Yesterday the publisher services company Lulu.com announced that John Edgar Wideman, two-time winner of the Faulkner Award for fiction, would be publishing his new collection of short stories, Briefs, Stories for the Palm of the Mind, in conjunction with Lulu’s new VIP program. Wideman has been published for years by Houghton Mifflin, according to the report in Publisher’s Weekly.

This was notable, although Wideman may just be the first of many as self-publishing gradually loses its stigma and is seen as simply another path to publication, and for many people, a superior one to the traditional publishing route.

Here’s part of what he said in a press release issued by Lulu:

Wideman decided against a traditional publishing contract — and royalty advance — for Briefs because he wanted more control over the publishing process and to develop a more direct connection with his readers. He also wanted to experiment at a time when the publishing industry is undergoing more revolution than evolution. . . . I like the idea of being in charge. I have more control over what happens to my book. And I have more control over whom I reach.

I’ve often heard other self-publishers voice the exact same sentiment, although few had a royalty to turn down. But there are also echoes in Wideman’s statement of the move to what you might call author self-empowerment. When publishers rely on authors for marketing plans, platform building, and finding their own community of readers, they inadvertently also pass a great deal of power over to the author at the same time.

Self-publishers have traditionally grasped for this power directly. Before the internet, self-publishers lived by direct mail, and the direct selling that happens on the internet today owes a great deal to what direct marketers have learned over the last 50 years in other media.

But the growth of self-publishing as an accepted path to publication, aided by authors like John Edgar Wideman, is not what this article is about. No, this article is about you.

You Know Who You Are

Wideman found compelling reasons to self-publish his book, based on an informed and pretty astute reckoning of where publishing is at the moment.

But, like anyone connected to book publishing, I often hear the exact opposite from people who buttonhole me and start telling me about the book they have “in their desk drawer” or “packed up in the attic” or “in a big box under my bed.” These stories are amazingly common.

A woman dreamed of writing a book, spent months working on it, but never got any further. Or a man, getting up early for years, completes a manuscript but just prints a few copies to give to friends. Why?

Because they have found many reasons to not self-publish. Look, most authors are never going to get a contract offer from a big—or small—publishing house. The demand for publishing far outstrips the supply of big-publishing company openings for books. That’s what’s caused the meteoric rise of self-publishing, once digital printing and print on demand distribution removed the monetary risk of getting into print.

So what obstacles are left? Why haven’t these writers become authors, fulfilled their dream of publication, and found their readership?

Here are the top reasons I’ve identified why you might decide not to self-publish:

1. You don’t want people to look to you as an authority—Authors acquire a definite authority within the area they write about. This is particularly true of non fiction authors. Even though you know quite enough to write a book on the subject, does something about being looked to as an authority make you nervous?
2. You’re afraid of speaking in public—It’s common for authors to be asked to speak in public, and to pursue public speaking as a way to market their book. Common knowledge tells us that the number one fear in Americans is the fear of public speaking. Perhaps this is really the fear of appearing a fool in public. Is that what’s stopping you?
3. You don’t need another income stream—Novelists would like to make money from their books, but would write them anyway. Nonfiction authors often write in order to make money, to capitalize on a business opportunity or leverage their experience to improve their clientele or their hourly rate. The independently-wealthy and people satisfied with their current income might see self-publishing as a waste of time.
4. You have nothing unique to say in your field—Maybe you’ve spent a career as a primary school teacher, following curriculum. Perhaps you’ve been a cubicle slave for years, and the creative juices have been beaten out of you. I’d say it’s more likely you’ve simply forgotten how unique your own perspective on life, your business, or your hobby really is.
5. You’d rather not contribute to publications in your niche—Once you start publishing you naturally start marketing, and writers use writing as a way to get the word out. But maybe you are embarrassed by the chance you might seem to some a “know it all” if you start getting articles published in relevant trade magazines and websites. That could slow you down.
6. You prefer to wait a few years and see if you get offered a contract—There’s a certain kind of writer who is happy to write, and never get published if they can’t get that contract from Knopf, or Random House, or whoever. They accept the wisdom of the agents and editors they submit to (literally) over the years, and feel it’s better that their work stay unknown, since it’s unworthy of their gods. That’s a tough one.
7. You hate the idea of autographing books for buyers—Having fans, people who will show up at bookstores to hear you talk, stand in line to get your autograph, may be disconcerting. People in our culture often feel unworthy of attention, as if others are deserving, but I am not. Maybe this shame was drilled into us when young, it certainly is long-lasting.

The World of Publishing is Changing: It’s Your Turn Now

I fully expect to see more authors like John Edgar Wideman turning to self-publishing out of pure self-interest. But many other writers can do the same thing. The tools of Lulu and other publishing services companies are there for us to use. Many involve little or no expense.

Writers who publish a book themselves, if they are realistic in their expectations are usually energized by the experience. Since print on demand means you’ll never get left with a garage full of unsold books, the risks have become almost completely psychological.

My message is this: Now is the time. It has never been easeir, faster, or less expensive to get into print. With the tools of the internet and social media, the marketing landscape has never been so level. Go drag that box out from under the bed. Climb up into the attic and pull that manuscript down. Fulfill what you started, or start what you’ve dremed of. You won’t regret it.

Takeaway: The obstacles to publishing are, increasingly, within us. Our opportunities to self-publish have never been better, and the stigma of self-publishing may fade rapidly. The time to act is now.

Related posts:

1. 5 Good Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book
2. Self-Publishing Basics: Four Ways to Publish Your Book

In this article I’m going to show you how to get a copyright application, fill it out, determine how much to pay, and exactly how to send your application and books into the Copyright Office. This is not a difficult process, but since you’re dealing with your creative work and the government at the same time, it pays to be cautious and do it properly.

One of the most common questions I hear from self-publishers hasn’t changed over the years: “How do I copyright my book?” Authors are concerned that someone might appropriate the book on which they’ve worked so long and hard.

I usually give them the 5 minute guide to copyright and advise them to wait until their book is back from the printer to register the copyright. Of course, we’ve made sure we have an accurate and complete copyright page in the book to begin with.

But now, book in hand and still a sparkle in the eye, you are ready to register your copyright. Let’s get started.

Visiting the Copyright Office—Online, That Is

The Copyright Office, a branch of the Library of Congress, is located in the James Madison Memorial Building in Washington, D.C. However, we’re going to their online location at http://www.copyright.gov/

Here’s what you’ll find when you get there:

Look for the Register link (click to enlarge)

Copyright Registration Basics

You will need three elements to complete your registration:

1. A completed copyright application,
2. A (nonrefundable) filing fee, and
3. A (nonreturnable) deposit, which means a copy or copies of your book

There are also three different ways to register your copyright:

1. Online Registration—This is done through the electronic Copyright Office (eCO). The Copyright Office recommends this method as the preferred way to register books. They cite these advantages:
• A lower filing fee ($35 as opposed to $50 or $65 for the other methods)
• Online tracking of the status of your copyright application,
• Faster processing time and secure payment.
• Option to upload your book or mail it in.

