Publishing a book yourself has never been easier or more affordable. That is what I do with clients with my book publishing company Schroder Media. Let’s say you are just an average person – you haven’t had sex with Brad Pitt, you haven’t had an alien abduct your chihuahua, you’re not married to your own grandpa, and you’re not a “housewife” of Atlanta. You just have a story you want to tell.
If you have decided the traditional route of book proposals, agent searches, rejections and trying to decipher the mysterious process of royalty payments isn’t for you, then a company like mine could be your answer.
I help people through the mechanics of getting a book published. You do the writing and I handle design, editing, proofing, indexing if needed, getting your ISBN number and handling everything with the printer.
If you need a writer, I can do that too. I wrote Murphy’s: 25 Years of Recipes and Memories and ghostwrote another book.
If you don’t need all those services, I can work with you on what you do need. When Jenny Levison approached me about her cookbook Souper Jenny Cooks she already had the design and writing done. I was able to help her with editing, getting the index done and found her a printer that was thousands of dollars cheaper than the quotes she had been getting. Within a few months she had her book in her hand, and is getting ready for a third printing.
Now about the money. Depending on how many copies you can reasonably sell you could make thousands of dollars on your book. Or if it’s a small run, you may only break even.
But for many people making money isn’t the primary motivation for publishing a book. The best part is being the author of a book. From now on you can drop the fact that you are a published author casually into conversation, with lines like this:
“That story reminds me of one I told in my book.”
“That’s enough talk about me. Now let’s talk about my book.”
“You know copies of my book make a perfect holiday gift.”
Look for the latest release from Schroder Media – No Such Thing As a Pretty Good Alligator Wrestler by Ron Hart. It’s due to be released in November. And you know what? It would make a darn good holiday present.
