Getting Started

Need help to get started? We've tried to gather useful links here, to aid you in your publishing journey.

  • Web Link Amazon: Getting Started with Kindle Direct Publishing

    If you don't already have a Kindle Seller's account, this direct link to Amazon will get you rolling!

  • Web Link Apple-Approved Aggregators

    The Book Designer & Publishers Lunch Daily recommend 8 different aggregators to begin selling your ebook through Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Apple iBookstores, etc.

  • Web Link Ebook Aggregators Comparison Chart

    "Publish Your Own Ebooks" explains what an ebook aggregator is and details the differences between 5 of the most popular.

  • Web Link Smashwords

    A free ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers, agents and readers, offering multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device (Does not publish to Amazon).

  • Web Link BookBaby

    An aggregator providing ebook publishing, distribution, conversion, cover design, printing, and website assistance for a fee.

  • Web Link Lulu

    An aggregator providing ebook publishing and marketing services.

  • Web Link InGrooves

    An ebook aggregator distributing to Sony, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and Apple ibookstores.

  • Web Link ISBN: RR Bowker

    Provides technical advice on uses of the ISBN standard to the publishing industry (official US representative). Publishes reference products such as Publishers Trade List Annual, Books in Print, and Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory. Also includes SAN and EAN Bookland Bar Code information.

  • Web Link Self-Published Author's Guide to Book Production

    Author/editor Amanda Rooker outlines a step-by-step print and ebook production process for the self-published.

  • Web Link US Copyright Office

    Sign up to register a copyright of a work.  You can use the Copyright Office's ECO system for registering your copyright online.  You can go here to find it:  http://bit.ly/gDAU9V or use the link that is the title of this article.  As of this writing, online registration is $35.00. 

  • Web Link Creative Minds Press: Publishing Start-Up Questions

    "I'm new to publishing. How do I get started?" Pertinent definitions, types of publishing, on forming a company and funding it, etc.

  • Web Link Creative Minds Press: ISBN, LCCN, CIP, SAN and other Alphabetical Considerations

    What is (ISBN/LCCN/CIP/SAN) and why do I need it?  This is a fabulous, informative article on the "alphabet soup" of categorization, and why you might want to use one or more of these.  

  • Web Link How to Register Your Copyright

    You can use the Copyright Office's online ECO system for registering your copyright online.  Only $35.00, and your ability to be recompensed for legal fees you spend to enforce your copyright is protected.  You can go here to the link below to find it.  Do you need an online step-by-step tutorial?  

    1.  Use the Copyright Office's online powerpoint tutorial to get going:  http://www.copyright.gov/eco/eco-tutorial.pdf, or,

    2.  You can use this step-by-step tutorial from Mediashift, PBS:  Click Here.  

  • Web Link eBookery 101: The Handbook

    We've recently created a Handbook for use by our new customers.  You can download it below, where you see the red link that says "Download BooknookBiz Handbook.pdf."   Please note:  this is not a "how to make your own ebook" handbook. 

    The Handbook comes in PDF format, and is easy to download and use.  It's not a "how-to" guide so much as a guide to what ebooks are; what they look like; what they can and can't do, and what you can expect your book to look like, and how it will function.  The Handbook is not meant to be read, front-to-back, like a novel, but is intended as more of a reference book.  Each section (Roman Numerals) speaks to a different aspect of ebooks and self-publishing.  If you click the "Bookmarks" icon on your PDF reader, it will open and display a fully-interactive, tree-style Table of Contents on the left-hand side, which will give you ease of navigation, and is fully searchable.  You can download the Handbook from our server by clicking the filename, at the bottom of the article. 

    Please be patient when you download it--it's a 5.5MB file, with a lot of helpful images and screenshots.  Thanks!  We hope you find it useful, no matter what company you choose to do your conversion. 

  • Web Link 28 Book Review Sites for the Self-Published Author

    Below is a list of 28 websites, ezines, and blogs, whose contributors post more in-depth reviews of featured books and ebooks. Again, the sites are ranked by Alexa number: the lower the number, the more popular the site. You can submit your work to all of them, although it goes without saying that a submission will not necessarily result in a review, favorable or otherwise!

     

     

    Give 'em a try, and let us know if any of these are particularly fabulous--or particularly bad.  We like to keep our clients and folks who drop by updated!  Thanks!

     

  • Web Link Jeffrey Marks--Intent to Sell: Publishing the Genre Novel

    So you’ve sold your novel.

     

    Congratulations. Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for the reviews and royalties to come rolling in, right? Not exactly. The process of promoting your own work should begin before the ink is dry on your contracts. I’m not going to talk about including promotional language in the contract with your publisher. It doesn’t matter if you’re publishing your first novel or bringing an entire series out in e-book format.

