independent writers

White Paper Explains Four Paths to Publishing

ASIFourPathsCoverWRITERS. In a white paper, Keith Ogorek of Author Solutions Inc. contends that four clear paths now exist for authors who want to get published. Thanks to advances such as desktop publishing, print-on-demand technology, and Internet distribution, authors can choose  from these four options:

  • Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Publishing
  • General Contractor
  • Publishing Package
  • Traditional (Legacy) Publishing

Choosing the path that’s right for you requires understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.  

For example, Ogorek notes that authors who choose the low-cost DIY route should still expect to spend some money–either for design, editing, or publicity.

The General Contractor publishing path involves hiring and coordinating the work of specialists, such as editors, book designers, and publicists.

Publishing Packages offer a one-stop  source of help with design, conversion, distribution, and publicity. You will know from the start how much the services cost, and have a single number to call when you have questions or concerns.

Traditional Publishing requires you to find an agent to represent you and sacrifice some control over the finished product and how quickly it gets to market.

Even though these choices can be confusing, Ogorek still believes, “Now is the best time in history to be an author.” He reminds us that “Not that long ago, very few people could get published. Now, everyone can get published if they pursue on the the four paths.”

Of course, not every published author will succeed, but with these new publishing options, “Everybody has the opportunity to be successful.”

Self-Publishing Panel at Book Expo America 2013

At Book Expo America 2013 in New York, Keith Ogorek will be joining other publishing experts for a panel discussion entitled “Self Publishing: Disrupter or Defender of the Book Business?” The other panelists are: James McQuivey, author of “Digital Disruption”; Christopher Kenneally of the Copyright Clearance Center; and Angela James of Carina Press.

The group will discuss the disruptive effects that the growth of self-publishing will have on traditional industry players and some factors that drive established trade/literary authors to various start-up players in e-book publishing. The panel discussion is scheduled for 2 pm on Friday, May 31.

Book America Expo (BEA) is North America’s largest gathering of book trade professionals.It is organized with the support of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the American Booksellers Association (ABA). The 2013 event will take place May 30-June 1 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.

About Author Solutions

Author Solutions is a member of the Penguin Group and a leader in indie book publishing. ASI’s self-publishing imprints (AuthorHouse, AuthorHouse UK, iUniverse, Palibrio, Trafford Publishing, and Xlibris) have helped more than 170,000 authors bring more than 200,000 new titles to market.

LINKS

Book Expo America 2013

Author Solutions

White Paper: Four Paths to Publishing

 

BookBaby Clients Get Discounts on Professional Editing

WRITERS.  As an avid reader (and self-publishing supporter), I still notice a distinct difference in quality between a book from a traditional publisher and a self-published book by a first-time author. From the opening sentence to the closing paragraphs books from traditional publishers seem more polished, coherent, and emotionally engaging.

As an experienced editor myself, I attribute this obvious difference in readability to the unseen hand of an editing pro. Many self-published authors don’t understand that editing involves much more than correcting grammar, spelling, and typos. Even if your English-teacher friend agrees to look over your manuscript before you publish it, you probably won’t get the type of book-editing expertise you need to increase the odds that your book will succeed, both in terms of sales and positive reviews.

To make professional editing services more affordable and accessible, BookBaby has teamed up with FirstEditing, a global firm with more than 30 professional editors. Since 1994, FirstEditing has collaborated with authors around the world on over 250,000 manuscripts—offering technical editing, developmental editing, reduction editing, and proofreading.  BookBaby clients can now receive a 17% discount on any of the editing services offered by FirstEditing.

“Editing can make all the difference,” says BookBaby president Brian Felsen. “Will your book connect emotionally with readers and keep them turning the pages? Or will it fall flat?” He notes that while independent authors like being able to design, publish, distribute, and promote their own books, “It’s been difficult for authors to get a reputable editor to look at their manuscripts if they don’t have connections or a big budget.”

BookBaby Logo“The copy editor with whom I worked was insightful, professional, meticulous, and just plain good,” says BookBaby author Shelly Reuben, whose books have been nominated for Edgar, Prometheus, and Falcon awards. “He was in tune with the style and theme of my book, and while not trying to impose his own sensibility, was able to point out places where I had undermined the writing by being repetitious or stylistically inconsistent.“

If you have doubts about the value of the editing process, FirstEditing will edit a sample from your manuscript for free—and within 24 hours!

“I’m thrilled about this partnership,” says Felsen. “FirstEditing’s prices are already among the lowest quotes in the business for such top-rate service. Now, BookBaby authors will get an additional 17% off, allowing them to get their book edited in less than two weeks, without having to blow through their production or marketing budgets before the book even comes out!”

LINKS

Book Editing Services from BookBaby and FirstEditing

About BookBaby

About First Editing

 

Read Interviews with Indie Authors about Self-Publishing

A new book can help indie authors find their way through the world of self-publishing and book promotion. In “Interviews with Indie Authors: Top Tips from Successful Self-Published Authors,” Claire and Tim Ridgway talk to 34 top indie authors to learn how they got into self-publishing and how they made their books a success. The authors publish a wide range of genres (science fiction, mystery, romance, comedy, young adult fiction, horror, and non-fiction) and use many different strategies to connect with readers.

“When I began my own journey into self-publishing in February 2012, I found lots of books to help me with the technicalities of self-publishing, but what inspired me and helped make my books successful was reading the stories of authors who’d been there and done it,” explains Claire Ridgway. “I wanted to learn from the masters and find out what tools and techniques they used to ensure success. As my own books hit the bestseller lists, I began to be asked how I’d done it and what advice I could share. That’s when the idea for Interviews with Indie Authors hit me.”

LINKS

Book: Interviews with Indie Authors: Top Tips from Successful Self-Published Authors

Meet the Authors Interviewed in the Indie Authors Book

Amazon Author’s Page About Claire Ridgway

 

New Firm Seeks to Be Quality Standard of Indie Book Market

WRITERS. As self-published novels flood the market, book buyers are struggling to distinguish good quality books from those that aren’t very well written. Grub Street Reads seeks to solve this problem by instituting a quality standard for indie novels.

The new company is offering  an endorsement seal to self-published novels that pass an objective evaluation based on the fundamental components of good storytelling and publishing, such as plot, characters, pace, accuracy, grammar, layout, and overall impression.

Grub Street Reads accepts all genres of fiction for evaluation. Submitted manuscripts are read by trained evaluators who assess them as objectively as possible. Manuscripts that meet the basic standards in each category of evaluation earn the Grub Street Reads endorsement.  The price for an evaluation is based on the length of the submitted manuscript.

Authors may include the Grub Street Reads seal on the cover of their endorsed novel and post it in the Grub Street Reads library.

The company’s founders, Jessica Bennett and Leslie Ramey, are independent authors and avid readers themselves. They hope The Grub Street Reads endorsement seal will make it easy for readers to discover great new indie books.

“With the rise of online book retailers and the proliferation of e-readers, it’s easier than ever for indie authors to get their books into the hands of readers,” said Ramey. “Unfortunately, this ease of distribution encourages a lot of indie authors to publish before they are ready, which plays into the pervasive indie stigma of low quality. Grub Street Reads was created to change that. Our endorsement spotlights great indie titles.”

“The indie book market is in desperate need of a standard,” agrees Bennett. “As voracious readers ourselves, Leslie and I understand how a good story can touch a reader’s soul. Grub Street Reads facilitates that magic by connecting readers to the best indie novels on the market.”

LINKS

Grub Street Reads

 

E-Book Publisher Has Roots in Traditional Book Publishing

WRITERS. As you research different firms for publishing your e-books, don’t compare publishers solely on the price of their packages. For example, companies that have a history in the book-publishing business might be able to offer you services and insights that relatively new start-up companies don’t yet offer.

For example, Publish Green is a division of Hillcrest Media Group, which began as the book publisher Mill City Press. They offer a full range of e-book formatting, distribution, editing, and marketing services. Their goal is to help traditionally published authors, self-published authors, and book publishers of all sizes make their mark in the e-book publishing world.

Unlike most e-book formatters, each Publish Green e-book is converted from many different file types and perfected line-by-line by an in-house formatter.

You can submit your book as plain text, a Word document, a PDF, or InDesign file. A formatting team will then work on your book by hand to ensure that wacky spacing, missing words, or other mistakes commonly found in automated e-book formatting processes are eliminated.

