I need advice about what I have learned already as well as going forward.

This site has so many forums, I'm not sure I have the right one. (?)
I've tried to do a little research and it has gotten to the point of slight confusion, on which way to go to help my Mother. I'll provide all the details, from what she has done so far, to what I have found, and what my questions are.

I am hopeful those who have written and published can correct, or clarify, any of the things I have found already. Here are all the details.
Thanks.

Early last year, my 75 year old Mother told me she was writing a book. This thrilled me and my family, and we were anxious to read it. My Mother said she wanted to wait until she was finished, before she showed us.

In the mean time, I did a little looking around about books and how they are published, etc. Below I’ll ask a few questions, about what I found, and some questions on how to help my Mother.

Well, when we travelled to visit her for Christmas, she surprised me by saying her writing was done. She handed me 4 pages that had a text size of maybe a font 14 on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper.
My first thought was to ask “is this chapter 1?”
Fortunately, I said something else. I said “is this the first part?”
My Mother said “no, that is all of my story.“

After reading it, I realized that it took a good imagination and thought on her part, as well as her love of children. I also realized that this writing was very, very important to my Mother.

It looks like there are three ways to publish a writing. (?)

1. Find an agent to locate a publisher. This should not cost the author any money? The agent knows how to find the publishers. The publishers estimate the lifetime sales and gives the author a one time payment from which the author pays the agent. The publisher uses their % to pay to print, bind, publish, distribute, sell, and all other cost. The author can expect maybe 15% of the total sales estimate. When the author gets their payment, they pay the agent about 15%. Is all of that basically correct?

2. Self publishing. The author pays for the printing, the binding, the illustrator, and sells the books on Ebay, Amazon, word of mouth, flea markets, personal website, etc. Cost to get a book printed in this manner?

3. E-publishing. I have no information on this method. What is this? You pay to download the text? What about the illustrations? Cost? Potential sales?

My Mother said she was aware of Vanity Press. They (?) offered her 500 copies of her book if she paid them $4000.00. Well, her writing is 4 pages. Unless the text is increased in size so the kids can read it, and lots of colorful illustrations, I’m not sure how many pages can be in this book with the text being 4 pages typed, font size about 14. She also mentioned the term “vista” and I have not associated that with publishing a book.

My Mother did not tell us, in advance, about this offer she received. Thankfully, she felt it was not worth it, and told the Vanity Press no thanks. I just did a search about Vanity Press, it is appears to not be a publisher at all. Vanity Press looks like a term that includes hundreds of publishers.

So, if an agent is used, there should be no cost to the author, except they would pay to get the writing in transcript form?

My Mother said she got a local person to do some illustrations and she knows someone who has done some writing. And she is in touch with someone on the east coast who is advising her about E-publishing.

I think what my Mother has done is remarkable. But, I am worried that she may be too eager and not do this the proper way.

If an author might expect 15% from a publisher. Then, if my Mother had paid $4000.00 for 500 copies of her book, that is $8.00 each. If she was able to sell them for $10.00 each, that would be a 20% profit. Which is more than 15%.

And with her writing being 4 pages of text and some pages of illustrations, I wonder what these 500 books from some Vanity Press would have looked like?
(An actual hardback bound, colorful book, with colorful drawings and maybe large text, and many illustrations to get it to be 20-25-30 pages?)

This is very, very important to my Mother. I would like to help her proceed. It would be great to get hard copies in her hand, so she can give to her friends and relatives and maybe sell some too through a publisher.


-----------------------------------------
It's a short story about an animal and his parents and friends. The adventures of a rabbit, and a couple other animal friends, who enter a humans yard through a hole in a fence, only to find alot of kids toys, and the animals enjoy themselves, etc.
She have numerous color illustrations.
Clearly (I assume) a writing for young children.

At worst, I wonder what it would cost to print and bind 50 copies if she did that herself.

This writing is very important to her.
I'd hate to see the 4 pages to never get published in some form.

When I was a child (age 3-4-5-6-7) there were books, that were only a dozen or two dozen pages, with alot of photos.

