Anyone writing a book??

[Tag]

Hey Jude, b***** the garden. Just take paper and pen out into the garden under a shady tree. Even better, if you have an old Psion so you can transfer the files direct.

Angela, what is fun to write down is the history of your house/hamlet/village. Ask the locals and with luck they will open up when they know what u are doing. And as you get to know them better, you will get all the juicy bits. What I have found out about my neighbours! Remember Clochmerle? It is all there in a village near you. Who needs plots?

[Winegum]

 I have the answer! Yesterday while up at our local decheterie the lovely old chap that works there dragged us over to something rather special that he'd rescued. It was an ancient Gestetner, a portable printing press, probably 1930's that still works! It was an amazing looking thing, and one wonders what it may have printed during it's lifetime. Now that could be a story in itself.

Anyone want their book printed? A quick squirt of WD40 and I'll be in business ... !!

[Winegum]

Hi Angela

I'm an absolute Philistine when it comes to history and have not much interest in genealogy, buy my hubby is just the opposite. He has an excellent family tree programme on the computer, and it has helped me become more interested. I really admire people who have the ability to research so thoroughly and who enjoy dealing with facts. I'm finding it difficult at times having to keep within the confines of my own short history, and look forward to getting back to an old book which has been on the back-burner since my son was six. He's 29 this year. I started a re-write in '95 and then it got shelved again.

With regards photos, yes, so important. I've recently started scanning mine into the computer, that way they won't end up lost in an attic. Mine have recently been a great help with my book, taking me back to my Canada days. It's amazing what feelings and memories a photo can revive, and how much it can help to get long forgotten events on paper.

Hey you should maybe write about those 'Black Sheep'! Good title for a book even?

Jude[:D]

[Loiseau]

Hi Jude,

That's a great idea to scan the pix - but don't throw out the originals!  I recently met up with second cousins whom I hadn't seen for 50 years, and we had such fun looking at photographs of our forebears, and pooling the information we knew about them.  I was a complete dunce at History (failed O level), but once you are delving into family, it's fascinating to see how they lost money because of the Napoleonic Wars, or made money because of being into canal-building etc.  I am sure there's always enough to fire plot-lines for you fiction-writers.

The black sheep are always far more interesting than the white ones, aren't they?  My husband's grandfather turned out to have died in Parkhurst prison in 1899.  We were a bit gobsmacked by that!  [:-))]

Angela

 

[Tag]

Yes Angela, I couldn't agree more. I have black sheep amongst the great and the grand parents, though nothing so grand as a prisoner I don't think. I wonder how many of these people were turned that way by say the First WW.

We once bought a house in Belgium that had been owned by a woman whom the locals called a bag lady. But in the cellar there were strange walled off areas that had what looked like (rotting) benches set in them. Turned out that she had been a key member of the resistance and had hidden both refugee children and allied airmen there.

Just down the road from me here in the Vendée is a well that is notorious for suicides. And one day my neighbours casually said that the house near the well was where airmen waere hidden too. Haven't got to the bottom of that yet, but there is a suggestion of another book there I think.

Regards,

Tim

[f1steveuk]

Found a picture of my last ones cover, particularly proud of the art work on it so I thought I'd post it, sorry!!

Sadly this one is now out of print, because it sold out in both hardback and paperback, which makes me feel quite good! Secondhand ones come up rarely and are fetching silly money, from which I as the author get, zip!!!

[IMG]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t215/f1steveuk/leapcover.jpg[/IMG]

[Tony F Dordogne]

And an excellent book it is too, I have a copy, well worth buying and reading if you're into things mechanical, speed and the people involved.

[f1steveuk]

Cheque in the post Tony!!!

[Weedon]

For anybody interested in getting a book published there is a lot of information to be had under Self-publishing or Print-on-demand, just do a google.  But beware of vanity publishers who praise your work and charge you a fortune.

[Tag]

But in fact the most important things are to decide on your readership, quality of book and how you are going to sell it. In my case, I researched a topic - The Civil War and Genocide in the Vendée -  locally, which was a really good way to get to know the area.

My readership is Brits who want to know more about the history of the region they live in.

Then looked at publishers, but the delays they wanted were very long and the return to me was very low. So, found a UK company who specialised in this type of book (The Short Run Book Company, in Windsor) who were very good. Don' t print too many! 

Then selling. Well, bookshops want about 25% or more, but a I put a few in these. Finally, network quite a few, give lectures and sell some, always keep copies in the car and stop when I saw a Brit house, but most important, flog them in the local supermarket car park, which is where Brits congregate. Illicitly of course. And Angela Bird was kind enough to put it on her site too.

Realistically, you ain't goin' to make a fortune. If you break even, good, be satisfied with that.