How to do it: Use this link to go to the electronic Copyright Office and register for an account to get started. You’ll then follow the prompts to register your book.
How long it takes: “Most online filers should receive a certificate within nine months. Many will receive their certificates earlier.”

2. Registration with Fill-In Form CO—This option uses the fill-in Form CO. This uses the technology of Adobe PDF forms to create scannable barcodes on the electronic form depending on your input. When the form is printed out and sent to the Copyright Office, they are able to scan the forms and can consequently process these applications much faster than forms that must go through data entry first.

   The cost of this filing form is $50, and you’ll need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0 or better on your computer. If you don’t have it you can use the link to get a copy for free.

   How to do it: Download the Form CO by clicking through this link, and follow the instructions. At the end you’ll print out the form, which should have barcodes that look like this and which are clear, not wrinkled or smudged. You’ll then mail it with your check and 2 copies of your book to the address indicated on the form.

How long it takes: “Most of those who file on these forms should receive a certificate within 22 months of submission. Many will receive their certificates earlier.”

The Copyright Office also offers the following important guidelines for using fill-in form CO:

• You must submit the original 2D barcode form only. Do not send a photocopy.
• Never alter the form by hand after you print it out. The information you enter is stored in the barcodes on the form.
• Both single- and double-sided printing are acceptable.
• To achieve best results, use a laser printer. Inkjet printer copies require enlarging if you use the shrink-to-fit-page option. Dot-matrix printer copies are not acceptable.
• Inspect your printed form to confirm that 2D barcodes appear clear and free of any distortions, smudges, or fading. If such problems appear and cannot be corrected after checking your printer, do not submit the form.
3. Registration with Paper Forms—The traditional method, which the Copyright Office is planning to phase out altogether. This uses Form TX and charges a fee of $65. However, in an apparent effort to discourage the use of these paper forms, the Copyright Office does not even offer a download of these forms from its website. Instead, you must fill out a Request for Copyright Forms by Mail to have a staffer at the CO mail you a copy of the form.
   How to do it: Click the link above to request a copy of form TX. Fill out the form and mail it with your fee of $65 along with copies of your book to the address indicated on the form.
   How long it takes: “Most of those who file on these forms should receive a certificate within 22 months of submission. Many will receive their certificates earlier.”

Keep in mind when using any of these methods that no matter how long it takes to get your copyright certificate, your copyright registration is effective the date that the Copyright Office receives the complete submission, whatever form it takes.

A Digression and a Visit from Pete Masterson

I noticed while navigating the Copyright Office website that there was a strange notice appearing here and there. It said: Please note that our mail service is severely disrupted. I had read about serious backlogs at the Copyright Office, so I used the terrific Yahoo Self-Publishing discussion list to find out what others knew about the situation. Here is the response I received from Pete Masterson. Pete is a longtime book designer, currently the president of BAIPA (Bay Area Independent Publishers Association) and the author of Book Design and Production for Authors and Publishers. With his permission, I reprint his response here:

An interesting historical note. Shortly after the Arab terrorists attacked us on 9/11, there were various threats and attacks including the Anthrax attacks and scares. For security reasons, the copyright office had all incoming packages sequestered somewhere by the Postal Service. (In an old salt mine or cavern, I think) It took ages for the Postal Service to get around to checking the packages and processing them, and finally delivering them to the copyright office.

The Postal Service had not bothered stamping “received” dates on the parcels, or even tossing them in bags marked with the “received” dates. Or properly organizing them by dates received in any way. Many of the parcels were sent with stamps, and many cancelations were illegible.

Thus, there were real issues with the effective dates of copyright registrations, and many registrants were unfortunately stripped of their ability to sue infringers. The copyright office eventually used some pretty sloppy “Kentucky Windage” to guesstimate effective dates for many thousands of registrations, by adding a given number of days to the mailing date and figuring THAT would be the date when the thing SHOULD have been delivered. The guesstimated effective dates were based on legible postmarks. For those with no postmarks . . . tough luck; THEIR effective date was as much as a year or more later than the legitimate effective date would have been.

Having been warned – by both a Postal Service and copyright office employee – years before that, my own registrations were not affected much.

I haven’t used UPS to send in registrations.

Not an answer to the question — but a side issue. If you send a package to the Copyright Office (or any Federal agency), use a courier service — either FedEx or UPS. (Doesn’t matter if you use a ground or air service.) All packages via the USPS are irradiated (to kill biological threats) and the treatment is damaging to many books, especially those printed as digital color copies. More importantly, the service adds a significant delay to the process.

FedEX and UPS packages are not irradiated (because you can’t anonymously send packages as you can via USPS) and are not delayed.

A publisher I know sent off a copy of a book to a friend who works for a Federal Agency to his business address. Since it was a package, the government routed it through the irradiation process.

During irradiation, the book is exposed to ionizing radiation at a level that will kill all biologic organisms. It also, as a side effect, heats the target of the radiation. The result for a moderate sized (150 page) book printed in digital full color was to melt the toner, causing the book to become one solid mass — and the edges of many pages showed signs of scorching.

The book, as received, was completely unreadable and unusable.

In this case, the book was a gift to a friend. Think of how damaging to your reputation it could be if that was what was received when submitting a book for consideration by a Federal Agency!

Okay, back to work.

Q and A with the Copyright Office

Last, I’m going to reprint here some of the useful questions and answers from the Copyright Office website. I’ve found that authors who are thinking about self-publishing have enormous trepidation when it comes to copyright, and are subject to all kinds of superstitions and misinformation. The cure is accurate information. Here it is, from “the horse’s mouth.”

Do I have to send in my work? Do I get it back?
Yes, you must send the required copy or copies of the work to be registered. Your copies will not be returned. If you register online using eCO eService, you may attach an electronic copy of your deposit. However, even if you register online, if the Library of Congress requires a hard-copy deposit of your work, you must send what the Library defines as the “best edition” of your work. … Upon their deposit in the Copyright Office, … all copies and identifying material, including those deposited in connection with claims that have been refused registration, are the property of the U.S. government.

Will my deposit be damaged by security measures in place on Capitol Hill?
To avoid damage to your hard-copy deposit caused by necessary security measures, package the following items in boxes rather than envelopes for mailing to the Copyright Office:

• electronic media such as audiocassettes, videocassettes, CDs, and DVDs
• microform
• photographs
• slick advertisements, color photocopies, and other print items

May I register more than one work on the same application? Where do I list the titles?
You may register unpublished works as a collection on one application with one title for the entire collection if certain conditions are met. It is not necessary to list the individual titles in your collection. Published works may only be registered as a collection if they were actually first published as a collection and if other requirements have been met. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section “Registration Procedures.”

