Resources | Self-Publishing Review

Ten Secrets of Professional Book Cover Designers

by CATHI STEVENSON

BOOK REVIEWERS notice it. Bookstore owners notice it. Distributors pick right up on it. Online bookstores avoid it. Customers shun it and don’t even know why. What is it? Bad book cover design. Nothing says “amateur” faster and more effectively than a poorly designed book cover.

Even well-chosen fonts and high quality images can’t guarantee a good cover and that’s because there are dozens of little details no one outside the industry is likely to share with you. Well, today I spill the beans, or at least a bowl full.

First of all, I’m going to tell […]

Cathi Stevenson2011-10-08T19:37:04+02:00April 12th, 2010|Categories: Resources|

How to Become a Blogging Expert Overnight

With age comes wisdom…but, not when we’re talking about blogging.

It doesn’t take years to become an expert blogger. You can *conquer all obstacles* and become a professional as early as…tomorrow. Yes, I said tomorrow. To become a blogging expert, all you need to do is:

– Define Your Niche – Mental blocks will be unheard of. Never will you tire for what you’re passionate about. Mental juices will flow. The articles will ring true—with an honest voice. The reader will devour your post.

– Carefully Proof-Read – Checking for the usual punctuation and grammar is a given. Beginners can […]

Jo-Anne Vandermeulen2011-10-08T19:37:39+02:00March 29th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog, Resources|

DIY TV Advertising

I can’t claim to have done this yet, but it’s pretty amazing that Google TV Ads are even possible. When people start creating their own television advertising, how will something like putting out your own book lack any credibility? Answer: it won’t and we’re entering a brave new world where DIY is the norm. This is something to seriously consider for a book ad if you’ve got some money to spend.

From Slate:

Here’s Google’s how-to:

[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T19:37:53+02:00March 24th, 2010|Categories: Resources|

Adventures in Self-Publishing

(click for complete version)

I’ve been self-publishing novels for a little more than ten years. I’ve had some successes–for example, I’ve won the Writer’s Digest National Self-Published Book competition and I’ve sold more than 6,000 copies of my books. But I’m not a self-publishing rock star and I still dream of doing much better.

Here’s an essay on some things I’ve learned in ten years of doing this. Other versions of this essay appear elsewhere on the net, most recently on my site wetmachine.com, from whence you can download versions of my books for free if you feel like […]

John Sundman2011-10-08T19:38:08+02:00March 24th, 2010|Categories: Features, Lead Story, Resources|

When a CC License Becomes a PITA, or worse, a Pain in Your Bottom Line…

Last week I entered into an unfortunate discussion regarding Creative Commons licensing, free content, and intellectual property theft to the tune of Copyright Hijacking. See the discussion over on Tele-read with author Piotr Kowolcyzk titled: I have a Ghost Publisher at Amazon … Please Help!:

I’ve self-published my two books Password Incorrect and Failure Confirmed through Kindle Digital Text Platform in mid-January, a couple of days after Amazon opened a system to authors from outside USA.

Last Friday I’ve noticed that there is another edition of Password Incorrect, published on Feb 15 – by somebody else. The link to

[…]

Cheryl Anne Gardner2011-10-08T18:38:09+02:00March 2nd, 2010|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|

The Intersection of Your Vision Blvd. and Writer’s Block Rd.

We’ve all been there. One minute you’re smoothly cruising down Your Vision Blvd. in your 1966 Ford Mustang convertible—sunshine, blue skies, 70-degree wind blowing through your hair. All of your ideas are beautifully coordinated into coherent and meaningful sentences. Writer heaven.

Then, out of nowhere, gridlock. You’ve stopped moving. It’s bumper-to-bumper traffic and you find yourself perfectly perpendicular to Writer’s Block Rd. as the “Do Not Block the Intersection” street sign intensely glares at you. You impatiently tap your finger on the steering wheel as you hope that the light doesn’t turn red, leaving you caught in the middle of […]

Stefanie Flaxman2020-02-21T06:46:40+02:00February 25th, 2010|Categories: Resources|Tags: Book Editing Tips|

The Open Publishing Guide: An Open-Source Website for Self-Publishers

The Open Publishing Guide (OPG) is an open-source website created and maintained by the Open Publishing Lab (OPL) a research lab based in the School of Print Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The OPL is dedicated to researching new models of content creation and developing innovative, open-source and cross-media publishing projects. The lab currently has about twenty students, two full-time staff members (recent graduates, of which I am one) and four co-directors who oversee and lead the lab’s multiple projects.

The Open Publishing Guide website is run by one co-director, one full-time staff member and project lead (that’s […]

Rachael Gootnick2011-10-08T18:42:00+02:00January 23rd, 2010|Categories: Resources|

Become a Better Proofreader in 3 Steps

The main difficulty in proofreading your own text is simple: you have trouble recognizing your own typos, grammar mistakes, and inaccuracies. You know what you want to say; it’s just not always communicated in your writing.

When you act as your own proofreader, you may often overlook mistakes because your eye doesn’t recognize them as mistakes. You may even finish reading a sentence without actually reading the words on the page—the sentence already sounds correct in your mind since you know the meaning it is supposed to convey.

Here are three proofreading practices that will help train your eye to […]

Stefanie Flaxman2020-02-21T06:46:44+02:00January 20th, 2010|Categories: Resources|Tags: Book Editing Tips|