Fran Shaff's Blog - Posts Tagged "publishing-your-book"
Getting Published, Part 2
Publishing Your Book
Once your book is written and reworked until you're completely satisfied with it, you're ready to publish it.
In my last post we discussed publishing your book traditionally and independently. Today, we'll expand on that topic.
1. Traditional Publishing. If you choose to publish traditionally, I recommend using the "Writer's Market" published by Writer's Digest Books as a resource in finding a publisher. However, do not restrict your publisher research to this book. While it is extremely helpful in finding a publisher who puts out your kind of book, it is important to check other resources for the right publisher for you.
Magazines like "The Writer" and "Writer's Digest" can be helpful.
Writers' organizations like Epic Authors often list publishers along with descriptions of the types of books they publish. It's also a good idea to do an Internet search for publishers. As with other topics, Internet searches can turn up some very helpful information when you're trying to find a publisher for your book.
2. Independent Publishing. There are many ways to publish your book independently. An Internet search will help you find this type of publisher too.
Let's take a look at the biggest publishers available to Independents first, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Amazon offers publishing services through their Kindle Direct Publishing program. Barnes and Noble offers the same type of service through their Pubit program. Amazon's publication is for the Kindle, B & N's is for their Nook.
Publishers like Smashwords, Lulu, and Create Space offer publication services in e-formats and/or print formats. With companies like these writers have access to worldwide distribution through many Internet Stores such as B & N, Apple's I-Books, Sony, Powells, Books a Million, etc. instead of just one store as offered by Amazon's KDP and B & N's Pubit.
As you research these companies and others you'll find through your Internet search, you will learn that you can publish your book at more than one place--as long as you hold all the publication rights to whatever format you wish to use to distribute your book.
For example, if you want to publish in Amazon's KDP and B & N's Pubit program AND use Smashwords to distribute to Apple, Sony, Kobo, etc., you can do that, as long as you own the publication rights.
The publishers referred to in this blog post offer authors the opportunity to publish their content absolutely free. They get paid for their services when you sell your books by taking a fee or a percentage of the sales price. Some of them also make money by offering paid publication services to authors such as editorial and cover services or promotional services. The paid services are for the author's convenience. You don't need to use them in order to publish your book with the companies mentioned here.
Next week we'll discuss the types of files you'll need to upload to use Independent Publishing services, book covers and more.
Please don't be overwhelmed by this mass of information or confused by it. Like everything else, if you take Independent Publishing or Traditional Publishing one step at a time, you'll be able to figure it all out and make the best choice for the publication of your book.
Perhaps between now and my next blog post you'd like to check out the companies mentioned here and other companies you find on your Internet search and learn more. It would be great if you could share via comments whatever you learn that would be helpful to this blog's readers. Sound good?
Have a great week!
Fran
Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
http://sites.google.com/site/fshaff
Once your book is written and reworked until you're completely satisfied with it, you're ready to publish it.
In my last post we discussed publishing your book traditionally and independently. Today, we'll expand on that topic.
1. Traditional Publishing. If you choose to publish traditionally, I recommend using the "Writer's Market" published by Writer's Digest Books as a resource in finding a publisher. However, do not restrict your publisher research to this book. While it is extremely helpful in finding a publisher who puts out your kind of book, it is important to check other resources for the right publisher for you.
Magazines like "The Writer" and "Writer's Digest" can be helpful.
Writers' organizations like Epic Authors often list publishers along with descriptions of the types of books they publish. It's also a good idea to do an Internet search for publishers. As with other topics, Internet searches can turn up some very helpful information when you're trying to find a publisher for your book.
2. Independent Publishing. There are many ways to publish your book independently. An Internet search will help you find this type of publisher too.
Let's take a look at the biggest publishers available to Independents first, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Amazon offers publishing services through their Kindle Direct Publishing program. Barnes and Noble offers the same type of service through their Pubit program. Amazon's publication is for the Kindle, B & N's is for their Nook.
Publishers like Smashwords, Lulu, and Create Space offer publication services in e-formats and/or print formats. With companies like these writers have access to worldwide distribution through many Internet Stores such as B & N, Apple's I-Books, Sony, Powells, Books a Million, etc. instead of just one store as offered by Amazon's KDP and B & N's Pubit.
As you research these companies and others you'll find through your Internet search, you will learn that you can publish your book at more than one place--as long as you hold all the publication rights to whatever format you wish to use to distribute your book.
