Need help with book!

Well, they finally talked me into it LOL.
I'm about to write a gardening book and need to know where to send it and all that stuff when I get it finished.
What are things I should never do when writing a book?
What size font should I use to send the book off to be looked over edited?

There's so many questions and I was hoping that authors on DG could help me out a bit with things they know and have already been through!

What should my Bio pic look like? A good closeup with a solid background, right?
Ive got writing the first line or paragraph and the closing line down, gotta hook the readers, right?
This is excitttttiiing!

Thanks in advance ya'll!

XoXoXoooooo
-Jocie and Boo.

Hello Jocie,
I have been writing a book myself, and the best source of information I found is the Writer's Market Online. It is a book I bought, which comes with a registration number for the online part. I paid $50 for it in 2002, and it was money well spent. It has all the guidelines for the stuff you asked about, and it has a submission tracker for the publishers you submit it to, and a directory of all publishers and literary agents. There is a section that is "full text of publishers' writers' guidelines" which is well worth the $50 in itself.
I did submit my manuscript to about 10 different publishers, who all politely declined. You better accept the notion that you may get a lot of rejection when you write a book. I have not given up on mine, although I haven't pursued it for some time. My next step will be to find an agent to do the marketing for me, since I wasn't getting anywhere on my own.
Let me know how you do with the publishers - I'm always open to suggestions and ideas!
Good luck!
Cindy

Are you looking for a publisher or just a printer?

I know zilch about writing a book but have recently put together a cook book for my firefighter auxiliary. We are using Morris Press Cook Books and they have a nice product at a reasonable price. We are getting 200 books priced at $2.90 each (it is a small book) and will sell them for $7-$8. The minimum order was 100.

They also do a wide array of other print jobs. You might want to check out their products and services at www.morrispress.com just for the heck of it. However being able to have someone print your book would entail your ability to produce a "camera ready" file. I know this can this can be accomplished with Microsoft Publisher and Adobe Standard (to create a pdf file), but software costs money so...not sure how that would work for you.

Guess that I should state that a "real book" is a lot different than a cook book with just basic text in it. If you are talking photos, full color, the cost could be quite high...but still might as well check it out?


This message was edited Sep 20, 2008 9:40 AM

Well, my only goal is to be on the best sellers list and make about 10 million my first week of being on market...it shouldn't be TOO hard..
LMAO

Really though, Im sure I'll get turned down way more than accepted.. but it only takes one guy accepting you so it'll be cool to try.
My "real" book is a novel and it may get finished/published by the time Im old and on my death bed, LOL.
The one Im working on now is a gardening book of sorts so at least it is really easy to write, it does have A LOT nice photos though. :-
So that jacks the cost up to print.
Makes you better appreciate all those books on the market so full of photos and words doesn't it!
Im writing it in windows word processor, don't know if that is a good program or not.

Thank you guys so much!
Hope ta find yall on "The List" someday!

-Jocie.

I think Cindy's suggestion to get a good book on the subject has some value. You are definately looking for a publisher and the book she has suggested will probalby be of great help in how to submit, ect. Best wishes!

Yuppers, Im going to buy the book probably. 50.00 is worth it to have the information all together in one place.