Tag Archives: Self-publishing

Studying poster design to help your covers

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CREATIVE PRO HAS AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE TODAY on poster design. I mention this because authors without the trained eye of the designer make embarrassing design mistakes because this knowledge is not part of their understanding. Self-publishers must train their eyes Books like Ellen’s shown above are a real help as you expand your knowledge beyond the narrow confines of writing and editing. What writers are normally not aware of is the constant visual input which is the … Continue reading →

Just because you can buy a buggy whip, cars have still completely replaced the horse and buggy

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There’s a good article in Book Business today called Why Ebooks will eventually replace books. Caleb makes some very good points. Many people don’t look at the situation and see what a radical thing an ebook is. Like I mentioned in the title, you can still buy a buggy whip—but it’ll be hard to find and very expensive. The same will be true of books before too long. Even now, a paperback is several times as expensive as … Continue reading →

Have you seriously considered audio books?

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You should check out audio books There are many reasons for this. A large part of it is that many of the youth [people under 40] have spent a huge amount of time with iPod (or the even earlier WalkMan) earphones stuck in their ears. In addition, many of them spend large amounts of time driving or riding to and fro. For example, the last job I had before I became a full-time writer-designer-publisher required an hour and a … Continue reading →

Everyone has their own walk: you need to find yours

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I ran across this one today. It’s certainly further than I want to go. But it makes the point. Going off the grid What unique strategies do you use? Creatives commonly need to face up to the fact that the world does not understand us—and doesn’t really want to know. Finding a time, place, and method of being creative is very important to those of us called to share or help another craft a vision.

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New version of InDesign CC 2015.2 released today!

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Click on the image to find links to download the free trial, buy a subscription, or whatever. This is always a big day for me. I’ve been working getting ready for the changes, so I can help you with any questions. Again, this go-round, there’s not much for book production. OpenType and Glyph Features There are new features to help with OpenType glyph choices. They are available from the Font Menu, from contextual menus when selecting characters [right-click], and there’s … Continue reading →

Perseverance furthers… applies to authors also

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Before I met the Lord, I was running my life using the I Ching. The phrase I remember from that experience is: Perseverance Furthers… In Christian terms, do a word study in the New Testament on overcomers, or long-suffering… Your writing and publishing career will grow dramatically over many years. Be patient. A dripping faucet can fill a bathtub in a day or so. It won’t take as long as you fear. And you’ll love the journey. Relax! … Continue reading →

Guest post: Being an Author: Hobby, Career, or Calling from David G. Johnson

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I am honored today to have an article by an online friend of mine. After an exciting and varied life in many areas, including an IT executive, David, his wife, and their daughter felt a strong call to go to China as missionaries. He writes partially to support himself, but mainly because he has stories to tell, and they are excellent. For him, writing is a calling and epic fantasy is the genre. The worlds he builds … Continue reading →

Pictures on Kindle remains a crap shoot

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I don’t do this as often as I should (read other people’s books on self-publishing). It’s not because I don’t think they have good things to offer. Mainly it’s the result of a reasoning and a fact. First, I don’t want to accidentally plagiarize someone while writing. So, I tend to keep others’ writing out of the memory banks. Second, most non-fiction on book publishing is far too expensive for my little budget. But I picked up a copy … Continue reading →

More on Kindle Problems…

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A continuation of the Kindle formatting issues On one of the Facebook groups I participate in, there’s been some general poo-pahing over my most recent posting on the problems with Kindle formatting. I can understand it because many in that group only upload very simple novels. But the problem may be worse than I thought. So, I thought I better give some samples. In the process I found that Kindle has indeed destroyed the Kindle version of this … Continue reading →

Is it time to bail on Kindle?

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Aaron Shephard is close to giving up in Kindle. [You may need to search as I could not find a post-specific link.] He’s found evidence that Amazon might, and probably will, destroy your formatting well after it has been published. As you can read below about the new KFX format, Amazon simply does that to your book. It’s out of our control and we have been given no tools to produce KFX files.   I suspected all of this, … Continue reading →