Cover Copy Tips
Tips about writing back cover copy that hooks the potential reader, from a webinar featuring Lee Silber.
Book Review: This Is Marketing by Seth Godin
A review of This is Marketing by Seth Godin, which had a lot of ideas for modern marketing that resonated with me.
Tinkering with eBook Code (for Beginners!)
Producing an ebook is one of the more confusing parts of self-publishing. Guides offer all kinds of suggestions for DIY software and companies who’ll create the ebook for you. I chose to create my own ebook for a few reasons: (1) to save money, (2) to learn something new, and (3) because Bread Science is complicated. I wanted the index of Bread Science to link back into the book, but without page numbers, I had to choose which word each…
Ultimate Overview of Self-Publishing
Since I first got involved in self-publishing, I’ve wanted to share what I’ve learned with other interested authors. The information has taken various forms over the years. The latest is an outline that spans the entire process and also seeks to clear up some of the confusing areas. Self-Publishing from 2006 to 2017 I self-published Bread Science in 2006. There were few legitimate services back then, so I had to do much of the work myself. I read some helpful…
Libel, and Privacy, and Copyright, Oh My!
An important step in writing a book, particularly if you’re self-publishing without the guidance of a legal team, is securing permissions. There are three types of material to consider for permissions: any material that might be copyrighted, any material that might infringe on someone’s privacy, and any material that might be considered libel. Each of these areas is complicated. For example, If you quote an email that someone sent you, the copyright of the material may belong to the person…
Authentic Marketing
When my first book, Bread Science, came out in 2006, I had a list of ideas on marketing from a guidebook I had read about self-publishing. I made a sell sheet, sent it to bookstores, and got no response. I tried to schedule readings at my local bookstores, also without much luck. But somehow the book started selling, and has sold steadily ever since. I attributed this to luck (meeting Peter Reinhart) and timing (artisan bakeries and home baking were…
Book Distribution for Self-Publishers
What is distribution? For a self-publisher (or as they are now sometimes called, author-publisher), distribution can be the most confusing part of publishing. This is because the term has various meanings. In general, it refers to the means by which books go from the publisher to the retailer (e.g., a bookstore), who then sells them to readers. Before self-publishing became so popular, the distribution system worked a certain way and was intertwined with publishing houses. Some publishing houses had their…
Understanding Hashtags
At one of my jobs, they told me to Use More Hashtags! I know this might come naturally to some folks, but I began using social media later in life and decided to research a bit. I read a lot of articles that repeated each other, but the information organized in my head in a different way. Here’s how I see hashtags. Hashtags in General The general advice can be summed up as follows: Keep hashtags short, memorable, unique, relevant,…
A Checklist for Self-Publishers
Yesterday I attended a webinar about the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) checklist of book standards. IBPA is hoping to change the publishing industry so that all books are judged by their quality, not by who published them. Providing the checklist to self-publishers enables them to produce professional-looking books that won’t instantly be labeled as self-published and therefore inferior. And, promoting the standards on the checklist as the standards to use to judge if a book is professionally published will…