Category: publishing

The new Nook Press isn’t an “open” publisher

Nook Press just announced its new paperback and hardback print service. Its features look similar to those of “open” publishers, like Create Space, Kindle, Smashwords, and others (including Nook ebooks). But here you simply build your book, prep the files, and upload the print-ready PDFs for the interior and cover. They print the book and […]

Wednesday November 12th, 2014 in Blurb, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, niche publishing, Nook, novel writing, open publishing, product development, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, webmarketing, writing | Comments Off

14 key ebook publishing tips

Mark Coker started Smashwords when a quarter of 1% of U.S. books sold were ebooks. Now it’s 35% of the total, and he’s a top spokesman in the field. Last year Smashwords authors sold ebooks worth $30-million at retail. Last Saturday (11/8/14) Coker spoke to BAIPA (Bay Area Independent Publisher Association) in Novato, CA (near […]

Tuesday November 11th, 2014 in book title, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, fiction, novel writing, open publishing, product development, proofreading, publishing, self-publishing, Smashwords, webmarketing, writing | Comments Off

Niche books are very profitable. How are their authors chosen?

I publish to niche markets, in my case to K-12 school administrators. All of those who write books for my firm must have a specific field of expertise of interest (and meet needs of) K-12 school administrators. Two examples, our two latest books, are The Art of School Boarding: What Every School Board Member Needs […]

Friday October 10th, 2014 in 1 Shopping Cart, ancillary publishing, articles, book title, booking seminars, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, empire building, first draft, iPad, Kindle, kinds of seminars, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, newsletter writing, niche marketing, niche publishing, Nook, open publishing, pre-testing, proofreading, publishing, second draft, self-publishing, Seminaring, small publishers, Smashwords, webmarketing, writing | Comments Off

Querying magazine editors in late 2014

Here’s the scenario. You have a great idea that you think X magazine’s readers would love to read about on its pages. But you don’t know the editor and you don’t know how to break the ice or make the suggestion. What do you do in what order? Things haven’t changed much in the past […]

Saturday August 30th, 2014 in article selling, article writing, articles, e-publishing, editing, freelance articles, magazine articles, publishing, querying for article sales, reprints, rewrites, travel writing, writing | Comments Off

Submitting a final first draft manuscript to an editor…

Let’s say you have a super book, a novel or a dandy nonfiction winner, that you have shopped to a publisher—and to your horror they said “yes, get it in final form and send it to us.” Or you have a book in final first draft form and you are having a firm prep the […]

Monday August 4th, 2014 in ancillary publishing, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, first draft, Lightning Source, LSI, niche publishing, product development, proofreading, publishing, self-publishing, writing | Comments Off

12 little things that publishers should know

These are question answers from grizzled veterans during the opening Q-A part of the BAIPA meeting in Novato (near San Francisco) on 7/12. BAIPA is the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, meeting in Novato the second Saturday of every month. Unfortunately, I didn’t write down who said what, so there goes the source! (But I’ve […]

Monday July 21st, 2014 in articles, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, newsletter writing, niche marketing, niche publishing, Nook, open publishing, pre-testing, product development, proofreading, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords | Comments Off

Are you selling your ebooks to libraries?

Last week this blog was the core item in my newsletter. I had so much response from it I’m sharing it as a (long) blog too. Two questions: (1) Why would you even care about selling your books to libraries, much less their lower-priced digital versions? (2) And what’s so different about it anyway? Don’t […]

Tuesday June 24th, 2014 in digital publishing, e-publishing, fiction, Lightning Source, LSI, niche publishing, Nook, open publishing, pre-testing, product development, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, webmarketing | Comments Off

Non-fiction books should shout with benefits and authority

What do you want your book to do? Probably (1) get bought–or at least read; (2) make you money; (3) if self-published, get snagged by a “big house” and do more of [1] and [2]; (4) establish you as an “expert” or “authority” in its topic field; (5) get potential readers to want to know […]

Monday June 2nd, 2014 in ancillary publishing, article selling, article writing, articles, Blurb, book title, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, empire building, fiction, freelance articles, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, Nook, proofreading, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, writing | Comments Off

Writers: ideas for creating top-selling nonfiction books

I think of top-selling two ways. The most obvious is to sell more copies of your book than any other book like it in the market. If you sell 10,000 copies of the book, you outsold a person who sold 5,000. Duh. The less obvious way is to measure the effectiveness of your book’s sale. […]

Monday April 21st, 2014 in articles, Blurb, book title, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, empire building, fiction, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, niche marketing, niche publishing, Nook, open publishing, pre-testing, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, speaking, webmarketing, writing | Comments Off

5 kinds of consulting (and mentoring) for nonfiction writers and publishers

I’ve been an editor and nonfiction consultant for writers and publishers for at least 20 years, so I was grateful when an association client asked me to break down in greater detail the kinds of consulting I do. I guess it was much clearer in my head than on my services data! Then when I […]

Monday April 14th, 2014 in Blurb, book title, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, empire building, first draft, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, niche publishing, Nook, open publishing, pre-testing, product development, proofreading, publishing, second draft, self-publishing, small publishers, webmarketing, writing | Comments Off