Bored Out Of My Skull!

[Patrick]

Hey all,

I think the answer to your problem is clear, Bob. Just post more here. What? That's not possible, you say? Well, alright. Heh.

I just thought I'd offer some thoughts on the book angle of things. Traditional publishing and self publishing are both viable options. It really depends on what you want to do and what your goals are.

When it came time to make a decision regarding my book, I decided I wanted to work with the largest publisher I could and the best traditional publishing situation I could find.

There were numerous reasons for this, but two of the major ones were that I wanted the stamp of legitimacy that comes with traditional publishing and I wanted to do what I could to get the book in major book stores.

Traditional publishing doesn't equal legitimacy and there is no end to the number of self-published books that are legitimate. So, it's not like that. Rather, it means something when a publisher says "yes, we like your idea and we'll put $50,000+ behind it" in author advances, staff salaries and more.

Likewise, self published books can get in stores, but it is very challenging to do so on a mass basis if you haven't established your name. For example, Chuck Norris could self publish a book and get it in every book store in the country. But, most people could not.

For me, it paid off. My book was in pretty much every Barnes & Noble in the country at one period or another, in addition to random other stores internationally (like Chapters/Indigo in Canada).

And there are a lot of other benefits to traditional publishers, too. The team of people, the editors, etc. is highly valuable when it comes to creating a valuable product. You can get those people, but you have to pay for them - they have salaries.

So, if this is a message you really, really want to spread in the widest way possible and one that you feel might help a lot of people, you might want to consider traditional publishing. If that is the case, I definitely recommend having a good agent. Mine has been very useful and valuable to me.

In the end, if you consider it, self publishing may be the way to go and it has it's own set of benefits. I'd be happy to chat more about the traditional publishing process if so desired, but this post is going to be long enough as is for now.

But, if this is something where you want to write a book to pass out to friends, then self publishing is almost certainly the right option. Some additional options to look at include:

http://www.iuniverse.com

http://www.createspace.com (owned by Amazon.com)

http://www.lulu.com

http://www.blurb.com

Anyway, I hope that this helps. Best of luck.

Patrick

[sensei8]

In the past few days I've given something a lot of considering.

Now that I've just lost my Dai-Soke, and lost our Soke two years ago, I've decided that I'm going to write a memoir.

This memoir will be titled: Empty Chairs!!

It's a look into the lifes of my Soke and my Dai-Soke. A look on how they molded and touched my life. A look on how the Shindokan Hombu survives their passing; especially their passing that's not so far apart.

Rough Chapter Outline:

Chapter One: Soke Fuyuhiko Saitou (1917 - 2008)

Chapter Two: Dai-Soke Yoshinobu Takahashi (1932 - 2010)

Chapter Three: Make It Or Break It (Can the Shindokan Hombu Survive?)

Chapter Four: Reflecting On Their Influence In My Life

My problem is that I'm far from being a great writer, although I do have my moments, but they're not as often as I'd like. Possibly, I could have a ghost writer, if that's acceptable when one is considering a memoir, as I am.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I feel very strong about this, whereas before, I wasn't. I always thought that someone has to be great to write a memoir. Well, in my opinion, Saitou Sensei and Takahashi Sensei are great men; to Shindokan and to myself!!

Am I responding to my pain in losing my Dai-Soke? Yes I am! How can I pay my respect to these solid karateka's? There's many ways, but, right now, me writing this memoir is my way. Will anybody truly care one way or another if it's written or not? I don't know, but, if nothing else, this might lessen my pain.

I won't know until it's written!

[bushido_man96]

I say go for it, Bob. Who knows? It may lead to a second career...

[DWx]

Sounds like you have a nice chapter outline too. Go for it

[Patrick]

Cool. Good luck. Depending on what you plan to do with it, you could always hire an editor to help the writing.

Thanks,

Patrick

[joesteph]

Since you've already got a base, an outline of how you want to set it up, Bob, you could contact a former student who has published. It doesn't even have to be that s/he has published a book; articles, short stories, and novellas all show experience.

A martial artist I know and respect was approached by me last year, that she could make a contribution in the form of an article. Due to her much higher rank and years of study, there was bound to be a lot to mine there. Her first thoughts were copied down by me, then presented to her; she found it wasn't what she wanted to say. We went into her thoughts again, trimming the old and bringing in the new, and though it improved, it still wasn't what she wanted to say. I got her talking more and writing down by her own hand, rather than by me, how she wanted to put it, what she had to say. Two drafts later, we had, to me, a good article, and since so much was by her, I felt it should only bear her name. (Besides, her rank gave the article greater credibility, just as your rank gives your work greater credibility.)

As the article was specifically about her martial art, I knew exactly to which online publisher it should be submitted, but submitted by her, not by me. I'm afraid she dragged on, even questioning if she should speak for her art. In the end, it was never submitted and never published, and now it's outdated as it was written for a specific calendar year. That same publisher later published work by a martial artist in her art, one who had a much lower rank.

Students/former students can be a great source for publishing, from editing to proofreading.