Category: publishing

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

CHIROPRACTORS: Write and Publish Your Own Book

There’s a straightforward, reliable way to earn at least $50,000 developing a niche book for a specialization, like chiropractic that I use in this how-to, step-by-step guide called Chiropractors: Write and Publish Your Own Niche Book (Start with a $50,000 buying base!). It starts with a pretest that will cost $550-750 or so to see […]

Friday April 4th, 2014 in articles, book title, corporate seminars, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, empire building, finding a seminar subject, Lightning Source, LSI, niche marketing, niche publishing, open publishing, pre-testing, product development, public speaking, publishing, self-publishing, self-sponsored seminars, small publishers, webmarketing, writing | Comments Off

Humor: How and how much can you use in freelance articles?

Sometimes (actually, often) absolutely none. No joke: even provoking a smile by a touch of word play will release you to the path of penury. The editor won’t buy it, and she probably won’t look at future queries from you either! Why? Because either the topic (death, disaster, rape, and so on) won’t allow it […]

Friday March 21st, 2014 in article selling, article writing, articles, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, newsletter writing, publishing, query letters for humor writing, travel writing, writing | Comments Off

25 blogs about Kindle, Nook, Create Space, LSI, Smashwords

I was asked what blogs I had about “open” publishing. Here they are, below, and I’m certain there are more too so if you have a specific word or topic you are hunting for, please type it in the search box to see if it pops up! The publishers mentioned in the blogs are Kindle, […]

Thursday March 13th, 2014 in 1 Shopping Cart, articles, Blurb, digital publishing, e-publishing, fiction, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, niche publishing, Nook, novel writing, open publishing, product development, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, travel writing, writing | Comments Off

How to convert your book file into ePub format—fast and free!

So here you are with a dandy book that millions of hungry readers want to buy and hide on their tablets, readers, or computers—but you can’t get it from Word (.doc or .docx) or other formats into .ePub. You probably want to use .ePub to post your book with an “open” publisher like Kobo or […]

Monday March 10th, 2014 in articles, Blurb, digital publishing, e-publishing, editing, fiction, iPad, Kindle, Lightning Source, LSI, Lulu, Nook, novel writing, open publishing, product development, publishing, self-publishing, small publishers, Smashwords, webmarketing, writing | Comments Off