self-publishing

There are more resources for self-publishing these days. You can format a book on the home computer and print it out on the inkjet printer, staple it, and you have a little book or chapbook (chapbook is a shortening of "cheap book", but sounds cooler).

Kent did this for me several years ago. I sold the books for two dollars apiece. And sold fifty of 'em, I think. But a computer crash killed the formatting for the books and we never made an attempt at resurrection. I'd carried copies around in my knapsack and offered them up and poetry readings. After awhile I just wasn't getting any response when I waved them around and I got tired of doing it. (I'm not a tireless self-promoter; I'm an easily tired self-promoter.)

There are more printing companies accessible via the internet. Some specialize in small print runs (one copy!) and offer print on demand so no boxes of books have to sit around flirting with mice, mold, and the sudden urge to throw them out and be that much lighter. I've heard good things about lulu.com. (Here's an example.)

At the last two Alternative Press Expos I picked up fliers for cafe press and comiXpress. There are bloggers who use cafe press to sell tshirts (an example) -- you design the shirt and it's displayed on the web looking like a shirt. No actual shirt is created until someone orders one. Presumably cafe press has lots of white shirts just waiting to be printed on. But the flier also insists with cafe press "you'll fully leverage the power of self-publishing." Fully leverage? (This looks handsome, for instance, and not unreasonably priced.)

Over at comiXpress the comics look pretty good. (This looks like the work of a professional, for instance.) Prices aren't bad. I don't see shipping & handling charges, although I'm sure there are some. Online stores seem loath to allow you to see shipping charges. I think I won't be drawing my own comics any time soon, but it's nice to see the barriers to publication are coming down.