Guest Author - Guido Deboeck

Everyone invests money in the stock and/or bond markets to make a decent return. When the markets are very volatile (like they have been this year) producing a return that exceeds a benchmark you chose, is not that easy. In Investors Business Daily you find that the S&P 500 market now has six distribution days, the NASDAQ accumulated five, the NYSE and the Dow each four. Distribution days are days on which the price and volume changes are such that institutional selling is occurring in large volumes. The count of these distribution days does not favor active participation in the stock markets. In those circumstances it is often wise to step aside for a while and let the markets define where they are heading. If you have made decent gains on some stocks, lock in those gains rather than letting them evaporate in the ongoing market slaughter.

One month ago I released a new book about family history, specifically the history of three families over five centuries, that I brought together using both conventional and genetic genealogy. If any one of you are interested you can preview this work here.

The wife of a friend, who writes mostly academic books, once told me that “the release of a new book for her husband is like the delivery of a new baby”. She is a nurse who has delivered many babies! Indeed for every author, there are the months and months of pregnancy (writing and editing) and the long anticipation of the final outcome after the editing, layout and publishing process. Then comes the special day: i.e. the day the publisher delivers the first copies.

I started writing on my book on Father's Day in June of 2006 ( after years of collecting family data). The first draft of my book, which covers 370 pages, took just six months to produce. The draft manuscript was mailed to a dozen reviewers who provided comments and suggestions for additions/deletions. The most difficult task was to incorporate all their comments because many conflicted and each choice you make has an impact on the final outcome. For example, picking the right title, subtitle, length, size, amount of detail, can have dramatic impact on the book marketability.

After the painful rewriting, in which I struggled nightly with what to keep, what to throw, came the rather pleasant interactions with a professional editor and a professional designer. Work with these two ladies was intense (many e-mail exchanges of pdf files with comments) but was rather enjoyable. Since I like to work in the early morning hours (3 am to 6 am, for some they are still night hours...) the work done during the previous day by the editor or designer got often corrected the same day I wrote the comments, creating a very fast turnaround. Finally, the manuscript went to the printer. Weeks later (eight to be precise) the first copies arrived by Fed Ex (on September 14th, 2007) and boxes of books were delivered days later. The official release date was on October 8th, Columbus Day this year.

The entire project of writing about my family history was from the beginning considered as an enterprise. Many books about personal family histories do not get widely distributed; many are not even printed in large volume. Out of over 30,000 books published every year a very small fraction even gets reviewed in the press. Genealogical books are seldom among them.

My aims with this book are totally different: distribution of a relative large number of copies (taking into account this is a genealogical book) on several continents and in multiple countries. Since I wrote about Flemish DNA & Ancestry, and since there are Flemish people all over the world, I figured that the globe is my potential market.

So far this is working out since within the first month, a couple of hundred copies have already been sold in five countries on three continents and are distributed through multiple channels: my website, Dokus Publishing,, Amazon, and soon also via Genealogical.com.

The biggest surprise however was the reaction of a few friends who never in their mind had thought about publishing a book as global challenge in promoting and profit making. You must be really an "entrepreneur" one of them said... Yeah, I though, what else is new.

The skills you learned about investing in the stock markets, especially about selecting fundamentally sound companies (sound ideas, high quality product), buying (read launch) at the right time and keeping costs under control (print a large volume), can likewise be applied to writing a book, self-publishing and selling books. All depends on how you approach the balancing of your time, your energy, your creativity and your goals. Not many people see it that way! Often those who love books, who like to write, consider themselves “artists”, not interested in royalties or “returns” on their work.

Now that my work is out, the highest rewards come from reviews like the one Regine Bridle wrote on Amazon. She is the editor of Belgian Laces and President of Belgian Researchers Associates in Illinois. She wrote:

You will find this book highly engaging and easy to read. It's as though the author is there in front of you telling you how he pieced together and re-wove the stories of his ancestors and set them back in their geographical and historical time frame.
The DNA part was of great interest to me and I had until reading this book found it rather confusing. The author uses his own results to explain how and why DNA has become a real genealogical research tool and is truly beginning to open new possibilities for those who have run out of records to look through. Absolutely a MUST-Read for everyone, with or without specifically Flemish roots.

Anyone currently struggling with a manuscript or with issues of publishing can obtain more free advice by writing me.

Anyone interested in investing in family history, learning more about DNA testing or genetic genealogy, is most welcome to visit my DNA project website where you can learn more about these topics..

Anyone looking for a good template to write your own family history, can when ordering my book include the Code "BellaOnLine [your full name]" for a personally signed, dedicated copy.