What would be the best way to get a book on atheism published?

Question

For starters, I do not have a degree in english, nor in anything yet. I am 30 years old and an atheist. I am writing a book that, if all goes according to plan, will demonstrate what it is like to be an atheist in todays society as well as comparing and contrasting being religious and not religious.

My problem is, I have no idea where or how I can get this published, if at all, once it is completed.

Has anyone here had a book published? How hard is it to find an agent to turn your script in to the publishers for you?

My wife wrote an excellent childrens book and tried for 3 years to get it published, always hearing back that "We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts" from the big publishing houses. No agents were willing to take on her case without charging an insane fee up front.

We have looked in the literary guide for both agents and publishing houses.

I do not want to fall into this same situation, any advice ahead of time would be well taken.

Thank you.

Answer 1

go to cafepress:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/learn_book_info.aspx#pricing

it's completely free. how it works is, you email them a pdf file of your book, and a jpg or gif file for the cover, etc. then they come up with a base price based on the size, number of pages, and type of binding.

so,, for example,, if you get a 7.5 x 9.25 inch perfect binding, and your book ends up being 200 pages, then the base price will be $7 (the flat binding fee) plus $6 (200 pages at 3 cents a page) which equals $13. then you set your selling price at whatever you want. so if you pick $25, then that means every time a copy of your book sells, they'll keep $13, and you get the remaining $12.

they'll sell the books for you,, take care of all the money handling, sales tax, and S&H, etc. then your profits go into an account on the website which you can wire to a bank account. they won't promote the book, but you can do it on myspace.com. that website is so good for promoting things.

there's a group of kids on there called the rational response squad. (http://www.myspace.com/rationalresponse) they did a really good job at promoting the movie "the god who wasn't there", and they're currently promoting sam harris' new book, "letter to a christian nation". you should send them a copy of your book, and if they like it, then maybe they'll promote it for you.

now's a really good time to be releasing this sort of a book, by the way. dawkin's new book, "the god delusion" is coming out this month, and they were talking on point of inquiry (http://pointofinquiry.org/) about how the fall and winter of 2006 is turning out to be a really eventful time in regards to this sort of stuff.

Answer 2

Publishing a book is a huge undertaking. Not everyone, even those who write "bestsellers" make it. Have you thought of trying the various atheist organizations to help you out? Perhaps some have their own publishing co. It would be worth looking into. I listed a couple below, but you can always do a web search to find more. I didn't really look too closely at the sites, but I suspect the second one might have the kind of info you're looking for. It had a books link on it.

Good Luck

http://www.atheists.org/
http://www.atheistalliance.org/

Answer 3

Any agents charging you up front are not good or legit agents.

The Writer's Market is an excellent resource; however, I think a lot of it is geared towards fiction writers. I'd look at publishing houses that have already put out a number of books on atheism, humanism, etc. and try those.

Answer 4

i recommend self-publishing. I self-published a book through http://www.lulu.com/
they are completely free and very easy to use. You can then buy a global distribution, or ISBN, which will put your book on Barnes and noble, borders, amazon.... i really like lulu, i think they are great. They also offer a great customer service if you get stuck.
If you think they are too good to be true (which was my original opinion) you can view my book at http://www.lulu.com/dchooper
Hope this helps. Good luck with your writing.
For any more information about Lulu you can contact me at [e-mail] (if you do contact me, put Lulu in the subject line, or i might report as spam)
Cheers, Deanna.

Answer 5

There are some companies which help people self-publish. I don't know more about them than they exist, they cost something & that first-time authors use them to get their first book into print.

Good Luck!

;-)

Answer 6

You can find a vanity press, pay to have it published yourself and then get people to sell it for you.

Local bookstores would probably be the best place for this.

Maybe you can send it to some reviewers to get their opinion.

Answer 7

If it was once, I would not comply with it. Atheism for me is approximately no longer following what a few delusional idiot wrote pondering it was once the phrase of god and letting lots of simpletons comply with it devoutly.

Answer 8

hm, I wish I could help, and I'm sorry your getting all this crap from other people here, don't take it to hard.
I'm a Christian but I don't think it's good to critisize people like that, so, good luck! I hope things work out for you!

Answer 9

I can tell you were not to publish it a christian book store haha

Answer 10

If you're desperate, why not publish it on the web and get sympathetic sites to sponsor you?