Music Banter - View Single Post - A Question for Fellow Writers About Book Publishing

innerspaceboy · 08-15-2022, 05:48 PM

Thank you so much, TH. It's so kind of you to gather that input for me.

From what I've found researching it these past few nights, the fact that the content was originally published as a blog and later self-published as a PDF both count against me in the eyes of a publisher. Generally they want "first-publication" rights.

And the person you quoted is probably right that I would have to relinquish most of my creative control to an editor.

Someone else said that the purpose of a book is to be a self-contained vehicle for thoughts and knowledge. They said that if you need links, you should write a blog, not a book. Another contributor said to convert all of my web references to MLA/Chicago citations instead.

Re-flowing the content to multiple formats depending on the device to avoid users having to pinch/zoom would be a task for a publisher and not for me, but again there I'd have to surrender creative control.

I'm still gathering some additional information, but so far I'm considering retiring the project. Those who read it cover to cover really praised my work, but my writing is for a very niche audience and might not be marketable to the general public. That would make winning over a publisher quite an uphill battle.

Thanks once again, everyone.