Book publishing options

My presentation from Durham Academy’s Academy Nights, March 4, 2010.

Book publishing resources

I’ve been collecting articles about publishing options for my Academy Nights class. Here they are:

• Self-Publishing versus Traditional Publishing: Which is Right for You? Darren Barefoot compares how each option worked for him
• How Can You Get Published if You Don’t Have a Platform? Michael Hyatt on how to build a blog into a platform for your publishing efforts.
• Perils of self-publishing: Six steps to success: Joe Procopio on how to self-publish successfully.
• Math of Publishing Meets E-Book: New York Times, March 1, 2010. An attempt to deconstruct the economic side of publishing.
• eBook Production in Two Minutes: A video about technical choices in ebook creation, intended mainly for publishers rather than authors.
• If you don’t like it, change it: Macmillan will allow “college instructors to change the content of the books they assign to their classes (delivered to the students as e-books), down to the sentence level, without notifying the publisher or author.”
• Amazon Allows Some Publishers and Authors to Opt Out of E-Book DRM: Opting out of digital rights management on Kindle.

(March 2) Some additional contributions from a coworker:

• A four-part discussion of print-on-demand options, starting with Lulu, by Michael Hicks
• Article on digital piracy and why it’s the publishers’ fault. No, really! (from Indie Author)
• And an article on Lulu and CreateSpace by the same blogger

March 3

• Why Do Consumers Think Book Prices Are Too High? “Ultimately, I think readers have every reason in the world to be skeptical of the level of pricing on ebooks.”

March 5

• Penguin Books presentation on e-books for iPad, YouTube video
• Books in the Age of the iPad, fantastic discussion of “formless content.”