How to Publish a Book

www.TheCreativePenn.com Bali Retreat 2010

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Power smoothie check in

How are you feeling?

Any „aha‟ moments

What you want to learn in this session

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“Writing is a journey. Your book is a goal.”

Joanna Penn

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What publishing option do you want to pursue?

What do you want for your book? E.g. Global distribution/ in local bookstore/ income stream

Your Book

The same text

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Decide who to pitch

http://www.curtisbrown.com.au/

http://awmonline.com.au/

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Know your target

What do publishers want?

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/

All agencies and good agents have websites.

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Obey the rules. Do exactly what they ask for.

Query email/letter first.

Submission Pack e.g. Print black, single-sided A4 double line spacing. Plain font.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicshark/1288380740/

Cover Letter including publishing experience, your platform and marketing, target market

Synopsis and chapter summaries

First 3 Chapters

Non-fiction: Book proposal

Beware the slush pile!

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Rejection is part of the publishing process.

Don’t take it personally!

Rejected 12x now with sales of over 100 million books

Rejected over 100x now with sales of over 112 million books

Rejected 30x before launching Stephen King’s career

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Sign a contract for your book.

It now belongs to the publisher.

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Write Editorial Process Read and Edit Cover Design

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http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2009/05/and-you-thought-royalty-involved-crown.html

http://www.publetariat.com/sell/reality-times-bestseller

Kudos and prestige

Editorial support plus cover design

Distribution to bookstores

Possibly marketing help

All depends on the publisher

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Time to market Lack of control

Loss of rights esp. digital

Beware the pulping meeting! What happens if you don’t sell?

Lack of support

For success in traditional publishing, do your homework. Be patient.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/ http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2005/01/everything- you-wanted-to-know-about.asp

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2009/1 0/06/TheSecretsToPublishingSuccessJanes200 9ToughLoveGuide.aspx

http://www.juliamccutchen.com/

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2009/09/19/podcast-juliamccutchen-book-proposals-traditional-publishing/

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Self publishing is DIY

Or find someone to do it for you!

Quicker time to market

Total control and choice

Sell by any means as you retain the rights

Niche markets perfect

More money per book

Get into the game! Test the market and then approach a publisher with evidence of sales

Time and effort into sales and marketing, not chasing agents and publishers

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You need to do it all yourself, or find professionals to help

May cost you some money upfront

Hard to get distribution into physical bookshops

You might not sell as many books

Less prestige than being ‘published’ but the stigma is lessening every day

Where do you spend your energy?

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Chasing agents and publishers...

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Or writing more... and marketing

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“I’m still self-publishing. Because you’ve got more control and I know the process, backwards, frontwards, sideways. I know it in and out. I know what it takes”

Rachael Bermingham, co- author of ‘4 Ingredients’, still self-publishing with 4 versions of the book and a TV show Sold over 3 million books + TV show + now foreign rights. http://www.4ingredients.com.au/

http://www.lulu.com/

http://www.lightningsource.com/

https://www.createspace.com/

http://www.blurb.com/

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/01/2 1/podcast-self-publishing-your-questions- answered-with-indie-author-april-hamilton/

With transcript.

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$zero Plus services

Biggest criticism of indie authors => Lack of quality control

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http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

http://twitter.com/JFbookman

Use professionals

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From Amazon.com Bestsellers and New releases

Get a professional

Research books in your genre, brainstorm ideas

Look good as a thumbnail and be obvious http://www.flickr.com/photos/chromaticaberrations/2325563789/

It doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated!

Ideas:

http://covers.fwis.com/

http://nytimesbooks.blogspot.com/

http://bookcoverarchive.com/

Cover as brand – like Kiyosaki purple on multiple books, or For Dummies range.

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http://www.parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/freedocs.cfm

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/learn_book.aspx

http://www.lulu.com/en/help/covers_faq

http://www.gettyimages.com/

http://www.istockphoto.com/

http://www.flickr.com/

Google “royalty free images” Remember permissions!

http://www.guru.com/

http://www.elance.com/

http://caffeinatedelf.com/

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You also need page layout and typesetting

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To print or not to print.... that is the question

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Print On Demand is Freedom

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Books are printed individually when they are ordered by the customer

Saves you money. No upfront printing costs. Royalties monthly.

No stock so no holding costs and no boxes around the house

Ship straight to the customer from the printer, so no postage and packing for you

Publish globally

Ebooks and Digital Publishing

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Sell to anyone in the world over the internet without printing or shipping costs.

More profit.

“But I will never give up printed books”

“I love the feel and the smell”

“I hate ebooks”

http://smellofbooks.com/aromas/new-book-smell/

http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/industrystats.htm

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20017260-93.html

Reading 3x as many books since I got Kindle.

Rejected his publishers, is publishing straight to ebook and also has a publishing deal with Amazon Encore http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

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Wants his rights back.

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/09/konr ath-ebooks-sales-top-100k.html

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/09/konrath-ebooks-sales-top-100k.html

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12 NY Times bestsellers through traditional publishing “my mission is to figure out who the audience is, and take them where they want and need to go, in whatever format works, even if it's not a traditionally published book” http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/08/moving-on.html

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?page_id=860

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https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin

http://ebookarchitects.com/ http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/02/24/podcast-ebooks-qa-with-joshua- tallent-from-ebookarchitects/ (with transcript)

PDF from my website

https://www.smashwords.com/

On the Stanza app

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http://www.smashwords.co http://www.smashwords.com/books/ m/books/view/52 view/305

http://www.scribd.com/

US citizens can publish. Others can use for marketing.

Your book on the ipad

Kindle app

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https://itunesconnect.apple.c om/WebObjects/iTunesConn ect.woa/wa/apply

Must have: ISBNs for ebooks, EPUB format, US tax number, iTunes account.

http://www.wattpad.com/

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http://epublishersweekly.word press.com/

Only $4 for the ebook version – Highly recommended!

http://www.ondemandbooks.com/home.htm

http://moriahjovan.com/mojo/the -perfect-bookstore

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Why not?

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Your Book

The same text

What publishing options do you want to pursue?

What has changed?

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Cocktail checkout

What did you learn from the session?

What are you going to do with the information?

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