Do I have to use my real name on the form? Can I use a stage name or a pen name?
There is no legal requirement that the author be identified by his or her real name on the application form. For further information, see FL 101, Pseudonyms. If filing under a fictitious name, check the “Pseudonymous” box when giving information about the authors.

Will my personal information be available to the public?
Yes. Please be aware that when you register your claim to a copyright in a work with the U.S. Copyright Office, you are making a public record. All the information you provide on your copyright registration is available to the public and will be available on the Internet.

Can I submit my manuscript on a computer disk?
No. Floppy disks and other removal media such as Zip disks, except for CD-ROMs, are not acceptable. Therefore, the Copyright Office still generally requires a printed copy or audio recording of the work for deposit. However, if you register online using eCO eService, you may attach an electronic copy of your deposit. However, even if you register online, if the Library of Congress requires a hard-copy deposit of your work, you must send what the Library defines as the “best edition” of your work. For further information, see Circular 7b, Best Edition of Published Copyrighted Works for the Collection of the Library of Congress, and Circular 7d, Mandatory Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for the Library of Congress.

Can I submit a CD-ROM of my work?
Yes. The deposit requirement consists of the best edition of the CD-ROM package of any work, including the accompanying operating software, instruction manual, and a printed version, if included in the package.

Does my work have to be published to be protected?
Publication is not necessary for copyright protection.

How much do I have to change in my own work to make a new claim of copyright?
You may make a new claim in your work if the changes are substantial and creative, something more than just editorial changes or minor changes. This would qualify as a new derivative work. For instance, simply making spelling corrections throughout a work does not warrant a new registration, but adding an additional chapter would. See Circular 14, Copyright Registration for Derivative Works, for further information.

Do you have special mailing requirements?
If you register online, you may attach an electronic copy of your deposit unless a hard-copy deposit is required under the “Best Edition” requirements of the Library of Congress. See Circular 7b. If you file using a paper application, our only requirement is that all three elements—the application, the copy or copies of the work together with the shipping slip printed when you fill out Form CO online, and the filing fee—be sent in the same package. Please limit any individual box to 20 pounds. Many people send their material to us by certified mail, with a return receipt request, but this is not required.

A Final Word on Copyright

Well, there you have it. In practice, this is not a complicated process. Most people will simply log onto the Copyright Office website, create an account and fill out the online form. It doesn’t take long and it’s not very intimidating. In the interest of being thorough, I like to give you all the options so you can decide which suits you best.

But don’t neglect this important task. Although your book will still be copyrighted, if you don’t send in the forms and the filing fee, your copyright will not be registered. And it’s the registration that will be critical if there’s any dispute about your copyright in the future.

Takeaway: The simplest way to copyright your book is through the online facility provided by the Copyright Office. Be aware of your choices in registering your copywrite, but don’t fail to get it done.

Related posts:

1. Self-Publishing Basics: A 5-Minute Guide to Copyright
2. Self-Publishing Basics: The Copyright Page
3. Copyright Page Samples You Can Copy and Paste Into Your Book

Google. Just the name conjures up images of the search giant, or its project to scan millions of books, or its Android operating system for phones, or…

And that’s just the problem. Google continues to spread into more and more aspects of online life. It’s grown so that it’s difficult to keep up with all the projects, programs and pioneering work that the behemoth is involved with.

But Google has real value for any author or self-publisher. The most basic way authors use Google, of course, is the way we all use Google: to find things. For authors, the Google search bar has replaced the quiet of the library table, or the desk by the card catalog, or the seats at the microfiche readers as the place they burrow into the past, looking for sources, ideas, records, whatever their book needs.

But Google can equip quite a toolbox for any author or self-publisher, and I thought it would be worthwhile to run through just some of the capabilities available to us that you may not know about, and look at how they can be used for writing, publishing and marketing your books.

The Big World of Google Search

Here’s a list of the current tools Google provides for search:

• Alerts—Get email updates on the topics of your choice
• Blog Search—Find blogs on your favorite topics
• Books—Search the full text of books
• Custom Search—Create a customized search experience for your community
• Desktop—Search and personalize your computer
• Dictionary—Search for definitions of words and phrases
• Directory—Search the web, organized by topic or category
• Earth—Explore the world from your computer
• Finance—Business info, news and interactive charts
• GOOG-411—Find and connect for free with businesses from your phone
• Images—Search for images on the web
• Maps—View maps and directions
• News—Search thousands of news stories
• Patent Search—Search the full text of US Patents
• Product Search—Search for stuff to buy
• Scholar—Search scholarly papers
• Trends—Explore past and present search trends
• Videos—Search for videos on the web
• Web Search—Search billions of web pages
• Web Search Features—Find movies, music, stocks, books and more

This massive list shows just how far-reaching Google’s information gathering and organizing is. No matter what topic you are researching, no matter what era you need to find out about, what precoursors you want to explore in your genre, you will be turning to Google in one way or another.

And did you know Google’s search bar has lots of tricks built into it? There’s enough for a whole article, but just try this one: type any word into any Google search bar along with the word “definition.” Without having to click a link, the top result will give you a dictionary definition of the word.

Google Alerts

Every author should certainly make use of Google Alerts, which use the power of the big search engine for your own searches. April L. Hamilton just wrote a terrific article, You Need Google Alerts, on using Alerts for authors, and I recommend it. This very powerful and flexible product allows you to specify search terms and have the Google search bots drop anything they find right into your inbox.

Using Google Alerts, in the last 24 hours I’ve received notifications of links to my website, articles that were reprinted from Article Directories, Tweets that mentioned an article on my blog, and over 25 mentions of the phrase “self-publishing” from around the web. If you play around with this tool I guarantee you’ll find some neat and useful ways to use it.

Still More Google Lists

Here’s a list of some of the products and services Google offers that can prove just as valuable as their search functions:

1. Blogger—A free blogging platform used by millions
2. Calendar—A way to organize your schedule and share events with friends
3. Docs—Create, share and store documents online including word processing, presentations and spreadsheets. Docs also allows you to get a look at documents sent as attachments in email without leaving your browser, an incredible time saver once you start using it
4. Groups—Create mailing lists and discussion groups, useful for advance readers, reviewers, and follower mailing lists
5. Knol—A remarkable repository of user-generated articles on an incredible array of subjects
6. Google Mail—Fast, searchable email that keeps evolving. I have email accounts with numerious providers, but Gmail is unique in at least one way: although I’m receiving 100-200 emails a day, I never receive any spam in my Gmail account. How do they do that?
7. Picasa—The photo sharing website
8. Reader—The easiest way to organize the feed from blogs and news feeds that you follow. As RSS feeds become more prevalent, tools like Reader will become more important.
9. Sites—Create websites and secure group wikis, particularly good for group research projects
10. SketchUp—Build 3D models quickly and easily, without having to buy any software
11. Translate—The ever evolving utility that allows you to view web pages in other languages
12. YouTube—Videos, your own video channel, a repository for book trailers, and so much more.

