Discussion
Something a bit different today: I've written a book! It's nothing to do with the Fediverse, but the money from it keeps my Fedi accounts and sites going.
It's about real life mysteries (so no UFOs, no ghosts, no conspiracies etc). The book is DRM-free, price is "Pay what you want, min. 1 euro":
You don't need an account to buy!
The book is 100% human-made, no AI of any kind.
(If you need a free open eBook reader app try Readest. The book also works with eReaders.)
It's tricky trying to come up with a page number because the articles vary a lot in length and most of them have diagrams or photos or other images.
There are just over 100 mysteries covered, and most of the articles are concise overviews while others go into slightly more depth.
@FediTips Would be interesting to know... What approach did you choose to write it ? What there a process you followed / a mixed bag or ways etc? Maybe to inspire others to write or see what choices there are in writing.
A couple of years ago I started an account on here called "Loose Ends" about unresolved real world mysteries, and started doing a list of stuff I could post about on it. The list got so long that I decided it would be better as a book with all the mysteries sorted into categories.
The research was mainly trying to get to primary sources (if possible) or reliable media reporting (if not). Wikimedia Commons was a great resource in finding relevant old photos.
Oh, that's neat! It was a *looong* time ago but when I was a kid, I had a book similar in nature to what yours seems to be except that it also contained ghost and conspiracy stories. It was mostly factual, scientific stuff so the challenge was figuring out which was which. The book was where I first learned of the Tunguska Event but for many years I didn't know whether it was a real event or not - which was maddening lol! I'm looking forward to reading yours!
Yeah, that is part of why I started doing Loose Ends in the first place! There were so many unsolved mystery books, sites, videos etc which mixed together fact and fiction, and that just ruins the real world stuff. (Either that or they switch over to being 95% about gruesome murders 😞 )
I'm trying to mainly highlight interesting mysteries that aren't fictional or gruesome.
@FediTips this is so awesome! I'm going to make a Payhip account just to buy.
You don't need an account! It's deliberately as simple as possible 🙂
How easy is the publishing side? Definitely eager to find a good platform for eBook publishing that isn't Amazon (but which doesn't stick me with chargeback fees, which is apparently a TikTok challenge >> )
I am not in any way experienced in publishing, I've only just started! 🙂
As far as I could tell, existing bookshops are mainly about trying to put your book alongside other books and hoping people buy it.
The approach I've taken is to have a totally separate dedicated shop and let people know about it through my own accounts.
Payhip seems okay so far, it's been easy to set up and they have good reviews. I also particularly liked that they allow "pay what you want" 👍️
@FediTips oh, I know! It just seems like a great platform
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@FediTips if you put the number of pages in it on the website, it might guide people in their payment size