“Self-Publish Your Own Book” a (simple) Guide Yale Class of 1963 Authors “Self-Publish Your Own Book” a (simple) Guide Authored by: Jon Hadley Larson Authored with: Yale Class of 1963 Authors All rights reserved: Copyright: © 2014 by Charity Enablers Foundation dba The Jon and Karen Larson Family Foundation a California 501(c)(3) corporation www.lff1.org FEIN: 68-0460563 CA-02237360 List Price: $15.00 Paperback ($9.00 eBook) 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) 226 pages ISBN-13: 978-1497388925 ISBN-10: 1497388929 LCCN: 2014906294 BISAC: Education / Adult & Continuing Education “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 2 “Books”..…. by Barbara Wertheim Tuchman “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development of civilization would have been impossible. Books are Engines of change, Windows on the world, and Lighthouses erected in the sea of time.” -------------------------- “This is a very worthwhile project. I think that you are addressing interests and curiosities that are shared by many people in addition to our classmates.” Bob Flanagan - The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras ------------------------- “Above all, I am stunned by the quantity and quality of books that have come from our class and are collected in this compendium. Keep writing!” William Nordhaus - The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 3 Dedication:  I have been most fortunate and blessed to have shared my last 50 years with Karen Brown (Larson), as deep, complex, intelligent, funny, mysterious, strong and loving a woman as God ever placed on our green earth. I thank her for enriching my life beyond imagination by gently exposing her love of knowledge and her world of books to this old Yale engineer.  My two sisters Helen and Gail have both enriched my life immeasurably.  No father is prouder of his son than I of Derek and his wife Hien.  Being a grandparent (for me to Zach and Annie) truly is God’s reward for our often difficult life’s work here on Earth. I am blessed with two voracious readers in any format they can get, books and eBooks alike, and both are fledgling writers as well. Acknowledgment:  The Wikipedia Subject Matter Experts who contribute resources to the extensive, growing and widely referenced Wikipedia database of knowledge used in this book.  The skilled Software Writers and System Integrators for creating the ability for us to self-publish our own books.  Marjorie G. Dunstan, a Punahou English teacher (1940-1975) and my 9th grade English teacher in 1956, and all of the skilled teachers who dedicate their lives and careers to teaching us to read and write good English and to appreciate good writing.  Our Yale Class of 1963 Classmates whose published books inspired me to want to contribute one of my own and who collaborated on this book to provide future self-publishers the benefit of their wisdom and experience. “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 4 Contents: Page Preface 7 Introduction 9 Part I - “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 16 Part II - Yale Class of 1963 Authors 61 Part III - Collective Wisdom of the Published Authors 155 Appendix: 191 Grammar, Formatting, Style Guides, Copyrighting, Distribution Channels, Maximizing Royalties About the Author 219 Part I Parts II & III “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 5 Notes: “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 6 Preface: This book seeks to encourage, motivate and enable readers to Self-Publish their own book(s). It is a thorough, comprehensive, understandable and up to date presentation of the resources and technologies of the Self- Publishing industry that are available today to the first time Self- Publisher. Part I - "Self-Publish Your Own Book" is an easy to follow step by step Guide that you can follow to self-publish your own book. It walks the reader through the process using the new generation of low cost and simple to use tools and services available online over the Internet to: 1) Complete your book into publishable form. Physical form as a Hardcover or a Softcover book, and in Digital form as an eBook. 2) Introduce it into the distribution channels that will generate you sales, revenue, and recognition and celebrity. 