writing and publishing a non-fiction book with a real publisher - the journey

Bernadette Banner made a vlog of her experience writing and publishing a non-fiction book about sewing.  



It's very different from self-publishing and I have to admit I kind of envy her only having to do the writing and some of the editing.  But fun to see her expierence.  

Great video and a great book, I have ordered one.
Thankyou for the post.

r ranson wrote:
It's very different from self-publishing and I have to admit I kind of envy her only having to do the writing and some of the editing.  But fun to see her expierence.  

You're saying that having a traditional publisher is easier in some way?  Or why do you envy her specifically?  

Thanks for sharing, I'm going to pass this on to my writing groups!

Her plan is so detailed, it's frightening

Lif Strand wrote:

r ranson wrote:
It's very different from self-publishing and I have to admit I kind of envy her only having to do the writing and some of the editing.  But fun to see her expierence.  

You're saying that having a traditional publisher is easier in some way?  Or why do you envy her specifically?  

It's easier in many ways.

She only has to write, photograph (most don't even do that) and help with some of the editing.  

In self-publishing, one has to write, photograph, find and hire editors, layout, cover design, marketing, distribution... aka, publishing side of things.  

It was fun to self publish but there is a reason why most authors get less than 10% of the money from book sales.  Publishing is a lot more work than writing,

r ranson wrote:

Lif Strand wrote:
You're saying that having a traditional publisher is easier in some way?  Or why do you envy her specifically?  

It's easier in many ways.

She only has to write, photograph (most don't even do that) and help with some of the editing.  

In self-publishing, one has to write, photograph, find and hire editors, layout, cover design, marketing, distribution... aka, publishing side of things.  

It was fun to self publish but there is a reason why most authors less than 10% of the money from book sales.  Publishing is a lot more work than writing,

I've published both ways -- many of the aspects of self-publishing suit me. I like to create the cover art, I enjoy doing the the layout.  Distribution doesn't have to be tough because nowadays self-publishing authors have access to the same distribution services as traditional publishers do.  

Marketing is the downside, but then today many agents and traditional publishers expect authors to take on some of the marketing anyway., so you've got to establish your own author platform one way or another.  

To me the major difference between self-publishing and traditional is that I hate querying.  I'm working with an editor I hired on a novel right now.  It's a different genre from my last book and the publisher of the last one won't publish this current book's genre.  When I say I hate querying I mean I really hate querying!  I feel that the time and effort spent querying to find an agent and/or a publisher could be spent on writing a next book if I self-published and hired out the marketing.