Book Publishing Secrets with Robert Wideman

Name: Robert Wideman

Book Title: Unexpected Prisoner

Genre: Vietnam War POW

Publisher: Graham Publishing Group

Link to book: www.robertwideman.com

Thank you for your time in answering our questions about getting published.  Let’s begin by having you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?

Robert: I decided to become an author because I wanted to leave something permanent for my two sons and six grandchildren, and because I wanted to tell the complete truth about the Vietnam War POW experience. Up until now, the American government has misled the world about what happened in the North Vietnamese prison camps during the Vietnam War. It is time to debunk the propaganda that our government has promoted.

Is this your first book?

Robert: No, I published a master’s thesis about Litton Industries in 1976 for the Naval Postgraduate School as a requirement for a master’s degree.

With this particular book, how did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you choose this method?

Robert: I self-published because the few authors I knew said they tried traditional publishing and did not make any money. I also know that it is very hard to get a big house publisher to publish your book. The big boys will also ask you where is your marketing plan. You will respond by asking them where is it because they are getting 90% of the profits. They will in turn tell you that you don’t understand, where is your marketing plan?

I think my publisher told me that a marketing plan would cost $30,000.

Can you tell us a little about your publishing journey?  The pros and cons?

Robert: Yes I can. The book design, front and back cover designs, and the interior design went well. However, when it came time to find a printer and distributor things got weird. IngramSpark was my first printer, and amazon was the distributor. Amazon took 55% off the top, which left $7.18. Then the printer took $6.44 a copy, which left me a profit of $.74 a book, and that was before taxes. I thought that was outrageous! On a paperback book that sold for $15.95 the profit was less than one percent. The whole idea of self-publishing was to make more than the typical 10% a traditional publisher sends to you. I felt I had been grossly mislead. Graham publishing group then replaced Ingram Spark with Createspace. That worked out much better because now I receive $4.25 profit per paperback book. I still use IngramSpark for the amazon kindle version and receive 60% of the retail price as profit. I still use IngramSpark to sell on Barnes and Noble. I have no idea what my profit is with Barnes and Noble.

What lessons do you feel you learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing industry as a whole?

Author: I have learned that the publishing business it set up for the benefit distributors, printers, and publishers. It is not set up for the benefit of authors.

Would you recommend this method of publishing to other authors?

Author: I don’t know. If you can find a traditional publisher willing to publish your book I think you might better off going that way in the long run. I was not told about a lot of things when I decided to self publish. I know someone who went with the Naval Institute Press. Naval Institute Press does all the marketing for my friend, and they have set up book signings and talks for him.

What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?

Author: Be patient and don’t expect to make money on your first book. I actually think that you will not make any money on your book. You will make money on stuff your book leads you too, like a movie or public speaking.

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Find on Amazon

About the Book: 

When Unexpected Prisoner opens, it’s May 6, 1967 and 23-year-old Lieutenant Robert Wideman is flying a Navy A-4 Skyhawk over Vietnam.  At 23, Wideman had already served three and a half years in the Navy—and was only 27 combat days away from heading home to America. But on that cloudless day in May, on a routine bombing run, Wideman’s plane crashed and he fell into enemy hands. Captured and held for six years as a Prisoner of War in Vietnam, Wideman endured the kind of pain that makes people question humanity.  Physical torture, however, was not the biggest challenge he was forced to withstand.  In his candid memoir, Unexpected Prisoner, Wideman details the raw, unvarnished tale of how he came to understand the truth behind Jean-Paul Sartre’s words: “Hell is other people.”

A gripping, first-person account that chronicles the six-year period Wideman spent in captivity as a POW, Unexpected Prisoner plunges readers deep into the heart of one of the most protracted, deadliest conflicts in American history:  the Vietnam War. Wideman, along with acclaimed memoirist Cara Lopez Lee, has crafted a story that is exquisitely engaging, richly detailed, and wholly captivating. Unexpectedly candid and vibrantly vivid, this moving memoir chronicles a POW’s struggle with enemies and comrades, Vietnamese interrogators and American commanders, lost dreams, and ultimately, himself.

With its eye-opening look at a soldier’s life before, during and after captivity, Unexpected Prisoner presents a uniquely human perspective on war and on conflicts both external and internal. An exceptional story exceptionally well-told, Unexpected Prisoner is a powerful, poignant, often provocative tale about struggle, survival, hope, and redemption.

Book Publishing Secrets with Harris Kern, Author of 'Going From Undisciplined to Self-Mastery: Five Simple Steps to Get You There'

Harris Kern is recognized as the foremost authority on providing practical guidance for solving management issues and challenges. He has devoted over 30 years helping professionals build competitive organizations. His client list reads like a who’s who of American and International Business. His client list includes Standard and Poor’s, GE, The Weather Channel, NEWS Corporation, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal (HACTL), among hundreds of other Fortune500 and Global 2000 companies. He pioneered theDiscipline Mentoring Program and Professional/Personal Growth Program (P²GP)and is the author of over 40 books, including his latest, Going From Undisciplined to Self-Mastery.

Learn more: Website / Amazon

Thank you for your time in answering our questions about getting published.  Let’s begin by having you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?

Author: I've been writing books for over 20 years and have a passion to help people become more efficient and productive by learning how to be more disciplined.

Is this your first book?

Author: No. I have written over 40 books - too many to list below. Most are posted on www.harriskern.com.

Did you self publish or go the traditional route?

Author: I published in a traditional manner with Koehler Books.

Can you tell us a little about your publishing journey?  The pros and cons?

