Self-Publishing Resources

Posted By Sue Collier on June 5, 2011

Here’s some of what’s happening in publishing right now:

From The Book Designer: Smartphone e-Reader App Reviews: Kindle by Amazon
In the first reviews in this series I looked at:

• Stanza, the versatile e-book reader app owned by Amazon.
• Google Books, the stripped-down e-reader from Google.

Today I’ll look at the Kindle App for iOs devices since this is the app that runs on the iPhone. Although I don’t own an Adroid device, Amazon has a remarkable Android emulator that will show what books look like on an Android smartphone. The app is pretty much the same in function from what I could tell, so this review should cover both platforms.

From the New York Observer’s Daily Transom: Amazon’s Next Play: Kirshbaum’s Comeback at Amazon Publishing
At last week’s BookExpo America, Amazon managed to do what it had done so many times before: give traditional publishing houses an anxiety attack. This time, the company did so by hiring one of the old guard’s own, Larry Kirshbaum. However, it was not merely the hire that scared book-industry insiders, but what it portended: Amazon was starting a traditional publishing house of its own, in New York.

From The Book Designer: Should You Design Your Own Book? Pro and Con
Digital printing and print on demand have allowed authors to take control of the production of their own books. Thousands of self-publishers have flourished as a result, ushering in a new era of self-publishing, and many of them want to design their own book.

From the Selling Books blog: Independent Bookstores Say Weaker Chains Strengthen Their Business—NOLA.com
I haven’t seen an upbeat story like this for a long, long time. In a nutshell: independent bookstores, including new/used/collectible shops, are booming. The reason: The crash of book mega-chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble has left the market wide open for businesses willing to serve the walk-in book shopper.

From BookBuzzr: Book Trailers Are More Important Than Ever
Book trailers, similar to movie trailers, are an opportunity to showcase in pictures and sound what a book is about. In other words, a book trailer is a video that can be watched online.

From the London Evening Standard: Words of Caution About the Great eBook Revolution
Sales of ebooks are soaring. Online retailer Amazon.co.uk is selling more than twice as many books on its Kindle device than in hardback. In America, seen as 12 months ahead of the UK, Amazon’s Kindle ebook numbers have overtaken those of hardbacks and paperbacks combined.

From Taleist: The Day Amazon.com Asked Me to Close My Website
Kindle Self-Publishing is now Taleist because Amazon asked me to stop using “Kindle” in my domain name. It started with a friendly phone call from Seattle and remained amicable from there.

From Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing: Facebook Groups Scheduled to Get New Format
Facebook never wants us to get too complacent with its features. Now that we’re getting used to the new Facebook Pages (formerly fan pages), we are once again faced (pun intended) with major formatting changes.

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