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In defense of the eBook: Why digital reading bodes well for readers and authors

Cherie — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:04:28 +0000

by Lauren Bailey (If you’d like to guest post here, please check out our guidelines.)

Despite the increasing digitalization of everyday life, there still persists an opposition to eBooks and digital reading in general. I suspect some people might distrust eBooks because they think that digital text will one day completely replace printed text, which many readers regard as sacred. However doubters may take note of a recent survey that indicates the U.S. publishing industry is anything but finished, posting substantial revenues this year.

eBooks and the devices that house them are tremendously useful and worthwhile tools for any bibliophile. If you’re still on the fence about the eBooks, here are a few reasons to turn to the page to digital reading.

Utility

Far from intimidating, the eBook’s greatest asset lies in its simplicity. Once you’ve purchased a digital reader device, you can download any eBook at any time. Almost any book you can think of can be in your hands. If you’re seized by a sudden craving for Jane Austen, a complete copy of Emma can be yours to own in minutes. If you’re a traveler with a tendency to read through several books a trip, your commute can be significantly less encumbered if you download all your books to one slim digital reading device.

Low Prices

The cost of eBooks presents the most enticing argument for their use. Amazon.com consistently offers eBook downloads at $9.99USD, which is considerably cheaper than going to your local bookstore to pick up the latest $24.99 hardback. In fact the prices for eBooks are so cheap that lawsuits are erupting over the regulation of their pricing. From a budgeting perspective, eBooks seems (right now) to be the most sensible option for the regular book buyer. Of course you have to purchase a digital reader, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the short term cost.

Self-publishing

For aspiring writers, eBooks offer a very real opportunity to have your work published and accessible to a potentially huge readership. Barnes and Noble’s PubIt application allows any person to put their writing up for sale on the company’s website. You can simply upload a data file of your writing through PubIt and Barnes and Noble will offer the work for sale. Other self-publishing websites like Lulu offer similar services without assigning yourself to a major book retail outfit.

The ease of self-publishing an eBook highlights its biggest advantage: accessibility. eBooks allow you to instantly access a seemingly endless number of texts, ranging from century-old classics to works published for the first time hours earlier. With such a wealth of reading at your fingertips, why not give it a try?

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.

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(Finally) E-books get E-Autographs!

Cherie — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:43:07 +0000

Guest post by Lewis Faulkner. (If you’d like to guest post here, please check out our guidelines.)

If you’ve got a Kindle, you’ve had the pleasure of downloading a book you wanted in less than sixty seconds.

But if you’re a writer, you’ve probably wondered ‘what’s to become of autographing?’

When I’m not writing fiction, I work as an appraiser, and I have to send in documents with my E-signature on them, as well as the state seal, all the time. PDF files give you a little protection, and the software that handles the appraisals gives you lots of protection and security. So I say it’s about time.

Leave it to Evan Jacobs, a former programmer at Amazon, to come up with the killer ap for books. It’s called the Kindlegraph.

If I can step through the Jacob’s sign up without calling a guru and spending a day with tech support, so can you (just ask the friends I usually call to get me out of techie jams). If you’re still unsure, he’s got a demo video, as well. IdolVine, Autography, and the Huffington Post have weighed in on Jacob’s competition, in on-line articles in ebookNewser and The Digital Reader.

But Jacobs is the man!

It’s yet another way to interact with your readers. They send you a request for a signature (or customized note) and you send them back something. If you want to. Jacob’s process seems a little proprietary with Amazon (this feature is only good for Kindle), but I’m sure others will follow. Also, you have to have a Twitter account. Your fans simply click a ‘Request’ button. Couldn’t be easier. And for the doubting Thomases and Thomasennas out there, yes, I have tried it on my own books and my own Kindle. And it works. Beautifully.

As far as I’m concerned, this is the most exciting writerly new I’ve heard in a long time. If you’re a writer, and you’re not curious about all this, you should be. Even if you opted to only deal in paper until the end of time.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But with something like 12 million e-readers sold in 2010, you may have to pull your perspective over to the side of the road and let the future move on past you.

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Barnes and Noble Welcomes Self Published Ebooks With PubIt Tool

Cherie — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:20:46 +0000

Barnes and Noble booksellers released their PubIt platform, which allows U.S. authors to self-publish ebooks titles to sell on their site.

An exciting development in the publishing world as Barnes and Noble’s PubIt is released, a tool that allows U.S. authors to upload their ebooks for sale on the site. On Monday, October 4, 2010, Barnes and Noble announced that PubIt was made available for any author or publisher with an American bank account to upload their ebook titles to the Barnes and Noble website. Up until this point, select authors and titles were allowed to sell ebooks on their website.

