E-Book Sales X3=iPad?

From all morning long while monitoring Apple's announcement:

I'd hoped to have leaking news of Apple's announcement for this post, but found none credible. First, I refer you to Richard Curtis' E-Reads news that November 09 E-Book Sales Triple Over 09. This seems a remarkable growth pace, even if e-book sales are only 5% of total book sales.

* FLASH: It's called iPad and sounds like a souped-up media-oriented "smart phone." But does it have telephony capability, too? Sounds like Apple's view is that no one talks to anyone anymore. We'll all text. I want a netbook phone! And what about e-books. Or i-books, if you please?

According to a PublishersMarketPlace story reported by Mike Shatzkin the other day, Apple’s disruption of the ebook market has nothing to do with the tablet (iPad). PMP's Calder said that Apple is forcing the book publishing industry to move to an "agency" model for e-book sales. It is quite complex, and PMP is a subscription service, so no link.  Shatzkin's story is long and worth readiing even though he admits it provokes even more questions. He explains:

The “agency” model is based on the idea that the publisher is selling to the consumer and, therefore, setting the price, and any “agent”, which would usually be a retailer but wouldn’t have to be, that creates that sale would get a “commission” from the publisher for doing so. Since Apple’s normal “take” at the App Store is 30% and discounts from publishers have normally been 50% off the established retail price, publishers can claw back margin even if they don’t get Apple to concede anything from the 30%.

From Twitter, I said, "Oy! #iPad *IS* a phone.  Oh, I am maybe hooked. Just blogging "I want a netbook phone" has been my plea for years. Well, laptop with phone." And now from Engadget streaming report by Joshua Topolsky:

Showing reading book on the iPad. Called iBooks. Displays virtual book shelf, with new iBook store, fully integrated with iBook app. Can discover books, best seller lists. 5 publishers support at start. Penguin, Harper Collins, others. Easy to download books. Flip through books with finger. Can include video, color, black and white photos. Can change font size of the font. Also will be targeting textbooks.

Calder had said that Apple was in discussion with Big Six (Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Macmillan.) I keep wondering what effect, if any, this will have on Amazon's recently-announced 70% commission for Kindle publication sales? (It remains 30% until June.) Or If this agency model propelled Amazon into upping the royalties?

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Best of Recent Retweets

Even better the second time around: @GLHancocks tweets and retweets, retweeted.

RT @DanGordon: I said it once, I'll say it again: Authenticity. Transparency. Passion. Patience. Perseverance. = Results. #blogchat 7:06 PM Dec 20th from TweetChat Retweeted by C J Jackman Zigante

RT @RKCharron: The word you choose reflects the tone you wish to convey and the image you wish to invoke.| Except in chats! typok #writechat 2:08 PM Dec 20th from TweetChat Retweeted by C J Jackman Zigante

New at AWE -- Santa arrived early for some bloggers! Today Amazon announced Amazon Associates for Blogger, a direc... http://bit.ly/4BrZHI 10:13 AM Dec 17th from twitterfeed Retweeted by Melinda Emerson

Checked out new Google search, found Listorious & a list for NewNewmedia by @PaulLev http://listorious.com/GLHancock/memberships 7:13 PM Dec 15th from Echofon Retweeted by Paul Levinson

Blogs feel very private to you, alone, hunched over your keyboard; but when you hit "Post" you're a naked, plucked chicken to all #writechat 1:24 PM Dec 6th from TweetChat Retweeted by kimberly gonzalez

I have a free article available on Copyright on the Writing Help page of my site: http://www.writers-edge.info/writing-help.htm #writechat 1:19 PM Dec 6th from TweetChat Retweeted by David Gerbino

@WritingSpirit Actually, writing articles is one of the ways recommended for fictionalists to get their names known-adjunct to book #writechat 12:29 PM Nov 29th from TweetChat in reply to WritingSpirit Retweeted by Writing Spirit

#blogpostfail: "If the man you are discretely having an affair with..." Right, only one affair at a time, girls! #copyediting #editing 8:25 PM Nov 25th from Echofon Retweeted by Jane Smith

RT @editorialdept Writers learn from what they're doing right as much as from criticism. Good editors cheer a writer on.#litchat 4:12 PM Nov 20th from Power Twitter Retweeted by pberinstein

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Book of Tweets

Apparently TweetBookz aren't as popular as expected. The price has dropped from the announced $30 hardbound and $20 softcover to $25.50 and $17 according to the site's FAQ. To be fair, the home page says it's a "sale" until January 1, 2010.

