My
first serious introduction to self-publishing was at a SPAN
conference in Atlanta (Small Publishers of North America).
It was there I was introduced to a very fat volume on self-publishing
by Marilyn Ross that included the idea that real publishing
includes marketing. That was nearly 20 years ago, and I have
been recommending that book ever since, because nothing else
has been as all-encompassing and based so thoroughly on personal
experience (and personal experience is generally much better
than research).
Now, so many years later, Stephanie Chandler and Karl W. Palachuk
have written The Nonfiction Book Publishing Plan. Stephanie
founded the Nonfiction Authors Association and is this decade’s
expert. Today there are many go-to experts, but no one can
exceed her experience.
This Book Publishing Plan (it will work just as well
for creative works as nonfiction!) says it all. I always suggest
that authors read more than one book on any publishing topic,
but this is the perfect place to start for anyone considering
publishing of any kind. In the first chapter it takes the
reader through some of the trials experienced by anyone approaching
the publishing industry with the old model in mind. I have
a few horror stories of my own, but Chandler and Palachuk
quickly move into how nonfiction authors in particular will
benefit from self-publishing and takes them well beyond—starting
with titles and subtitles, bylines and moves on to giving
an author enough information to get a great start on a marketing
plan.
I believe in reading books to get the expertise needed for
publishing—even traditional publishing. Don’t
be fooled that readers can get what they need piecemeal from
the Web (it is hard to ascertain credibility with so much
conflicting advice!) or even to choose what to read from extensive
tables of contents (which would be better titled “Contents”
to avoid redundancy). This is the place to start. These authors
complement one another. It is full of memorable experiences
and anecdotes you won’t forget as well as specific advice.
At the beginning of this review, I said it is the place for
new authors to start, but seasoned authors in any genre (seriously!)
will find inaccuracies they have come to believe gently corrected
and comfort knowing that many of their instincts have been
right all along.
Hint: Notice how Palachuk and Chandler weave their biographies—read
that experience—into the first chapter and how well
that works in a book covering a difficult and far-ranging
genre like a how-to for the publishing industry!
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