Self Publishing Article in the NYT

I just read this article in the New York Times about Self-Publishing, written by Neal Pollack. Yesterday, I read that Amazon is selling more e-books than print books. Self-publishing has been working for me on a small scale, but I keep trying to get "published" the traditional way, while other seem to keep moving toward self-publishing. Hmmmm - am I going in the wrong direction? Any thoughts?

How to Publish Your e-Book on Amazon Kindle

I discovered this YouTube video and thought I'd pass it along to my writer friends:

Day 4, Sat. Session 2

Do-it-Yourself Publishing and How to be Successful at It. This was a panel discussion with Jane Friedman, Patricia Davis, Moriah Jovan, David Carnoy, and April Hamilton.

Because this was a panel discussion, there were a variety of opinions on the topic. Too many to list here. As with all of us, they all had different ways of working, depending on their goals. The bottom line on this is that you need to have a goal for your writing: Do you want to be published traditionally? Are you more of an entrepreneur and rather do it yourself? Do you want to take time to learn how to publish your own books?

Some of the resources they covered were Create Space on Amazon, Lighting Source, Smashwords and Fast Pencil. They discussed pricing and mostly agreed that the sweet spot for e-books was $3.99 for fiction. Nonfiction has much more fluctuations and depended on supply and demand.

As a self-publisher, you can get your books into audio using PodioBooks.com.

You can get your books into libraries and bookstores by going through Lightning Source and Create Space.

If you're doing color books, they recommended creating an app rather than an e-book.

Writer's Digest Conference January 2011

Writer's Digest Conference in New York, January 21-23, 2011. Topics include branding, marketing, publishing options, revision, building the perfect plot, blogging, and more. Check out the session descriptions and speakers. There is something for everyone!

Self Publishing Article by David Carnoy

I found this informative article on self-publishing by David Carnoy (editor at CNET): Self-publishing a book: 25 things you need to know. He covers the why and how, as well as caveats of self-publishing. A must-read for anyone considering self-publishing.

Make your own iPad Book!

The future of books - interactivity!

I was amazed at Alice on the iPad (see my Alice review), but Jack and the Beanstalk proves that interactive books are only going to get better. Here’s why:

While Alice has exquisite graphics and fun animations, Jack and the Beanstalk has cute, kid-friendly graphics and LOTS of animations, PLUS music, interactions on every page, and games such as a memory game, a shape-matching game, bubble popping, and finger painting.

  

The interactions on Jack and the Beanstalk are things that kids will love to do like touch the screen to light the street lamp or start the fireworks, find hidden “easter” eggs that sing and wiggle, touch characters to make them talk or dance, and swipe to reveal hidden creatures in a lake and then count them.

You can turn “Narration Audio” off to read the story out loud yourself, but you may get tired of reading! Jack and the Beanstalk is a “book” that kids will want to “read” over and over again, not only to hear the fun story, but also to search for the hidden surprises.

And when you’re finished reading, you can go to the Ayars Website (www.ayarsanimation.com) and download the Jack and the Beanstalk coloring book for kids to color.

Jack and the Beanstalk works on the iPhone (3.2 or later) and iPod Touch, too. 

So, fellow authors and publishers, how can we take advantage of this new technology? Have YOU considered an app for that?

POD and Self-Publishing by Donald James Parker

Here's some more great tips on POD (publishing on demand) and self-publishing called, Come on Baby, Do the Promotion. It is featured on Christian Fiction Online Magazine. You can read it by following this link.

Seven Steps for Creating and Marketing Your Own e-Book

SEVEN STEPS TO CREATING AND MARKETING YOUR OWN E-BOOK © 2009 Cindy Downes

What do Dan Brown, Fern Michaels, T.D. Jakes, and Donald Trump have in common? The answer is — they’ve published E-books or digital versions of books. If authors like Brown and Michaels can make money from E-books, why not you?

E-books are digital versions of books that can be read on computers, special E-book readers, or even on some cell phones. They are easy to create and inexpensive to duplicate and market. You can write an E-book on any subject and have it available for sale the same day that you finish it. You can market it on a blog (free) and sell it using PayPal (almost free). What better way to make some extra cash?