I was disappointed to find little customization available, and the quantity is limited to the last 200 messages. I was hoping to be able to concoct "The Best of GLHancock's Tweets" or something like that. Panning through an entire RSS feed for nuggets of wisdom is daunting, to say the least. There must be a better way to search your own material, like with a feed reader and Word or Excel? There must be an app for that!

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Gifts for Writers

Give yourself or writerly friends gifts of services. Design them with me. Ideas: an hour of publishing consultations, any editorial services or manuscript evaluations. Contact Me for details and arrangements or send me an email.

Help is available for improving writing, formatting manuscripts for submission or self-publishing, guidance through the confusing dance of queries, synopses, outlines, multiple submissions, copyright and all the other parts of the path to publication.

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Trash Proof News Releases

Save your news release from immediate deposit in the circular file. Most of them drop directly from hand to can, you know. Some publications run them as is, some rewrite, but they are inundated with releases and use only a few.

Want to be sure yours is read by the publication's audience? Paul J. Krupin of Direct Contact PR is testing an offer of a *FREE* copy of the ebook version of his Trash Proof News Releases, available from Smashwords. He says, "The book contains 200 plus pages of strategies, tactics, psychology, and sample news releases and can help people do the right thing better than anything else I've seen in the marketplace to date." Get 'em while they're hot!

And if it's so valuable, why would the king of PR give away his secrets? Because, he explains:

My business model doesn't rely specifically on publishing income. But I will be using my writing as a calling card to drive multiple streams of income.

Now this may not fit for those who simply derive income from published works. But I highly recommend this approach to those who can do it diversify their intellectual property, their skills, abilities and knowledge and contract or package their knowledge in other small bite size service deliverable that people will buy whether it be by the page, by the hour, by the day or whatever.

Here today I offer you a two-fer: a free ebook to help you market whatever and insight into the meaning of "platform" and how self-publishing non-fiction books can work for you.

DISCLAIMER FOR THE FTC: I didn't get anything for publishing this post, and it should not be construed or used as a testimonial. I downloaded, but I did not read...yet.

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MBR Self-Publishing Help

Thinking about self-publishing? Here's a list of books on the venerable Midwest Book Review website to help you get started:

MBR: The Publisher's Bookshelf A-L and M-Z

In his monthly newsletter, Editor Emeritus, Jim Cox, usually reviews these types of books and others to help writers and publishers in general. Another informational page on the site is Advice for Writers & Publishers, articles by various professionals.

Ordinarily I'd be telling you where to find "Georganna's Bookshelf" for October 2009, but I was tardy sending in my reviews last month. A gentle tap on the noggin by Jim informed me that I once again have a deadline: the 25th of the preceding month.

I did not know this.

November's page will be awesome!

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Dorraine Darden, Author

As promised, the interview with Dorraine Darden, author of Jack Rabbit Moon, a quite good self-published novel. I asked Dorraine to share her experiences in this enterprise and if she'd do it again. She provides important tips for writers who are considering self-publishing, including a list of best resources at the end of the article. Keep in mind that this is only one set of experiences and one author's knowledge. You need to check out everything for yourself.

I especially liked her answer to the question, "What are you doing to market Jack Rabbit Moon?"

I’m a hat-wearing mama. And boots and glittery shawls. These days an author must give it all they’ve got. Besides book signings, book club appearances, library workshops, blogging, writing forums, and writing for my community newsletter, I make wide use of the internet. An author website at Dorraine Darden.com, along with twitter, face book, my space, your space, and the whole Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Right now, though I’m carving out time to write again. This is where it all begins.

