Retired science and engineering worker who enjoys writing and travel. Have managed to be published a couple of times and want to help others go from writer to published author.
Pen of the Writer is a self-publishing organization based in Ohio that not only shares very valuable information about marketing your book, Pen of the Writer can help your realize your book publishing dream. Many experienced authors have benefited from the publishing and marketing information taught by Mrs. Valerie J. Lewis Coleman.
Valerie has authored several books of her own and helped more than ten-thousand students, clients, and writers just like you become a published author. Pen of the Writer also offers a set of optional DVDs titled, Self-Publishing Made Easy, that teaches you the ten best practices to launch your own Publishing company; useful information about writing, editing, even book cover design on the, DVD titled, Judging a book by its cover.
Other useful information like pricing your book, and applying for your ISBN number, with helpful hints like don’t leaving the last four digits of your ISBN number all zeros because those numbers represent the suggested retail price for your book.
There is even information on how when and to fill out an official copyright form along with some very valuable basic book marketing tips for becoming a best-selling published author yourself.
In this article POD stands for, Print-On-Demand, and not the body snatcher variety POD that scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. This article is about publishers that operate a lot differently than the commercial publishing factories I grew up knowing about, yet they are still commercial. Printing your books on demand, usually in some agreed upon quantity, is exactly what POD publishers do. POD publishers have removed a large block of difficulty that used to stand between the writer and seeing her book on the book store shelf.
Usually all a POD publisher requires is a finished manuscript and enough of your personal funding to make your publishing dream come true. The accent here is on “finished” manuscript because if your manuscript wasn’t quite finished, or still in need of some work POD publishers are now set up to help you there too, for a fee of course. In fact some of their publishing packages include proofing, and editing services should you decide to place your, in need of repair, manuscript in their hands.
Providing the funds and making sure to crossing all of your “T’s” and dotting all of your “I’s” you can end up with a pretty professional looking soft, or hard cover book. The POD publisher I used was even ready with a marketing kit that included posters, copies of the book for book-signing-parties and other promotional opportunities; a process every ghostwriter is spared. At the end of this article you will find information about several POD publishers to explore and research so that if you feel that your book project is at the publishing point, you can connect with a publishing resource.
Feeling the need to perfect your manuscript in every way and sending out letter of enquiry to noted publishers may be a barrier most of us can go around these days, in a way, I feels makes the pressure to get it right feel even higher when it comes to putting the finishing touches on your manuscript. When you self-publish just about all of the publishing preparation duties falls on you, Mr. author; you could find yourself responsible for everything from the book cover artwork, the proofing, the editing, and who knows what else your particular book project might involve. The good news is it can be done and depending on the POD publisher you select all or some of the help you may need will be available to you too.
Self-publisher shares the same goal of the major publisher’s house; to sell books and to recover the investment that went into completing the publishing process, along with any marketing, and other related expenses. Clear that hurdle and you can begin to see some profit. Things have changed a little, back in the early days, 1960 or 1970 BC (before computers) and, of course I’m talking personal computers, the marketing you did to promote your self-published book was mainly though publications ads, word of mouth, and other promotions.
The publishing houses help connect a particular author with their reading audience and that is exactly what every self-published author wants; to be connected with their book buying reading audience. Back in the BC-days connecting with book buyers, and book readers, was a lot harder and a lot more expensive for the self-published author. Now-days selling your book, in many cases, is a matter of connecting and spreading the word about your book to your Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ or other social media audience. Whichever way you chose to market and sell your self-published book, it all starts with publishing that manuscript you have. When you’re ready for that perhaps one of these POD book publishers will do: Morris Publishing48 Hour Books and Instant Publisher
I was impressed with Will Murai concept artwork, in particular, his image of the female writer pictured in a seemingly losing battle with the multi-limb-daemons of her characters, plot and, as I imagined, her self-imposed deadline. Will Mauri, is a concept artist from Sao Paulo Brazil whose work can be found online, and on his Pinterest page that is worth checking out if, like me, you are interested in learning how and what concept art can do for your writing project.
Will Murai artwork
Depending on where you are in your book writing evolution, artwork may or may not be a concern. This subject was something I didn’t worry about until I was finished with my first ghostwriting manuscript; even though the idea of including black & white photographs somewhere in the book was discussed briefly during my short interview session with the person I was writing for.
So just how important is your involvement with the artwork for your writing project? If you go the traditional route, with an established publisher and editors, you will probably have plenty of artwork help and assistance. If you take the self-publishing route you could find yourself responsible for every part of the book publishing process, up to and including providing the cover artwork and or pictures. In that case, understanding artwork resources could prove useful.
I started my search by typing in “free publishing artwork” and was taken to a page where several companies offered free publishing artwork and videos, some of there were actually free downloads, and other had small charges were way less than one dollar, that took them out of the “free” category but left them still within the for free to nearly free artwork. The only problem I found with this artwork was that somewhere in the future you might find that someone else used that same picture or video since much of the free artwork I saw was in the non-exclusive domain, meaning that unlike commissioned one-of-a-kind artwork, created exclusively for you or your project, this artwork seemed to be created non-exclusively or in other words for anyone.
Typing in paid publishing artwork also brought up several conceptual art companies willing to create original artwork for your project for a fee. Which route you choose to take will of course depends on your budget; I know established publishers have a larger artwork budget than most of us that don’t fall into the Bill Gates level of income. If you possess some line art, or drawing skills I guess you’re in luck when it comes to providing an image for your publication. I suppose even if you have a family member (as I do) who is good at artwork you come out on the lucky side too, even though I’m not sure of the legal ramifications, if any, would be for such a family related venture.
Just be aware that there are free places out there, and places that will charge you for your artwork needs; if you are willing, and able, to pay for your artwork needs. In that case you’re good to go in that area. Keep in mind that there are places out there who also offer free artwork choices with some limitations you might want to consider.
Travel, when and where you can is sometimes the best inspiration for a story. It’s good to disconnect your body and mind from familiar surroundings and venture out on occasion; believe it or not you don’t need to venture far, sometimes a simple weekend getaway is enough for me to return with my creative batteries fully charged; my mind full of words ready for the page. In all honesty though, even when that kind of inspiration does not show itself right away, after a break from the familiar, I am still a happy camper.
Zzanthia deviant art dot-com creates some of the clearest most alluring and eye catching Artwork I have seen. Sure I know there are plenty of others out there in the art creating field and this artist is just one of the note worthy art creators I have come across in my artwork search that produces the kind of art I would use in many cases. Follow the link and let me know what you think.
