Inside Publishing

Now that your book is finished, what happens next? We're here to guide you through the publishing process, from editorial to distribution and sales.

Eating Our Own Dog Food

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Mon Aug 19, 2013

In computer software engineering, "dogfooding" means using your own product. At Bowker, we've been doing that ourselves - I'm the product manager for SelfPublishedAuthor.com, and I'm using our services to publish a short story cycle called The Place Where I Come From. The reason for this is because we really want to understand what indie publishers and self-published authors are going through, and make sure that the tools we offer are actually helpful.

Inside Publishing

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ISNI: A New Identifier for People (and Organizations)

by Laura Dawson
Bowker | Thu Aug 15, 2013

In addition to being a registration agent for ISBNs, Bowker is also a registration agent for ISNI. This is a new identifier - the standard was published in 2012 - for people and organizations. The mission of ISNI is (from the ISNI website):

Assign to the public name of a writer, artist, performer, researcher, publisher, etc. a persistent unique identifying number in order to resolve the problem of name ambiguity in search and discovery.

Diffuse each assigned ISNI across all repertoires in the global supply chain so that every creative work is unambiguously attributed to its creator or publisher wherever that work is described.

By achieving these goals the ISNI will act as a bridge identifier across multiple domains and become a critical component in Linked Data and Semantic Web applications.

Inside Publishing

Marketing & Publicity

Rights

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17 Things Self-Publishers Need to Know About Book Design

by Joel Friedlander
Bowker | Tue Jul 30, 2013

Most self-publishers are concerned with book design for a few months during the production of their book. Book design is a specialty within the field of graphic design, in the same way that packaging design, or the design of signs are specialties. What this means is that there are a lot of conventions, a vocabulary and a set of practices and assumptions that underlie most professional book design. Since self-publishers only need to navigate this territory once in a while, I've frequently maintained that it's better to learn how to hire a book designer than it is to learn book design yourself. But since design is important to the eventual success of your book whether you attempt to do it yourself or hire it out, it pays to know something about those conventions and assumptions. After all, we don't want anything getting in the way of your communication with your readers.

Inside Publishing

Design & Production

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8 Mistakes that Will Absolutely Kill Your Book!

by Hobie Hobart
Bowker | Tue Jul 30, 2013

The covers we choose for our books are much more significant than many authors think. Over the years I’ve seen everything from a finely designed book cover, to one the author created himself. Now, there’s nothing wrong with designing your own cover - if you’re actually a cover designer. Otherwise, you should leave it to the pros.

I recently had an opportunity to sit down with my friend and colleague Hobie Hobart to talk about the importance of book covers. I think some of his answers will surprise you!

How long does the average consumer spend viewing a book cover before they decide to buy or not buy the book?

Bookstore browsers spend an average of 8 seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds studying the back cover before making a buying decision where your book goes straight to the cash register, not back on the shelf.

Inside Publishing

Design & Production