Writing a Book

[Forrest]

I've been toying with the idea of writing a book for the past few months. Not a fiction book, but a history book about Eastern Europe, either a study of each individual country's attempts to re-establish itself after the fall of Communism or an all-out full-blown volume on the country of Albania. I did my dissertation on the country and found that really, there is not many books written on the country in the last 25/30 years, particularly on Communism, and felt like it would be something worthwhile that would give my life a bit more purpose and hopefully bring the country to some other people's attention.

 

Anyway, I'm looking for tips on how to write a non-fiction biography. That means anything from what sort of planning to do to curing writer's block. Anything that can help, really. In particular, I'm looking for people who have written books themselves (fiction or non-fiction) and have had them published. How did you get your deal? Did you shop it around to all the big names and worked your way down slowly or was it simplly a case of filling a gap in the market that a publisher was looking at?

 

Writers, discuss.

[PowerButchi]

I think pretty much all the writers here self published. In the Kindle generation it's probably a piece of piss to get something out and make dolla dolla though.

[patiirc]

Firstly, good luck with that, it is a massive undertaking.

 

My ex's mum and one of my mates have both had work published. The ex's mum had a Literary Agent, and they would vet stuff, and send things off if seemed appropriate for books, anthologies as well as doubling up as an ideas board and editor as and when necessary. She has had a few books published, however, she has recently ditched her agent afaik and self published a self help book through Eloquent Books, which can be found here. She approached the publisher in this case as she needed someone to physically print the book. I cant remember much else about it other than that she went around a few publishers until she found them. As part of the deal they appointed her a liaison who would give advice as to what was doable in terms of printing and then after publishing advice such as increasing web presence and so on .

 

My mate is has just finished his second novel, he did a Q and A for his first novel which has some writing tips in, though not many, and they can be found

 

Some basic writing tips appears to be:-

 

- Write, write and write. Even if you feel that what you have written isnt great, you are still writing something and keeping yourself sharp in terms of actually getting things down on a page, no matter how little.

 

- Find a decent Editor and Proof Reader. It will help immeasurably in the long run. Though it is your work, you may not be objective enough to sort out flow, continuity and so on. Another pair of eyes on it can help keep you focused and make the prose tighter.

 

- Don't expect your first draft to be the final draft.

 

- Be prepared to chop and change and move things about. Writing is apparently very fluid and the final form of the book may not resemble your original plan.

 

I'm guessing one way to do it would be to put it forward as a PHD thesis or similar and see if it gets picked up for publishing as it is historical, non fiction and there is a gap in the market. Could contacting Orlando Figes be of help? He has done much on Russia and various other ex communist states over a variety of time frames. I'm not sure if he has done anything post communism though. He may be able to shed light on some stuff for you, providing he doesnt do an Amazon rant at you or similar. He has no end of publishing troubles in the past so maybe able to help as you are covering similar ground.

 

Finally, think about self publishing through Amazon etc as an e-book and setting up a website or FB page or group to advertise your book. Would keep costs down and you would see more of your money should the book sell.

 

It will probably be shot down by the authors on here, but I'm just relaying what I've been told over various points. Hope it helps.

[King Pitcos]

I think pretty much all the writers here self published. In the Kindle generation it's probably a piece of piss to get something out and make dolla dolla though.

I'd say of the two bolded bits, the former's a hell of a lot easier than the latter.

[PowerButchi]

Not with my pseudonym.

[Your Fight Site]

It's pretty easy to get self-published. A friend of mine has just self-published a novel he's been writing since secondary school, but this is after sending it out numerous publishing houses and getting rejected.

[Devon Malcolm]

Mrs Small's recently been approached by a couple of small publishers who found a story she wrote online and offered her $200 for the complete rights to it. She told them both to fuck off because she's realised she must be on to something good with that story and I'm going to proof-read it for her and we're going to send it to some bigger publishers. It's pretty exciting.