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Hi Nick!

Self-publishing is a different ball game, but you can get lots of good deals on the actual printing prices and such. There is also POD (Print On Demand) technology, where the company you go with will just print books as they're ordered. That's a good option if you don't have storage space. Xlibris.com had a pretty good deal on POD publishing last I checked.

Marketing is a HUGE DEAL just as it is in the music industry--whether or not you self-publish or go with a traditional publisher--but it's absolutely essential if you're doing it yourself. You need to make sure you have a marketing budget as well as a printing budget before you make the investment.

There are risks to self-publishing as in any entrepreneur adventure. Some are: poor editing (hire someone!), bad typesetting, and hiring a crummy printer (where your books fall apart). There's also the risk that your book won't sell, and you'll be stuck with the costs. Do your market research and other homework to get a good feel for who might be interested in your book. The basic rule of thumb is that nonfiction outsells fiction in the self-pub arena by a landslide. If you have a solid platform--such as motivational speaking with the accompanying book(s) and lots of bookings--you can turn a profit with it and do better for yourself than with a traditional publisher, because your profit margin per book is higher.

I haven't heard of Trafford and don't know anything about them good or bad. I would like to warn you and others about another thing out there typically known as "vanity presses," which are publishers that charge YOU to print your book. With self-publishing, you pay the actual printer of the book, book designer, etc. Vanity presses take your money--most often much more than it would cost you to do it yourself--and give you boxes of books back and wish you luck. Worse still, they don't have good reputations in the industry, and so when you want to further your career later on, your "published" book doesn't really count on your resume.

The thing to watch out for most is which way the money's going. An agent or literary agency or publisher should NEVER charge you money (aside from small fees for copying your MS, something like that). If they have to charge the client coming in--it's a good bet that there isn't enough money coming back from book deals to run their business. Agents charge a fee taken out of your contract deal--about 15% and sometimes a little higher. They get paid when YOU get paid.

So... whatever you do... watch out for anyone asking for your money up front. There are as many scam artists out there preying on would-be authors as there are scams for songwriters. And I could write for hours about contracts... but that's more like a "201" or "301" class. Grin.

Did I come close to answering your question?

Linda