For example, if you want to publish in Amazon's KDP and B & N's Pubit program AND use Smashwords to distribute to Apple, Sony, Kobo, etc., you can do that, as long as you own the publication rights.
The publishers referred to in this blog post offer authors the opportunity to publish their content absolutely free. They get paid for their services when you sell your books by taking a fee or a percentage of the sales price. Some of them also make money by offering paid publication services to authors such as editorial and cover services or promotional services. The paid services are for the author's convenience. You don't need to use them in order to publish your book with the companies mentioned here.
Next week we'll discuss the types of files you'll need to upload to use Independent Publishing services, book covers and more.
Please don't be overwhelmed by this mass of information or confused by it. Like everything else, if you take Independent Publishing or Traditional Publishing one step at a time, you'll be able to figure it all out and make the best choice for the publication of your book.
Perhaps between now and my next blog post you'd like to check out the companies mentioned here and other companies you find on your Internet search and learn more. It would be great if you could share via comments whatever you learn that would be helpful to this blog's readers. Sound good?
Have a great week!
Fran
Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
http://sites.google.com/site/fshaff
Getting Published, Part 3
Independent Publishing
As promised, this week we'll continue our discussion of Independent Publishing.
Files You'll Need
E-Book Publishing
Each e-publisher available to Independent Authors requires a specific type of file from writers who want to use their services to distribute their books. However, most publishers want authors to begin in Microsoft Word, not the later "docx" version but the older "doc" version.
If you're using the latest version of "Word" or you're using a different word processor, you'll still likely be able to save your file as a "doc" file. Most word processing software offers a variety of file types for saving documents.
Once you have your book saved in "Word" according to your publisher's specifications, you will be able to follow the instructions on how to proceed from there in the publisher's "How to" FAQs.
Read and follow instructions very carefully. If you don't complete your file exactly as instructed, you'll only delay the availability of your book to readers.
Publishers use both mechanical and human reviewers to vet books. If manuscripts vary by even as small an error as using all caps when it's not allowed, adding an extra space between the words in chapter titles, or any small infractions like these, your book may not convert into the format needed to successfully distribute your book to major vendors.
If your book has illustrations, photos, a table of contents, footnotes, or any of a number of other additions besides straight forward text, formatting will be a bit more complicated and will vary from publisher to publisher. Here again, be diligent in following guidelines in order to successfully publish your book.
Hard Copy Publishing
If you're distributing your book in paperback or hardcover you'll need to choose a book size. Places like Lulu and Create Space offer a nice selection of book sizes.
You'll find paperback/hardcover publishers usually want a pdf file for their books. They may make the pdf for you from whatever word processor you use, or they may require a pdf file right from the start.
Hard copy publishers also dictate page counts for the various book sizes. Be sure to heed these requirements, or your book file will not be accepted.
Final Copy Reviews
Whether you're publishing your book in hard copy or e-formats, it is important that you review a copy of the book in all formats. If your publishing with a distributor like Smashwords, and you choose to make your book available in several of the formats they distribute (mobi, pdf, e-pub, etc) look at your book in every format to be sure it's clear and easy to read.
Be sure the layout of your hard copy books looks professional. Covers should be clear and attractive.
Ah, yes, covers. It looks like we'll have to put off a more in depth discussion on those until next week. However, I can give you a bit of info on e-book covers because they are less complicated than covers for paperbacks/hardcovers.
If you've got good photo editing software, that's really all you'll need in order to make a cover for your e-book. Most publishers require only a jpeg file of a specific size and resolution. Details of what they need are in their FAQs.
I look forward to continuing our discussion next week when we'll discuss covers and a few odds and ends. The following week we'll talk about marketing your books.
Hopefully, you'll have a pleasant few days until we meet again.
Fran
Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
http://sites.google.com/site/fshaff
As promised, this week we'll continue our discussion of Independent Publishing.
Files You'll Need
E-Book Publishing
Each e-publisher available to Independent Authors requires a specific type of file from writers who want to use their services to distribute their books. However, most publishers want authors to begin in Microsoft Word, not the later "docx" version but the older "doc" version.
If you're using the latest version of "Word" or you're using a different word processor, you'll still likely be able to save your file as a "doc" file. Most word processing software offers a variety of file types for saving documents.
Once you have your book saved in "Word" according to your publisher's specifications, you will be able to follow the instructions on how to proceed from there in the publisher's "How to" FAQs.
Read and follow instructions very carefully. If you don't complete your file exactly as instructed, you'll only delay the availability of your book to readers.
