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Category : Self-Publishing
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Continue Reading "Conspirators R Us"Conspirators R Us
If you're a regular reader of my blog, you doubtless understand this blog is, at heart, a "publishing journalism" site. Things happen in the publishing industry, and I talk about them. There are lessons for writers to learn, and I share them. Other people have opinions, and I let them offer their thoughts. That's why I found it interesting that a publisher is threatening to sue me.You might have heard the news that Wine Press Publishing, a vanity press in the state of Washington, is in a battle with the former owner of the company, a woman named Athena Dean. You can google the topic to get all the details, which is how I found out about it. The argument basically comes down to the former owner claiming she was treated badly by a group she believes is, more or less, a fundamentalist church that has taken over the company. The current situation is an interesting study in business ethics and church governance and arcane theology, but you'd have to go somewhere else to find the details, since I've never blogged about it before. I haven't said anything about it on my corporate website, either. Nor have I written about it for any other magazine, e-zine, or journal. I could have — I mean, I'm a trained journalist, talking about the publishing industry, and the allegation that a big company that's very involved in Christian publishing has acted unfairly toward employees or tried to intimidate people is news. But I didn't. Not because I was afraid to (and yes, I've heard a couple people warn that Wine Press has used lawyers and intimidation tactics on others in the past), but because I wanted to wait and see what the facts brought out. I don't have a dog in this hunt — but I'm very interested in the hunt itself and the story surrounding it.My sole -
Continue Reading "Conspirators R Us"
Conspirators R Us
If you're a regular reader of my blog, you doubtless understand this blog is, at heart, a "publishing journalism" site. Things happen in the publishing industry, and I talk about them. There are lessons for writers to learn, and I share them. Other people have opinions, and I let them offer their thoughts. That's why I found it interesting that a publisher is threatening to sue me.You might have heard the news that Wine Press Publishing, a vanity press in the state of Washington, is in a battle with the former owner of the company, a woman named Athena Dean. You can google the topic to get all the details, which is how I found out about it. The argument basically comes down to the former owner claiming she was treated badly by a group she believes is, more or less, a fundamentalist church that has taken over the company. The current situation is an interesting study in business ethics and church governance and arcane theology, but you'd have to go somewhere else to find the details, since I've never blogged about it before. I haven't said anything about it on my corporate website, either. Nor have I written about it for any other magazine, e-zine, or journal. I could have — I mean, I'm a trained journalist, talking about the publishing industry, and the allegation that a big company that's very involved in Christian publishing has acted unfairly toward employees or tried to intimidate people is news. But I didn't. Not because I was afraid to (and yes, I've heard a couple people warn that Wine Press has used lawyers and intimidation tactics on others in the past), but because I wanted to wait and see what the facts brought out. I don't have a dog in this hunt — but I'm very interested in the hunt itself and the story surrounding it.My sole -
Continue Reading "From Amanda: How to Format Your Manuscript for Submission and Kindle Upload"
From Amanda: How to Format Your Manuscript for Submission and Kindle Upload
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.
First, I'd like to say I'm sorry for missing my post yesterday. I had some personal things come up and just didn't get around to it. So, we're going to take a slight detour this week, since I know there are a number of people who tune in specifically on Thursdays to hear about building author platform. And, well, we don't want them missing the next installment, now, do we?!
So for today, I'd like to share links to a batch of really helpful tutorial videos my author, the fabulous Jill Williamson, put together. They cover everything you need to know to format your manuscript for submission.
Formatting a Manuscript, Part 1: Page Set Up and Text– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boP5po6aMDk&feature=relatedFormatting a Manuscript, Part 2: Page Breaks– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nU1iv2v95s&feature=relatedFormatting a Manuscript, Part 3: Paragraphs– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwqvmdWDJto&feature=relatedFormatting a Manuscript, Part 4: Cleaning things up– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNOj9ZR88E8&feature=relatedFormatting a Manuscript, Part 5: Page Numbers– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOuihsC7SyY&feature=relatedIn addition to this, Jill put together a series of videos for formatting your manuscript for upload on Amazon as a Kindle ebook.Formatting Your Manuscript for Amazon Kindle–PART 1– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU2kprKRrGY&feature=relatedUsing Mobipocket to Format Your Book For Kindle–PART 2– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4szEhEhHy4&feature=relatedThey're short and to the point…excellent references for anyone getting ready to do something with that polished, perfected manuscript.Do you know of any tutorials to add to this list? Tell us about them!And tune in next Thursday when we get back to our discussion on building platforms…the topic? Platform-building blogging. See you next week! -
Continue Reading "Resources for Writers"
Resources for Writers
I’ve got a bunch of notes and questions regarding writer resources, so let me try to get to several of them today…
On MONEY: Patricia wrote to say, "Thanks for your recent blog post about earning money. So if a book doesn’t ‘earn out’ its advance, is the balance applied against the next book?"
It is if your contract is cross-collateralized — that is, if all your various book advances are "basketed" into one deal. If not — if each book is on a separate contract — then no, your advance cannot be applied to your next book.
On REMAINDERS: DeeAnn wrote me to ask, "What does it mean to ‘remainder’ a book?"
That’s when the publisher sells the remaining copies of your book to a book wholesaler for less than the cost of printing. It commonly happens when your book is going out of print, or when they’re down to the last 1000 copies or so, and the publisher wants to be rid of them. The books might have cost $2 to print, but they’ll sell them for $1 apiece to somebody who will buy the entire remaining stock, just to get them out of the warehouse.
On SELF-PUBLISHING: Gene wants to note, "The latest issue of Writers Digest is filled with ads for self-publishing. I’m on my second agent, still trying to get published, but it takes SOOOO long. How can you convince me not to go to lulu.com and have my book for sale on Amazon tomorrow morning? When will the traditionalists speed up the process?"
You’re right — there are a ton of self-publishing companies. Some are good, some are not. Be careful. The problem with self-publishing is not the speed, it’s the sales. If you write a book, you have to make sure the book is good (and if publishers are all turning you down, there could be a message there, Gene). You also