Help publishing and marketing a book!

[Guest m**l]

Anyone out there with this type of expertise would be greatly valued and needed!

 

I have put a series of memoirs together and would like to get them edited, published and marketed. From what I have found there is a great cost involved! Anyone with info to help me out can pm me or call me 613 552 9868

 

thanx again and lots love,

 

miel

[Megan'sTouch 23875]

You could start by getting a copy of "The Writer's Market" at Chapters for about $50 and send in a sample/manuscript to publishers.

[Loralee Reach 245]

pm me. I can give you some addresses.

Loralee

[Lowdark 5613]

From my limited experience, perhaps trying to get a literary agent to protect your interests might be a good idea. My understanding is that a lot of unsolicited stuff goes unread and destroyed. An agent can represent you for free (based on potential) and get you a fair shot.

[wendigo 687]

The answer to your question depends largely on what you would like to achieve by publishing your memoirs. Are you looking to just have a few copies printed to sell individually and give to friends? Or are you looking to to have you book published and marketed seriously in bookstores across the nation?

 

There are three general routes to go based on my previous interest in publishing.

 

1) The classic route, which is to go with a mainstream publisher. If you decide to go this route, you need an agent. Most, if not all publishers get more manuscripts than they can read, so they won't even look at a book from a first time author. A good agent will make sure that your book gets at least a cursory glance when it's submitted to a publisher.

 

Pros: You'll get professional help with all aspects of publishing, i.e. typesetting, editing, etc. If a publisher decides to publish your book, it has a greater chance of exposure, especially if the publisher decides that it's good enough to spend a marketing budget on. This option requires the lowest initial costs, since you don't need to pay anybody.

 

Cons: The chances of getting a book published this way as a first time author are minuscule. An agent doesn't make money by submitting the book everywhere, since then they would just get ignored. They will typically send in only their best stuff, so some people being represented by agents actually never get their work submitted anywhere. Even if your book is published, you'll typically be seeing only cents on each dollar of sales. Rule of thumb: every first time author gets screwed over in their first publishing contract.

 

2) Self-publishing, which means doing everything yourself. This means you'll prepare printer-ready files yourself (no, do not use Word to write your book), apply for your own ISBN number (you must get this!), getting it printed and reviewing the sample copies, etc. There's a lot of work involved in going this route, but it can be worth it if you're willing to spend the time.

 

Pros: You make the full amount on each sale (minus costs) by being your own publisher. You can dictate every last detail going into the book.

 

Cons: This is the costliest option, though it's not as expensive as it used to be. Last I looked, you can now do a small print run of a couple hundred books, getting them printed in China and shipped here for <$1,000. However, you have to do your diligence on the printer, and many are pretty sketchy outfits. You'll have to take care of all marketing and logistics, i.e. receiving and storing the books, selling them yourself. It can be difficult to get your book on shelves in bookstores.

 

3) Publishing with a so-called "vanity" publisher. This can be a happy medium for a first-time author, but you should be aware of a number of pitfalls here. You'll have to prepare your own printer-ready files (pdf files are accepted), but the publisher will take care of the distribution logistics. You have to be careful since most of these publishers are scam artists in my opinion, they make their money mainly be charging an inflated rate for printing, and selling most copies of the books to the author. I think lulu.com is one of the more reputable publishers in this regard in that they will at least get your book listable in Amazon. I believe you will have to buy your own copies to put in brick-and-mortar bookstores, though.

 

Pros: Pretty minimal work, you can get your book listed online and then market it through say a blog. When I looked at this option years ago, they actually had a few hundred dollars in "initial" costs, though looking briefly at lulu.com just now, they claim you can get your book published for "free". You get most of the money from each sale, lulu getting a cut from each sale. I would definitely take a closer look at the fine print to see if there's really no startup costs, I'm generally dubious of these claims.

 

Cons: No editing services (unless you pay extra), so make sure you've carefully proofread your work, since it's published as is! The biggest drawback in my opinion is avoiding the scam artist publishers, as I said lulu.com is pretty reputable. That being said, I've never used their services myself.

 

Good luck with your book, if you'd like some proofreading and/or editing I'd be glad to volunteer, you're a very interesting gal from talking to you! Also let me know when you do get it published, I'd be interested in a copy!

[Guest m**l]

hey there its miel

 

any help would be greatly apperciated!

 

miel

[fortunateone 156618]

Yes, you should be researching literary agents and book publishers. You'd start with a Canadian publisher, for hardcover, and then sell the rights for the US and international markets, in hard cover or paperback.

 

But you never start with the selfpublishing route. The major houses have the distribution and the funds to pay for printing and promotion. No need to market your own or pay for it either, imo.

 

You can check out similar theme books and see who publishes them. If you are going to approach agents and publishers tho, you need to make sure your presenting a very tight example. No typos, decent grammar, etc. All submissions need to be double spaced, single side, with a cover letter that presents a brief outline. The submission is not the entire book, just the cover, with a synopsis, and one chapter.

 

Double spacing

 

looks like this

 

an extra space between each

 

and every

 

line.

 

 

You should find lists of literary agents in the phone book or on a website. Just google canadian literary agents. Same for publishers, if you want to submit on your own directly (not recommended for non-fiction). A reputable or establish agent presenting a topic has more credibility than just over the transom (unsolicited). An agent can submit to a few publishers and start a bidding for the book, getting you the best deal.

[snoopy 100]

There's a good blog here:

 

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

 

This guy makes his living off self-published books. It can be the most profitable way to go if you do it right.

[Phaedrus 209521]

One other option that I don't think has been mentioned... a relatively recent development is micro-publishing print-on-demand sites. I've never used one to publish anything, but I've bought a book or two from http://www.blurb.com/ and they've been good quality. They're cheap because nothing ever gets printed at all until someone buys it, so they don't run the risk of conventional publishers of having to pulp most of a print run if it doesn't sell.

 

Disclaimer - I know almost nothing about this, so please take any advice from me with a suitably large pinch of salt :)