<p>Not sure what came over me, but I had been helping some students with essays when the ideas about the techniques I proposed just suddenly poured out of me into a full book. It's a fairly short step-by-step instruction manual on writing admissions essays and advice for many of the typical prompts students might see.</p>
<p>So now what?</p>
<p>The last time I wrote a book, I self-published, had a whopping 100 copies printed and sold out in less than a week (to local bookstores and tourism-related businesses). So that gave me lots of confidence and I had fun doing the sales part. (I hear you laughing - 100 books, what a best-seller - LOL). I have an update to that one on the way (a pictorial history of an American Indian figure), with expectations of selling many more. That too, will be self-published, just because it's fun and I have total control.</p>
<p>So now I have visions in my head of this latest on college admission essays actually being something useful. The people who have read the manuscript have been genuinely enthusiastic about it. I'm not bragging - it's just that that's a surprise to me since I am not generally the greatest writer around. But like I said, this one just flowed out of my brain onto the paper (I mean, onto the computer screen)....</p>
<p>So what would you do? Try to have it published by some reputable publisher, who, if it were accepted (long-shot) and published, could actually do some real marketing? Or go ahead and self-publish again and try to have some fun finding outlets to sell it (social media marketing, click-through ads, who-know what all I could learn)?</p>
<p>PS: I'm savvy enough to know that you don't make money either way. As a matter of fact, I'd probably spend more marketing it than I'd ever get with the few copies I'd sell. I had even thought of just building a website with all of the information available for free, but I have a friend (many of you know through CC a few years ago) who had had some of her advice stolen from her website, packaged, and published without attribution.</p>
<p>Have you considered trying to sell it on-line? I was looking for some exorcises last week for my frozen shoulder problem and found a book that was for sale on-line. The cost was about $24 and it was only 50 pages. I’m considering it, which seems crazy because I really don’t like to pay more then $15 for any book. I like the idea that I don’t have to wait for it to be shipped.</p>
<p>Work on it some more, double the length and quality, and try to get a big publisher. Why shouldn’t you make money? I knew a guy who wrote a health advice book, nothing special, and made over 100K.</p>
<p>My s/o has written several recent books, and uses an online publisher. (I’ll backchannel you his publisher.) Its now listed with Amazon and a host of other sites. He made a web page too</p>
<p>I like the idea of publishing online combined with having hard copies as well (it’s always great to hold something in your hand). I have an ISBN/barcode for it (required for places like Amazon and B&N and even local bookstores). Also, I’ve done several websites, so I can create another one for this.</p>
<p>This might be fun. FB ads, Google ads, I’ll have to be very budget-conscious! Now back to the onerous task of proofreading…</p>
<p>^^^ will you give us a copy if we responded here? :)</p>
<p>anyway, you might want to do all three… sell it on line, in print and publish it by a known publisher. How to write a college essay certainly has more appeal than telling some one how to get around in a ski area in Tahoe. The latter, Squallywood, was sold out and its in third edition… :)</p>
<p>Someone I know just published a book and was telling me about the process. He says you need to write a book proposal, and he followed the advice on how to write one.</p>
<p>A quick search on Amazon turned up a few books on the topic “book proposal”. I am also considering writing a book, and your post has inspired me to order one for myself.</p>