resources for writers

BookWhirl.com Adds Copy-Editing and ePublishing Services

WRITERS. For almost five years, BookWhirl.com has been providing low-cost online marketing services to self-published authors of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books. Recently, BookWhirl.com expanded its services to include copy-editing and e-book publishing for self-published authors. After paying the upfront fees to convert your manuscript into e-books, you will receive 100% of the royalties.

 ePublishing Revo Services

Two types of “ePublishing-Revo” packages are available:

  • e-Pub Lite ($299) is for novels and books without images
  • e-Pub Pro ($399) is for books with images and charts.

Both packages include e-book layout and formatting, cover design, conversion to e-book formats, ISBNs, and distribution. The Pro package includes more advanced formatting and layout services.

For example, the advanced formatting in the “Pro” package can accommodate up to 25 images, drop caps, different font styles, chapter titles, page number placement, tables, charts, text boxes, graphs, lists, subheadings, block quotes, footnotes, and other features.

BookWhirl CEO Johnny Chu believes the timing is right to make electronic publishing services more affordable to self-published authors because so many people can use their mobile phones, e-readers, and tablets to read wherever they go. This means more writers have more opportunities to share their stories.

Copy Editing Services

BookWhirl’s new Copy Editing Services can help authors ensure that their self-published books will meet commonly expected standards. Professional copy editors can review your manuscript, checking for typographical and grammatical errors and consistency with the editing standards of The Chicago Manual of Style.

Although BookWhirl recognizes the imagination, creativity, and passion of self-published authors, “We also believe that greatness in writing comes with standards Agree or disagree, great writers need great copy editors,” said Don Harold, BookWhirl.com’s marketing director. He believes manuscripts that will be shared around the world need the fierce eye of a professional copy editor.

Book Marketing Services

To help promote your e-book, BookWhirl’s experienced team of online marketing strategists, ad copywriters, graphic artists, and web designers can conceptualize and implement efficient marketing campaigns. Marketing services include website design, online advertising, print advertising, media releases, online directory listings, and more.  

LINKS

BookWhirl.com ePublishing Revo

About BookWhirl.com

BookWhirl.com’s Copy-Editing Services

Free Webinar on Using Social Media for Book Promotion

WRITERS. Social media is both an art and science. For authors who are savvy enough to grasp the intricacies of this powerful technology, the rewards can be tremendous.

To learn more about how to use social media to interact with readers and promote your books you can attend the free, 30-minute webinar that Outskirts Press will be conducting at 1 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, June 6.

Outskirts Press is a fast-growing self-publishing and book-marketing firm. The company provides self-published authors with the tools they need to write, publish, market and distribute their books.

The webinar will feature information that you can implement immediately as part of your overall book-marketing strategy. In addition to learning some secrets to success for using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you will learn how to:

  •  Use YouTube as a sales driver
  • Get the most out of blogging
  • Implement best practices of successful social-media users

“We’re excited to teach authors how to reach a new audience using social media,” said Outskirts Press Manager of Author Support Elise Connors. “The best part is that it is open to the entire author community without any cost or further obligation to buy anything.”

LINKS

Outskirts Press: Social Media Webinar

About Outskirts Press

 

Bitingduck Press Provides Full-Service Publishing for E-Book Authors

WRITERS. The recent merger of Bosun Books with Bitingduck Press has created a new publishing option for e-book authors. The expanded Bitingduck Press offers full-service publishing with no author fees for editing, copyediting, typesetting, and e-formatting.

“E-books have made self-publishing easy,” says Bitingduck Press founder Jay Nadeau, “but everyone needs an editor. We offer authors personalized attention and quality editing to make the best e-books possible.” The press also does print runs and specializes in electronic formatting of books containing equations and graphics.

Bosun Books was founded by Nancy and David McAllister, who were considered revolutionaries when they began offering electronic books through the brand-new WWW in 1994. Bosun offers worldwide distribution through all major e-tailers in all popular e-book formats. They represent nearly 100 authors worldwide, making getting published a reality for writers of quirky, geeky, or unusual mysteries, science fiction, and romance.

Bitingduck Press was created by Jay Nadeau and Chis Lindensmith, two PhD physicists with a passion for science and the environment. Their original goal was to provide high-quality, low-cost, highly accessible electronic and print books for anyone interested in science, mathematics, and the lives of scientists. The merger with Bosun enables them to expand into a wide range of quality fiction, narrative nonfiction, and technical books.

The merged catalog offers about 140 active titles for sale and six that will become available within the next few weeks to months.

