HOW I GOT INTO PUBLISHING
After completing an MBA as a mature student I found myself with time on my hands. I started researching my family
history (which is Viking) and ended up with a bundle of research. Someone suggested there maybe a book somewhere in
my research. And there was. But this was just the start of my journey.
After completing my book I trudged around the traditional publishing houses for 2 long years and was dismayed at the
treatment received.
I then stumbled upon self-publishing and was shocked at the mediocre services offered for the exhorbitant charges asked.
I was equally dismayed at the treatment of authors intending to self-publish - as if we are the uncleanest of the unclean -
and I set about using my 25 years of business expertise to correct this.
Abela Publishing went live in September 2008. We offer the full range of publishing services to aspiring authors -
Proofing (Editing), Publishing, Printing and above all, a comprehensive Book Promotions campaign.
The first ever "Hybrid Publishing" model.
We do not "look down" on authors wanting to self-publish. Instead we offer every assistance in smoothing the way to
becoming a published author, treating authors, for that is what they are, with the dignity and respect that anyone who
has created a manuscript deserves.
Getting Started With John Halsted
Don’t wait for the right time for it to happen. Dont wait for the New Year, or a birthday, or for summer. Start now! Start today!
For research use the internet, and of course that forgotten institution - your local library.
If you don’t ask, you'll never receive.
HOW TO GET GOING
A good book has a start, a middle and an end.
Don’t try and write the first chapter on day one. Start by writing down the main subject of the book.
Then divide the subject into three sections - your start. middle and end.
On three separate pieces of paper titled Start, Middle and End, make notes about what will be/should be/could be in each section.
Then divide each of the three sections into three again - just like before. By now you should have, in effect, nine chapters.
Only this time, once you have the three sections outlined, add a bit more detail about what should be/would be/could be in
each section. Its better to start with more (and then slowly remove extra detail) than it is to have too little to start writing.
Once you have your detail, take each of the nine chapters and try and divide them into two or three - which will give you
between 18 and 27 chapters in all. More than enough for a book.
Don’t think about chapter headings just yet, but continue to add details and facts to each chapter.
And now you start to write, building the story line and the narrative around the notes you have made. Its OK to write the last
chapter first. If you do this you know at the beginning just where you want to end. This can make writing the rest of the book
easier - not EASY, but easier.
The publishing standard is to print approximately 350 words per page. Its good to aim at a minimum of 120 pages as anything
less than 120 pages will cost just as much to print as 120 pages would. So, a 120 page book will have approximately 42,000
words or about 2333 words per chapter. But this is not a hard and fast rule.
So what are you waiting for? You’ve now got the structure - GET TO IT!
Favourite Quotes & Thoughts from John Halsted
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE - MAKE THE MOST OF IT!
~0~
A reasonable person will adapt themselves to their surroundings.
An unreasonable person will adapt their surroundings to themselves.
Progress is therefore dependent on unreasonable people.
~0~
If you always do what you've always done
You'll always get what you've always got!
(In other words get off the sofa and use your time constructively)