Author: I started working with Prentice hall/Pearson in 1994. It was an incredible experience although, frustrating at times because like most large publishing houses they are slow and bureaucratic. On the flip side they do an awesome job producing a quality book in the end.

What lessons do you feel you learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing industry as a whole?

Author: You need to have a lot of patience - they don't move quickly. They have no sense of urgency at all.

Would you recommend this method of publishing to other authors?

Author: Yes. The traditional publishing method is the best way to go.

What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?

Author: Patience and perseverance. The publishing business works very slow - even after you finish writing your book prepare to wait a few years to actually see your book in print. It takes time to find the right agent who is interested in your work, then for them to trya and sell your work to a publisher.

Book Publishing Secrets of Donna Blasor-Bernhardt

I tried for at least 20 years to get "Waltz With Me, Alaska" published. This was the story of me, my husband and two kids and the thirteen months we spent living in a tent in interior Alaska. This was not the first book I'd had published. No, I'd been living off my published works for a long time....there were around thirteen books in print by the time I got around to writing Waltz With Me, Alaska. But they were all self published. This book I wanted to be printed by a publishing company...one I didn't have to spend my money on. They would spend theirs.

I started by sending it to the publishing houses and watching it be rejected because I didn't have an agent. There must have been at least 50 rejections and most of the places hadn't even read the manuscript. They all said "Get an agent."

So I started trying to find an agent. This alone was time consuming and frustrating. I finally succeeded by going to a writers conference in New York and I ended up with an agent. And after a year of having her, she still hadn't even read the manuscript. So I fired her and kept searching. I went through several who didn't have the time they needed to help me. Then I found an agent in Anchorage, Alaska (we live in Alaska and this, I decided, would be handy) The only reason I got him was because I had an offer from a very big person in Hollywood to make my book into a movie (his mother is a well known movie star) and I needed an agent. So this Anchorage agent signed me immediately. Long story short here...the hollywood guy wanted to change the end of the book...instead of a success story, he wanted to make it a tragedy. This didn't sit well with me because this was MY story and a success. We argued over that fact, but in the end, I never signed the contract...I also lost the agent.

I had gone through half a dozen agents, before deciding once again, to try it on my own. In the meantime, I kept writing and I listed a short blurb about "Waltz" online, with the hopes that a publishing company would see it and want to publish it. Within a month, an agent emailed me, telling me she liked the idea of the book and would like to see the whole manuscript. She added, if she liked it, she'd represent me. Well,I was done with agents, but this was really what I waiting for! I remember wondering if she really was a legitimate agent. I mean, why was she searching the internet for books? There must be an awful lot of writers who sent her stuff. Still, after waiting a couple of days and weighing my decision, I decided to try it. It was the best thing I've ever decided to do! I sent the manuscript to her and she read the entire book in one evening, and immediately emailed me with a contract and the news that she would represent me with anything that I wanted her to represent. She also had me write a script for the movie.

The long and short of this is she got it published, and it didn't take her long! It came out in February 2004 and is listed on Amazon and represented around the world! Less than a month after the acceptance of "Waltz With Me, Alaska," I received more good news from her . A second book (also non-fiction) had also been accepted by another publisher. It was printed in April 2004...less than two months after "Waltz."

I still don't know what happened ...just that it did happen. I'd gone through agents, gone without agents, went to writing groups and conferences and even have a writing group which I head. Nothing had worked at all. My secret, it seems, is when I finally gave up and decided whatever was to be would be...that's when it all happened! And however it happened, I'm glad it did.

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Waltz With Me, Alaska is the compelling true story of Dick and Donna Bernhardt who leave their Anchorage home and build a log cabin in the Alaskan wilderness to raise their family. Unable to complete the cabin before winter, a thirteen month struggle to survive in an old army tent with no conveniences and no neighbors ensues. Temperatures drop to 70 below zero. Every day is perilous, but peril and hardship are great teachers. The family works, loves, laughs and cries together while surviving the winter, completing their log cabin and living happily ever after.



Donna started out writing poetry...in the second grade! She kept on writing poetry throughout her schooling and into her married life. She used to send a poem to her husband in his lunch every day. Time marched on and they found themselves moving from Anchorage and living in the woods of Tok, Alaska. This is where her writing took off. She wrote a poem about the way they were living at the time...in a tent in the wilds of Alaska, and her hubby secretly read it and took it to the editor of the local newspaper. The people of Tok enjoyed it so much she was offered her own poetry column (which 32 years later she's still writing). She produced some small books of poetry. Ten years went by and she continued writing and speaking to the buses in Tok, reading from her books and meeting people.

Then her husband died suddenly and she still had kids to raise. She couldn't work in any capacity due to the injuries she suffered in a truck wreck, so she borrowed money and put together a few more books, and sold more and more of them, enough to make a decent living from them and put the kids through school, becoming known as the Poet Laureate of the Alaska Highway. She met reporters and TV people alike who would come to her tiny cabin to interview her. She was on Paul Harvey, and interviewed by dozens of people including Peter Jenkins and appeared on TV and many of the nation's papers and was included in several books.

Donna advanced to writing a small childrens book or two and a couple of recipe books in addition to the poetry books and small non-fiction books. She then decided to write screenplays and larger non-fiction books. She wrote a screenplay about their "tent" winter and six or seven more. But her non-fiction books are her prize possession. Although it took her a long time to see them published, she now enjoys the sales of her latest two: "Waltz With Me, Alaska" and "Pioneer Road." Donna's website can be seen at http://www.alaskawintercabin.com.