Publish and be damned - the blog

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July 29, 2005

Writing competitions update

We know how many of our authors love writing competitions. They can be an excellent way to get your writing out there and to make a name for yourself. Unfortunately there are a whole lot of scam artists out there, offering fake competitions with the sole aim of selling you an 'anthology' of the published work at an exorbitant price. We'll be publishing updates on competitions we think are worth entering. Send me a note if you'd like me to add any competitions to this list.

This Is Travel/Daily Mail Reviews. Always wished you were a travel writer? Here’s your chance to get started. Just send in a review of your holiday and it could appear in the Daily Mail’s travel pages. Reviews are published on the website, and the best appear in the paper.

Closing: Monthly.
Prize: £1,000 towards your next holiday.
Entry Fee: None.
Click here

This one looks like a lot of fun. Enter the SMS Text Poetry Contest 3. You write a poem of no more than 160 characters (including all spaces) and then post it on the Txt2nite discussion forum. The theme of the current competition is Summer. You have to register, which is free, to enter.

Closing: 31.8.05.
Prize: An iPod Shuffle.
Entry Fee: None.
Click Here.

Posted by Andreas at 06:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Making an impact in the press

Often the best way to create publicity around your book is to run your own public relations campaign. This could sound a little daunting but it’s really only about talking to people and giving them the information they want. Here is a brief guide.

Where to start
You should start by thinking about the content of your book and who it will appeal to. From there, you can work out what your reader is likely to read, listen to and watch. Then, all you need to do is a little desk research. Most libraries will have directories with all the media details you need. Yahoo is also a very helpful resource. Take a look at their Press Release listing for ideas. It is always worth calling up to make sure you have the name of the right person to speak with.

The press release
It is definitely worth sending out a press release. But, not one that is directly about your book. There are lots of books being launched so another new book isn’t much of a story. So, you’ll need to find a news angle. Was there something special that happened when you were researching your book? Did you make a great sacrifice or overcome any obstacles when writing your book? It could be that your local paper may be interested just because you’re the local teacher. Take a little time to think how your release can be different. Then weave information on your book into the release. But, try to keep the release down to a page or so – and always include contact details!

Posted by Andreas at 06:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 27, 2005

A Masters course in book marketing

We've been an avid reader of John Kremer's sites and newsletter for some time now. If you want to know about book marketing then you can do much worse than start here. Well, John has gone one stage further and has launched what he's calling his 'Masters in Book Marketing'. It's a nine month course - including retreats and everything - that starts this August. He admits that you won't get a degree but you'll not be caught short when it comes to marketing a book after this.

You can check out the course here

It costs $12,000 - which is likely to be too much for most of us mere mortals - but if you have that sort of money hanging around and are serious about being a self-publishing success story, this could just be what you're looking for.

Posted by iain at 12:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Free web seminar on becoming an Amazon best seller

Steve Harrison is soon going to be repeating his free web seminar:
"How to Make Your Book an Amazon.com Bestseller And Sell Tons of Copies Even If You're a Marketing Novice"
It covers all the best tips and mistakes to avoid and interviews two authors who have been highly successful selling on Amazon. You can register for the seminar here

Well worth a listen.

Posted by iain at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Free: Download The Escapist for mobile reading

James Morris The Escapist is now available in iSilo, HTML and Plucker formats. Download the book here.

Thanks to Alexander for doing the conversion.

Posted by Andreas at 06:26 AM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2005

Important opportunity for UK self publishers

Every year, the Bookseller Magazine runs two supplements for Independent Publishers. It is a great way to get in front of the book sellers who may just stock your book. We've just been contacted by the magazine about their September supplement.

I suppose the best way is just to paste what they sent to us:

"THE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS CATALOGUE
23 SEPTEMBER

Did you know:

Almost 6 out of 10 chain bookshops asked found the IPC essential and valuable, and over half of independent retailers!

As a smaller or independent publisher, then you hardly need telling how difficult it is to gain the attention of the book trade. Without a large rep force, or expensive mailings, reaching the chains or the independents with news of your titles is a real problem.

That's where we can help. Twice a year The Bookseller, the UK's market leading book trade magazine, publishes The Independent Publishers Catalogue. It's mailed out as part of our regular subscription, seen by an audited 56,572 readers. It's also a publication recommended by the IPG to its members as an effective way of marketing their books.

The basic entry level is just £100 plus VAT per title, an all-in price which includes production and up to 3 proofs of your advert. For this you get a jacket in colour and your own 25 words of accompanying copy with ordering information. The deadline for the September edition is August 26th.