3) At minimal cost to yourself. Part II - Yale Class of 1963 Authors presents a collection of more than 100 books published by 80 Yale Class of 1963 authors, spanning an almost inconceivable variety of subject matters -- literary, artistic, musical, medical, legal, religious, scientific, historical, mathematical, political, autobiographical, and many more. It is a striking display of the many directions in which Yale 1963 classmates have taken their talents since graduation over a half century ago. Part III - Collective Wisdom of the Published Authors Wisdom, Tips and Advice from the experienced Yale Class of 1963 published authors are shared with the reader. “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 7 Notes: “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 8 Introduction: As a young lad growing up in Honolulu, Hawaii, I was fortunate to attend Punahou School. Founded in 1841, Punahou is one of the oldest and the largest independent school in the United States today. It was founded by Protestant missionaries from New England including from the Yale School of Divinity (Yale itself was founded in 1701) with a Christian teaching mission. Punahou maintains a Christian focus from its founding missionaries. Its programs have been broadened over the years to embrace an enhanced interfaith spirituality emphasis and approach. A religious program was part of the curriculum. We shared regular weekly chapel services, a required course in Religion 101, and a full- time pastor employed on campus who was accessible to all of the students. In 1953, then school Chaplain Kenneth Rewick took our class on an Interfaith tour designed to expose us to the facilities and leaders of other faith traditions including a Buddhist temple, a Shinto shrine and a Jewish synagogue near the campus. At the synagogue I recall the Rabbi discussing with me the importance of each of us leaving a legacy. He made it sound simple and I have carried his words with me all of my life. “To achieve your own legacy, you must do three things: 1) Father a Child, 2) Plant a Tree, and 3) Write a Book.” I believe that I am a successful and loved grandfather which of course required me to take the interim step and help to bring my own child into the world and give him the roots and wings to be successful. I have planted countless trees over the years, at homes in California and in Nebraska where our Omaha neighbors nicknamed me “Sam Arbor” from the large number of trees I planted on our newly built tract home in a former cornfield. I am the co-founder and chairman of the Iliahi Foundation of Hawaii we formed in 2000 with the vision and mission to plant and nurture rare and endangered native trees to maturity in the forests of Hawaii, see www.lff1.org/iliahi. But my legacy was a two legged stool because I had been unable until now to complete step 3), write a book. Like each of us, over the years I have accumulated much wisdom I wish to pass along to future generations as part of my legacy. “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 9 Now into my early 70’s, I am running out of years to perform. I created a web site www.lff1.org listing the non-profit organizations that I have nourished over the years and which have nourished me in the process. That required significant up front expenditures of cash, special programming skills, and an ongoing cost to maintain the site which will remain current only until I pass on. I have eight mostly completed books stored in my desktop computer at home that I have written over the years, needing only final assembly with a word processor to ready them for publishing; Growing Up in Hawaii in the 1950’s, A History of Humor, Ageless Wisdom, CAE - Continuing Adult Education, America 2020– Wake Up Call, Swimming with Sharks: Angel Investing in the World of Venture Capital, Forming and Running Your Own Non-profit Family Foundation, and Roles Men Play in Our Lives. To date I have not completed any of these books due to not knowing how to take that important final step to publish and distribute my books. That task seemed insurmountable and kept me at bay these many years from completing one of my life’s main objectives, publishing a book. Until now. At my 2013 Yale 50th reunion, I came away newly inspired by the published works of over 80 of my 1963 classmates including significant recent books by David Boren, William Nordhaus, and John Lahr, and aware of the plans of classmates to publish more books. I vowed to myself I would publish at least one book before my 55th Reunion in 2018. Now thanks to self-publishing, I am considering publishing all eight. As with all journeys to the unknown, and with only a general idea of where I wanted to end up, (published), I took the first step. I used my internet search engine and keywords “self-publish.” Up came a list of 93,400 entries in 0.14 seconds of compute time. Suddenly my world had changed. New possibilities emerged. But how to capitalize on my findings from that massive group of resources out there? I did a quick search and picked one system that appeared to be well documented, full function, cost efficient and organized. I took that first hardest step and logged onto the site. Within three days I was able to self-learn the system, document my learning in digital form as I went, and get my book submitted in publishable form, (not counting a week wait for the LCCN Library of Congress Control Number). Total cost to me? $95.00. “Self-Publish Your Own Book” 10