I ran across this FontLab 5 webinar perusal on YouTube today. The recording quality is poor. But it might be helpful. At least there’s a bit of a face and voice with the name. The basics of a Fontlab workflow: new font
Continue reading →Self-publishers trade publishing dreams need excellence to provide better hopes. There are realistic, if remote, possibilities of being picked up by a “real” publisher. But only if you can demonstrate excellent sales, a sizable following, or ongoing usage (like coursework, regularly scheduled seminars, and the like). I thought the image of Victorian woodtype might help drive home the concept of tradepub being a step back to a time which really doesn’t exist any more. Traditional publishing as we … Continue reading →
I wanted to write a short reminder post about the trials and tribulations of authorship: the news that Tate closes, authors beware of BEA, and other normal advice. This is one of the things we need to do to help each other remember about the dangers [fical] of wandering about in the publishing industry. News like Tate closes, authors beware of BEA, and so on is just normal advice For those not aware, Tate (who is a commonly used … Continue reading →
There’s a lot of confusion among authors today. Primarily, it shows as: are digital books still increasing? The answer shouts back: Of Course! Here’s a quote from Jane Friedman’s post this morning Looking Back at 2016: “The market for adult fiction is primarily a digital one “It’s commonly said that in the United States, overall trade book sales are divided about 70-30 print-digital, and that ebook sales at traditional publishing houses are flat to declining. (You’ve probably … Continue reading →
I received this email today from the Skilled Workman contact form: From Martin at Reedsy simple book formatting: “I’m part of the team behind the Reedsy Book Editor, an online tool that helps independent authors write, collaborate on, and format their projects. It exports in EPUB3 and print-ready PDF and we’ve been getting really great feedback from our Authors. We’ve just published a post on how to format books and thought perhaps you and your readers might find it … Continue reading →
I just posted a link to this article from The Bookseller: stating the digital revolution is definitely not over. Of course, that is one of those DUH! facts. The future of books is even more complex than you may think, though. How do we deal with audio, video, interactive content, and so on? Basically… The future of books is in the readers’ hands We really don’t know where it will go. Is a book, with a movie … Continue reading →
I received this in an email from Aaron Shepard this morning. I didn’t get permission to copy this, but I’ve done what I can to make sure you know this is Aaron’s writing. Evidently, Kindle book modification is still a problem after they are uploaded in the name of “better typography”. Aaron has some serious questions about this process. It is certainly something of which to be aware. The following quote is from Aaron’s email: One of the problems in … Continue reading →
For an Author Website I recommend a WordPress blog — A traditional static site starts at about two grand. But, a fully interactive, responsive site with e-commerce can easily start at $50,000 US and go much higher than that. Obviously, this is much more than most of us need as authors—maybe. It’s also far beyond our budgets in most cases. If you want a good article on excellent author sites, from a worldly point of view, here’s … Continue reading →
Mumble, grumble, PITA, ;oebpa;b/ hkvo… Ok! Now that’s off my chest. I just had fits with a Kindle book for a client. I use to do them first (after the print/PDF versions were complete) because they were such a pain in the a…, but I’ve begun doing them last because they’re just bleah. Working with Kindle formatting seems like stepping back a decade. For me, the ePUB problems have largely been solved: paragraph shading, anchored graphics, embedded … Continue reading →
Even after over forty-five years, there’s still that little thrill when you see a finished book for the first time. It’s too bad that Amazon won’t carry them. But, they are the best choice for the classroom or self-study. The spiral-bound workbook I had to cut out the Christian marketing section to get the page count below the 470 page maximum for spiral-bound. The only thing I really miss are the color graphics. To get that (and … Continue reading →