Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Writing and Publishing Your 1st Book (or 7th) on a Shoestring Budget


This was the class I did at the nearby community college. The instructor was Bobbie Christensen who used a book she wrote, Writing and Publishing Your 1st Book (or 7th) as the basis of the class. People who attended the class bought the book for $15 (the materials fee for the class).

In the class, we discussed the steps to writing one's story, how to get to to a publisher (traditional vs. self-publishing), about ISBNs, how to create covers, and how to market the book.  All of these are covered in the book mentioned and pictured above.

 Christensen and her husband have also published a number of other books.  You can email them from this site: BooksAmerica.

Among the others who attended the classes, there was one woman who has already self-published a children's book.

Hearing the steps to getting your work to a publisher sounded scary, though I knew such a process isn't easy.

On a side note, I've already begun writing notes for a YA diary novel set in the 80s.  And this coming Saturday there will be an event at the local coffee shop (where my book club meets) from local authors who have been published or who are trying to get published on the process.

1 comment:

Stephanie Faris said...

It's not so scary to get your book to a publisher. The good news is, most of the time you're just sending a query letter, so you don't have to send the actual manuscript until they ask--and by then, you know they're interested!