Publishing A Book

The other year, I had heard my husband and his friend (who dropped by our house) talk about book publishing. That friend has several books to his name. He is encouraging my husband to publish my husband's stories. Actually my husband had written lots of book materials that can be made into 3 books - humor, science fiction, occult. That friend knew the ins and outs of publishing including the delivery of books to the bookstore.

But in spite of the small investment (25 pesos per book that can be sold for 100), we have some hesitation. We are not really used to investing money in a business that we are not sure that will profit. Until now, that offer is still open.

 

I have worked for book publishers and have managed a couple of bookstores. You might not get back the amount you invest in publishing if sales are low and you have paid for hundreds of copies to be printed and bound. Getting a book into bookstores is no guarantee that they will sell and unless they get them on sale or return, most stores will not want to risk taking more than a few copies of an unknown author.

A better option would be to publish an ebook. You can do this at Amazon and at another e-book site. The only costs involved are for the services of an editor/proofreader and buying a design for the front cover. Authors receive payment each time an e-book sells through Amazon or another site. The site will take a small percentage of the selling price on each sale but the rest is profit to you. The only downside is that you need to get the book reviewed and rated if it is to sell and will have to promote it yourself online.

 

I have heard of people using the Amazon printing system for their books. That may be an answer to publishing your book. Using the Kindle format is also an inexpensive way to get your book on the market.

 

Thank you for the encouraging comments here. Indeed the internet is a big wide world. It's only now that I've heard of Amazon print. Those e-book sites can be a good venue to at least test those book materials for publishing. Maybe I can talk to my husband so he would pursue his plan of publishing a book and get something out of those book materials. I hope he would respond positively when I show him this thread. He was kind of frustrated in that publication thing so he had lost enthusiasm in writing.

PS. This morning, he got a message from a film director offering him to write a movie script. I hope the meeting tomorrow would be fruitful.

 

Congratulations on the movie script offer! I really hope it works out well for you. As for Amazon e-book publishing, I've heard that it's best to price the books at 3 dollars, as that's the highest you can go without having to pay for tax. The price is also really attractive for a lot of potential readers.

 

Thanks for citing that script offer. My husband is now in the process of writing the story from the concept provided him by the film director. The movie is about martial arts, an action movie to be starred in by a real martial arts fighter. But he is not an actor so we wonder how the movie would fare in the theaters. But anyway, I hope the story would be approved so my husband could start the script and get a downpayment, hahahaaa.

That $3 for the e-book is quite okay with me. Maybe I have to think of writing an e-book as an option for retirement.

 

Wow, a martial arts movie! That's a pretty huge gig, best of luck to you and your husband! As for writing e-books, you can write about pretty much anything, and there'll always be at least one bored man ready to buy your book for 3 bucks.

 

@John Donovan, it's really amazing to realize that the internet has almost anything when it comes to writing. When the blog came about, I was at a loss on what it was all about. I remember that I memorized the meaning - website log - and it became weblog and then was shortened to blog. And now the e-book that can earn me $3, not bad.

PS. I am havign difficulty writing directly on this input space. It seems that there is an interference - a small note appears at the bottom right corner of this particular page that says something about saving the draft. The frequency of saving is too often for comfort. It's actually annoying when you are a fast typist like me.

 

Well, if you're a fast typist, it means that writing a book will be easy-peasy for you. In fact, I'd advise you to look into audio transcription sites online. Those offer you pretty nice pocket money for transcribing audio, and they're mostly looking for people with a fast WPM (words per minute) ratio. Or, if you just want to have fun, there is a site called Typeracer in which you have to type something faster than others.

 

@John Donovan, admittedly I am a fast typist, I just don't know my speed in terms of WPM but I can honestly say that I am one of the fastest in our office when it comes to the keyboard. But writing involves not only brains but knowledge as well and it does not stop there... you need to be creative enough to express what you desire and for the readers to understand what you have written. In other words, I have come to terms that I have no writing aptitude when it comes to books.

 

I've read through all the comments. It's great that you're husband has got a writing talent, and he got that offer to write a movie script, that's just amazing, congratulations. Like the members above me said it would be nice to write that ebook and upload it on Amazon. You never know maybe you will be successful with your sales, and three bucks is always something.

 

Thanks for this tidbit of information. I did not know about the $3 tax issue. I am going to look into this some more to understand the details on this concept.

It sounds like your husband will be busy for awhile with his movie script. Best of luck! I have to admit that sounds pretty awesome. When the time comes, I think, you will be pleased to learn more about Amazon's print on demand and the low investment. As others have already noted eBooks are an even cheaper way to go.

 

The movie script has not materialized yet after a week of waiting although the storyline is already approved. Producing a movie is not that easy and fast because the director said that a budget needs to be committed after the costing has been done. And the production will push through once the producer gives a go signal for the script to be written.

Writing for movies is not really a good prospect for money because offers are rare. And most of the offers would only frustrate you with orders of writing stories and revising such that would result in a no go.

 

Oh, my, Corrie! Thanks for the clarification on the process of writing a script for a movie and all the revisions that can go along with it. Well, I still think it highly commendable and something to be proud of to even be in this situation. I will hope for the best for you all in this endeavor that it materializes with a green light! Has your husband ever written a story for a movie in the past?