Help me publish my first book!!!

I am Ivana, the author of the book MY WORST FREND, which I wrote in order to use my lived experiences and advice to help everyone who lives with epilepsy, as well as those who live with them and meet people with epilepsy.

The book is written as a novel and is intended for everyone, primarily children and their parents in order to understand how an epileptic seizure occurs, looks like and is experienced, what the affected person experiences and how they feel.
But certainly the book is not only for them but for everyone else in order to create a more tolerant society and if others would understand what problems and obstacles these people face and they would understand that despite this there is still much that they can achieve in life.

My story is told by the boy Karlo, who lives with epilepsy at the age of five. How do he and his parents deal with his condition until he finishes high school? Does the environment accept him? Does he have friends, girlfriend...? Do individuals and society condemn him or accept him?
The story is told honestly, warmly and simply in the hope that everyone can easily read it, accept it, understand it and understand what the world of the "evil friend" - epilepsy looks like.

In this way I want to raise money for publishing a book in Croatian, translating it into English and publishing it in English. I tried to collect money through donations from companies operating in Croatia but I was mostly rejected with the explanation that they give donations only to legal entities, humanitarian organizations and associations and I am not that.

I had conversations with several publishing houses in Croatia. All of them received a part of my book and were interested in publishing it (one publishing house, however, turned me down because it has work for the next year). Somehow I decided on the publishing house here in Croatia (the ratio between what they offer and the price was the best). It is one of the largest publishing houses in Croatia and at the end I submitted my entire manuscript to them for review. Their editorial team approved the book, so I'm in the next phase. Working with the publishing house would allow me the following:

Final production of the book, editing, page design, formatting, cover design, ISBN numbers, e-Pub files, etc., to prepare the book for hard copy and e-book sales.

They also do order fulfillment and distribution to libraries and reading rooms. They are also doing a press release campaign as well as a website for e-shop for the book. And the most important thing, in the next phase, they will enable me to translate the book into English and distribute it throughout Europe and the rest of the world so everyone can get to the book and read it.

Having professionals who guide me and publish my book is the way I want to go.

All those who have read the book in its current form so far have said that this is it and that I must make an effort to publish the book. Croatia is a very small country. The book is written in Croatian and needs to be translated into English.

I wrote about writing a book in some Facebook groups that help people with epilepsy. Two associations contacted me and wanted to know what it was all about. I gave them part of the book to read (it wasn't finished at the time) and to my surprise they wrote me a letter of support. They told me that I should definitely include it when I ask the publisher for an offer to publish books. Somehow it got to the newspapers so that an article about me appeared in the national newspaper.

Basically the comments of those people made me do all this. Writing a book if you have an idea is not that difficult (to be honest, I wrote it for more than a year) but publishing it is a completely different story and that is actually the hardest part.

There are countless ways to self publish even free but as I was taught "if you're doing something do it right and give it your all or don't do it" I want to work with someone who knows what they're doing and who I trust to take things off my hands and help me become the best I can be.

A lot of people from Facebook groups sent me their stories of how they are fighting against diseases and a system that doesn't understand them. There are also letters of support, advice and life stories. They will also be done at the end of the book in the original as I received them.

There are many professional books about epilepsy as a disease but I have not found one written as a novel for ordinary people that helps to live with it, to deal with the problems and limitations it brings.

I am asking you to help me make this happen, which is really very annoying, at least for me.
However, a friend once told me "if you don't ask, the answer is always no."

Either way, you have all my love and gratitude.

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HRVATSKI

Ja sam Ivana, autorica knjige MOJA ZLA PRIJATELJICA, a koju sam napisala kako bih svojim proživljenim iskustvima i savjetima pomogla svima koji žive sa epilepsijom kao i onima koji žive s njima i susreću se s ljudima oboljelim od epilepsije.

Knjiga je pisana kao roman i namijenjena je svima, prvenstveno djeci i njihovim roditeljima kako bi shvatili kako dolazi, izgleda te kako se proživljava epileptički napadaj, što oboljela osoba pri tome proživljava i kako se osjeća.

Ali svakako knjiga nije samo za njih nego za sve druge kako bi stvorili tolerantnije društvo i ako bi i drugi shvatili s kakvim problemima i preprekama se ti ljudi susreću, a opet kao bi oboljeli shvatili kako unatoč tome ima još puno toga što mogu postići u životu.

