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BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers
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BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Amos Date: 28 Jun 12 - 08:02 PM A few of the many many resources out there for guidance in the jungle: Bookmarket.com by John Kremer Book Blogs has over 15.000 book bloggers and reviewers--readers. The Book Designer has lots of useful tips and advices on self-publishing. Book awards for self-pub books. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Amos Date: 28 Jun 12 - 06:31 PM This issue of Writer's Digest is full of links and advice about self-publishing. To download the whole thing you pay $5.99. "AuthorSolutions is the biggest full-service publishing provider today. Of course, their full service has a significant price tag on it. If you’re comfortable handling some aspects of the process yourself, or if you can privately hire a professional to manage this process for you, then consider services that cost less and serve more as printers rather than service providers. For example:
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 28 Jun 12 - 02:01 PM Good question, Penny. Hope you find an answer. I cannot recommend BookBrewer any more. with no notice, they made some changes which leave small-time writers in the dust. No more distribution nor direct sales from their website. So far it looks as though the ones I've already done with them are still available, but this means I have to look elsewhere for paperback production and distribute myself. AAArrrgghhh! I am going to do all my ebooks at SmashWords for now. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Penny S. Date: 21 Mar 12 - 09:33 AM Anyone know anything about footnotes? The way Terry Pratchett, or Richard Adams used them? When I looked, it looked as if none of the ebook methods allowed them. I've just got the latest Serif software, which claims to allow epublishing, but doesn't mention them. (And it only does small files.) Penny |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 20 Mar 12 - 01:01 PM Genie, I'm not sure if they would work well for music books..I think they would, but I think this is broad enough to stay below the line, for now. Thanks, though. I've checked out Smashwords a bit more and have found their Free Style Guide book which they claim is a must-read for any author interested in e-books, fwiw. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Genie Date: 01 Mar 12 - 04:09 PM If these resources work for self-pubishers of sheet music, song books, etc., how about putting the thread above the line? I think the information would tie in with "music" in very helpful ways. Genie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 29 Feb 12 - 06:39 PM Anyone here ever used Smashwords for getting an ebook out? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: JohnInKansas Date: 13 Jan 12 - 04:27 PM kat - I've seen some comment on the problems in the article previously, both here and elsewhere. When I looked for a place to pop the link in, this looked like a good thread, and I checked the few most recent posts but figured that the earlier ones were old enough that a refresh with the comments linked would be useful, even if this thread had already made mention. The suggestion in the article was that the submitters would be required to provide a valid credit card and agree that the card could be "fined" by charging some amount if plagiarism was found. I didn't see that it suggested there should be a fee for publishing. It doesn't sound like a real solution, since shady characters can too easily submit a valid card ID and then cancel the card before anything gets charged; but it might be a starting point for working out something that would be better. The complaint was about the "erotic books" section(s?) at Amazon, where I suspect the problem may be more prevalent than in other categories. I only rarely do any business with Amazon so I can't say I know much about what's in any of their categories, and lost interest in "erotic books" when I found (when I was about 11 y.o.) that they were invariably too far removed from reality to be interesting, much less erotic. (I demand cliches that are physiologically plausible for humans and most "erotic novels" presume extraterrestrial anatomies that I wouldn't find very seductive.) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 13 Jan 12 - 01:40 PM Thanks for that, JohninKS. Lot more in depth about the problem than the following from the second link in my last post: In addition to criticisms of the quality of e-books being self published, meanwhile, there have also been complaints about an increase in e-book "spam" in the Amazon Kindle store, including books that are clearly just cobbled together from bits and pieces of public domain titles or even copyrighted works (Reuters reported recently that there are DVD instruction manuals that tell users how to write and publish dozens of e-books a day without having to write anything). Some have argued that Amazon should institute a charge for publishing on the Kindle to cut down on that kind of questionable content. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: JohnInKansas Date: 12 Jan 12 - 11:54 PM This seems to be the closest applicable thread to insert the recent news article: Amazon's plagiarism problem The article isn't, perhaps, as sensational as the newsclip item headline suggest, and it at least implies that the observations aren't really limited just to Amazon, but may be similar to what other ebook distributers are seeing. It refers specifically to a small(?) segment of the Amazon ebook market, although there's the suggestion that the behavior reported may extend - at least to some extent - into other parts. Probably worth a quick read, for anyone considering submitting a book for distribution by Amazon (or Barnes? Kindle? etc), just for awareness of what can happen to your book ... maybe. (The implied numbers are unexpected, but aren't really backed up very believably.) