Review of Jonathan Bluestein's Research of Martial Arts

[RickMatz]

Review of Jonathan Bluestein's Research of Martial Arts

[jonathan.bluestein]

Thanks a lot for the compliments Rick. For those interested, more info is available on the book's official website, where I have also included no less than 72 pages of sample chapters:
http://www.researchofmartialarts.com/

[Steve Rowe]

Looking forward to reading it.

[I-mon]

Nice one JB, no doubt that years of hard work went into it.

[WVMark]

Ordered. Looking forward to reading it.

Hey Jonathan, can you share anything about your experience in looking for a publisher and what factors led you to self-publishing? Other people with book projects would benefit.

Thanks.

Just speaking for myself and my attempts at the publishing world in the non-fiction world. Publishers are *not* there to publish good stories. Publishers are there to *make money*. That's the important thing you have to realize when trying to find a publisher. Don't believe it? Think back when the first vampire novel started to sell well. What happened? A slew of other publishing companies started putting out vampire books. A publishing company looks for what they think will sell well, rather than pick the best story. Especially in these economic times when print books are spiraling downhill in sales and bookstores are going out of business.

Unless you get a publisher that will spend money on advertising, then you're still on your own for that. Getting the word out is one of the most time consuming things to do. I remember reading a blog by a very successful self published romance author. She said that she finally accepted an offer from a publishing company because she spent far more time promoting/advertising than she did writing. It was a lot of work for her to keep up with all the blogs, websites, forums, etc. Her efforts paid off, yes, but she described it as a lot of time consuming work. So, if you don't have a publisher that will help you advertise, then you might as well self publish. You get more of the profits and you're still doing the work of advertising.

These days, self publishing, is fairly easy. There are sites out there that will take your work and distribute it for you. Smashwords is one of them. I think they only do ebooks, though. CreateSpace, an Amazon company, will do print copies. Writing is the easy part. Self publishing has gotten a lot easier. Advertising and getting the word out ... still tough.

From someone who's been down the road of both, having a publisher and self publishing, Best of luck Jonathan on your book!

Mark

[jonathan.bluestein]

Hi friends Thanks for the warm comments!
Sorry for the late reply! I am in Tianjin, training with Zhou shifu at the moment, and had internet issues for several days. Now I have constant access.

If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them on this thread. As mentioned earlier, there are no less than 72 pages of sample chapters available on the official website, at: www.researchofmartialarts.com . Even if you're aren't considering a purchase, I urge you to use that free information for your enjoyment =] Wherein you liked it, please share it around!

Ordered. Looking forward to reading it.

Hey Jonathan, can you share anything about your experience in looking for a publisher and what factors led you to self-publishing? Other people with book projects would benefit.

Thanks Tom!

Well here's the story... First one should know that contacting book publishers and book agents requires a little bit of prior reading on the web on how to approach and write to them. So I advise spending a few hours just exploring this world and business.

I sent emails/letters to about 30 agencies over the years. All turned me down as no book agent had any experience with martial arts books. The only one who offered help and also provided king and helpful criticism was Alex Kozma, who I believe all those who know consider a lovely human being.

I also sent many letters and emails to book publishers directly. Pretty much every publisher I knew was into martial arts books, probably around 20 of them. Most of these publishers turned me down before even seeing any materials. The three that were interested were also fond of the materials I sent them later, and wanted to publish the book. The problem with two of them had been that they wanted me to cut off about 30-40% of the content, and one also wanted to change entirely the order of chapters and parts, which I thought was crucial to the structure of the book and its message. Being that this is 'my baby' and I've worked on it for 5 whole years, I would delete so much content... especially as I knew for certain that most of what they wanted to delete was of real interest to my potential readers. So that terminated my potential publishing with these folks, which were otherwise quite decent.

Another publisher I was in contact with was Mark V. Wiley, who commented here above, of Tambuli Media Publications. He is a very nice person. We had some technical issues which eventually led me to not to publish with him, but I would recommend him to anyone here who is considering publishing a martial arts book. I also dare say he offered really fair royalties... far higher bid than any other publisher. He is also right - advertising on your own is a very challenging task indeed. I respect his authentic character, I may work with him in the future

I further wish to recommend sifu James Cama's book, up and coming through Mark's publication company. It concerns his rare system of Buddha Hand Wing Chun. I interviewed sifu Cama for my book, and was very impressed with him as a person. I believe he is the real deal, and whatever he has to share is worth reading.

[jonathan.bluestein]

I would like to add a few words about the process of publishing with Amazon's createspace. This is by no means everything, just all the I could remember off the bat. This should be helpful to anyone interested in self-publishing

The good:
- Awesome customer service!!
- They review files and answer questions within 24 hours - they deliver this promise every time.
- Very, very high royalties compared with larger publishers.
- They don't require you to change any content, so you're very independent.
- Interior viewer - option to review your uploaded files before ordering proof copies and publishing. This is nicely done. Also tells you what technical issues are present.


The bad:
- The file uploading user interface is still imperfect (hopefully will improve). Picture in files can misalign, causing you to have to shift their position within the book file until they are aligned correctly in the print version.
- Learning how to make a book cover that fits their technical requirements will require a moderate learning curve (but they provide a very good manual and as said, service is golden and free).
- They won't design or edit anything for you, though they offer to do it for money ( I did everything myself).


The gray:
Taxes. If you are not a U.S. citizen, you have to do the following:
1. Obtain what called an 'Employer Identification Number' to make sure the US goverment doesn't collect taxes from your royalties.
2. Feel in an additional form called W8-BEN to seal the deal on the tax issue.
This can be a HUGE pain in the ass, but fortunately these is an AMAZING guide that teaches you how to do this step-by-step in about 30 minutes time. Make sure to take notes and read the comments after you've read the guide:
http://catherineryanhoward.com/2012/02/ ... be-taxing/