Publishers use both mechanical and human reviewers to vet books. If manuscripts vary by even as small an error as using all caps when it's not allowed, adding an extra space between the words in chapter titles, or any small infractions like these, your book may not convert into the format needed to successfully distribute your book to major vendors.
If your book has illustrations, photos, a table of contents, footnotes, or any of a number of other additions besides straight forward text, formatting will be a bit more complicated and will vary from publisher to publisher. Here again, be diligent in following guidelines in order to successfully publish your book.
Hard Copy Publishing
If you're distributing your book in paperback or hardcover you'll need to choose a book size. Places like Lulu and Create Space offer a nice selection of book sizes.
You'll find paperback/hardcover publishers usually want a pdf file for their books. They may make the pdf for you from whatever word processor you use, or they may require a pdf file right from the start.
Hard copy publishers also dictate page counts for the various book sizes. Be sure to heed these requirements, or your book file will not be accepted.
Final Copy Reviews
Whether you're publishing your book in hard copy or e-formats, it is important that you review a copy of the book in all formats. If your publishing with a distributor like Smashwords, and you choose to make your book available in several of the formats they distribute (mobi, pdf, e-pub, etc) look at your book in every format to be sure it's clear and easy to read.
Be sure the layout of your hard copy books looks professional. Covers should be clear and attractive.
Ah, yes, covers. It looks like we'll have to put off a more in depth discussion on those until next week. However, I can give you a bit of info on e-book covers because they are less complicated than covers for paperbacks/hardcovers.
If you've got good photo editing software, that's really all you'll need in order to make a cover for your e-book. Most publishers require only a jpeg file of a specific size and resolution. Details of what they need are in their FAQs.
I look forward to continuing our discussion next week when we'll discuss covers and a few odds and ends. The following week we'll talk about marketing your books.
Hopefully, you'll have a pleasant few days until we meet again.
Fran
Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
http://sites.google.com/site/fshaff
Getting Published, Part 5
I have yet to meet a writer who enjoys marketing. Most of us want only to sit at our computers and create more stories.
However, once our books are published it essential that we let people know the books are available.
There are many ways in this modern age in which we can tell the public about our books. A few Internet options available to us are:
1. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.
2. Yahoo and Google groups and other Internet groups
3. You Tube and sites like it
4. Forums such as Kindlebooks and other reader forums
5. Websites which specialize in catering to readers of your genre
In addition, we can send press releases to local media and any specialty media which would find the topic of our book relevant, solicit book reviews, use any contacts we have which may help the public become aware of our books.
One of the tools many writers have used effectively since the advent of e-books is the offering of a book free of charge. Writers have consistently found that by offering one book as a free download readers who enjoy the book will go on to purchase more books by the same author.
The more exposure your book has the better, but don't nag readers or beg them to read your books. If you're promoting on social networks or forums, talk about things other than your books. Readers enjoy getting to know a little about you. Mention the projects you're working on once in a while or give a link to an excerpt from time to time, but don't sell, sell, sell. That usually just turns off Internet acquaintances.
Best wishes and good luck with your writing career. I hope the direction you've chosen to take works out for you just the way you want it. And thanks for joining me for this series on getting published.
Fran
Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
http://sites.google.com/site/fshaff
However, once our books are published it essential that we let people know the books are available.
There are many ways in this modern age in which we can tell the public about our books. A few Internet options available to us are:
1. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.
2. Yahoo and Google groups and other Internet groups
3. You Tube and sites like it
4. Forums such as Kindlebooks and other reader forums
5. Websites which specialize in catering to readers of your genre
In addition, we can send press releases to local media and any specialty media which would find the topic of our book relevant, solicit book reviews, use any contacts we have which may help the public become aware of our books.
One of the tools many writers have used effectively since the advent of e-books is the offering of a book free of charge. Writers have consistently found that by offering one book as a free download readers who enjoy the book will go on to purchase more books by the same author.
The more exposure your book has the better, but don't nag readers or beg them to read your books. If you're promoting on social networks or forums, talk about things other than your books. Readers enjoy getting to know a little about you. Mention the projects you're working on once in a while or give a link to an excerpt from time to time, but don't sell, sell, sell. That usually just turns off Internet acquaintances.
Best wishes and good luck with your writing career. I hope the direction you've chosen to take works out for you just the way you want it. And thanks for joining me for this series on getting published.
Fran
Fran Shaff, Award-Winning Author
http://sites.google.com/site/fshaff