Easy, cost effective and with a wide, guaranteed circulation amongst the UK Book trade, the IPC is an important way of ensuring your titles reach the market in the run up to Christmas this year."

If you are serious about reaching book stores throughout the UK, this is something that is well worth considering.

We do have a little more information and contact details of who you'll need to speak to, so drop us a line if you're at all interested.

As usual, it's info@pabd.com

Posted by iain at 06:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Benjamin Franklin Awards Call for Entries

We've just received the Call for Entries for the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Awards 2006.

It's dedicated to honouring the best in publishing - and not just from the biggest publishing houses.

This year, there are 55 separate categories covering all genres of literature as well as awards for innovative marketing, book design and the fantastic 'Best new voice' awards.

The call is open to all books published through 2005. As you can imagine what a task this is likely to be, the PMA (who run the awards) are splitting the submission process. If the book was published prior to July 2005 then the submission date is August 31, 2005. If it is going to be published before December 31 2005 then your submission has to be there prior to that date.

As with most of these things, there is a small fee for submitting an application. But the kudos of just making the short list is worth it.

If you'd like a bit more information on the awards and how you could submit your book just drop us a quick mail to info@pabd.com

Posted by iain at 06:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 25, 2005

Free Book submissions: The Rules

The first free books have been submitted for inclusion in our bookstore. Which is great. Just to give the whole idea a framework, here is a set of guidelines:

These are:

• You own the rights for the work.
• The book is released under a Creative Commons License.
• The book is free, as in beer.
• The book is formatted as a pdf, html or other portable format
• We operate an editorial policy. This means that we read books before we decide whether to include include them into the bookstore.
• You do not need to publish with PABD to take advantage of this service.
• There is no transferral of rights, no obligation, no spamming. The service is 100% free.

To apply please send a mail to andreas@pabd.com.

Posted by Andreas at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Podcast: Interview with Penny Sansevieri

Tonight's conversation is with Penny Sansevieri, owner of Author Marketing Experts in San Diego.

Penny has been working in the publicity, book marketing, and literary field for over ten years. She has been an author, publicist, freelance writer, and instructor. Her clients have been featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, MSNBC, Something You Should Know, The Heloise Show, and others.

I talked to Penny about what self publishing authors should do to market their book effectively. Feedback, as per usual, is welcome. PABD authors are invited to join Penny for a 60 minute free online book marketing workshop. Please mail me to take advantage of this offer.

Click to listen.

Posted by Andreas at 10:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

11 Tips to Avoid Self-Publishing Traps

Marilyn and Tom Ross are the coauthors of 13 books including The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing.

They give the following advice to self publishing authors:

Self-publishing used to be the Rodney Dangerfield of book publishing. It didn’t get “no respect.” Today that’s all changed. With originally self-published books like The Celestine Prophecy, Butter Busters, The Christmas Box, and What Color is Your Parachute? monopolizing bestseller lists—do-it-yourself publishing is very much in vogue.
To be successful, however, it’s mandatory that you adhere to certain guidelines. By following the tips below, you’ll avoid the pitfalls and enhance your chances of flourishing.

1. Educate yourself. Self-publishing is a business. Approach it as such. There are informative books on the subject, seminars offered, and associations where you can learn the ropes and network with the more experienced. This can be very lucrative if properly approached. Conversely, you can waste thousands of dollars by blundering along without knowledge or a plan.

2. Study the competition. Don’t add more to a subject that’s already glutted. Be sure the topic hasn’t been overdone. Just checking a local library or bookstore is not adequate research. Look in Books in Print Subject Guide and Forthcoming Books in Print Subject Guide. You’ll be amazed at how many books there are on the topic. Yours must be better than what’s already available. Make it shorter, longer, easier to use, more informative, funnier, richer in content, or better organized. For fiction, try to tie into a hot topic so you have a “hook” for publicity.

3. Write what other people want. Catering to your personal desires often makes for...

Click here to learn more.

Posted by Andreas at 07:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 24, 2005

More free books

Cory Doctorow's book "Somebody comes to town, somebody leaves town", is now available for download from the Free Books section.

Posted by Andreas at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Free Books - Update

Please take a look at the free books section of the shop. Available for download are Peter Watt's books Starfish and Maelstrom.

Peter has recently released pdf versions of both these books under the Creative Commons License.

Quill and Quire has this to say about Peter:
"Peter Watts is one of the foremost contemporary science fiction writers, a skilled craftsman with a visionary imagination firmly rooted in hard science. ... The trilogy is a must-read for even a passing science fiction fan."

Download and share away.

