Writer's Fallout Shelter

Lorie Basiewicz asked:

> *hugs* It's okay. Better to have loved and to have lost and all those
> other cliches, right?
>
> I'm curious, which publisher published and distributed poetry and
> fiction in a CD-ROM format for you?

Kedco Studios: http://www.artvilla.com/kedco-ap/

I don't recommend them.

In all honesty, the project was doomed from the start. It was my first foray into professional publishing and I wound up doing all of the HTML, coordinating the graphics and background music, and basically everything except stamping the CDs. I was then horrified to discover they didn't even use commercial quality CD production. Instead, they burned them off on their desktop systems and slapped cheap paper labels on them (which were badly printed on a third tier, consumer-grade inkjet printer). I could have done all the work myself and pocketed the full wholesale price instead of just a royalty.

On the other hand, they did have a semi-functional distribution network in both real stores and webstores, so I did sell around 300 discs total whereas if I had tried to do distribution and marketing myself that number probably would have been much lower.

At this point in my life, if I lived in North America, England, New Zealand or Australia, I would set up my own publishing company and start marketing directly to retail chains. Many of them, such as Borders and Waldenbooks, are strong supporters of independent publishers who are willing to conform to industry standards (such as buyback campaigns and newspaper advertising). The biggest problem I personally face is geography: I live in Japan and my market is English-speaking.

I envy all you writers living in your target market. Believe me, getting onto store shelves is a whole easier than you think it is. Actually selling the books once the stores stock them, however, is a whole other cup of tea!

Lattahs!
akurgal
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