Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Of the many books that I have purchased on self-publishing, this is one of the better ones. Even though I myself was mostly interested in book publishing rather than mangazines or guidebooks, this book still served me well. It gave a lot of useful tips and pointers as well as information I never thought about. I checked the book out of the library initially, but I want my own copy.

This book gives you step by step details on how to enter the publishing field on a tight budget. It gives you an abundance of resources. Some of those include:

* Starting out with little cash (and how he did it)
* Trade secrets necessary to pick winning publications
* How to hire the people you need (at a price you can afford)
* How to save money on printing
* Reproducible Business Forms

This is a great book to include in your self-publishing library. It does cover alot of areas, but I don't usually complain when someone gives me more bang for my buck.

If you're thinking of starting a home-based publishing business, you can't be without Publish Your Own Magazine, Guidebook or Weekly Newspaper: it tells how to not just publish a winning title, but how to make it profitable - with no money up front. All kinds of successful periodicals and what made them tops are reviewed in a title which covers circulation, readership, proposal writing, optional publication formats, niche markets and more.

Although there is useful information throughout, the book appears quite dated. This author still refers to such technological "wonders" as the fax machine and, god forbid, the yellow pages, and seems never to have heard of the internet. I really expected more cutting-edge, up to date, information.

This should be titled, How to Make Money Producing Free Junk Magazines. Most of the folks I know in the publishing industry would love to see a down to basics intro to publishing, ie, the printing lingo, developing relationships with authors, editing tips, detailed layout advice, etc. This book is about producing, not publishing. Moving units of advertising, not creating something worthwhile to read or engage the public. This is a get-rich-quick book that belongs in the business section and has not place near publishing/literature reference.

Tom Williams generously shares his hard-won knowledge about making money as a publisher of periodicals. Learn from his mistakes and successes and you will stand a good chance of making it in this kind of business. His advice is comprehensive, thorough, and often surprising. This is a good business to try if you want to work at home, be your own boss, and create an interesting product.

I am in the process of starting a magazine and this book by far has the best information of any of the others I have purchased. This book gives encouragement and is easy to read and follow. I enjoyed how the writer used common sense language. This book encourages you to use the tools and materials you own already to start your business instead of telling you, how many trillions of dollars you need to start up.

This is a great asset if you are thinking about publishing your own magazine. There is a wealth of information for the publishing novice. A little advice - buy this book some time before you plan to publish your magazine so that you can digest the information.