Posted by Andreas at 08:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 23, 2005

Podcast: Interview with Erick Schonfeld

As announced recently I wrote a note to Erick Schonfeld, editor at large for Business 2.0 and contributing editor to Fortune Magazine asking him for an interview.

Erick coined the phrase 'The culture of participation', which describes pretty much exactly what PABD is all about. Listen to the podcast and let us know what you think.

Click here to listen.

Posted by Andreas at 09:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ogilvy on blogging

Ogilvy and Mather is one of the world's largest advertising agencies, with offices around the globe. I myself worked at their London branch back in the early 90's. The things typically Ogilvy were, amongst others, a passion for testing and training. Testing campaign concepts and training staff. Rarely did a moth pass without some sort of a training program being offered. I find myself falling back on stuff I've learned at O&M to this day.

Now O&M Public Relations has published a guide to successful blogging. It is, perheps obviously, written with the marketing community in mind. However, as we keep stressing, every self publishing author needs to be a marketeer in order to make a success of his or her book, so this is a worthwhile read for all of you. The pdf file is available for free download here.

Posted by Andreas at 06:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 22, 2005

Seth Godin: Advice for authors

Seth Godin's book are selling by the million. He also writes a blog every self publishing author should read.

Take a look at this, a post titled Advice for authors:

So, what's my best advice?

Build an asset. Large numbers of influential people who read your blog or read your emails or watch your TV show or love your restaurant or or or...

Then, put your idea into a format where it will spread fast. That could be an ebook (a free one) or a pamphlet (a cheap one--the Joy of Jello sold millions and millions of copies at a dollar or less).

Then, if your idea catches on, you can sell the souvenir edition. The book. The thing people keep on their shelf or lend out or get from the library. Books are wonderful (I own too many!) but they're not necessarily the best vessel for spreading your idea.

And the punchline, of course, is that if you do all these things, you won't need a publisher. And that's exactly when a publisher will want you! That's the sort of author publishers do the best with.

I actually introduced Publish and be damned to Seth. He liked the idea, but I don't think he'll be going to ditch his publishers any day soon.

Posted by Andreas at 08:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

www.universitychic.com

Got this in today's mail from Marina:

I thought you might be interested in a new website that allows women to publish articles online and build a portfolio/resume: www.universitychic.com

It's a good looking site, so if you're a young woman, take a look. Topics include career, politics, lifestyle, culture and others.

Posted by Andreas at 07:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 21, 2005

Free Books. As in free beer.

Starting immediately we're offering Personal Selling Pages to authors who wish to give away their books for free. Before you think we've lost our collective marbles, let me explain:
We're talking about e-books only here. Traffic to the PABD bookstore is increasing week on week, we're going to add a section to it called 'Free Books'. From there authors can distribute books they have written but aren't ready to publish yet, books they're holding the rights to but have published elsewhere or books they just want to get out into the market to gather feedback from their readers. You do not need to be an existing PABD customer to take advantage of this free service, we're happy to help with the distribution of any e-book as long as you own the rights to it.

To get your book included into our shop just send a mail to me. Click here.

Why should you do this? Let me quote award winning author Cory Doctorow, who is making all of his books available for free download on his website: "I've given away more than half a million digital copies of my award-winning first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and that sucker has blown through five print editions (yee-HAW!), so I'm not worried that giving away books is hurting my sales."

Please note that we currently do not offer any payment facilities for e-books. All books submitted must be available for free download.

Posted by Andreas at 11:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Agent 007 on Publishing

I've been following this blog for the last couple of days. It really is a must read for any author, self publishing or not. The blog is written by an anonymous agent somewhere in the US. Take a look:

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

The Secret Lives of Editors, Part 3: THE POWER OF THE FOLDER
FACT #1: 90% OF BOOKS ARE BOUGHT BASED ON THE COVER LETTER

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood a beautiful day for a publisher…

Hmm. What is it like when a submission lands on an editor’s desk at a major publisher? Let me take you undercover and show you…

The first mail call of the day, usually between 10:00 and 11:00 am. Many submissions arrive. Some are unagented. There are a few naïve (I mean, ambitious) editorial assistants out there who will open and read these true ‘slush’ packages. More and more, however, publishers have a strict policy: Return it unopened with a form letter stating that it has not been read. Wouldn’t want to be accused of stealing someone’s really bad idea.

The assistant logs the legitimate (i.e. agented) submissions into some sort of database depending on that particular....

Click here to read more.

Posted by Andreas at 10:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 20, 2005

Test podcast

We'll be starting regular podcasts soon. Guests for the first shows include Erick Schonfeld, contributing editor of Fortune Magazine, and blogger and self publishing author David St Lawrence.