Personalization that Helps You Focus

We discover the real value of all these tools when we’re challenged to find a fact, a resource, or a new way of organizing our work. No one can make use equally of all these tools and resources. But having the power of Google and its labs at our disposal is certainly one of the greatest innovations that the web has brought to us.

But it’s equally important to stay focused on the challenges we face today. Here’s what’s in my Google toolbox, the tools I use the most from what Google has to offer:

1. Gmail. Fast, searchable, and available at any computer anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
2. Alerts. The best way to stay informed about subjects that directly affect me.
3. Docs. Easily stores documents I may need at any location, and allows me to stash documents there on the fly no matter where I am.
4. Images. I find myself using this search daily, either for research or to source images for various projects.
5. Trends. This monitor of search volume consistently turns up interesting articles and trends I might otherwise miss.
6. Reader. Organizes the 60+ feeds I monitor from bloggers, agents, editors, publishing industry commentators, designers and self-publishing sites.
7. Profile. Every author trying to blog or attract a readership on the web should have a Google Profile. This gives you a Google-provided page for photos, links, text and more, that will show up at the bottom of the first page of search results when someone searches for your name. Here’s mine.

Well, that’s what’s in my Google Toolbox. What’s in yours?

Takeaway: It will pay big dividends if you learn the gamut of free and powerful programs provided by Google since we will be making more and more use of these resources every year.

Related posts:

1. 10 Ways Authors Can Find More Blog Readers
2. Do Authors Actually Read Publishing Contracts?
3. Self-Publishing Resources that Rock—

   I Guarantee It! (Plus A Bit of Bragging)

Click to enlarge

Classical Forms Endure

Studying old models of classical book typography, it’s often surprising to see just how big the margins are. Style today is for much smaller margins, but keeping some of the same proportions from those old models gives your book page a grounding in a harmonious relationship between the dark and light parts of the page.

Click to enlarge

• A chapter number
• Typographic ornament
• Chapter title
• 3-line drop cap to start the chapter
• Small cap letterspaced 4-word run in to begin the text
• Drop folio

In addition, the spacing between all the elements has to make sense, and create a pleasing harmony on the page. I had to experiment with the letterspacing to get a nice rhythm reading it, without the letters floating so far apart they disengage from each other.

The large capital has to be adjusted by hand, because “out of the box” they never line up with both the bottom line and the top line quite right. And the space between the cap and the three lines of type always seems to need adjusting.

Book Page Spreads That Hang Together

Click to enlarge

When Book Design Works, It’s The Reader That Wins

I’m sure this page layout will continue to get tweaked as it passes through the normal approval process, but the basics established here demonstrate that the finished book will be successful. What makes a successful book design? It has to meet at least these criteria:

1. The design is largely unnoticeable. It conveys the author’s words without drawing undue attention to itself.
2. Typefaces chosen are appropriate to the kind of material in the book, the expected readership, and the necessities of the production process.
3. Physical properties of the book and the reader are kept in mind, since the reader will interact with the book as a physical object.

This book is well on its way!

Takeaway: Attention to margins, typefaces, word counts and other details of page layout ensure a book page design that’s appropriate for the unique needs of an individual book.

Related posts:

1. Self-Publishing Basics: 5 Layout Mistakes that Make You Look Unprofessional
2. Prepping Files for Book Layout: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
3. Self-Publishing Basics: The Elements of the Book Page

From www.longtail.com

But what was interesting was that for some time Dan had no idea he had become a book publisher. He was just trying to fill a need, and that need could best be filled with an instructional manual. You can see that he used this same idea when he created his Self-Publishing Manual.

In a small way this story demonstrates why non-fiction publishing, including self-publishing, is often a long-tail phenomenon, and has been for a long time before the idea of the long tail was introduced by Chris Anderson in Wired magazine.

The Long Tail and the Niches

Let’s back up for just a moment. Probably you’ve heard of the long tail, and it’s certainly mentioned often enough in discussions of online business.


In the past, when it cost a lot to develop, produce and market products, businesses concentrated on blockbusters, or “hits” that would appeal to the widest possible audience. This capitalized on the “head” of the purchasing curve, where it was thought that most of the money was to be made.

As the cost to create and distribute products has fallen, largely due to digitization and the ability to market online, it has become apparent that the “long tail” of the purchasing curve contains potentially as much business as the “head.” Not only that, but each product in the “tail,” although it appeals to only a small segment of the population, is perfectly tailored to just that group of people. One thing this means is that if you can make those people aware of the product, they are much more likely to buy it.

The Long Tail and Nonfiction Publishing

In a sense, most nonfiction books are marketing-driven because they are often written for a specific niche. And the more specialized the book is, the more likely it will find success within the group of people who are intensely interested in that niche.

When I was studying pizza making, for instance, I read almost every book I could find on baking artisinal pizza at home. This is a typical long-tail niche. Here’s how it might look as you travel from the “head” to the “tail.” Imagine you are the publisher or self-publishing author of a book on serious home pizza baking.

• Cooking – this is the head of the curve, lots of people are interested in what is a huge market. But it’s too big a designation for actual sales appeal.
• Baking – here we’ve narrowed to only one aspect of cooking, coming down the purchase curve, but still in a very large category. I’m interested in pizza, not panettone or pastries.
• Yeast Breads – at this point we start to enter the long tail, since this category is much more specific, and people looking here are much more likely to be interested in your books.
• Flat breads – even farther down the tail, this subset of yeasted breads is of interest to only a small segment of the cooking/baking population, but they are highly engaged.
• Pizza - although this particular tail ends here, another “long tail” begins with all books on making pizza and grows its own tail, with specialties such as deep-dish pizza baking, cormeal crust pizza baking, and so on.

Two Developments that Supercharged Nonfiction Niche Publishing

When the development and marketing of products was concentrated on the “hits,” it was very expensive to create products and market them to a large enough population to ensure success. But two developments took the inherent “long tail” mindset of nonfiction publishing to a new level:

1. Internet marketing made it possible, for very little money, to attract just those people intensely interested in your niche. On discussion boards, blogs, forums and in discussion groups on community websites, people have congregated to talk about every possible activity you can imagine, from the care of your tropical fish to digital photography, to genealogy, to pizza baking.
2. Digital printing with print on demand distribution essentially eliminated most of the cost of getting a book into print.