    So how do you make a splash when over 100,000 new books are published each year? How do you stand out when they are all vying for attention? Jeffrey Marks, the author of Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel, and the long time moderator of the Yahoo Group, Murder Must Advertise, can help. The book is in its fourth edition (courtesy of Booknook) and is the only book that helps genre authors (mystery, science fiction, romance and Westerns) find the keys they need to make their name stand out. Marks is internationally known as a marketer and has led seminars across the globe. His own works have been nominated for every major mystery award and has won the Anthony.

    First of course, you can purchase his book, Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel, as an e-book for $5.99 or a paperback at $12.99 using the following links:

    Kindle e-book: Click Here to Buy Me

    Paperback edition: Click Here to Buy Me

    If you’re hoping for more personalized services, Marks offers an e-mail course. The course consists of six lessons, which help you walk through the steps of creating the exact promotional items that a publicist would charge thousands for. He’ll read and critique the marketing materials that you create and suggest the best way to brand yourself as an author. He’ll look at the content on your website as well. The class runs six weeks, and each class only contains 6-10 students. You can share ideas with the other authors in the class or work 1-on-1 with the instructor. The six week course is just $75, well inside the budget of most authors.

    Finally, if you’re hoping for more individual services on social media and marketing your book, Marks offers a series of video courses on how to harness the power of social networking sites to sell more books. There will be a series of 5 20-30 minute videos and 1 30 minute Skype session on how to create an on-line presence that allows you to sell books more easily. This package is only $149.99 and includes a copy of Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel.

    Some additional resources:

    MurderMustAdvertise– the site has articles by authors on techniques that work

    The MMA Blog– more techniques by authors.

    The Crime Fiction Group on LinkedIn

    About Jeffrey Marks:

    Jeffrey Marks was born in Georgetown, Ohio, the boyhood home of Ulysses S. Grant. Although he moved with his family at an early age, the family frequently told stories about Grant and the people of the small farming community.

    At the age of twelve, he was introduced to the works of Agatha Christie via her short story collection, The Underdog and Other Stories. He finished all her books by the age of sixteen and had begun to collect mystery first editions.

    After stints on the high school and college newspapers, he began to freelance. After numerous author profiles, he chose to chronicle the short but full life of mystery writer Craig Rice.

    That biography (which came out in April 2001 as Who Was That Lady?) encouraged him to write mystery fiction. The Ambush of My Name is the first mystery novel by Marks to be published although he has several mystery short story anthologies on the market. He followed up with Atomic Renaissance: Women Mystery Writers of the 1940s/1950s and Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography.

    His work has won a number of awards including the an Anthony in 2009 for his Anthony Boucher biography, Barnes and Noble Prize, and he has been nominated for an Edgar (MWA), an Agatha (Malice Domestic), a Maxwell award (DWAA), and an Anthony award (Bouchercon). Today, he writes from his home in Cincinnati, which he shares with his dogs. Visit Jeff's website at: www.jeffreymarks.com/

    Jeff and his course (and, naturally, his novels!) are endorsed and recommend by: Booknook.biz

Phone Call Alert! 

(Please read, thanks.) 

Old Timey Switchboard Operator Cartoon

 

Due to the COVID-19 onslaught, we currently cannot take incoming phone calls.  

 

A notification about phone calls:  due to the COVID-19 plague, we've significantly increased our incoming inquiries--nearly double our usual volume--and the number of incoming inquiries by phone has been literally overwhelming.  Although most writers will say that their call "will only take 15 minutes," the truth is, that after 10 years of doing this, most author inquiry calls take an hour.  45 minutes at best. I'm currently receiving 7-10 calls/day, and due to that, I've had to stop accepting incoming phone calls, which my voicemail will tell you. You can leave a message--I can't call you back without one--and if a call is needed, I will of course call you.  But we have very complete and extensive email replies, handouts and our website is very informative. Almost all the questions that I receive during a call are actually already answered on our site, or are, in fact, publishing questions, not questions about our services, what we do, what we offer, or the like.  I already handle between 90-130 emails/day, as it is. I can't handle that many emails and take 7-10 hours of calls each day. I can't. So, in order to be able to answer this huge email volume, to help the greatest number of people, with my time, I've had to stop accepting calls.  I'm sorry, but that's just how it is. I'm in the process of setting up a call-appointment function, for free 15-minute calls to answer questions from new prospective customers and longer paid sessions for folks who generally want consulting on "publishing," generally (and for prospective kids' book publishers, as a special category of paid consulting).  But that functionality isn't yet set up. I hope to get that working the 3rd week of July, sometime.  

Thank you for your understanding.