Free tools, tips and links from SPR on writing and selling your book
Self-Publishing News: E-Lending, Big Deals, Book Pirates
Two items from TeleRead regarding eBooks and libraries. First, “ALA OITP releases backgrounder document on eBooks […]
In Search of Free Images for Blog Posts and Book Covers
Whatever your budget, chances are you could do with a few free photos for your author blog or even your book’s cover. This article explores several websites offering the use of royalty-free images at no cost to you. You also need to familiarize yourself with different types of licensing when using royalty-free images.
DON’T GET SUED
Before you download an image from anywhere, including the websites discussed in this article, be aware that there are rules, regulations, and laws governing the licensing and use of images found on the Internet. Improperly (translation: illegally) using a photo on your blog […]
Gee, Thanks! – Ebook Promotion & Giveaways
Media Bistro has put together a list of places where self-published authors can promote their eBook at no charge. The list was culled from Kindle Boards:
We’ve collected more information about the sites in a simple directory below, linking to the submission pages for these eBook sites. If you are an avid eBook reader, these sites are great for finding new books to read as well….
Book Dreams and Schemes: Questionable Promotion Offers
[…]The first of the “suite of services,” the Hollywood Book-to-Movie Treatment, costs a cool $3,299. For that, you get a 7-10 page “creative adaptation” of your book written by a screenwriter. Which screenwriter? What are his/her credits? Sorry, that info is not available. …
It hurts my heart, and my brain, to think that authors might actually shell out this kind of money for services that would likely net them zero results even if
Get 10% off at BookBaby
I was just contacted by a BookBaby rep who offered SPR visitors this code to get 10% off on premium services: Springbk10
It expires March 31, 2012.
About BookBaby:
[…]Upload your eBook and pay as little as $99.
Signing up on BookBaby.com is fast and easy. You set the selling price, supply eBook descriptions, author bio, and even list out keyword search terms so that readers can find your eBooks online. You’re in control from start to finish and retain all publishing and ownership rights. Want to make it even easier? Choose our Premium Publishing Package that offers eBook
Creating a DIY Book Cover with GIMP
Doing your own artwork
Although I signed with a great publisher for my e-book, I opted out of print, deciding to self-publish a paperback edition of my novel. Doing my interior and cover design would allow me artistic control, for better or worse, of the product.
Having more time than cash, I wanted to see how much I could accomplish without spending any money. That meant doing everything myself.
What’s the goal?
One of the first things that struck me, while browsing book covers online, was how many were unreadable when displayed as icons. Not surprising, really, […]
Formatting your book with OpenOffice – Part 2
In Part 1 I started with a book in the standard format we all send to agents and formatted it in preparation for print. This article continues with formatting the manuscript for a particular book size.
Choosing a book size
Since I’m self-publishing, it isn’t likely my paperback will be stocked in Barnes and Noble. Potential buyers will probably see an image of the front cover online. When they receive my book, I want them to be pleasantly surprised by the quality.
Most of the books I examined that were similar to mine were 5.25″ x 8″. I also found […]
Formatting your book with OpenOffice – Part 1
Although I’ve got a great publisher for the e-book edition of Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite, I decided to self-publish the paperback. Since I was already familiar with OpenOffice and unable to afford Adobe InDesign, I decided to invest some time to see if using OpenOffice was feasible.
The first step, always, is make a backup and put it somewhere you can’t mess it up.
Preliminary Cleanup
Editing always seems to inject typographic and formatting errors. So my first step was to insure that I didn’t have any tabs, double spaces, extra hard returns, or other debris in […]