LITERACY: Best Resources on Self Publishing
Every publication has to think of their digital strategy. Find the best resources and information for small publishers, self-publishers and writers who want to learn how to make a PDF file and audio book found on the Educational CyberPlayGround.
Self Publish Page 2
Information for small publishers, self-publishers and writers.
Find a literary Agent.
THE ISBN
PUBLISH USING A PDF
- Create Free PDF documents online at Adobe then pay later
- *Create Really Free PDF's and other tools available :-) but no security :-(
- Book People Mailing List
PUT IT UP THERE AND SELL IT YOURSELF
POD -- PRINT ON DEMAND:
Foner Books Print on Demand Cost and Profit.
Case study of Lightning Source, the main POD provider in the country, great entry point for any writer interested in self-publishing, get right into the costs, the problems and the profits.
A single POD printer actually prints almost ALL of the POD books on the market: Lightning Source. They’re a division of Ingram books, which in turn distributes the vast majority of books to brick and morter as well as online bookstores. Basically, Ingram has a great vertical market and did a great job of setting it up.
Lightning Source Inc. (US)
1246 Heil Quaker Blvd.
La Vergne, TN USA 37086
Email: inquiry@lightningsource.com
Voice: (615) 213-5815
Fax: (615) 213-4426
The list of places that LIGHTENING SOURCE recommends you go TO if you’re an author and not a publisher yourself is a long one. If you’ve heard of any of these, they all use LS to do the printing: AuthorHouse, Aventine Press, Black Forest Press, Booklocker.com, Inc, BookPublisher.com, Cold Tree Press, Cork Hill Press, First Books, Infinity Publishing, Llumina Press, Morgan James Publishing, LLC, Outskirts Press, PageFree Publishing, Inc., Publish America, Tabby House, Universal Publishers, Unlimited Publishing, WinePress Publishing, Xulon Press, Cafe Press.
Lulu and iUniverse are just 2 of a long list of “publishers” who are little more than middle-men taking manuscripts and passing them on to Lightning Source.
Lulu.com lets people set their own price, but the company takes a commission on books sold, Xlibris is more of a traditional publisher in that it charges a fee, pays royalties and provides copyediting and marketing services, iUniverse charges fees, pays royalties and offers editing and distribution services.
The PDF DRM offered by Lightning Source includes options for how many pages can be printed and how often and whether the file can be copied or backed-up.
- Google Print to Sell Ebooks
- "Amazon Shorts"online publishing project
delivers short stories and essays by well-know authors to readers for $0.49 each. And purchasers can save and print the pieces "forever." I if Amazon Shorts is successful, it could provide an inexpensive way to augment course materials. If you prefer publishing an ebook directly through Amazon, they'll publish your books or brochures as Amazon e-docs for a 50/50 split. - Blurb.com, which offers do-it-yourself bookmaking and on-demand professional printing, is set to announce a new bookstore service in which authors set their own prices, keep all profits, and sell them through the Blurb bookstore. Blurb handles all shipping and sales transactions and each month sends all profits on the book to the creator.
Bottom line: The quickly growing service provides an opportunity most aspiring authors wouldn't otherwise get without paying a fee to some vanity press.
- Lulu.com for Musicians - On Demand Music Publishing - Publishing digital audio content is not limited to music. You can also publish and sell audio books and other multimedia using the same process. Publish files in any format. Set your own royalties on your work. Lulu adds a commission of 25% of the royalty you set (or 19¢, whichever is greater). The Lulu commission therefore equals 20% of the total profit of each item sold. Everything you can put up there.
ISRC Codes WHAT A CD NEEDS
- ISRC Codes - find out what ISRC codes are, also where and how you get one. The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the international identification system for sound recordings and music videorecordings. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording, to help identify recordings for royalty payments. It's assigned PER TRACK, not per CD.