After your eBook is formatted, you can perfect the final version before publication, ensuring that the e-book will be a work you can be proud of.

Publish Green uses patent-pending software with advanced features that enable virtually any form of text- or image-based book (novels, memoirs, illustrated children’s books, cookbooks, etc.) to be formatted into several different file types. Your e-book will be recognized by all major e-book reading devices.

Publish Green allows authors to keep 100% of the profit from book sales and completely own the rights to their e-books.  Through their global distribution package, you can choose to have your book distributed through many different online sellers of e-books. In addition to selling your work through Amazon and iBookstore, you can choose to have your work sold through Barnes & Noble, Kobo, the Sony Reader store, eBooks.com, Books-a-Million, Bookstrand, Books on Board, and others.

The company’s new website provides detailed descriptions of all their editing, formatting, and marketing services. I particularly liked how they listed what their editing services include (and don’t include). “Editing” often means different things to different people, so it’s helpful to find a website that clarifies the distinction between basic copy editing services and a comprehensive edit. For example, they explain that their editing services don’t include fact checking or securing necessary permissions for reproductions of copyrighted works that go beyond “fair use.”

Publish Green offers an impressive assortment of marketing services, including virtual book tours, Google advertising, book trailers, author websites, the Amazon Exposure program, and Facebook fan pages and Facebook advertising.

For newcomers to e-book publishing, Publish Green has produced a 20-page guide entitled, “The Basics of eBook Publishing.” The guide explains topics such as formats, royalties and digital rights management, and shows examples of some of the errors that can occur when e-books are converted through software that automates the process. When you download the guide, you can choose to download it in several different formats, depending on whether you plan to read it on your computer, an iPad, Barnes & Noble Nook, or Amazon Kindle.

LINKS

Publish Green

Free Guide: “The Basics of eBook Publishing”

 

One-Stop Info Source for Publishers of Books, Magazines, and Newsletters

Publishing Central is an online clearinghouse of information related to publishing and marketing books, magazines, e-books, newsletters, e-zines, and audio books. Whether you are an independent publisher—or an author seeking a publisher—the site can help you find useful resources.

For example, you can find companies that offer templates for producing your own magazines, links to databases of literary agents, articles about contracts, and a list of useful software for creating books or managing a publishing business.

The newest addition to the site is a new, more comprehensive directory of book-publishing companies. The directory makes it easier to find publishers of certain categories of books (e.g. cookbooks, art books, business books, fiction, etc.) Information included in the directory is designed to help everyone from publishers and writers to book buyers and researchers.

“The list of publishers has been one of the most popular features of the site for some time,’ said Wendy Woudstra, editor of the Publishing Central site. “The new Publisher Directory takes those pages and adds much more information and utility using social media links and feeds, and expanded information.” The new directory includes links to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Goodreads and Google+ pages for each company as they are available, as well as book covers of recently released titles and other important links related to each company.

PublishingCentral.com is managed by PairoWoodies Web Consulting, an Orangeville, Ontario-based business has helped small and mid-size companies in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom with their Internet presence.

LINKS

PublishingCentral.com

Book Publishers Directory

 

Guide Explains How to Format Self-Published E-Books

WRITERS. If you would like to try the do-it-yourself method of self-publishing an e-book, check out the new book “Book Formatting for Self-Publishers: A Comprehensive How-To Guide.”

The 248-page guide was written by Jennette Green, who has years of experience producing professional book files for clients. She believes anyone who already owns Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat Pro (version 7 or later) can produce professional-looking fiction or non-technical non-fiction books on a small budget.

In this book, Green explains how to:

  • Use Microsoft Word to format your novel or nonfiction book.
  • Format e-books for Kindle, NOOK, and Smashwords.
  • Use templates to build a book cover.
  • Convert your book-cover file so it will be accepted at Lightning Source and CreateSpace.
  • Format and submit your book to Amazon’s Look Inside program

The book presents simple, step-by-step instructions accompanied by dozens of illustrations.

Note that instructions for using professional page-layout programs such as Adobe InDesign are not Included in this book. So if your nonfiction book includes lots of tables, charts, and illustrations, this book might not be suitable.  This book also isn’t intended for authors who would like to apply advanced Kindle formatting.

LINK

Book Formatting for Self-Publishers: A Comprehensive, How-To Guide by Jennette Green