Tag: Writing

Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

More Copyright Information for the Self-Publishing Author

Copyright infringement is not a pleasant topic. Some self-publishing authors find themselves in trouble without even knowing it, by doing something as innocent as including the lyrics from their favorite songs in their book.

Music is one of the most protected copyrightable works; infringement of copyright can carry heavy fines for which the author is responsible. If you are going to use the lyrics from a song in your book, you will need to have permission from the original copyright holder. This includes cases where you are only using a stanza or two and sometimes even if you are using anything more than a single line.

Only song lyrics created and first published prior to 1923 are in the Public Domain in the United States. If the song was created after that, you will need permission to use it (or parts of it) in your work.

There are two great resources on the Internet for finding the rights holders for most music and song lyrics, from the two leading music entities, ASCAP and BMI, respectively:

http://www.ascap.com/ace/search.cfm?mode=search
 http://www.bmi.com/licensing

Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Writing for Self-Publishing: Ask the Book Doctor

E-Books

Q: I am working on formatting and editing a nonfiction book designed to be both an e-book and a published hard-copy book. I will also likely end up doing the work to get this work accepted by a publisher. Can you tell me, have e-books become popular yet, or is the core of publishing still in paper and not looking to move forward?

 

A: Most publishers I know that help authors produce e-books and printed books are not traditional publishers; that is, they produce print-on-demand books and do not stockpile books or distribute them to stores. They simply print one at a time when they are ordered, so there’s no major investment on their part and no advance on royalties to you. Basically if you sell a book, you get a percentage of the profit, but if you yourself don’t sell it, the printer won’t go to any trouble to sell it for you.

 

As far as the popularity of e-books, several companies have tried to produce machines (Kindle and others) to make e-books more attractive to readers, but still e-books lag far behind printed books when it comes to sales. Still, after an e-book is created, you incur no further cost to reproduce and distribute it when sold, so e-books can provide one-hundred percent profit to authors who have a client base and can promote their own books or sell them through their own Web sites. 

What would you like to ask a book doctor? Send your questions to Bobbie Christmas at Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. 

Editing Your Self-Published Book, Self-Publishing

Writing for Self-Publishing: Ask the Book Doctor

Commas

Q: How would you punctuate the following sentence? Would you delete the comma after the first “that?” Would you delete both commas?

Mr. Smith concluded with the vague assertion that, if he ever gets a handle on the IRS situation, he will attempt to pay the client and asked that we call him in ninety days.

A: I would delete the first comma and let the first part of the sentence act as a single introductory phrase. I would also separate his conclusion from his request, so I would write it this way: Mr. Smith concluded with the vague assertion that if he ever gets a handle on the IRS situation, he will attempt to pay the client. He asked that we call him in ninety days.

You could argue that both commas could be left, thereby setting aside the nonessential phrase, “if he ever gets a handle on the IRS situation.” I stand by the fact that what he concluded and what he asked should appear in separate sentences. 

 

What would you like to ask a book doctor? Send your questions to Bobbie Christmas at Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. 

Choosing a Publisher, Self-Publishing

Statistics Suggest Good News for the Self-Publishing Author

Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management, recently released 2007 book publishing statistics compiled from its Books In Print database. Based on figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker is projecting that U.S. title output  last year increased slightly from 2006 to almost 300,000 books. That’s over a quarter of a million books published in one year alone.

Here’s another interesting statistic, while traditional book publishing was basically flat last year, there was a staggering rise in the reported number of on-demand and short-run books to 134,773, pushing the grand total for projected 2007 U.S. book output to 411,422 books. In fact, Bowker has planned to separate this particular output from its traditional reporting and has begun tracking the On Demand industry segment separately.

What does this mean for you? To begin, your book may not stock in every bookstore. Or any bookstore. And it’s entirely possible that you may not want it to.

As a self-publishing author, these statistics undoubtedly suggest your sales opportunities will continue to grow and become more profitable. Sales are shifting from offline to online. More and more people are becoming comfortable with (and even accustomed to) shopping online. Selling books online is more cost-effective than selling through a typical bookstore, and that means more money in your pocket. It’s no coincidence that Amazon’s book sales numbers mirror the same increases on an annual bases. That’s good news.

It’s been said before on this blog, make sure your self-publishing choice lets you set your own retail price, royalty, and discount to take maximum advantage of shifting consumer trends.

Something to keep in mind as you wrap up your writing and begin the publishing process.

Have fun and keep writing

– Karl Schroeder 

Uncategorized

Ask the Book Doctor – Writing Flashbacks

Q: My question has to do with formatting. Is there a

standard way to insert a flashback? For example, should I

have an extra line space before and after the flashback?

Should I indent the flashback five spaces on both sides?

 

A: Formatting is not the only way to indicate a flashback;

it must also be handled with a narrative transition from

the present to the flashback and from the flashback back to

the present at the end. You can, however, also add a line

space before and after the transition, but do not indent on

both sides, which is a formatting device reserved for long

quotations. Do indent the beginning of each paragraph,

through.

 

What’s your question for Book Doctor Bobbie Christmas? Send

it today to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com.