Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book
It was interesting to see
APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book
as one of today’s Kindle Daily Deals for $1.99.
I’d heard about the book, and read the sample (mostly with text-to-speech in the car). I planned to borrow it from the KOLL (Kindle Owners’ Lending Library), and then write about it afterwards.
However, I thought there was a good chance I’d want to buy it, because I was impressed with the fairly large sample (the size of a sample is based on the length of the book).
I’m not going to call it “no nonsense”, because fortunately, it has a somewhat whimsical style. However, I will say that it was quite realistic in its advice and approach.
If you are thinking about maybe independently publishing a book, or are interested in how that whole thing works, I’d recommend it based on the sample (certainly at $1.99 (a $7 savings for the e-book). I bought one as a gift for a relative (in addition to the one for me). When I’ve gone through the whole thing, I’ll give you my take on it.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
I Love My Kindle 
January 26, 2013 at 8:09 pm |
http://www.authorhouse.com/contactus/publish.aspx
Do you know anything about his publication?
January 26, 2013 at 10:00 pm |
Thanks for writing, Diane!
Actually, I’m not familiar with that one.
January 26, 2013 at 8:12 pm |
Do you need to apply for an ISBN code for ebooks?
January 26, 2013 at 9:58 pm |
Thanks for writing, Diane!
Nope, no ISBN (International Standard Book Number) necessary for e-books. You can publish directly through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, if you like…very simple. As you may know, copyright is automatic in the USA, although registering it does give you more options in the event of infringement.
January 27, 2013 at 6:12 pm |
I believe authorhouse is a scam – at least, it was written up in Writer Beware.
January 27, 2013 at 6:58 pm |
Thanks for writing, beccadi!
I don’t know enough about it to offer an opinion, but I appreciate you posting what you’ve heard. Maybe I’ll research it more.
January 28, 2013 at 8:52 am |
Thanks for the tip on APE. I bought it — and I encourage others to do so, even at the list price, whatever it is. It’s A+ in content, style, organization, and wisdom.
January 28, 2013 at 2:04 pm |
Thanks for writing, Roger!
I’m sure the APE authors will be happy to hear that! I also thought it was good, although I haven’t read it all yet.
January 28, 2013 at 9:09 am |
PS: One suggestion the book made, which is actually one that practically every similar advisor-to-e-book-authors makes, is to move certain “front matter” to the end of the book, so it won’t clutter up the free sample and take space away from the good stuff.
That gave me an idea. There’s a Better Way–which I’ll shortly send off to Amazon. Amazon ought to provide authors with a way to “flag” certain pages and/or paragraphs for non-inclusion in the sample. That way the front matter can stay where it belongs–and the author can avoid having to create two organizationally different versions of his work, one for e-books and one for PDFs and PODs. This would require very little programing to implement, would not discomfit current authors, and would remove a major headache.
January 28, 2013 at 2:04 pm |
Thanks for writing, Roger!
Yes, I’ve made the suggestion of moving the “front matter” to the back myself several times, including back in 2009:
For what it’s worth: some advice
That doesn’t automatically make it a good idea, of course. 🙂
Your suggestion is an interesting one, but I think not quite as simple as you suggest.
I presume that what happens right now is that someone orders the sample. A given amount is automatically cut from the front of the book. There is some automatic processing to add the part at the back that asks you if you want to buy the book.
I don’t think that there is a separate version of the book for the sample. What you are suggesting, which I agree is an intelligent goal, would require another stage of processing, where the switch was flipped to suppress the desired material. Again, I think the concept is smart and a good one, and I do think it could be done…but not without expense and possible degradation in delivery time (although I think both would likely be worth it).
January 28, 2013 at 4:43 pm
Hi. I’m glad you like the concept (indicated by the ellipses). Your raised eyebrow above has (as before) motivated me to explain myself more fully, an explanation I’ll send along to Amazon pronto.
Here’s what I imagine goes on currently. When the book is first accepted and posted to its site, Amazon reads the book-file, determines its total length, mulrtiplies that figure by 10%, and then looks for the best natural “breaking point” that is closest to tht figure on either side of it. It then chops off that segment and stores it as a separate sample-file that is sent to any user who wants a free sample.
This is the procedure that would require less overall processing than reading in, calculating, and chopping off the sample each time.
My suggestion would involve a little more processing, but only one time, when the sample file was being created. It would not be hard to program:
I.e., the 10% figure would be calculated as before, then the program would scan through the file, paragraph by paragraph, counting characters as it goes. When it hits a SKIP marker, implicitly inserted by the author, it would copy the text it has processed so far into a work area where it is assembling the sample file.
Then it would “pause” its character-counting and scan ahead for a RESUME marker, something also implicitly inserted by the author, at which point it would revert to its original processing of scanning ahead and counting characters, until its 10% target had been exceeded. Then it would copy the portion of text from the RESUME marker up to the 10% target point, append it to the text in its work area, and save that text as its sample file.
It could be made a little fancier if desired. I.e., the 10% figure could be recalculated on the fly (and made larger) by basing it on the total-text-count MINUS the SKIPPED-text-count. (This would most benefit authors with a short book and lots of skippable front matter.) To a programmer (I was one once), this extra “whistle” wouldn’t be hard to implement.
February 4, 2013 at 9:49 pm |
I purchased this book today for my Kindle…after the purchase I was directed to a page that said this author would allow me to “loan” this book out for a 14-day period. This is my first book with this message…is this something new or have I missed one of your updates?
Anaphylaxis: A Medical Thriller [Kindle Edition]$5.99
Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
February 5, 2013 at 1:28 am |
Thanks for writing, Diane!
It’s not new…it’s just not all that common. 🙂
It became available on December 30, 2010. Barnes & Noble had already had a similar program for the NOOK.
If the publisher allows it, you can loan a book…once ever…for 14 days. If you loan it to a friend, you can not later loan it to a sibling, for example.
The major publishers generally don’t allow it, so you just might not have seen it before. It’s also possible that the notification is new.
Here’s the information on it:
Lending Kindle Books