Moju priču priča dječak Karlo koji je obolio od epilepsije kao petogodišnjak. Kako se on sam, a i njegovi roditelji nose s njegovim stanjem sve do završetka srednje škole? Prihvaća li ga okolina? Ima li prijatelje, djevojku...? Osuđuju li ga pojedinci i društvo ili ga prihvaćaju?

Priča je ispričana iskreno, toplo i jednostavno, u želji da je svi s lakoćom mogu pročitati, prihvatiti, razumjeti te shvatiti kako izgleda svijet "zle Prijateljice" - epilepsije.

Ovim putem želim skupiti novce za izdavanje knjige na Hrvatskom jeziku, njezin prevod na Engleski jezik i izdavanje na Engleskom jeziku. Novce sam pokušala skupiti kroz donacije od kompanija koje djeluju u Hrvatskoj, ali uglavnom sam odbijena uz obrazloženje da donacije daju samo pravnim subjektima, humanitarnim organizacijama i udrugama, a ja to nisam.

Imala sam razgovore s više izdavačkih kuća u Hrvatskoj. Svi su dobili dio moje knjige i bili zainteresirani za izdavanje (jedna izdavačka kuća me je doduše odbila jer ima posla za narednih godinu dana). Nekako sam se odlučila za izdavačku kuću iz Hrvatske (odnos onoga što nude i cijene bio je najbolji). Jedna je od najvećih izdavačkih kuća u Hrvatskoj i na kraju sam im predala svoj cijeli rukopis na pregled. Njihov urednički tim odobrio je knjigu, pa sam u sljedećoj fazi. Rad s izdavačkom kućom omogućio bi mi sljedeće:

Finalnu obradu knjige, tj. za uređivanje, dizajn stranice, oblikovanje, dizajn naslovnice, ISBN brojeve, e-Pub datoteke, itd., kako bi pripremili knjigu za tiskani primjerak i prodaju e-knjiga.

Oni također rade ispunjavanje narudžbi i distribuciju u knjižnice i čitaonice. Oni također odrađuju kampanju priopćenja za tisak, kao i web-stranicom za e-trgovinu za knjigu. I ono najvažnije, u sljedećoj fazi omogućit će mi prijevod knjige na Engleski jezik i distribuciju po Europi i ostatku svijeta tako da svatko može doći do knjige i pročitati je.

Imati profesionalce koji me vode i izdaju moju knjigu put je kojim želim ići.

Svi oni koji su do sada čitali knjigu u sadašnjem obliku rekli su da je to to i da se moram potruditi da objavim knjigu. Hrvatska je jako mala zemlja. Knjiga je napisana na Hrvatskom jeziku i treba je prevesti na Engleski.

O tome da pišem knjigu pisala sam u nekim Facebook grupama koje pomažu ljudima s epilepsijom. Dvije udruge su mi se javile i željele su znati o čemu se tu radi. Dala sam im dio knjige na čitanje (tad još nije bila gotova) i na moje iznenađenje napisali su mi pismo potpore. Rekli su mi da to svakako priložim kad od izdavača tražim ponudu za izdavanje knjige. Nekako to je došlo i do novina tako da je u nacionalnim novinama izašao i članak o meni.

U biti komentari tih ljudi natjerali su me da ovo sve radim. Napisati knjigu ako imaš ideju i nije tako teško (da budem iskrena pisala sam je duže od godinu dana) ali izdati je sasvim je druga priča i to je ustvari najteži dio.

Postoje bezbrojni načini samostalnog objavljivanja čak i besplatnog, ali kako su me učili "ako nešto radiš radi kako treba i daj sve do sebe ili nemoj to raditi" želim raditi s nekim tko zna što radi i kome vjerujem da će preuzeti stvari iz mojih ruku i pomoći mi da postane najbolje što može biti.

Puno ljudi iz Facebook grupa mi je slalo svoje priče kako se bore protiv bolesti i sistema koji ih ne razumije. Ima tu i pisama potpore, savjeta i životnih priča. Oni će također biti obavljeni na kraju knjige u originalu kao sam ih i primila.

Ima puno stručnih knjiga o epilepsiji kao bolesti, ali nisam našla niti jednu pisanu kao roman za obične ljude koja pomaže kao živjeti s tim, nositi se problemima i ograničenjima koja nosi.

Tražim od vas da mi pomognete da ovo ostvarim, što je stvarno vrlo neugodno, barem za mene.

Međutim, prijatelj mi je jednom rekao "ako ne pitaš, odgovor je uvijek ne."

U svakom slučaju, imate svu moju ljubav i zahvalnost.