Unconventional Guide to Publishing Review

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If you’d prefer to skip the review and just check out the Unconventional Guide to Publishing, you can do so here.

As you probably know, I try to keep the promotions to a minimum here at Location 180, but when it comes to something Chris Guillebeau releases, I’ll almost always do a write up.

Why?

Well for one, I work with the guy, so I want to show my support. Two, he consistently puts out the highest quality content (both free and paid) on the internet.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, his Unconventional Guide to Publishing is exactly the product I’ve been looking for lately.

As I mentioned yesterday in my 2012 goals post, the last 6-12 months have resulted in a major shift on the site from personal hobby to legit business.

I’ve been making money on this site through all sorts of different avenues: SEO and lifestyle consulting, affiliate marketing, ebooks, unique courses, and large flagship products.

It’s been my goal to deliver content in as many different ways as possible so that I can help as many people as I can achieve their lifestyle goals, provide some entertainment, and hopefully have a significant impact in their lives.

Over the last couple months I’ve been doing a lot of planning for what the future is going to look like, and one of the things that intrigues me most is the idea of publishing a book.

I’ve always thought it would be cool to write a book, but not until recently did I really believe that I’d have enough to say to make it happen.

Self Publishing Vs. Traditional Publishing

My main dilemma in doing this has been trying to decide if I want to self publish something now, or go the traditional publishing route in the future.

Hence the reason I’m so excited about this book.

I received my review copy yesterday and have made it a goal to devour as much of it as possible.  The first thing that caught me off guard was how massive it was.  It’s over 45,000 words, and most importantly, wasn’t full of filler.

By the sixth page he was already answering my questions about the pros and cons between self publishing and traditional publishing – and then he gave me one insight that I knew nothing about which would make this more than worth it for any would-be author:

Bookscan.

The general idea (without giving away too much info) is that self-publishing an actual book (say a Kindle book for the Amazon market) can actually be very detrimental to your hopes of getting a traditional publishing contract.

I’ve been thinking of self-publishing a book for some time now and even have a lot of the material written – but this one insight has me wondering if it’s still the right move for me.  Perhaps I hold off on it for a few years to see if I can get a real book contract, maybe it doesn’t matter and self-publishing is the way of the future, maybe I do both and take my chances?

Regardless it’s given me a LOT more clarity into the pros, cons and implications of the self publishing world.

The Publishing System

Working with Chris, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few conversations with him over the years about how the publishing world works – and each time I’m almost always shocked by how different it is than I expect it to be.  What do you mean they don’t want to pay for a book tour? Why wouldn’t they do more marketing? There were HOW many edits to your first manuscript?

This book, which was written by Chris’ literary agent David Fugate is like those conversations on steroids. Lots and lots of steroids.

In each chapter he goes into every single important detail about the publishing process – and what that means to you.

Chances are you aren’t super familiar with the traditional (or self) publishing world, and this book has everything you need to know.  Let’s take just a brief look at some of the features and benefits of this book:

• Four Real World Actual Book Proposals (that sold).  These bad boys aren’t easy to get your hands on, and could quite possibly be one of the most important aspects of the whole book.  Do you know what a book proposal looks like? How long it is? How to write a sample chapter? Looking these over will give you real insight into the process of pitching a book – and will help determine if you have the determination and resources to go through with it.
• Details on the Business of Books. Do you have any idea what a typical book advance is? What about the amount that the author gets paid on from each sale? How about how those figures relate to the self-publishing world.  The reality is that it could be much more profitable for you (or me) to go the self-publishing route – even if that does hurt your chances of getting a traditional book published.  This guide goes into all of those details so that you can make the decision that’s right for you when the time comes.
• What Publishers Look For. Do you have any clue what a publisher looks for when it comes time to find a new book to publish? To be honest, I had no clue. I was pretty surprised by a lot of the things that they wanted – and it also gave me additional insights into how to go about self-publishing should I choose to go that route.
• Templates. Everyone loves templates – and if you don’t? Well then you should.  Why spend hours and days reinventing the wheel when you can see examples of offer letters, proposals, pitches to find an agent etc. that have already been proven to work.  These alone will not only save you tons of time, but will also improve the quality of what you do create.

The Final Result?

I’m willing to bet you already know if this is right for you.  While I still have a lot more to read, what I’ve gone through already has been incredibly valuable to my business.  That’s what this is now, a business, and publishing has the potential to be one aspect of it.

I haven’t made any decisions about which avenue I’ll be taking with my writing, but the major difference is all of a sudden I actually feel as though I have the knowledge and the tools to make an educated choice – and then have considerable resources through this guide regardless of what route I choose to take.

If you’ve ever thought about writing a book, check out the full details on the Unconventional Guide to Publishing.  I’m also happy to answer any questions about the book itself and the extra content thats included.

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