Do you mind sharing your strategy for getting published? I've thought long and hard about writing a book and would really like to, however, getting published/self-publishing seems like a long shot without connections.
I have a multi-pronged approach. Which way I ultimately go, depends on a number of variables.
The motorcycle book is sort of a loss leader. I'm using it to get my name out there, be recognized as somebody who knows something. It will be self-published. The other reason for self-publishing the riding book is that it's a somewhat small market and maybe 15-20% of the content will carry over to the driving book. As a result, even if I got "lucky" and a publisher wanted to carry the riding book, it would leave me in a bad position, since they would own the copyright to the words, many of which I'm intending to use again in the driving book. So when it came time to search out a publisher for the driving book, the publisher of the riding book would have a pretty good lock on me... "Go with us, or you can't use
our copyrighted content". Screw that.
So I'm self-publishing the motorcycle book. Whether I sell a hundred copies or ten thousand, it'll be a drop in the bucket compared to what I can get out of the driving book. And I'd much rather be negotiating with a publisher for the driving book.
So, the riding book is just a way of getting some experience, being involved in publishing, making a little bit of a name for myself, etc. Once the driving book is done, I'll entertain offers from publishing houses for either the driving book, or for both... but let's be realistic here...
If a publisher picks up the driving book, I'll be making what? A dollar or two per copy? However, if I can publish it for $10, I can sell it for $40. I have no intentions of just letting this thing sit and collect dust on the shelf of your local Barnes and Nobles. I intend to market this book to people who will want to buy it for their children and grandchildren. The information is unique, quite comprehensive, and extremely valuable. If I price it at $14.95, it'll just be another book. If I price it at $39.95, then it's a very valuable birthday present. In other words, I am not convinced that a publisher will be able to convince me that I'm better off letting them handle it... I think the market is huge, I think there's a lot of money to be made, and I'm not afraid of personally jumping in on all fronts...
So basically, my strategy is to believe in the power of the material and I will focus my energies on marketing.
As for self-publishing, it seems really simple. Avoid the "vanity presses". Retain control. Go through a company like lulu.com. You upload your pdf file, they print it... even just one copy at a time. Through their services you can apply for an ISBN number and for an additional fee they'll get you listed with Amazon and even help you get into mainstream bookstores. Printing a single copy of a B&W hundred page book, soft cover, comes out to around $6 or $7, IIRC. And there are good volume discounts. So you buy a hundred copies and try to sell them locally. You refer others to amazon to buy your book. To do the layout, you'll spend a week or more learning software. You can pop a few hundred bucks for something like Adobe, but I'm actually using freeware called Scribus. It's not as fancy as the stuff you'll pay for and it's a little clunky at times. It even has a bug where it crashes if I leave a certain window up for more than a couple of minutes after the file size has reached a certain limit, but it's free and it works pretty darned well... and it definitely gives you ample room for creativity in the lay out of a book. All that's left to cover is editing. And I know for a fact there are some talented high school students who could put a book into pretty good shape. Sources like craigslist are littered with people offering to edit your stuff for a couple of bucks per page. It's not too expensive... even if you do have to pay for it.