How To Publish a Book

 

  A bookseller once said that writing a book is hard, while publishing a book is even harder. But the hardest thing in the world is selling a book. I once knew some college students who were so good at selling books that they were able to pay for their education. For several years in the summer, Marion and Jerry Solom would host a college student from one of the former Soviet republics. These young people were recruited by a US encyclopedia publisher to scour northwestern Minnesota for sales. One time I asked a young man from Estonia what his technique was. "Grandparents," he said. He didn't call grandparents suckers, but he knew grandparents would do anything to help their grandkids succeed in school and that's what he told the grandparents his encyclopedia would do.

   A little over four million books are published in the US every year. Three and a half million of them are self-published, mostly through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Most self-published books sell only a few copies or none, though some do well. After showing his slide show about his sailing adventures at various Sons of Norway lodges around the countryside Jerry Solom's daughter Sarah said that if he wrote down his stories, she would upload them to Amazon Kindle Direct. There was no charge until you ordered books from Amazon. Amazon had a reasonable fee for each book. The author adds whatever the market will bear and that's his or her profit. Jerry started bringing a stack of his books to his presentations and did well, though he kept his day job.

   Another friend, Joe Stenzel, also published a book on Amazon with the intriguing title The Life and Times of a Bastard, subtitled the first seven years, by Joseph L. Baker. It's the first and last volume of Joe Stenzels's father's memoirs. Baker? As the book's title suggests, Joseph Baker's parents were not married. The circumstances of his birth are explained at the beginning of the book. The author then describes his world as it comes into focus during the first seven years of his life. He assumes the Mrs. Smith that cares for him is his mother. She's pictured as kindly and loving and Joseph returns her affection. The only bad thing he has to say about her is that if they were on their way somewhere and there was dirt on his face, she would spit on her handkerchief to clean his face. Teresa's mother did that to her kids too.

   There are epigraphs for each chapter - Children are like wet cement. whatever falls on them makes an impression. - Dr. Haim Ginnot.  There's a quote from the author - My childhood home may seem small to some, but it was huge to me. It was abundant in the memories of friends, explorations and challenges. There's a hint at the book's end that the author will be adopted by his birth mother's brother and wife. Joe Stenzel, the son, confirmed this is what happened. There were to be more books detailing Joseph Stenzel senior's life, but he died before he could write them which is too bad.

Number 1,510,642 on Amazon's Best Seller list