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BookShift
Why Self-Publishers Should Consider Using Lightning Source
Self-publishing services are on the rise -- a dramatic one. And because of this, technologies are evolving weekly, and advertising is flowing. If you're using a free subsidy press and e-book distributor to self-publish and sell your book, one service to get familiar with is Lightning Source. Lightning Source has free book cover templates, spine-width calculators, and bar codes,...
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Business
How to Partner With a Pro on Your Self-Published Book
With triple-digit growth in self-publishing services, technologies evolving weekly, and advertising hype, it's tough for authors to figure out which vendors to choose for which services. In this series, I've been looking at three popular paths to get your print and e-book to online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores, without going through the subsidy presses.
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BookShift
How to Get Your Self-Published Book in All Kinds of Stores
With triple-digit growth in self-publishing services, technologies evolving weekly, and advertising hype, it's tough for authors to figure out which vendors to choose for which services. In a three-part series, I'm looking at three popular paths to get your print and e-book to online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores, without going through the subsidy presses.
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BookShift
How to Self-Publish Your E-Book
With triple-digit growth in self-publishing services, technologies evolving weekly, and advertising hype, it's tough for authors to figure out which vendors to choose for which services. In the coming weeks, I'll be looking at three popular paths to get your print and e-book to online retailers and brick-and-mortar stores, without going through the subsidy presses.
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BookShift
Literary Agents Try New Role as Self-Publishing Consultants
With big publishing buying only the crème de la crème of books, and more authors turning to self-publishing, many literary agents are getting squeezed right out of the middle. But some savvy agents are acting as literary consultants to help their authors self-publish, a role that offers up new opportunities and challenges for everybody in the industry. I talked with...
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BookShift
The Easiest, Cheapest, Fastest Way to Self-Publish Your Book
You are excited to self-publish, but sorting through the sheer quantity of offerings, claims, and technologies is overwhelming. I spend a good part of each week researching the topic and, for authors of trade paperback books with no or few illustrations, my answer is to use these two services for creating your e-book and print book: Smashwords and CreateSpace. Create...
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BookShift
The Advantages of Middleman Services for Self-Published e-Books
Whether you're a self-publisher or a large publishing house, you're probably dealing with six to a dozen online retailers to sell your e-books. But several companies offer go-between services that simplify the process for publisher and retailer. Should you consider using these middleman services?
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BookShift
2010: The Year Self-Publishing Lost Its Stigma
For over a decade I've been speaking at conferences about self-publishing to audiences of dejected, rejected authors. There was always a stigma associated with self-publishing, with many people considering it lower quality vanity press. But this year, new faces appeared in the crowd: agents, editors, and publishers eager to understand self-publishing. Why? Self-publishing books has finally reached the mainstream,...
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BookShift
Books in Browsers? Google, Amazon Bring E-Books to the Masses
For authors and publishers already overwhelmed, last week's news about the Google eBooks store and Amazon's Kindle for web only added to the waterfall of controversy pouring into an already raging river of e-book and publishing hype. The big takeaway from these two announcements, and a recent "Books in Browsers" event that I attended, is that the web browser is...
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BookShift
A Self-Publisher's Guide to Metadata for Books
Metadata used to be a wallflower, hiding out at the library with the Dewey Decimal system. Now it's at every party, flitting about gathering and sorting books on mobile devices, e-readers, and websites. Metadata is a core component of digital information and news; so good book metadata is good book marketing. It's an essential tool for all self-publishers. For those...
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BookShift
A Self-Publisher's Primer to Enhanced E-Books and Book Apps
In a nutshell, an e-book is a digital snapshot of a book, an enhanced e-book adds multimedia and interactive features inline with the linear story, and a book app is based on a book but acts more like a game with multiple pathways that require the user to interact instead of simply scrolling and clicking.
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BookShift
Want Your Self-Published Book in Stores? Weigh the Options
The rise of online book retailers means that self-publishers have better access to customers than ever. But many authors still want to be on bookstore shelves. The good news is that you don't really need traditional distribution to get into bookstores. The Databases With your ISBN and bar code from Bowker in hand (read my previous post that told you...
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BookShift
How to Pair Smashwords and Scribd for Ideal E-Book Strategy
Self-published authors are in a unique position to benefit from the increasing consumer acceptance of digital books. The challenge, however, is that so many companies are popping up to offer conversion, distribution and sales. It's tough for authors to know which vendor to choose for which services when it comes to their e-book. The truth is that it's wrong to...
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BookShift
The Pitfalls of Using Self-Publishing Book Packages
The rise of self-publishing has made it possible for anyone to be an author. Now, some people are also choosing to outsource their book project by hiring an author services company. On the surface, this seems much easier than finding and hiring a half-dozen professionals to create your book. (For background on the self-publishing industry and author services companies, please...
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BookShift
Self-Publishing, Author Services Open Floodgates for Writers
In 2001, the Wild Writing Women, a San Francisco Bay Area travel writing group of which I was a member, decided to self-publish a book of stories. Why? Because none of us could find a traditional publisher for what we thought was our best writing. We had skilled publishing professionals among us, so we never considered using a vanity press....
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