It stays with a recording, so that if that same recording is re-released on a different CD (like a soundtrack). it has nothing to do with the song underneath. If you (or anyone) records different versions or remixes of the same song, each track should have its own ISRC code. ISRC CODES ARE FREE. No service charge. (Unlike the UPC Barcode.) HOW TO GET ONE - International Standard Recording Code
- RIAA's informational page about ISRCs: (read FAQ at the bottom)
GET A UPC BAR CODE
- Universal Product Code - Bar coding
Getting a bar code involves registering with the Universal Code Council, or relying on a commercial service to do it for you. Bar coding allows sales tracking and many retailers, like Amazon and Tower Records, they won't carry your CD without it. READ MORE ABOUT THIS - If you already have your UPC Barcode, the site link below will allow you to create the actual barcode image. Then just do a print screen and crop out the image. That way you've got a barcode image to use.
Just make sure you select UPCA for the type under barcode symbology.
http://www.idautomation.com/java/linearservlet.html
Here's another that may be a little simpler:
http://www.barcoding.com/upc/
Once you get the image there (and you should generate it as a PNG format so there is no lossy compression), you do a right click on the image then Save As... to save it to a file. Don't just do a print screen, though, as the version that shows up on the screen is not the full size, so it loses information.
- Soundscan http://home.soundscan.com/ tracks sales and reports to MTV, VH1, Billboard Magazine. They all rely on bar codes. You need a UPC bar coded onto your CD to get on the professional map and enable national distribution. A UPC assigned and affixed to your CD also aids in distribution and helps prevent scams.
ORGANIZTIONS FOR WRITERS
- ASJA American Society of Journalists and Authors
1501 Broadway, Suite 302
New York, NY 10036
Telephone: 212-997-0947
Fax contracts to: 415-532-1324
Email: http://www.asja.org/cw/cw.php
Contracts Watch
ASJA Freelance Writer Search, a service of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, connects those who need writers with more than 1,200 writers who have met exacting standards of professional achievement. Use Freelance Writer Search to locate writers for a wide range of editorial projects including books, articles, newsletters, corporate communications, ghostwriting, web copy, scriptwriting, speechwriting, and much more. Listings are free. - The Authors Guild
Over the last several years, the Authors Guild's Legal Department has successfully intervened and resolved hundreds of business and legal issues without the use of litigation. - National Writers Union
offers a Health Plan and http://www.nwu.org/ben/health1.htm - HTML Writers Guild
"The Guild is the first and largest international association of web site design and web master developers. - Publishers Liability Insurance
Works for Hire
Previously, a sound recording could not legally be a work for hire because it wasn't in any of the statutory categories. Sound recordings have now been added to the list of categories of works that are capable of being work for hire. RIAA-sponsored "technical amendment" to a Congressional bill makes recorded music "works for hire" under the 1978 US Copyright Act. Now Under Section 101 of the Copyright Act, a work that is specially commissioned (read, not created by a full-time employee in the scope of his employement) can be a work made for hire and if there is an agreement signed by both parties which says it is a work made for hire.
- Copyright Law - Works for Hire
- Contracts and Agreements A hint from a publishing lawyer a wonderful legal term called "notwithstanding". Verbal Agreements vs. Written Contracts - What's Legal.
- What does a Teacher own? Educational CyberPlayGround: K12 CopyRight Law - Primer for Educators
- Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS)
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is pleased to present TEAS. ... TEAS allows you to fill out a form, check it for completeness, and then submit the form directly to the USPTO over the internet, making an official filing on-line." The site includes a trademark FAQ, introductory material about the procedure for registering a trademark, filing tips, forms, and related documents.
Music Law
SUGGESTED BOOKS:
There's an entire section of reviews of books specific to publishing. Most of them are available through your local public library, either directly or through the free inter-library loan service.
- Self-Publishing Manual, Dan Poynter
- 1001 Ways to Market your Books, John Kremer
- You're On the Air (video and booklet), Brian Jud
- The Idiots Guide to Getting Published, Sheree Bykofsky
- How to Self-Publish and Make Money in Canada, Crook and Wise
- 101 Ways to Promote Yourself, Raleigh Pinskey
- Direct Marketing Techniques Lois Geller
- The $ecrets of Our Success: How to successsfully publish and promote on the web. M.J.Rose
- The Complete Guide to Self Publishing, Ross & Ross
- The Complete Guide to Successful Publishing, Avery Cardoza
- Publish to Win, Jenkins/Stanton
- The Prepublishing Handbook, Patricia Bell
- The Art & Science of Book Publishing, Herbert Bailey, Jr.
