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Two free whitepapers on eBooks: How to Create and How to Sell eBooks
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//UPDATE//
These are proving really popular, which is ace, so don't be shy to ask me for them!
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I have written a couple of white papers on eBooks. I did a giveaway of the first, called How to Create eBooks, to Independent Publishers Guild members a few months ago. That and the next, How to Sell eBooks, can be yours if you drop me a line!
How to Create eBooks includes:
- Formats
- Resources
- Overview of the process
- Using InDesign
- Getting the cover to look right
- Setting up a Table of Contents that the ePub format understands
- Adding metadata
- Exporting to ePub
- Converting to Mobi
How to Sell eBooks covers:
- Signing up with Apple
- How to get the US Tax ID that Apple require
- Using iTunes Producer
- Signing up with Amazon
- Signing up with Waterstone's
- Other routes to market
- Apple-Approved aggregators
- Useful links
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Geek alert
If anyone wants a bit of XSL which transforms ONIX into the XMP format that InDesign uses for its ePub metadata, just shout! < /incomprehensible geek babble>
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State of the nation Q&A
Thanks for the comments on the state of the nation post, below. There were a couple of questions, as well as pretty universal interest in our eBook plans. I'll cover eBooks tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's my response to Wayne's question about retailers.
Continue reading "State of the nation Q&A" »
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An apology
Wowsers. I've just managed to really upset and annoy one of our authors, who received her royalty statements and payment late in the last period. I've ended up reverting her rights because she's so annoyed.
I thought I'd just repeat my huge apologies, publicly this time, to our other authors who had to bear with me whilst I struggled to get the royalty system I'd switched to up and running. As you know it's been a tricky year but that's no excuse for letting our authors down.
If I've learned anything, it's this. If an author gets a statement late, they don't just see an administrative hiccup. They see delays as disrespectful to their hard work and insensitive to their feelings. I can understand that because authors put their souls into their writing. So I'll be very sure to prepare statements well ahead of time in the future.
And if you're one of our authors, and are really cross with me for any reason, *please* do let me know now, so I can sort out the issue.
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State of the nation
It might be the nice-smelling daffodils on my desk that fills me with an urge to spring clean, but the house is looking pretty tidy, so I shall direct my urges in Snowbooks' direction. Here is an update on what's going on, where we currently are with a bunch of things, and so on. Do shout with questions. If nothing else, we pride ourselves on openness, even when it really hurts (remember this?) so here goes, a warts and all update. You wouldn't find the following sort of thing on any other publishers' website. Bet you £20.
Continue reading "State of the nation" »
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#GenreForJapan
Here's the poster that a multitude of Snowbooks authors will be signing in aid of Genre for Japan. But imagine it BIG! And covered in signatures!
Bidding is now open so git yoursen over there now with your wallet.
//Update, OMG I missed off Wayne's covers! They got stuck under a zombie. This is the revised poster. Sorry old chap!
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Lint: the movie
Steve Aylett fans will be delighted to hear that Lint: The Movie will be premiering later this year. To whet your appetite, here are some stills.
Steve will also be at the London Word Festival on May 4th. Alan Moore, Steve Aylett, Robin Ince, Melinda Gebbie, Kevin O'Neil, music from the Retro Spankees. May the fourth be with you, arf. Never gets old.
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Bloody hell
I have just looked again at my letter saying I passed my Open Uni course. Not only did I pass - I got 93%. Please don't tell me I'm a naturally talented bookkeeper. Can't I be a natural gymnast, or horse rider, or theoretical physicist or something? Something a bit less - well, obsessive-compulsive.
Added bonus fact: The word 'bookkeeper' has consecutive 'o's, 'k's and 'e's. In case you didn't know.
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I passed!
God knows where I found the time, but I did an OU course in Bookkeeping and Accounting recently, to better understand, you know, accounts. And I just got the results - I passed! So now I can apply to be a member of the Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers. Can't wait for *that* Christmas party.
(That's paint on the child's nose, by the way, not a carbuncle.)
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Genre for Japan
The Guardian today picks up on an initiative that we're proud to be a part of. Genre for Japan is a way to raise lots of money to help the crisis effort. It's an auction of amazing genre-related things.
