Question for Authors - Best Resources Re. Getting Started Writing a Book

This is a huge topic, and a complicated one. I'm not sure how far you've gotten into this process and how much you already know.

My husband is a professional writer who has published 1 book, and his agent has a 2nd one (completed - fiction) and a proposal for a 3rd (non-fiction). He's done pretty much everything you can imagine, but he already had a strong writing background. I don't know if you have that so forgive me if I repeat some things you already know.

If you have no experience, you need a lot more than an idea. You need writing classes. You can see what's available at your adult education center, you can join a writers' collaborative, and more. How you write has a lot to do with what you are writing - for example, a non-fiction analysis of population trends is very different from a non-fiction cookbook, which are both very different from a fiction political satire or a fiction children's book. You need feedback from qualified authors and editors - not just other would-be writers who find you interesting. You need to be able to take the criticism and go back to write again, over and over.

Make sure your idea hasn't already been done. Chances are, it has. Sorry, but that's the truth. You have to be careful not to violate copyright laws, even inadvertently. Copyright lawsuits are very expensive.

Next, even if the idea hasn't been done (or if you have a truly unique twist on it), you still have to be sure you do it thoroughly and that you have excellent writing skills. You also need phenomenal proofreading and grammar abilities, or 2 outstanding people who can do this for you.

Self-publishing is the most expensive but the easiest to accomplish - there's always someone who will take your money and publish your book. But then what? How are you planning to market your book? Book-signings? They are time consuming and you have to provide the books yourself (your cost), hoping people will come, like what you have to say, and lay out the cash. Bookstores? How are you going to get your book in front of enough of them to make back your costs?

Or you can find a publisher - and this is a long, arduous process that is filled with rejection. You need to learn to write a good query letter, a 1 paragraph summary/sales pitch, a 2 page summary, sample chapters, and an outline. You can also find an agent - same process, but they have specialties and their own contacts. You need to learn how to find them, how to rate them (based on your topic) and how to get them to pay attention to you. They will ask for an exclusive and they will sit on your manuscript for months and months - can you afford to wait? Be aware that publishers largely want known authors who are guaranteed to sell. There are no developmental editors anymore - that is, absolutely gone is the old system of having an editor take you under his/her wing to work with you and nurture your book along. Face the reality that the world is not sitting around waiting for your great idea - so you have to find a way to get someone's attention and sell your idea in the middle of an industry filled with people just like you and with publishers who are skeptical of your plan. You need a very thick skin and a strong backbone, and the ability to take rejection and move on.

There is a 3rd option called shared expenses, in which a publisher (usually a smaller one) has an editor who likes your book and is willing to help you, but you pay part of the expenses of publishing. They usually don't have a large PR department so you will have to supplement the inquiries they send out to their industry contacts. Do you know how to do this?

You mention research - do you have sources for this? You can't just use Google - you have no way of evaluating what's out there if you just do random searches. So how will you qualify, evaluate and sort out those sources? You mention organizing - if you are doing a non-fiction book, you might consider using an index professional. I know someone who does this - and I had no idea that it is a specialty until I met her in a women's networking group. So every textbook or other non-fiction book that relies on footnotes and so on also needs someone to put together that index in the back of the book. Huge undertaking. Do you have the finances to afford someone like this?

Depending on how far into your project you are and what topic it is, some of the above may not apply. If you are motivated and if you are really good at seeking out other professionals who can support your strengths and help you in your weak areas, and if you are extremely teachable, you may have a good chance! But it's absolutely not a process for the weak-kneed or the faint-hearted.

I have a friend who wrote a book, and learned a lot with her in the process. Added is the fact that my dad is an editor, so I helped with his 2 cents, too. One correction from below, self-publishing is not expensive at all. It used to be that if you self-published, you found your own typesetter, printer, etc., and had to order a minimum number of copies. Now, there is on demand publishing, like Create Space. They publish your book for free (there are a la carte services you can purchase, but it can totally be free). You pay the same per copy price whether you print one copy or 1,000. Tons to learn there, but basically, self-publishing is not what it used to be.

The best book on writing a book is called The Authorpreneur by Kayla Fioravanti (totally could have misspelled that). Basically, she wanted to write a book on soap making or something, and learned so much in the process that she wrote a book about it. It is AWESOME. Covers choosing a publisher or going self-published (and gives options for the different main companies that do this). And also about a ton of social media and marketing tips. Just soup to nuts advice, it was really good.