The enclosed audio file in this post is a test. Click here to listen to it.

Posted by Andreas at 10:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 19, 2005

Reading books is definitely more fun than writing them

I just read this article in today's Globe and Mail and thought that many of our writers might be able to identify with it. Funny stuff, but oh so true.

Reading books is definitely more fun than writing them

They say everyone has a book in them. As if to prove this truism, almost everyone I know is writing one.

My mother is writing a memoir. My uncle is halfway through the second part of a trilogy. My aunt has a couple of volumes under her belt as well. Many of my colleagues have manuscripts in progress. Two of my editors are working on their first books. One of my closest girlfriends just signed a deal to write young adult fiction. Another pair of old friends are collaborating on their third title (the first two were bestsellers). And these...

Click here to read more.

Posted by Andreas at 02:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Dutch bookstore orders Stereo Viewers

Keith Clatworthy's guide to stereo viewers is gaining sales momentum. We've just received a substantial order from a bookstore in Holland. Well done Keith for getting your book out there.

The marketing handbook is nearly there. We're still waiting for the last US content, but it is designed and ready to be uploaded otherwise.

Posted by Andreas at 07:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 18, 2005

The Culture of Participation

Erick Schonfeld, editor-at-large for Business 2.0 writes:

Blogs, wikis, Flickr, Zazzle. These are not the names of strange aliens from other planets. They are the expressions of an emerging culture right here on Earth. It’s a culture in which every citizen is a publisher, photographer, programmer, or product designer. It’s a culture that's blurring the lines between amateur and professional, consumer and creator. It’s the culture of participation.

I love that thought. The culture of participation. This is pretty much exactly what we had in mind when we started PABD. I've just fired off an email to Erick, asking him for an interview. I'll post an update as soon as I get an answer.

Update on this: Erick has agreed to an interview. We'll be talking on Wednesday evening.

Posted by Andreas at 09:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hack your way out of writer's block

This post popped up on an unrelated google search, the article is dated last year, but it is still as relevant as it was when it was written. 43 Folders has published tips and tricks to overcome every author's worst enemy, the writer's block. Here goes:

• Talk to a monkey - Explain what you’re really trying to say to a stuffed animal or cardboard cutout.
• Do something important that’s very easy - Is there a small part of your project you could finish quickly that would move things forward?
• Try freewriting - Sit down and write anything for an arbitrary period of time—say, 10 minutes to start. Don’t stop, no matter what. Cover the monitor with a manila folder if you have to. Keep writing, even if you know what you're typing is gibberish, full of misspellings, and grammatically psychopathic. Get your hand moving and your brain will think it’s writing. Which it is. See?
• Take a walk - Get out of your writing brain for 10 minutes. Think about bunnies. Breathe.
• Take a shower; change clothes - Give yourself a truly clean start.
• Write from a persona - Lend your voice to a writing personality who isn’t you. Doesn’t have to be a pirate or anything—just try seeing your topic from someone else’s perspective, style, and interest.
• Get away from the computer; Write someplace new - If you’ve been staring at the screen and nothing is happening, walk away. Shut down the computer. Take one pen and one notebook, and go somewhere new.

More here.

Posted by Andreas at 09:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Urgent - Emergency downtime announcement

Update. The power supply on the server rack has been replaced and all systems are running as normal.

Posted by Andreas at 05:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

John Irving podcast on Studio 360

Studio 360

This is a brand new and very high quality podcast from Studio 360, part of Public Radio International. John Irving joins Kurt Andersen in Studio 360. His new novel is called Until I Find You. It follows a boy, then a man, named Jack Burns as he searches the world for an absent father. Irving tells Kurt about his own missing father, and how this book is his most autobiographical work yet. He also explains why he got tattooed as part of the research for his book.

I am listening to it as I am typing this. Fascinating programming and highly recommended.

Direct Link to podcast.

Posted by Andreas at 04:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Poynter Online - Fifty Writing Tools

Dr Roy Peter Clarke is the Vice President and Senior Scholar of the Poynter Institute Insitute in St Petersburg, Fl.

He has published an an essay titled '50 Writing Tools', which can be read here. Peter writes for journalists rather than novelists, but his ideas and thoughts are of value for all writers.

Chapters include:

• Use Strong Verbs
• Beware of Adverbs
• Observe Word Territory
• Play with Words
• Seek Original Images

Posted by Andreas at 07:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 17, 2005

Free marketing articles available for downloading

There are a couple of free 'How to do marketing' articles available for download at BWPrice's Marketing blog. While they are geared towards marketing professionals they also give help and information to self publishing authors who have to create their own marketing campaign. Worth a read I think.

