How many published authors are on this forum?

Janet842

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No self-published, please. That's the easy, if not cheap, way out!

I've been working on my book for somewhere around 7 years and have taken it through several complete, and exhaustive :doh:, rewrites to accomplish some radical changes in perspective. It's been a long haul -- and not over yet.

If you've been published, how long between concept and press for your book?

Thanks,

Janet

I'm trying to get this moved to "Writer's Guild" where it belongs –– Sorry!!
 
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Jimmy Thomas

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Hello!

I have been posting my personal Bible studies into a blog. And I have begun publishing my studies on the Book of Psalms. I am publishing them in five volumes, with 30 psalms in each volume.

Ruminating on the Psalms, Volume 1 is now available for purchase online through the publisher, Lulu. There is a link to the book in my signature.

Lulu is a self-publishing service for several types of media. The book should be available through Amazon in a couple of months. To this point, I've had no money out of pocket except for the cost of my time and the purchase (at cost) of any copies for review prior to publishing. Lulu does offer optional services to review and edit your material and assist with the promotion process. And if I wish, I can pay for a distribution service that would add my book to the catalog of other book retailers, even allowing brick-and-mortar stores to purchase copies for their stock if they desire.
 
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Dennisj

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Hi,
I have compiled four books for Baker Book House and one for Kregel on the sermons of Vance Havner. You can find three of these books in digital format at WORDsearchbible and Vance Havner Sermons. I also have written one ebook about finding wholesale items to resell on ebay that you can find at The Product Hunter and I self published one book that can be found at Better Churches. I've also written for numerious magazines. The fastest way to get published, build a following a get experience is by writing a newspaper column or submitting short human interest pieces to newspapers for fillers. To take 7 years to complete a book is a LONG TIME and some authors burn out before the book is complete. But at least you do have the "stick-to-it-ness." You might allow a professional editor to look over your book and give you some tips. It could save you a lot of time so you can get on with getting published, feeling the joy of being a published author and then get on with your next project. I wish you God speed and much success.
 
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Jimmy Thomas

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Just an update. My book, Ruminating on the Psalms, Volume 1, has been available on Amazon for about a month, now. In addition to the paperback version, which the publisher Lulu got into Amazon's catalog, I also independently submitted a version to Amazon for the Kindle reader. Because of the relative ease of the process, and because of the large potential audience, I highly recommend taking advantage of the free service to submit a book in Kindle format.
 
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M

Michael Snow

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No self-published, please. That's the easy, if not cheap, way out!
The 'cheap' way?? Published THEY pay; Self-pub, YOU pay. And there is no easy way.

I've gone both ways.[Christian books] My first book was published after the first two rejections.

My second book, after Crossway finally returned the ms, I went the self=pub route.

Just a note on my experiences with this:

I think being published as an unknown is even harder today. When I first sent my ms out, things were getting a lot harder. In my case, I had sent it to Herald Press, a small but well known Christian publisher. The editor tried to encourage me that I 'almost' made it [they took a well known seminary prof's ms instead, Ron Sider]They only published about 30 books a year but were getting several hundred mss.

Crossway no longer accepts mss. You have to have an agent or something

NOTE: There is a Christian website for writers to display their work and publishers supposedly look at it and contact you if interested...not sure of the name...

ON self-publishing, there are two routes: 1) POD print-on-demand and 2) printing cartons of books. [I've done it both ways]

1) has the advantage of no inventory and low costs if you just go with a basic package. I went with Xulon on my second book [would not recommend]and it was more expensive; they get your book listed on Amazon etc; put you in a book catalogue; display their books at the Chrisian Book Seller's Assoc. etc, ...sounds good...but, really, this is all money down the drain if you are not known.

You can go direct to Lightning Source or Lulu, etc and just do the POD;

2) Finding a printer [always shop around a LOT; big difference in prices]

You have book inventory BUT if you are going to sell books; most are going to be sold by you to begin with so you need books on hand. You can have them on hand the POD route, but at about double the cost per copy. BUT that's not all bad 'cause you don't get stuck with a lot of books that don't sell.

Book printing costs drop substantially at 1000 copies and above. But that is a BIG expense. The avg author sells a couple hundred. Evangel Press in Indiana was the best deal that I found.

In the end, whatever route you take, sales depend a lot on your own promotion.
 
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Cool_Hand_Luke

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This is what I posted in another thread.

I wrote the book, "Conquering Bible Interpretation". You can pick a copy up at Amazon. It took me 7 years to gather the research, than another 1 1/2 years to write it, and yet the hardest part was the marketing of it after it was written...lol

I am currently writing another book about Christian Online Gaming Evangelism, and particularly focussing on Chat Evangelism. Online gaming is the largest non-evangelized people group in the world. Something to think about.
 
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Billnew

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Someone beat me to saying self publishing wasn't cheap. I haven't published yet, but looking into it, you basically invest in your work. If you succeed you reap the rewards, if not, you lose the investment.

Ebooks? Hadn't thought of that. Anyone know of a place to submit work other then Christian WORDsearchbible?
 
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Billnew

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Lets see, I think I have 5 stories in the works, plus two or three in review and fine tuning(editing)
The drama is the first one I completed, and have reviewed and read it at least three times, about ready to have my daughter read it. Then might be ready to go to professionals.
 
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Resha Caner

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No self-published, please. That's the easy, if not cheap, way out!

If you've been published, how long between concept and press for your book?

"Published" is a hard thing to define. I would count those self-published authors who have turned a profit from their work. I also count paid e-zines as being "published."

I have published (i.e., been paid for) both print and electronic work, but so far I haven't published a book. As close as I've gotten is to befriend a few people with published books. This is an interesting question because it strikes at many of the fantasies and self-deceptions of the publishing industry. The first question an author must ask is: why do I write?
 
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