So what do you write about? What have you done or what do you know that you can share with others? How-to booklets sell the best. Since I homeschooled my children, I began by writing about homeschooling. I also enjoy my iPhone, so I write about iPhone apps. Maybe you’re a student whose learned tricks on how to study effectively; a mother of twins with advice on how to raise two at once; or a cook with recipes for losing weight. Pick a topic you know and start with that.

You don’t have to write a whole book, either. Write a small booklet with 15 - 30 pages. People are willing to pay from $3.99 to $6.99 or more for something that will help them in their daily lives.

Here’s how: Step 1: Write your book.

1. Use your favorite word processor such as Microsoft Word to write and design your book. If you’re able to use a page layout program such as Adobe InDesign or Quark Express, that’s even better. These programs offer more flexibility when working with graphics; however, they are harder to use.
2. Purchase an ISBN number from Bowker (www.bowker.com) and use it on the back of the inside title page, along with copyright information. You’ll have to buy ISBN numbers in quantities of 10, but this will motivate you to write more books!
3. Illustrate your book using royalty-free clip art (www.novadevelopment.com ) or hire a professional illustrator. Check your local college for art students who want to do an internship. This is a great way to get free or low-cost help and help a future artist at the same time!
4. Include the ISBN bar code on back cover, if needed. This can also be purchased from Bowker.

Step 2: Edit your E-Book

1. Read it out loud. It’s easier to find mistakes if you hear the words.
2. Hire someone to edit the book. It’s impossible to edit your own work objectively. I’ve seen self-published books that were not only full of grammar and sentence structure errors but also redundancies and factual errors.
3. Hire someone who knows English grammar and style. For nonfiction, hire someone who knows the subject to check facts.
4. Trust your editor. It’s hard to give up words you’ve sweated over for hours, but the fact is they probably need chopping!

Step 3: Create your E-Book

1. After your book is complete, convert the book into a PDF document using Adobe Acrobat (www.adobe.com) or Word. Acrobat is a more advanced program for creating and editing PDFs, but Word will work for simple E-Books.
• In Word, choose “Print” from the menu bar.
• Click on “PDF” in the bottom left corner of the print menu.
• Choose "Save as PDF..."
• Click on the "Options" button. This is where you encrypt your book so that it can be read and printed, but not edited.
• Select the features you want to protect (opening, editing, printing, etc.) and enter a password.
• Hit “Save” and you're done!
2. If needed, use Acrobat or Word to create hyperlinks from your E-book to the Internet.
3. Use Acrobat to reduce the file size of the document – this will make it easier to download, a helpful, but not essential feature for smaller books without a lot of graphics. This cannot be done with Word.
4.  If you need help learning to use Adobe Acrobat, or any software for that matter, I highly recommend www.Lynda.com. For a small, monthly fee, you can take as many online classes as you want.
5. Create an electronic cover for your E-Book to use on your Web page or Blog. You can create a free one at Groundbreak (www.groundbreak.com/graphics2.html).

Step 4: Set up a Web site or Blog to sell your E-Book.

1. Use Weebly for a simple Web site.
2. Do it yourself using Dreamweaver or other website creation program.
3. Hire a professional or look for a student at a local college to do one as an internship. I hired a student to create my website and maintain it myself using Dreamweaver. I learned to use Dreamweaver on Lynda.com.
4. Domain names and Web hosting can be purchased at www.godaddy.com.
5. Instead of a Web site, create a Blog to sell your books. This is very simple to do and cheap! My favorite is Blogger, but Wordpress is also good.

Step 5: Arrange to take payment.

1. Obtain a bank account for your business.
2. Obtain a sales tax permit, if required.
3. Obtain a merchant account. I use PayPal as there is no monthly commitment and they only charge a small fee for each E-Book that I sell.

Step 6: Arrange to deliver your E-Books

1. My E-Books (in pdf format) are password protected on my Web server. As I receive an order, I respond to the customer by E-mail using an E-mail “signature” (a type of form letter for E-mail). This E-mail provides the customer with a user name and a password with which to access the E-Book. This form E-mail also explains how to download and print the document.
2. For a fee, you can have your E-Books automatically delivered. One company that provides this service is Payloadz (www.payloadz.com).