These two developments alone have created a marketplace that rewards businesses and authors who can fulfill the needs of a small group of people. When you combine specialized information that experts in a field commonly posses with very targeted marketing and automated web delivery systems for either printed or electronic books, you’ve got a long tail marketing machine.

Authors, Get Your Keywords

Of course, the other technology that’s made this targeting possible is search. The ever present search bar, usually a Google search bar, is an invitation to try to find an exact remedy.

A few years ago, after a pleasant walk in the woods with my son after Thanksgiving dinner, I came down with a nasty case of Poison Oak. It was from climbing over a dead tree, so I’ll leave it to you to imagine exactly how much discomfort I was in.

I became a temporary member of a very small niche, people who wanted a cure for Poison Oak right now and were willing to pay for it. I eventually found a site, through Google search, for a cream guaranteed to cure what ailed me. A small vial was $45 and overnight shipping was available. This is the ultimate in long tail niche marketing, and it works.

As publishers, we can use this information to our advantage. Google and other search engines make available the actual search terms that people type into their search field. This powerful information is studied by internet marketers under the term keywords.

An author who understands keywords, how they are used, and how to target the people who search on them, can go a long way toward making his nonfiction book a success.

Later this week we’ll look at how authors and self-publishers can use this information to help determine the markets, and the marketing, of their book.

Takeaway: Internet marketing combined with digital printing and print on demand distribution make nonfiction books perfect long-tail products.

Related posts:

1. 6 Ways to Jump-Start Your Self-Publishing Career
2. 15 Questions, and Why Everything is a Niche: At a Local Indie Publishing Group Meeting
3. What Hasn’t Changed in Self-Publishing

Last week I missed Justine Lee Musk’s useful article on Twitter for Authors, so here it is, along with more goodness on protecting your work online, selling on Kindle, a self-published success, the rise of self-publishing, and using Facebook for your book. The beat goes on. Apple, despite rumors to the contrary, appears to be getting ready to ship the iPad on schedule. Stay tuned, and enjoy!

Justine Lee Musk on Tribal Writer
a writer’s starter guide to twitter (or: everything I wish someone had told me when I first started using twitter)
“A key part of any author’s platform is Twitter. It forms what I consider the Golden Triangle of blog/facebook/twitter that forms the heart and home of your online presence.”
(Ed.: I missed this one last week—don’t let that happen to you, check it out today.)

Cheryl Anne Gardner on POD People
When a Creative Commons License becomes a Pain in The Ass, or Worse, A Pain in Your Bottom Line…
“You can allow free downloads of your work and still maintain your standard copyright ‘all rights reserved.’ However, some file share sites like Scribd automatically default to a Creative Commons License, and if the author is not aware of this, they may find themselves in a bit of a pickle.”

JA Konrath on A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
JA Konrath Kindle Sales: 30k Ebooks In 11 Months
“I’m currently selling $1.99 ebooks at the rate of 170 per day. That means I’m earning around $120 per day just sitting on my butt. If this trend continues as-is, I’ll earn $43,800 this year on previously published short stories and novels that NY print publishing rejected.”

Mick Rooney on POD, Self-Publishing and Independent Publishing
Self-Publishing Successes – The Shack
“There is a sense of romance about books becoming phenomenally successful. There is an even greater sense of romance when the book is self-published, because we usually get a great dollop of homestead heart-warming stories of children, Christmas, good-will, good-luck, together with simplicity, reverence, perseverance and courage; all painted on a landscape of financial and artistic hardship.”

Carla King on MediaShift
Self-Publishing, Author Services Open Floodgates for Writers
“Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel was an instant hit. We sold all 1,000 copies in the first week of publication and made back more than double our investment. Eighteen traditional publishers were suddenly interested in purchasing the book.”

Dana Lynn Smith on Selling Books
Promote Your Book on Facebook With a Fan Page
“A Facebook ‘Fan Page’ or ‘Page’ is designed for business use and it’s a great way to promote your book. You can set up a Fan Page for your business, book, or even a character in your book, and you can create multiple Pages.”

And for Something a Little Different . . .

Neighborhood Treasures on Pictory
“It can take years to feel at home in a new area. At first it’s just a place with unfamiliar streets, restaurants you might like to try, and shops that look interesting from the outside. But over time you see yourself reflected in parts of the city, and begin to block out the rest.”

Related posts:

1. This Week in the Blogs: February 8-14, 2010
2. This Week in the Blogs: February 21 – February 27, 2010
3. This Week in the Blogs: February 1 – 7, 2010

Click to enlarge---you know you want to

Because that’s what pizza is, really all about: the crust and a balance of flavors. Flour, yeast, salt, and water, and a dash of olive oil.

The magic of the yeast—the way it inflates the ball of dough, the subtle tang in the crust—is from gyrations of living organisms, and when you make your pizza dough, or rather when you assemble the ingredients and mix them properly to present to the yeast, you will know that you are working with a living thing that reacts to its environment, changes over time, and stays alive through the entire process of mixing, rising, kneading, shaping, rising again, and stretching, right up until the time it meets the heat of the oven as it slips onto the 500 degree stone and the shock of the heat gives a final puff to all the little gas bubbles before the yeast, heating quickly past its limit of 120 degrees, dies at last.

* * *

I remember the two large men in their white tee shirts, aprons stretched tight across their bellies. Holding Mom’s hand as we walked in and sat at one of the wooden booths while Dad went over to order. They always called it “pie” at Johnnie’s, never pizza. In a storefront on the south end of Mt. Vernon, it was where I first watched the cook work the dough, watched his meaty fingers punching at the ball on the counter, little puffs of flour rising like clouds, pushing it into a plump disk then stretching it, talking sotto voce all the while to the other guy next to him. Then the best part, the dough now the size of a plate, he flicks it absently and it flies, spinning, into the air, two, three, four feet above his head, coming down onto the back of his fists. Again he flicks the circle of dough, again it saucers into the air, each time bigger and bigger, until he slides in onto one of the old aluminum trays and slides it down the counter to his partner for finishing.

* * *

Even the assembling of the dough seems almost trivial compared to the glory of the final product. I drag the old Cuisinart out of its spot on a high shelf in the cupboard. I throw two cups of King Arthur in with two cups of bread flour, add a half teaspoon of salt and whiz the whole thing for a few seconds to mix it together.

There’s a certain comfort in perfectionism, don’t you think? I love the sets of stainless measuring cups and spoons, the calibrated beakers, thermometers, my digital scale that converts to grams. I feel secure when I carefully sweep my cup into the flour, give it a little ritualistic tap to settle it, and run the blade of my spatula across the rim, because I do it the same way each time, and it is a way to banish uncertainty from the little univers of my kitchen.

