How to publish and promote a book?

Hi. My question is complex. I'll try to explain it.

I am busy writing a 'future book'. It's a story about a young person who learns about permaculture (both in the garden and in social life). It's almost ready to be published.
That's my problem. I don't know about publishing at all.
I am unknown as an author (only wrote articles for obscure magazines and websites). Only 1 publisher knows me, as an illustrator, but he doesn't want to publish this book.
The subject of the story is permaculture, not well-known by traditional publishers.
The story is written in Dutch, for Dutch readers (in the Netherlands and part of Belgium), it isn't translatable.
It's about a young person (she's 18 and has a 1 year old son), for readers about that age. Everyone says: 'they don't read books anymore nowadays. It won't sell'.
Still I would like to publish it, even if it won't sell in large quantities.
Maybe it can be printed on demand, one by one or in small numbers?
Other authors tell me: publish it yourself. Maybe it's fairly easy to publish ... but then I'll have to promote it myself, to make it known by people who want to have it.
Briefly: I am not good at promoting myself at all! If I were, I would be known as an illustrator and author ...
That's the reason why I try to find a publisher who wants to do the promotion of the book. I am willing to pay (not more than 1000 euros) and to do some work myself (writing, finding an editor and drawing illustrations). If only someone else makes my book known to the 'potential readers'.

Probably the situation in the Netherlands is different from that in the USA and Canada. I hope to find Dutch 'permies' who know about publishing here.

My wife is a self publish writer and I will let out a few things that I have learned.  My thoughts are to the US.

You will get a reputation off your first book and those reviews will stick as you write more books.  The down side of google when someone searches your pen name.
Editing is expensive, but you need a good editor.  It's better to find someone that has a slight idea on the subject your writing about.
The number of copies you sell on your first book follow you around for a long time if you want to write more books using a publisher.  You will want to sell in a web site that will publicly track your sales.
Print on demand services had issues at one point, but took away the over head of stock, and the issue of having to send out book quickly from home and having to deal with customs forums.
A lot of people go digital books as that's where a lot of people read these days.  Books on tape do great if it's something that is easy to drive to.
Have your book ship able to every counties that uses the language you write in.  I would stick with one language.  

Chat forums are great self promotions and very cheap.  Making lots of good posts will help get people to know your name so when your able to talk about your book (within the rules of the forum) people will know you and have a better chance of looking at it.  (Not sure of the rules on this forum)
We sold a ton of books to my local area and I think a lot of them were to people that work at the same origination I work at, but my coworkers look up to me, my life is a ministry, and I'm very knowledgeable about a lot of things.  

My wife and I co-founded a small press years ago (and also worked in publishing before that).

And we're writers, so we've seen it all.

We've written a few posts and books on the publishing and promotion journey.

Here are a few:

Your Author Website: Build or Rent?
https://www.ashlandcreekpress.com/blog/2018/06/27/your-author-website-build-or-rent/

An interview with publicist and media specialist Jen Coburn
https://www.ashlandcreekpress.com/blog/2016/08/23/an-interview-with-publicist-and-media-specialist-jen-coburn/

An interview with independent publicist and social media strategist Celina De Leon
https://www.ashlandcreekpress.com/blog/2016/08/12/an-interview-with-independent-publicist-and-social-media-strategist-celina-de-leon/

How to get published
https://www.ashlandcreekpress.com/blog/2015/10/20/how-to-get-published/

I hope these help!

There are a few self publishing options available, but promotion can be a bit tricky.

I have used IngramSpark for my goat book, and helped others to use Kindle to self publish. There is also Lulu, and one called Blurb I think. Kindle doesn't do hardcover, but the other ones do.

Are there any permaculture/organic/parenting/Steiner/homeschooling magazines, blogs, or email lists in Dutch that might write about it? Doing a guest post or giveaway are good ways to let others know about your book once it's published, so it can be helpful to spend time looking at these websites and coming up with article ideas.

Maybe there are other Dutch speakers on Permies and other English-language websites that would be interested, so it might be worth posting about it here and other places just in case.

I really hope you publish it, and am happy to answer questions about the self publishing process.

Kate Downham wrote:...
Are there any permaculture/organic/parenting/Steiner/homeschooling magazines, blogs, or email lists in Dutch that might write about it? Doing a guest post or giveaway are good ways to let others know about your book once it's published, so it can be helpful to spend time looking at these websites and coming up with article ideas.

Maybe there are other Dutch speakers on Permies and other English-language websites that would be interested, so it might be worth posting about it here and other places just in case.