Our contribution is this:
"Unique A1 colour poster from UK indie publisher Snowbooks, featuring a selection of jacket designs of their bestselling horror, sci fi and fantasy titles from leading genres authors including Wayne Simmons (Flu, Fever), George Mann (The Affinity Bridge, Ghosts of Manhattan), Thomas Emson (Maneater, Skarlet, Krimson), Paula Brackston (Book of Shadows), Alan Baker (Martian Ambassador), Mark Hodder (Spring Heeled Jack), Paul Magrs (Enter Wildthyme). Poster is signed by the authors and personalised to the winner. It will be delivered to the winner in the packing tube that will be used to send it around the world to the authors for their signature - the authors will also write a little something on the tube."
I have yet to design it, but as soon as it's done I'll show you! Get bidding, chaps.
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The Nazi Reptile Menace
So, what if the Nazis had had a bunch of murderous dinosaurs on their side? Worrying, huh? I really like these fake WWII propaganda posters based on just such a scenario. Apparently they're for (now where are my spectacles) something called a 'computer video game', whatever one of those is. Details here if you're interested. Or just check out the posters on io9.
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A retreat
Hmm, I wonder. I was just reading on the internets about a person going on a writer's retreat, and getting a lot of writing done. Me, I don't write. Dear god, let you be thankful. It's the blessing/curse of the publisher - to be frequently exposed to writing so fine it would make a grown man weep, writing of a standard you could never hope to reach, so why bother.
However, whilst I don't write, I do like to learn new things and I have a current techie interest which would really benefit from a few days' absorbed, quiet thinking and concentration. I wonder: is one allowed to go on a retreat which isn't a writer's retreat? Or could I just say I was writing, and secretly do this other thing instead? Would anyone miss me for, I don't know, 4 or 5 days? More relevantly: could I resist the urge to check my email for a full working week?
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Sneaky
So I have an ongoing problem with having a cluttered desktop. But what did I learn today? Sneaky! Mini icons! You'd barely know that I have 900mb of crap on there.
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What we are not
Oh, meant to say. One of our authors pointed me in the direction of a forum post in which someone accused Snowbooks of directing rejected authors to a manuscript editing service, which they think is a scam we're running to lure people in to paying us money.
Er, we're not. Any more questions?
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Things I have learned
This is not one of those face-palm, god why do I still do things wrong posts. This is a smug post, listing a few things that I have learned, and act upon, which improve my life.
Thing the first: you're going to have to repeat every task. Even when I think it's a one-off, 90% of the time I end up doing it again. This is just life. What makes it tolerable is that as a result I tend to automate, at least in part, every task I do when I do it for the first time. It's a lot less soul-destroying to revisit something if it takes a fraction of the time the second time around. It's taken me a long time to learn this lesson but it's finally sunk in.
Thing the second: feed your demons. A friend gave me a book called exactly that. It's a different approach to dealing with inner conflict - rather than repressing or disliking bits of you that are negative (anger, guilt, stress etc) you face them head on, figure out what that part of you actually wants and give it to yourself. Then the demons turn into daemons - a friendly sort of ally. I am fully aware that this reads like a load of hippy clap-trap, but it works and it's wiser than self-hate.
Thing the third: don't hold back on the coffee. Of all the vices in the world, it's not so bad.
Here endeth my list.
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My current inbox
I do know more than two people, honest.
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Fingers
It seems awful to post about anything, given the horrifying tsunami events. The thing that amazes me is that the water seems so shallow and slow when it breaks onto the beach, and then just builds and builds until it's knocking down hospitals and derailing trains. The footage is heartbreaking.
And yet, I post, about inconsequential shallow things. Sorry.
I have taken delivery of a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. They are barefoot running shoes, which look like foot-gloves (there's a 'finger' for each of your toes). The idea is that by wearing big padded normal running shoes, you insulate your feet from feedback, and they get flabby and useless. They can't do their job of telling the body what it needs to know to maintain good posture and avoid problems in the road ahead. And they can't use all their muscles properly. Hence, barefoot running is better. But who wants to tread in dog poo / on broken glass / on boiling hot tarmac in the summer? Which is why someone cleverly invented these very interesting shoes.
I will let you know how I get on with them. I ran 100 yards in them today, which was enough, and was astounded at how bouncy my knees went - I think the body's natural suspension gets called into play when you don't have artificial padding. But the interesting thing is how I found out about them. There's a book that Rob lent me, called Born to Run, which is a hugely engaging tale of one runner's quest to find a way to run without knackering his knees and back. The upshot is that the book is one long advert, in a completely accidental way, for these shoes. I suspect that more than half of people who read the book buy the shoes.