Articles available:

• I Hate Networking! (If You Do Too, This Advice Is For You)
• You Are the Product
• A Winning Speech - Part I

You will need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader software to read the document.

Posted by Andreas at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wil Wheaton on Getting Your Creative Work Out There

This caught my eye this morning on the excellent PigPog blog.

Slashdot has published an interview with Wil Wheaton. Wil used to be an actor on Star Trek and has since self published his book Dancing Barefoot to critical acclaim. The whole thing is well worth a read - funny, smart, and full of tips, stories and humour. He has some great comments on getting your creative stuff out there to the world.

"Create something, and release it yourself. You don’t need anyone’s permission, and the traditional rules about distribution just don’t apply anymore.
The long answer to your question is: First, create something for yourself. You asked about acting, but this applies to a book, a ‘zine, a website, a web-comic, a short film . . . whatever. Don’t wait for someone else to give you something to do, or give you permission to do it. Just create something."

Posted by Andreas at 10:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 16, 2005

More on writing software

Once you start researching a subject, information just keeps coming in. Take a look at this Metafilter discussion, collating information on writing software. For both PC and Moc users.

Posted by Andreas at 03:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Looking for writing software?

Writing tools? I know, I know. Great literature can be, and has been, written with a pencil on the back of a napkin. Having said this, for those of us who use who use a PC or Mac to do our writing, there are a whole multitude of products out there that make life easier.

Take a look at this list in the dmoz open directory project. You should be able to find something that's of use to you.

Personally I like the look of New Novelist for the PC and Ulysses for Mac OS X. I am also a huge fan of Omni Group's Omni Outliner which is perfect for keeping track of thoughts and ideas. (OS X only).

Update:
Author Steven Johnson has published this review of Devon Think (OS X only) on his blog.

Posted by Andreas at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Jennifer Weiner's tips to aspiring novelists

There are of course many websites that promise to tell you how to be a novelist. Some are earnest, some are funny, some know what they're talking about and some are just trying to sell you some literary snake oil.

Jennifer Weiner, the author of Little Earthquakes, Good in Bed and In Her Shoes, who seems to me both funny and relevant, writes in her blog:

So you want to be a novelist?

Well, there's no one path to take. Novelists come in all shapes and sizes. They're men and women, wunderkinds and retirees. Some of them are very attractive. The rest of us resent them horribly. And if there was a single magic bullet, or a list of steps to follow that would guarantee publication, believe me, someone would have published it by now. What follows is just my take on the question - a completely idiosyncratic, opinionated, flawed and somewhat sassy take on some of the steps you can take to get published. Important caveat: I have only written two books, and I'm thirty-two, which, as my mother would hasten to point out, means I am probably not qualified to give advice to anyone about anything. If you're looking for lessons from the life masters - people who've made long careers in the world of fiction - then run, do not walk, to your local bookshop and buy Stephen King's On Writing and Anne Lamott's utterly indispensable Bird by Bird, and Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings and Ursula LeGuin's Steering the Craft.

If you want my advice, read on (and if you've already written your book and just want to figure out how to get it published, skip ahead to Step 8).

Read more

Posted by Andreas at 07:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 15, 2005

PABD on del.icio.us

Since we've been featured on the Creative Commons blog we've had quite a few hits coming in from del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site. To see who bookmarked us, and to browse their bookmarks, click here.

Posted by Andreas at 11:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

STL Today publishes tips for self publishing authors

Via Bill Crider.

The St Louis Post-Dispatch has an article on how to self publish by Shera Dalin and author and lecturer Bob Baker. Tips include:

• Become an evangelist for your topic.
• Choose a great title.
• Don't accept traditional publishing rules. Self-publishing is affordable; outlets such as Amazon.com can sell the book effectively.
• Understand the "self" of self-promotion. No marketer could promote you as passionately as you can.

Baker cashed in with Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook, a primer on how musicians can make the public aware of their works. He created a line of audio CDs and an electronic version of the book that sells on his Web site for $24.95 - $5 less than the printed copy, available at Amazon.com.

The result, along with another self-published title, was about $75,000 in sales a year, which allowed Baker to quit a corporate writing job early last year.

Please click here for the full story.

Posted by Andreas at 10:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Talking about giving books away for free

Now, I understand that the idea of giving your books away for free, for example by making them available for free download, might sound like total madness. Why should anybody actually buy your book when all they have to do is download it and read it? Won't it kill sales?

