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Day One

“Be Your Own Publisher”Self-publishing in the Digital Age

Tom JohnsonInstitute for Analytic Journalism

Indie Publishing WestSanta Fe, New Mexico

t o m @ j t j o h n s o n . c o m

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What we’re aiming for today

Pros and cons of digital self-publishing (DSP)

What you need to know to self-publish Planning your project What publisher needs from you Computing programs & file types Working with specialized contractors

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What we’re aiming for today

Give you understanding of size and tasks; so you can determine… What you can do now What you want to learn to do and tools for

learning What makes sense to pay others to do

Major online Print-on-Demand (P-o-D) houses

Will your title be a bestseller?

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Here’s why we are doing this

On Demand Books www.ondemandbooks.com

”What Gutenberg’s press did for Europe in the 15th century, digitization and the Espresso Book Machine® will do for the world tomorrow.”

NEWSFLASH: On Demand Books and Google Sign Agreement

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Awful Truths About Book Publishing

1. Number of new books being publishing in the U.S. has exploded.

560,626 in 2008 (more than doubled in 5 years)

2. Book industry sales are declining, despite the explosion of new books. -13.5% decline from 2003 to 2008 adjusted for inflation

3. Average book sales are shockingly small, and falling fast. Average U.S. book now sells fewer than 250 copies/year and 3,000 copies/lifetime.

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Awful Truths About Book Publishing

4. Most books today are selling only to the authors’ and publishers’ communities.

5. Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.

6. The digital revolution is expanding the number of products and sales channels but not increasing book sales.

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Move to E-books

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Basic threads of P-o-D

MSS preparation Organization of files Using word processor to

format MSS Downloading/using

templates Registration and creating

ISBN Creating covers Working with images in WP

app Saving/uploading as PDF

Online publisher P-o-D sites Creating your account Tutorials Using online tools for

covers Marketing

Your P-o-D website Amazon, et al. Your homepage Social network marketing

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Pros of digital self-publishing

Low initial $$$ investment (but takes time to write and format and, possibly, learn the system)

You have TOTAL control over editing and design

YOU control print run and PRICE! YOU set the royalty

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Pros of digital self-publishing

You can make corrections at any time Get listed on Amazon.com, Ingram

(wholesaler), Borders.com, Barnes & Noble.com and in European databases

Create next edition with minimal effort A successful P-o-D book can get picked

up by traditional publisher. (If so, what’s your negotiating position?)

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Cons of digital self-publishing

Editors and copy editors are always necessary You will have to hire them, although P-o-D

house can usually help you find someone

Designers are always helpful; perhaps necessary depending on your experience

YOU will be responsible for all PR, marketing and promotion. Again, P-o-D publisher can suggest contractors

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What the P-o-D company provides

If desired, everything needed to “manufacture” a book

NB: There are 8-10 aspects in the process. You choose all or some to do yourself.

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Navigating the publishing world

Your Book

ProjectPlanning

ContentCreation

Promotion/Marketing

Manufacture

Design/Format

Pricing

Distribution

Accounting

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Navigating the publishing world

Your Book

ContentCreation

ProjectPlanning

Design/Format

PricingManufacture

Promotion/Marketing

Distribution

Accounting

Editing/Copy editing

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Creation, Design & Format Aspects Write the book Editing

Copy editing (MSS and page proofs) Indexing Applying for ISBN Cover design

Art, back cover art, text, photos? Interior content design

Margins, font, leading, header/footer Importing and formatting pages With P-o-D, you choose which to do

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What the P-o-D company provides

If desired, everything needed to “manufacture” a book

P-o-D can connect you to vendors for each aspect needed EXCEPT Project planning Content creating

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What the PoD Company Needs

Your cover Your MSS

Text & graphics as formatted, camera-ready pages File types- .doc/.rtf/ .pdf

ISBN number So…… how to get to this point in the

process????

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Project Planning

What is your publishing objective? Simply see your work in print? Instructional or sales materials?

Audience size? How distribute? Need updates how often? Budget (total and per unit)? How many on creative team? Their skill sets?

Preservation of ideas or experiences? If so, for whom?

Revenue? Break-even or profits?

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Project planning

Project note taking/keeping tools Evernote or Eluma (both browser tools) or

OneNote 2007 (Windows) or MacJournal Use a wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software

Be sure to scroll down to “Target audience”)

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Project Architecture

Planning for consistency sake Filing physical documents Filing digital files GOAL: Consistency & Redundancy

Create your own stylebook Back everything up multiple times in multiple

places (desktop and online)

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Structure of work

Consider writing in sections that, when combined, will result in chapters Results in smaller file sizes; easier to load,

edit. Use consistent file names, but potential for

move to other chapters If moved, pay close attention to renaming and

deleting former version

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Bibliographic Tools

Article: “Finding the right bibliographic/reference tool” www.fauskes.net/nb/bibtools

EasyBib – Automatic Bibliography & Citation Maker www.easybib.com

NoodleTools – www.noodletools.com Zotero – www.zotero.org Search at www.tucows.com

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Book and its pieces

CoverFrontSpineBack

ArtText

All 3 have:

Color(s)

Art source & type

ISBN & barcode

Colophon?

Text

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Book and its pieces

Inside Matter

Title page Copyright page Dedication Table of contents List of figures, tables, illustrationsHeader / footer

TextArt

Forward Preface, Introduction Chapters

Sections or Sub-heds

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Main Components of Your Book

Backmatter Appendix Index? Glossary Notes -Footnotes or end notes? Bibliography Colophon: notes on how you produced this

work in terms of font, paper, etc.

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Digital Files

File types .doc or .rtf

In Word go to ToolsOptionsSave”Save Word files as:” and select “Rich Text Format (*.rtf)

File storage and naming Folder(s) for individual projects Sub-folder(s) for: Cover & inside matter

notes, text, designed pages, images

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Folder and Files

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File Naming Tips

Things to avoid when naming files or folders:

Spaces – use underscore or hyphen Periods (dots) that do not immediately precede

a file extension Any character that is not a letter, a number, a

hyphen or an underscore

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File Naming Tips

Never use spaces in file and directory names! But underscore or hyphens OK

Use prefix for files that are associated to each other. chpt001-sec001 chpt001-image004 chpt004-table003 NB: lowercase used bcs of different sorting

results.Source: http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol6/html_no6.htm

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File Naming Tips

When you using dates, use yyyymmdd format Keep names short and descriptive

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File Naming Tips

Avoid special symbols Don't use   &    #   or other odd symbols in

your file or directory names. Artwork: when editing images, save all in similar

file format, .jpg or ???

Source: http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol6/html_no6.htm

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File Management Tips

Create file style checklist/guide File as you go (referring to your style checklist) Cull your files regularly Back up your files regularly and automatically

USB hard drives Secure, off-site location(s) Backup software

Google: +online +backup +software [+your OS]

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Organizing your “project space”

1. Open “Windows Explorer” or “Finder”2. Find “volume” or “drive” called “INDIEPUB”3. Create a folder on flashdrive called

“self-publish_workshop”4. In that folder, create two sub-folders

“virgin_templates” & “camera_ready”5. In “self-publish_workshop” create sub-folder

“chpt001”6. In “chpt001” create sub-folders

“chpt001_text” and “chpt001_art”

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Hard Drive tree should look like this

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Take a BreakTake a Break

Be back at Be back at 11:0111:01