Self-publishing

This week I was at a poetry event where a lady read from a book of her own poems. They were OK but nothing special and it turns out she uses a publishing company to produce these booklets. Originally she got ripped off by a vanity publishing company which insisted she bought huge numbers to sell herself, which of course hardly anybody ever bought, but now she has found someone who will produce small numbers for a small fee.

I got round to thinking of the LSF in which my stories and a few poems have garnered over 70,000 reads, and doubtless many authors are in six or seven figures. I can't talk about this in the writing world in general, partly because people wouldn't believe the numbers and partly because I'd have to reveal that only spanking stories get published! But isn't this a great resource if you derive satisfaction just from giving reading enjoyment to many?

"isn't this a great resource if you derive satisfaction just from giving reading enjoyment to many?"

It is, Neil, most decidedly so, and has been for over eight, exciting years (in my case). And your stories have never failed to give me enjoyment, not least for the way you achieve both originality and (when it's your aim) genuine plausibility.

Without wishing to embarrass anyone (we're English, after all), we're very fortunate to have two generous, dedicated experts devoting themselves so whole-heartedly to providing this great resource - along with the less-sung heroes of the validation process.

Long live the library, and all who post, browse, read and comment here!

The LSF (along with LSFpubs) does indeed provide a wonderful way the share our writing with people who actually enjoy our stories, more so than selfpublishing a hard copy book ever could. How many of us would need more fingers than those on one hand to count the people we know with whom we'd feel comfortable sharing a hardcover book? And commercial sales of actual books is such a niche market that most copies of even a small printing run would wind up stored in a closet. Kudos and thanks to Februs and flopsy for providing such wonderful outlets as our beloved LSF and LSFPubs.

(Now where the hell is my latest story? /s)

Yes, even small printing runs aren't financially viable given the availability of electronic copies. It's nice to have the LSF and LSFPubs available as outlets for writing. It's an interesting dichotomy between writing stories for LSF and LSFPubs. With the former you can pretty much put together a story with no limitations on your imagination and put it out there for everyone to view.

But with the LSFPubs there are expected lengths and certain restrictions that have to be conformed to. Februs and flopsy know the market and at the end of the day it's got to be commercially viable enough for them to distribute the story. Right now I'm batting about 60% on getting story ideas approved versus rejected, with a proposal currently under consideration. It's an interesting challenge (and a bit of an ego boost) trying to write a story that people are willing to pay a few bucks to buy.

I have used Lulu to print a physical copy of my longer works and collections of my shorter works. I can't imagine anyone other me would be interested in such a thing, but I like having a physical manifestation of my mental work sitting on my bookshelf.

-LK

Before I discovered LSF, I tried selling spanking stories on Lulu (downloadable format only). It did bring in a tiny amount of pocket money but not enough to justify the effort. I have found LSF to be a far more enjoyable experience because of the interaction with the readers.

While I was on Lulu, I was contacted by another Alan Barr who was a vicar in Northern Ireland. He had published his book on church management on Lulu, but when his parishoners went online to search for it they were finding my collection of spanking stories instead! Fortunately he had a good sense of humour and we were able to have a laugh about it, but I'm sure he must have breathed a sigh of relief when I left Lulu and came here.

AlanBarr

I for sure cannot have a problem like that. During the 19th century an ancestor of mine whose surname was Persson had a problem. He kept repeatedly receiving the post which was intended for other Swedes in his city whose surname was Persson ("Persson" is a very common surname in Sweden). My ancestor decided to solve that problem by deliberately changing his surname legally to one which was really weird! So now I have a surname which only a handful of close relatives spread around Sweden also possess!

The Rev. Alan Barr is apparently the envy of all his colleagues. Church attendance in his parish has never been higher since he introduced some sort of penalty system for teens skipping Sunday School. Unfortunately more specific details about his innovative church management techniques must await his next book.