will write a technical book

ketanco

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Hello
I will write a book about how to pass a certain engineering exam, and later a test question book too. I am licenced engineer.

How do I go with publishing though?

That part seems to me harder than writing the book

Do i just google the term" publish your book" and then find a company which prints them and ship them home and sell them online and on amazon?

amazon have create space, that I saw. should i go through that route? i dont know how many copies will sell. is that better option?

which way it will be better exposed in ebay and amazon and google books?

there is a very well known publisher who publishes engineering exam books. should i just go through them? what may be plusses and minuses?
 

Old Hack

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Gosh, you're asking lots of big questions.

Hello
I will write a book about how to pass a certain engineering exam, and later a test question book too. I am licenced engineer.

How do I go with publishing though?

That part seems to me harder than writing the book

Do i just google the term" publish your book" and then find a company which prints them and ship them home and sell them online and on amazon?

I wouldn't do it this way.

Your options are trade publishing (where a company publishes your book for you, and takes care of editing, design, printing, sales and distribution) or self publishing (where you are your own publisher, so you have to take care of everything yourself).

amazon have create space, that I saw. should i go through that route? i dont know how many copies will sell. is that better option?

CreateSpace is one way to self publish print editions. Or you could self publish digital editions for the Kindle, and other e-readers.

which way it will be better exposed in ebay and amazon and google books?

If you get a trade publisher you'll almost certainly have better distribution. But trade publishers are highly selective and it can be very difficult to get a contract with one of them.

there is a very well known publisher who publishes engineering exam books. should i just go through them? what may be plusses and minuses?

You could see if they'd be interested in publishing your work. But ask yourself: why would they want to? What is it about you that makes your book better than all the others they have submitted to them?

You have a lot to learn about publishing, and with all due respect your writing here isn't very good: it's certainly not good enough for publication.

Generally speaking, with a trade publisher you don't have to find editors, designers, typesetters, printers, distributors, and so on, as all that's done for you. You won't earn so much per copy sold as you would if you self-published: but you will probably sell many more copies than you would sell if you self-published. Usually, authors who are trade published do better than authors who are self published. But it is hard to get a trade publisher willing to publish your book so you might not get the choice.

Finally, be careful. There are lots of people keen to separate you from your money who won't publish your book effectively. The more you learn about publishing the less likely you are to fall prey to their schemes.
 

robjvargas

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I recommend you pick up the Writer's Digest Writer's Market, 2014 edition. There's a couple of others I could recommend as well if my brain weren't still waiting for the caffeine to kick in.

Basically, a writer's market guide will give you a view to the publishers out there, and who's publishing what. I think there's a guide out there, and I can't recall which one, that even gives an approximate number of books published by that organization in the previous year.

The process of publishing a non-fiction book can be very different from a fiction book. For guides on that process, I'm going to send you back to Writer's Digest.

Now, all of the above is information. Maybe you'd rather publish it yourself. Your call. I've decided to commit to getting published through the trade. Which simply means I don't have any guidance for you on self-publishing. On that, I defer to what Old Hack already said.
 

Old Hack

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Most directories like the Writers' Digest one mentioned above don't screen out any dodgy publishers or agents, though, so don't assume that publishers and agents listed in them are legitimate or desirable.
 

suki

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Another caution -- that exam, and more sepcifically its questions, might be protected by copywrite and other intellectual property laws. You may need to research what you can publish in your book about the test itself. For example, specific test questions are likely off-limits without the test company's permission.

~suki
 

Siri Kirpal

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Jeff Herman's Guide does a better job of separating out the scam artists from the legit publishers.

Once you find a publisher you think might be interested, check here in the Bewares section to see if they're legit. You can also google "Preditors and Editors;" they keep a list of good guys and bad guys in the publishing world too.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal