Writers

BookBaby Helps Authors Sell E-Books Directly to Readers

BookBaby BookShopWRITERS. With the opening of BookShop, BookBaby is writing a whole new chapter in self publishing. BookBaby authors can now sell their e-books directly to readers through their own free BookShop e-commerce webpage. As an author, you can earn more money per sale and get paid faster than ever before.

If you are a BookBaby author, you can now sell ePub and .mobi versions of your e-books directly to readers and earn 85% of the gross selling price. You can still link fans to your e-book on popular retail sites such as iBooks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others.

Plus, instead of holding onto e-book revenues for weeks or months, BookBaby pays its authors within one week of the sale.

“It’s very simple. BookShop pays more and pays fast. Faster than anyone else,” said BookBaby’s Chief Marketing Officer Steven Spatz, “That’s what every author is looking for. For example if you sell an e-book for ten bucks on a Friday, you’ll see $8.50 show up in your account the following Monday. No other company gets money back to its authors like BookBaby.”

BookShop is free to every BookBaby author, including writers who are now taking advantage of the company’s new free eBook publishing package. Authors can upload ePub files directly to BookBaby for worldwide eBook distribution without any upfront costs.

BookShop is the latest addition to BookBaby’s fast-growing list of products and services to help authors find success in the marketplace. “It used to be that writers were thrilled just to have their manuscripts turned into an eBook and listed for sale on Amazon,” said Spatz. “But for today’s independent author, literary success requires a lot more than just great file conversion and retail distribution.”

“BookBaby’s new motto is ‘publish, promote and sell.’ While we’ll always help our authors publish books, they also need the opportunity to promote and sell their books. We’ve given our BookBaby authors exactly that with BookPromoTM and now BookShop.”

BookPromo Services

Last year, BookBaby introduced BookPromo, a free promotionaBookBaby BookPromol service for all BookBaby authors, Users of BookBaby’s BookPromo services receive:

BookBaby and CD Baby

BookBaby is the sister company to CD Baby, the world’s largest online distributor of independent music. Founded as a garage start-up in 1998, CD Baby has grown to become a trusted name in the independent music business, paying over a quarter billion dollars to over 300,000 artists worldwide. BookBaby is following in the footsteps of its corporate sibling by helping independent authors realize their literary dreams. “With CD Baby we’ve brought musicians and fans directly together,” said Spatz. “BookBaby and BookShop are going to do exactly the same for authors and readers.”

BookBaby distributes e-books in more than 185 countries through 11+ online retail stores, including Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble, BookBaby’s full array of services includes e-book formatting, cover design, and short-run book printing.

LINKS

BookBaby BookShop

BookBaby BookPromo

About BookBaby

 

Teacher Seeks to Reinvent Storytelling with Transmedia Project

Jonathan Belisle, a Montreal teacher, script writer and web entrepreneur, has a storytelling system that combines old and new, traditional mythology and modern technology, and fantasy and reality.

Wuxia the Fox is a transmedia project that comes as an illustrated book paired with an iPad app.

Using the iPad app to read the symbolic blocks placed on one of the maps in the book. (PRNewsFoto/Wuxia the Fox )
Using the iPad app to read the symbolic blocks placed on one of the maps in the book. (PRNewsFoto/Wuxia the Fox )

“The app reacts to what it hears and sees,” explains Belisle. “As you read the story, the app adds the music and sound effects, based on where you are in the story and the tone of your voice. It’s the future of children’s books.”

The iPad app triggers new scenes of content using image recognition, and transforms into a musical instrument when interacting with small wooden blocks provided with the book.

It’s a revolutionary way to tell stories – for young and old. The messages in this kids’ book deal with the climate changes, earth and dreams. “This can be a tool for young people to increase their awareness of the technological and ecological changes currently underway,” said Belisle. “In addition to weaving a great tale, it can inspire people to be more environmentally responsible.”

Jonathan Belisle presenting Wuxia's Book & App interactions. (PRNewsFoto/Wuxia the Fox )
Jonathan Belisle presenting Wuxia’s Book & App interactions. (PRNewsFoto/Wuxia the Fox )

The story in this augmented book revolves around Oremia, an 8-year-old girl who has vivid recurring dreams of great whales. Convinced she is actually a hologram, she meets Wuxia, a young fox with telepathic powers. Wuxia agrees to join Oremia to search for a legendary humpback whale named Nioma.

The combination of highly sophisticated electronics and lush illustrations has placed a significant price tag on this groundbreaking transmedia project. Belisle needs about $64,000 for book graphics, audiovisual content for the iPad app, development of the sound and symbol recognition algorithm, and copy editing. From now until May 2, 2014, he is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the project.

He plans to make the system available in French and English.

Depending on their donation levels, contributors can receive PDF versions of the book, soft and hardcover editions of the book in various sizes and wooden amulets.

“Our goal is to reinvent storytelling,” Belisle said. “It will inspire adults and children to connect with nature, developing new ways to share bedtime stories and explore their dreams.”

LINKS

Kickstarter Campaign for Wuxia

Wuxia

E-Book Offers 50 Tips to Help You Freelance with Confidence

FreelancewithConfidnce-E-Book-350WRITERS. Laurie Lewis, author of the book “What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants,” has published a new Kindle e-book, “Freelance With Confidence: 50 Proven Tips for a Successful Freelance Career.”

While providing useful guidance for any freelancer, the e-book will be especially valuable for newcomers to the field and for those struggling to build a successful business.

The 50 tips in Freelance With Confidence fall into five categories:

  • 10 crucial things to remember about freelancing
  • 10 start-up instructions for new freelancers
  • 10 reminders about working alone and as part of a team
  • 10 pointers for keeping up in a technology-driven world, and
  • 10 insights about freelancing as a lifestyle.

The author has supported herself as freelance medical writer and editor in New York City for almost 30 years.

The second edition of her book “What to Charge” was selected as a finalist in the USA Best Books 2011 competition. It tied for first place in a business category and came in second in the writing division of the 2012 Reader Views Literary Awards competition.

LINKS

Freelance With Confidence: 50 Proven Tips for a Successful Freelance Career

What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants

Freelance Fee Setting: Quick Guide for When a Client Demands a Price NOW

Indie Publisher Lists Five Editing Errors Many Aspiring Authors Make

SBPRAEditingImagePublish-on-demand (POD) printing has forever changed the way authors approach book publishing. But just because everyone can easily publish a book doesn’t mean every book will meet the high standards that traditional publishers (and their readers) expect.

Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency (SBPRA), an independent publishing company, has identified five major editing errors that prevent authors from having their books accepted by the publishing industry:

Neglecting to proofread the work before submitting.
Thoroughly review your work before submission. Go over it objectively, remembering that this is a marketable product. If you have a propensity to use certain words and expressions repeatedly, be aware of them and take pains to avoid them. Don’t submit manuscripts with duplicate or missing chapters.

Overlooking typographical, punctuation, and grammar errors.
This could be an endless list. Some of the most common mistakes.

  • Using “it’s” instead of “its,” and vice versa
  • Misusing or omitting apostrophes (Bills dad is incorrect; so is Dad’s bill’s)
  • Using hyphens when dashes are required
  • Inconsistently formatting numbers, dates, and times of day
  • Capitalizing Every Word In A Title Or Subtitle. Standard publishing practice dictates the capitalization of only important words, not articles and short prepositions
  • Confusing the spelling of homophones, such as lightning and lightening, or complimentary and complementary.
  • Using inconsistent capitalization, such as capitalizing “Bible” in some places and making it lower-case in other places.
  • Using US and UK spellings and style in the same manuscript, resulting in humor and color in some places and humour and colour elsewhere.
  • Using “that” instead of “who” when referring to people.

Failing to Obtain Permission to Use Copyrighted Material.
It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for the use of all materials included in the book (not just text, but illustrations, charts, graphs). As the author, you must also ensure that all citations from other works are correctly quoted and that the sources are correctly cited.

Failing to Include All Material in a Single File.
Along with the main text, the manuscript file should include the “front matter” (title page, copyright page, epigraph, dedication, table of contents, preface, foreword, and introduction) as well as the “back matter” (bibliography, glossary, and endnotes or footnotes if used). Nobody will ever know if you intended this material if you don’t supply it with your manuscript. Adding it after the page layout has been completed is time-consuming, inefficient, and potentially expensive.

Failing to Develop a Professional, Yet Individual Style.
This is a really big one. So many authors don’t make the effort to learn how to write effectively. To compensate, they load their prose with “filler” phrases such “It is important to remember” or “I want to take this opportunity to say” instead of just beginning with the essential statement. Or they try to appear up-to-date by using slang like “What’s up with that?” or “homeboy”—clichés that are bound to sound dated a few years after the book is published.

The Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency (SBPRA) has the experience, expertise, and international network that can help authors be more successful in today’s evolving publishing industry. The firm offers book publishing services and comprehensive marketing support.

LINK

Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Agency

 

PubSmart Conference Helps Authors Understand All Their New Options

WRITERS. For an updated overview of today’s broad range of publishing opportunities, consider attending PubSmart 2014, April 16-18 in Charleston, South Carolina. The event is designed to help emerging authors and small publishers choose the best path for success.

PubSmartLogo-LRWhether you are interested in self-publishing, traditional publishing, small-press, or hybrid publishing, you will meet publishing professionals who can help you explore the option that is right for you.

Sessions are designed for:

  • traditionally published authors who want to improve sales and discover new markets
  • self-published authors who want to reach more readers
  • aspiring authors seeking guidance on publishing opportunities
  • independent publishers who want to better serve their authors

Topics to be discussed include:

  • how editors and agents can help advance your publishing goals
  • steps for building an author platform, brand, and persona
  • where book publishing and marketing are headed in the digital age
  • how to build sales and buzz through reviewers, mass media, and book clubs
  • methods of raising funds, using discoverability tools, and increasing distribution

Conference highlights include a a keynote breakfast with publisher Jane Friedman and keynote luncheon with bestselling author Hugh Howey.

Friedman has spent more than 15 years in the publishing industry as an editor, publisher, and professor, She will speak on the new golden age of authors and the emerging paths to publication that authors may consider in today’s transformed book marketplace. Hugh will speak about his unique path to publishing success and how he continues to explore new publishing models.

