Free Books Online

September 14, 2010 By 1 Comment

Have you visited the Project Gutenberg site? It carries many, many out-of-copyright books. The project is dedicated to making these books available to any and all. They are experimenting with ebooks, pdf, html, and plain text formats. Over 33,000 books are available. That’s a lot of reading material.

The project is great for accessing text files of books. Any one can take the text and format it in any way they want. The books can’t be sold for their interior – that’s free. But a book that has been cleaned up, reformatted, and published can be sold. Amazon has some of these books for a really low price of $2.00. But if they are for free on the Project Gutenberg site, why should I have to pay for them?

There is lies the problem. The formatting provided by Project Gutenberg is not always the most appealing presentation. Old Mortality by Sir Walter Scott is a good example. Within the body there are numerous references and citations, along with explanatory notes. The version provided by Project Guttenberg has the notes, citations, and references running in the body text instead of being called out. That level of reformatting took 8 hours.

The moral of the story is, there’s no free lunch. Either you take the free file from Project Guttenburg and deal with the lack of formatting, or you reformat it yourself.

Take a look at these two. You can decide which you like better and choose accordingly. For now, French Creek Press is posting the link to Project Guttenberg files and the corresponding French Creek Press of any out-of-copyright formatted ebooks. If you have a favorite book you would like to have formatted into an ebook, write a note in the comments section of this blog entry.

Old Mortality by Sir Walter Scott, Project Gutenberg file:
Volume 1
Volume 2

Old Mortality by Sir Walter Scott, French Creek Press ebook:
Old Mortality Vol 1
Old Mortality Vol 2

By the way, if you don’t have an ebook, you can download the free Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac from Amazon. It’s a great way to test out how you do with ebooks. The only caution I have is that reading from a computer is much harsher on the eyes than the Kindle device. I’m glad I was able to try out ebooks with no investment, and I’m even more thrilled to now have a Kindle.

Filed Under: Books online, eBook readers, From Shoshana, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Future of Publishing

January 11, 2010 By 4 Comments

Mark Coker of Smashwords got me thinking about the future of publishing. Many people have written about the end of the year, end of the decade, predictions for the future, but Mark’s prediction kindled a flame of thought. I try to hold on to these moments because my work schedule has become so crazy I don’t always know if I’ve captured same thought. In the middle of a very tight schedule I had to think about what he said. You can read all five of his points on his blog. I’ll just repeat the last two:

“4. Most authors will be indie authors”
“5. Successful publishing companies will be those that put the most total profit in the author’s pocket. No, not the highest per-unit royalty percentage.”

It’s no new thought that the United States influences other cultures. Americans have been doing that since they settled in the foreign wilderness to take their chances with Native Americans and Nature rather than submit to an “un-G-dly” power. Rebellion is always fueled by the knowledge that an entire country was founded out of rebellion against its colonizing parent country. Horatio Alger wannabees, astronauts, freedom riders, strikers, protesters of all kinds take strength from knowing that the Independent spirit lives on, a whole nation of independents.

So when Mark predicts “most authors will be indie authors”, he’s got good solid footing for that statement. Traditional publishing depends on large teams of people from previewing, reading the manuscript through the production, distribution, and sales. Today that team is not needed. It is possible for an author to hire every single person on that chain, topnotch professional editors, readers, book designers, book cover designers, printers, distributors, and salespeople. The author can get these services for a fraction of the cost of a traditional publisher, there is no infrastructure overhead to account for. At this time authors already have to hire publicists to sell their books. What’s keeping them from hiring the whole team?

Imagine, I, Ms Author, write a book. I can’t get an advance from a publisher because no publisher has any money. So I support myself for the months it takes to write. Then I hire a great editor. Maybe even an editor from a well-known publisher. Why can I do that? Because the editor just found him/herself out of a job because the publishing company went under. Then I hire a designer for the interior and cover of the book. Granted, I’m footing the bill here myself. It means I need a nest egg of about $500. At this point I run out of money, so I use Print on Demand technology to print and distribute the book. I only pay the setup fees and shipping cost of that first book. Once the book is available I get out into the Social Media scene and I start to market my book.