The reality is quite the opposite and more and more marketing savvy writers are catching onto this idea. PABD author Stephen Che Chillun left 100 copies of his book Butter Side Down on buses, in cafes, bars and even on park benches. The back cover directed the reader to Stephen's website where they can learn more about the author, read further writings and buy additional copies of his book.

Award winning author Cory Doctorow is making all of his books available for free download on his website. To quote Cory: "I've given away more than half a million digital copies of my award-winning first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and that sucker has blown through five print editions (yee-HAW!), so I'm not worried that giving away books is hurting my sales."

Something to think about? If you want to make your books available for free download just send me a mail and we'll add the relevant information to your personal selling pages.

Posted by Andreas at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

Using Fiction to Sell Fiction

There's an interesting article on the Wall Street Journal website.

Alfred A. Knopf, a who are publishing Bret Easton Ellis's upcoming novel "Lunar Park", have set up a website promoting the book. For the self publishing author there are a couple of very valuable marketing hints that you might want to copy. They range from making the book freely available for download to advertising on other people's blogs.

Links:
Wall Street Journal
Book site

Posted by Andreas at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

Ottakar's interest in PABD writer

Author James Morris is generating quite the buzz for his book The Escapist.
The latest is that Ottakar's, one of the UK's main book selling chains, have called to put in an order. More news to come on this one, so watch this space.

Posted by Andreas at 07:10 AM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2005

Marketing Handbook nears completion

We know just how much many of our authors would like to see more help with the marketing aspect of self publishing. One of the most common support requests is for help with advertising and PR.

To make things easier Iain, who has a former life as a PR manager and advertising copywriter, has spent the last couple of weeks plundering his memory bank and has written a marketing guide for the self publishing author. It is currently awaiting it's final proofing but will be available for download just after the weekend. I had a read myself and it really is full of excellent ideas that'll help you sell your book.

If you want to make sure to receive your copy just send a quick mail to Iain. Also, a preview of the first chapter can be downloaded here. You will need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader software to read the document.

Posted by Andreas at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)

PABD and the BBC

Yesterday we received a mail from BBC Radio Scotland. As I am typing this Iain, one of our founding partners, is being interviewed for Radio Cafe, the BBC's Literary program.

I've recorded the interview online, if we get permission it'll be available for download later.

Posted by Andreas at 08:33 AM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2005

CSS issues fixed

We had a couple of issues with the site not rendering as intended in IE6 for XP professional. The entire site should be centred in your browser window, but didn't always show properly. Everything worked fine in XP Home Edition, Firefox for both PC and Macs and all other browsers we tested, so this was a bit of a puzzle.

Yesterday our friends at Eggplant New Media, who host, design and maintain pabd.com for us, found and fixed the pesky bug. Let us know if you're finding any further weirdness and we'll get right onto it.

Posted by Andreas at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)

Self Published Book Contest

Calling all business book authors. This just in from the team at Publishing Central:

The 2006 Small Biz Games Self Published Business Book Contest is open to all English-language self-published books on any topic relevant to micro small business owners and home based entrepreneurs for which the authors have paid the full cost of publication, or the cost of printing has been paid for by a grant or as part of a prize. Identical topics for the Business Ebook category.

Awards Include

• $2000, 1st place
• $1000 2nd place
• $500 3rd place
• Promotion in Entrepreneur Magazine as a 2006 Small Biz Games Business Book Award winner
• International exposure in the media and on the Small Biz Games Website
• Olympic style medal and a seal as a 2006 Small Biz Games Award Winner for book cover and website
• Consideration for representation by literary agent Andrea Hurst and Michael Larsen

First through third places also receive a one year membership in The Publishers Marketing Association.

12 Honorable Mentions will receive a seal as an Honorable Mention of The 2006 Small Biz Games Business Book Contest for book cover and website and a framed certificate.

All entrants receive a one year membership in The Beyond the Box Club with the Free Publicity Center to help promote their work and other useful tools and resources, a certificate of participation as an entrant of the 2006 Small Biz Games, and an entrant profile on the Small Biz Games website.

There is a $15 entry fee for The Self Published Business Book Contest and the Business Ebook contest. Entry deadline is December 31, 2005.

The link to for the two book contests is http://smallbizgames.com/sbebcontest.htm

So, if you're a business author send us a mail, give us a call or just upload your book to get it ready for the competition.

Posted by Andreas at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2005

Writing, publishing and podcasting

Book related podcasts are really taking off. Pocast.net have over 100 relevant listings up, with more feeds being added daily.

