Interested in getting your book published? Then, I would strongly recommend you read these interesting insights from Mark Hillary. Very useful. Mark has published 9 book and he speaks from experience.
“Over the past decade I have published many books. Six were using traditional publishers and three were self-published using the Lulu website. My tenth book is about to come out this week and will be published straight to the Amazon Kindle format.
Because I am a published author and I have used both the traditional and self-publishing routes my friends often ask how they can get published and is it better to just self-publish immediately or spend a long time trying to find a traditional publisher willing to publish their work?
My own experience is non-fiction, so although I do have a lot of ideas about how fiction publishing works from talking to people in the industry, it’s not something I have ever tried. My own focus has been taking a subject I know well, writing about it, and then hoping that enough people will be interested enough to buy it.
None of my present work is going to trouble the Man Booker shortlist, but there is nothing to be ashamed of in writing works of non-fiction. It may not seem as artistic as writing romance or thrillers, but if you can still make a living as a writer then who can argue that it’s not a good thing to be doing?
First of all though, if you are thinking of writing a book then here are a few things to think about:
- You are unlikely to make a lot of money, despite the telephone-number royalties you see JK Rowling making. Business, management, professional and other non-fiction titles don’t sell in huge numbers so you need to consider publishing non-fiction for the joy of contributing to the pool of knowledge in that subject, plus it may become a valuable calling card that gives you work in other areas – such as consulting or speaking. If you want to get on the public speaking circuit then being an author in your area of expertise is almost essential.
- You need to think commercially. Publishers are not in this for the love of it. They want a commercial product they can turn into real returns… so they are unlikely to be interested in uncle Tom’s memoirs of fishing on the river Thames – unless there is some way you can prove that the book-buying public really needs to see this title.” Continue Reading..
