How to put a book on the web?

Question

I wrote a book 15 years ago. And it's been sitting on a shelf ever since. Mostly because, back then mailing a manuscript through the mail to different publishers cost lots of money. Plus I was raising two children on my own, and they needed food, and a roof etc. And now that the New Year is just around the corner...well you get the picture. (And even though I am a gram now, doesn't mean I've given up on the dream) So what I'd like to do is simply scan each page and plop-it on the internet. But if that isn't possible, I'm willing to type it word by word etc. So my question is...is there a way to scan and plop-it? If not, that's still ok, but can you tell me where is a good free site where I can just type it up for the world to read? Any help or direction would greately be appreciated. Happy New Year!!

Answer 1

You're in luck. I have good information for you.

Scanners are relatively cheap (under $100) and you could convert pages using an OCR program. Abby Finereader 8.0 is the best, but 7.0 could be good for your purposes. Abby is a $200-300 program, but it works perfectly. Also, the other OCR programs (the cheaper ones) work well--they cost about $100 or so.

Fonts from 15 years ago probably won't cause significant problems for scanning. But the whole bother of setting up software and having to go over the incorrect scans might not make it worth it.

Actually, though I recommend retyping the entire manuscript again if you're up for it. You can catch typos and can use it as an excuse to put the work through another round of revisions. Typing it all over sounds like a lot of work, but I do it all the time. I almost never regret the extra time I spent on it.

Another painless way to get to the web is to find a way to transfer your printed pages to a PDF file. This is software that does this (I know Abby Finereader makes that possible). There are pluses and minuses to using PDF files. However, there are now portable reading devices that are capable of reading PDF files. That's fairly safe.

PDF's still don't solve the problem though of long term survival. People would rather see the text on a web browser than in a PDF reader.

Another easy way to get something on the web is to sign up for a free blogging account with www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com . Then make a separate post for each chapter. Basically all you need to do is cut and paste text. Blogging is not really well suited to books, but it is so easy--and optimized for web searching.

Finally, I'll mention lulu.com . They let you self-publish and sell your manuscript for nothing. (they profit from the margin they charge people who buy your books).

You probably should indicate what kind of book you have: whether it has a lot of graphics, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, whether you need to get permission from other publishers to reprint things.

Finally, if you want somebody to take care of the technical setup, here's what you need to do: put an ad in the paper or on www.craigslist.com in your city. List for a "technical writer" or "technical editor." Most people in the field know what to do (equipment, software) and might be able to quote you a price.

The best way to make something last is to set up an account with www.ourmedia.org . They are affiliated with archive.org, a site that archives the internet. Once it goes on there, it will probably never be removed.

Finally, I'll mention another thing. The publishing system is wonderfully inefficient. Don't assume that because publishers didn't like it 15 years ago than it somehow is substandard. Lots of people have become fed up with waiting on publishers and simply published their own.

Good luck!

Answer 2

You can self-publish your book at: LuLu.com