For those who've written books. (1 Viewer)

[Firecross]

Curious as to what the process was like after finishing. Did you have pictures in your book, if so, did you hire an artist or draw them yourself?

How was the whole self-publishing aspect with E.book or going the regular paperback route and finding a publisher. How did the whole process of finding an editor workout? how expensive was it?

I am just curious about the process that takes place once your work is finished.

 

[parlorcitysaint]

As a guy who was on the other end of the process (I've printed thousands of titles) for many years, I seem to recall that it will only cost you anything if you go through what they call a "vanity publisher". That is, someone who works with the printer and arranges the production of the book. At your expense. For a fee. You handle the editing, the illustrations, etc. The total proceeds of the book are yours, once that's been accomplished.

The normal route, the publisher will read your manuscript, make you an offer for the rights, and then edit, rewrite, arrange for an illustrator/photogragher, arrange printing, etc. They then have the exclusive rights to a certain percentage of the proceeds of that published work, minus whatever percentage they've offered you as part of the contract you've signed with them.

I'd go with option "B". National promotion, professional editors, illustrators, etc.

 

[Bleu Raeder]

Going with option "B" is good if you can get it. I'll no doubt be writing more with my publisher and it has given me some "legs" for entertaining publishing outside of the tech world. I have already spoken to a sci-fi publisher, sent them some preliminary work and I am hoping that they'll see "gold in them that hills".

I am considering self-publishing (with on-demand printing services) one book because I expect the sale number to be very low. Certainly not more than 100 copies unless it goes viral for some reason.

 

[superchuck500]

I usually just fall asleep after I finish.

 

[Broadmoor74]

I usually just fall asleep after I finish.

 

[SaintsW1n]

Curious as to what the process was like after finishing. Did you have pictures in your book, if so, did you hire an artist or draw them yourself?

How was the whole self-publishing aspect with E.book or going the regular paperback route and finding a publisher. How did the whole process of finding an editor workout? how expensive was it?

I am just curious about the process that takes place once your work is finished.

Publishing an e-book is relatively painless, so long as you adhere to the formatting requirements supplied by the distributor (Amazon, Apple, B&N, Smashwords, etc.).

If you're going to e-publish, I'd definitely recommend formatting your book according to the Smashwords style guide. It's not too tough as long as you're familiar with Word. Time-consuming, but not tough. Once you have it set to their standards, it will certainly pass the requirements for the others.

I e-published through both Smashwords and Amazon. Smashwords distributes to virtually every distributor (Apple, B&N, Sony, etc) except for Amazon. For Amazon, I e-published but did not enroll in KDP Select (which is an exclusive Amazon distributorship, based on all kinds of ****).

For paperback, I used CreateSpace (which is an Amazon company). Amazon links both the e-book and the paperback on the same page for purchase.

I had an artist design a cover for my book for a few hundred dollars; he set it up in a variety of formats and sizes so that it was usable as both an e-book cover and a print cover.

Other than that, I didn't spend any money. All things considered, it was a much simpler process than I had anticipated. After I finished writing the book, it took ~month until it was available both as an e-book and paperback.

Good luck with it.

 

[The Mongoose]

Publishing an e-book is relatively painless, so long as you adhere to the formatting requirements supplied by the distributor (Amazon, Apple, B&N, Smashwords, etc.).

If you're going to e-publish, I'd definitely recommend formatting your book according to the Smashwords style guide. It's not too tough as long as you're familiar with Word. Time-consuming, but not tough. Once you have it set to their standards, it will certainly pass the requirements for the others.

I e-published through both Smashwords and Amazon. Smashwords distributes to virtually every distributor (Apple, B&N, Sony, etc) except for Amazon. For Amazon, I e-published but did not enroll in KDP Select (which is an exclusive Amazon distributorship, based on all kinds of ****).

For paperback, I used CreateSpace (which is an Amazon company). Amazon links both the e-book and the paperback on the same page for purchase.

I had an artist design a cover for my book for a few hundred dollars; he set it up in a variety of formats and sizes so that it was usable as both an e-book cover and a print cover.

Other than that, I didn't spend any money. All things considered, it was a much simpler process than I had anticipated. After I finished writing the book, it took ~month until it was available both as an e-book and paperback.

Good luck with it.

If you don't mind me asking, did you make any money on that book? How many did you end up selling?

 

[SaintsW1n]

If you don't mind me asking, did you make any money on that book? How many did you end up selling?

I've sold a few hundred so far. My royalties have exceeded my expenses, but I haven't made much money. It's all good, though. It was a fun experience.