Just so—that’s exactly a cup, no more, no less. Water at exactly 105 degrees joins the yeast to “wake up” for a few minutes, then a scant tablespoon of olive oil and down the feed tube it goes, pulsing until it’s all combined, then running for 30 seconds and pow! a mass of dough hits the cold granite of the counter, shaggy clumps spilling out in a jumble. I smile as I scrape the sticky bits off the blade and push it all together, kneading and turning for a minute, until the dough is a plump ball, pale but full of life on the flecked counter top, warm to the touch and pretty much in every way exactly like a baby’s beautiful bottom.

I gently ease it into the oiled bowl, set the timer above the stove and gentle the bowl down, turning on a dim light on the range hood. I’ve measured the ambient temperature in this spot with the lights on low and it’s a steady 85 degrees, perfect for the life that is about to explode in activity inside the dough.

* * *

Half an hour later I walk in and the dough has flattened out and risen halfway up the sides of the bowl. If I pinch the sticky stuff in my fingers and pull a piece slightly I can see the whole texture is riddled with tiny holes, the gasses given off by yeast that’s been brought to life and given a huge beautiful meal to heat. The gas is their byproduct.

There’s a yeasty rich smell too, and I move the bowl to another spot so I can fire up the oven. I push the “up” button until it won’t go any farther, and the oven begins to hiss with gas as it starts building heat to 550 degrees. A large stone sits on one of the racks, heating also.

The dough will rise for another hour, the kitchen growing warmer as the oven pours it on, straining to get to maximum. The magic of pizza is about to take place again. It’s another Thursday night in the kitchen.

It still amazes me that so much goodness, such satisfying and basic fulfillment can emerge from such a simple formula. I’ll deal with the sauce, the toppings later. The essence of the art of the pizzaioli—one who makes pizza—is expressed in the dough. Maybe because it is so simple—yeast, flour, salt, water and a dash of olive oil—and yet yields such complexity, such contrast between the crackling, shattery crust and the chewy toothsome interior, it’s in the crust, the bread, where you’ll find the very soul of pizza, and of the pizzaioli.

* * *

You’ve got to cook your pizza on a stone of some kind, there’s just no other way to get the crispy crust that makes the pizza sing. I’m going to be baking on a huge Hearthkit semi-permanently installed in my oven, a large stone that covers the entire oven rack and has sides made of the same porous rock as the two-inch-thick thick bottom. After an hour at 550 degrees, the stone will have absorbed as much heat as possible and will keep that heat as I start to bake and the oven door is repeatedly opened and closed, the pies shuttling in and out.

I walk over to look at the dough, which has now risen in a spongy mass to entirely fill the big stainless steel bowl. All my handling of the dough from here on will be gentle, trying to maintain as much of the gassy volume as possible. I gently tip it out of the bowl and let it lazily fall to the floured counter, where the underside shows itself riddled with the yeast’s work. A dough scraper gently portions it into six ounce pieces, which I gently stretch and twirl into balls, lining them up on the counter. A flour-sack towel gently covers them, misted with a spritz of water to keep them from drying out. The yeast is still alive and doing its magic, and the balls will continue to rise as I prepare the rest of the cast for this comestible sonata that is approaching its crescendo.

Out of the fridge comes the cheese, olives, a big bold leek, and from the pantry a big can of tomatoes, oregano, the big wooden pizza peel. It’s like assembling your forces before going into battle, checking your equipment, imagining the tasks ahead to make sure you’re prepared and face no last-minute crises—at least none that are avoidable—when the timing is crucial and dinner hangs in the balance.

The counter fills up with foods and equipment. Giant spatula, check. Immersion blender, check. Big tomato sauce spoon, check. Flour shaker, olive oil, extra dish towels, big-wheel pizza cutter, plates, check, check, check.

I pull off the towel and the dough balls are fat and happy, bulging with activity. I pull one out and gently press it into a little disk with just the ends of my fingers, feeling the soft suppleness of the dough. With gentle pulls the disk is stretched out a bit, then back under the towel to rest and rise a little more. The final act is fast approaching as I cover the peel with flour and a bit of cornmeal. I’m ready.

* * *

In the beginning was the word, and the word was, what exactly? The word was pizzaoili, because in writing about pizza and the miracle of bread, one must be precise. I had to find the correct way to spell this word and sat there stabbing at my keyboard in vain, knowing the word was out there. After a bit of nudging it appeared, thankfully. You know, it’s actually challenging to look up a word you don’t know, but there it was, in an article somewhere, pizzaoili, the baker of pizza. Another nudge and a restaurant in Chico popped up, named Pizzaoli, and I thought that was delightful until I noticed there was no pizza mentioned on their home page at all. Strange.

Inspiration told me to call them, as the cheery woman I imagined answering the phone would say the name, giving me a free lesson in pronunciation. On the impulse I grabbed the phone and, as I dialed, I thought who clever I am. Even if the woman is away from the desk, or they are closed for renovation, or they are all gathered for an impromptu employee lunch, gaily dining on pastas, bruschettas, condimenti, and toasting each other gaily with overfull glasses of the leftover chianti, her voice will be on the answering machine, yes? And that will be almost as good, I’ll get the pronunciation anyway.

And so I hang there, enraptured with my little fantasy, as the phone in Chico rang, and rang, and rang, on and on, no woman, no gay party, no answering machine, nothing at all.

* * *

Baking (making pizza) is about repetition, doing it over and over the same way. A man preparing for a baking competition bakes thousands of loaves in his search for perfection. There’s a little of this in the weekly pizza bake.

And the pizza gets better as my intent, my method becomes less verbal, more interior. They pizza bake moves out of my kitchen, into my guts somewhere, and as the crust gradually improves over the months, it becomes less and less possible to describe what I am doing in words.

A friend wants to get the recipe, but now, after all these months of baking pizzas on Thursday nights, I no longer think it’s so easy to pass it along. I suggest he just come over next week, and he can watch, feel the yeast for himself, smell the changes in the air as the evening multiplies in our imagination as the yeast multiplies in the dough. He says he’ll think about it and hangs up.

The Zen monk is asked, what did you do before you were enlightened, to which he replies, “I ate my rice, and I washed my bowl.”

And after enlightenment, after realizing the truth behind the illusion of reality? What did he do then with this great and transformative knowledge?
“I ate my rice, and I washed my bowl.”

Yes. Let’s eat!

