Publish Your Own Magazine, Guide Book, or Weekly Newspaper: How to Start, Manage, and Profit from a Homebased Publishing Company (Culture Tools) [Paperback]

Thomas A. Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

Williams provides a dynamic step-by-step guide to creating everything from tourism books and niche market magazines to specialty tabloids, using your home computer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A gold mine of unique publishing ideas, with step-by-step plans for implementing them. Use it as your introduction, inspiration and road map to becoming a successful publisher. -- Dan Poynter, The Self-Publishing Manual

A great idea stimulator. Covers the publishing of magazines, travel guides, real estate guides, weekly newspapers and directories, as well as books. -- John Kremer, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books

Williams gives away hundreds of trade secrets, sharing with us what he himself learned by trial and error. -- Betty Hodges, Durham Morning Herald

From the Publisher

Have you ever wanted to publish a magazine, guide book, or weekly newspaper and make substantial profits, while working from your home? Tom Williams has done just that in his own successful publishing career, and he can tell you how to run a high-return, home-based publishing company in this practical how-to format.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Sentient Publications (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591810035
• ISBN-13: 978-1591810032
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine for inspiration looking for a niche, but..., May 6, 2003

By 

Travis C. Ward "C. William Anderson" (Silverton, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Publish Your Own Magazine, Guide Book, or Weekly Newspaper: How to Start, Manage, and Profit from a Homebased Publishing Company (Culture Tools) (Paperback)

It is apparent the author does have a wealth of publishing experience in various endeavors. Still, I would have preferred more detail in each of the publishing phases, rather than a quick once over of each.

This is an excellent book if you are interested in publishing, but are not sure what you wish to publish. In other words, let this be a starting point. Then, if you decide to publish:

A - books, get Avery Cardoza's Complete Guide To Successful Publishing, or

B - community newspapers, get How To Produce A Small Newspaper

C - magazines, get Launch Your Own Magazine, and How To Start A Magazine, and Starting & Running A Successful Newsletter or Magazine - YES, YOU WILL WANT ALL THREE OF THESE!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Overview; Would Benefit From Narrower Focus, March 29, 2004

By 

C. Michael Massey "litterateur" (St. Louis, Missouri) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Publish Your Own Magazine, Guide Book, or Weekly Newspaper: How to Start, Manage, and Profit from a Homebased Publishing Company (Culture Tools) (Paperback)

Although Williams certainly offers a great number of helpful tips and forms for those interested in pursuing publishing ventures, I agree with other reviewers that this book would have benefited from a narrower focus rather than trying to tackle the three major varieties of publications (not to mention their sub-varieties) in a single book. Though they certainly share similarities, there are enough differences to keep someone interested solely in newspaper publishing (or whichever focus is yours) rather bored for much of the text.

This is especially problematic in the chapters seemingly directed toward "all" of the publication varieties. The chapter on printing, for example, is actually heavily geared toward book printing with only a short section on printing newspapers, which seems to have been tacked on almost as an afterthought.

Specific technical information, too, is in slightly short supply. Even after reading through the entire book, I'm still a little uncertain about the nature and purpose of things like halftones and color separations, despite Williams' frequent mention of them.

Nevertheless, this is still a decent starting place for the ambitious novice publisher. Williams' advice is overall quite sound and relevant enough for me to keep the book around as a reference tool for my projects.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great publishing resource..., February 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Publish Your Own Magazine, Guide Book, or Weekly Newspaper: How to Start, Manage, and Profit from a Homebased Publishing Company (Culture Tools) (Paperback)

Gives a good overview of the challenges of small mag/newspaper etc publishing and gives alot of nuts and bolts type tips. Better to spend a little money on alot of good advice then to make the mistakes and learn the hard way. The author writes like a veteran of learning the hard way and thankfully he is sharing his knowledge.