As many of you would know, I have an interest in ghosts and the paranormal and as such, over the past few years have researched and catalogued numerous incidents that have been claimed to be of a paranormal or ghostly origin, much of which is in the form of a 60,000+ word manuscript I recently finished and which is currently being professionally edited.
The book itself is not your average book about ghosts because frankly I find them tediously boring and repetitive. Accordingly, I have written it as part travelogue, part history and personal experience whilst still concentrating on the supernatural aspects. I spent a lot of time researching traditional hauntings such as the Tower of London, for example, and visited numerous sites all over Australia, England and Wales for the material including, to name but a few, Port Arthur, Avebury, Tintagel, Tintern Abbey, numerous English neolithic sites and our very own Australian War Memorial and National Museum. In addition I interviewed quite a few people about their experiences, often in relation to some of the sites I visited.
I therefore put it to RA readers, given the difficulties of an unrepresented and unpublished author has in relation to breaking into the market, has anyone had a book published or do they know of good publishers (or agents) who would be interested in this material? Better still, if any agent or publisher is reading, are you interested?
Thanks
PS. Please don’t post anything about alleged ghostly experiences or whatever, it’s been done to death before : )
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What’s Your opinion?
Book publishers/ agents?
It sounds like you’ve put a heap of effort into this, it would be a shame to see it go to waste. I’d definitely buy one. Best of luck.
Please post when/if you succeed, I’m interested in what you have here.
Thanks ozhair, that’s a huge bonus actually.
I have some interest from a company in the cotswolds, let’s see. 😉
Thumper, for self-publishing, maybe take a look a http://www.lulu.com
They offer the ability to list your book on Amazon, which might get you a few sales.
Hi Thumper, I can’t help you with publishing, but just wanted to wish you luck and let you know that I’d be interested in buying your book when you sort it out!!
🙂
I’ll buy your book 🙂
You could probably start by trying out Unique Books Café. It’s a Canberra based publishing company that was supposed to start up at the end of this year, but they became pretty popular just by word of mouth so they’re publishing now.
As far as I know they don’t do marketing, it’s purely publishing. What you do with the books after that is up to you (there are shops around Canberra that will take local writers books and sell them – Daltons is one or you can sell them on your web page or at markets etc.).
I think the first book is about $120 (set up cost etc) and then depending on the size and the amount you want to order it’s about $20 – $40 per book after that. A friend of mine uses them to publish her novels so she can hand them out to her friends for proofreading and feedback because it’s easier to read a manuscript in book form than it is in loose A4 papers.
I’ve seen the books and they’re pretty good like any you’d see in a book store. I haven’t seen any of their books with pictures in them so I’m not sure if they do this.
If you give them a try let us know how you go. You might even be able sell a few through Riotact by the looks of things!
http://www.uniquebookscafe.au.com
Thumper, I’m a graphic designer who is working on a book of historical pieces for a lady who is looking at self-publishing and printing a few copies at first to see how it’s received. With the newest digital printing you can print 10 x A4 sized 20-page full-colour books for around $26 each which is a good way to start off (the price comes down the more you get printed). I have also suggested to my client (who has heaps of material but not much money to pay for printing costs) that I could set up a blog for her and she could use the blog in addition to the books she has printed. That might something for you to do too. I think Jim is right with commercial publishers and as another suggestion of his, an e-book is also perhaps a good start if you don’t want to lay out cash. If you need help with anything like printer’s quotes or even an idea of cost to set-up a book for printing email me at fad(at)fadstudios(dot)com(dot)au.
I’ve never used it myself, but you may want to look into Print On Demand for self publishing.
And let us know when it is published, in whatever form; I want two copies 🙂
Thanks Jim,
I may get in touch.
It’s not the dollars that I’m after, I was just interested so started researching and writing 🙂
Cheers
I’ll buy a copy when it gets published 🙂
http://bit.ly/UjrHS
As interesting as you might feel the manuscript to be, a travelogue/history/autobiographical work about the supernatural by a previously unpublished author simply isn’t a saleable commodity to a commercial publisher.
Self-publish: firstly as an ebook, and then (depending on the reception) you might want to look at having a small amount of printed copies done up – although you should keep in mind that this will cost you money that you will not recoup. I’d suggest doing this independently through enlisting appropriately skilled friends and family; however, there are a number of vanity publishers in the ACT who will perform this service for a fee.
I’ve worked in publishing in a number of different capacities for over a decade – if you want some more info and/or some contacts, the RiotAct mods would probably pass along your email address to me if you beseeched them (always happy to help).
Otherwise – good luck! It’s a labour of love and lost dollars.
The Writers Centre may be able to help, but you’ll probably be more interested in the advice and information on the Australian Literary Agents’ Association, especially their members contact list.