Author: Cheri Breeding

Cheri Speaks

Top 6 Quick Tips for Creating a “Publish-able” Manuscript

While preparing your manuscript for publication, there are a few things to keep in mind to make your publisher’s/your own life a bit easier when book design time comes. Here are my top 6:

1. Run Spell check
2. Run Grammar check (keep in mind – neither of these checks can substitute for the expertise of a professional copyeditor)
3. Turn on Formatting marks to see odd areas where spacing may be off such as missing spaces causing a word to look misspelled, or too many spaces (2 instead of 1 or 3 instead of 1).
4. Only use Hard Returns at the end of a paragraph, NOT the end of each line like a typewriter.
5. Quick margin and page setting to book trim size, for example if your file is letter size then change settings to book sizes you’re interested in and view how the text shifts and moves. If you have a specific idea of text placement, this will identify any problem areas.
6. Do not use Spaces or Tabs to indicate an indented paragraph; change paragraph settings to first line hanging .25″.

Do you have any other tips you’d like to share?

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.
Cheri Speaks

My Book is Copyright Protected Upon Publication – Why Do I Need to Register a Copyright?

When your book is published, it is automatically protected under copyright law. That means that no one can pass off your words as their own without your explicit permission. However, we still recommend authors register their copyright with the U.S. Copyright office. Why is this necessary, you ask? That’s a great question.

Think of it like a receipt. It serves as a proof that you purchased the merchandise you own. This entitles you to take advantage of the store’s return policy. If you lose your receipt, there are some stores that MAY allow you to exchange your item or get store credit without a receipt, but that is often at the store owner’s discretion. Copyright registration is very similar. When you need to make a claim against anyone for a copyright violation, you can use your copyright certificate to fight for statutory damages in court. Without a confirmed copyright, it is very unlikely that you have a case. You will have to try to settle with the infringer outside of court. Certainly, you can threaten to speak with an attorney, but if the violator is aware that you didn’t register your copyright, that won’t go over too well…

Finally, if you take your career as an author seriously, purchasing your own copyright is an important step in the publishing process. There is certainly a cost involved, but the protection and professionalism that results will most likely prove invaluable.

Ultimately, choosing to register the copyright for your work is a personal and important decision that only you can make. Consider your audience, how important is to protect your work from infringement, and how serious you take your career as an author before making such a decision.

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.
Cheri Speaks

Who Needs an LCCN?

So, you’ve heard the term LCCN, but you’re not too sure if you need one.

That’s understandable. To determine whether this is something you need – let’s start by defining the acronym. LCCN standards for Library of Congress Control Number. Wait, that’s not a real definition! You’re right – that was fairly vague. The control number is an identification number (similar to the ISBN) that an author acquires before publication. The number is printed on the title page of the book and (traditionally speaking) is often very helpful when marketing your book to libraries.

But do you absolutely need one? The long and short answer is a firm no. Will libraries not accept your books if you don’t have one? Not likely. It’s very true that libraries very rarely “order” self-published books. Does that mean you should you take libraries off your radar? Not necessarily – there are still more creative ways that you can include libraries in your book promotion strategy. You can donate a copy (or copies) of your book. You can host book readings at your library. The possibilities are essentially limitless, but you must be creative and not rely on a library to come after you.

Have any of your included the library in your overall marketing plan? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.
Cheri Speaks

More About Using an Imprint

A couple of weeks ago, we discussed the benefit of using your own self-publishing company under your own ISBN and what’s called an imprint.

Some self-publishing authors prefer to secure their own ISBNs for full control over how their books are identified, discovered, and sourced. Using an imprint means designating your Publisher Name as the publisher-of-record for your book. Many authors who produce textbooks must print under their own imprint and ISBN for those special service wholesalers to do business with them.

This imprint also lets your book stand alone in the sea of books available. For instance, if you are using a self-publishing company that publishes many science fiction books and an author opts to bypass copyediting and has a less than appealing cover, an author may not want to be associated with that book, though they want to utilize the services of the publisher. Publishing under your own self-publishing company is ideal is ideal in cases like this.

If you decide to publish under an imprint, we recommend that you thoroughly research the name of your company to make sure that there aren’t any duplicates on the market.

Many companies, such as Outskirts Press, can assist author with the hassles handling book orders and inventory, sales/accounting, etc. but allow the author use their own imprint (publisher name). This will give it more credibility in the marketplace and can become the name under which the author publishes further titles.

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.
Cheri Speaks

POLL: What’s Important to You?

When publishing a book, it’s important to make sure that you have all of the right tools/knowledge at your disposal. To help you acquire those tools/knowledge, we run this blog. From time to time, we like to get your feedback. We’d like to know what published authors wish they had known during the publishing process? What is it that you “kick” yourself about now? What mistakes did you make that you feel that others can learn from?

Also feel free to share things you wish you knew “then” in the comments below. Your feedback will be use to tailor future blog posts to what you want to hear.

Cheri Breeding ABOUT CHERI BREEDING:
Since 2005 Cheri Breeding has been working as the Director of Production for Outskirts Press. In that time, she has been an instrumental component of every aspect of the Production Department, performing the roles of an Author Representative, Book Designer, Customer Service Representative, Title Production Supervisor, Production Manager and, Director of Production. She brings all that experience and knowledge, along with an unparalleled customer-service focus, to help self-publishing authors reach high-quality book publication more efficiently, professionally, and affordably.