Read the whole interview here and in brief at BlogCritics.org.
Still to come: a review of JACK RABBIT MOON.

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Sneak Previews

Coming up: an interview with Dorraine Darden, author of Jack Rabbit Moon (see the nicely done book trailer featured here) about her adventures in self-publishing and plans for her next book. That's Dorraine, to the right, hiding behind, oh, maybe a cottonwood beside the Frio River? I'll be reviewing her lovely novel soon, too.

I'm not quite sure how I pulled this off, but Petru Popescu, author of Girl Mary, will prepare an essay for us on writing about famous female religious figures. About his book, Elie Wiesel said, "In this novel Petru Popescue's literary imagination will stimulate the reader's interest in religious and historical events." We will also have a few copies to give away, thanks to Simon & Schuster. Shall we have a contest? Lottery?

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Self-Publishing Success

A self-published book, God's Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana, won the 2009 Spur Award for Best First Novel from the Western Writers of America, a prestigious national honor. Past Spur winners include Larry McMurtry for Lonesome Dove, Michael Blake for Dances With Wolves, Glendon Swarthout for The Shootist, and Tony Hillerman for Skinwalker. The author, Carol Buchanan, receives her award Saturday night at the group's annual convention.

As promised, I contacted Buchanan about this remarkable phenomenon and learned that she had not even attempted traditional publishing, although she is a traditionally published author of nonfiction books. Her insights into self-publishing will either encourage you or knock your socks off. Either way, she graciously shares valuable information and agreed to answer questions about her experience... Read the rest of the Interview With Carol Buchanan.

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Cheaper Books at Scribd

I looked into Scribd.com for publishing Be a Successful Writer! The caliber of other documents offered in the "writing" section did not impress me. In short, I didn't want to be included. It looked like a whole lot of competition with no quality control and no immediate way for customers to know what links were worthwhile exploring. It was for these reasons that I never wrote about the new service.

Last month I mentioned that Linda Dawson had written about Scribd in her newsletter. She was interested in the new book publishing service that allows sales of single chapters. Also in its favor, "Authors can upload their titles and reap an 80% royalty (as opposed to Amazon's Kindle store, which forks over merely 30%)."

Now in an NYT article, Brad Stone reports that Simon & Schuster [disclaimer: I review for S&S] will sell thousands of its titles on Scribd for "20 percent off the list price of the most recent print edition." Today 5,000 titles were to be available. Scribd does not set prices and says it will use S&S's digital files to find and remove pirated copies. Nice. When will they do that for the little guys?

Back in March Scribd had announced partnerships also with Random House, Thomas Nelson, Manning, Berrett-Koehler, Workman and other leading publishers. This came only two years after the company was launched. There's still no way for viewers to estimate the value of an item from the initial listings, so a successful run on Scribd still depends on good marketing to drive buyers to the exact listing. I'm rethinking using Scribd.

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Vanity and Misplaced Values

Australian author Graham Storrs wonders What Price Vanity? He begins, "I've been trying to decide lately at what point being published for no fee counts as vanity publishing."

Perhaps Australia has a different definition of "vanity publishing?" At any rate, Storrs muddles getting published without pay and paying to be published, which puts the "vanity" in the type of publishing wherein authors pay someone else to publish their works. I don't care what you call it: participatory, POD, subsidized, vanity, self...

Actually, "self" is a good place to stop and a good word to substitute for "vanity". No matter what the arrangement between you, the author, and anybody else who participates in your work being offered to the public, if you fund any part of the project, you're self-publishing.

Storrs, however, continues to confound the notion of works being published for free with publishing the work yourself:

Presumably, because it is better to have your story published, even for free, than to have it sitting forever on your hard drive. In other words, it's a kind of vanity publishing.

Only if the process is totally automated, as I sometimes suspect it is with those "article marketing" sites. Not only does no one edit the product, possibly they aren't even aware of what their software is doing. Let's all try uploading some severe erotica and see what happens. Or hate lit. Never mind, back to the question of what is vanity publishing.