Step 7: Advertise your E-Book

1. Write a monthly or weekly newsletter. Sample.
2. Write a daily blog. Sample. 
3. Start a Business Facebook Page. Sample
4. Start a Business Twitter Page. Sample.
5. Write for magazines and other blogs whose readers would be interested in your book.  Sample.  
6. Advertise in magazines whose readers would be interested in your book. I do not pay for many ads. The ads I do pay for are targeted online forums and Web sites that attract my readers. I depend mostly on word of mouth marketing for my nonfiction book sales.
7. Offer to speak for free (or for a fee) on topics related to your book. Organize your own workshops and advertise locally. You can do free workshops at the local library, but you cannot charge to attend.
8. Give away information or other resources of interest on your website. Find a way to meet your prospective customers needs and they will start linking to your site - free advertising. I give away a free E-Book and free forms on my Web site.

If you want to sell your book in Kindle format or for Sony Reader, you’ll want to read: Amazon Self-Publishing service.  E-Books.com.

An interesting article on e-books

Read about the price wars of e-books and how the book publishing industry is changing. Kindle: Power to the Independents.

Do Writer's Make a Living?

Last week, I participated in a Webinar hosted by Terry Whalin in which the host interviewed Sally Stuart, author of the Christian Writer’s Market Guide. I asked the question, “Do writers really make any money today? How many books do you need to write to make a living?”  Her answer was, “A lot. It’s very difficult to make a living as a freelance writer.” She went on to say that she knows writers that have 8-10 to a dozen books in print and can’t make a living. She also said that most writers have to supplement their income by editing, tutoring, or teaching seminars and conferences.

As a self-published author, who is trying to break into the traditionally published market, this is a bit disconcerting! However, it also helped me decide to manage my time better. I don’t really want to publish my own fiction, but since it’s probably not going to be a big money maker, I will have to spend more time working on my nonfiction to keep the money rolling in.

Does anyone with experience in both self-publishing and traditional publishing have any suggestions for those of us who are thinking of going the traditional route?

Interesting survey on e-books

A survey done by BISG on consumer attitudes toward e-books.

SPAN

For those of you who self-publish or who are independent publishers, check out SPAN (Small Publishers Association of North America). This organization provides information on small publishing as well as printing, production, shipping, and marketing benefits to its members.

You'll find resources related to traditional book production as well as to digital publishing, writing and editing, marketing and entrepreneurship, all specifically focused on small publishing.

This month, SPAN created a Blogging Network for its members. I've been looking for a network of self-publishers and now we have one!

Adobe InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom

I've been using Quark for my desktop publishing software, but have been wanting to move to Adobe InDesign. I just wasn't looking forward to the learning transition. This month, I received a review copy of Adobe InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom from Wiley Publishing and tried it out. It wasn't near as painful as I thought it would be!

Adobe InDesign CS4 Digital Classroom is better than a classroom. There's no waiting for others to catch up or missing a tip because I'm busy practicing something else. I can do the video on my time, in my home, at my pace. I love that!

The instruction is excellent - very clear and easy to understand. The book comes with a DVD (includes video training from Adobe Certified Experts) and lesson files. I can watch the video and work on the lesson files at the same time. The instruction is well organized enabling me to work through the lessons one by one in the order presented or select a specific topic, as needed. The graphics and sound quality is professional and positively enhances the learning experience.

In the lessons, you’ll learn all the essential skills you need to get started. The first lesson teaches you all about the tools. Although I had used InDesign a bit before, I learned a lot of nifty tricks from this lesson. For instance, how to set up my master pages so that they are horizontally rather than vertically aligned. This is important when you work on large documents like books.

Other chapters include:

• How to format type
• How to create style sheets
• How to add and manipulate graphics
• How to design and edit a table
• How to use and manage colors
• How to create special effects such as drop shadows, feathering, emboss, and blend
• How to create a book, an index, and Table of Contents
• How to share documents in various formats
• How to use XML with InDesign
• How to create interactive documents using flash

For a novice like myself, this book and training DVD is just what I needed to get started. For Intermediate users, you will probably benefit by picking up some tricks to help you use InDesign more effectively.

Visit the www.digitalclassroombooks.com Web site for updated lesson files.

For more information, see the Wiley Web site.