My Book

[MeMaggie]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could advice me on the matter of 'self-help' books' publishing.
What are the publishers I should get in touch with? And what about the marketing side?

I was told once that with little money I can forget about getting my book published and not to mention make it to be a 'bestseller'. I do not accept that, am I unreasonable?

I will appreciate any advice and honest opinions.

Thanks,

Lots of Love,

Maggie

[Jen Waller]

Hi Maggie,

I'm certainly no expert but the first thing that sprang to my mind was to have a look at books that are already published that have a similar feel/genre and see who is publishing them.

Michael took part in a teleclass/discussion between 3 authors not that long ago called from proposal to published author. If you wanted to listen to what they had to say you can find the recording at http://www.steverrobbins.com/proposal-to-published-author

Hope that helps

Love

Jen

[MeMaggie]

Thank you Jen 

[angelscomeinthrees]

Hello, MeMaggie,

I'm writing a book too, in the 'impossible' field of childrens' writing. Money only counts if you want to self-publish, which you don't want to do, as yours is a great book that loads of people will want to read. 

If you are in the UK you want the Writers and Artists Year Book; if you are in the US elsewhere look on Amazon for the similar title for your country. It will give you everything you need to know about how to approach a publisher or agent (the agent then approaches publishers for you), how to prepare either a manuscript or proposal and much more. It also lists most publishers and agents and you will be able to identify those which will look at your material. Make sure that you know if they want to look at proposals, whole books a few chapters or whatever, and look at their websites for the latest info before sending anything off. Some agents/publishers do not want to look at new stuff, some only take in submissions during certain periods, others welcome material at any time.

Once you get a book deal marketing is down to the publisher/agent. If you already have a website or practice self-help techniques professionally (e.g. NLP) you can send details of that along with your submissions. You could also produce your book as an e-book and sell it through a website.


Hope this helps and good luck!

[Jay Budzynski]

Hi Maggie


Crown house publishing and or anglo American books there are sister companies- deal with self-help books so might be worth checking out-  Crown house publishing their website as an outline process of how to submit offers-

There is also the option of self publishing via print on demand  publishers like lulu.com even if you don't opt for the self publication option- checking out lulu and similar sites will give you access to learning about copy rights and intellectual rights, etc which is worth taking the time to learn about-

J

[MeMaggie]

Thank you Angels.. and J.
I am now experiencing the 'I don't think I can do it stage..' amongst all the other things I am dealing with such as completing my PhD! Etc I guess I should take it as a 'come and go thing' and not worry too much about it

Cheers!

Maggie

[Jay Budzynski]

So while your thinking that I can't do it, does that stop you from writing? why not keep that thought and write anyway- then you can have both the thoughts of not being able too, and still doing it. like in I think I can't spell the word magic, yet just by doing it I have-

J 

[MeMaggie]

I do continue to write J.
But you know...those thoughts, such as 'I am not committed enough because I have PhD to complete, teaching and other things', 'will I loose my dream if I cant committ as much as I want to' , 'will it be good enough so that anyone will want to publish it', '...and what if its not' etc....
All I know is that regardless of these thoughts being present I want to do that very very much...it is my dream!

Thanks.
m.

[Jay Budzynski]

I "was" doing a big writing project myself- which I had to restart over because hard-drive failed and stopped working and I lost my zip drive back up all in one week- it was 2 plus years of work, and now I am having to star again, yet as much as losing that work- the goal I have set myself is to write 250-500 words a day every day- for the next 6 months- taking 2 days every 3 weeks to proof read- then I will incubate the script for 2 months- then reread it with fresh eyes and then start to clean it up- and early next year will get it published.

I am just glad I have mind-maps that I can use to recapture about 60% of what I last-

As long as you don't put a dead line to reach your goal of writing "a" book, it really does not matter if you write "while", or after doing your Ph'D.

It's not what you don't do that matters it's what you do do, that gets you to where you want to be.

J

 

[angelscomeinthrees]

Hi, Maggie,

I'm a stay-at-home mum of three, and I also work part-time as a reiki therapist. I used to write off and on, in odd moments, often when I was exhausted - basically I was giving writing the scraps of my time. After having some coaching I realised just how important writing is to me. My youngest is at pre-school four mornings a week, and I book out one for working, one for household stuff and two for writing. It's meant a drop in income but I'm much more fulfilled and because I have faith in my ability to write I also think it will be better for us financially in the long run.

Can you find just an hour a week to book out for your writing? If your writing is that important to you, think about treating is as you would a major client, even someone you love - you've made a committment to it and you will not let it down. You are used to committing to work for your PhD, so you know that you can do it. And if you find that you don't have an hour a week, you can ask yourself why it might be that you can't find that time.

As for getting your book published, well, I can guarantee that no-one will publish it unless you actually write it! 

Jay - how awful  .  Great to hear that you are so positive about starting your work over.

Angel