Having your own publishing house is a decision you need to make In today’s version of the publishing industry, you need one regardless. Even if you sell all your books to the big six, you’ll need a way to market yourself and help your book sales. This is much like the fact that all artists need a studio name. You need a professional interface with the world. On the practical side, you need to think about how … Continue reading →
You learn by doing, and there is a lot to learn: typography, page layout, printing limitations, ebook limitations, and much more. BUT! You can do it simply, line upon line, precept upon precept, as you grow into the publisher you need to be. How long will it take? That depends on how seriously you take your work and assignments. I used to teach this stuff in two intense semesters to people starting from scratch who were not … Continue reading →
Niche writers to limited markets Here we begin to see the modern reality of publishing. The change is of the same type as we saw with the conversion in television from three, then four, gargantuan mass-market networks to the current reality of thousands of channels on cable and satellite. The same thing has happened in magazines where there are now over 10,000 magazines in the US alone. There are now millions of active blogs. We are currently … Continue reading →
Writing within InDesign Here I am again recommending a road less traveled by—not unusual in my life and work. Before the choruses rise up in defense of other workflows, let me tell you my reasonings. I fully recognize that most people write in Word. What these people do not realize [in most cases] is this simple fact starts their book with a great handicap. If Word users are publishing their own book, they are missing out on … Continue reading →
I received Northbound from Aspect Books, a subset of TEACH Services Inc. through BookCrash to review and it was a fun read. I was surprised to find that the book was set in the 1850s somewhere in Northern California, as I usually do not like historical novels. By the description I was expecting something modern. I was confused geographically by the town names as I knew the Feather River area. Somehow I had no idea they had gone so … Continue reading →
Things have changed so much in book publishing, that you must understand the new paradigm and why this means you must understand typography. Self-published authors must learn the art of communication with type. This is an excerpt from Writing In InDesign 2nd Edition which will be released as soon as possible. Here’s a link to the 1st edition _________________________________________ Writing within InDesign Here I am again recommending a road less traveled by—not unusual in my life and work. … Continue reading →
What does it mean for Aggregator Companies if Apple launches their Self-Publishing Program? | Good E-Reader – ebook Reader and Tablet PC News. I would assume this must be good, right? More options for we the authors. But that remains to be seen. How will this affect you? I’m not sure it will affect me at all—unless, of course, Apple uses this like Amazon is doing, to cut off competition.
Continue reading →One of the real joys found in my recent spiritual growth spurt has been Jesse Duplantis. It is always a joy to find a person who is free to be what the Lord made him. God is infinitely creative and Jesse is in the image of his Father. His freedom in the Lord is a true inspiration to me. The Everyday Visionary gives a practical method of implementing your vision Though it’s a small book, I took … Continue reading →
The Duggars are conscripted by the CIA—well, not really. The dad is a doctor who was conscripted without his real knowledge or agreement. This is a doctor who deals with biological weapons of mass destruction often using his wife and many children as cover (and he hasn’t told them yet). This time they have an invite to go to China for a geography competition (but that’s peripheral to the story). The author is a doctor who has … Continue reading →
OpenType Simplified In two words, it’s confusing. FontLab has good, professional tools for developing OpenType fonts—but it is certainly not simple or easy. Fontographer really does not deal well with OpenType at all. Having said that, if you have a feature file, you can use it in Fontographer 5.1. You link to it in the font info dialog box on the Encoding page. Fontographer will use that feature file to build your OpenType font when you generate … Continue reading →