Self-Publishing Archives | Page 4 of 10 | Jennifer Lancaster

December 22, 2020

All About Reedsy

Online Book Editor to Save on Typesetting One of the major costs of book production is typesetting and design. The art of book typesetting is a lofty one, with things like chapter rules, widow/orphan rules, and page bottom alignment. Reedsy Book Editor is an app to do your own layout and make the PDF artwork–for free! Let’s say we don’t mind too much about rules, we just want to get our book formatted with simplicity. Then online tool ‘Reedsy Book Editor’ is your tool. I tried it out, and some of the issues were: Inability to expand the type size, as it is set in the template style Difficulty aligning the table of contents (heading 2’s only would not auto-align) Not yet sure if PDF is compatible with IngramSpark, but Reedsy claims that it is. Background of Reedsy Reedsy was established…

May 18, 2023

Book Writing, Self-Publishing

What’s an Aussie Alternative to Self-Publishing School?

Authors often look online for book publishing training, and some Australians find Self-Publishing School, by Chandler Bolt. He is American. Some novice authors enrol in these kinds of courses with the hope that they will provide book editing or publishing services but always remember that author training schools are not services. (SPS has changed and now includes this, hence the price increase). Let’s compare Self-Publishing School to Book Creation Success course at Business Author Academy, Australia. It is a sequential type of course, delivered one part at a time. With Book Creation, you can also get sequential lessons and videos, with no waiting. It is adjusted as feedback comes in and is regularly updated. There is a commitment contract to yourself and to the school. This is a good idea and we might implement this later. There are some common…

January 28, 2023

Self-Publishing

Dodge the Vanity Press and Do Your Own Publishing

Self-publisher support companies — like Balboa Press and Austin Macauley — are everywhere. On Amazon I found someone else passionate about saving authors from the clutches of uncaring vanity presses, or as they call themselves, hybrid publishers. Yay! Michael N Marcus seems to have dedicated a good portion of his life to warning authors and informing them on how to self-publish independently. Such idiotic titles as ‘Can I really publish a decent book with Microsoft Word? Yes!’ and ‘How to Not Get Screwed by a Self-Publishing Company’ first made me wonder at the quality of advice. However, on his How to Not Get Screwed Amazon blurb, Michael makes a great point: Self-publishing companies enable anyone who can type to quickly become a “published author” and compete for the attention of the reading public. There is no longer a need to go…

August 14, 2020

Book Writing, Self-Publishing

Writing your First Book

Many people in a ‘knowledge’ based business (or hobby business) are overwhelmed by the thought of writing their first major book. So it’s quite common that they’ll say “I just want to write a short eBook to put on Amazon”. Hey, I get that; my first book (a marketing manual) was about 70 A4 pages, the second one 46 pages, and it felt like I was feeling my way across a dark room. I didn’t know how to extend it — or even if I should. I reasoned that self-publishing was the only way an unknown novice like me was going to achieve publishing at all. In 2006, I used the US self-publishing platform Lulu for my second how-to book, and happily for me, they turned it into an ebook and distributed it for free. It achieved small sales for quite…

October 15, 2020

Book Writing, Self-Publishing

How to Publish a Book in Australia

Even though this is meant to be light relief, hopefully you’ll also learn a lot about how to publish a book in Australia, without losing your shirt. First step, ignore all ads that start following you around the internet. Those are likely to be vanity press/support companies who want your dollars. Next, write a list of simple actions you will take to get this book published. Here’s a fun look at the usual book publishing steps for Australians. 1. Decide on your publish path. Choose whether you want to pitch for your life to Literary Agents (or do Friday Pitches by email to big publishers)… or Self-Publish and pay for everything. It’s tougher to get wide bookstore distribution as your own publisher. 2. Determine your costs, if going indie. Expect to pay around $3,000 to $8,000 for two rounds of…

June 13, 2023

Self-Publishing

Why use IngramSpark Print on Demand?

If you’re a self-publisher, searching for a Print on Demand platform that helps your book get a wide reach (e.g. to libraries in Australia), then IngramSpark Print on Demand (POD) could be of interest. IngramSpark is a self-publishing option offered by Lightning Source, a massive book printer. They will make your titles available through Ingram Book Group, a leader in print and electronic wholesale distribution. They serve over 39,000 retailers, libraries, schools, e-commerce companies and other partners — including Amazon, Wheelers, and book wholesalers. I believe IngramSpark is suited to business-minded self-publishers, as an ABN is needed. The setup fee is now waived, and instead, authors pay a 1% distribution fee of the final retail sale price. It’s easy to make a direct order through IngramSpark, once set up with your ABN and ISBN. The printing for AU orders is…