I am convinced that everyone has at least one book in their head.  This comes from that usual conversation which begins "what do you do?"  Once I answer that I'm a writer and, yes, I have had several books published, than  I hear about the questioner's book idea.

This conversation used to progress to "how do I find a publisher?"  But these days, more people are ask me "how do I publish my book myself?"  The DIY movement has swept over publishing because the technology has made it so much cheaper than it used to be and the Internet has made distribution outside of the traditional bookstore-to-consumer much easier.

So yesterday, I had that "should you publish it yourself?"  chat with a contractor in the middle of my kitchen. Because, as much as  I love the idea of DIY, if I hang my kitchen cabinets, the result won't be pretty.  

Turns out the contractor was a good candidate for becoming his own publisher.  He had most of the elements in place that would make his project work:

• His wife was professional graphic designer who specialized in commercial packaging and also had good understanding of print buying.
• He had a friend who was a small niche publisher, a mutual acquaintance and somebody that I knew would make a great mentor.
• He was willing to hire experts, like a line editor, to make his work look great and he had a realistic idea of what you have to pay freelancers.

He also had a few ideas on where and how he could sell his book, which is perhaps the most difficult part of making any small publishing project sucessful.  Unless you get really lucky, like another mutual acquaintance  who woke up a couple of weeks ago with the only published biography of Sarah Palin and 40,000+ backorders on Amazon.com, most small publishers have to work every day on selling to move even a few books every week.

My final recommendation, before we got back to debating the merits of maple vs. birch, was to talk to his publisher friend and even drop into a couple of meetings of our local publishers' group.  Because if you want to launch a new business, and publishing is a business as much as writing is an art, it is good to learn your trade from others who have gone before you.

I also told him that as much as I love managing book projects, and I've done several for other people, I always end up going the more traditional route of having someone else publish my writing.  Why?  Because when I am writing,  I want to concentrate on that aspect of the project.  I don't want to be thinking about trim sizes, distribution contracts, finding a cover artist, etc.  For now, that seems to be the right way for me to bring my work to the public.