Related posts:

1. Off-Topic: Fish, or Dine Out?
2. Why Self-Publishing Is a Long-Tail Business
3. Annual Get Published! Workshop Coming March 13

If you have the time, watch this short video:

You may not have noticed it, but on Tuesday in London the CEO of Penguin Books, John Makinson, gave a presentation to the Financial Time’s Digital Media & Broadcasting Conference. As reported by paidContent:UK, he wanted to show the progress Penguin has made in developing products for the soon-to-be-released Apple iPad.

The video runs about three minutes, and I’ve watched it more than once. Makinson briefly shows “books” that have been adapted for early readers, young readers, for vampire-book readers and books from the terrific Dorling-Kindersley imprint of lavishly illustrated popular reference books. Here’s the rundown, with some thoughts on these new products:

The first three offerings were focused on educational markets:

• Pre-reader activity book—This reminded me of many educational software titles of years gone by, with the addition of the touchscreen and accelerometer that are built into the iPad.
• Spot—Yes, Spot the dog from the early reader, transferred to the iPad. Flash back to a whole generation of applications for kids that have run on desktop machines pretty much unchanged for years. Here again, portability and the computer functions of the iPad allowed for an interactive experience as you “help Spot” paint a picture.
• DK Human Body—Watching this short clip made me want to look for those old Encarta disks, and brought to mind the whole dream of a “living encyclopedia” with access to vast stores of knowledge. But still a canned application.

Next, a way to bring books and social media together:

• Vampire Academy—The appeal of this application is its stretch of the reading experience into another realm, social media. The application contains an online componenet where you can interact with other vampire fans. Does that sound like fun?

Finally, two appications that really show the transformative power of the iPad:

• DK Travel—A colorful DK travel guide to Paris comes alive with the integration of the iPad’s GPS system to show exactly where objects described in the book are, and calls up maps to help you get there. Wow.
• DK Starfinder—More of an idea than an application. The demo was a lot less effective when attendees realized the “sky” depicted on the iPad screen was actually a star map pasted to the inside of the glass, more or less. But the concept was fantastic: hold the iPad up to the sky and its GPS would show what constellations and other objects you were looking at on its screen. Buck Rogers stuff.

An Echo of Times Gone By

Makinson described how Penguin would be embedding audio, video and streaming capacity into “everything we do.” He made a point of dissing the .epub format, the standard for most e-books today, as not being quite “cool” enough.

But you may have realized by now that even though these are called “books”, and even though they are coming from Penguin, a book publisher, these are not really books, and not even ebooks. The reason most of them remind me so strongly of programs from times past is exactly because that is what they are: computer applications. Programs pure and simple, just like the Pajama Sam games my son played ten years ago.

Brought to the iPad, made portable, enhanced with touchscreen and movement sensors, connected to the internet and with a real live GPS function, they clearly have taken these programs to new levels of functionality, and fun. The iPad is without a doubt a cool device.

But where is the book in all this? Here’s what Makinson had to say:

“So for the time being at least we’ll be creating a lot of our content as applications, for sale on app stores and HTML, rather than in ebooks. The definition of the book itself is up for grabs.

And Some Smiles from the Publishers as Well

In the second video, which is much less interesting, Makinson makes clear why the publishing world is rushing toward the iPod in a frenzy, hoping for salvation. He talks at some length about the Agency Model but the real point is this:

• publishers have to give up a minimum of 50% to get their books into distribution, and often more.
• Ebooks have incredible price pressures on them, and many readers are outraged to have to pay for them at all.
• Amazon has made the Kindle products unappetizing by taking away their ability to push the price over $9.99 now that it’s ingrained in people’s minds.
• Apple, who will lock the barbarians out at the gates, will allow publishers leeway to set prices, and will take “only” 30% of sales.

As paidContent:UK reported,

“The iPad represents the first real opportunity to create a paid distribution model that will be attractive to consumers,” an excited Makinson told FT’s Digital Media & Broadcasting Conference. “The psychology of payment on tablets is different to the psychology on a PC.”

Yes, I’ll be he was excited. And you can almost see, from here, the gleam in Steve Jobs’ eye down there in Cupertino, where he “rescues” another industry and somehow becomes even more influential at the same time.

The Future Splits Along Two Paths. Or It Doesn’t

Regular readers of this blog know that there is a real concern for the future of the book as a book. It seems that ebooks of all types will continue to grow in popularity, and that growth may come at the expense of printed books. Economic pressures on buyers and producers haven’t stopped. Cheaper products that are “cooler” and do more than just lie there have a growing attraction.

The two forms could continue on parallel tracks. At least some of the products demonstrated by Penguin didn’t try to look like an electronic picture of a book, which is a bit patronizing in a way. At some point in the far future, perhaps books printed on paper will become objects of art, collectibles, even more refined and aimed at a conniseour market, no longer a mass medium.

Or the two forms could converge, with ereaders becoming more book-like.

But whatever the book will become, we’re seeing the first, tottering baby steps into that world right now. Enjoy the ride.

Takeaway: The first experiments with “books” made possible by the Apple iPad show just how far ebooks and printed books will diverge as new devices come to market. Publishers have good financial reasons to look forward to the iPad.

Related posts:

1. Apple iPad: E-Book Reading, Kindle-Killing, Business-Saving Product of the Century?
2. Apple iPad Typography: Fonts We Actually Want
3. Amazon and Macmillan In Dispute over E-Books: Was It Something Apple’s iPad Said?

Yesterday I wrote about using 48HrBooks for advance print runs. Some clients prefer printing their advance copies at other vendors, like Lulu.com. But the article also brought up some questions about why self-publishers need these advance print runs at all:

1. What are they good for?
2. Once the book is ready, shouldn’t I just go to press and quickly get my book up on Amazon, BN.com and other retailers?
3. How early should I do these advance copies?
4. Do they have to be perfect, proofread and corrected?

You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers

Before I get to these questions, I think it’s important to understand the three different kinds of pre-publication books, and how they differ:

• Proof copies—These are internal copies, not distributed to anyone outside the team producing the book. They are used strictly for proofing some element or elements of the book.

  For instance, the publisher might want to see how the cover looks at a particular size, like on a 6″ x 9″ book. How will the book bulk out, using the appropriate paper? This is also a great test to see what your typographic design will look like in the final product, or how the illustrations you’re preparing will print.

  Whatever the proofing need, there’s no substitute for an actual printed book as a test of your product.

• Advance Review copies—If you are planning to solicit prepublication reviews, from the major prepublication reviewers, you will need proper Advance Review Copies (ARCs). You can see my article on Preparing Your ARCs for an example of how these are set up. The covers are usually modified to show marketing information, the bar code is not used on these books, and only 5 to 10 copies are needed.

  All copies are sent with accompanying press materials to a few media outlets that need books far–up to four months–before your official publication date.

