You can do it yourself.
Below you'll find links to all the information about publishing that’s available on the Book Design Made Simple website, book, videos, and blog.
We gained a lot of experience from creating Book Design Made Simple. You can learn from our successes and avoid our pitfalls! We’ve written blog posts about entering book award contests and publishing a second edition, as well as explained how to get all the details you need for your copyright page.
Below are all the blog posts in the Publishing category, starting with the most recent post.
Will you work with a book illustrator for your book cover and/or pages? If so, you probably have lots of questions! Where can you find a suitable book illustrator? How much should you expect one or more illustrations to cost? Will you own the copyright of the illustrations used in your book? What size, resolution, and format should the digital files be?
Here are answers to all those questions and more. [Read more…]
Have you written a self-help book, DIY book, user manual, training book, or some other book that is full of advice? If so, don’t stop when it’s published. In fact, even before you start writing, make plans to use your book to build business. [Read more…]
Some people say that the first page is the most important one in any book—and that is probably true as a means for hooking a reader. Others say that the cover is the most important. But I contend that the copyright page wins the prize because it’s probably the first page that a librarian, bookseller, or distributor looks at. And that makes it an integral part of your book marketing program.
Many self-publishing authors find the copyright page to be horribly confusing. All that legal language! All those numbers! What does it all mean? [Read more…]
Book marketing to libraries can be tricky, but here’s a scheme we tried that worked for us.
How many people can you count as friends? You will soon find out when you ask for their help with this book marketing technique that works for even the most shy of authors.
With a little work and a big ask, you will soon find your book listed in public libraries all over the country. [Read more…]
By now you all know that Book Design Made Simple is in its second edition and that we also have an ebook edition on the market. We’re going to reveal how it all came about, and we hope you can learn from some of our stumbles . . . yes, even seasoned publishing professionals can make mistakes, foul up, and generally just muddle through. Read on!
Last fall and winter, we entered Book Design Made Simple in some independent publishing book award contests. In mid-April, we got word that our book had won gold at the Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards. Nine days later, we won another gold medal, this time at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
[Read more…]
Dear reader, let me repeat something that you’ve probably heard before: Nobody likes a poorly written book. It doesn’t matter if the message of the book is valid or even excellent or groundbreaking. If it is not well written and constructed, people will not read it.
So please get yourself an editor. Try to find one who has experience in your general topic (science or romance, for instance), or in your form of writing (short stories, screenplay, novel). Ask for samples of work they have edited. Naturally the pieces should be readable and error-free. You’ll find editorial resources at the end of this article. [Read more…]
Practically every author thinks and wonders about this a lot. How do people come up with just the right price for their books? Well, maybe the prices that are printed on their books are not actually working for them, and that might be because they used the stab-in-the-dark method of pricing. Let’s see if we can figure out the best, most rational, price for your book.
There are two main factors at work here. One is to set a price that is comparable to similar books. And the other is to set one that will give you enough returns to pay your expenses. [Read more…]
Before you start designing your book or cover, you really need to take a trip to a bookstore to check out the competition. (Yes, you will have competition!) Visit the section of the store where your book will be placed and take notes on the following: [Read more…]
For my entire professional life, since the mid 1970s, I have been a book designer. But back in 2008, my two best textbook publishing clients suddenly stopped using freelancers, and the bottom dropped out of my business just like that. So I scrambled for a new way to make some money as a book designer. [Read more…]