Thinks. What a great book - that not only delivers a cracking story but has an eighty quid upsell. I wonder if we could do that? Buy this zombie book, and see sales of cricket bats soar, that sort of thing. Interesting, anyway.
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#IPG2011
So I'm having a lovely time at the independent publishers guild conference. Although I am sitting on the floor, because it's jam packed. And jabbing on my JabPhone which results in this rather staccato writing style I have suddenly adopted. I've not seen so many people at the conference before - it's a heartening sign that the independent publishing sector is actually thriving.
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Out and about
So Ro is on the mend (no temperature, no pain relief today and was in a chirpy, bobbly mood), thank god. No more hospital, hooray, with its annoying flickering fluorescent light that is slightly out of step with the smoke alarm light just next to it (except for once every 28 minutes when they briefly synchronise. I have stared at that hospital ceiling a lot.)
And so I thought I'd go to the Independent Publishers Guild conference which is this week. If anyone's going, it would be lovely to see you. I've been a bit of a screenhead for the last few months (believe it or not, those people who are still waiting for me to do things) and haven't seen, you know, humans, that much. I am the sort of person who likes her own company, but when the primary human contact you have are removals men, the milkman (yes, I have one and no, it's not a euphemism), medical staff and worried parents of sick children, I suppose one should make the effort to get out a bit. So I'm looking forward to a mingle. See you there!
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I look away for one minute...
... and what happens? One of my authors goes zooming off onto Newsnight and talks to the Guardian and the Bookseller and goodness knows who else, because she came up with a particularly brilliant plan to stage Alternative World Book Night (where people actually buy books, kerrayzee idea, no?) Prolific, Carnegie-nominated wonder woman Nicola Morgan, author of our forthcoming Write to be Published, blogs at www.helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com and goodness me, if you read the Snowblog but not her blog you're in for a treat. Preorder her book from The Book Depository.
In other news, we are out of hospital and Ro is on the mend, although he's still got a temperature. Thanks for the kind words. Last week was hell. Very happy to be home. I still have a fair bit of catching up to do, so thanks for your patience and do feel free to email to nag me.
[original image: Graham Clark Photography]
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self-published millionaire says self-publishing hard
I'm getting the hang of writing headlines; there's no doubting it now. So, Amanda Hocking has been used as an example of a self-publishing success recently. I'm not sure where that started - and I'm certainly too slovenly to find out - but a hasty Google search showed that she had a piece in USA Today in early Feb mentioning that she'd given up on finding a publisher and was now selling her self-published eBooks in impressive numbers (450,000 in Jan 2011, apparently).
A lot of people seem to be using her example to make their point, so Ms. Hocking has just written a blog post giving her views on 'what it all means'. You could nip over there and read it. Or take a chance that I'm summarising it correctly in the following terse phrases: writing success is hard, self-publishing hard, success uncertain whether published or self-published. you can't copy her and expect success any more than you can copy JK Rowling as a guarantee of riches. she's high volume but her books sell for a dollar. publishers not evil but still, it's nice to have self-published ebooks in the world.
And Ms. Hocking may well be right: just because it's possible to self-publish to a high standard and be very successful doesn't mean it will become mainstream or even particularly common. On the other hand, I view it as an increasingly important alternative channel. Whether publishers see themselves in these terms or not, they've always been gatekeepers. And whether they like it or not, authors no longer need to pass through those gates to reach readers.
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Poorly
So, anyone clamouring for Emma to get back to them about something or to hurry up and do her homework should be aware that she's had a very disrupted week. Emma's little boy, the normally indomitable Rowan, has had a middle-ear infection that got bad enough to need an operation. Apparently kids get these things quite often, but it was news to me, so I was helpfully fretting and twisting my hat in my hands. I think it's safe to say that Rowan has not enjoyed going without food and water and having needles stuck in him, presumably all accompanied by spectacular ear-ache, and plainly doesn't understand why we'd all gang up on him like this. Em, who seems quite fond of Rowan from what I can tell, has hardly dared to blink for three days, never mind actually sleep. Fortunately Rowan has had his operation, is mending well, is eating voraciously and is on track to be home by the weekend, if all goes well. So, if there's anything you need, you could either try asking me (no, seriously. I mean you could try) or perhaps you could sit on it until next week when hopefully Rowan, and therefore Emma, will be back to full strength.