Would you, or anyone know exactly what my Mother would have received had she paid $4000 for 500 copies of her work?
(paid to some vanity press)

Would she have actually gotten a real, hard back book, or pages in some soft binder that she could have created herself?

Thanks for any help and advice.

Thanks to all of you who have given good advice and helpful comments.

My Mom basically did this on her own, and did not consult with any of her relatives on "how to."

She kept the whole thing, as a secret project she was working on. Once she told us about it, I did some research and I have posted, in my question, the things I found.

I found mention of the fact that an author should not have to pay a publisher to get a book published when going through an agent (?) (because the agent get's their commission after the author receive's their one time check from the publisher)

Another issue here, is my Mom is not readily accepting advice.
In my research I first looked for this "Vanity Press" she talked about.

It looked to me like Vanity Press was not a specific company, but rather Vanity Press was a term that was a group of many, many publishers, sort of like a umbrella. And Vanity Press could be one of dozens and dozens of publishers. Some legitimate and some not.

This is where I became concerned that the several thousand dollars for 500 copies of her book, might be a bad deal. Thankfully, on her own, she said that she decided it was too much money.

Now, when I told her of my findings about Vanity Press, and that there are some out there that are not safe, she told me that she already knew Vanity Press was possibly unsafe.

So, that is an example of the challenge of helping her.

I personally do not think she knew Vanity Press was more than just one specific publisher who liked her book.

But, when we try to give her any advice or direction, she seems to tell us she already knows all these things.

All we can do is give her a list of her options, and explain each one in detail, and take it step by step.

I'll look around in the children's forum.

I did not know if this "Self Publishing and POD" forum was the proper one.

Thanks again.

Sorry, the for the delays in responding. I never got an e-mail that other comments had been made.

Some of the above ideas sound like they should be considered.


It's to the point that I may just have to write my own book on how to publish a work. Not really a book, but maybe 4 pages with each page discussing a way to publish a book, and details about each way, from advice received.


My Mother showed us her illustrations done by a friend of hers. I was rather shocked at the talent of the illustrator. Over 10 full page, 8 1/2 x 11, color illustrations.

My Mother, says she knows someone in Jew Jersey who she is going to send her writing and the illustrations. We have no idea who this person is, or how they met. We have to assume she found this friend on the internet by using the school library.


Every time we tell her something we found out, she always says, "Oh I know that."

No, I do not think she "already knew" that Vanity Press was not one specific A+ publisher, but rather a term. My searching showed that Vanity Press was a type of publisher and there could be dozens of them, if not more, and some are legitimate and some are not.


As far as paying $4000 for 500 copies of her book, my Mother made the decision on her own to, not do that. She said it was not worth the cost. She found the Vanity Press, made their offer, and fortunately in our minds, she decided not to accept the offer. All this, before we even knew what her project was.


So, we can only present her with details on how to do things.


If she sends her book and illustrations to someone 1000 miles away and she never hears from them again, well her friend in N.J. was not legitimate, or passed away, while having my Mother's materials.


The last I was told was "I'll let you know how it come out." (meaning the book and photos sent to N.J.)


I'll get a detailed outline together and mail it soon. Hopefully she reads it and it seems she is determined to reject any ideas as "something she already knew."

Thanks.

kaitie said:

The best you can do is let her know what you've found, give her links and information and so on, or point her in the right direction in the library. If she chooses to ignore it, she's an adult and that's her choice.

Click to expand...

Thanks to everyone for the comments and ideas.

That is all we can do at this point.

I know she had spent years on this, and we can only hope she gets it published in some form, while she is alive and well, and maybe receive any due compensation for her efforts.

I sent my Mother a detailed outline of about 6-7 pages that discussed agents, publishers, e-publishing, self publishing, illustrations, etc.
I did not even get a call that she received it.
We visited on Saturday and finally, I had to ask her if she got it. She said yes, and I think she said thank you.
Then she said she knew someone in the area who had used an agent. Who or how they met, not sure.
That was it. Weak enthusiasm at best.