Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Danny on 22 February 2011, 21:29:57

Title: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Danny on 22 February 2011, 21:29:57
I just wanted to know whether anyone at all on here has ever written a book and had it published, no matter what sort of book it was. Also, was it easy to do? How easy is it to not only find a publisher, but find the right publisher for the kind of book. Did it cost much?
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Lazydocker on 22 February 2011, 21:32:05
Dusty did, although I don't think she's a member any more :(

She worked long and hard at it but I'm led to believe her books were very good :y
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: tunnie on 22 February 2011, 21:32:16
eBooks is the way to go, forget publishers, you need big money up from for a publisher to produce cheap.

Write it and submit it to the Amazon Kindle store, digtial only costs nothing to submit. If you produce the right bits, covers, overview ect, you can have it made it real books on demand from each order from Amazon (they have their own production setup), so no big up front publisher costs.
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Gaffers on 22 February 2011, 21:32:23
dusty has published a few I think but she is not on here a lot.
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Nickbat on 22 February 2011, 21:37:58
Yes, I wrote a financial textbook in 1988 and it was published by McGraw-Hill. Went to second edition and is still used in some uni courses (though photocopied or otherwise plagiarised I fancy, since it went out of print in the early 1990s!).

If it's a book that's worthy of print, it shouldn't cost you a penny. Royalties are slow to be received (commonly on an annual basis, in arrears) and are based on the net price sold to booksellers and wholesalers, so not worth considering as an income.

I believe you can pay for a book to be published ("vanity publishing"), but it's not something I would consider.

Hope that helps.  :y
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Danny on 22 February 2011, 21:40:12
if i was to submit an ebook to amazon kindle store would it only end up in a compatible format for amazon kindle or will it be available to anyone?
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Danny on 22 February 2011, 21:59:28
I wouldn't be looking for massive financial gain by any means, though it would be nice to wipe out my mortgage!

the ebook way looks promising, would i have to have a copyright?

my only worry is if someone buys my ebook then sells copies of it

Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Varche on 22 February 2011, 22:03:06

More info here  http://blogkindle.com/2010/11/how-to-publish-a-kindle-ebook/

Good luck

Edited. the first link was "horsetrading" Oops
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Danny on 22 February 2011, 22:25:04
i dont know about that first link personally, but the second one is extremely helpful, thanks :y
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Banjax on 23 February 2011, 08:36:00
Nickbat's right if you have something worth printing it shouldn't cost you and doing it free online as an unknown author i would reckon you'd be lucky to get any interest (apart from friends and family).


p.s. - hello NB - its been a bit dull around here without your posts  :y :y
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: PhilRich on 23 February 2011, 14:23:30
I once had a book on Flyfishing published but I was known by another name then ::)
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: bigegg on 23 February 2011, 15:41:14
I had some articles published in the late 80s/early 90s (martial arts mainly, but a couple on rabbiting in "survival weaponry and techniques" magazine)
IIRC, I was paid about 12p per word + £30 a photo for one of the articles
so worked out about £100 a month (double page article).

I basically wrote the article (double spaced, typed), then sent it + prints to the "submissions editor" - and got either a rejection slip, or a cheque + request for transparencies (photo slides).
Chances are they'll want MS Word .doc files now.

HTH  :y
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: shane1000 on 23 February 2011, 22:06:08
the only thing I wrote was a fictional peice.... it was my tax returns . I beleive it was published and distributed around other tax offices for staff training ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Danny on 25 February 2011, 14:05:24
self publishing appears to be the way forward, and it looks like ebooks are the easiest way, so if i feel i can write a good enough book i'll see what happens, though i shouldn't hope for too much, the book's about me!
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Elite Pete on 25 February 2011, 15:00:46
Whats more to the point is, has anyone on OOF ever read one ;D ;D

Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Olympia5776 on 25 February 2011, 15:12:27
Quote
Whats more to the point is, has anyone on OOF ever read one ;D ;D


I think we've all read at least one ........ ;)


(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t261/olympia5776/Omega/DSCF0009a.jpg)
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Entwood on 25 February 2011, 16:44:28
Quote
Whats more to the point is, has anyone on OOF ever read one ;D ;D


Read regularly, probably at least 30 minutes every day, even easier now I got a Kindle....  execellent bit of kit IMHO .. :)
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: albitz on 25 February 2011, 18:21:11
My son is in the process of writing a book. Seems to be a long process - about 4 chapters has taken about a year.
He is one of those deep thinking people who doesnt rush into anything though. No idea where those characterisitics come from. :-/ ;D
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: Jimbob on 25 February 2011, 23:59:19
Quote
Quote
Whats more to the point is, has anyone on OOF ever read one ;D ;D


Read regularly, probably at least 30 minutes every day, even easier now I got a Kindle....  execellent bit of kit IMHO .. :)


Kindle's are great  :y
Title: Re: speaking of books, has anyone here ever wrote one?
Post by: tidla on 26 February 2011, 00:27:52
Quote
Whats more to the point is, has anyone on OOF ever read one ;D ;D


yep. written by j r fartly.