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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Finished a written work - what next?


DCS

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First, I'm not sure this is the right subforum in which to post this; if not, could someone point me to the right one?

I recently finished writing a (non-fiction) manuscript related to the Great War; more specifically, it's an account of events and individuals in the year 1916. While it deals somewhat extensively, but not exhaustively, with the war it also describes things away from the battlefields.

But I'm not writing this to try and sell anything. No, I've come to ask if someone here can lend me some practical advice on the next step - finding a likely (or even possible) publisher for my work. Right now I'm not sure where to start looking. Any leads or other advice would be most appreciated.

D. C.

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You might try this for starters http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/?id=-1663

A bit late at night or I'd post more. If your local library uses the Dewey Decimal classification there should be something on the shelves at 808 :)

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From personal experience and the contributions of others to the Forum, I'd suggest there are three basic ways forward:

1) Find a commercial publisher who tends to specialise in the Great War or, more generally, history subjects. I consider myself fortunate that my first approach, to Pen & Sword, was taken by them.

2) Self publish. I have no experience of this but I know other forum members have gone down this route successfully. Obviously you need the skill and confidence to do this.

3) Use an "assisted self publishing" company. I think that's a better description than the old "vanity publishing". That's the route I've taken for my next book using the services of Reveille Press, which has a tie-in to the Western Front Association, which means the WFA also gets a share of royalties.

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John's taken the time to write what I didn't last night (thanks John)

With regard to option 2), where the legwork, exhaustion and plain bloody frustration will come in is that you also have to be your own marketer, publicist, salesman and logistics management...

I have been involved in a self-publishing exercise which started with a group collection of short stories, each story author also funding the publication pro rata per story. We've since made enough on the volume to feed back into publishing three more collections (and make a profit).

We couldn't do that without:

1) a "brand" in that the stories are all set in Oxford/Oxfordshire and the book titles reflect this;

2) a captive yet constantly-renewing market in the Oxford tourist trade;

3) most important of all, two or three dedicated members of the group who walked round every possible outlet in Oxford saying "Will you stock and sell these?", phoned up journalists, arranged a launch venue and drove boxes of books to delivery points.

I think you can probably say for sure (especially if the quality is good) that your book has the brand and the market, but 3) will be up to you - good luck!

sJ

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3) most important of all, two or three dedicated members of the group who walked round every possible outlet in Oxford saying "Will you stock and sell these?", phoned up journalists, arranged a launch venue and drove boxes of books to delivery points.

An author in my spouse's family died recently. He was an historian with a pedigree, including writing for the Victoria County Histories and being published by CUP; his books on one topic appear in university suggested reading lists. He ventured into self-editing and self-publishing and his wife did exactly what you said.

His executors have to find something to do with a print run of one thousand near-unreadable books of which about fifteen were sold...

To Jane's and John's superb advice I would also add that having someone read the text critically and objectively is vital.

Gwyn

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Self-editing is definitely the crunch point isn't it Gwyn? and that was why I put in the proviso "if the quality is good" -

D.C., Gwyn is so right about "objectively" but it is the difficult one to find. If you have a friend who can tell good writing from bad, and who is prepared to be strong-minded about your writing (my best friend throws cushions when I use cliches) - and provided you are tough enough to accept criticism - that's a start... you may have to grow a thick skin!

Another site to investigate might be this one - their printing side did our Oxford books, but apart from that I have no association with them. The site links to free information as well as the usual costed services such as editing and proof-reading: http://writersservices.com/

sJ

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Don't for goodness sake let any University professor, etc get anywhere near it.

My experience (internationally) is that they exist only to steal other people's work by denigrating it and then getting their own hands on it.

My first book was sent by a well known publisher to an "expert" (he wasn't) who said the book could not be published as it was; and if he edited it he would have to be shown as first co-author!! i.e. "Wow, I must get my hands on this and add to my illustrious name".

It was published as it was and went to two editions.

Second book was sent by the Ministry of Culture here to the university who say it isn't publishable (the minister thinks it is as do several other real experts as it covers a subject never before properly mentioned). It should be put on the Internet (where they can lay their hands on it and use it in their own exhibition about 1914 which uis being run against the official exhibition and commemorations.

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There are several small publishers that produce Great War stuff, even if in most cases it is not their only or primary interest. See if you can find (maybe by trawling Amazon) to find books vaguely similar to your own and see who published them.

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If you decide to go the self published route, I recommend taking a look at lulu.com

Very easy to use (if you can format a document in Word, you can publish it) and the finished result is "print on demand" so no stock holding necessary.

Maybe not the way to go if making a big profit is your aim, but a great way to get started. I use it to create proof copies in book form - much easier to read and amend it as a book rather than on screen or as a bundle of a4 sheets off a home printer!

For about £9 you can have your very own paperback to read and scribble in. Makes you feel like a proper author, too.

Kind regards

Ian

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Thanks, everyone, for the replies; I'll try to address them.

To Gwyn's point about having someone read the text: A neighbor of mine, who is a former history teacher, volunteered to read my first two chapters and give an opinion. We are planning to meet next week to discuss his critique; so far, he seems to like my work. I also found a site called EditAvenue.com that offers editing help, including free sample edits for short documents - so I sent an excerpt to three editors there. If I like working with them, I might send the full manuscript. For which I'd have to pay, of course.

Which leads me to another question: What do you consider a reasonable fee for editing services? A couple I've looked at would run to over $2000, which seems a bit much - especially since I'm no slouch at proofreading myself.

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Now, as for John's advice (and Ian's); I've been a little surprised at the number of commercial publishers who require prospective writers to submit a marketing plan along with their manuscript. If that's the norm, it seems to me one might as well go the self-publishing route (which I'm leaning toward for other reasons as well). Should I do that, I'm thinking I'll go with either Lulu.com or Amazon.

And, finally, to Chris: I'll try to find some of those small publishers; hopefully an Internet search will turn some up.

Which reminds me of something else, though it's more than likely a long shot: are there still any magazines devoted to the Great War?

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There's the marvellous Stand To! from the Western Front Association...

Regards

Ian

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I'm not writing this to try and sell anything.

D. C.

If that's the case why not just make it a PDF file and distribute that way? Simple way to disseminate to interested readers, no cost and no excess copies of extremely niche subject matters.

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: are there still any magazines devoted to the Great War?

See this thread.

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Hi D.C.,

These are the suggested minimum hourly rates for proof-reading, copy-editing, re-writing and so forth from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders website: http://www.sfep.org.uk/pub/mship/minimum_rates.asp

They are based in the UK I'm afraid, so you will have to convert currency, but it should give you some idea.

If you go for self-publishing you might like to look at the Authors Electric blog, also UK-based: http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk/

sJ

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With photographic books and other publishing there is now 'crowdfunding' which means interested parties put up money to support your publication. Have a search and you'll find how it works. It might be another possibility.

Peter

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