I ask because I have found some new, never mentioned evidence concerning a 100-year old murder case. I have never written a book before, but I am very interested. To research this, I would have to spend hundreds of hours in local archives, newspaper records, court records, etc. Fortunately, i live in the area where the case was investigated and tried.
I ask because i met a man recently who is doing the same thing-he is writing a book about the development of the automobile (1880-1948). He is not an educated man, but he has done an amazing amount of research-he knows things that I have never read about before. He has already been accepted by amazon for E-publication, and has 10,000 copies of his volume 1 sold.
My question; can an amateur be successful at this? I think the topic is interesting, and i would expect it would take me 2-3 years. Do I have any hope of success?
Statistically speaking it’s a long shot.
The obstacles that I see are -
- Can you get enough information to do the task?
- Is your subject matter interesting enough to draw a customer base?
- Do you have competition for this story?
- Is your writing style compelling enough to satisfy the reader?
- Do you have the resources (time, materials, capital, talent) to complete the job?
Many people do what you are proposing but I think the most satisfied ones are those who do it first for themselves and second for an audience. In other words, you have to want to KNOW the story more than you want to TELL it.
If you’re sufficiently interested and motivated, you can certainly do it. In fact, if you’re sufficiently interested and motivated, you will do it, whether it can be published or not.
If you need the encouragement and the verification that someone without professional credentials can get such a book published, there are lots of examples. But I’m most familiar with my own case. There’s not a reason in the world that an academic press would have for publishing a book on classical mythology by someone with no degrees in the Classics, Philology, Anthropology, or Archaeology. But, to my astonishment, they did. It can happen.
Helluva lotta work, though. Write a damned good Book Proposal, steel yourself for multiple rejections, and KEEP AT IT.
Why not? I don’t write to publish…I write for myself. If you think you can do this, then go for it. Publishing is the icing on the cake, and it’s gotten a lot easier with e-publishing.
Go find this guy and ask him how he did it.–specifically, how did he attract 10000 people?
There are sites like smashwords.com that will publish anything (I think!). But I have no idea how an unknown person can call attention to himself and actually convince people to give him cash.
(I would guess that most people on the web are like me–as soon as I see a paywall, I leave the site and go elsewhere. Even if I know the site is high quality (like the NewYork Times, or whatever).
Cost considerations, either in cash, trade or calling in major favours:
Editor: Wholly irrespective of what you think of your writing, style, grammar, etc., you need an outside pair of eyes to edit.
Proofing: A completely independent process from above. It may be the same person, but often two separate people.
Beta readers: Ever sit in a movie (or documentary) and ask obvious questions about obviously dumb things? Beta readers do that—and so much more—before you publish. They read and re-read. This is not handing it to a friend to get some feedback, it’s handing it to someone who will really focus on what you’re writing. This may also be done by the editor/proofer, but not allways. Regardless, it’s three distinct services.
Layout and design. From kerning to image placement to overall look and feel, a graphic designer will take a word document and make it look like a professional publication. Note: just because you know how to use Word does not make you a designer.
You can skip any of the above, of course, but that’s not a smart move if you’re going to pour hundreds of hours into a project and try and sell it.
Others have talked about the challenges of writing & getting published. I’d like to talk about just the part above.
How many people are interested in cars in general? How many people are interested in a specific murder from 1915-ish? I’d bet the ratio between those groups is about 10,000 to 1.
IOW, you’ll have no problem selling the first copy of your book. Once you find that one guy. Selling the second copy to your Mom ought to be easy too. After that, you’re done.
If the murder was a *cause celebre *at the time, like the Lindbergh baby, there’s likely to be *some *more interest. But if it was just some mystery death that filled the headlines in Bumplug County, PA for a couple weeks back in 1915, your sales will be as I suggested above.
Your project may be worthwhile as a labor of love. As a money making venture you’d do better to spend the same man-hours patrolling your local downtown and picking up the coins you find in the gutter.
I’d add 6. Are you willing/able to put a good chunk of time into learning how to promote/market your book and applying what you’ve learned?
I’d restate #4 as "Do you have writing skills and style sufficient to attract a publisher and readers?*
*a co-worker once gave me a draft of a novel he’d written, asking for suggestions. :eek:
He had interesting ideas and the story considerable potential, but jeez, it needed a lot of work in terms of organization, sentence structure and grammar. A good story is essential, but not sufficient.
Are you a good writer? Do you enjoy it?
I’d keep in mind that ideas for good books are the easiest part. The hard part is everything else.
Do it if it interests you. Even if it’s not successful at first, it could be later on.
It depends on what you mean by successful. If you mean, “writing 300 pages of solid prose,” that’s one thing. If you mean, “making enough money to justify 2-3 years of work,” that’s something else. Typically first time authors don’t get much of an advance, and royalties run around 10% of the cover price. Say the book sells for $35; you get $3.50 for each copy that is sold. The typical university press will print fewer than 1,000 copies of a book; a major publisher might publish 10,000 copies but rarely sells that many. But let’s be optimistic and say the book sells 10,000 copies. You’ll gross $35,000, pay a chunk in taxes, pay off the credit card on which you purchased paper, printer ink, and alcohol, and paid research expenses such as travel, copying, purchasing books and filing cabinets. You would be very lucky, and among a tiny fraction of paid writers, if you netted $8,000 a year.
If you want to do it to make yourself happy, I say do it. If you want to do it for money and fame? Probably not a good idea.
Writing a book is hard work. You still need to keep your day job and you will spend hours and hours and HOURS working on your book. Once you think its ready, you will give your first born child to strangers who won’t be very nice.
If you are doing this as an effort of love, I’d say that you should do it. If you are doing it to gain fame and money…well unless you are extremely talented and have good connections…don’t waste your time.
I’m saying this as someone who has written 1 book and 2 novellas. I poured my heart and soul into writing them. I have a box full of semi-nice rejection letters. My friends and my MIL says good things about my writing, but I know that they lie.
I’ve been able to flog them on Amazon and I think I’ve made about $30.00 in 2 years.