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Current news stories from the independent book industry

10 Tips For Proofreading Your Book

MediaShift’s Anna Lewis talks proofreading in this article originally from Completely Novel.

If you are self-publishing, then proofreading your manuscript is a really challenging task — and you’ll kick yourself if you find a mistake after you’ve told everyone about the book. No matter how many times you’ve read through your work, it’s amazing how often errors can sneak through to the final stages. The problem: You’re so familiar with the text that you see what you think you have written rather than what you actually wrote. For this reason, at the very least, it’s good to ask a few

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2020-02-21T06:11:19+02:00March 17th, 2013|Categories: News|Tags: |

Granta’s class of 2013: Picking The 20 Best Young British Novelists


Howls of outrage are bound to accompany next month’s unveiling of Granta’s list of top 20 young writers. Here a former Granta editor and veteran of the 2003 judging panel reveals how the list takes shape

Ten years is a long time in the literary game: it can easily take someone until then to finish writing a decent novel – although that’s less and less likely to wash with contemporary publishers. But a decade is also more than enough time for a writer’s fortunes to change dramatically.

Take Hilary Mantel. In 2003 she was a highly respected novelist and critic,

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2013-03-17T09:41:00+02:00March 17th, 2013|Categories: News|

Barnes & Noble Weighs Its E-Reader Investment

Could this be the end of the Nook? Via the New York Times:

Even for a company with a lot of bad news lately, the bulletin from Barnes & Noble this month had an ominous feel.

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest book chain, warned that when it reports fiscal 2013 third-quarter results on Thursday, losses in its Nook Media division — which includes sales of e-books and devices — will be greater than the year before and that the unit’s revenue for all of fiscal 2013 would be far below projections it gave of $3 billion.

The problem

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2013-02-26T02:36:25+02:00February 26th, 2013|Categories: Member Blog, News|Tags: |

Print Still Matters

This is pretty bad news for self-publishers, given that many self-publishers are digital-only:

Sixty-one percent of book purchases by frequent book buyers take place online, but only seven percent of those buyers said they discovered that book online, while physical book stores account for 39 percent of units sold and 20 percent of discovery share: the stats come by way of new research from Peter Hildick-Smith, the founder and CEO of the Codex Group, which tracks frequent readers’ book-buying behavior. At the Digital Book World conference in New York on Thursday, he said that discovery and availability are

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2013-01-17T19:30:17+02:00January 17th, 2013|Categories: News|

Details on the Smashwords Sale to Libraries

Recently it was reported that the Douglas County Library system bought 10,000 Smashwords titles to add to its collection of ebooks. An interesting piece from Library Journal shows just how hard this was to work out, especially considering many Smashwords titles are NC-17+.

“It was a lot more complicated for us than we expected,” said Smashwords founder Mark Coker, “We’re giving libraries the option to slice and dice by multiple categories and multiple filters. And, along the way we discovered some cool ways to surface titles more accurately, that we think better reflect the interests of readers.”

The list began

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2013-01-09T18:57:28+02:00January 9th, 2013|Categories: News|

Lulu Nixes DRM for eBooks

An interesting announcement by Lulu, posted on their blog.

Effective January 15, 2013, Lulu will no longer offer Adobe’s Digital Editions DRM as an option when publishing or revising eBook content in EPUB and PDF formats. DRM works best when administered by those who control how content is purchased and viewed. Companies like Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble integrate a reader’s experience from purchasing to downloading and finally to reading. These companies do a fantastic job in this area, and eBooks published through Lulu and distributed through these retail sites will continue to have the same rights management

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2013-01-09T14:04:35+02:00January 9th, 2013|Categories: News|

The Big Six Goes Self-Publishing

Via the New York Times:

Big publishers have been tentative about entering the market, partly for fear of tarnishing their brand by allowing content they have not reviewed to be published under their name.

But Simon & Schuster has gotten around that problem by teaming up with Author Solutions Inc., a company based in Bloomington, Ind., that already has a robust self-publishing business. Author Solutions also has partnerships with several smaller and niche publishers including Harlequin, which specializes in romance books, and Thomas Nelson, which focuses on Christian books.

The two companies have created a separate house called Archway

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2012-11-28T12:01:56+02:00November 27th, 2012|Categories: News|

Self-Publishing News: E-Lending, Big Deals, Book Pirates

In this roundup: As recently discussed here at SPR, we are inching closer to the day when self-published eBooks will be stocked by libraries. Consider using your author platform to promote your local library’s eBook lending policy and make friends with your local library ahead of time. Also, is landing a publishing deal for your self-published book one of your big dreams? Plus, tips on how to know if your eBook has been pirated, and what you can do if it happens.

Two items from TeleRead regarding eBooks and libraries. First, “ALA OITP releases backgrounder document on eBooks […]

2012-07-11T08:28:23+02:00July 11th, 2012|Categories: News, Resources|Tags: |
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