Hi.
My name is Jen.
I think the best way to introduce myself, as well as the way things work in my world, would be to tell you how I found the forum.
The editor of my book gave me the link.
I wrote a non-fiction/self-help/business book that's a wee bit over 30k words and just assumed the next steps were to give it to an editor and then self-publish and promote the heck out of it.
Seems easy-peasy, right?
So the editor throws a wrench in my plans by telling me about this board, and all these options, and do I want a "real" publisher, and now I'm all discombobulated and confused.
I've never thought of myself as a writer, but I found myself giving the same advice over and over, and when people took the advice it worked but I was never able to give someone all the advice they needed all at once. So I wrote it all down on a stack of index cards. Then the index cards became my chapters, chunks became sub-headings, and before I knew it I had a book.
So I kind of thought I may as well publish it. On the bright side I know the editor, and she says the book is good. Her actual words were "I'm glad I get to edit this because I'd have to buy it otherwise." (That sounds sleazier than it actually was over the phone.)
I had planned on going with Aventine Press for basic publishing. I will design my own cover, as well as copyright and submit to the LoC on my own, so no extraneous charges. I did forum searches on the Aventine and it seems they're okay unless you are not a fan of vanity presses at all, which is understandable for real writers.
The problem is, I don't think I can back out of my vanity press decision right now even if I wanted to. I already have two in-person and three online speaking gigs lined up based on the content of the book in March, so I don't think I can decide to go with non-self-published now. It seems like a traditional "real" publisher takes much, much longer from what I have read here in the forums.
Oh gosh, I did not mean for this to go on so long. Really. I'm just nervous because I'm not a writer and you are all very prolific it seems, and that's wonderful, but I did everything back-assward and I'm really worried I may have broken something along the way.
I did read the thread on publishing non-fiction. It was chock FULL of resources. Great stuff, thank you for taking the time to share that.
Okay, I'm wrapping up. I promise. The link in my signature line is just my blog. I didn't want to link it to my main company...that seemed gauche. I don't know why.
Thank you. If you've made it this far in the message, thank you even more for your patience!
My name is Jen.
I think the best way to introduce myself, as well as the way things work in my world, would be to tell you how I found the forum.
The editor of my book gave me the link.
I wrote a non-fiction/self-help/business book that's a wee bit over 30k words and just assumed the next steps were to give it to an editor and then self-publish and promote the heck out of it.
Seems easy-peasy, right?
So the editor throws a wrench in my plans by telling me about this board, and all these options, and do I want a "real" publisher, and now I'm all discombobulated and confused.
I've never thought of myself as a writer, but I found myself giving the same advice over and over, and when people took the advice it worked but I was never able to give someone all the advice they needed all at once. So I wrote it all down on a stack of index cards. Then the index cards became my chapters, chunks became sub-headings, and before I knew it I had a book.
So I kind of thought I may as well publish it. On the bright side I know the editor, and she says the book is good. Her actual words were "I'm glad I get to edit this because I'd have to buy it otherwise." (That sounds sleazier than it actually was over the phone.)
I had planned on going with Aventine Press for basic publishing. I will design my own cover, as well as copyright and submit to the LoC on my own, so no extraneous charges. I did forum searches on the Aventine and it seems they're okay unless you are not a fan of vanity presses at all, which is understandable for real writers.
The problem is, I don't think I can back out of my vanity press decision right now even if I wanted to. I already have two in-person and three online speaking gigs lined up based on the content of the book in March, so I don't think I can decide to go with non-self-published now. It seems like a traditional "real" publisher takes much, much longer from what I have read here in the forums.
Oh gosh, I did not mean for this to go on so long. Really. I'm just nervous because I'm not a writer and you are all very prolific it seems, and that's wonderful, but I did everything back-assward and I'm really worried I may have broken something along the way.
I did read the thread on publishing non-fiction. It was chock FULL of resources. Great stuff, thank you for taking the time to share that.
Okay, I'm wrapping up. I promise. The link in my signature line is just my blog. I didn't want to link it to my main company...that seemed gauche. I don't know why.
Thank you. If you've made it this far in the message, thank you even more for your patience!