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Bert Date: 27 Oct 11 - 08:11 PM I also use Sigil Just save your text file as .html and Sigil takes it and puts it in epub format. You then just go in and insert titles and chapters and stuff. You might try Barnes and Noble 'cos they bought out Borders and they claimed to honor Borders deals. Borders did have a $30 epub deal, I'm not sure in B & N carried that over though. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Songwronger Date: 27 Oct 11 - 07:28 PM I've been looking into book distribution--how to make an electronic book available to the widest market--and I learned something interesting. Basically you have Amazon, Apple iBooks, and all the others (which distribute books in the ePub format). Amazon uses the mobi format. Apple uses the ePub format, but to upload directly to their store I would need a freakin Mac computer. Alternately, I could send my book to one of Apple's 8 "aggregators." Companies like Lulu. They will then make sure my book gets into Apple's iBooks store, for a fee. What a scam. A way around this is to just upload your book to Barnes & Noble for free and then point out to people that there are applications that will allow them to read B&N books on Apple devices. First I learn that a fee is charged for free ISBN numbers, then I learn that you have to pay a fee to get your book on Apple's "bookshelf," though Apple itself doesn't charge the fee. Somehow I was hoping the middlemen would get squeezed out of the new electronic publishing system, but I should've known better. I'm currently working on a collection of stories that are too political in nature to be published. The only one I've had success in placing came out a couple of weeks ago, in a print magazine called Needle. I see on their website that they promote this quarter's magazine as 201 pages of, "Nothing but hard hitting stories. In your face and busting up your kiss-maker. Kapow." That's my story, all right. Leads off the issue too, which is good because it's reviewed by a couple of yearly anthologies. Might get this one reprinted, and even if I don't it'll go in my electronic collection. Political stuff. A real kick in the kiss-maker. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 17 Oct 11 - 01:56 PM Here are a couple of very interesting articles for folks interested in self-publishing, esp. in e-book form: Future of Media - the rise of the million selling kindle author and, Publishers, what are you doing while Amazon eats your lunch? I have one book up at BookBrewer now, just waiting for them to research one small glitch, then it will be published. I also have the chapters of another uploaded there. Have to do the cover, check the formatting, and it will be ready to go. kat |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Songwronger Date: 30 Sep 11 - 12:39 AM Why, you're welcome. And thanks for your input. I'll look at those references tomorrow. The 10-block of ISBNs is still the best deal for the self-publisher. DRM (Digital Rights Management, a form of anti-piracy encryption)...I don't plan to use it. They say it gums up certain machines and can be stripped away. The work's going to be pirated anyway, no matter how it's protected, so I'll just keep the prices low and hope that people will buy instead of steal. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 30 Sep 11 - 12:06 AM Songwronger, thank you for that. I'm sure it will be of great help to anyone who's striding into self-publishing. At the time that I published my first book in 2004 a person had to buy a block of 10 ISBNs as they would not allow you to buy just one. So I still have a few left to use. I will read with interest the link you put in about the aggregators. I've had a look@bookBrewer.com and actually started to enter an e-book edition of my 2004 book. They make it very, very easy and will submit it around to all of the major purveyors of the books from what I have read so far. You have to enter the book chapter by chapter which is a little tedious for this first book because each chapter is only about a page to a page and a half, so lots to enter, but it feels good to get it done. They offer three different packages from what I've read, ranging from from 20 to 60 or so dollars and it says the author gets 95% and retains all copyrights, of course. There is more information on THIS PAGE. I still have to research more about the charges and the digital rights management and all that. It's great to share these things with other mudcat writers, thanks again! If I'm happy with this first one after I see the sample they create, then I intend to do my other novels, one of which, Prairie Child, is ready to go. One great thing for me is I'm finally getting Dragon NaturallySpeaking trained so that my hands are so sore. I haven't practiced yet on how to command it, i.e. surf the net, click on things, etc., but as a writer I think it's probably one of the best things that's ever happened. Good news on your upcoming publications. I've got a few short stories and some other things that have been put out there and you Steve published as an op-ed writer but I seem to do better in the long haul. Do you know about NaNoWriMo, national novel writing month? If you just put it in your browser