Book writing & self-publishing

2015-05-22T22:43:07-04:00

Anyone here have experience writing (and publishing) a book? The training NCOIC from my unit self-published a book, and while I didn't talk to him about his experience, it seemed to work for him. I wished I had asked though.

I digress.

Several years ago—in those dark days before Facebook—on a local interest website someone asked for short, true stories, which I obliged. Long story short, those stories became very popular and remain so, even though that site itself isn’t popular anymore. I took my stories and have been editing them with the intent of assembling them into a book, which I am thinking I should self-publish because: A) I don’t know that any publisher would be interested & B) if one would be, I wouldn’t know where to find them or what to do…basically self-publishing seems easier. Either way, I hold no illusions that it would be a great success.

Has anyone written a book and if so did you self-publish it or did you find a publisher? How was the process? Positives and negatives?

Additionally, I was thinking about launching a website/blog partially as a sales outlet for my book, but in the long run, to use it as an outlet for myself and others to share similar true stories.

Response by Cpl Dennis F. made May 22 at 2015 10:55 PM

2015-05-22T22:55:18-04:00

Look into Writers Digest They publish a magazine and a yearly book that lists comprehensively all of the publishing houses and their requirements. It is a very useful monster of a book. Good luck with the book. I'd like to see a story or two.

Response by MAJ Allen Tiffany made May 22 at 2015 11:07 PM

2015-05-22T23:07:46-04:00

Hey SGT Tracy,

Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Not to make this story too long, but about 20 years ago I had a novel under contract with a major publishing house before they shut down their fiction line. Last year I decided to get back to writing, and spent 6 months educating myself on self-publishing and preparing my manuscript.

My first advice to you is to figure out what it is you are out to accomplish: Just get something published and only selling 10 copies is OK? Published, and want to sell 1,000 copies? Published, and want to give away 5,000 copies? Just want to learn the ropes, so selling 100 copies of this one is OK, but I want to set myself up to sell 20,000 next time?

All (and many more) such answers are OK. But just as different military objectives require different tactics, each one of these objectives requires different methods (and time and money).

No matter which you pick there is a ton to learn not only in regard to preparing your work, and then actually publishing it through Amazon (for instance), but then actually promoting it and getting it to the right audience. There is much too much to write it all out here, but I'm happy to answer any specific questions or you can check out my blog where I write about such things (http://www.allentiffany.com). In the interim, I'd suggest these two books: How To Market A Book (Penn) and Build Your Author Platform (Jelen and McCallister) if you want to learn more about the actual promoting process.

And below is a link to the novel I just published. Best of luck to you know matter which route you take!

http://www.amazon.com/Youth-In-Asia-Vietnam-Highlands-ebook/dp/B00V6WXVF2

Response by Maj Private RallyPoint Member made May 23 at 2015 6:45 PM

2015-05-23T18:45:39-04:00

I've written three books so far, all fiction. I tried to find a publisher and/or agent for my second book, Crystal Hill and as most wannabe authors know it is very difficult. So I finally self-published my second and third books. You can publish your books for practically nothing (only a couple of books to buy a proof copy) but I used a professional graphics artist on both covers plus hired an editor on the third book.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/crystal-hill-johnie-wood/ [login to see] ?ean= [login to see] 129

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seditious-conspiracy-johnie-wood/ [login to see] ?ean= [login to see] 605

I make a few dollars each month from books sales through Amazon and Barnes & Noble but I never intended to try to make real money - it's a hobby of mine and wanted to prove I could write.

The low cost avenue is through https://www.createspace.com which is owned by Amazon.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made May 26 at 2015 2:06 PM

2015-05-26T14:06:15-04:00

SGT, I actually am in the process of getting my book, The Runaway, published. I am using Dorrance Publishing Group. If you shoot me a message I can give you information on who to talk to, and who was the most helpful to me. If your book is accepted, the total cost of the publishing it 6700, but it includes cover art, media promotion, and promotion to well-known book stores all over the country, such as Barnes and Noble's, Books-a-Million (the few that still remain) and 2nd and Charles.

