Answers to most frequently asked questions:

Can just anyone publish a book?
Yes, you can do it!  There are lots of ways to make it happen other than the
usual: Write a book! How about these ideas: Record your family stories on tape
during the holiday get-togethers, send me the recordings and photos, and I'll
turn them into a family book! Send me your poetry, your Aunt Ida's recipe
cards, the novel your Uncle Bud worked on for 20 years and never got
published, and I'll turn them into a book! Give a publishing plan to a
granddaughter who wants to be a writer, and she gets to publish her book!
Publish your grandchildrens', nieces' and nephews' artwork and it becomes
their very own book! Send me that dusty box of family letters and photographs
in the attic, and I'll turn it into an heirloom for generations to come - a book!  
Everyone in your group or congregation can write a favorite story about the
things they hold in common, and if you send them to me, I'll create a unique
fundraiser - a book!  There are lots of ways to go about it, limited only by your
imagination.  You can do it! Publish a  book!

Someone I know wants their book published.  Can I give
one as a present?
If you are giving a publishing plan as a gift, just send the name and address of
the recipient, and you'll get a gift certificate you can wrap and present to the
recipient yourself, or if you'd rather, we can mail it directly to them.  Deadline
for gift certificates is two weeks before the date you need it in order for us to
have the calligraphy completed and for you to receive it in the mail.

How much does it cost?
Self publishing a book is actually pretty easy, and the cost depends on what
shape it is in when it gets to the publisher.  For instance...

If your book is already in the form of a proofread word document, contains no
more than 25 images, and you want it in paperback form, it costs $999 to turn
it into a book.  That includes everything  you'll need - ISBN, bar code, page
layout, cover design, and printer submission fees.  Once our work is done and
we have submitted it to the printer, your work is available as a
print-on-demand book and you can buy as few or as many copies as you want.  

On the other end of the scale, your book might be in the form of a box of letters
and photographs you found in the attic that your grandparents wrote each
other while they were courting, or a bunch of family stories you or someone in
your family dictated onto some form of voice recorder.  If that is the case, then
your book needs a lot more work.  "The Works" provides everything that
would be needed, including all of the above plus typing, scanning, and editing
(as opposed to just proofreading).  The Works costs $3,500.

Most books fall somewhere in the middle.  They usually arrive as a
computerized word document of some form and need proofreading or at least a
significant number of corrections made to the document after the proof is sent
to the author.  A 100,000 word book in that shape that has to be proofread
would cost $2,500.  A 40,000-60,000 word book that didn't need proofreading
but had 50 photos and a number of changes to be made after the proof was
created might cost in the neighborhood of $1,500-$2,000, depending on the
number of words and changes.

So, it can be easy but more expensive - you send me a bunch of stuff and we
create a book.  Or, you can do more of the work yourself, in which case you pay
the publisher significantly less.  It all just depends on what you want to do.

Do you have an artist you recommend for illustrations?
We sure do!  Raven OKeefe has a wonderful variety of styles, is reasonably
priced, and most of all, is great fun to work with!  We highly recommend her
services.  You may need to know that reasons she has never revealed to us,
she refuses to draw cows.  Buffalo are not a problem for her. Just those cows.

What's the best way to reach you?
One thing about formatting books is that it's unfortunately easy to get
distracted and lose your place.  For that reason, the phone goes unanswered
while formatting.  The quickest way to get a response is email:
mcn@publishedbywestview.com.
Published by
Westview
Published by Westview, Inc.
P.O. Box 605
Kingston Springs, TN 37082
phone    615.646.6134
Copyright (c) 2008
Published by Westview, Inc.