I've always been interested in publishing my own book. Well here is an option! www.iuniverse.com only I'm not sure how to feel about it. It says just $299 is needed to get it published and sold on amazon.com, etc. Well I indeed checked amazon.com and looked up "the Anger Habit" which has actually sold quite a bit. Its exciting!!!

It appears "Clean" but I would advise you to be extremely cautious and do your homework before submitting anything to this company. Good luck with the book.

I'd simply say "buyer beware" N-Z. Given the amount of legwork I had to do to get a contract for an ACADEMIC book, it seems a little too easy. Not to say they won't follow through on their promises, but things that seem too good to be true often are.

But $300 isn't a huge chunk of change, so I guess if you're willing to take a chance, it's not a huge cost.

The little I know about the self-publishing industry, N-Z, is gleaned from having a successful self-publisher located here in Bloomington. If you are interested in having a physical copy of your book and having those physical copies available on Amazon, I don't see any reason not to pursue it so long as you understand that the marketing will be entirely up to you and that brick and mortar bookstores are unlikely to touch it.

Personally, I don't see how self-publishing is any different than having a band, running a few hundred CDs and making them available on CD Baby. Friends, family, and even interested listeners can get a hold of a copy easily. So long as one don't have an expectation that this alone is a good strategy to launch one's career, no harm done.

What's unfortunate are companies that take advantage of naive individuals by making promises they will not or cannot keep. A group of SFWA authors recently mounted a sting against one such company as described here. You can read a copy of the book they submitted on the site, which is well worth the time. I mean, can you really consider yourself to have lived a full, rich literary life until you have enjoyed such gripping prose as:

"He'd killed a man before one time with his bare hands, and he could do it again, if he put something in his bare hands like a knife or a gun or something he could kill somebody with."

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Originally posted by Nickel-Z:
I've always been interested in publishing my own book. Well here is an option! www.iuniverse.com only I'm not sure how to feel about it. It says just $299 is needed to get it published and sold on amazon.com, etc. Well I indeed checked amazon.com and looked up "the Anger Habit" which has actually sold quite a bit. Its exciting!!!

I've taken so many fiction writing courses, I can't begin to count them. I wrote a book under the guidance of a mentor, a Professor of English and Creative Writing who's also a PEN/Faulkner winner.

I wanted to publish my book simply because I wanted to give my characters "life," but I didn't want to be a professional novel writer. I wanted the book more for myself and for my friends and family. So, I chose self-publication and I chose iUniverse.

I was extremely happy with them. They delivered all they promised and then some. My book is still for sale online and it's even in some bookstores.

I worked with a very good assistant at iUniverse. She always got back to me on time and everything was extremely professional. My book was awarded "Editor's Choice," and to those who feel this is a "fluff" award, I can tell you it isn't. I had to rewrite several things to get the "Editor's Choice" designation and I think all the ideas were very good ones.

Now, every place who engages in self-publication will tell you that marketing is your responsibility, however, if your book isn't very important to a big, traditional publishing company, then marketing and promotion are going to be mostly your job as well.

I loved iUniverse and if I ever write another book, I wouldn't hesitate to go with them.

Good luck with your writing and with your book.

(I do realize I'm more than two years late answering this question, but I thought others might like to know.)