A writer must be in the Business of writing today, just to survive. Tomorrow it will be so “rule of thumb” that I’ll do it because I get the greatest return on my investment by doing it myself, braving nature myself, pulling myself up by my own bootstraps.

And that’s what makes number 5 a reality. I learn that I can produce my own works, get them out there, and pocket the majority of the proceeds.

Filed Under: From Shoshana, Print On Demand, Social Media, social media marketing, Uncategorized, Understanding publishing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Collaboration in Fiction and Fact

January 7, 2010 By 2 Comments

I’m quite the ostrich with my head in the sand at times. And so when I began hearing about writing circles, post World Wide Web, I thought it was a new phenomena centered around new technology.  Writing circles are no newer than any group of people getting together to further a common cause – in this case a story. The difference in technology is the twist. Letter writing, essay composing, even story telling, requires some contemplation time. There is a balance between thought and the act of writing, sometimes more thought than writing. I only have to look at poetry to see the amount of work behind each carefully placed word. Since my college career was in computers and mathematics I never had the opportunity to participate in a writers group. I had plenty of opportunity for collaborative writing, centering around the computer topic at hand. Creative writing was not encouraged. Only the facts, ma’am.

Technology has changed this the way it has changed all communication. Everything is instant – instant messaging, instant answers, instant stand on one foot contemplation (an oxymoron if ever I heard one).  To collaborate on a writing piece today is a fast affair. For good or better, stories can be composed quickly, reviewed quickly, and published quickly.

One of my employees recently told me about a writing circle that she belongs to. The people rarely see each other, and that’s only because they were friends before marriage and kids sucked up all their times. Now they chat and work together online. The writing circle they formed was for a short duration. Its purpose was to create a story, each participant writing a chapter. They finished the book. But now what? It needs a deep edit. The foremost question, though, is the edit to consolidate and give the piece one voice? Or is the edit to refine each individual voice to harmonize with its companions? And then what do they do with the story?

05_library_of_congress pictureUnlimited hosting is a great boon. I said, why not host the groups on the French Creek Press site? A writer’s club can make matches between authors and provide a forum for this kind of collaboration. Each group forms around a story, book, theme, whatever the group decides. The groups sets the schedule and out comes a product at the other end. French Creek Press then steps in and creates a free eBook, free for download. Writers maintain their “byline” so to speak and are acknowledged in the front of the book. Instant publishing.

Look for more on this as I develop this idea with up and coming writers. Once the mechanism is in place French Creek Press will open it to all who aspire to write and need a forum.

Watch this space for the Writer’s Circle. And sharpen your pencils to write.

Filed Under: author platform, Book Model, From Shoshana, new author, Print On Demand Tagged With:

Life Cycle of a Book: Understanding the Basic Book

December 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Books on a Shelf
Books on a Shelf

So many book models exist today. From the traditional write-and-publish to the eBook, with everything in between, the variations are staggering. This post is about the basic book model. Once the book life cycle is described I can then talk about the variations on the model. By enumerating the book models I can have a better understanding of how to create a flexible, living model that works for French Creek Press.

The basic model starts with the author. Ms. Author has an idea for a book. She has never published a book, nor has she published articles on the book subject. After carefully outlining the book, doing the research, writing the synopsis, and writing the first three chapters, she finds an agent. The agent then submits the book to a likely publisher. For the sake of our example the publisher accepts the book and pays a small advance to the author.

At this time the author retires to her little cubbyhole, chains herself to her desk, and writes the book. Since she is chained to the desk 8 hours a day, she actually finishes it according to schedule. The day finally comes when she writes, either literally or figuratively, “And they lived happily to the end of their days. The End”. She lovingly wraps the manuscript, after all, this is her six month in creation heart and soul, and ships the manuscript to the publisher.

