Author’s Comments About “The Honor of the State” - Fifty-First North Carolina Infantry

December 16, 2024: The Honor of the State went live on Amazon three years ago today.

Sales

As of today, The Honor of the State has sold 70 paperback copies and 14 e-books. In addition, I purchased one e-book for proofing and nine paperbacks for proofing and gifts. I sent two more paperbacks to the Library of Congress. The LOC accepted The Honor of the State into its collection but did not catalog the book. I was hoping to sell at least 70 copies to offset the cost (~$450) of researching and publishing the book. Well, I reached my goal.

Writing

When I started writing The Honor of the State, I decided my audience for the book would be descendants of the soldiers who served in the 51st North Carolina. My desire to know more about my great-grandfather’s experiences in the Civil War drove my research into the regiment. I wrote the book for other folks who might share my curiosity.

The book has been criticized as not being a “real” history book. But then, I’m not a “real” historian. Although the writing style in The Honor of the State is less formal than that of a college textbook, the book is thoroughly researched and documented, more so than some “real” history books I’ve read.

I chose to use a narrative style in the book and attempted to tell the story of the men who served in the regiment. That’s why the subtitle is “The Story of the 51st North Carolina” rather than “The History of the 51st North Carolina”. I also wanted to enjoy writing the book, rather than going through the same type of drudgery involved with composing a college term paper. I hope the narrative style made the book easier to read. It certainly made the book more enjoyable to write.

When I set out to write the book, I thought it would be a fairly simple task. I was very familiar with the subject, having spent years researching the Fifty-First Regiment. I quickly learned that I didn’t know much at all about life in a Confederate regiment. Much research was required, and my research lead me down many different paths, far away from the 51st North Carolina’s history. It took a year to complete the first draft. I learned so much that year! My meandering research resulted in inclusion of the “Nice to Know” blocks scattered throughout the book. The blocks contain some interesting, but not necessarily relevant, information I gained while researching.

Publishing

Early on, I contacted two publishers about my project. Covid madness was raging at the time. One publisher was not accepting new submissions because of Covid restrictions. The other felt the book was not something they wanted to publish. I started exploring self-publishing and eventually picked Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. KDP is somewhat controversial; you can look it up on the internet. But it has worked well for me.

It took me six months after completing the final draft to publish The Honor of the State. KDP has specific guidelines for formatting books for printing. Not all the guidelines are easy to comply with. The biggest challenge involved maps and pictures. They must be formatted in a specific way that I found almost impossible to do. The poor quality of the graphics in the book is a result of my failure to format them correctly.

Pricing

I agonized over the price of the book. History books typically run in the $30 to $50 range. Since my book was going to be self-published, I decided the price should be under $20. After reviewing Amazon’s royalty structure, I settled on $17.95 to make the book affordable for my target audience and to hopefully collect enough royalties to cover my expenses. After a year, I reduced the price to $14.95. Soon after the price drop, Amazon raised their printing costs. I still retained enough royalty to keep the price at $14.95. I now make $4.57 per paperback sold and $2.58 for each e-book.

Future Projects

I don’t know if I have another book in me. In the past few years, I have gone from “getting old” to “being old.” But maybe I’ll write a “real” history of the regiment sometime in the near future. It all depends on my mental state and whether or not I can find a “real” publisher for the work.