My response to the Guardian article ... much of which you've heard before.

Dear Sirs

I've just read Victor Keegan's article 'click, download, publish' dated 2nd March 2006 and feel I should vent my frustrations.

The article sings the praises of the 'print on demand' revolution which indeed has its merits but is certainly not the all-singing, all-dancing answer to unpublished authors as both the article and the 'print-on-demand' publishers would have you believe.

I’m a self-published author with two titles in print. It’s been a steep learning curve. Writing the books was the easy part. The remainder of the process has also fallen to me, including proof reading, editing, cover design, sourcing ISBN’s, finding a printer, designing my website, getting the book registered with High Street shops and toughest of all, marketing. I’m up against the might of the large publishing houses with many of them now deciding not to accept unsolicited manuscripts. The answer - so I’m told - is to get an agent but with agents receiving an average of 200 submissions a week and taking on maybe 3 or 4 new clients a year, the odds are clearly stacked against you. It’s also frustrating that many of these positions appear to be filled by the ‘celebrity’ author, many of which employ ghost-writers. Whilst I have nothing against autobiographies in general, when you hear that the likes of Jade Goody and Wayne Rooney are being paid millions of pounds for their autobiographies, it does make me wonder where this leaves the future of literature when there is clearly a wealth of undiscovered material which never see the light of day, partially due to societies obsession with celebrities. At the end of the day, the publishing houses know these will sell.

So is going to a print-on-demand publisher the answer? Many have cropped up recently, all promising to get your book on the High Street shelves. This of course comes at a cost, sometimes in the realms of thousands of pounds. This in itself can put an author off, but what I find worrying is that desperation to see your work in print might tempt some people to part with their hard earned cash.

Here is an extract from Trafford's website:

'For example, the cost of a 160-page paperback book with a colour cover on our print shop price list is £3.94 for a quantity of one. If you set the retail price of such a book at £9.99 (minimum retail price for this book would be £8.27), our bookshop processes the customer's credit card for the full amount, and deducts £2.50 for its services (25% of the retail price). Net sale amount is £7.49. The gross margin would be the net sale amount of £7.49 less the single-copy print cost of £3.94, in other words, £3.55.
In this example, you would receive a royalty of £2.13 per book (£3.55 x 60%). That's almost 30% of the net sale amount

All looks very nice on paper but in reality, this is a load of rubbish. What Trafford fail to point out is that

a) High Street bookshops want at least 35% off the RRP which equates the same amount as the gross margin. But hang about, having charged you nearly £1000 to get to this stage along with £2.50 per book for it's 'services' they then want another 40% of what's left.

b) The example they give estimates the RRP to be £9.99 which as I've already pointed out, already makes you a loss. Ignoring that, even if you weren't losing money, who is going to buy a 160 page book at £9.99 from an unknown author when standard paperbacks by household names are twice as thick and three quid cheaper?

Trafford aren't alone. There are lots of 'print-on-demand' publishers who offer much the same services for much the same prices. As you can see from their calculations above, for someone who is desperate to see their work in print, it can look a tempting option. It's what 'print-on-demand' publsihers fail to tell you which is worrying.

I published my first book through Lulu, another company mentioned in your article. I basically chose them because they didn't charge an upfront fee of hundreds/thousands of pounds. At the time, the shipping from the States was as much as the cost of the book. It was working out about £8 per copy. As you'll realise from my points above, I didn't get too far with it.

The other alternative is to get in touch with a local printer. The problem with this is print runs tend to be a minimum of 1000 copies for anything from £2500 to £3500. The issues are clear, a large capital outlay followed by storage issues, followed by the fact that you’re still unknown and the likelihood of shifting anywhere near half that kind of quantity is extremely remote.

The key of course is good marketing but being self-published, I’ve found many doors slammed in my face. I’ve tried to get involved with the Edinburgh Book Festival which I understand is one of the biggest in Europe. I was told they weren’t interested in self-published authors and the event was by invitation only. I’ve tried donating what small margin I have to charity in an attempt to help them and raise my own profile, but again you needn’t bother if you’ve not got a deal. UNICEF actually have a company policy to reject any proposal from self-published authors. I’ve even sent my book to celebrities in the hope they would give a one-line review to help with the publicity. You’re lucky to get a response at all and the ones who are good enough to reply are too busy. Like I mentioned before, designing my own website has been a good marketing tool but then I’m still relying on word of mouth from people who know me or folk I meet. If nobody knows your name, how is anyone else going to find you? Who types ‘books by new authors’ into Google in the hope of finding a novel by some new kid on the block? If you’re after a new book, you go to a bookshop or buy it from Amazon – both of which are bursting with authors you’ve already heard off - so why take the risk with an unknown which isn’t on the bestsellers or recommended list and is unlikely to be on prominent display?

So why do I bother? Having given up a lucrative job to follow my dream only to receive more rejection letters and an increasing number of obstacles, I sometimes ask myself the same question. Battling with the increasing self-doubt and wondering if it is purely the case my book is complete crap, I’ve somehow managed to get this far. The positive reviews and emails I receive keep me going but how long do you keep plugging away before enough is enough. How many other potential authors are struggling in the same way or have already given up? Quite a lot I would imagine, judging by the 200 submissions a week landing on the desk of any given agent in any given week. I once read a statistic that 95% of people who actually get around to writing a book never write a second. It’s easy to see why.

So where am I now? I’ve managed to source a printer in Scotland which allows me to make a small gross profit of maybe £1 per book once the High Street retailers have had their discount. In reality, the cost of doing my own distribution far out ways any profit. I’ve even managed to secure a couple of book signings in Ottakar’s which is a good way to get your name known, but the cost of travelling from Scotland to Worcester and Poole to sell a handful of books, whilst I’m very grateful to Ottakar’s for the opportunity, can sometimes seem futile. I then have to consider the alternative, to give up – now I’ve come this far – and let my books collect dust in the corner of the lounge. For the moment, I’m prepared to keep on fighting