Title: The Public Domain Publishing Bible
Author: Andras M. Nagy
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Murine Communications
Pages: 164
ISBN: 9780982499412
Price: $13.45
Publishing Date: 2010
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This extraordinarily helpful how-to is a must have for publishers and self-publishers. The author, who has published over 60 books, teaches how to find and use content in the public domain to increase your streams of income and to bring to light timeless information. He provides both instruction and valuable resources and links to enable you to find and publish books no longer protected by copyright. His chapters include: Public Domain in the USA; How to Select a Genre; The Print on Demand Advantage; How to Construct Your Book; A Guide to Book Scanning; How to Build a CIP Data Block; How to Work with Lightning Source; How to Market Your Business; Search Engine Optimization; How to Work with Amazon; How to Work with Createspace.com; How to Get Publicity; New Technologies; My Ten Commandments; Public Domain Resources; Publishing Resources; Copyright Search Firms; International Copyright Treaties; and a Bibliography.
His information prompted me to download a public domain book about the 1850s we sell steadily in our bookstore from Project Gutenberg, re-typeset it, redesign a cover, put our ISBN on it, and print it for sale in our store. All except for the printing of course and the ISBN was absolutely free. I now plan to publish a series of books from the 1800s frontier days to create a special section in our store, as well as wholesaling them to local museums and such. This book made all that possible. We rated it our max five hearts.
Title: Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life
Author: Pamela Smith Hill
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: South Dakota State Historical Society Press
Pages: 244
ISBN: 978-0-9777955-6-7
Price: $12.95
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This biography of the author of the “Little House” series is highly informative. What is especially interesting is the biographer’s treatment of Wilder’s relationship with her daughter, an accomplished writer and editor in her own right. Wilder’s daughter was Wilder’s personal editor throughout her career. Writers will be interested to track Wilder’s writing development. Her relationship with her parents, especially her father, is the foundation on which her series was based. This biography goes beyond that to examine her relationship with her loving husband. This book is very encouraging to those writers who have waited for their twilight years before starting their writing careers. We rated it four hearts.
Title: The Clear and Simple Thesaurus Dictionary
Author: Harriet Wittels and Joan Greisman
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Grosset & Dunlap
Pages: 365
ISBN: 0-448-44309-0
Price: $10.99
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
This newly revised standard is simple enough for children and convenient and easy to read for us older writers. Each word is simply defined and used in a sample sentence. This is not supposed to be an ultimate thesaurus but a quick and easy reference. We rated it four hearts.
Title: Plug Your Book
Author: Steve Weber
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Weber Books
Pages: 203
ISBN: 978-0-9772406-1-6
Price: $24.99
Publishing Date: 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
This is by far the best resource on how to use the internet to sell books I have read (and I’ve read quite a few). The author covers internet, especially for selling books, from A to Z. In fact, I was able to put a number of his suggestions to good use. The following are some of the areas he covers:
How to network effectively; how to get on Amazon’s bestsellers’ list and why; getting book reviews; building your author’s web site; blogging; MySpace; book promoting on the web; and much, much more. The book is easy to understand and is filled with essential information, as well as nice to have information. We rated it a high five hearts.
Title: Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers
Author: Shel Horowitz
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: AWM Books
Pages: 276
ISBN: 978-0-9614666-3-4
Price: $24.95
Publishing Date: March 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
Shel Horowitz is a generous, highly experienced marketer of books and general items. Known for his focus on ethical marketing, the author has put together an essential reference book for the independent press and self-publishing industry. With over 170,000 new books being published a year, it has become extraordinarily difficult to get seen among the crowd of other books and publishers. Shel’s book gives practical guerrilla marketing ideas and procedures that give the little guy at least a chance of getting seen and bought in the market place.
He provides strategies and examples of how these strategies can be executed. He covers all the marketing aspects of book selling and explains how and why the industry works as it does. If you are thinking of writing a book; if you have even been fortunate enough to have been accepted by a major publishing house, you will find all the marketing aspects you will be expected to use to maximize book sales. We rated this book a high four hearts.