When it gets to the publisher it is sent off to readers. The manuscript is ripped apart and put back together according to the publishers needs. Requests for change are drawn up, and everything is sent back to the author. Please fix. Maximum revision time? Four months.

keyboard
keyboard

While the author is revising the book, the publisher sets the publishing process in motion. The publishing schedule is set; the book cover is commissioned; the book layout is designed. When the book returns to the publisher, all revisions accepted, the book goes out to proof, offset printing is scheduled, then to the printer for pre-publication copies (ARC-advanced reading copies), and then to the pre-publication reviewers. Then the first print for publication is run.

In this basic model the publisher is established. The books are sent to the distributor, possibly accompanied by the pre-release reviews. Bookstores order the book, and the book is shipped and placed on the shelf in a brick&mortar bookstore.The book remains on the shelf for some period of time. The books not sold become “remaindered”.

That’s the simple life cycle. Next in the life of a book, I look into publishing variations for printed books.

The pictures displayed here are from two different public domain libraries:
Keyboard by Petr Kratochvil
http://www.public-domain-image.com/site_map.html

Filed Under: Book Model, From Shoshana, Understanding publishing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Doom and Gloom or New Beginning?

November 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Everyday I receive an article talking about the demise of this publisher or that book store chain. This morning The Independent out of the UK lamented the Borders UK non-agreement-that-would-save-the-day. The managers’ buyout does not seem to be happening, or they are too little too late – Borders UK is not taking online orders. It will be a few days before Borders UK is either “saved” or goes into receivership. Stories like this are all over the news: little stores folding due to Amazon/Target/Walmart price cuts, publishing houses closing or shedding imprints that don’t generate “big bucks”.

French Creek Press is a new, fledgling company. In a marketplace full of publishers that know the ropes, have been around for decades, have scoped out the marketplace, how could French Creek Press stand a chance? I’ll answer that with another question. How, in times when stores and publishers are closing, can Harlequin open an new digital only division, Carina Press, headed up by Angela James? The answer is, at least, twofold. An all digital press means publishing is only electronic. There is no need to pour money into thousands of books because no book is produced. All the preprint costs are minimal compared to the print and distribution cost. Yes, there is still distribution, but there is no heavy transport cost. This is the ultimate “on demand” product. The book is produced once in a particular format. Then it is sold multiple times, on demand, with no inventory charge

French Creek Press goes one step farther. Instead of investing tens of thousands of dollars in traditional marketing, the decision to use Social Media as the primary tool was made. Viral Marketing combined with on demand printing means French Creek Press can take a risk on new authors. The cost to French Creek Press is much less than the cost to publish a book through one of the old stalwarts. While we are not exclusively producing digital books (we do print books) we cut costs to the point where we can publish authors, sustain the cost of publishing through its lifecycle, market the books, and stay in business.

I was taken to task for following Harlequin’s move. Since the books are a bit, a little bit, risque, and my lifestyle is the antithesis of risque, what am I doing looking at Harlequin? I can’t afford not to. And neither can any other publisher. Harlequin is taking some very drastic steps to stay open and competitive. By adding Angela James to their team they have increased their survival rate multi-fold. Check out what Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has to say about Carina and you’ll see why this is a brilliant move.

I have roots in the computer industry where revolution takes place on a regular basis. Change with the newest, latest, greatest technology that just made all the equipment I bought six months ago obsolete, or die. By keeping to the principle of on demand production and viral social marketing French Creek Press has the opportunity to grab a piece of the action while producing high quality products. In the meantime, I’m keeping my eyes on the big guys that are adapting to the new reality. And I’m keeping my eye on the women publishers that make a difference in the industry.

Filed Under: From Shoshana, Print On Demand, SMM, Social Media, social media marketing, women publishers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Multitudes of eBook Readers

October 28, 2009 By 3 Comments

How many eBook readers are out there? Do you read eBooks with an eBook reader? I don’t. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I tried loading text files on to my iPod. That was shear misery. I don’t wish that on anyone – well, maybe my worst enemy I would. Reading a text file on an iPod is like a heroin addict sniffing glue. The high is painful at best, and terribly destructive to the eyes and the brain.