- Making It In Book Publishing, Leonard Mogul
- Huenefeld Guide to Book Publishing, Huenefeld
- Handbook of Publishing Law, Kirsch
- Complete Publishing Resource Manual, Able
- Guerrilla Marketing, Levinson (not strictly publishing, but good info)
- Getting It Printed, Beach & Kenly
- Business And Legal Forms For Authors And Self Publishers, Crawford
- Guild Publishing ModelExplained
SELL YOUR Ebook
- BookLocker - ebook publisher
- READ more About Ebooks -The Publishers and Content Providers
- How The Book Review System Works
- Info & Insights Articles for Publishing Professionals
Areas: The Business of Publishing, Marketing, Legal Issues, Writing - Convert Word 2000 documents to another format
- Comparison Chart: Media Mail / Bound Printed Matter
Services related to selling e-books or digital property:
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http://www.paypal.com
- http://www.iBill.com
- http://www.DigitalBuy.com
- Adobe PDF Merchant http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfmerchant
Set up a password-protected area and charge for access, try "Account Manager Pro" by CGI Elite. It runs about $200. Short article explaining the difference between wholesalers and distributors and how they work with you and each other.
Are you a K12 Teacher or University Professor?
Do you know how to negotiate with your employer to own what you create for your brick and mortor classroom or virtual online class?
Morris Rosenthal of Fonerbooks explains:
A Few Sales Tricks Can Launch a Book To Top of Online Lists with a mass email called the Best-Seller Blast. You can buy placement (for around $10 - 15 grand) that is sent out by big-time authors. Amazon seems to refresh its numbers 35 minutes after every hour. Used and new book sales are counted equally. So an author anxious about his sales ranking could put a few dozen of his books for sale for a penny apiece and ask a friend to buy them all.
Do you publish your content online? Do Search engines use your content without paying you?
Global Publishers to launch new initiative to tackle search engines press release.
The new project, called ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol), is an automated system which allows online content providers to systematically provide information about access and use of their content to news aggregators and others on the web. The information, provided in a form that can be recognised and interpreted by search engine “crawlers”, will tell search engine operators and other users under what terms they can use the content.
Will you make money?
When you write under a work-made-for-hire contract, you are no longer the owner - the publisher is. Do you think they actually do anything with this material? The NYT sells articles day in and day out - syndicating to other publications, licensing to database companies, and holding out the availability of the archive as a way to entice subscribers. Your collective works are real business.
In 1985, the Supreme Court considered a case against The Nation magazine for publishing unauthorized portions of former President Gerald Ford's forthcoming memoir from Harper & Row. The court found that The Nation stole the memoir in advance of publication and demonstrably hurt Harper's sales revenues and was therefore liable for damages. Who own's the story? Harper & Row. The legal conclusions from the Supreme Court is the law. The "information wants to be free" idea can seriously damage today's American economy. Entertainment content is now the largest US export, and information is the basis of more than half of US gross domestic product. Publishers are contractually responsible to the author for the defense of the copyright that they have licensed as the publisher.
The lesson: "Own Everything." Since no one can know for certain in advance what is going to become a successful project -- or when -- or in what format or medium --, waking up every day with the goal of owning the intellectual property rights to all the versions and derivative works based on the underlying original work is the key to the success of making money with your intellectual property.
$18 million settlement in a class action suit they and 21 freelance writers 4/05
Exit Plan - Bury your Dead Dot With Diginity when you are Done
Extensive Compiliation about CopyRight and CopyLeft
Digital Rights Management <> Concerns, Issues, Resources
Knowledgespeak news service reports on the STM publishing industry, on a daily basis.