Response by LCDR Doug Nordman made May 27 at 2015 4:17 PM

2015-05-27T16:17:35-04:00

You've asked a bunch of seemingly simple questions which have long answers. Here's my latest royalty report and why I'm self-publishing my second book:
http://the-military-guide.com/2015/05/14/the-military-guide-sales-update-the-gsa-schedule-rocks/

If you enjoy writing and want to be published: Kindle Direct Publishing or CreateSpace. Most authors hire a graphic artist and some hire editors (or ask family/friends). You need a website to market your book, and the biggest boost comes from WordPress (for a few $$) or Blogspot (mostly free). This is literally a hundred-dollar startup (or less).

If you enjoy writing and want it to pay for itself: CreateSpace and a book series. Graphic artist and almost definitely an editor to advise you on subsequent books. You want to create a topic franchise (either non-fiction or fiction) and you want your readers to eagerly await your next book (with maybe an eBook or novella in between).
Use WordPress (the .ORG version on a self-hosted site like Bluehost) to market your book. Use Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, and other advertisers/affiliates to generate blog income. Start a Facebook group to answer reader questions, share personal writing stories, and generate the buzz for the next book. Start accounts on Twitter, Linkedin, and other social media sites. Depending on what you want to do and what you choose to delegate, you're between $150-$1000.
For the most efficient use of your time & effort, start the blog now. Use your book outline as one of the first posts. Subsequent posts should work through the outline until you've written the book. Then gather all of those blog posts into the manuscript and start the publishing process. Along the way you can use the blog for reader feedback, cover-art polls or contests, and personal stories about the process. By the time you self-publish you'll have a ready-made audience and a higher keyword ranking to help drive sales.
This is dangerously close to a full-time job, but you can set your own pace until your readers start pestering you.

If you really want to make a career out of your writing then consider public speaking (especially for non-fiction) or start hustling media appearances & conventions (for fan promotions on fiction). At that point the books are mostly giveaways to leverage your speaking & appearance fees. You probably won't want to even consider this until one of your books sells over 10,000 copies, and you'll be running an entrepreneurial business. You don't want to quit your day job until the royalties pay the bills, or until you've saved up two years of living expenses.

Let me know if you want to drill down on an area in this, or contact me if you have more detailed questions. Every year I attend FinCon, and every year several dozen of my fellow bloggers & entrepreneurs have published their next book.

You can also scroll through this category of posts:
http://the-military-guide.com/category/books-publishing/
About half of them are book reviews, but over the last four years I've also written extensively about writing, blogging, and publishing.

"The Military Guide" Sales Update (The GSA Schedule Rocks!) - Military Guide

This update took a few extra months to put together. It’s even more outdated than usual. When I talk about book sales with my writing friends, I get confused looks and pitying smiles. Most of them have self-published their manuscripts as eBooks, or used a service like Amazon’s CreateSpace for both hardcopy and eBooks. …

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Jun 17 at 2015 10:59 AM

2015-06-17T10:59:34-04:00

Don't quit your day job!

Earning a living by writing is about the same as earning a living by acting. There are just enough success stories to entice others to try it, but few make it.

I'm like the person who acts in a community theater. The critics are generous with their praise but the audience never swells beyond a few hundred or a couple thousand.

Income remains a trickle. Fortunately, you can still publish electronically for very little money although you should invest at least a little for good cover art.

I'd never use a vanity press (where you pay for printing and production). If you can't entice a publisher to invest in your book, what makes you think that anyone will invest a couple dollars to read it?

Response by SPC Anna Larson made Jul 29 at 2016 10:53 AM

2016-07-29T10:53:45-04:00

I have several self published books, One a memoir of my horse, one romance novel, and three short stories in anthologies. I'm in the process of publishing a second romance novel that will be released by September. I have used both the print on demand services of create space for print books as well as e-books. I'd be happy to answer questions if you have any specific ones. I haven't made tons of money, but my sales have covered the cost of all my editing and cover art as well as given me a tiny bit of extra (but unreliable) income.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made May 18 at 2020 4:19 PM

2020-05-18T16:19:22-04:00

I have been looking into this myself. I have been writing which is a very rough draft of my seasonal work with the Forest Service and Park Service and trying to tie in some of my military experiences into the book as well. My learning disability has not been helpful in this process.