Other faculty members include Will Murphy and Tracy Bernstein from Penguin Random House; Chuck Adams of Algonquin Books; Robin Cutler of IngramSpark; David Symonds of CreateSpace; Christine Munroe of Kobo Writing Life; Tarah Theoret of NetGalley; Orna Ross of the UK-based Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi); Miral Sattar of BibiloCrunch; Amanda Barbara of Pubslush; agents Jeff Kleinman of Folio and Brandi Bowles of Foundry; Angela Bole of the Independent Book Publishers Association, C. Hope Clark of Funds for Writers, publicists Cindy Ratzlaff and Claire McKinney, and attorney Anne Dalton.

Sponsors and exhibitors include

  • CreateSpace
  • Nook Press
  • Kindle Direct Publishing
  • Kobo Writing Life
  • Rocket Science Productions
  • College of Charleston
  • Where Writers WIn
  • Bublish
  • Bowker
  • Biblioboard
  • Advantage Media Group
  • Pubslush
  • Independent Book Publishers Association
  • Net Gallery
  • Alliance of Independent Authors
  • Bibliocrunch
  • Scratch Magazine
  • IngramSpark
  • BQB Publishing
  • Book Logix

The conference will kick off on Wednesday, April 16 with four two-hour master classes sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association. These sessions will cover intellectual property rights, print and digital book distribution, social media, and the basics of publishing.

Charleston is a modern city with a strong connection to its historic past. For the third consecutive year, Charleston has been named Top U.S. City by Condé Nast Traveler Reader’s Choice Awards.

FrancisMarionHotelThe conference will be held at the Francis Marion Hotel. Located in Charleston’s historic district, The Francis Marion Hotel is a member of the Historic Hotels of America and listed in the National Register for Historic Places.  Known as Charleston’s Grand Dame, the Francis Marion has been hosting special events and important meetings for 90 years.

 

Register Early for PubSmart!

The basic conference fee is $395, or $345 if you register by February 14. A VIP Package that includes two Master Classes on Wednesday, April 16 is $495, or $445 by February 14.

LINKS

PubSmart Conference

 

 

Feed The Arts Launches Time-Funding Platform for Artists, Writers, Filmmakers

Feed The Arts is a new funding platform designed to change how visual artists, writers, filmmakers, and musicians raise money for specific goals and projects. The site’s innovative TimeFunding approach enables fans of the arts to donate “virtual cash” to artists simply by spending time interacting on FeedTheArts.com (taking surveys, watching videos, playing games, etc.).

FeedTheArtsLogoThe money that big corporations might have spent advertising on the site is paid out as “Arts Cash.” You can donate your “Art Cash” to artists who want to fund specific projects, such as writing a book, completing a painting, or recording a song. Or you can use your Arts Cash to buy merchandise that the artists have completed. such as books, CDs, or prints.

Artists who earn Arts Cash can trade for gift cards to one of the service providers who belong to Feed the Arts. Service providers are organizations that help artists produce, distribute, merchandise, or market their work such as recording studios, producers, sound stages and publishers.

From now until April 10, 2014, FeedTheArts.com is throwing an online launch party that features live events, contests, and giveaways of “Arts Cash.” Artists and art lovers are encouraged to join the fun, keeping in mind the common goal of funding creative projects at no cost to the artist or fan.

LINK

Feed the Arts

Shebooks Publishes Short E-Books for Women

ShebooksLogoShebooks is a new publisher of short e-books by and for women. Shebooks.net offers a curated collection of original and hard-to-find memoir, fiction and journalism tailored to women.

Bridging the gap between long magazine articles and e-books, each shebook is designed to be read in under two hours. Now available on Amazon Kindle and Nook at a price of $2.99 per book, Shebooks will be available by monthly subscription beginning in March 2014.

The nine titles released on the Shebooks preview site include six memoirs and three works of fiction by well-established authors and essayists, including Hope Edelman, Marion Winik, Faith Adiele, Jessica Anja Blau and Suzanne Paola.

“Women writers are looking for new outlets for their most personal work, and women readers crave great reads that fit into their busy lives,” said Laura Fraser, editorial director and a co-founder of Shebooks. “We are thrilled by the variety and quality of our first titles.”

Shebooks was co-founded in 2013 by Laura Fraser, a journalist, writing teacher and best-selling author (An Italian Affair); veteran magazine editor Peggy Northrop (former Global Editor-in-Chief of Reader’s Digest, former Editor-in-Chief of More, current Editor-in-Chief of Sunset); and publishing veteran Rachel Greenfield (former Executive Vice President, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia).

Shebooks was awarded a seed grant by the New Media Women’s Entrepreneurial Fund administered by the American University’s J-Lab in 2013. The company is currently in the midst of raising its first round of seed funding.

According to the submission guidelines for writers, each “shebook” will run around 10,000 words, but can be as short as 7,500 or as long as 30,000 word. Writers whose stories are accepted for publication will receive 50% of the profits.

LINKS

Shebooks.net

Submission Guidelines: Shebooks