Anyone on here gone down the self-publishing route?

I did it. I like Llumina Press. It's a lot of hard work."It's called self-publishing for a reason" was an article I wrote way back when.

It's cool to have your idea materialized and cemented in the Library of Congress. Good luck!

I have self published 3 books, and got zero sales on them. You have to hire a book promoter. I think getting published by a publisher is best.My friend Yvonne Wu of YPPublishing on facebook has tips and she promotes books as well as edits and explains alot of it.

I suggest you take a long hard look at many Hubs on this subject including one I wrote a few months ago. hubpages.com/hub/Self-Publishing-to-do-or-n.

Thank you both. I have checked out IUniverse and Lulu and their deals sound reasonable but does it sell? Daniel - has your publication made any money?

Publishing a poetry book, even with a major press, is like throwing rose petals into the grand canyon. It's a huge sink of time and energy and comes with only a small bump of prestige that fades like day-old make-up. Self-publishing poetry is a million times lesser than this.

Expect sales of two or three units, in total. Self-publishing poetry is probably best done with a blog, honestly. I recommend picking up a wordpress site, and making it look good, per your vision, and getting your poetry up in that format.It's noble and notable to desire to spread your work into the world, but the cold reality is that random google spider hits on your poems through search will lead you to a larger audience than publishing a poetry collection with a major university press.

We are living in an empire in decline, no?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.