Opening up the site in this way allows Barnes and Noble to better compete with its largest bookselling competitor, Amazon.com.

Pricing Ebooks for Barnes and Noble Nook Using PubIt Tool

With PubIt, an author can register, upload their ebooks and book covers, and name their price within minutes. Barnes and Noble allows authors to set a price anywhere from 99 cents to $199.99. Authors receive 65 percent of any title that is priced between $2.98 and $10.00. For ebooks priced below or above those parameters, royalties are reduced to 40 percent.

The royalty pricing strategy allows Barnes and Noble to offer most of their ebook titles at prices below $10. This helps the Nook, which is priced anywhere from $149 to $199 (for 3G Wi-Fi) compete with the Amazon Kindle ebook reader. As Kit Eaton from Fast Company pointed out, however, the Barnes and Noble royalty figure “isn’t as lucrative a deal as Apple or Amazon’s 70/30 split.”

How to Sell Ebooks at Barnes and Noble

Titles take approximately 24-72 hours to become live on the site, and from that point on authors can log in to PubIt and track their sales. The PubIt tool allows authors to upload their books from Microsoft Word, by far the most common application used for ebook creation, or RTF, TXT, or HTML. The PubIt tool then converts the file for use on Barnes and Noble’s Nook ebook reader.

At this time, the bookseller maintained that PubIt is for electronic books only. This thought leaves one to speculate whether this is the first step in developing a platform for self-published paperback and hardcover books as well. If Barnes and Noble did move forward with this type of self-publishing venture, it would further help compete with Amazon.com, which offers Create Space as an option for authors who wish to publish their books.

The publishing world has continued to change, and with more and more authors choosing to go to the ebook route. This move by Barnes and Noble allows authors, publishers, and readers more freedom in how their sell and purchase titles.

Additional resources on ebook publishing:

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Writing for Print Books vs. Writing for eBooks

Cherie — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:10:51 +0000

by Dr. Edward F. Group III (Find out more about guest posting)

Over the past several years, we’ve all witnessed an interesting trend in book publishing: the movement towards eBooks. Even Amazon stated in October of 2010 that Kindle books outsold print books greater than two to one for the company’s top ten bestsellers. Because of the surge of popularity that eBooks are now experiencing, people are beginning to ask: What are the real differences between writing for print books and writing for eBooks?

When you approach writing an eBook versus writing a print book, there are some additional things that you should take into consideration. One of the main reasons why authors decide to go with eBooks versus print books is that digital formats can be duplicated without any real expense. This means that you can just as easily create 10,000 copies of your eBook as you could ten copies—and at a minimal price. This allows you to reach more readers without paying high production costs.

Another benefit that electronic books have over print books is their connection to the Internet. Digital books provide you with the opportunity to insert hyperlinks along the way for your readers to check out. This could prove to be particularly valuable for a company that is interested in writing a book about a specific product or service that they offer.

eBooks also get published much faster than traditional print books. This means that once a book is completed by the author, it will be released to the public much quicker if in an electronic format.

However, it’s important for authors to realize that print books are far from being obsolete. There are many book collectors out there that cherish their print books, and there are other readers that are print-book loyalists. While the emergence of digital books has—and will continue to—caused publishers and authors to approach the way that they publish and write books, print books will certainly continue to be a main source of information and entertainment for some time to come.

The decision is up to you, as an author. Will you focus primarily either on digital books or print books? Or will you take on both markets?

Dr. Edward F. Group III has authored several books, including “The Green Body Cleanse” and “Health Begins in the Colon.” He is also the creator of the revolutionary Oxy-Powder colon cleanse program.

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Six Steps to Finding a Literary Agent

Cherie — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:16:13 +0000

by The Book Marketing Expert

1) Almost all literary agents are listed in The Publishers Market Place or LMP, a huge, expensive, 1,229 page volume which you should be able to find in a public library. It contains their actual and email addresses, and a brief description of the kinds of book they represent as well as titles recently placed.

2) Approach an agent with both an email and letter that cogently describes your book – the description should not take more than a paragraph or two – followed by a brief bio that makes clear why you have the authority (called a platform) to write the book if it is nonfiction. Or a brief description of your novel in which the premise shouts, “Yes, I would like to read that manuscript.” Whatever you do, skip the hype. Big turnoff.