Oh eBook, let me list the kinds: Sony Portable Reader, Bookeen Cybook Opus, PocketBook 301, 302, 360, HanLIn eBook V5, Polymer Vision Radius, Hanvon WISE Readers (a whole family), Azbooka WISE Reader, Amazon Kindle, COOL-ER Classic, txtr reader GmbH, NUUTbook Neolux, iriver Story, Barnes and Noble Nook, iTex DR800SG, iLiad, Digital Reader 1000, Astak Mentor Electra, Plastic Logic Que, and many older devices.

And you expect me to make a buying decision on what? Color? Size? Who knows how long these devices are supposed to last? If I buy one now, I already know it will be obsolete by February (probably as soon as I test drive it, it will be obsolete). Some features standout. The Sony Portable reader comes in pretty colors. That’s important. A 5 inch reader fits in my bag easier than a 6 inch reader. But my old eyes can see the screen on a 6 inch reader better than on a 5 inch reader.

  • Weight -  The device can’t be heavy. It has to be light enough for me to lug around, and yet it also has to be sturdy.
  • Touch screen – I like using a stylus on the Nokia N97 phone. So I anticipate that I’ll like a touch screen on a reader.
  • Memory – this is probably the most important feature in my book. I want to store lots and lots of books. I’m always in the middle of reading 2 or 3, sometimes 4.
  • Interface – this is second most important. How am I going to get my eBooks onto the device? If I have to mess around with lots of drivers, forget it.
  • Supported formats – this is right up there with memory. No, I do not want to be limited to Kindle format. Can I get a reader that supports all formats? Don’t think so.
  • Font size – my old eyes need help. This can be a deciding factor if all other factors are equal.
  • Text to Speech – this is not important to me. But, however, wait a minute, as soon as I get one without text to speech I’m sure there will be a great need to have it.

Notice I said nothing about price? They all run in the same range, which is why I have not yet purchased one. Sigh, anyone want to give me an eBook reader to test? I’ll try my best to use it in adverse conditions. I’ll test boundary conditions. Until the time I scrape up the money (or someone takes pity on my poor whining self) I’ll have to be content with drool laden pictures of the latest eBook readers.

Filed Under: eBook readers, Tools, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Information Brokers

August 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Chris Brogan in his three hour talk at the Tools of Change 2009 Conference made several thought provoking statements. Aside from being a very funny guy Chris pointed out the obvious. It is so obvious that it escaped my attention. And if he had to remind everyone in the room of the same fact, it must have slipped under their radar as well.

Chris very pointedly states, “This is the business value of this stuff, the blogging and the social media stuff. There’s a business value to understanding and building the relationships around the product. There’s a real business value in having people understand and have access and build affinity to people…[There is a] new currency in the world, currency of attention, currency of trust. And you need to worry about how you are going to get in front of people to actually care about your thing.”

This introduction to Social Media touched on many subjects which I won’t go into here such as understanding books as eco systems and book clubs as the new tribal system. What really caught my ear was when Chris began speaking about distribution and the Mafia. Books are a distribution problem. eBooks add to the problem even though they command a small piece of the market. Normal channels have a book traditionally marketed, carried by the brick and mortar places along with Online stores. The book is printed and distributed to outlets, bought by the customer, and then shipped. eBooks jump the queue. They are often sold directly from the publisher or even the author.

Just as the Mafia took over distribution systems to deliver basic services to the villages in the face of government corruption, albeit with their own interpretation of the law, the Mafia continued forays into society in other distribution channels. Their choice to distribute alcohol, drugs, slaves, and cigarettes may not be the distribution problem of a publisher, but today’s publisher needs to understand the basic common element. Publishers are not in the book business. Publishers are in the information distribution business. And anytime the distribution is bogged down by bureaucracy, “mafia-style” elements step in to ease the problem.

Social Media works like the Mafia – it sets up new paths, new mechanism to deliver information to the people who want it. And it’s not as complicated as drug traffic-ing. Information brokers need to do things in a “ridiculously different way”. Chris suggests mass customization based on shopping preferences and other information gathered about a customer. Product placement or settings in books can be used to draw people in, and it can be used to enlist outside forces in the marketing campaign. Social Media presents opportunities to work with potential routes that are not traditional marketing.