Direct Link
RSS

From US Army Stories from WW II to Persian Poetry, there's bound to be something there that interests you. We haven't managed to listen to more than a few, but we will try and review some of the programming during the next couple of days.

Posted by Andreas at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)

Another excellent offer for PABD writers

We've just agreed a deal with Foreword Magazine giving PABD writers 15% off reviews on forewordreviews.com.

This is a great service that helps self-published writers get professional reviews that can be syndicated across the net and can be used to send to other publications.

They also syndicate their reviews to Ingrams iPage, Bowkers BooksinPrint and Baker & Taylor's Title Source II so you can reach all the people you need to.

Usually the service costs $290 but that's now $250 for PABD writers. Money well spent we think you'll find. As per usual, send a mail to our special offer specialist, Iain, to take advantage of this offer.

Posted by iain at 08:30 AM | Comments (0)

James Morris, Editorial Review

The excitement never stops. Our Editor in chief, Iain, has finished his review of 'The Escapist' which I have just added to the Personal Selling Page. You can read it by clicking here.

Posted by Andreas at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

July 11, 2005

'The Escapist' slashdotted

James Morris book 'The Escapist' has been reviewed on slashdot.org, sparking debate not only about the book itself but also about the merits of self publishing and independent publishing.

As per usual, the slashdot crowd doesn't mince opinions or words, so be prepared for some spirited postings.

Posted by Andreas at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

Tutorial page updated

Our tutorial pop-up now has a landing page, rather than just starting to play the publishing tutorial on open. There are two reasons for this:

• We're planning on releasing further self publishing tutorials in the coming weeks and need a place from where you can select the stream you'd like to view.
• While the tutorial played fine for broadband users it just opened to a black window for anyone on dial up. The stream needs a little while to buffer. The new solution fixes these issues.

Let me know what other tutorials you'd like to see up there.

On a related note, Iain is currently working on a 'How to market a self published book?' e-book that we're planning to release as a pdf file next week. Send him a mail to request your free copy.

Posted by Andreas at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

Publishing Basics Radio

The list of podcasts aimed at the self publishing author continues to grow. Over the weekend we've received a mail from Ron Pramschufer who runs Publishing Basics Radio.
In his podcast Ron has been interviewing publishers like iUniverse, Xlibris and Author House. There's also a phone-in where you can ask your own questions and many other tips and tricks for the self publishing author. Definitely worth a listen.

Direct RSS feed link.

Take a look at our podcast page for a pretty comprehensive listing. As always, please let us know if you find anything of interest you'd like us to add.

Posted by Andreas at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2005

PABD writers go google print

This is the latest beta service from google and something we think is invaluable to self published writers. Never one to turn down an opportunity to play with new technology toys we've been testing the service for the last couple of weeks and are really impressed by it.

Google Print aims to put your book content where you can find it most easily – right in your Google search results. Anyone can search from the Google Print home page and if their search includes your name, the name of your book or even the content of your book, it will come up in the search results.
Potential customers are able to see the actually page of your book that has the search term and you can have a ‘Buy this Book’ link to your Personal Selling Page or other online bookstores. It is a fantastic resource for making your book visible right across the web and is likely to be a great marketing tool for increasing the sales of your book.

Our writers using PABD Publishing Plus are automatically entered into the Google Print free of charge. Those people who don’t wish to join Publishing Plus can still benefit from Google Print. However, there is a small £23.50/$48.00 administration fee. To find out more, send a mail to Iain, who knows all about the service.

Posted by Andreas at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

July 08, 2005

Malcolm Holcombe

I'm working late tonight. The tutorial pop-up needs a landing page so we can tell people on dial up that they'll need to wait a while before the stream kicks in. While I was working away on my Mac, iTunes was busy downloading the latest episode of Candance Corrigan's podcast The Nashville nobody knows.

Today's musician featured is Malcolm Holcombe. Part Tom Waits, part blues artist, part country guitarist he delivers some amazing music. Take a look if you like that sort of thing.

Posted by Andreas at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)

PABD, James Morris and the Creative Commons blog

We're beginning to see some serious traffic coming over from our friends at Creative Commons. That's excellent news, not just for us but also for featured author James Morris, who's book The Escapist has been selling steadily all day, mostly to readers in the US. You can buy it from his Personal Selling Page or from amazon.

Here's the kind of reader reaction he's been getting:

A reader from Ghey, UK

In a stunning display of imagination and zeitgeist, the author propels you across the planet with a willie-curdling jolt that leaves your slippers behind !

