

Ask HN: How should I approach publishing a book? - jballanc

You know, it's funny. Just as I'm working writing a book, I've started to see a number of opinions related to the issue: Newspapers are dead! E-books are great! But people will still want a paperback for that long flight! Media cartels are evil! Except the ones that protect authors who barely make enough to get by! Until they prevent Amazon from having a computer read your books to you! AArrrggghhhh!<p>Ok, so here's the question: How should I go about approaching the publishing question? It's still early to be asking this question (manuscript is still easily a month away from the editor, let alone the publisher), but I need a distraction from writing...<p>Anyway, here's how I see my choices:<p>- I could go the traditional route of editor, agent, publisher... profit! The problem is, I went down that road once. A year later, the agent never got me anywhere, and I stopped caring (the book honestly wasn't that great, so that might have something to do with it).<p>- I'm still finishing graduate school, and I could approach my university's press about publishing. The book is rather technical in nature. My biggest concern here is that I highly doubt they would care as much as a larger publishing house about things like advertising or promotion. I'm also worried they might attempt to retain copyright.<p>- I might try this new-fangled inter-whatsit distribution scheme. I've seen a few sites I actually rather like (Lulu looks rather nice). My concern here is that I really don't know that I would have the time to handle self-promotion. I'm not looking to become rich from my writing, but I would like to make something. That said, I do have another job.<p>Any advice is greatly appreciated!
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jgrahamc
I have gone down two of those routes:

1\. I self-published my book for really advanced GNU Make users via Lulu. The
market for such a book is way too small for a traditional editor to get
involved.

2\. When I had the idea for The Geek Atlas I approached O'Reilly directly
without an agent via an acquaintance.

If the market is really small I'd do #1 since that way you'll actually keep a
good % on a per copy basis. If the market is large go #2 because of the
marketing reach.

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RobGR
I don't have experience in this, but there are some actual numbers in this
article:

[http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comm...](http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/the-
cost-of-self-publication-ebook-vs-print-one-persons-story/)

Good Luck !

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jballanc
Thanks! All of these comments are great...I'll be sure to let HN know when I'm
finished.

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vladocar
Here some useful link:6 Ways to Publish Your Own Book
<http://mashable.com/2009/03/01/publish-book/>