I choose to reorient my position in a “grassroots” movement instead of the Mafia. Social Media is not as coordinated or structured as the Mafia. It is, however, the perfect expression of the average person grouping together with other average people to effect change.

French Creek Press is starting a social media campaign September. I’ll be writing about this effort and any tips that I can pass along as a result. In the meantime, check out Chris Brogan. Who knows, maybe he’ll do a standup comedy routine to augment his salary.

Filed Under: Social Media, social media marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Women (Publishers) Can Be Heroes Too

August 5, 2009 By 3 Comments

As a girl growing up I didn’t have many female role models to choose from. Either the woman was the Florence Nightingale type, or a teacher. My sister, whom I worshipped desperately, was interesting because she was at least in science, even if it was nutrition, and she a terrible cook. I knew no female scientists, no female engineers. I met a few artists, but they were on a different planet. Even my high school teachers in an all girls prep school left the interesting subjects, Physics, Chemistry, History, to the men. I had one teacher, my biology teacher, who was single, beautiful, brilliant, and a scientist. Unfortunately, the first time I cut into a frog I passed out from formaldehyde – turns out I was allergic to the stuff. That ended my budding career as a biologist.

I’ve since met many women in the Computer Sciences, and admired many from afar. The Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Jose corridor offered up many women with brains and personality. And now that I’ve turned my sights towards information, and specifically, the publishing there of, I’m seeking out the women publishing heroes. In one place, the Tools of Change 2009 online seminars have two panel discussions: one on Publishing house CEOs and one on women digital publishers. These women all have one very special quality in common – they love being women. They advocate for women. They market to women. To them women are interesting and distinct from the other species that walks around on two legs. And they are very vocal about it. While three, Kassia Krosser, Angela James, and Malle Vallik all spoke about digital publishing, Eileen Gittens talked more about social publishing. In all cases they were speaking about emerging markets, and the buying power of those markets. These ladies and other like them are to be watched. They are moving, and I expect will be a major influence on future publishing of any information.

Kassia Krosser, Booksquare
Kassia Krosser moderated the panel “Smart Women Read eBooks”. Kassia is the main voice behind BookSquare and a founding partner of Medialoper. While her job on this panel was to facilitate the members, her spark and humor came through. I look forward to hearing more of her voice.

Angela James, Samhain Publishing
Angela James was a panel member on “Smart Women Read eBooks”. Women are very “adventurous readers”. They like the immediacy of ebooks and delve into non-traditional ideas in reading and technology.

Malle Vallik, Harlequin
Malle Vallik was a panel member on “Smart Women Read eBooks”. An ebook is a reading experience. And women readers experience “reading emergencies” – they want a book and they want it now. The American woman is an adapter, she can mold herself to any technology that is good. By doing that, she can purchase and download an ebook easily, quickly, and fill the reading emergency.

Sarah Wendell, Smart Bitches Trashy Books
Sarah Wendell was also a panel member “on Smart Women Read eBooks”. While not a publisher, Sarah is a mover and shaker in the digital publishing world by way of her website. The statistics she sites should cause anyone in the book industry to pause and think. 80% of fiction in the market today is read by women. And women buy in bulk. And they are very loyal readers, loyal customers. And as she says, (paraphrased) if you gain a woman as a consumer you’ve gained someone who will speak about you /your product everywhere she goes. Your woman consumer is a natural marketer, and you don’t even have to pay her for it.

Eileen Gittins, Blurb.com
Eileen Gittens was a panel member on “CEO Roundtable: The Changing Role of the Publisher”. Eileen took a “social” approach to publishing. She create Blurb.com where anyone and everyone can create and published their photos albums, family books, you name it. More importantly, the books are affordable. One outgrowth of the Blurb concept, in keeping with “social” publishing, is BlurbNation. This collection of professionals are available (at an affordable price) to help pull the book together with a professional edge. And not least are the Blurb forums, groups/discussions on publishing tips, ordering, printing, anything worth discussing as relates to publishing your book.

Filed Under: women heros, women publishers Tagged With: , , , ,