Resources for writing and publishing books?

[FBeyer]

I realize that most of the time, I am thinking very much about how I can put the things I learn into writing and share it with others.
I actually enjoy writing so I figured I might as well see if I couldn't sell some books. The worst that could happen is that I put something into writing and thus learn more from it, than if I had simply kept it for myself.

So I'm asking for resources on how to get started, how to find publishers or how to self-publish as well as pros and cons of both. How much money can you actually expect from book sales? How do you find a good editor? Does the cover REALLY matter all that much? etc etc.

Any kind of resource that helps budding non-fiction authors would be most welcome.
I'll try to collate whatever info comes about in this first post so all the info is right at hand in case someone else goes searching for it.
In case there is already such a topic, please let me know

ERE on Marketing Your Book: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4345

[jacob]

Going by memory from several years ago:

A typical first print run for a publishing house for a previously unpublished non-fiction author is 2000 copies. 85% of all publications don't make it into the second print.

The median number of sold copies of a self-published book is five!
90% of self-published books sell less than 100 copies ever.

An author will typically make 5-10% in royalties when going with a publisher (agent and translation fees would come out of the author's cut) but up to 30-70% if self-publishing. A publishing house will give you an advance ($2000-5000 for an unpublished author ... unless of course you're famous in some way (celebrity, previously published, politician, CEO, ...) in which case the advance can be 10-50x higher or more)... but most books don't earn back their advance.

You can find editors and coverdesigners by worth of mouth. Self-publishing companies offer editing, cover design, etc. services for $200-700 for a book. The cover matters for some types of books and not for others. It depends on the audience/type of book.

Neither type of publishing will do much if any promotion or advertising for you. That's 100% on you. Well, for a traditional publisher, it might only be 98% on you.

I have some pro/con-considerations in old blog posts.

[jennypenny]

Wade through cimorene12's journal for a lot of good resources. Many online resources are for fiction writers, but you can find non-fiction as well. When I get a chance this week, I'll put together a list of my links.

IMHO, the goal should always be polished work. That doesn't mean perfect or excessively costly, but why spend weeks or months of your life writing something just to press a friend into proofreading it or put a fiverr cover on it?

Some links I read regularly to get you started ...
http://russellblake.com/
http://kriswrites.com/ (her posts related to writing http://kriswrites.com/business-rusch-pu ... -articles/ )
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/
http://sterlingandstone.net/blog/
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

[jennypenny]

Some more (again, mostly fiction but publishing info as well) ...

Kboards Writer's Cafe
Janice Hardy's Fiction University (has some publishing tips)
The Write Life (kind of a Wisebread for writers)
Jami Gold's resources for writers
2015 Best websites for writers (a list of 100 sites to check out)

[simplex]

I've recently written a specialist technical book. My 10c:
- get (used): Author 101 Bestselling Book Publicity by R. Frishman and R. Freedman Spizman
- get (used) Author 101 Bestselling Nonfiction by the same authors
These books cover the basics, but adapt these books to the modern time.
- If you can charge 20 -100 USD, go for self publishing.
- start with a book website as soon as you start writing. A simple site is good, as long it is crystal clear what your book is about.
- Put a pdf of a few chapters online to get readers a chance to sample the book and decide they like it. This saves hassle and bad reviews like "It's called ..., but covers ..."
- The title is an important marketing message! Test the title.
- Cover design is important.
- Paper first for technical books! Most readers use such a book as reference when they are behind a screen, so "parallel" use.

[FBeyer]

...
- Paper first for technical books! Most readers use such a book as reference when they are behind a screen, so "parallel" use.

Thank you all (Not just you Simplex).
I take that last sentence to mean that technical books should be on paper, since those that read them are using a screen concurrently, thus they need paper by one hand and their screen at the other?

[simplex]

yes, I meant reading the book and sitting behind a computer. In spite of ebooks, programming books still sell!
If your book has many tables and illustrations, it's hard to get it right on a kindle (I make this from the reviews on amazon, as I don't have a kindle).

Anyway, if you publish your book to kindle, it is very easy to also publish a printed version through createspace/amazon (as Jacob does). You can arrange the prices to have the same profit per book. I also read (and believe) that paper books are more environmental friendly than ebooks, because the production of the ebook readers takes so much energy and resources.

[jacob]

FWIW, my prices are set so that my royalty is about the same for both versions. I sell slightly (10-20%) more on the kindle now (it's growing) but initially in 2010 I sold more pbs. I highly suspect that electronic books don't have as much staying-power (they're kinda like software, so I won't expect them to live longer than 5-10 years before the hardware dies or the format chances). Also, paperbooks can be resold.

In 2010 (things have changed!!), it took me a week to convert my paper (LaTex) book to kindle. The other way around would have taken much longer. Electronic versions are more forgiving in terms of typesetting, so paper->electronic means removing stuff. The other way around means adding margins, etc.