3) You need to able to send the agent a proposal that includes an overview, a table of contents in which you include a paragraph or two describing the contents of each chapter and two sample chapters if the work is nonfiction, or at least one hundred or more pages if a work of fiction.

4) Conduct a thorough search and list and describe the competition for your book, especially nonfiction, and spell out how your book is different. For fiction, name works similar or genres that were and are successful.

5) A way to find a potential agent appropriate for your work: cruise a book store, select a volume similar to yours and check out the acknowledgment page that often lists the name of the agent for that work. Then in your email and letter write that the recipient represented such and such work which you enjoyed reading and that your work is of the same genre and might be of particular interest to the agent.

6) Provide an estimate of the number of words of the work and length of time it would take to complete it.

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Additional Writing Resources:

Freelance Writers Needed
How to Write Your Own Ebook in 7 Days
Freelance Writing Jobs

Also:

Free ebook on work at home success strategies

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My Day at The Writer Magazine: 5 Things I Learned

Cherie — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 18:25:17 +0000

You know me, I always welcome an opportunity to learn something new when it comes to writing. I absorb anything that has to do with the craft of writing, as well as tips on how I can grow my business. That’s why I jumped at the invitation to attend a focus group at The Writer magazine. The Writer is published by Kalmbach Publishing, who also publishes Astronomy, Bead & Button, Model Railroader, and Discover, among others. My only experience with The Writer was a subscription that someone bought for me years ago when I was about 18 (in other words – a long time ago!) and I really haven’t picked it up since. In truth, I really don’t subscribe to many magazines, although I do receive a lot of newsletters online and I read a lot of books. (As you know by my weekly news and links, I’m also an avid blog reader.) I was curious to see what the current version of the magazine was like.

Following are my thoughts from the focus group, some of which we can also apply to the writing world.

First Impressions Count, and The Writer Delivered
If you are a freelance writer, you know that the communication you give or receive helps form an impression. Got a client that never responds to you? That leaves an impression. Are you always tardy in your own correspondence? That always tells people something about you.

The Writer did a great job of communicating right off the bat. They provided us with a packet of information before the focus group that included two back issues of the magazine and a letter confirming the time and date of the session. The thing that impressed us all was the directions given. We received maps and even a picture of the building so we could find it easily. We were greeted at the door by a staff member of The Writer (I’m purposely not mentioning names here in case they don’t want to be listed) who directed us to another staff member who set us up in our room. We never had to wonder where we were going.

Good Writers Ask for Feedback
I was impressed with the overall concept of this focus group. After all, the magazine was opening itself up to hear (potentially) negative things. I had indicated that I wasn’t a current subscriber, and I got invited anyways. The Writer was respectful of our opinions (good or bad) and in turn we provided constructive feedback (instead of criticism.)

As writers, asking for feedback is not always an easy thing. But it’s tremendously helpful in growing your business and in strengthening your client relationships. Don’t shy away from taking a few clients aside occasionally and asking an honest opinion of how you are doing.

Respecting the Diversity of Writing
You’ve heard me say this a zillion times, but I can’t help myself: We all come to writing from a different place and we all have different careers. We need to respect that. In my post about “20 Things I’ve Learned in Doing 200 Writer Interviews” my very first point was that “There really is no such thing as the same writing career for everyone.” Never was this illustrated more clearly than in The Writer focus group. I enjoyed hearing about the different projects that writers worked on, what their goals were, and how they went about their craft. There were ten of us and I really think I heard ten different goals, approaches, and experience levels.

I expected to get some flack about being a blogger, but there really wasn’t any of that. You know how sometimes you say you’re a blogger and people either look at you like you’re an alien, or they poo-poo your writing experience because you…. gasp…. blog. I like to keep my career diverse, so I do write and pitch magazine articles but I also blog, work one-on-one with clients, and write books. For me, diversity is the key to a long and healthy freelance career. If other freelancers don’t want to do that, it’s fine. The great thing about writing is we can all make our own choices on what’s right for our career.

The Printed Word is Alive and Well
There is a lot of talk these days about electronic printing. Some have even speculated that books as we know them will cease to exist. I don’t believe this, for the simple reason that the printed word is still a beautiful thing.

Having said that, I’m not one to keep back issues of magazines. I know a lot of people do, though. I like to read a magazine, absorb the information, and then have that info readily available online if I need to access it again. I do understand how Nooks and Kindles can improve a person’s life, and I think that all the advancements in electronic publishing are a positive thing for writers. But I still think the printed word is here to stay.

