25 Comments
User's avatar
Rachel Sager's avatar

I have been waiting for this for years. FINALLY, a peek inside how some of the printing world works. I learned so much and now feel more confident in taking steps. Thank you!

Russell Nohelty's avatar

Yay! You're welcome :)

LW's avatar

Thanks for this information!

The Crazy Cat Lady Writes's avatar

So much great information, thank you!

Jared Smith's avatar

Very informative Russell, cheers!

Colin Devonshire's avatar

Brilliant article. Thank you. But, you forgot letterpress! Haha. I started work as a compositor.

John Ward's avatar

Thanks Russell!

Jennifer Comeau's avatar

Really valuable, Russell. Thank you.

Russell Nohelty's avatar

You're welcome :)

Meaghan's avatar

this was incredibly helpful! thanks for this!

Russell Nohelty's avatar

You're welcome :)

Jayshree Gururaj's avatar

Excellent read! Thanks Russell.

radicaledward's avatar

For a long time, Lulu had a negative reputation among indie publishers. I haven't looked into this in the last decade, but I'd be curious to hear your impression of Lulu's quality.

Russell Nohelty's avatar

The issue with lulu was never about quality. It was about price. They are still expensive. Their quality is still high.

Sarah Styf's avatar

I don't know where I would keep all of the books! I think this is something I would consider once I see an increase in sales.

Russell Nohelty's avatar

There are fulfillment houses and storage units, too.

Sarah Styf's avatar

Basically, you're helping all of us build our future as writers ☺️

Russell Nohelty's avatar

I hope so. The mission of this publication is to give people agency. I have done a lot of work on Substack specifically, but the truth is that I have no loyalty to Substack. I have loyalty to author having more control over their careers.

I spent the morning building a new wordpress site for this publication just to see what it would entail, and I have an article coming out about how to make an author website.

In general, this site is way, way, way too focused on succeeding on Substack, when Substack is a very small part of an author career.

Sarah Styf's avatar

Yes, my Substack is about communicating with my audience and working my work. And I'm very thankful for the people here helping me do just that.