Wrote a book - Now what?

[Dawg Tired]

Anyone have any idea where to go from here? I have written about the frustrations of dealing with this from day one; trying to deal with non-believing doctors and familyt members - being labeled as neurotic - the frustration of ER visits... Y'all know the drill.

But now what to do with it?

[MightyMouse]

My mother is an author. Once she finished her first novel, she got an agent, and then the agent helped her pick which of the various publishers to target. If you want it published in the traditional sense, you would submit it to a publishing company for review. I don't know much about online publishing, but you could look on google and find out.

Nina

[purplefocus]

Gayla,

I'm not sure how you would do it, my husband suggest going to a book store and buy "Writers Handbook" that gives you thousands of listings for publishers and people to target. I tell you what though, tell me when and where and I will buy your first book. Hey, how about giving us a few "snippets" of it on here.

Paige

[Dawg Tired]

I will put some excerpts on my website. when I do this successfully I will let y'all know first!

[Sue]

yes I think thats a good idea, put a few pages up for us to read.

you did a great thing by writing a book!!! Good luck with it

Sue

[michiganjan]

Dear Gayla,

I am a published author. My young adult novel, Secrets of a Summer Spy was published by Macmillan in 1990. I also have a small nonfiction booklet for grades 3 - 6 on writing fiction published by Creative Learning Press that is still in print. But my main work is as a freelance writer and editor. My freelance writing is mostly teacher and student materials for school programs at the elementary level. However, I have also edited and rewritten nonfiction trade books. I manage to do this with POTS. It can be very hard at times.

I would love to see "one of us" get our story out there as a book. I have a POTS friend who is writing her story, too. I have been told by my friends and family to write my own story. However, I just cannot bring myself to do it. So I am thrilled that you have written yours.

Here are some ideas for you. Before going any of these routes, make sure the book is the best it can be in terms of grammar and usuage, style, content, logical presentation of the content, and organization into chapters. If you like, I will read a part of it for no charge and give you feedback. Just post your email here on this thread if you would like me to do that.

TRADITIONAL METHOD

1. write a book proposal and synopsis (you can find examples of how to do this on he web or in one of the writing books)

2. research agents to find ones who represent work that is somewhat similar to yours. Then submit the proposal and synopsis to them along with an interesting cover letter.

3. if you can find an agent who wants to represent the book, they will take it from there.

OTHER METHODS

Research publishers (large and small) of books about health matters and query them directly. Again, you will need that proposal, synopsis and sample chapters.

Try to find out if one of the special interest groups such as CFIDS Assoc. of America would like to publish parts of it. Or they could be of help later to announce the publication of your work.

Publish it yourself. With POD technology (Print on Demand) the age of self-publishing is here. However, if you go this route, you will have to do all the promo yourself and sell all the books yourself. This is a tough one for a person with chronic illness.

There are ebook publishers online. In fact, I have a current novel with one of them. (Cousin Feely, at Double Dragon Publishing.) My experience with Double Dragon has been positive, but there have been several e publishers who have taken terrible advantage of writers. Many of them have gone out of business. So, I would advise you to use caution if you think you want to go this route. ebooks are beginning to sell, but they have not truly arrived yet. People still like to hold and read real books instead of reading a download on their computer or hand-held. If you did want to publish your story as an ebook then you could make a website to sell it as a download as an alternative to putting it with an epublisher. However this is hard row to hoe, too.

I would love to see one of us have a rip-roaring success at publishing a book on life with dysautonimia. I am just not going to be the one to write it. I wish you all the luck in the world!

Michigan Jan

[Dawg Tired]

Jan (or anyone else) please feel free to contact me. dawgtired@pipinternet.net

I have posted a couple excerpts on my website. http://gayla.greatnurse.net/ Thanks for all of your input and help!

[michiganjan]

Hi Gayla,

I visited your website. Nice. And I read the excerpts of your book there. It is well written. I wish you the best with it.

Michigan Jan

[Dawg Tired]

Thank you, Jan, I am flattered! Now if I can find the energy to do something with this story...

[migraine]

Congrats on your new book. I don't know much about the publishing industry. I did see a story on Primetime or something about a writer that wrote his own book about RAP (clearly off the POTS topic) but he printed them himself and then sold them on the subway. A publisher happend to see it and then formally re-printed and bam he was a genuine author.

With POTs, I don't see you selling it on a subway, however e-bay seems to do quite nicely. I notice whenever I'm searching for a topic on the web, several e-bay items pop up as well. If you could afford to print out 100 or so books I would give it a go the e-bay route. Maybe a publisher would pick up on it. You would certainly sell a lot to our POTS community. Good luck!

[purplefocus]

I read the excerpt you posted, I want more. Being able to see yourself in a book is always engaging. What I read kept me interested and wanting to find out more of what is going on. I think you are on to something great. I write poetry. I have had a few posted in different places. I think it is a natural therapy. Maybe one day I can share some of my favorites with ya.

Paige