Category Archives: Self-Publishing

Thoughts on The EBook Users’ Bill of Rights

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by

Sarah Houghton-Jan’s manifesto, The EBook Users’ Bill of Rights, has been circulating around the publishing blogosphere recently. I’m more or less in agreement with it, but wonder if it might not be failing to address some larger problems with how media are consumed in the 21st century.

The EBook Users’ Bill of Rights is reproduced below and followed by my comments. Feel free to contribute constructive comments and opinions.

 

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

Every eBook user should have the following rights:
  • the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
  • the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
  • the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
  • the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks
I believe in the free market of information and ideas.
I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.
Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.
I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.
I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks.  I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’ rights.
These rights are yours.  Now it is your turn to take a stand.  To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others.  Blog it, Tweet it (#ebookrights), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.
To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0 with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.’

I think Sarah is dead-on in principle, but what’s missing from discussions about Digital Rights Management (DRM) and the rights of eBook consumers is a discussion of the role of publishers and how that impacts the definition of a “book” one might have rights pertaining to. Then there’s the larger matter of just who’s in charge of the hen house. Continue reading →

Indy and Traditional Publishers Are Not Competitors

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by
Today’s post is from Lisa Ryan, CEO and Lead Strategist at Tinley+Ryan, former Marketing Manager of On-Demand Publishing Services at Amazon.com and former Vice President of Marketing at BookSurge. I’m honored to have your contribution, Lisa.

On a macro-level, independent and traditional publishers not only co-exist amicably, they are full-on partners in the publishing and production of books. They are not competitors.

Today, publishers large and small are concerned with digital rights management, monetizing assets like out-of-print titles, and the lightning-speed evolution of alternative format books/readers. Because of these and other economic factors, they work hand-in-hand with digital publishing houses and POD fulfillment providers for support. They in turn support self-published authors. It happens every day. It’s a symbiotic eco-system on the back end, no matter how the surface-level factions consider the issues.

Self-published works provide the data traditional publishers need to take calculated risks on new authors. One initiative we worked on at Amazon was a reporting system that allowed large publishers to monitor the sales velocity of our best-selling self-published titles. We’ve seen some pretty impressive deals come out of that – of note, a three book, six figure deal for a fiction series. Continue reading →

Tutorial: Exporting a Flash Flipbook from inDesign CS5

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by

Note: This book scaler is a semi-finalist entry in the 2011 Adobe Design Achievement Awards Education Category.

Flipbooks and page turning effects have been around for years; a variety of flash plug-ins, conversion services and source files have made them accessible to everyone. Though print designers have been able to export flipbooks directly from Adobe inDesign since version CS4, the tutorials and sample files here will help you get the most from the effect.

Along with a set of video instructions on how to fine-tune the InDesign export process to produce more attractive results, I’ve developed a “book scaler” in flash that allows adjustment of a book’s size relative to the screen. An “autoscale” feature fits the flipbook to a viewer’s screen when it first opens. “Page jump” buttons have been added for the front and back covers, table of contents, next and previous pages or any page number you care to type in. An invisible “drag area” in the book’s gutter/spine allows it to be manually positioned on-screen. Optional settings allow ranges of pages to be hidden from the viewer. The full source code is available to customize, but is set up so people with no coding skills can easily modify it to suit their purposes.

By popular request, full-screen capability is now available.

Continue reading →

No More Paperbacks For Me

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by

In November, I spent three days at the Miami Book Fair in a booth talking to writers and would-be writers about publishing. For my efforts, I sold about twenty books; not really worth the effort in terms of time vs. money, but certainly a worthwhile experience from the standpoint of talking to writers and hearing what their interests and goals are. One thing impressed me over everything; put hundreds of thousands of paperbacks in one place and it all blends together into a gigantic literary flea market.

There was a single glimmer of shining hope that floated over the cacophony of the exploded confetti factory —McSweeney’s. Started by author Dave Eggers, McSweeney’s offers a variety of whimsical offerings. Beyond great writing, they offer great book design ranging from classic to innovative to absurd; unusual binding, interesting boxes, experimental typography, design work that implies the contents is worth reading. Hold that thought.

As a designer, it got me thinking a great deal about the relationship between the cover and the writing—and I don’t mean what’s on the cover. I mean the whole package from the binding to the artwork.

