Vanity fair

If you ever feel you want to write a book but not sure if any publishing house would be interested, there is another way to get your literary skills out in the public domain. EMMA GOODWIN talked to local people who have done it themselves.

It's said that everyone has a book in them, and there's a lot of truth in that. But how many of us believe our stories or what we have to say is something others would want to read about?

Does a high sense of self-worth come into play when people write books about their lives and then publish their tomes themselves?

If so, is this why it is called vanity publishing? And just how profitable and satisfying is it?

Doug Harrison has just released a book about his life in New Zealand and Australia called Memories, which depicts his life growing up and working in various careers and cities.

"I used to regale people with stories and they used to say you should write that stuff down for others to read."

Many years later Mr Harrison decided to do just that.

"I decided I would give it a go and see if I could get it on paper. I started to do some research for the first chapter and got involved from there."

For 10 years Mr Harrison worked his way through completing his project.

"I kept picking it up and putting it down, writing mainly in the evenings."

Letters he had written home during his time in Australia reminded him of things that had slipped from his memory.

"I went to Australia when I was 18 and I knew there were letters from me during my time there that my mother had kept. I must admit it took a lot of courage to read them.

"After all, when you're in your late 60s, you wonder what I did say and what about?"

Once it was written he had help with editing from two Massey lecturers, who went through the book and made suggestions. As Americans there was a little discussion about how things should be written.

"They wanted to Americanise it but that didn't happen – although they gave me some great advice, which I took in various places.

He also had his niece, Jenny Carmichael, read it and said it was very readable, which boosted Mr Harrison's confidence.

Once the editing and critiques had been done, it was time to find someone who would publish it. But after a couple of rejection letters it was decided that Mr Harrison would self-publish.

Liz McNeil of Typematters did the typesetting and layout and then it was off the Massey printery. "The print costs were well over $3000, so even when I sell all 50 books at $50 each, I will still be out of pocket as the costs of putting the book together mount up.

"But it's not about making money.

"It's been very satisfying. Painful at times, and I struggled occasionally as I never thought it would be finished especially the latter part of it."

Other local authors who decided to go the vanity publishing way with a totally different style of book were Moyra O'Connell and friend Patricia Murphy.

The duo have just published a self-help relationship advice book called Love, Love Me Do.

Letters and chapters were sent to publishing houses Penguin and Harper Collins, but the duo decided to self-publish after a couple of rejection letters.

Neither had written a book before and have self-published the book through PublishMe, a web-based company that specialises in helping people self-publish and sell their books.

"I heard about them on the radio, and then I went to a workshop they held. They read our draft and gave us good advice about what to do," says Ms O'Connell.

Ms O'Connell and Ms Murphy launched the book in early October and, like Mr Harrison's, theirs is available from Bruce Mackenzie.

The pair took three years to complete the book and many a night was spent on Ms O'Connell's living room floor in Palmerston North with a bottle of wine and the laptop, pulling pages together.

"I would write a bit, then Trish would, and then we'd put it together so it would make sense."

Any complications during the process were due to the pair living in separate towns.

"The actual process of printing etcetera was easy thanks to PublishMe and the advice they gave us."

Unlike Mr Harrison, the pair expect to make a profit if they sell the entire print run of 3000 books.

"All in all it has cost around $4000 to publish – of course that's not including our time – but then you can't count that."

And yes, they would do it again.

- © Fairfax NZ News