Getting a MA book published?

[Fu-Pow]

Hi Folks-

My Sifu and I are interested in getting a book published.

Do you guys have any idea how you go about doing this?

How do you get your book on amazon.com or barnes and noble or what have you?

[MasterKiller]

Originally posted by Fu-Pow
Hi Folks-

My Sifu and I are interested in getting a book published.

Do you guys have any idea how you go about doing this?

How do you get your book on amazon.com or barnes and noble or what have you?

The publisher takes care of distribution, in most cases. They will get it listed on those sites and on the shelves in stores, unless you are self-publishing. If that's the case, Amazon and others have a seller's program. You can sign up online.

First thing you do is query the publishers with your book. You can get something like the Writer's Guide to Publishing, which lists hundreds of publishers and what they are looking for. Send them a synopsis, or a partial manuscript, and they will ask to see more if they are interested.

FWIW, most places won't consider a manuscript that is not finished. Also, make sure it's in good shape. Spelling errors, bad grammar, poor writing, etc... will usually lead to your book being tossed into the waste bin, regardless of how good it may be.

Don't be too anxious. It took 2 years to publish my first book AFTER the publisher bought it.

[Rockwood]

If you publish it yourself it can be a pain to get it listed in the various websites, etc. But it is possible, it just takes some red tape. Go to amazon and look around, you will find a protocol to establish a vendor account so they can sell your book. You'll have to establish accounts with all the different sites, bn.com, etc, individually.

The real problem is that you won't be able to get the book stores to carry your book. You'll have to sell it to each store one by one which is a painful process. You might be able to find a distributor for the book who can put it into their catalog and sell it to the chains, but they will take a sizeable cut of the action.

To get the book into stores and onto online sellers effciently you need a publisher. For the most part publishers pay authors 10% of the net earnings. The publisher usually gets about $7 or so for a $18 book (due to all the middlemen) and so the author gets 10% of that $7. Which is $0.70 per book or so. Which ain't a lot. Self publishing you get as much as you negotiate, but it's a LOT of grunt work which most authors aren't interested in doing, so their self-published book ends up in a bunch of dusty boxes in the garage.

What is the topic of your teacher's book? Is it written yet?

-JessO

-edit- MK has got the right idea here...

[MonkeySlap Too]

Hey Masterkiller - what is the title of your book? What's it about?

[MasterKiller]

Empty that PM Box!

[MonkeySlap Too]

Empty.

[lkfmdc]

plagerize someone else's book and Strider Nolan will publish it for you

[Fu-Pow]

It would be a book on a Choy Li Fut hand form. I won't say more than that.

[chief108]

we just started working on an Eagle Claw series that will start with the some basic Northern (Shaolin) kung fu and work it up to the more advanced stuff

we do everything ourselves, but the publishing will be done by a guy I met @ another forum

the first book(s) will not bring in any money for us tho...
but....
it *will* be at Amazon and B&N!!!

from there we just have to hope & pray that people will start buying it, so we can make some ca$h on the books we'll publish after that....

Chief108

[Rockwood]

Chief- Why aren't you going to get any money for sales of the book? If you are doing the work and paying for the printing (?) should'nt you share in the earnings?

-JessO

[CLFNole]

Do a good video tape its easier to do yourself and to distribute. I think they generally sell better as well since people can see someone actually doing the form rather than pictures.

You can put a history of the form on the tape along with various breakdowns of stances, hand techniques, etc... and finally applications of the set.

I know that when your si gung put his books together he told me it was "ho ma fan".

Peace.

[Shaolinlueb]

Chief, who do you study eagle claw with?

Adam

[chief108]

Originally posted by Rockwood
Chief- Why aren't you going to get any money for sales of the book? If you are doing the work and paying for the printing (?) should'nt you share in the earnings?

-JessO

the first costs on a book are a lot...

so there are two options...
1. spend all your savings (which isn't much in my case ) and pay it all yourself
2. have someone else pay it for ya and start making money (small percentage) after the investment has paid off

Chief108

[chief108]

you might want to check this out too:
http://www.lulu.com/themes/create/homepage.php

What YOU do to get published:
Create a user name & password
Upload your book, music or images
Set your royalty
Customize & promote your Lulu storefront

What LULU does for you:
Prints books and calendars on demand
Manages payments and shipping
Handles customer orders
Manages fulfillment
Tracks and pays royalties

might be worth checking out....

Chief108