Letters to a Beekeeper

[poshpikey]

This is an interesting way to get the finance for publishing a book. They reached their target amount in three weeks. It is still possible to subscribe now though.

http://unbound.co.uk/books/letters-..._campaign=project_mailer:status_alert:success

 

[REDWOOD]

Yep if you want to make a million pound before Christmas write a book about Ferrari's, just copy and paste all the usual stuff take a few pictures and all ferrari owners will have a copy for Christmas.

 

[enrico]

I have published two books now for friends. They wrote them, I proof read them and saved them as a PDF. I then went on to an internet firm called lulu which is a free publishing service. It guides you through each step right through to adding isbn numbers and bar codes. It even prints your cover with a price on. At this point it is free. You get told how much your book will cost for them to print, but you can charge what you want for whatever profit you want. As the maker of the book you get to buy it at the cheapest price. It adds it to amazon for free.
The book is perfect and is well produced. All you pay for is each book you order. So if you only want one printed then you only pay for one. It is brilliant and I have sold over 1000 books for friends for charity this way.
I really can't sing their praises enough so if you have ever wanted to write a book, do it. It may well catch on and you could be a millionaire!
E

 

[BeeJayBee]

This is an interesting way to get the finance for publishing a book. They reached their target amount in three weeks. It is still possible to subscribe now though.

I'm surprised that somebody like Alys Flower needs finance for publishing a book. I'm fairly sure she is a gardening journalist/columnist.

 

[alanf]

I'm surprised that somebody like Alys Flower needs finance for publishing a book. I'm fairly sure she is a gardening journalist/columnist.

She is, and Steve Benbow has been published before, Urban Beekeeper etc. This is using crowd funding as a marketing tool, preselling the book. It's a step further than blogs, twitter accounts etc in involving the potential readers. Potentially a larger royalty slice for the authors than traditional publishing deals.

It's the way publishing is going, and potentially a good thing. The days of typing out a manuscript, sending it round to publishers and that's the end of involvement by the author are well past. As Enrico says, print-on-demand has made self publishing a boom industry (other companies are available). It's being used at many levels; personal memoirs for circulation around the family, plays where you need a dozen copies for a production, local history, authors starting out. The latter has got to the point where many publishers don't accept unsolicited manuscripts. An old friend has been writing for years, magazine articles, brochures, publicity for clients etc, she self published a book and got a commission from a major publishing house on the strength of it.

Expect more bee books than you can shake a hive tool at.