# Book baby



## Guy (Nov 16, 2016)

Has anybody here self-published with bookbaby.com? Yay or nay? Plusses and Minuses? Pros and cons?


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## Devor (Nov 16, 2016)

This is the first I'm hearing of it so I googled "Writer Beware Bookbaby.com."  I only skimmed a few things but so far it looks like a decent place.


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## psychotick (Nov 17, 2016)

Hi,

Also never heard of them. However, as a basic rule, you don't self publish with a company. You self publish yourself - that's what the self is all about. So the question is, are they a vanity publisher? I don't know. But are they charging you any money? If so, run.

Look you either in this business self publish, which is where you do what you can yourself, hire specialists for the things you can't do like cover design and edit, and take all the royalties. Or you go trade where there is a barrier to being accepted as worthy to publish, but if you do get accepted you do not pay fees to them. They take their cut completely from the royalties.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Bobby Watson (Nov 17, 2016)

Love BookBaby! Great publishing servies company. Professional editing, cover design, typesetting, ebook conversion, awesome book printing and super easy worldwide distribution. Everything is reasonably priced and you get proofs. 

I see good reviews online 
BookBaby Reviews | Customer Service Reviews of BookBaby | bookbaby.com

Good luck! It's


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## TheCatholicCrow (Nov 17, 2016)

Bobby Watson said:


> Good luck! It's



WHAT IS IT?!? The suspense is killing me.


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## skip.knox (Nov 17, 2016)

TheCatholicCrow said:


> WHAT IS IT?!? The suspense is killing me.



It's ... Monty Python's Flying Circus!

But BookBaby does have a good rep. They on my short list for my WIP. Which is getting dangerously near completion. You may want to stock up on food and water.


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## Bobby Watson (Nov 17, 2016)

Haha. Oops! It's (brace yourself) soooo much fun to finally get your book out there. It's like delivering your first child!!


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## Guy (Nov 17, 2016)

Thanks. They're tempting because they address my Achilles' heal - promotions. I cannot overstate how much I suck at it and how little sense it makes to me, so the idea of having someone to do that has enormous appeal. Unfortunately, my other issue is extremely limited budget, so it comes down to pay Book Baby to publish and have access to their promotional resources, or publish for free through Amazon and Smashwords and pay for promotional services.


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## Chessie (Nov 18, 2016)

Guy, may I ask if this is your only book or if you have a backlist? If this is a new release and you already have a backlist of some sort, then promotion would likely be your better option. Are you in KU or wide? If in KU, then you can use your free days and free promotion in addition like BK Nights, Freebooksy, etc. 

If it's just a single book, do you have a mailing list? I have some author friends doing well on InstaFreebie although I haven't checked them out just yet. I hear really good things about that service. There is a 30 day free option and I believe the cost is around $20 a month but you can't be in KU. 

Another option might be to wait until you're closer to releasing the second book before publishing the first one, using the 2nd book as a booster. There are several options that won't cost you like Bookbaby. Check out Chris Fox's marketing books and Kboards. Great sources of information for Indies there.


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## Guy (Nov 19, 2016)

This would be my second. I've pretty much come to the same conclusion you have, Chesterama. I was just looking at options and kicking some ideas around and wanted to collate whatever data I could. Don't think I'll go with Book Baby.


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## Guy (Nov 19, 2016)

And thanks for those sources. I didn't know about those.


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## Chessie (Nov 19, 2016)

Guy said:


> This would be my second. I've pretty much come to the same conclusion you have, Chesterama. I was just looking at options and kicking some ideas around and wanted to collate whatever data I could. Don't think I'll go with Book Baby.



I belong to an awesome Indie group on Facebook that's been very helpful and supportive. If you're interested, PM so I can send you the link.


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