A couple of other good things that my friend learned was checking at the local library- they often have author services, she went to a very helpful presentation and benefitted from some of their other support. Also, she learned to crowd-source. So for you, your audience is parents of autistic kids. As you write, you may either reach out to someone who writes a blog or is otherwise an expert in this subject and have them read sections of your book- kind of a focus group. Very helpful to see if what you are writing resonates with your likely audience. Some people will do this with their finished work (before publishing). Getting feedback can be painful because we are attached to our ideas, but is important. They just suggest letting the person/people know that you will list them in the credits or acknowledgements of the book in exchange for reading.

Good luck in your journey!

I have a half-written book (worked on it for years so far!!) I will finish one day! I also got through LOTS of research of how to execute and publish. Books on the topic are your friend!! Lots of "How to write non-fiction books" books have very important advice on what makes a book worthy of publishing. They are broken into categories of types of non fiction books too. From basic advice like proofread 15 times and then have a few strangers proof-read it and then proof-read again, to actual structure, power of argument, lots of good stuff. Or "get your book market-ready and then attend book fairs and schedule meetings with agents just for advice to spruce it up even more before trying to have published"..many things that can help you get it out there, and get it up to par.

Also, I thought (like everyone does) that it would be great to get an agent and publisher. I thought I would NEVER want to self-publish. Then I did lots of research and hired a professional editor to proof my proposal and query letter (non-fiction books need a proposal and there are lots of "how to write an awesome proposal" books) and her knowledge was consistent with what I read in many sources: Unless you are a titled expert in your field with previous published books or a wildly popular blog selling your work already and a huge, viral fan base they can google: You will be self-publishing. No one publishes a first-time, unknown author on their first book these days, no matter how amazing the book is. No one will even read or respond to the query much less look at the book draft. Unless your father owns the publishing house. But you know what? You can make more money self-publishing if your product is amazing and you have to do all your own leg work getting it launched and promoted even if you intend to get an agent and publisher one day (which you might once it's self-published).

So worry about completing the book up to standard first, and then how to publish later. Start looking in comparable books to see who your ideal publisher may be, who authors thank in their acknowledgments to get agent and editor names. You may be able to submit to some of those places (look up how to do proper queries and proposals) but again, you're 99.999% likely to be self-publishing and promoting yourself at first, so get info on good ways to promote your work.

i'm in the process. and i'll be reading your responses eagerly to get ideas for myself.

i mean, i had just figured i'd self-publish. no one buys your books but you at least get 'em out there, right?

eep!
khairete
S.

I think you will be best served by plugging into writer organizations or attending a writer's workshop, where those numerous resources would be discussed.

Since you have not mentioned the specific topic, your question is too broad. If it's health related, then you need to pursue health or bio-medical publications. If it's scientific, then scientific publishers. If it's religious, then research religious publishers, etc. Does that make sense. There way too many real and on-line publishers, and way too many authors out there for you receive the correct answer the first go around.

Many of my friends who have been published in either local or national or international platforms, are quite honestly, not a 'this is a good one' style writer. My own daughter was just published this week in an on-line political site. But she is very politically active, so it stands to reason they would publish her.

Many authors outline their books, some just start writing.
My advice is just get started, put words on paper. You can look on meetup.com, Facebook, and LinkedIn for writing groups. We had a meetup group in my area that met weekly for about 2 years then just stopped scheduling meetups. I have written the group organizer to see if he is setting up meet ups but have not heard back. You can start your own group but if you do you need to be diligent about scheduling the meet ups.
The glory of computers is you can just start writing and if you uncover new information in your research you can add or delete as needed. Your manuscript is going to go through many rewrites before it's published so just start working on it.

I wrote a book a year and a half ago. Writer's Digest is a wonderful resource (writersdigest.com). I worked with a couple of agents and also considered self-publishing. Finally, I decided to wait on publishing for now. It's a very private topic which I think would be helpful to people, but it hits very close to home. I'm not quite ready to share it with the world, yet. I live near you, P.. If you ever want to meet at a Starbucks to chat about the process, let me know. :)