Finding a publisher - can you help my friend?

[secrets in symmetry]

I'm looking for some help or advice for a friend....

A friend is considering trying to publish a book of stories which double up as fun homework for kids, but she has no idea how to go about it. Can any of the forum members who've published books offer any advice? How does self-publishing work? Can you recommend any cheap or self-publishers? How do you get your book onto Amazon?

As I said, this is for a friend - the only publishers I deal with are scientific journals and academic publishers, so I have no idea where to start....

[Beat Bug]

[QUOTE=secrets in symmetry;980596 the only publishers I deal with are scientific journals and academic publishers, so I have no idea where to start....[/QUOTE] You could start by asking the ones you already deal with!

[Corrie 3]

You could start by asking the ones you already deal with!
Lol, but that would be far too hard for such a scientific academic wouldn't it?/

C3.

[secrets in symmetry]

You could start by asking the ones you already deal with!Thanks for the helpful suggestion, but I don't think Elsevier, Springer or the APS would know much more about publishing children's book than I do!

[Alrock]

Why not just make available for free on the internet, maybe ask for donations if she wants to make some money.

[secrets in symmetry]

Why not just make available for free on the internet, maybe ask for donations if she wants to make some money.As I understand it, she wants some advice on how to produce the final version. Apparently, all her material is hand-written and the pictures are hand-drawn, and she doesn't know how to take it from there. I suppose she needs design and production advice as well as a publisher.

[Corrie 3]

Thanks for the helpful suggestion, but I don't think Elsevier, Springer or the APS would know much more about publishing children's book than I do!
But you don't have to be either scientific or academic to know that we have our very own publishers here in Caithness!!

C3.

[secrets in symmetry]

I suppose I could try asking the Rebel Inc man. Do you think he would consider doing a children's book lol?

[Kodiak]

Either buy or borrow a copy of "Writers and Artists Year Book". They list all Publishers and whether they will accept unsolicted manuscripts or not as well as what books thet they will publish. Well worh getting a copy if you are thinking of being published.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=writers+yearbook+2012&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=15524620070&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=102377879120632394&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_91u6ovqgb8_b

[secrets in symmetry]

Thanks, Kodiak. Which publisher(s) do you recommend?

[RecQuery]

Well ebooks self-publishing is pretty straight forward and most services will take a 30% cut. Here's a link to the Amazon self publishing site http://kdp.amazon.com/

Get an editor or at least a bunch of friends to proof read for you, offer to give out free copies even for proofreading.
Buy an ISBN number for the book, otherwise your distribution options are limited.
As for paper publishing https://www.createspace.com/ seems to be the most popular.

This might be a good resource also - http://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/

[secrets in symmetry]

Thanks RecQ. There's some useful information and advice in there.