June 4, 2003

• Publishing Class

  
  Today's Oasis class was a whirlwind presentation on how to get a book published. I was familiar with a lot of the material from other classes I have taken, but there was new material and lots of detailed data such as links, addresses and telephone numbers of sources.
  
  There were fourteen students present, out of sixteen who signed up for the class. The instructor is a retired teacher who has had seven printings of her book on finding bargains in San Diego published. She told us how the book initially wrote itself, forcing her to learn about the world of publishing, which she was sharing with us.
  
  How does a book write itself? Well, first you start with an idea. She got her idea by finding a couple of books on bargains of free stuff, the first for the Bay Area and the second for Los Angeles. She decided to ask people to share information about bargains in San Diego, which she would collect and publish.
  
  She contacted community colleges to arrange seminars to get people together to share their knowledge. Then she started getting requests for interviews from local radio and television stations, which is also known as free publicity.
  
  The book sold well. There was feedback, new data. The book grew, printing by printing. Now several times its original size, the author is taking out several chapters to sell as specialized ebooks because their subject areas are more volatile than the rest of the book.
  
  But not every book writes itself. A more rational approach is needed, with planning, research and hard work.
  
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