QUESTION: Vintage Trailer Repair Book

[hellonwheels]

There was a recent thread on the Yahoo Vintage Shasta Club where someone was lookiing for just that; then a whole bunch of others jumped in saying if one is found they would like a copy.

I'd buy one and I'm sure there are many outlets where you could sell them.

[65callie]

I would buy the hard copy, up to $50, don't care for ebooks except for traveling.

[vikx]

You guys are great! NomadicMe has kindly been helping me with the eBook. That was done to get it in "viewable" form, not necessarily to go with the format. I want a *real* book too.

Persimmon, I'll check Kickstarter.

The main problem is ME: I have no clue how to contact publishers. Most of the time, my emails bounce back. So many have offered help on the forum. THANK YOU!!!

[Gone Kayaking]

Persimmon Pal--I like the way you are thinking about this. I am also a big kickstarter fan. VikX you have a natural audience for a kickstarter campaign, and an actual book out of it (which doesn't eliminate an ebook option)for your strongest supporters.

[jasonsei]

Not sure if this was mentioned or not.. but you can convert the book into a PDF. That can be done for free with CutePDF creator.

Not sure if I missed this too, but how many pages and does it need to be full color?

Because you can make a spiral bound book very cheaply in B&W, and the PDF holds all the formatting. The PDF can be printed by you in B&W, copied, bound, whatever you want.. no problem with pictures and such.. at least for a 'hard copy' book.



edit = I see that PDF was mentioned, my bad.

[vikx]

NomadicMe and I are almost ready to do PDFs. Thank you, NM!

The photos really do need to be in color; very hard to see otherwise. I was hoping for a book with both sides of of the page printed. That's where the big bucks come in.

I have contacted Publish America today. It's a free site, but I'm guessing I'll make 40 cents a book. Not the worst case, but want to keep some "rights" as well.

PS: Sorry, around 150 to 180 pages...

[heychickiepoo]

I would scrape up whatever I could to buy one of Vikx's books...and Kickstarter sounds like an excellent venue. Approaching Vintage Trailer Supply is another excellent idea, the two could likely be incorporated together. As persimmonpal said....it would "get people excited" within the community and then the buzz would carry outwards like wildfire. I am sure of that.

And my own suggestion would be..wait for it... would be to contact Mary Jane Butters, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaryJane_Butters. Mary Jane is THE "guru" of glamping as she is the person who originated and coined the term "glamping". One of the fastest growing audiences that would jump at a chance to buy a Vintage Trailer Repair/Build Book would be the legions of glampers that follow Mary Jane religiously. Glampers I believe should be THE target market for this kind of book. Droves of women and men are buying vintage trailers and are attempting to restore trailers themselves with little experience/knowledge but not lacking in the enthusiasm department. In my opinion, this is the perfect market to tap into. As glamping is gaining momentum in leaps and bounds, glampers, in my humble opinion, are scraping and screaming for guidance and how-to knowledge. As an established author herself, Mary Jane has been instrumental in adding to the huge current interest in Glamping, Camping and Vintage Trailers. Tapping into any association with Mary Jane Butters would most certainly create a recipe for sure fired success.

Just my two cents....

[vikx]

Latest: Publish America wouldn't accept my Skydrive documents, as PA doesn't download. The files won't email because they are too big. Grrr. They requested (even tho I told them about the mailing problem) that I "email" the files.

I'm trudging onward. This is not rocket science, just me being clueless. Thanks y'all. V

[jasonsei]

May 31, 2013 1:02:27 GMT -5 vikx said:

Latest: Publish America wouldn't accept my Skydrive documents, as PA doesn't download. The files won't email because they are too big. Grrr. They requested (even tho I told them about the mailing problem) that I "email" the files.

I'm trudging onward. This is not rocket science, just me being clueless. Thanks y'all. V

There should be a way to give a public link to the document if it is too big. They should have an FTP site or a 'link' they can give you that you can upload the file?

How large it the document? File size I mean?

[vikx]

What I did was give them links to Skydrive files. I'm not sure why they thought they had to download, or maybe that's the way it works...Publish America requires Word documents to be attached. I suppose I could snail mail, but printing that many photos might be difficult. I'm thinking a CD might work??

Most of the files are 30+ MB. Even zipping them doesn't reduce the size because of the many pictures. I have the book without pictures, but it doesn't make sense, just a bunch of writing about missing photos.

I did go to the MaryJane site and submitted a query. Time will tell.

[universalexports]

wish I could help, but I really dont have any input, Sorry. I would buy one for $30.00-$50.00 though.

[Gone Kayaking]

VikX it seems like publish america is really geared towards traditional manuscripts, that are almost all just words, no illustrations. Have they accepted it or is it just getting reviewed.

If you have MSWord Publisher you should be able to "place the pics" it will walk you through how to "finish" the document for publication. This creates a "flat" pdf where the pics can't be stripped by someone (at least not unless they have the software to do it). All your pics should have a copyright on them, so that you're at least somewhat protected.

The Mary Jane Butters approach is great, and some of the most active glampers in the country are already members of this site. Kelle and Alana who host loyal order of the glamper on FB I'm sure would be avid promoters and most of the Vintage Trailer folks I'm sure would happily market for you. Marti, Vintage Camper Trailers etc....

A short marketing plan for publish america if you go that route might help them see the audience for the book. Wondering what the cut is with them....

PM if you have questions about any of this or want help making contacts.

[vikx]

My thoughts were the same on Publish America but they said picture books as well. Full color and both sides of the page seem to be a problem, as does getting the manuscript to them...

NomadicMe has done a great job formatting the book and we will soon have a PDF. Does "any" PDF file protect the photos or only some? Every page has a copyright on the bottom, do we still need to do the photos as well?

Thank you Marguerite. I'll PM you. Vikx

[vikx]

Update: The book is almost proofed, thanks to NomadicMe for pushing me thru this difficult phase!

Gonekayaking is researching publishing.

I am so thankful to both of you.

[lopo]

Hmmm. Is Sir Speedy a chain? A good friend of mine wrote a textbook for insurance training, and when she gets orders for it, she just sends the order to Sir Speedy who prints them and mails them.

[Gone Kayaking]

Yes sir speedy is a chain...but full color printing of this sort with so many pages is expensive. Looks like Create Space will provide the book for a little more than $20 and it has a fairly easy interface.....still have to work on distribution piece though.

[vikx]

AND making sure the photos are good enough. Lots of editing going on...