Did you know you can Author a Book without writing any of the content yourself. I did it and it’s pretty easy.
I said it was easy… I didn’t say that it doesn’t take time. A bunch of time!
In fact it took me about a year from start to finish to get this book published.
It was worth every minute. It gave me credibility. Yep… I’ve got Cred. 
Why does it give me credibility? Thump! It’s called the Thump Factor… I can “THUMP” that book down in front of anyone and it looks impressive.
I don’t know why anyone would be impressed – but they are. I didn’t write but one or two pages of original content in the entire book.
The book is 99% content I got from interviews and Public Domain archives.
I published this book several years ago… so the first blush thrill has worn off. But… I’m still an author – no one can take that away from me. Ha!
The book contains a 50/50 mix of content. The first 100 pages or so are documents I found in archives and at the library. This takes hours – but if you love the thrill of the hunt – it’s also fun.
The other half of the book are chapters for each family that is part of this historical event in history. 50 family names with pictures and personal stories are included.
I even went so far as to have a “Forward” written by a local historian – which helped bump up sales.
Compiling all this data into a readable format is what takes time.
I used several resources. The first thing I got my hands on was a book by Dan Poynter (best investment I made):
Writing Nonfiction, 4th Edition: Turning Thoughts into Books
How to handle interviews, quotes and art.
What tools to use.
Formatting… is a pain in the neck… Dan made this process fairly painless.
Once I had the book (as ready as I could get it – you have to stop editing at some point) ready for publishing… I found Lulu.com was my best choice for POD (Print On Demand) publishing. I did pay extra to get some formatting help at Lulu.com – worth every penny! (This was way before Amazon offered CreateSpace)
I put up the ugliest website you have ever seen. I mean it was “Ugly”… and it was an .html coded site – which is Not something I like to play with.
Today – I finally got the book on it’s own WordPress Blog. I’ve been putting this off for over a year… and I don’t know why – I can put up WP blogs in my sleep.
The blog is here in all it’s glory – Yuma Arizona Homesteaders.
You might be cringing at the thought of taking an entire year to publish a book. Well… this book wouldn’t have taken nearly as long to “write” if I didn’t have to do 50 interviews!
Your book can be “written” entirely from Public Domain content. I think that the book should be “re-written” from Public Domain content. I don’t see any point in publishing a book “as is” from the archives.
If you want to be an author – get creative and get going. Nothing is stopping you!
About The Author:
 Debra Conrad is an online entrepreneur, information publisher, and author that has been using Public Domain material to create profitable products and businesses since 2007. She is also co-author of "The Public Domain Treasure Hunter's Survival Kit" available here. For more info Debra, click here. |
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Print This ArticleLast 5 posts by Debra:
- Public Domain Content Makes Great Products For Aspiring Artists
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