Storrs plunges on to uploading properly formatted material as eBooks for sale on services like Lulu and Kindle. He notes the lack of editorial support or control, but suggests that if the author pays nothing for the services, it is still not vanity publishing. That's only if you don't consider self-publishing as vanity publishing and place no value on the time and skill to prepare the mss, manage the process, and promote the published work--all jobs undertaken by traditional publishers.

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Reviewing the Books

Carol Buchanan must be thinking, "Finally!" A review of her award-winning historical fiction, Book Review: God's Thunderbolt: The Vigilantes of Montana went up on Blogcritics late last night. Next project: interviewing Buchanan about why she went with self-publishing. This is her first published fiction and, right out of the gate, it won her the 2009 Spur Award for Best First Novel given by the Western Writers of America. I guarantee the information Buchanan has to offer other new novelists contemplating self-publishing is vital and riveting.

The nice people who run the Midwest Book Review website dedicated a section for my offerings in the Reviewer's Bookwatch. I don't know if my reviews are included in any of the other review collections the MBR publishes (print or digital), and I haven't quite figured out the site's organization, so I don't know if there is a method for finding all my reviews other than the site's search service. My reviews there are not always the same as the ones on Blogcritics.org.

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Lulu Sells on Amazon

An author-friend recently received this message from Lulu.com:

Congratulations, your book has been selected for listing on Amazon.com's Marketplace! As a result, your book will now be easily found on the world's largest online bookseller.

There will be some differences between your listing on Lulu and your listing on Amazon. Amazon charges a fee to list your book, and in order to cover that cost your book will be listed with a 30% markup; however your royalty will remain the same, and your book's price on Lulu will not change. Furthermore, your book sales on Amazon will reflect in your Lulu account immediately.

Lulu is committed to helping you increase your book's sales and we hope you enjoy the benefits of listing your book on Amazon.com

Apparently the 30% markup covers the cost for a Lulu book to be listed on Amazon, as well as Amazon's royalty cut. Lulu authors are still paid according to their Lulu contracts. I'd think the greater visibility would offset the higher price, resulting in more sales. No? Yes? Maybe.

And how does this accord with Amazon's new policy of not listing self-published books unless they are printed by its BookSurge printing unit? The world's largest online bookstore's practice doesn't seem to be slowing down Lightning Source, the on-demand book printing unit of Ingram publishing services. In May it started delivering digital books on compact Espresso digital printing devices in some retail outlets and libraries.

The book publishing industry is changing so fast, you can't keep up, even with a scorecard.

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Digital Writing Technology

I receive many newsletters about writing and scan them for gems to pass along to readers of A Writer's Edge. Think of it as a concentrated knowledge pill that takes you to the edge of the writing universe. (Trying out branding phrases.)

A couple recent items on digital productions caught my eye:

From Marg McAllister's May 21 Writing4Success Club Tip Sheet No 154 - Writing and Selling Your Own E-Course. Ms. McAllister, who writes and practices in Australia, suggests:

Lots of people with a hobby or special interest have thought about starting up a newsletter or a blog, and this is an excellent way to attract a following. However, if you really know what you're talking about, then you could turn your knowledge into a nice little business - by writing an e-course on it. Or ever a series of e-courses.

She elaborates on the four steps necessary for a successful e-course:

1. WRITE the course
2. put your course ONLINE
3. PROMOTE your course
4. DELIVER your course

The entire article is available at online. No reason why your e-course couldn't be an e-book, too.

From the LNJDawson May 27 The Big Picture newsletter:

Scribd has been getting a lot of press lately after opening its e-bookstore. Authors can upload their titles and reap an 80% royalty (as opposed to Amazon's Kindle store, which forks over merely 30%). What I find most interesting about Scribd's model, however, is how it sells books by the chapter. This is a manifestation of what we've been predicting in the StartwithXML project.

A little over a year ago, Smashwords went live. An e-bookstore that also offers authors an 80% royalty, Smashwords distributes to multiple platforms, offering many formats: ePub, .mobi, PDF, LRF, RTF and plain text. So Smashwords books can be read on the iPhone, Kindle, desktop, and Sony Reader.

