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Are you up to the TASK?

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Aug 12, 2014

In a recent discussion, I was asked, “How many authors are up to the task of selling 1000 books?” My immediate (unpublished) response was, “If you can’t sell 1000 books, why bother publishing?” But upon more thought, that flip response would have been a great disservice to those who really want to sell 1000 books, but do not know how. The word “TASK” struck me as a perfect acronym representing four areas that I believe need attention in order to be successful as an author. Each requires much greater description than below, but this may give foundering authors food for thought. Two of these characteristics are internal (TA), while two can be acquired (SK). Attend to each and I believe your ability to sell 1000 or more books will be greatly enhanced.

 

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Two Days in a Dream Bookstore

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Tue Aug 5, 2014

Our colleague Laura Dawson has written on her personal blog about an "unconference" called #altbookstore, which she attended in Manhattan last week. This meeting, she notes, was convened because...of Amazon:

This arose, of course, from a commonly-held desire amongst the attendees (and some attended virtually as well) to really probe The Amazon Problem. Amazon is many things. To customers, it’s an ideal store that basically sells everything you could possibly want, and delivers it almost before you know you want it (yesterday on Twitter I was calling this #acciostuff). To developers, it’s a technology company that basically invented what we know as “the cloud”. To publishers, it’s a disintermediator, a disruptor, a strong-armed bully upending business models and shrinking margins. To authors, it’s a benefactor and a cruel mistress.

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DCL/Bowker Joint Survey on eBook Production

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Fri Aug 1, 2014

Publishers are increasingly concerned with quality as they move towards digital productions, according to a new survey on trends in the digital publishing industry. Of the respondents, 84 percent are planning to publish digitally in 2014 (an increase of 21 percent over the prior year), and 52 percent of respondents said quality of digital conversion was the aspect of greatest concern. The survey was jointly conducted by Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL), an industry leader in organizing and converting content into digital formats, and Bowker®, the world’s leading provider of bibliographic information management solutions for publishers, booksellers, and libraries.

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Design & Production
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If It's Not Broken, Break It

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Mon Jul 21, 2014

Some habits are good, some not so good. How can you tell if a habit is good or bad? Good habits are hard to make and easy to break. Bad habits are easy to make and hard to break. Many publishers are in the easy-to-make habit of selling only through bookstores. They market each new title in the same way they did all previous books. While that habit is not inherently bad, it could limit your sales, revenue and profits. Evaluate your habits and seek a different way to increase your sales. Here are Ten Tips For Making Good Marketing Habits.

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Is There a Better Way to Run Your Business?

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Sun Jul 20, 2014

Your business model is the result of the decisions you have made to generate sales, earn revenue and manage risks. The business model of choice for most authors and publishers is to sell books through book retailers (bricks and clicks) and perhaps to libraries. This choice is usually made because “it’s the way we’ve always done business,” rather than a calculated decision based business, competitive and market analysis.

 

However, according to BookScan, 93% of all new books do not sell more than 100 copies. Perhaps thinking about different ways of selling your books might be necessary, or at least considered.

 

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Generate Short-Term Revenue for Long-Term Growth

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Jul 9, 2014

Marketing consultants stress the need for long-term planning, five years or more into the future. But a question we frequently get is, “How do I make it to the long term without short term revenue?” The answer is to create a series of short-term wins that together lead to positive long-term success.  Here are Ten Ways to Generate Short-Term Revenue to Fuel Long-Term Growth.

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Sell in a Growing Market – B2B

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Jul 1, 2014

The publishing industry’s retail distribution network is rigid and stable. Established chain members move commodity items (books) systematically toward a common end. Each level (publisher, distributor, wholesaler, retailer) is mutually exclusive yet dependent on each other. The value of the product is dispersed and not controlled by the publisher. While this ingrained system is appealing to some, it leads to a conservative, uncreative structure lacking in energy. Conversely, the B2B marketplace is dynamic and growing at a 10% annual rate. Innovative and strategic publishers have the opportunity to change this competitive landscape, bypass an inflexible chain, and seize and control value. Here are the Top Ten Reasons to Control Value in a Distribution Network.

Inside Publishing
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Making Beautiful Books

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Fri Jun 20, 2014

Learn what goes into creating professional-looking books! Join India Amos, Managing Editor of Print and Digital Production at CN Times Books, and Allan Lieberman, Special Projects Manager, Data Conversion Laboratory, Inc., on Monday, June 30th, at 1:00pm EDT to discover what you need to know about production and design.

Whether you are publishing in print, digital, or both, this webinar will help you determine what choices you need to make for your book. We’ll cover:

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I made my ebook with "Markup", and you won't believe how good it looks! - Part I

by Hugh McGuire
Bowker | Tue Jun 17, 2014

If you are planning to publish an ebook, you will want it to look good, to look professional, to look like an ebook the biggest publisher would publish.

These days there are many tools to help you make an ebook, but getting a good-looking ebook isn't always so easy. This article will tell you about "markup" -- a magical substance that can either make your ebook beautiful-looking. Or ugly as sin.

Ebooks are (roughly) self-contained websites. They are made of the same stuff: HTML and CSS styling.

What is Markup?

Markup is the HTML part ... it's the text of your book, plus "tags" in the background.

For instance, here is a brief passage of text with some formatting:

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markup
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I made my ebook with "Markup", and you won't believe how good it looks! Part II

by Hugh McGuire
Bowker | Tue Jun 17, 2014

Bad Markup and How to Fix It

There are a number of problems that pop up consistently in self-published ebooks, where outputs just don't look as people expect. Very often, these problems are due to "bad" styling markup that has crept into the editing interface, often coming from MS Word, or from the user just doing a few things wrong.

Here is a quick list of the most common problems we see with users of Pressbooks, and how to fix them:
 

  • Styling headings with Bold instead of Heading tags
  • Not using blockquotes for letters, quotes etc.
  • Forcing certain kinds of paragraphs not to indent
  • Not using correct list formatting (for bullets & numbers)
  • The dreaded MS Word <span> tag
  • Funny spacing
  • Paragraphs not being separated properly

Heading styles

DONT: Style headings with Bold instead of Heading tags.

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Design & Production
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