• Advance Reader copies—There are a wide variety of uses for Advance Reader Copies. Some authors use them to ask for input, comments or corrections from experts in their field. Publishers use them to get other authors to “blurb” the book, and contribute a quote or testimonial that can be used in the book’s promotion.

  Reader copies are also used to gauge response to a potentially controversial book, or to test the writing style and overall approach the author has used in writing the book. Academic books are often circulated to other researchers in the field for peer review purposes.

Economy Comes Into It Too

If I were to take a 200-page manuscript on letter-size paper down to my local Kinko’s, it would cost me $.08 per page, or $16.00 per copy. Even at 48HrBooks, a printed and bound book of 200 pages at 5.5″ x 8.5″ would cost about $9.00. If you need 50 copies, you’re looking at the difference between $800 for copies and $450 for printed books.

This points up another fact about pre-publication print runs. Advance copies are usually created when the book is in the page proofs step in the production process. In this stage the design is mostly set, and the entire text has been “poured” into the design template, but all the finishing touches have not been applied.

Now About Those Questions

We’ve already answered question #1, since we now know what these copies are good for.

As to question #2—should you go directly to sale—the answer is no if you want prepublication reviews, or if you hope to get blurbs or comments from other readers before finalizing your manuscript. This type of input can really help both the quality of your book, its completeness, and the anticipation in your community for the eventual publication of the book as well.

The answer to question #3—how early to get these copies—is best answered by looking at how they will be used. As I noted, prepublication reviewers need to have the book in hand four months prior to publication. Peer review copies can be circulated six months or more before publication to make certain there’s enough time to deal with any substantial changes or suggestions that come from reviewers.

And for question #4—do they have to be perfect—the answer is no. These copies do not have to be fully finished or proofread. Traditionally these copies carried a statement something like this:

Advance Review Copy / Uncorrected Page Proofs / Please check final published copies before quoting from this book.

Originally we called these Bound Galleys, because they were simply proofs of the long galleys of type right after it had been set. No page makeup, running heads, page numbers or illustrations were included, and no proofreading had been done. So the tradition with these advance copies is pretty clear and consistent.

You might think of even more ways to use advance copies of your book, and I’d love to hear about them.

Takeaway: Copies of your book printed in advance of publication from files that may not be proofread and complete are traditionally used for both editorial and promotional tasks. They are a handy and economical way to privately circulate a book before publication.

Related posts:

1. 8 Answers That Help Self-Publishers Get Up and Running
2. Self Publishing Basics: How to Create Your ARC Cover
3. Book Running Late? Working With 48HrBooks.com

In a perfect world all our carpools would run on time, no backpacks would be left on the back seat, construction zones would open as we approached them, and our children would be grateful and respectful at all times.

Of course, in a perfect world all our work would come in right on schedule. Editors would never get sick. Layout artists would have no computer problems. And authors would never ever change their minds after they had approved the page proofs of their book.

But alas, the world is not perfect quite yet. Sometimes you’ve planned to launch your book and the last two weeks were really tough, and you lose a day here, another day there. It happens. What can you do? But the local book store which has graciously scheduled you for a book launch party, or the restaurant you’ve booked is ready and waiting, and you don’t have any books.

Ready to solve your problems is the web-based digital printer, 48HrBooks.com. Located in Akron, Ohio, 48HrBooks.com does one thing, and it does it well: it will proof, print and ship your short run of perfect-bound books in—you guessed it—48 hours.

A Valuable Vendor for Self-Publishers

First, understand that 48HrBooks is a digital printer. This company is not a print on demand provider, because they don’t do any distribution. They print softcover, casebound and spiral coil-bound books. That’s it. But because they can print good quality books faster than anyone else, they are a terrific resource to have available.

About half of my recent clients have used 48HrBooks for proof copies or for Advance Review or Advance Reader copies. I’ve been impressed with their quality, and all my clients have reported good experiences working with the company and real gratitude about getting books quickly to help with schedules that can’t be changed.

Simplicity that Works

48HrBooks has none of the sophistication of sites like Lulu.com or Blurb.com, with their book-making software, cover creators, and sophisticated video tutorials. But that’s part of its charm. It gets right to the point and answers your questions.

Their website provides detailed step-by-step instructions about how their process works. They stick to 4 basic sizes of books, although they will print other trim sizes as well. They will help you get an ISBN and bacode for no extra charge (you still have to pay for the ISBN, the assistance is free).

48HrBooks also offers extra services for those in need:

• Printed Proof ($40) Books are proofed in PDF format sent to you in email, but if you need a printed copy instead, they’ll send you one.
• Re-formatting your files ($75 minimum) If you don’t know how to re-format your files to fit a book page, 48HrBooks will do it for you.
• Converting files to PDF ($50) Can’t figure out how to use their free PDF converter? Don’t have a Macintosh, with built-in PDF conversion? $50 solves your problem.
• Cover design ($100 or $500) I think you can safely skip the truly dreadful $100 “Create-A-Cover!” feature, but they will assign an actual human to do a custom cover design for you for $500.

One of the best things about the 48HrBooks website is the help it provides. Page after page of simple, practical information on every aspect of their book printing. Photos of different kinds of bindings. Step-by-step instructions for just about everything. There’s no fluff here, just what you need.

Freebies Too: Templates and Instructions

Here’s where 48HrBooks might be of help to other kinds of authors. They provide free downloadable templates for Microsoft Word, along with a unique set of instructions. Why unique? They provide instructions for three levels of users in the one download: Expert, Novice, and Just Getting Started.

As you might expect, the templates will produce something book-like, although you may be disappointed with the results. Here’s an example of the 5.5″ x 8.5″ template.

I wouldn’t hesitate to send someone here to produce a book for their own use, but I wouldn’t imply they would get a professional looking book.

But my clients use the PDF files I prepare for them, and they print beautifully at 48HrBooks.

And Here’s the Downside

It only stands to reason that books from this vendor will be more expensive than others—that’s the premium we put on speed. 48HrBooks makes it rediculously easy to get a price for your book, with a simple pricing widget right on their home page. They know that’s one of the first thing you want to know, and their approach shows how focused this company is on pleasing its clients.

25 copies (the minimum order) of the book I use for comparisons, a 5.5″ x 8.5″ softcover with 200 pages, will cost $9.05 each. At 100 copies, the unit cost drops to $5.45. For comparison, this same book from Lightning Source would cost $3.50, with no minimum order. That’s about 62% less.

Since this is a one-time cost, most clients are happy to pay it in order to get their proofs so fast.

Takeaway: When you need 25 or more books in a hurry, you can’t do much better than the simple, customer-focused services of 48HrBooks.com.

Related posts:

1. How Self-Publishers Get The Most from Pre-publication Printings
2. Working With Blurb.com for Color Books
3. 8 Answers That Help Self-Publishers Get Up and Running