These are more places to sell your book as an eBook, unless your contract prohibits such activities. Also, a little birdie told me that now you can publish through Lulu and maybe have your product listed on Amazon by Lulu!

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Cox on Self-Publishing

From the latest newsletter by the founder and director of the Midwest Book Review, MBR: Jim Cox Report, March 2009, contemplating causes for the rising tide of self-published books submitted:

Most people write and publish books for a profit, for a cause, or for the simple fun of it. Then there are we who are driven to write and/or publish by irresistible compulsions and by the demands of our own egos to share with the world what we think about this or that subject or issue, concern or conceit.

You can find Cox's monthly reports at MBR: Jim Cox Reports Index and subscribe by email to: mbr[AT]execpc.com.

And, oh, this happens to be my debut month as a reviewer at MBR. See MBR: Reviewer's Bookwatch, March 2009 for my first clumsy attempt on the Reviewer's Choice page. Search with your browser on "The Book of Chameleons" to find my contribution.

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Self-Published Book Reviewed

Stop the presses! A major newspaper reviews a self-published book. The San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Caroline Dipping today interviews David Nuffer, author of The Best Friend I Ever Had, yet another book about Ernest Hemingway. Well, O.K., to be honest, the article in the Currents/Passages (obits) section is not really a book review, although Dipping writes,

...Nuffer reveals Hemingway in a personal light that even early reviews by scholars grudgingly admit they never knew....

and mentions the publisher, Xlibris, on the front page. Towards the end of the article she mentions Nuffer's decision to self-publish after shopping his manuscript to only five agents, and she quotes him, "They all came back and said 'No.' I knew I had to self publish."

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Self Help for Self Publishers

Aaron Shepard of Aaron's Publishing Page and
Sales Rank Express is now offering free .PDF copies of two books "Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing" and "Perfect Pages: Self Publishing with Microsoft Word." Links for viewing or downloading the files are on these two pages:

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/books/AimingAmazon.html

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/books/PerfectPages.html

I remember when Aaron was beta testing his book on using MS Word to set up books for self-publishing. It has come along nicely.

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Editors on Self-Publishing

Paul Krupin of Direct Contact PR, makes available the results of a survey of media people (editors, mostly) on the subject of self-publishing and self-publishers. It's still a mixed set of attitudes. In posting the link on a publisher's mailing list, Krupin wrote:

The key lessons learned is simple: Write a good book. Make sure it is a really good book. And then do a really good job telling the right people you wrote a really good book.

The survey responses as a .PDF file and web page.

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Does A Writer Return?

Baby comes back! Well, not really. I'm not ready to rejoin the ratracetrack of daily posting -- too many holiday parties to attend, not enough progress on long term projects. The good news, though, is that this extended break from blogging has allowed the painful tendonitis in my right hand to subside. I don't even need to wear a band during the day and/or a brace at night now.

Meanwhile, for the holidays, I've reduced the price on my eBook Be a Successful Writer! to $14.95. It prepares a beginner for the practical side of the writing life, whether the interest is in freelancing nonfiction, creating a novel, or crafting poetry. The book provides the basics of what you need to know about selling your work, handling records and taxes, finding agents, and so much more. Read all about it, and give someone (or yourself) the gift of success!

During this pause in the blog, I used some of the time to move it to a new page named "Blog.htm" and remodeled the old index page to help newcomers find what they're looking for. I've also added new services to the page on Editing -- namely formatting manuscripts for self-publishing and consultations or help by phone and email.

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Going into Labor Day

I couldn't resist using this pop phrase, so apropos because I've decided to go forward with my threatened book on Writer's Block. Hold on to your seats -- I may even self-publish it, and might choose to use Amazon's CreateSpace program. Maybe.

Why should I write yet another book on this subject? Amazon lists dozens of publications for sale on this topic. The first time I searched, it listed only 190 books. Still, that's a lot of sources to check! Or maybe, maybe ... I should just write out my own ideas about how Writer's Block is a temporary interruption in creativity, as I am fond of reframing the situation.

