The Publish-It- Yourself Workshop Mike McCandless, Instructor Harper College Continuing Education, Course LLA 0104 Spring

The PIY Workshop or Six Weeks to Self-Publishing Session 1: To Publish, or Not to Publish Session 2: Author I – Writing Session 3: Author II – Editing Session 4: Publisher I: Production Session 5: Publisher II: Marketing Session 6: Entrepreneur – Publishing in the Digital Age LLA Our text: APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur–How to Publish a Book, by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch

Homework APE, through chapter 13. If you’re ready, do prep work in CreateSpace/KDP. Bring your questions. Make progress 3

Session 4: Publisher I Production Questions & Answers Being the Publisher: The 3 P’s o Production o Profit = Price x Volume o Promotion Project updates Homework LLA 0104,

Questions & Answers 1.Are we publishing yet? 2.What do we need to cover? 5

Being the Publisher: Production Self-publishing is a assuming several roles as you journey along to publication. Here are five decisions to make that will get you started down the best path for you. 1.What’s the creative vision for your project? 2.Who’s going to produce my book? 3.Will I publish a bound book, e-book, blog? 4.Format: Re-flowable e-book or fixed format? 5.Who and where is my audience? Now that that’s settled, get started! 6

Why Amazon? LLA 0104, %: The proportion of all books sold in the U.S. that are Kindle titles. E-books now make up around 30% of all book sales, and Amazon has a 65% share within that category.

Kindle vs iBook LLA 0104, Kindle is about e-books anywhere and everywhere: On Amazon tablets, iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phones, Windows PCs and, most likely, any future devices with even the slightest bit of market traction. iBooks, by contrast, can only be read on Apple hardware: iPads, iPhones and Macs. But Apple being Apple, iBooks is visually sumptuous–especially in the case of “Made for iBooks” books, which work only on the iPad and Mac versions of iBooks, not on the iPhone one. Such titles are created with a Mac program called iBooks Author, which lets you design stylish books that incorporate images, video, embedded web widgets and other trimmings. You can design something that feels a little like a coffee- table book and a little like an app, and then use Apple’s iBookstore to sell it or give it away.iBooks Author iBooks Author Is the Most Interesting Apple Software You Aren’t Using, by Harry McCracken Time.com, May 30, 2014 Publisher: Keeping It Simple

Amazon exclusivity Options to publish bound books and/or e-books, fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, and kids’ books. Also music, audio books.... Get to market fast o Complete workflow-driven production process. o Worldwide distribution in 48 hours or less. o Automatic listing on Amazon.com Make more money o 70% royalty o KDP Select, Kindle Unlimited, Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Keep control o Retain all rights o Set your own prices o Make changes and re-publish any time. 9 Publisher: Keeping It Simple

The Essential Elements Words o The text o The text page Pictures? o Photos o Line art o Illustrations Front matter Back matter The cover The binding, i.e the packaging LLA 0104,

The typewriter is dead. Vive le typewriter. As writers, typewriters taught us to think in terms of fixed-width character spacing when creating text. Books and newspapers have always been variable width documents. Writing digitally means not having to be concerned about variable spacing. Set it and forget it. But as self-publishers, it matters fundamentally whether we are producing a re-flowable or fixed layout document. This decision determines our tools and platforms. 11

Book Design Remember about textbooks vs the common novel? o Textbooks and coffee table books are designed page-by- page. They are fixed layout publications o Mass market paperbacks take whatever text you’ve got and flow it into a template. Let the page numbers fall where they may! You can view an e-book on any compatible device. Ebooks can be either re-flowable or fixed layout. o It’s sort of like choosing to use Word or PowerPoint for your presentation. o Word does re-flowable. o PowerPoint is a page-by-page design tool. 12

Using Word Word should still be your text processor of choice. But do not even think about designing with it. Re-flowable means: o The reader has control over her own reading experience by changing the type size to fit their comfort level. o A good re-flowable book is boring to look at. So, for re-flowable publications, this means: o Avoid spaces (and especially those double spaces after a period!), carriage returns, and most of all, tabs. o Forget about page numbering and page references, headers and footers. o Careful copying and pasting. o Let the style be your guide. 13

Packaging The list of options keeps getting longer! o E-book o Bound book o Textbook o Kids’ book o Comic book/Graphic novel o Audio book (Yes, Amazon has acquired Audible.com) o Music files (CD, MP3, etc.) But, it all starts with a Word file. (Thanks, Amazon!) 14

Revenue - Fixed costs - Variable costs – Marketing – Overhead = Profit Fixed costs are what it takes to produce Copy 1. Variable costs are what it takes to produce Copy n. Marketing is most everything else, but especially advertising and promotion. Overhead is other costs you allocate to this project. Profit = What’s left. You can only do two things with profit. Pay yourself a dividend or re-invest it. 15 Being the Publisher: Profit Budgeting

For next week Active and passive promotion Categories and tags The all-important description Amazon’s channels Other channels 16 Being the Publisher: Promotion

Every so often, a great book comes along… 17 If you’re ready for it. Book Design Made Simple by Fiona Raven and Glenna Collett

Self-Publisher’s Checklist 118 Reprinted from Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran, a book well worth your investment!

Project Updates 19

Homework APE: Chapters 14-21, especially 14, 18, 20 and 21. Finalize your upload. Your questions. 20

The Publish-It- Yourself Workshop Mike McCandless, Instructor Harper College Continuing Education, Course LLA 0104 Spring