I really hope you publish it, and am happy to answer questions about the self publishing process.

thank you  Kate.
There's the Dutch version of Permaculture Magazine and I know some people who write for it (some I met personally, others I know from facebook groups or otherwise). And they have their websites too (f.e. Permacultuur Webschool) I can do my best to interest them. But I find it difficult ...

Amazon has publishing software
My friend had a 144 page book printed with lots of pics
150 coppies for 600 dollars
Sell 60 at 10 and

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:

Kate Downham wrote:...
Are there any permaculture/organic/parenting/Steiner/homeschooling magazines, blogs, or email lists in Dutch that might write about it? Doing a guest post or giveaway are good ways to let others know about your book once it's published, so it can be helpful to spend time looking at these websites and coming up with article ideas.

Maybe there are other Dutch speakers on Permies and other English-language websites that would be interested, so it might be worth posting about it here and other places just in case.

I really hope you publish it, and am happy to answer questions about the self publishing process.

thank you  Kate.
There's the Dutch version of Permaculture Magazine and I know some people who write for it (some I met personally, others I know from facebook groups or otherwise). And they have their websites too (f.e. Permacultuur Webschool) I can do my best to interest them. But I find it difficult ...

They might be more interested once the book is published, or if you can write good articles for them.

Sometimes people don't realise how good a book is until it's written and published.

If I'd asked for opinions on whether to write a book about goats or not I probably would have heard 'no' a few times, but I just followed my heart and wrote my book, and now I have a book out with a unique perspective on the subject, with important stuff in it that other books don't cover.

Maybe what I've written has saved some goat lives and helped people to become more self reliant, but this wouldn't have happened if I had asked publishers and not written it because of their reasons.

Kate Downham wrote:Sometimes people don't realise how good a book is until it's written and published.

I hope that is the case with my book. I wrote it from the heart and pretty quickly, but now in revision I am starting to doubt my writing style. Will people read it?

Thanks for the hope Kate. I owe you a coffee (or two).

I did contact a self-publisher today and will see what the cost will be for my book.

I have been fielding calls from publishing companies all week, and I was a little disappointed in what they had to offer. Most, when pressed for a number, said their rejection of books was above 50% of submissions, and if they were accepted, the cost was rather high. One was $3500 as an example. So I turned my attention to self-publishing, which is to have a print company just print and bind my book or me, and it seems to do what I had hoped, the cost would be $3100 for 200 books. Again, that is a little high for me.

But on another forum an author made a suggestion that was 100% in line with how I operate. He said he was in the cabin of a man that loved local history, and despite having a 4th grade education had authored lots of books. His method was unique; he wrote, edited, printed, bound and sold his own books. This author did it a little different, but was able to sell 400 of his own books so far.

So I wondered, could I print and bind my own books? Like moving 350 cubic yards of gravel with a one yard trailer, if I bound only 10 books a day, in a month I would have 300 books printed and bound, and ready to sell. More so, the binding process is not that difficult, and people were getting some impressive looking books for incredibly low money. As I said, this is my philosophy on life: do as much for yourself as you can.

After researching it a lot, I think this is the direction I will go with my book.

Travis, have you looked into print-on-demand publishing through Kindle or IngramSpark? Most successful authors through these would be spending money for an editor and a graphic designer, but the process other than that doesn't cost much - Kindle is free, IngramSpark is around $50 plus the cost of an ISBN.

The way these services work is that when someone orders a book from Amazon, Book Depository etc, one copy gets printed and shipped just for them, so that you're not faced with having to store a bunch of books at your house and go through the hassles of shipping.

Kate Downham wrote:Travis, have you looked into print-on-demand publishing through Kindle or IngramSpark? Most successful authors through these would be spending money for an editor and a graphic designer, but the process other than that doesn't cost much - Kindle is free, IngramSpark is around $50 plus the cost of an ISBN.

The way these services work is that when someone orders a book from Amazon, Book Depository etc, one copy gets printed and shipped just for them, so that you're not faced with having to store a bunch of books at your house and go through the hassles of shipping.

I looked at some of that, and could not tell what was what. It looked like Amazon had bought some company out and they were half in, and half out on making things all work.

I also looked at BookBaby and that seemed rather expensive.

One of the publishers said I was allowed 12 pictures for free, and then after that it got kind of expensive, and overall I have quite a few pictures. I kind of liked how my book was laid out, and while unorthodox, I looked at it again this morning with a very critical eyes, and still liked it. The only reason I could see why my book design would not work well, was due to the cost of printing. I can easily overcome that and print and bind my own books.

Again, I am not saying this method is best for everyone, but I just had never thought of printing and binding myown books. But this is something I can do, and with me, I like things to look a certain way, and am not content until they do, so I am confident that when I am done, they will not look DIY cheesy.