Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Publishing your first educational book.

Every aspiring author eventually will try to get his or her educational book published. Preferably with a well-known publisher with a good name in the market.

The first step to be able to publish is to have a manuscript ready that is above average in writing style and covers a topic you know a lot about. This could be because you already are an expert in the field or by doing much research to become an expert.


To get you past the first shifting your manuscript must tickle the publishers interest. This can be done by presenting a book that shines a whole new light on a subject. It could be by presenting the topic you write about in a controversial manner. The thoughts you express in your book do not have to be mainstream to get published.


It also helps if you style your manuscript to be fitting with the catalogue a publisher already has. For instance. If you wrote a book on the medical subject of depression and want to send it to publisher XYZ it can come in handy to do some research on the titles this publisher has on the shelf.


It does not make sense for a publisher to have a series of approximately similar books on for instance the topic of bipolar depression. If however you find out that publisher XYZ has a whole range of self help books on mental health issues. And you notice a self help book on bipolar depression is missing you might want to consider fine tuning your manuscript on bipolar depression to become more fitting as the book on bipolar depression self-help. You then great enhance your chances to become a member of the published writers guild.


Now lets say you have past the initial barriers the publishers build to keep their workload manageable. You will most certainly be awarded with an editor who will help you rewrite or improve on the manuscript. This can be an exhausting but nevertheless interesting experience. Exhausting because you probably have spent many hours working on the manuscript by yourself and you might have seen enough of it already. Interesting because often the manuscript will be a better one after having been taken care of by the editor in cooperation with you, the author.


Finally there are contracts to be drawn up. Be sure to study them thoroughly before signing them.
If all goes well your book will be published and you will receive a huge kick seeing your baby in print, like most other aspiring writers have received before you. Enjoy this moment to its fullest.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the article is great and really helpful. Thanks and keep up the good work.