So far I reckon I have sold half the run and hope to get rid of the rest by the autumn with a bit of luck.

Anyone wants more info. let me know. And if you want a copy of the book, it can be arranged as it would be good to see what is possible with self-publishing.

Tim

 

[Loiseau]

Quite agree, Tim, that you are not going to make a fortune out of the writing/publishing biz, unless your name is J Archer.

Targeting readership with factual historical/guide books is *far* easier than it would be with novels.  (I have been down the "leafleting in SuperU car parks" bit too!  And people look gratifyingly interested when they pluck the leaflet off their windscreen, cos I lurk to see their reactions.)

Self-publishing is not difficult - if you have the finances in place to pay for the printing upfront of course.  All you really have to do is to think up a name for your publishing company, and then obtain an ISBN for your book from this site  (bookshops will apparently not stock a book that doesn't have one).  They are sold in blocks of 10 for (from memory of 2003 price) around £60 for the 10.  You have to send the British Library two copies of the finished product.

I am lucky in that a designer friend is doing the layout for me.  If you are not talented in that area yourself, it might be expensive to get that sort of help. The enticing appearance of the cover is *vital*.  Believe it or not, this is the only thing that a rep takes on his sales visits to the booksellers (you have to order 50 or so extra covers when arranging your printing).  The look of it is apparently what makes us pick up a book in the first place, and a quick skim down the blurb on the back is what makes us buy it.

Obviously the bigger your print run, the lower the unit cost per book. For a run of 3,000 copies, mine work out at just over £1 each. But of course if you were only going to get 100 printed, each copy would cost considerably more.

The big thing is how you are going to get your book into the shops, short of going round each one yourself.  I use a book distribution company, but once they have had their cut, and knocked off the bookseller's cut (which can be up to 50% of cover price), I end up with 35% of cover price, from which I have to pay all my research, printing, shipping, other costs.  Book distributors tend to specialise in particular areas;  mine is obviously a travel-guide specialist...  I don't get paid till about 4 months after the sales are made.  :-(

If you do have a book published (whether by yourself or by a publisher), don't forget about registering for Public Lending Right.  This way, whenever anyone borrows your book from a library, you the author will get 2p!  I think there is a minimum of £5 - i.e. if you have earned under £5 in a year, you will receive nothing for that year.  I started with just over £5 earnings (very chuffed), but (13 years down the line) I was sent a payment for £85 for 2006, so it's worth having.

It's obviously great to have your book on sale on Amazon too.  Not sure how you go about this as an individual (my distributor deals with this side).
Consider joining the Amazon "associates" programme though.  You don't need to have written a book to do this - anyone with a website can join.  Basically, from your website you make direct links to any Amazon-listed book (or other product) you want to recommend, including in the link a special code that they give you when you register.  If somebody follows the link from your site and buys the product, you get about 10% commission from Amazon.  If they then wander off through Amazon's site (but had first gone there through one of your links), and buy various other products that you hadn't recommended, you still get a (smaller) commission.   I have to say I was very sceptical about it, but as my quarterly payments have occasionally reached £100 I have changed my tune! [:)]

Angela

[Winegum]

Your info was most interesting Angela. I'm still in the process of writing with about 30,000 words to go. I haven't thought much about how to go about getting the book in print, probably because I don't need money from it. I was going to get it finished and polished and then start looking for an agent (simply because I'd heard that that's what most people do). In the meantime I was going to start book number two. What you have said has given me food for thought. Thanks.

Jude[:D]

[Winegum]

Just love it Steve! Presumably you did the artwork? Fantastic.

Jude

[:D]

[Loiseau]

I think you're right, Jude, about getting an agent.  I believe that is essential for fiction.

Lots of luck with it!

Angela

[Tag]

But see a book called Chaucer's Triumph, just published, on Amazon. Self Published and doing well. But as Angela says, it is a bigger risk.

[Tim]

I'm on a friend's computer so not the person named, but I had to chip in to say I wrote for a living too in Ireland and have rarely time to do it here...can't understand why! Too busy having long lunches and gadding about and living instead of working...less profitable but way more fun! I have got two books away though and will be starting a third in autumn, if I can get down to it on rainy days - not that it ever does rain in Normandy of course. BTW my name is Liz and my books are available in all good bookshops..!

[f1steveuk]

[quote user="Winegum"]Just love it Steve! Presumably you did the artwork? Fantastic.

Jude

[:D]

[/quote]

I wish!! The actual painting was done by a motorsport artist friend of mine, Arthur Benjamins, although I supplied some sketches of what I wanted, and Arthur filled in the colours! But it turned out exactly as it appeared in my head.

Only once have I written the text, taken some of the pictures inside the book, AND drawn and supplied the artwork for the cover, turned a one year project into a three year one!