Should it be an e-book or tree-book, or even a blog-book like J. A. Kornrath produced with his A Newbie's Guide to Publishing a .PDF file that was originally just links to his blog posts. Now the posts' bodies are unlinked, but the header and comment links remain. Another idea. Or I could convert it into a book for Amazon's Kindle, or format it for other e-readers.

Digital publishing has opened on vistas heretofore unknown to the writer: the whole book could be recorded for tape, CD, live streaming, podcasting and probably even more! A more clever and talented person than myself could add animation and video for different scenes, and in between I could appear as a talking head (?)

O.K. Hold it! This all sounds like too much work right now. I'm not going into labor today.

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Writing for Magazines

Whether you want to keep up with the onslaught of new magazines because you want to freelance to them or check out potential competitors because you want to start one of your own, have I the resources for you! First stop is to visit Mr. Magazine.com - The Official Site of Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni, Ph.D.. Husni is the experts' expert in what's happening with the mag world. To stay abreast of the news, don't miss his blog, apparently with the same name as his website.

Another resource for finding out about new mags is Magazine Yellow Pages. They even project launches as far as the third quarter of this year. It's also a subscription service with many features.

If you've been thinking about starting a magazine yourself, Husni provides a step-by-step free list of FAQs to help you get started, in addition to his book, Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide For Succeeding In Today's Marketplace. Once you've determined your new enterprise's launch date, don't forget to let the Magazine Yellow Pages know by phone: 1-877-205-8061 or e-mail info@magazineyellowpages.com.

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Book Publishing Business

Anyone who hopes to have a book published, and everyone who considers self-publishing, will benefit by reading Rachael Donadio's essay on the NY Times website, Why Does It Still Take So Long to Publish a Book? Although she writes extensively about pre-pub marketing strategies, another take-away point is this:

As soon as a literary agent has sold a publisher a book, and even before it’s edited, copy-edited, proofread and indexed, the publicity wheels start turning.

Notice all the editorial steps that take time to accomplish. One would hope that the book had already been edited before it was submitted to an agent, and sometimes agents suggest rewrites (requiring another edit).

All this gate-keeping scrutiny of traditional publishing, that self-published books seldom receive, contributes to the negative impression about and discrimination against reviewing self-publishers.

Now go back and study the marketing description Donadio provides. Could you possibly do all that as an individual? Did you know of these strategies necessary for a published book to become even a mild success? Those who think that self-publishing is a fine alternative because it is faster and cheaper are short-changing themselves and their customers. And I haven't mentioned product quality, fodder for another post.

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Is Your Writing Published or Not?

Frequently people ask if they can submit a piece of writing to a contest or a magazine, publisher, agent if it had already appeared on a web page, in a blog, at a critique site. I advocate playing it safe, because appearance on any web page fulfills the definition of being published. A web page is anything that will appear on your computer monitor's screen. As quickly as it appears, a search engine robot may be "spidering" that website and capturing an image of the page for the search engine's index. There the page becomes part of an archive.

The definition of "published and first rights used" depends on the potential buying publisher, contest holder, agent. Some dismiss appearances on critique sites, some don't count blogs, some will even waive self-publishing (with minimal distribution). Jordan E. Rosenfeld explores the vague and shifting boundaries in a Writer's Digest article, Shades of Gray:

Here's his quick list to determine if your piece counts as "previously published."

It was published if...

• you gave up your first North American serial rights

• it went through an editorial process

• it appeared in an online journal, even a defunct one

• it appeared in a print publication with a small print run

• it appeared in a literary anthology

It's unpublished if...

• it won a prize but was not printed

• it was workshopped in an online writing workshop

• it appeared on your blog or someone else's (though this is changing, so tread carefully)

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Size Matters with Bar Codes on Books

I don't mean to scare you, but publishing a book yourself takes you out of the realm of writer and into a new business as fraught with dangers as a war zone. One such minefield concerns what appears on your book's cover. No, I'm not talking about the front of the cover this time as previously. I've hit that topic every year: 2004, 2005, 2006.

