Digital Pubbing

Exploring the ins and outs of the publishing industry

books

2014 Year in Review: Taking Stock and Setting Goals

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Happy holidays and happy new year! As this will be my last post of the year, I thought now would be a good time to look back and see what progress I've made as a writer and ebook developer, and figure out my goals for next year. This year I kept a spreadsheet keeping a monthly track of some of my metrics, such as social media followers and how much money I've earned. I'm … [Read more...] about 2014 Year in Review: Taking Stock and Setting Goals

Indie Authors: Using 99 Designs to Crowdsource a Cover

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Last year, I published the first book in my series for beginners on how to make ebooks (currently working on the second, which will focus on fixed format, or children's books). It was my second book, and I had learned a few lessons from when I published my first book. This time around, I did everything right. Or so I thought. I had beta readers, a strong book description, a … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Using 99 Designs to Crowdsource a Cover

Authorly, Turn Your Book Into An App

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Recently I learned about a new tool called Authorly, which can turn books into apps to sell in all the major app stores, including Google Play, iTunes, and the Amazon app store (see my post, "Turning Your Ebook Into An App"). Authorly allows authors to easily create apps for their books, and make them interactive. And although I like the service, I do want to point out that … [Read more...] about Authorly, Turn Your Book Into An App

Indie Authors: Formatting Books in InDesign

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Adobe's InDesign is a wonderful tool. The software is expensive, though if you are a student or teacher you can get a slight discount, but if you have access to it I highly recommend using it. InDesign can be used to layout a book PDF, as well as be the starting point for an ebook. Print books in particular require certain elements to make it look professional, such as page … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Formatting Books in InDesign

Indie Authors: Marketing Books With Videos

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With digital media, indie authors can now take advantage of videos to help grab the attention of readers and sell their books. I've been thinking about this topic for a while, and there's a lot to consider. Videos can be used in multiple ways, such as teaser trailers, snippets of scenes, author interviews, and even chats with big groups. They can be simple or complex, free … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Marketing Books With Videos

Indie Authors: It’s All About the List

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Marketing is a huge, integral part of indie publishing, but it doesn't have to be hard. There are a lot of different pieces, but one of the most effective and longest lasting is building an email list. The email list has a few different names. Mailing list, subscribers, sign-ups, newsletter. But it all boils down to the same thing: it's a list that people have willingly … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: It’s All About the List

Turning Your Ebook Into an App

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Sometimes it makes sense for a book to be transformed into an app. Forbes wrote a piece back in 2012 about whether the future of books will be as apps. Two years later, and it doesn't seem to be true, but in some cases it could work. New tools have made it easier for authors to create their own apps. Karen Robertson, creator of the book app Treasure Kai, said in a Good … [Read more...] about Turning Your Ebook Into an App

Print Books and Bookbinding

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This post is just for fun. Even though I prefer ebooks now, print books still have a special place in my heart (I own nearly 1,000 of them). So for anyone interested in learning the art of bookbinding, you should check out the site aboutbookbinding.com. There you will find information on sewing, hand finishing, and even washing and taking care of books. If you want to try your … [Read more...] about Print Books and Bookbinding

Widbook Guest Post: Character Development is Hard and People Are Really Weird

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By Eve Jacob – Widbook blog This post was originally featured at the Widbook blog and written by Eve Jacob. Widbook is a global community for people who love to share stories. Writers can publish their work in an ebook format and readers meet content and everyone get connected! For the next two weeks Widbook will be my guest. See the last guest post, "Outlines and Notecards and … [Read more...] about Widbook Guest Post: Character Development is Hard and People Are Really Weird

The Art of Flipping (Books?)

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I'm in the process of looking to buy my first house (exciting and terrifying, I know!). One thing I've noticed is listings for houses on sale tend to use the same key phrases: spacious rooms, great light, charming, near x, y, z freeway, close to shopping, etc. However, even though on paper a house may sound perfect, in person they can be completely different. In the past few … [Read more...] about The Art of Flipping (Books?)

An Interview with Jeffrey Bennett, author of Math for Life and The Max Science Adventures series (part 2)

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Note: I've broken this interview up into two parts. This is the second part, and it focuses more on Jeffrey Bennett's children's books, and how his books were the first children's books read in space! Read part 1 about his work as a non-fiction author here. To recap, Jeffrey Bennett is a researcher, educator, author, and one of the most inspiring people I've ever heard of. … [Read more...] about An Interview with Jeffrey Bennett, author of Math for Life and The Max Science Adventures series (part 2)

An Interview with Jeffrey Bennett, author of Math for Life and The Max Science Adventures series (part 1)

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Note: I've broken this interview up into two parts. This is the first part, and it focuses more on Jeffrey Bennett's work as a non-fiction author. Click here for part two, which discusses Bennett's children's books, and how his books were the first children's books read in space! Jeffrey Bennett is a researcher, educator, author, and one of the most inspiring people I've … [Read more...] about An Interview with Jeffrey Bennett, author of Math for Life and The Max Science Adventures series (part 1)

5 Ways Gaming Can Help Indie Authors Increase Sales

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I recently wrote an article about the similarities between self-publishing and being an indie game developer (soon to be up on IndieReader--stay tuned). It's pretty cool actually, how the process of creating, marketing, and selling games is so close to the process of writing, marketing, and selling e-books (both even have a few big platforms to focus on). Anyway, this got me … [Read more...] about 5 Ways Gaming Can Help Indie Authors Increase Sales

Kindle, Kindle, Kindle: Amazon’s Latest Publishing Tools

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In the last week, Amazon has made three big announcements, all of which I think have the potential to greatly help indie authors. Kindle Countdown Deals The first, and most exciting in my opinion, is the Kindle Countdown Deals. What this means is that authors who publish e-books on Amazon have an easy way of price pulsing/discounting their books, and then advertising it. The … [Read more...] about Kindle, Kindle, Kindle: Amazon’s Latest Publishing Tools

McDonald’s, the Book Distributor

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I couldn't resist. When I heard that McDonald's planned to give away over 20 million books with their happy meals during the first two weeks of November, I knew I had to see for myself. So on the first day, I bought my first happy meal in like 20 years. To be completely honest, I was excited to get The Goat Who Ate Everything, just because it sounded like the cutest of the … [Read more...] about McDonald’s, the Book Distributor