Consider the paperback book as a packaging form. It certainly offers a number of advantages. It’s cheap to print in volume, lighter to ship, consumes fewer resources (printing is a high-pollution industry) and ultimately gets the writing to the reader cheaper. For self-publishers, printing paperback books and bypassing hard cover editions means less up-front investment. Also, we see big publishers shipping countless paperback books to bookstores, and we want to be just like them, don’t we? Continue reading →

Book Trailer for The Dance

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by

Book trailers are a recent fad in indy book promotions. While they don’t solve the problem of people having to find them to appreciate them, they require a lot less time to consume than the books they represent. This trailer for my novel, The Dance, is 45 seconds long with a five second freeze added at the end (because youTube fades out after the video ends). Book trailers are a feather missing from the caps of most self-published book campaigns, and most amateur video doesn’t achieve any higher standards than the majority of self-published books. In other words, there’s an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. I don’t expect a big spike in the sales graph, but it will be interesting to watch the YouTube view stats. I suspect the majority of viewers will be writers.

Word Processors and MS Word Alternatives

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by

A good word processor is an essential writing and editing tool, but many authors struggle with expense, computer problems and software issues. Though Microsoft Word is the standard for word processing, there are excellent, free and commercial alternatives.

I do encourage you to use Microsoft Word. It’s not cheap, has an annoying tendency to try to think for you, is bloated with too many difficult-to-turn-off features and long menus with cryptic choices—but it’s the standard. It has excellent spelling and grammar check features and a suite of essential editing and annotation tools. Continue reading →

Self-Publishing? Get Real!

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by

There are plenty of good reasons to self-publish, but not all are profit-oriented or even rational. Before you invest in your book, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself some serious questions.

Why did I write my book?

If the answer is, “I don’t really know. I had a story inside me and it just had to come out,” you’re the sincerest kind of writer, but you may not have a good product upon which to build a publishing business.

Who is my book for?

If the answer is “anybody who loves a good tale with a surprise ending,” you may have a great story and a well-written book, but you may not have a good product upon which to build a publishing business.

What are my goals as a publisher?

If the answer involves the bestseller list, Oprah, selling movie rights to Warner Brothers and licensing a series of toys based on your characters, your ambition is admirable but your expectations for massive success with a startup venture in an industry with which you have no experience are probably unrealistic.

What’s my time and money budget?

If the answer is “I can part with a few thou and I’m willing to work a few days a week after the kids are off to school,” you’re typical and your dedication still counts, but you may not have the time and capital upon which to build a publishing business.

The fact is very, very few books ever make money. Continue reading →

Stop Picking on POD

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by

A great technology is getting a bad rap for the wrong reasons. Print On Demand (POD) technology is often mislabeled “Publish On Demand,”  which consequently  associates it with the Vanity Publishing world; a realm inhabited by a few reputable operators and a large number of scammers waiting to prey on naive writers.

While it’s true most Vanity Publishers do rely on POD technology, the majority of reputable self-publishers and many small traditional publishers do, too. POD is entirely disconnected from matters related to whether you own your own ISBN numbers, share rights and royalties with a third party, own your cover artwork or choose one distribution chain over another. After all the business arrangements are decided on, a file is sent to a POD printer and books are then manufactured to order in quantities as small as a single book. POD is a digital printing technology, not a business strategy or a scam. Continue reading →

Fairy Tale Endings and Fairy Tale Publishing Ventures

The World's Greatest Book Posted on by

I was participating in a forum discussion about self-publishing where the topic starter expressed legitimate concerns about poorly written, poorly edited and poorly designed self-published books ruining the market for those of us who work hard to produce books of the highest quality.

“All the connections, marketing strategies, publicity packages, and so on won’t save a mediocre book from itself.”

I’d like to believe this is true. It’s the writer in me. The good guy should win. And I’m the one always pushing for excellence. Nobody likes a story where the main character struggles to be the best, works hard, overcomes obstacles, gambles it all on a long shot and then…nothing happens.

You can have the best book in the world, but chances are, it’s the best because it was written from the heart, not as a well-placed product for market distribution. The book still  has to be excellent, but the big money is in mediocre books that are excellently marketed – not the other way around. If you want a quick parallel, turn on top 40 radio for as long as you can stand it.

Sadly, good marketing saves mediocre books from themselves all the time.

We self-publishers have to be that much better and that much more clever with our marketing strategies and cover designs—and that still may not do the trick. Continue reading →