Reviewer: A reader from CHICHESTER, W SUSSEX United Kingdom

Don't ask me to explain the plot, but this novel is an hilarious, satirical romp of a page-turner that flips the shlock-sci-fi genre on its head and spits it down the back of your trousers. Read it for the one-liners alone. Set in an indeterminate future with striking similarities to our own, Morris has a warped eye for the modern zeitgest, and tweaks it until it hurts... coffee flavoured mineral water, cloned leather arm chairs. The future is now! Read this book and tell your friends, but do it soon. This is a coming cult classic and you don't want to be left behind.

Thanks for blogging about us guys, your help is much appreciated.

I added an interview with James to his personal selling page today. If you're interested here's a direct link. His ISBN is 1-905290-05-5

Posted by Andreas at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

Online pdf creation

We're now down to two potential partners for online pdf creation. It'll be a shootout between price and quality, but I think we'll be having the first beta test up in about two weeks.

Posted by Andreas at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)

10% off Silver Membership at Authorlink

Today's a good day for special offers. If you want to know further details on this, and other offers, please send a mail to Iain in our London office. He'll take care of you from there on.

AuthorLink is the award-winning web site where serious writers get connected with publishing professionals. Serving over one million unique visitors every year, it has more than 8000 pages of news, skill-building articles, author interviews, book reviews and other essential tools. Google rates it as one of the best site for publishing. We have negotiated a 10% discount on its Silver Membership – specifically for self publishers.

The benefits of Silver Membership:

• Ongoing exposure to booksellers, libraries, schools, editors, agents, and book lovers.
• Valuable feedback from Authorlink on your work.
• Reading lists tailored just for you.
• Possibility to earn star ratings and reviews (not guaranteed by listing).
• FREE access to a new book review service.
• FREE directory listing in AUTHORLINK REVIEW, a printed newsletter to bookstores and libraries.

This is a great opportunity for anyone who is serious about marketing their book in North America. For full details, apply here.

Posted by Andreas at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)

Become a Gold member of Spoiled Ink for only $26 (£15)

We're extemely pleased to announce a fantastic offer from www.spoiledink.com - one of the fastest growing writers communities on the web. Our writers receive 50% off Gold membership. This allows you to:

• Advertise up to 5 books – upload your book jacket, include a small blurb and link to your book retailer of choice.
• Book jackets and blurbs will appear in ‘Spoiled Author’ boxes throughout the site and as an automatic signature with every internal email you send.
• Contribute to their popular ezine.
• Add full-length reviews either as texts or as links.
• Add a link to the web site of your choice.
• Upload unlimited stories, poems or blogs into your Reading Room.
• Become one of the ‘Featured Writers’ that appear throughout the site.
• Much, much more.

This is a great opportunity to gain exposure and promote your book to readers and writers on both sides the pond. Don’t miss out.

Posted by Andreas at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2005

We've got Seth Godin's approval

So I thought I'd be cheeky and send a quick mail to Seth Godin, plugging PABD and asking him if he'd consider publishing his next book with us.

While he didn't make any firm commitments on the publishing idea he did send back a friendly little note saying that he liked the idea and wishing us luck.

Posted by Andreas at 09:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 06, 2005

Newsflash: PABD featured in August's PCFormat

We'll be featured in August's PCFormat magazine in the UK. An entire walkthrough of our site, showing exactly how the publishing process works. I've got a pdf of the laid out page here, which is looking brilliant, but I don't think PCFormat would appreciate me posting it. Not until the magazine hits the stands anyway. So watch this space. Or, if you're in the UK, buy the magazine.

Posted by Andreas at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

Advertising our services

Both Iain, one of the partners running PABD, and myself have a background in branding and advertising. So how come that we cannot manage to keep our own advertising on activities on time?
To change this deplorable situation I had a chat today with a small advertising agency here in Toronto, with a view of getting outside help. I think hiring another company to take a good look at our needs is probably the smartest thing we can do. It'll give us an unbiased view of what we've got and where we need to go.

Posted by Andreas at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2005

Our partnership with Creative Commons

I've just got off the phone with Mia from Creative Commons head office in San Francisco. She seemed to like what we're up to and not only agreed to put a link to us onto the CC site itself but also to give us a heads up in the CC blog.

All books created with our new 'Ministry of Information' online book builder can be published with a Creative Commons license. So far over 50% of authors using the new system to publish their book have chosen a CC license.

Posted by Andreas at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

Online pdf conversion

A number of our authors have been struggling with pdf writing recently. As a result we're currently researching online pdf conversion tools.
Once installed this should make everybody's life a lot easier. Upload your manuscript and then download the finished pdf minutes later. We'll keep you informed about our progress on that front.

Posted by Andreas at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)