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.”

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CookieFest 2009

CookieFest 2009 was another resounding success. The product of our labors included:

• One newborn (!!). We had one regular attendee missing due to her being otherwise occupied with Having a Baby. I suppose we can let that slide Just This Once.
• Buttermilk cookies (thanks to Alyssa for pointing me to the recipe).
• Three gingerbread houses (contrary to what the picture might indicate, we had not been drinking. It’s possible that we were a BIT punchy after 9 hours of nonstop cookie action).

• Ginger spice cookies (wow. I think we followed the recipe on these)
• Pumpkin spice cookies
• Gingerbread (found in Joy of Cooking)
• Rugelah (we used currents instead of raisins, hazelnuts instead of walnuts, and skipped the milk wash and sugar sprinkle)
• Evil Oatmeal Cookies. Oh wait. That’s not their official name. They are actually Oatmeal Toffee Cookies, aka The Least Healthy Thing You Can Make with Oatmeal. Substitutions: for bittersweet chocolate, use chocolate chips (no chopping required), for toffee pieces, Heath bars
• Triple-threat chocolate cookies (we omitted all those nasty nuts and increased flour slightly to compensate)
• I think I might have forgotten one. It’s sort of a blur.

I am now officially ready for the holidays. We don’t even have to clean the house any more because we can distract visitors with cookies. LOTS of cookies.