Hi All

I wondered if anyone on this forum might be of assistance . I have written a book and am currently trying to gather information about getting it into print. I am a first time writer and have no idea what I am doing but I have been warned that the game has many pitfalls and as such am trying to establish links with a good , above board publisher or literary agent.

The book is about growing up in Africa and my life in hunting camps and the many adventures I have had as a kid in hunting game.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

That is not such an easy task. I think your best bet would be to contact one of the specialty hunting/guns book publishers like Safari Press, or Trophy ROom books, Safari Classics books etc. These outlets already know the market and have the mailing lists for advertising to people who would be interested in this type of thing. Be aware that memoirs can start to look the same and even these places will want something fresh.

Trying to get a major house to looks at this type of work is not easy, and I think Peter Capstick deserves a shitload of kudos for STILL being published by a major house like ST. Martins. No one really holds a candle to his accomplishments in out and out selling such an esoteric type of book in such a wide market.

My advice, and it's not worth much, is to work on your writing much harder than looking for a publisher...it will pay off bigger dividends to polish that manuscript to a high sheen than peppering literary agents with letters of inquiry. Get someone other than friends to edit and critique it...send it to a college professor or two and have them slash it to pieces...pick it up and put it back together. It'll be better for it. Kipling said "Good reading is damn hard writing." How right he was...


Have fun and good luck....

BAxter

Submitting your manuscript to Safari Press and Trophy Room Books are good suggestions, but someone who lives in Zimbabwe as you do might want to approach Jane at Rowland Ward in Johannesburg first.

If a publisher likes what you've done, he/she will hire a professional editor to polish it.

Bill Quimby

..thus the etc.... Figured there would be other places. I think Bill has a great idea about RW first.

Good luck!

Don't expect to make much from any of the specialist hunting publishers..... Their costs, esp marketing costs are so great, they'll take something like 85-90% of the money.

You might be better off asking someone like Pierre van der Walt or going to someone such as lulu.com (as I did) where you'll make a smaller amount initially but more over the longer term.

The upside of someone such as www.lulu.com is that you have complete control, including editorial control of your product & the downside of is you have to do more of the marketing yourself...... but if you promise to buy me a beer sometime, we'll carry it on the www.shakariconnection.com book section for you.

"Don't expect to make much from any of the specialist hunting publishers... they'll take something like 85%-90% of the money."

40% royalties are standard, and very few titles have sales of 1,000 copies in the first year.

Bill Quimby

Have you looked into self publishing? That's what I do. There's definitely a learning curve. The problem with hunting books is it's such a small market and it's going to be a labor of love, not profit. There is also on demand printing for self-publishers. Much higher cost per book but you aren't sitting on thousands of copies.

Another problem with book printing is it doesn't get cheap unless your printing 5,000 or more copies at a time. If you care to pm me I could maybe help a bit.

Thanks folks for all of your suggestions. I will keep plugging and hopefully come up with something

If anyone would care to proof read my work, I would welcome any constructive criticisms.

PM me if you are interested

Bill Quimby,

Next time we're together, please introduce me to your publisher. Where are 40% royalties standard? Certainly not with any of the publishers that I've talked to or corresponded with. In my experience, obviously with different publishers, 10 to 15 percent seems to be the norm, with the vast majority at the lower figure.

TT

My wife was quoted 5% from one company we contacted. After we refused they kept calling and calling for weeks before I got rid of them.
We finally had it printed ourselves in Ukraine for a buck and a half each. (paperback) Now the problem is distributing them ourselves.

Mike,

Is the book hunting related?

LOL! Hardly! It's a women's fiction and to further complicate it .. It's written in Russian.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Brooks:
LOL! Hardly! It's a women's fiction and to further complicate it .. It's written in Russian.

I guess that explains the marketing problem you have!

Actually it's her problem officially.. But since it always rolls downhill and because of some trick of the position of the sun and stars being in alignment when even I'm near her it suddenly becomes to be on my shoulders.

Go Figure!

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Brooks:
Actually it's her problem officially.. But since it always rolls downhill and because of some trick of the position of the sun and stars being in alignment when even I'm near her it suddenly becomes to be on my shoulders.

Go Figure!

I know exactly what you mean!

There is a huge difference between a printer and a publisher.

The former requires DVD media ready to go to print.

The latter will have to do a lot of work to convert whatever you provide to be "printer ready". It's not cheap and most will not touch a book without at least a 1000 book sale potential.

Been in the publishing business since 1991, 27 books in print and could never live on what I make.

You really gotta want it, as did Fred Zeglin when we he wrote and I published his new standard reference on Wildcat cartridges.

David Hulme over there has done some books....you might ask him, he is local after all.

.

quote:

Originally posted by bumfarto:
There is a huge difference between a printer and a publisher.

The former requires DVD media ready to go to print.

The latter will have to do a lot of work to convert whatever you provide to be "printer ready". It's not cheap and most will not touch a book without at least a 1000 book sale potential.

Been in the publishing business since 1991, 27 books in print and could never live on what I make.

You really gotta want it, as did Fred Zeglin when we he wrote and I published his new standard reference on Wildcat cartridges.

Larry Root is back. New name, same shit.

David & I have both used lulu.com and I personally reckon they do a fairly good job but I've always had two niggles with them.

Firstly, I've never been entirely happy with the quality of the images and secondly, it REALLY pisses me off that I get hit for something like 30% tax to the US Govt when I don't live there and one of the things that built their own bloody constitution was the principle of 'no taxation without representation'. I've been trying to get tax exemption for my book for several years and am still no further advanced!

With that in mind, I'm looking at moving the book from lulu.com to a UK based company that not only promise to offer a better product but I'll also pay tax to the UK or possibly Portugal instead of having to give it to that prick Obama.

If anyone wants to check that possibility out, take a look at www.fast-print.net.

quote:

Originally posted by bumfarto:
There is a huge difference between a printer and a publisher.

The former requires DVD media ready to go to print.

The latter will have to do a lot of work to convert whatever you provide to be "printer ready". It's not cheap and most will not touch a book without at least a 1000 book sale potential.

Been in the publishing business since 1991, 27 books in print and could never live on what I make.

You really gotta want it, as did Fred Zeglin when we he wrote and I published his new standard reference on Wildcat cartridges.

In this thread http://forums.accuratereloadin...11046971#3711046971, 45-70 shooter claims to have pubblished the same book. That tells me you and 45-70 shooter and Larry Root are the same person. It also tells me you are a lying sack of shit.

Shakari,

What do you really think of our illustrious leader?

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Shakari,

What do you really think of our illustrious leader?

You should contact Cal Pappas here on AR. He has at least four books published and I'm sure could give some advise on publishing. You can go to Calpappas.com and send him a note. Regards Scott.

Write a book supporting Climate Change and they'll come looking for YOU. Think you're going to be going the self publishing route. Quite a few guys around, even know a couple, here publishing their Life experiences that way. Gonna be attending a lot of events to sell your products. Ain't gonna get rich either.

http://www.jbspublishing.com/

Grizz