The first e-book by the new collaboration between Bitingduck Press and Bosun Books is “Somebody Wants Somebody Dead,” a collection of suspenseful, darkly humorous short stories by Phillip Gardner. The book is now available on Amazon.

In June, the press will offer color and black-and-white versions of “The Yoga Facelift (2nd edition),” by the founder of organic sunscreen company Marie-Veronique Organics. Also planned for publication this year are one adult mystery/suspense novel and two young adult paranormal adventures.

Bitingduck Press is open for author submissions. They will be exhibiting at the Pasadena Lit Fest May 12 in Pasadena, California; Book Expo America on June 5-7 in New York; and the book fair at the American Library Association Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California on June 22-25.

LINKS

Bitingduck Press: Who We Are

Bitingduck Press: Why Publish with Us?

Learn How to Convert Your E-Books into Audio Books

WRITERS. If you want to convert your e-book into an audio book, check out the resources available through eBookIt!

Since 2010, eBookIt! has helped thousands of authors and publishers get their books converted to e-book format and distributed to all the major e-book retailers (such as Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Sony Readerstore, Ingram Digital, and Google eBookstore).

Now, eBookIt! is helping authors further expand their audiences by converting e-books into audio books.

Offering audio books enables you to share the information in your book with people with visual impairments and those who like listening to audio books while driving, working out, walking the dog, or doing other activities.

On the eBookIt! blog, company founder Bo Bennett notes that audio books have become increasingly popular, particularly with the proliferation of iPhones and other mobile devices: “We all have different learning styles, and we all differ in how we like to spend our downtime. Some of us read, some of us watch, and some of us listen.”

For $119, eBookIt! can use your converted e-book file to create an MP3 audio file with a computer-generated voice. You can choose to have your books read by a human-sounding American male voice (Paul), an American female voice (Julie), or a British female voice (Brigitte).  (You can hear what Paul, Julie, and Brigitte sound like on the eBookIt website.)

“While I don’t think a computer-generated voice can replace a talented actor anytime soon, it is an ideal solution for the vast majority of authors who do want their books available in audio and can afford a $119 investment,” says Bennett.

If you choose to distribute the MP3 file on your own website, you can keep 100% of the proceeds.

The  eBookIt! website also explains options for human-narrated audio-book creation as well as distribution through iTunes, Amazon.com, and Amazon’s audio-book distributor Audible.com.

For example, if you want to try creating your own audio book file, the eBookIt! blog includes instructions on how to go about it. With the right technology, you don’t have to spend thousand dollars on talent, studio time, and editing. If you have a pleasant-sounding voice, a decent microphone, and free or low-cost software (such as Audacity or Apple’s GarageBand) you can create a reasonably high-quality audio book. Just be prepared to spend some time doing it.

“Even if you are really good at reading, and make very few mistakes, expect to spend about one hour per every 10 minutes of finished audio. This includes proofing, editing, and saving,” writes Bennett in a blog post. He says it took about 38 hours to make an audio book that has a running time of 8 hours.

LINKS

eBookIt!

Audio Book Distribution Services

Blog Post: Audio Books: Are They Worth Making?

Blog Post: Creating a Human-Narrated Audio Book

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

 

Book Helps Authors Prepare for Interviews about Their Books

WRITERS. Making a strong impression during TV, radio, and online video interviews can make a world of difference in your book sales.  To help you prepare for interviews, media-readiness consultant Alison Hill has published a 160-page workbook entitled “Media Ready, Media Savvy.” Exercises in the workbook can help you plan what you should say, how you should say it, and who you should say it to. After completing the exercises, you’re less likely to fumble for words when interviewers ask you to explain what your book is about and why people might want to read it.

The book also explains other skills you will need to promote your book, such as how to:

  • develop a catchy. one-sentence book description
  • write a pithy bio
  • create a press kit
  • craft proposals
  • pitch media professionals.

If you buy a digital (PDF) text-only copy of the book from the author’s website ($9.97), you can receive the exercises as MS Word documents on which you can type and edit your answers.

Alison Hill is an award-winning producer, writer, journalist, and interviewer. Her 15 years of professional industry experience includes: analyzing and reporting on U.S. news stories for the BBC and hosting the Emmy-nominated PBS series, Dropframe. She was also host, creator, and executive producer of the PBS show Quantum Factor. Hill understands the book-promotion needs of writers, because she, too, is an aspiring novelist.

Through Alison Hill Media, she produces book trailers, provides media strategy consultations for speakers and authors,  and offers workshops on topics such as: Preparing Your Message; Media Targeting and Pitch Development; and Interviewing.

LINKS

Book Website: Media Ready, Media Savvy

About Allison Hill Media

 

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