Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Dingbat on December 12, 2003, 01:02:23 PM
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My wife and I have been discussing the publishing of memoirs of her decesed grandfather; A russian infantryman during ww2.
I just wondered what I should be looking for in a good publisher? What to avoid? etc.
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Originally posted by Dingbat
My wife and I have been discussing the publishing of memoirs of her decesed grandfather; A russian infantryman during ww2.
I just wondered what I should be looking for in a good publisher? What to avoid? etc.
There are books on this - go to Barnes and Nobles.
You have to find a publisher who publishes the genre of book you are writing.
For example Adison and Wesley publish text books.
Black lace publishes women's romance novels.
Penguin publishes fiction and SciFi.
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Dingbat, for discussions' sake there's two types of publishers- commercial publishers, which will print, distribute and promote your book, and vanity publishers, which basically are selling you a print job.
Are these memoirs in book form? Is it a manuscript, or merely a diary?At any rate if it's a manuscript then get a literary agent and ask him to look at it and submit it for you. No publisher will even read a manuscript solicited by someone they've never heard of- they'll return it to you unopened. LOL Get an agent- that way you at least get a rejection slip along with your returned manuscript.
If you use a vanity publisher you are basically buying a print job. How will you market it? Shelfspace is at a premium anywhere, and nonexistant for the self published at mainstream bookstores.
Get an agent, might save you some time and money or he might make you some.
Good luck :)
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Airhead, thank you for the informative response. Indeed it's in manuscript format, but in russian (surprise, surprise). We intended on getting it professionally translated and I'll begin looking for an agent.