Publishing History Books

 


About this video: A discussion about the history and future of books with Tim O’Reilly, Jane Friedman, Jonathan Safran Foer, Ken Auletta, and David Kastan

 

You’re history and your history is worth publishing.

When the playground bully points his finger at you and utters the immortal words ‘you’re history’ whether in threat or dismissal,though he may not realise it at the time, he is in fact right.  The point being that with a little help or coaching you may be able to write and publish a history book.

Step by step self publishing course

We are all a part of history, our lives from conception to the grave create our own personal history and the continuing history of our families, which in turn creates the history of the country we live in.  In the days of our ancestors, the family tree would be found in the fly pages of the family bible, births, deaths and marriages recorded as they occurred.  In my own case, new arrivals, holidays and events are chronicled by my mother in the 30 plus photograph albums that she keeps.

History fascinates!  be it the history of a country, of an individual, a building or an event, and children must be especially fascinated, without the history books we have today, the pictorial history from cavemen to space travel, how else could they imagine how the world once was.

Ancient and military history books sell

Our own British history is also part of Roman history, they landed on our shores determined to make us part of their empire, but failed, and now all we have left are the artefacts and remains of buildings that they left behind.  When countries invade it is the military that leads the way, and wars and warfare are a large part of history, not only the actual events but also the uniforms, the armaments and the individual acts of bravery, in fact everything that makes up the fabric of these world changing events.

Certain events in history will always hold a continuing fascination,in the case of the Titanic, with its stories of tragedy and bravery and horror this is particularly true, even as this great ship lies at peace beneath the ocean the legend continues.

Here’s a small piece of history you may find interesting, in 1935 a gentleman called Allen Lane invented the quality paperback and changed the world.  In 1939 Puffin Books came into being when Mr Lane met Mr Carrington for lunch and when conversation turned to childrens books they both agreed that it could be a very lucrative venture, and in 1941 the first Puffin childrens book appeared in shops, the story of a man with broomstick arms, and that man was Worzel Gummidge.

Now that we have satnavs in our cars and on our mobile phones, map books are probably in decline but hopefully not lost.  In the very rare older versions, providing they haven’t been vandalised and framed to go on the wall, the colour and illustration and attention to detail is beautiful to behold, detailing the discovery of lands and oceans.  Our more modern versions take us from A to B and all points between via our extensive road system with an index for the symbols representing churches, schools, farms and post offices and places of interest, on that note I would like to see a symbol for ‘comfort breaks’ an essential convenience for the traveller.

Publish a history book as an e-book or print?

But, what am I missing here, I am assuming that the avid reader of history in its many forms has 20/20 vision to read the books and online information that is their particular interest, but that’s not the case for all of us, and so the introduction of e books is very welcome. What goes around comes around so they say, how very true, from Listening with Mother on the radio as a child, to the subject of your choice with e books in your twilight years.

If you would like to discover the right way to self publish a history book have a look at our step by step course below.  You’ll discover all you need to know about self publishing.

self publish and sell your own books

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