When Writers Share, It Makes Us All Stronger
There are some writers that are very stingy about information. This is exactly the wrong attitude to have. First of all, times have changed. Writers don’t compete with each other in the same way. In fact, supporting another writer’s efforts can only make you a stronger writer. For example, when one mystery writer teams up with another to reach out to fans, it increases readership for both writers. When one freelancer helps another, it creates opportunities for both people. Case in point, yesterday an article from freelancer Kimberly Dawn Neumann made the lead story on Match.com’s Happen Magazine. I’ve written for Match in the past, but this was Kimberly’s article and I was happy to be used as source this time.

One thing I appreciated about The Writer was that the articles spoke to this variety. I’d like to see more articles that focus on one writer supporting another. I think this attitude can only help the community going forward. I’d also like to see more articles on blogging and marketing your work.

One thing that has stayed with me from the focus group was that The Writer cares about writing in every form. I think the magazine does a great job of telling you how to be a better writer, and their advice has the ability to reach every level.

Additional Writing Resources:

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Publishing Definitions

Cherie — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:31:10 +0000

Not sure of common definitions in publishing? Here are a couple:

ARC: Advanced Reader Copy. See “Galley” for definition.

Bleed: Amount on edges of a book cover that will ultimately get trimmed off during final production. The cover needs to “bleed” off the edge in order for the cover to fill out the entire space. Without a bleed, there would be white edges around a book cover.

Copyright: A book or creative work is copyrighted as soon as it is created. There is no need to register a creative work to obtain copyright. However, if an author does want to get a formal copyright he can write to the U.S. Copyright Office. Authors do not need to register their books in order to use the copyright (©) symbol.

Galley: An advanced copy of the book that it set up, but has not undergone final proof. A galley usually has the text and cover in place, but may need special author information or acknowledgments. Galleys are sometimes called “galley proofs” and ARCs (or advanced reader copy) and are used to get a book to reviewers who will have time to read and comment on it before the book is actually published.

ISBN: An International Standard Book Number is a 13-digit number used to identify a book for retail purposes. ISBNs are obtained from R.R. Bowker, or a registered agent. ISBNs used to be 10 digits in length. Each title or version of a book (i.e., paperback, ebook, hardcover) needs a separate ISBN. ISBNs are sold individually or in blocks of 10.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: A unique number for a book as assigned by the Library of Congress for their catalog. Librarians use this number to identify books and order catalog cards. A Library of Congress number can be applied to any book over 50 pages.

PDF: Stands for Portable Document Format. This is a locked format that authors and publishers can use to convert a book for publication. Since the format is locked, it generally keeps the flow of the book intact. PDFs can be read with Adobe Reader, which is free most places on the Internet.

Perfect bound: A soft (or paperback) binding that uses adhesive to attach the pages together.

Print-on-Demand (POD): Technology that allows a publisher to have a digitally available file of a book, which can then be printed off when there are orders (“on demand”) or when the need arises. POD allows publishers to order a much smaller quantity of books to have on hand, thus avoiding the large print runs (5,000+) of the earlier days of publishing. This technology has opened up the field for authors who wish to publish their own books.

Self Publisher: An author who pays for publication of his work and own the ISBN associated with it.

Sole Proprietorship: Most individual self-publishers can set up a publishing company using the sole proprietor tax designation. However, legal assistance should always be sought before making a decision on taxes and business.

Trim Sizes: Standard book publishing sizes, such as 5.5 x 8.5, or 6 x 8. Publishing presses “trim” (format) the books to these sizes.

Vanity Press: A term used when an author pays a publishing house (of any size) to publish his book for him. In this case the author does not own the ISBN associated with the book, rather, it is owned by the Vanity Press. However, copyright can still remain with the author.

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Amazon.com’s Best Books of 2010 List

Cherie — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 10:34:31 +0000

Looking for some gift ideas for that book lover on your holiday list? Amazon.com just released it’s “Best of 2010″ book list. They choose this list from “Editors’ Picks for the Top 100 Books of the Year, the Top 100 Customer Favorites and Top 10 lists in nearly two dozen categories” according to their site. I know I’m putting a few of these in my letter to Santa.

Which books does Amazon heart the most? Here they are, in order from 1-10.

1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: From a single, short life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. From that same life, Skloot fashions a rich and haunting story that redefines what it means to have a medical history.

2. Faithful Place: A Novel by Tana French: The past haunts in French novels. In this compelling and cutting mystery, Frank Mackey (the beloved undercover guru from “The Likeness”) returns home to investigate the cold case of his teenage sweetheart, and faces down his family.

3. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes: A breathtaking debut (30 years in the making) by a decorated Vietnam veteran that takes readers deep into the jungle, and offers a new perspective on the ravages of war, the bureaucracy of the military, and the peculiar beauty of brotherhood.

4. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand: As she did with “Seabiscuit,” Hillenbrand has unearthed another unlikely and inspiring tale from our past. Louis Zamperini was an Olympic athlete as a teenager, an airman in World War II, an ocean crash survivor, and a prisoner of war before returning home for another half-century of life.

5. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson: Through the eyes of three families, Wilkerson gives vivid life to one of the great untold epics of American history: the migration between the two world wars of millions of African Americans from the South to the North and West.

6. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen: Franzen’s first novel since “The Corrections,” and a match for that great book, is a wrenching, funny and forgiving portrait of a Midwestern family. “Freedom” is deserving of all the unprecedented attention it received this summer.

7. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson: The finest example of a book that saves the best for last, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” roars with an explosive storyline filled with revelations that make the end of this game-changing suspense series all the more bittersweet.

8. To the End of the Land by David Grossman: In a fictional story whose events hauntingly parallel the author’s own life, an Israeli mother–one of the most indelible characters in recent fiction–goes on a journey through her past to avoid the news that her soldier son may have been killed.

9. Just Kids by Patti Smith: Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe weren’t always famous, but they always thought they would be. Smith’s memoir of their friendship is tender and artful, with the visionary style of her rock anthems balanced by her detailed memories of their bohemian youth.

10. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis: Of the many books about our economic meltdown, “The Big Short” is the one to read, told, in Lewis’ usual hilarious and clear style, from the perspective of a few iconoclastic thinkers who saw the collapse coming–and bet big on it.

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What is “Poor Man’s Copyright”?

Cherie — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:40:14 +0000

When proving copyright on a work, it is important to document the date the work was created. “Poor Man’s Copyright” is when an author mails himself a copy of his work and keeps the envelope sealed. The date of the postmark is intended to prove copyright.

However, Poor Man’s Copyright is not recognized as a legal method of proving authorship. Therefore, if authors are looking for protection that can be used in court, registering their work with the U.S. Copyright Office is recommended.

It should be noted, however, that an author’s work “is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device,” according to the U.S. Copyright Office. In other words, the work is “copyrighted” from the moment it is created. Registering a work with the U.S. Copyright Office is only needed if an author wishes to bring suit at some point for copyright infringement.

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How Do You Feel When You Hear of Another Author’s Success?

Cherie — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:32:32 +0000

I caught some interesting statements floating around the blogosphere from my author friends recently at the news that Janet Evanovich signed a four-book deal with Random House. She had been with St. Martin’s for years and has been selling her “Stephanie Plum” mystery series like hotcakes. She’s hot. No doubt.

My first reaction was, “Yay” and “Good for her.” I like it when an author hauls in the big bucks. It gives me a good feeling with regard to the reading and publishing worlds because it means people are reading and interested in books. So that’s why it surprised me to see some authors feeling a bit ticked off. As if Ms. Evanovich’s deal somehow takes away from their potential book contracts.
You know what? It doesn’t.

Writer Envy

One author said, “Why doesn’t she spread the wealth?” Meaning that she should have taken less money, I suppose. But why should she? Evanovich taking this deal doesn’t mean the average author is now going to get less. It doesn’t mean aspiring authors won’t get a book deal.

I think it comes down to professional jealousy. Authors are prone to it sometimes. I suppose that we toil for years and put our hearts and souls into our work, so when we get rejected we get crabby. We feel as if we are getting the short end. Then, to make matters worse, we hear about the success of another writer and it just gets in our craw.

The Success of One Writer Helps Us All

Here’s the thing I’d like to say to my fellow writers. I am one of you. I understand what it’s like to get a book rejected, to have a client tell you “no thanks,” and to see my fellow writers getting opportunities I wish I could have. I understand where you are coming from, but when a writer succeeds at the level Evanovich does, you’ve got to take your hat off for her. She’s earned it. It doesn’t matter if you, personally, don’t read her books. It doesn’t matter if you think you’re a “better writer.” The writing world is changing, and that means each and every writer needs to be supportive of the others in this game. You won’t sell less books if you are happy for another writer. You won’t lose fans if you publicly state you enjoy the work of another author.

More than that, with all the changes in the publishing industry today, writers need to support each other. We need to build each other up, because in the long run, it makes the entire publishing industry stronger. And that helps all of us.

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