It’s worth noting that cover and book block are handled in two operations and joined at the final production stage. The 4-color cover is produced on a web press and the book block is made on a giant Xerox printer that leads to an all-in-one bindery that prints, gathers, trims, and glues the pages in [...]

All of the above. I read this immediately after submitting my two-dozenth title to Lightning Source since 1998. If I had read this back then–when it was actually much harder to submit–I’d still be a slave to traditional publishers. But I got through it back then and it seems easy now. While LSI considers itself [...]

Here is a must-see video for SPRers. (Snoop the entire site!) http://www.ondemandbooks.com/video2.htm You cannot really appreciate the revolution in progress until you see an Espresso Book Machine do its thing or understand how really inexpensive it is to turn the key and go. Until EBM had its major debut in the past eighteen months, the [...]

It’s not clear to me if you’re talking about a stream of unrelated short pieces–short stories and novellas–or serially released portions of a larger work, perhaps parts of a work that never ends (like a really long TV saga). I suppose you could rope readers into the latter, but it would take some serious explaining [...]

I do not understand the beef. You get or make the opportunity to put it out there and the people who read it make what they will of it. Same with movies, same with music, same with sculpture, same with paintings. I make digital art. I have had lots of people visit my web gallery, [...]

As I have probably said too many times here, that’s me, Scott. My whole retirement plan since I discovered self publishing in 1985 has been to self-fund a healthy chunk of retirement from the long-dried sweat of my brow. I have every viable book of forty written–at least thirty-seven–doing some form of work for me. [...]

My six-month Adwords trial was a complete bust. In my very long experience with website promotion, nothing out there compares to links, all with the strength of =at least= implied testimonials–from sites from which a natural fanbase flows. And those links from other sites help drive your site toward the hallowed first page of returns [...]

Jeez, since I started in 1985 I have never been sad about self-publishing. I have been sad since then about relations with publishers.

So I’m a book person. I believe in the look, feel, heft, even the smell of real books I can hold in my hand. I’ve invested plenty in “real” books–that I’ve written–damn right I have– but also in books written by previously unpublished authors. I have a corps of fans who periodically search on my [...]

This morning (July 26, 2010), The Authors’ Guild chimed in with its take on the Wylie-Amazon deal: http://authorsguild.org/advocacy/articles/wylie-amazon-and-random-house-battle.html http://authorsguild.org/advocacy/articles/what-its-all-about—-economics.html As is typical, the Guild comes done in the mushy middle. Note, above all, what the Guild does =not= (ever) mention: the possibility of member authors undertaking ebook creation and marketing on their own. The Authors’ [...]

Their existential threat isn’t so much us as them, the way they operate from their high citadels.

So here’s the problem with your branded search concept: Readers need to know to enter the search phrases that will bring up your book. The reason there a numerous “Gilded Age” or “Gaslight” search results isn’t because the authors made a mistake in picking a crowded brand, it’s because those are the most likely phrases [...]

A few things to add: 1. A friend in the industry tells me that Wylie has been blackballed by Random House. No one believes that will last, but it’s worth noting. 2. Wylie must have given thought to possible backlash. It speaks volumes that he went ahead despite the potential blowback on his businees. An [...]

First off, uber-agent Richard Curtis has been publishing ebooks for his clients for months if not longer. He runs that business out of a server by his desk. It’s that easy. I am also publishing out-of-print titles as ebooks for writer buddies who have no interest in doing it themselves (and might thus be smarter [...]

Until quite recently, the common wisdom argued that authors or their agents needed to fight for the largest advance possible, because “it’s the only money you’re sure to get.” Publishers countered (and accepted new realities) by offering lower and lower advances. Part of the reason for that is the corporatist argument that places executive salaries [...]

Show of hands: Is there anyone here who, month in and month out, =nets= enough to live on from self-publishing alone?

When I started out, editors attempted to coerce me by saying, “Well, it’s your name that’ll be on the cover.” To scare me, right? Once I knew I had the skill set nailed, I answered back, “My name, yes. I take responsibility if I’m wrong. Do it my way.” But I never miss an opportunity [...]

When I first read the headline of this blog, I thought it was about critics–reviewers–who review books on Amazon.

Now there’s a hell of a blog topic we could all comment on.

In a world in which Amazon carries every title it knows about, you are right. Because there’s no limit to shelf space online. But the world was not always thus. It took a substantial advance buy from B&N and Borders and Books a Million, et al before even contracted, edited, even ready-to-print books were actually [...]

My favorite real story about self-promotion, literally:

There’s a novelist named Bill Butterworth (William E. Butterworth) who also writes as W.E.B. Griffin. At some point, a glowing blurb from Butterworth began to appear on every Griffin book, and vice versa.