Belle Whittington

As books make the leap from cellulose and ink to electronic pages, some editors worry that too much is being lost in translation. Typography, layout, illustrations and carefully thought-out covers are all being reduced to a uniform, black-on-gray template that looks the same whether you’re reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombiesor the Federalist Papers.

“There’s a dearth of typographic expression in e-books today,” says Pablo Defendini, digital producer for Tor.com, the online arm of science fiction and fantasy publisher Tor Books. “Right now it’s just about taking a digital file and pushing it on to a e-book reader without much consideration for layout and flow of text.”

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Article by Priya Ganapati

This week marks the publishing industry’s largest trade show, BookExpo America. This is the first year since 2004 that I’m not attending, but in honor of that show, I’m offering up 3 key industry trends you should stay on top of:

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Post by Jane Friedman

While I’ve been posting articles and blogs of interest regarding self-publishing, I’ve also been moving ahead on my own project.  I thought I’d give you all a heads-up of where I am in the scheme of things:

• Chosen Professional Proofreader- I’m expecting my manuscript back during the first week of June
• Chosen Professional eBook Designer- eBook and POD will be ready for upload to Amazon by June 8th
• Planned Release Date- July 2011!

More to come!

I’m not one to dance on the grave of big publishing (even if it’s never been very friendly to me) but, man, this can’t be good news for the future of traditional publishing.  Hocking and Barry Eisler were just the beginning.

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Article by Henry Baum

I’m really excited to introduce everyone to a friend of mine, Mickey Mills, author of Haunting Injustice.

In this interview, Mickey shares a lot of valuable insight into self-publishing.

Thanks, Mickey, for taking the time to join us!

• First off, tell us about your book Haunting Injustice. 

Before I do that, first I’d like to thank you for allowing me this opportunity. Haunting Injustice was a concept that came out of a conversation with a friend. In the context of the conversation, the phrase “Phoenix Worthy” came out, and it occurred to me what a great character name that was. I had the name, so I wrapped a story around the character. I always loved ghost stories and the paranormal, so it seemed like a good fit.

Phoenix Worthy is a modern day ghost hunter living in Savannah, GA. The story is about one of his paranormal investigations. I wrapped a small cast of characters around Phoenix and drove the plot from multiple points of view. So far, anyone who has read it likes it. At least that’s the feedback I am getting.

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I get bombarded by email, mostly from people either thanking me or asking me for something, and I simply can’t respond to everyone. If you’ve emailed me and not gotten a reply, it’s because I need an assistant, not because I hate you.

That said, one reoccurring question seems to be: “I’ve got an ebook, now what can I do to make sure it sells a lot of copies?”

The bare-bones answer: There’s nothing you can do to guarantee a lot of sales.

Sales involve luck. Luck is all about random chance, which can’t be predicted or planned for. There is no magic bullet for generating big sales.

But… there are a few truisms I’ve discovered.

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Article by J. A. Kontrath