You've spent many nights working on your book. You've rewritten it, edited it, and you used a professional proofreader to proof it. Your book is done - finally -- and you're ready to send your precious manuscript off to a publisher, thinking that writing it was the hardest part.In reality, getting your blood, sweat and tears published may be the hardest part of the whole process. You'll need to decide if your book requires a publisher, or if you'd rather self-publish your book. Both venues have pros and cons, some of which I discuss below.To work with a book publisher, you'll need to send out query letters and/or a book proposal. This ...

Why should a writer make the conscious decision to publish his work with a publisher that intends to give that work away to the public free of charge?For that matter, why should any publisher make the conscious decision to give away its product? Or its investment, even if that investment is primarily in time and/or labor?To answer both questions, allow me to cite the current strike by the television and screenwriters’ union now underway in the United States. The reason that the writers and their support teams are striking is that they want to be paid for their work (they are asking for only a few cents per dollar made by studios ...

It was quite a sight seven years ago, at the first and only Writer's Festival held at Franciscan University of Steubenville. As the moderator of an online writer's forum and a fledgling publisher of electronic books, I had been asked to speak on the future of eBook publication and distribution. While the concept of eBooks was still quite new at the time, my speech was blessedly short. Yet, I felt I offered an optimistic view of the industry, one that inspired the authors who came to hear me talk. Many had been writing for years, discouraged by constant rejection from the top publishers.The most interesting part of the conference for me happened ...