you can go find out what it's all about. Hundreds of not thousands of people all around the world commit themselves to churn out a 50,000 word plus novel within the month of November. It's great fun, torture, and satisfying, plus there's tons of support and camaraderie throughout the month and, even the year. Lulu always has a deal where they offer to print your novel written for NaNoWriMo for free, that's the POD. It's a nice way for someone to see a sample of what their book would look like. One thing that NaNoWriMo really taught me is how to turn off my inner editor. That's essential just for that month, then of course you've got all the time in the world to go back and edit. I'm usually ready about two years later to turn out at all from that so I usually miss every other year doing NaNoWriMo. I was interested to find out that one of my favorite authors Paul Cuelho also writes this way. He doesn't use NaNoWriMo, but takes the month of January to produce a new book and gives himself two years to rewrite and edit to his satisfaction. There you go I've gone on too long only because it doesn't hurt to type. LOL Thanks, again, kat |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Songwronger Date: 29 Sep 11 - 11:33 PM Been working on this tonight, thought of this thread. I'm not interested in POD (Print on Demand) books for myself. I was looking at Lulu.com because they're one of the ways in to Apple's iBookstore. Apple designated 8 "aggregators" to supply them with electronic books, and Lulu's one of the aggregators. But Lulu wants money for doing what should be free, so I'm off of them. Seems these aggregators are trying to make money off the situation. Hopefully I'll know if there are any good ones tomorrow after I read the pdf I turned up a few minutes ago. It goes over the various aggregators, pros and cons. Services for Indie Authors I've learned how to convert a manuscript into a .mobi document (the format that Amazon's Kindle uses) and an .epub document (the format used by most of the other e-book companies). I mention this because it leads to ISBNs (book tracking numbers). It's a good idea to use an ISBN. Your book doesn't need one, but it helps with record keeping. And even electronic books need ISBNs. I've read maybe a dozen articles on what's required for an ebook ISBN-wise, and this is what I've learned. For the electronic version of a manuscript, you should attach an ISBN to your .epub document. Be careful not to call it by a weird and restrictive title, like MOBY DORK, BARNES & NOBLE VERSION. To sell that same document on another site besides B&N you would need another ISBN. I plan to buy a block of ISBNs and assign one to each of the ebooks I put out. For Amazon (the .mobi version of the book), I'll just go with their numbering system (they assign an ASIN). So each of my works will have an ASIN and an ISBN. I've looked at how to acquire ISBNs and made some decisions. It looks better on your book if it's published by a company, rather than "Written by me" and "Published by myself and I." Self-publishing has a stigma, but I expect that will gradually lift as more good self-published work is circulated. So, for my ISBN's, I'll need to designate a publisher, and I'll just designate myself. If I don't, I'll have to make up a company name and then submit a "Doing Business As" form to my county and state (bite of registration fee for that), and then I'll have to look at a business tax number for my new publishing house, couple of new tax forms, and so on. Not worth the headache. Same with using a pseudonym, the way I read the information. Doing business under an assumed name would necessitate the same kind of paperwork. I have a short story due out in a fantasy magazine this month, and a crime story due out some time this fall. I do okay with the shorter works, but the process is glacially slow and doesn't pay well. I've been amazed by some of the self-published income figures I've seen on Amazon and other places, so that's what I'm working on. By the way, for the average novel, the author gets 7.5%. A ten dollar paperback earns the writer 75 cents. On Amazon, the author gets 70% of an ebook's sale price. Sell a book for ten dollars, pocket seven (or so, after flea bites). Self-published authors can't charge the prices that well-known writers can, but still, they can do all right if they churn out decent stuff and keep their prices down. That's for me. Thought the information about aggregators and ISBNs might help shed some light. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 19 Sep 11 - 11:32 PM At the time I did my first printed book, in 2004, there were only a handful of POD online sites like Lulu. I chose CafePress instead and have been very happy with the quality (AND, they are much easier to format for than CS, imo), BUT they no longer focus much on marketing books, so, while the printed copy looks better than the proof I got from Amazon's CreateSpace, recently, I am going to be using CS, if they can get a couple of issues resolved. However, I intend to give BookBrewer a serious look for ebook and POD. