Publishing a book - How?

[blessedatlast]

Everyone that has read my blog tells me I should get it published.. I had a book of it made online and it looks amazing. I have no idea how to go about getting it published. Does anyone have any advice?

[YoYo]

Do you mean published as in book for the market? Or printed out for your own purpose from the ebook you had created?

If its the latter I guess you could go to any big printing house (Sorry got no names!) give them a file and they'd probably be able to do something?

I loved reading your blog BTW so I think it would be a great momento as a hard copy

[Trillian]

Firstly, what do you want to achieve by printing it? Do you want to give copies to the hospitals that deal with prem babies as a type of handbook for other parents? Do you want to sell them? A few years ago I had a book published for a local history event - I compiled and edited stories from all the local families in the district and then put it all into publisher, fully laid out with pictures etc and then found a printer who printed it up - they weren't a publishing house, but just a regular printing business. We got about 500 copies on the first print run. I can't remember how much it cost though as it was a few years ago and no doubt prices would have changed since then but it was several thousand dollars. You will also need to get an ISBN number as well and if you have a book printed you also have to give a copy to your State Library and the National Library of Australia.

I think your blog is a beautiful story about your little Jettplane's birth and fight for survival, as well as your own growth as a mother, and I think what you want to do is great, but do you want to go into debt over it? What would you do if you did it and then no one wanted the book kwim? I hope that doesn't sound insensitive, but finding out all of this first might save you some heartbreak later on kwim?

[Miss.September]

If you want to publish it on a wide scale (as in selling into bookshops etc), the best bet is to work out your target audience and then contact a publisher who prints/distributes in that genre. eg - Hay House publish self help books, Scholastic publish children's books. You're best going with a small publisher I think, because the bigger ones need an agent representing you, and then an agent doesn't usually take on anyone who's not published. It's a vicious circle.

You can self-publish and do the hard yards yourself. But that means a fair amount of money spent with no guarantee of sales. Bookshops may take the book, but only on a sale-or-return basis - what they don't sell, they give back to you. Lots of legwork because you need to go into the bookshops yourself (they generally won't stock something unless they see it) and often very little result.

You can get it printed yourself and get it distributed through a publishing house who represent self-printed authors. Places like Dennis Jones do this, or they have names of publishers who do it. But again, it's money you need to spend up front.

The other thing I'm aware of is that a while ago Penguin was allowing authors to send through their work at certain times of year, without an agent. There was something on their FB page about it, where they opened it up for anyone to have a shot. They do all the work for you, print, publish and distribute. So that might be an avenue worth taking.

If it was me, I'd probably work out exactly what you want to achieve. Who's hands do you want the book to go into? It it for parents in hospitals going through the same thing? Or more on a mass market scale? If it's mass market, then I'd call a couple of smaller publishers (because they tend to be more willing to talk to you than the big ones) and see what advice they give you. Good luck!

[BellyBelly]

Someone once told me about lulu.com where you can publish there and people order in the format they want, ebook, softcover, hardcover... You can search for books on the site, very cool.

[AnyDream]

If you want to publish for other readers, you need to remember that what works as a blog might not work as well as a book without substantial editing. Ask around, it may turn out you know someone who knows someone with some publishing/editing experience, or you can pay a professional editor.

[blessedatlast]

Ok thanks for the advice.. Not sure what I want to achieve.. I mean I think it's an awesome inspiring story of raw truth, strength and survival of both myself and my son, but it's way to heavy for someone who is going through it to read, so I'm not sure exactly what type of audience it would interest? I'll think more on it...

[surprised]

Could you condense it a bit and make a photo book that just happens to have lots and lots of text?