On the back of your book, in addition to an enticing blurb and endorsements, certain information is required so that others can order and sell your book. These items are generally referred to as the "bar code". Yes, literally a bar code like the ones that appear on products in the grocery stores. This one, however, is the Bookland EAN, a series of electronically readable bars and numbers incorporating the book's 13-digit ISBN and often the book's price. For background and details about this bar code, see the Book Industry Study Group.

Book cover designer Cathi Stevenson offers an article focusing on issues about the size of the bar code in The Truth About Bar Codes--Size Matters. She warns:

It should also be noted that Barnes and Noble will not accept books from small publishers that do not comply with their format, which is slightly smaller, although it's always better to cover all basis and go with the larger format, and the following is from the Barnes and Noble website.

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Amazon's POD CreateSpace

As if one publish on demand service wasn't enough, last August Amazon.com began CreateSpace, which seems to be more for audio and video projects than the paperback book publishing they advertise. Apparently the only way to easily discover costs and benefits is to register and begin a project, although a FAQ exists specifically about books, and you might glean some insight from a pricing page. I love the example they use--a 100 B&W book priced at $25 "would earn a royalty of $14.85 per sale." Whee! Oh, wait--who would pay $25 for a 100-page trade paperback?

Currently free CreateSpace services are dangling before writers entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest:

the winning author will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, including promotional support for their book on Amazon.com, and a media suite from Hewlett-Packard. All entrants are eligible to self-publish their novel with CreateSpace and sell it on Amazon.com. Enter your manuscript for consideration by November 5, 2007!

An overview on the book service is available.

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Get Books in Barnes & Noble

One of the many myths about self-publishing is that if you pursue that course, you can't get your book carried by major stores like Barnes & Noble. Let's see what Marcella Smith, Small Press Business Manager, Barnes & Noble says:

The process for contacting Barnes & Noble for our decision about whether or not we want to distribute the book into our stores is pretty straightforward and pretty simple. All you need to do is send a copy of the finished book to us along with a cover letter letting us know how you're going to promote the title, what you're marketing and publishing plans are, when you plan to publish the book and what your credentials are for writing it.

Sounds simple enough. You might also consult the book store's online help desk's Publisher and Author Guidelines and the details about Submitting Content for a heads-up on what is involved if B&N accepts your book.

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Book Publishing Encyclopedia

In a recent newsletter, Dan Poynter wrote about his latest self-help for self-publishers:

Finding book resources fast. Time is money. Writers, publishers and publicists need access to resources--quickly. Whether you deal in entertainment (fiction) or information (nonfiction), you need information on the book industry.

Dan Poynter's Book Publishing Encyclopedia is the "Book Publishing Answer Book." It has thousands of tips and references in an easy-to use alphabetical encyclopedia. Each fact, figure, resource or reference, in its 222 pages, links to a specific page on a web site for more information.

Red emphasis mine, because it made me assume this is an eBook. How else could it "link" to information on his website? I hurried to Amazon and was confused to find the reference available only as a paperback. Discouraged from buying it, I wondered, what good is a link if it doesn't work? I guess saying "link" was short for "URL" or "web page address", but still, misleading. C'mon, Dan, release this in electronic format with real links.

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Self-Publishers Print Costs

According to Mark Levine, a 200-page, 5.5 x 8.5 paperback, with a laminated, full color cover costs a self-publishing company about $3.90 (or less, given the volume of business they provide to printers). That includes $.015 per page and $.90 for the cover. In his book The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, Levine compares the cost to print such a book by six big publishers and calculates the profit they make on each book. iUniverse, Lulu.com, Outskirts Press, Trafford, Xlibris and Authorhouse pay $3.90 to print your book, but charge you, respectively, $10.37 (35% off retail price, for orders of 6-19 books), $8.53, $6.16 (when ordering publisher's $999 publishing package), $8.37, $13.19 and $9.71 per copy. Do you really think you could sell a paperback for the price it would take to recoup your cost? $8.99 is about the maximum the public will pay.

[publishing]

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