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Songwronger Date: 19 Sep 11 - 08:52 PM I just worked up a book as an html file (which is what Amazon/Kindle requires for upload), and an epub file (which is what a lot of other sellers use). I uploaded the book to Amazon and it seems to have come through the process fine. It's for sale now as an ebook. The other file, the epub, I believe I'll upload to Lulu.com. They sell print and ebooks on their site, and they distribute to other sellers (the two I'm most interested in are Barnes & Noble and iBookstore). Amazon/Lulu seems to be the way to go for maximum exposure. Some people like Smashwords, which takes your file and puts it through their "meatgrinder" and then distributes to a dozen retailers, but the meatgrinder is pretty rough on documents. No telling how they'll look when they come out. Lulu seems to be a good alternative to Smashwords. Lulu is primarily a print operation, and I believe they can turn your ebook into a print book. Not sure of set up costs or minimum runs and all that. They provide a free ISBN for ebooks and I expect they do for print books as well. If my ebook sells well I may look into doing a print run. Formatting is tricky. I used MS Word (word processor) and Kindle's manual to figure out the formatting for the Kindle book. It's not going to impress anyone with its professionality, but it's pretty good. I'm satisfied, at least. For the epub document I used Sigil. It's pretty user-friendly. And I worked up a cover that's not Rembrandt but is serviceable. Ask away, anyone, if you have particular questions. My knowledge is limited to the project I'm working on, but I've learned a LOT through trial and error. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: GUEST,999 Date: 19 Sep 11 - 07:50 PM If the thesaurus' mother or father finds out, you are in deep doo-doo. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Amergin Date: 19 Sep 11 - 05:43 PM Dragon sounds interesting...but I have concerns...especially since I do alot of editing while I write (I have a satirical blog), such as using a thesaurus. How would that work? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Don Firth Date: 19 Sep 11 - 05:31 PM By the way, DNS is really great for getting the words of songs into a notebook. Just recite the song— "As I walked out over London bridge (new line)and it miraculously appears on you screen, ready to tidy up and print out. Bob (Deckman) Nelson inherited the late Walt Robertson's notebook (huge collection of songs, some typed, most hand-written on odd pieces of notebook paper) and he loaned it to me. When I get DNS onto my new laptop, it's going to make copying the song collection duck-soup! Just read them off, and I've got 'em. Then copy the files onto a CD for Bob, so he won't have to try to decipher Walt's handwriting, he'll have a copy of the resource for his own use, and for that massive archiving project he's working on. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: Don Firth Date: 19 Sep 11 - 05:09 PM I've been using DNS off and on for quite a while now—couple different versions (I always get it on the $99.00 special). When I first started using it, it required a lot of "training," and I found it really annoying in that I had to spend a lot of time proof-reading. But then I notice that, even with the proof-reading, I was cranking out about twice as much edited verbiage in the same amount of time. Then I started liking it much better. More recent versions need less, if any, training and are a real improvement over earlier versions. I haven't been using it lately because my laptop rolled over and died a horrible death a few months ago, so I had to get a new one—64 bit, quad-core with memory 'til hell won't have it—with Windows 7. It turned out that extant versions of DNS were not compatible. But I just received the latest version which IS supposed to be compatible. Haven't loaded it yet, but—keep your fingers crossed!! Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 19 Sep 11 - 05:04 PM JohninKS, the HOME version, which I just ordered, with 2 day shipping, was under $70. That's two copays for sore fingers' doctor visits.:-) Thanks, maeve! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: maeve Date: 19 Sep 11 - 04:43 PM Also in the US, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators is full of helpful resources. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: maeve Date: 19 Sep 11 - 04:38 PM Tha Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance is a valuable resource. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: JohnInKansas Date: 19 Sep 11 - 03:16 PM While I haven't felt an urge to get Dragon NS, I do have a couple of other products from the maker so I get frequent ads for discounts. (Nuance advertising is almost as annoying as HP's.) I believe the current "list price" is $199.99 (US) but recent offers at $99.99 have been coming in. This suggests that searching for "specials" at the Nuance site, or discounts at other vendors may be quite worthwhile; although I haven't looked at what's advertised at searchable sellers. John |
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Subject: BS: Resources for writers & self-publishers From: katlaughing Date: 19 Sep 11 - 02:53 PM Some of you know I've been working on getting a second edition of my book, Windwords of Wyoming, available on Amazon. A certain Mudcatter has very kindly offered to format it for me as I've been having trouble with it. I've also been looking into putting it out as a eBook. This morning on Colorado Matters on Colorado Public Radio, I noticed a story about the BOOKBREWER started up in Boulder and getting some surprisingly well-known names using their services, including the Huffington Post. Anyway, I thought letting those writers/authors/self-publishers among us know about BookBrewer would be a good start for a resources thread for us all. Please feel free to list any resources you know of and/or use in self-publishing, etc. Oh, another, though not new, I've just ordered the latest edition of Dragon Naturally Speaking home version so my poor fingers can rest!:-)Definitely a good resource and since I bought it through Amazon, Mudcat gets a cut. kat |
