and I thought it might be a good way to get stuff published. Write it in a way that kids would be able to read it. In other words no swearing, yiff, etc, and if you have to put something like that in, keep it mild. And then kids might start picking it up. I know that for some, having your stuff targeted at a children's audience isn't the best prospect, but remember what happened with things like Harry Potter and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The barrier between childrens and adult literature these days is very vague, and what starts out as a children's novel eventually becomes loved aby adult audiences. I'd even say that some of the content in His Dark Materials is not really even remotely aimed at children, and Philip Pullman was always hoping adults and teenagers would read the triliogy. Take for example the gay angel couple in the story.
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Chris Regan
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Joined: 23 Jun 2001
Posts: 138
Location: Ridgecrest, Ca.

PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Vee Are Are Schee wrote:
Well, I'm one of those lunatics that actually intend on making a living off of his writing. I'll invariably end up doing something along the side to pay the bills, but yeah.

I'd like to propose a question more than anything; what sort of furry stories are being submitted for publication? I've read myself around in the fandom, and I've seen that a large portion of furry literature is really "humans in furry suits." This is fine for the fandom, but I imagine a publisher would say, "Well, other than a few animal quirks, they all act like humans. What's the point?"

I also would agree with the idea that publishers are afraid to try anything new; they're just like the video game and movie market, I'll make the wild jump and say. A great video game comes out, thirty others follow trying to siphon off it's fame. A video game does well, well, that means that a sequal will do even better, right?

Or something. I'm not experienced or pathetic (the opposite of apathetic!) to have thought about this long enough to have come up with any valid points. Shoot my words down, and we'll roast s'mores over the flaming wreckage!

Even though I don't like me the s'mores.



Have you seen or read any of the Books that have been put out by The Raccoon's Bookshelf?

I know we have a number in dead tree ware now.

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anthony
Site Owner
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Joined: 12 Nov 2001
Posts: 1304
Location: Norway

PostPosted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lets see what I wrote way back then...

anthony wrote:
As far as I know, there are 4 ways to get published...

1. Ego-stroking, like Lulu.com

2. Established publishers who does furry...
(I can only think of United Publications)


Paul Kidd's latest book 'Fey' is printed by Lulu.com, but sold by United Publications...
I guess they do more than just Ego stroking, now...

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Osfer
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 50
Location: The Kingdom of Love

PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 6:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lulu.com should be considered more self-publishing than vanity-publishing. The latter is typically associated with huge production costs and very little intention of sales. The former is very new.

Digital self-publishing means that there's absolutely no initial investment (unless you want an iSBN, which will run you $50, or an ISBN plus mention in a number of US library catalogues for $150) and a flat and very high per-unit production cost.

Traditional publishing means that there's a huge initial investment (the production of printing plates) and a very very low per-unit production cost. The initial investment is amortized with every copy printed. For instance, while printing a hundred books might cost $1000, printing a thousand might cost $3000.

Having your work published is generallyr egarded as an achievement, and rightly so. When a reputable publishing house has selected your work to be printed, this is a huge feather in your cap.
However, if you're simply interested in providing your work in printed form to a market which you know already exists, self-publishing is a risk-free and low-cost option. It's effectively little different from printing your work on an inkjet and ring-binding the pages, except that it's in paperback form.

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Osfer
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 50
Location: The Kingdom of Love

PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's about right. If you can afford to invest a few grand and can to wait for the returns over a number of months or years, traditional publishing's the best way to go. Digital publishing is the best solution if you don't think you'll sell more than fifty copies or so.

On top of that, they 'reserve the right to review and, if the content is deemed inappropriate, refuse' your work. Lulu has no such restrictions; they're a printer without airs of being a publisher. And Adibooks only seems to serve US customers, from what I can see -- though I could be wrong!

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