Title: U-Publish.com 4.0: A ‘Living Book’ to Help You Compete with the Giants of Publishing
Author: Dan Poynter and Dan Snow
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Para Publishing and U-Publish.com
Publisher Website: www.unlimitedpublishing.com
Pages: 84
ISBN: Pending
Price: $Pending
Publishing Date: January 2007
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
As always, anything the two Dans produce is very worthwhile. This primer on the possibilities of self-publishing is the perfect read for folks who are contemplating self-publishing for the first time. The best manuals on self-publishing (Dan Poynter’s and the Ross’s) are wonderfully filled with huge amounts of essential data. The first-timer can get easily overwhelmed by information overload at first exposure. This handy manual, however, provides just enough info and definitions to help the neophyte decide whether he might be able to take on self-publishing. Armed with the knowledge in this simpler book, an author may be more inclined to take on the content in the much larger self-publishing manuals without feeling totally overwhelmed. This is an absolute must read for its intended audience, and we rate it five hearts.
Title: Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell Your Own Book
Author: Dan Poynter
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Para Publishing
Pages: 472
ISBN: 1-56860-134-4
Price: $19.95
Publishing Date: 2006
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
If you’ve ever thought about self-publishing, come sit at the Master’s feet. An early edition of this book in the 1980s is what I used to create my self-publishing company that operated successfully for eight years. Dan Poynter explains all you need to know clearly and with authority. This is a must have book in the genre. There are other good ones out there, but read this one first and last. To not do so is to imperil your efforts. We rate this manual an absolutely perfect five hearts!
Title: Book Design and Production: A Guide for Authors and Publishers
Author: Pete Masterson
Illustrator: Pete Masterson
Publisher and/or Distributor: Æonix Publishing Group
Pages: 315
ISBN: 0-9669819-0-1
Price: $29.95
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 5 hearts
So many people have books inside them screaming to get out. In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to have one’s book manuscript accepted by a mainstream publisher. Because of this, more and more authors have decided to go the self-publishing route. Unfortunately far too many try to do everything themselves without the requisite knowledge or experience. One of the most egregious areas is in book interior design—the layout and typesetting of a book’s pages.
The author has written a definitive reference work on the subject in easy to understand language and illustrations. As a professional book designer myself, this reviewer instantly recognized the treasure this book represents. It was comforting to see we experienced similar pitfalls in the design business: clients who put too much design into their manuscripts, clients adding excessive spaces and hard paragraph returns and many other aspects. It was also nice to learn many tips I had not been able to figure out for myself over the years. The clincher is the excellent foreword endorsement by my friend and the self-publishing industry’s premier guru, Dan Poynter. This is an absolute must have reference book for authors and publishers, as well as new and experienced book designers. We rated it a high five hearts.
Title: Book Marketing from A - Z
Editor: Francine Silverman
Illustrator:
Publisher and/or Distributor: Infinity Publishing.Com
Pages: 400
ISBN: 0-7414-2431-2
Price: $18.95
Publishing Date: 2005
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts
The editor publishes an email newsletter every two weeks on book promotion (http://www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com/ ). She has taken the input of several hundred authors and put together an essential resource book for all writers. With so many books being published each year (175,000+ last year) and fewer readers, it is imperative that authors learn how to promote their books, be they self-published, with a small press, or even in the stable of one of the major publishers. The book is organized alphabetically by types of promotion strategies: advertising, book signings, on to zero promotion. She proffers both what has and has not worked for these various authors. Many of the ideas are ingenious. Some ideas sound silly, until one considers they worked for their particular niche. Others, which are touted as being tried and true, may not work for everyone. The editor is not judgmental, but simply provides the information in the authors’ own words. To quote the Master Martial Artist—Bruce Lee—“Take what is useful and use it.”
We recommend all serious writers buy this book, read it cover to cover, and keep it at hand to refer to often. We rated it a solid four hearts.
