Book

Most e-books and traditional nonfiction books begin at around 30,000 words or 80 typewritten pages. A book that is 100,000 words is considered a giant of a book; and it is expensive to produce if you self-publish. Today's busy reader most frequently buys books that are 30,000 to 50,000 words, or 80 to 125 typewritten pages. These numbers will help you to keep a realistic perspective when you step out to write your book; it's not as big of a mountain as you may have imagined.

SELF-PUBLISHING

If you opt to self-publish (as is the current trend) rather than submit to a large publishing house, then you will want to keep in mind the following about your manuscript:

1. The 30,000 to 50,000 word manuscript will return the most for your invested time, effort, and publishing dollars.


2. If you have a complex and bulky subject, consider breaking it into several books rather than cramming everything into one. Unless you are extremely succinct and can slice and dice your facts, you will do much better with several regular sized books.


3. The size of the book is dictated by the reader, not the writer. How long will they hold it in their hands and pore over it? Are they reading on the subway on the way to work? Does the subject matter help them to make their lives better? These are considerations to weigh when writing.


4. When you are ready to publish, be ready to make a small investment in your book; that's why it's called self-publishing. For example, if you price a 120 page, 6X9" trade book that is perfect bound and printed in color at Lulu, www.Lulu.com, you will be quoted a price of more than $22 per copy whether you buy one copy or 1,000 copies of your book. The same book at Shulamite Publishing House http://www.ShulamitePublishingHouse.com, will run you around $8 per copy if you buy 1,000 copies of your book.


5. When self-publishing, remember that everything the publishing house has to do to prepare your manuscript will cost extra. If you hand the house a ragged manuscript, then you can expect them to require you to have it professionally edited before publishing. For this, you can learn how to do it yourself, hire a freelancer or pay the house to do it. But even houses that specialize in self-publishing do not embrace sloppiness. Be prepared to give a publisher your manuscript in a standard formatted Word.RTF file.


6. If you self-publish, remember the house that publishes you does not handle your promotional material, advertising, book signings, or bookstore appointments. It is likely they will offer you these services as options at the time you publish, but the idea behind self-publishing is to circulate your work to your own personal circle of influence and your community. Most people influence their world at a rate of 2,000 to 5,000 people directly. You should prepare yourself to talk to your personal community, church, synagogue, or association and prepare them to buy your book. If you work closely with the publishing house's editor, you can time the publishing so that you can offer your community a "pre-publication order" opportunity. This will help you create the capital to partially pay for the publishing; but before you enter into a contract with your publisher, you will want to have the cash to pay for the initial order.

• Ghostwriters. Those who write other people's books for them based on what the other person tells them.


• Biographers. Often ghostwriters, sometimes noted on the cover as "So-and-So with Such-and-So" with "Such-and-So" being the writer.


• Experts. Those who are writing out of their personal experience or their professional background.


• Researchers. These are writers who have an interest in a particular subject and set out to expose everything they uncover on the subject. Usually this is motivated by humanitarian purposes; improving the condition of mankind, and so forth.