AuthorHouse Blog

Three groups receive publishing grant through Authors Across America

AuthorHouse announced it will help three deserving organizations this year. The Denver School Museum, SKIP, Inc., and the Rainbow Repertory Theatre will each realize their dream of publishing a book through a standard paperback publishing package grant through AuthorHouse’s Authors Across America initiative.

Authors Across America, designed to inspire literacy and encourage authors to get published, is in its inaugural year of granting publishing services to educational and service-based organizations.

“Through this grant, we are giving a diverse group of writers who wouldn’t normally have access to book-publishing resources the opportunity to have their voices heard,” said Terry Dwyer, AuthorHouse’s vice president of sales. “We’re pleased to help these organizations achieve their goals through book publishing.”

The Denver Schoolhouse Museum of Grant City, Mo., was built in 1878 and is the only two-story schoolhouse remaining in Missouri. Carol L. Parman spent the last four years collecting 250 pages of poems, written locally over the last 150 years. The grant will allow the museum to publish a book of these poems that will be sold to fund the museum’s renovation.

The Ohio-based Rainbow Repertory Theater, an energetic, diverse group of artists and volunteers who participate in traveling theater, will use the grant to assist in publishing a history of African Americans in their hometown of Canton, Ohio.

SKIP, Inc., based in Montgomery, Ala., provides supportive services to children and families of incarcerated parents, and increases public awareness of the challenges these children face. The grant will assist founder and executive director Gloria Jean Canty in publishing her dissertation to help others start similar organizations.

1. Pick a target date for holding the first copy of your book in your hands – Staying focused on this date will help you remain productive and avoid procrastinating. Many first-time authors pick dates that have special personal significance, like their 50th birthday or their wedding anniversary.

2. Figure out the best time and place for you to write productively – Not everyone works best at the same time or place. Once you’ve figured out where and when you do your best writing everyday, commit to it. One author, for example, stated that he could write more, and better, between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m., than he could in the afternoon between 2 and 5 p.m.

3. Form a schedule and stick to it – Now that you’ve figured out where and when you work best, make writing a part of your daily routine. This will help you progress steadily and finish your book much more quickly.

4. Make yourself accountable to someone for finishing your book – Choose someone who will check in periodically and make sure you’re staying focused. It can be a friend or family member; or someone familiar with the process. For example, Author Services Representatives at AuthorHouse have served in this role for thousands of authors. A firm but gentle hand can be all the encouragement you need to finish your book.

5. Create a plan for marketing your finished book – The retail success of a book is often directly tied to a successful marketing program. Put together a plan for how you’ll get the word out about your fantastic new book. Publishers like AuthorHouse provide marketing tools that will make marketing much easier

6. Plan an event to celebrate the book’s completion –Writing a book is one of the greatest accomplishments of your life. Celebrate this achievement by throwing a launch party at your home for friends and family. This is more than a book, its part of your legacy. Take a few moments to pat yourself on the back and enjoy your achievement.

To get more information, visit AuthorHouse.com.

Until a few years ago, the term self-publishing usually entailed the likes of AuthorHouse, iUniverse, or Infinity Publishing taking a raw manuscript and converting it into a printed book via print on demand. Nowadays, self-publishing is being redefined as a “do-it-yourself publishing” process where you go online, upload your manuscript, format it, and then use print on demand to print and fulfill book orders.

One of the first in this space was Lulu.com who boasts over 10,000 new accounts per week. Unfortunately, the process was either deemed too hard or too confusing for most users with only a handfull of the 10,000 actually completing their book online. Beyond the printing, Lulu doesn’t offer too many other services beyond an ISBN and distribution at a cost.

Amazon even threw their hat in the ring with the debut of CreateSpace.com. Like Lulu.com, they provide an online process whereby a user can create their own book and sell it through Amazon.com. Again, the wheels fall off when an aspiring author realizes that designing their own cover or text pages is a little more difficult than what they thought. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea, but it’s the devil in the details that cause many authors heartburn when it comes to this new self-publishing model.

In my opinion, AuthorSolutions‘ Wordclay.com has a leg up on both of these established brands. AuthorHouse and iUniverse are well-versed in helping people along the process to becoming published. Besides, AuthorHouse has more marketing services to offer than anyone in this space which is always the lynchpin in any successful book. Like CreateSpace.com, Wordclay.com can give you Amazon.com distribution as well as visibility to any of the 25,000 retailers in the United States that subscribe to Ingram’s feed.

If you are publishing a wedding book, a reunion scrapbook, or other book where distribution is not a factor AND you are pretty tech savvy, it will come down to ease of use and pricing. If you are doing this new self-publishing model for the first time and you are willing to admit that you are a better writer than you are marketer and layout artist, then Wordclay.com might just be for you.