RE: good online book editor

[Guest guest]

Hi CJ and all,What you say, CJ is perfectly true, and my publisher made it all perfectly clear before I signed the contract.  They gave every warning about not expecting riches from the venture, but they did give extensive suggestions about marketing.   They themselves have a large publicity base that advertises all and any of their books.   Despite the fact that they are in London and I’m in Oz, none of the arrangements was at all difficult or onerous. As I indicated, Chipmunka charged me absolutely nil for the publishing and the editing.   So my only expense was paper and cartridges for the computer, not to mention some five years of hard work.     I was provided with four copies for free, then I had to pay for further copies to either sell or give away.   The system is that you pay the London price each for a set number of copies, and they provide a further number of copies for free.    Thus when I order from them, (which land in on my doorstep about one week after ordering) because of the particular number that I get in, (and depending on the current exchange rate Aust/UK,  I pay approximately $13.80 (Aus) each copy, and sell them for  up to $29.95 (Aus) each.   Thus I never have more than a small batch on hand, that is dead stock.   The local Autism/Asperger support group has organized two public sessions at which I was able to sell a goodly number.   And the first of these was the actual launch.  Considering that there were only some 24 people present at that, I sold 16 copies on the spot. The price including p/p if you buy in UK direct from publisher is Fourteen pounds 99. I hope the foregoing information doesn’t offend the powers that be, as representing advertising on this List.   I just offer it all as information about how easy (and cheap) it was for me.   But again I say as one has to be warned all along...  you will  need to have an exceptional product and a public persona to sell very many of your books.    I set out expecting little, but keen to put out some of the things I felt I needed to say, and to contribute to the system.   The encouragement I got from Attwood and Isabelle was just fabulous.   But there again, I had been in communication with both of them for a number of years. Again, good luck . Ron. Subject: Re: Re: Needing to know where I can find a good online book editor I think you said it better than I did, . I held back on sharing some of this stuff with , as I didn't want to piss any further on his parade. I had already done enough damage. lolI'm acquainted with a number of folks in the disability community who had big dreams of telling their story and living off the royalties. Let's just say the outcome was... well, it pretty much mirrored everything you say in your post. The market is glutted with books written by people who want to tell their story, and the folks who actually recoup their publishing expenses are few and far between. For every Tony Atwood out there, there are thousands more people who are finding alternative uses for the stack of unsold books taking up space in their homes.Best,~CJ> Hi ,>> I would agree with CJ. You can't expect someone to do this for free, or to wait for payment. If you are looking for someone to do it as a favor you will have to rely on your circle of friends and who knows how talented they are at editing. It is a profession, something people do for a living and not everyone can do it well. I am guessing you are self-publishing your book or have someone publishing it for you as a favor? I hate to burst your bubble, but you may or may not see anything in royalties at all, or if you do, not for a long while . I have many author friends and except for the really successful ones, the royalties received were peanuts. Most people in your shoes with no writing experience or credentials as a speaker on the topic either self publish or find a small indie press willing to take a chance on them. If you find a publisher who really believes your book is worth publishing they may have it edited for you in-house (assuming the version you send is already in decent enough shape that it just needs finishing touches). I don't know what your book is going to be about other than knowing you were going to use some posts on Aspires for it, and I know that autism books are still " in " , but you my still have difficulty attracting a publisher because unfortunately everyone thinks their story is interesting and it usually is interesting, to them and their loved ones, but not necessarily something other people will pay money to read -- usually the thrill you get is just to see yourself in print, and you end up giving away a lot of copies to friends and family. Long and short is if you can't afford to have someone edit it professionally, you probably will have to either find a tolerant friend or consider waiting till you can.> > >>