лллллллллллллллллллллллллллллл л THE SELF-PUBLISHING MANUAL л лллллллллллллллллллллллллллллл Many writers have taken advantage of the power of computers to create electronic editions of their work. However, creating an electronic book is only the first step in becoming a publish- er, even of the self-publishing variety. Okay, what's next? That is the question that self- publishers have always had to ask themselves upon completing their book. Fortunately, others have faced this question in the past and have found answers. One of those was Dan Poynter, the author of The Self-Publishing Manual. Years ago, Poynter wrote a technical book on parachutes which was too specialized for main- stream publishers, so he became a self-publisher. In the years since then Poynter has written numerous books, many on publish- ing, and he has distilled his experience into this how-to-do manual. Although The Self-Publishing Manual is directed at tradi- tional on-paper publishing, much of the information it contains is directly transferable to the new field of electronic publish- ing. Poynter guides the reader through all of the steps required to take a nebulous book idea through completion as a profitable publication. Poyntyer begins by discussing the advantages and disadvan- tages of self-publishing and other (non-electronic) publishing options. He then offers a general outline of the process of putting together a book. For those of us who are doing electron- ic publishing, these opening chapters are mostly of historical interest. The do, however, represent the foundations upon which we are building and should not be skipped. The real meat in Poynter's book begins whit the third chap- ter: Starting your own publishing company. He outlines the basics of starting a business, including some legal hurdles that must be jumped over: state and local licenses, sales taxes, and other such matters. These discussions are brief and should be viewed as stepping stones towards further investigations of these matters, not as a complete guide. Poynter's fourth chapter concerns printing a book on paper. Again, this material is of historic concern. We all know that paper publishing is obsolete technology. Next, he discusses various activities related to publishing housekeeping chores: International Standard Book Numbers, bar codes for books, Library of Congress Catalog Card numbers, Copyrights, and various agen- cies and companies that list published works. One important item you will want to think about is the price that you will set for your book. Poynter devoted a chapter to the factors that effect book prices. Basically, he recommends that books be priced at eight times the cost to produce the book. Applying this to electronic books, the list price for a book on one 360K disk would be $12.95 if packaged in the style used by Serendipity Systems, or $28.00 for a long book on two 1.44MB disks. (See the article on software packaging in FORUM, Vol. 8.) Remember, the list price is not necessarily what you will receive for each copy. Retailers will expect discounts of 40 to 60 percent or more. Software is often radically discounted. For example, when catalogs list WordStar (list price $495.00) for $99.00, this means that the publisher gets only ten or fifteen percent of the list price. You probably won't be required to offer such steep discounts, however. Serendipity Systems places a list price of $6.00 on 360K books and offers wholesalers a discount of forty-five percent on orders of twenty or more copies. Direct mail order sales of most of our books are auto- matically discounted for end users. Book promotion is the next topic that Poynter tackles. News releases, book reviewers, press kits, radio and television talk show promotions and other techniques are covered. How will your book get from publisher to reader? Distribu- tion methods get their own chapter. Information on wholesalers, distributors, book clubs, chain bookstores and other bookstores, library purchases, and other methods of moving books to the public are presented. Chapters on fulfillment--filling customers orders, computers for publishing (as they apply to on-paper publishing only), and "coping with being a publisher" constitute the last three chap- ters of this book. There is, however, an extensive appendix, and some of the most valuable information in the book will be found there. Dozens of books containing information on publishing will be found in the resource section. It also lists professional publishing associations, magazines and newsletters for writers, book reviewers, book wholesalers, postal information, government pamphlets and publications, chain bookstores, book clubs, and other names and addresses. If you are considering becoming a self-publisher of either an electronic or an on-paper book, you will be well advised to get a copy of The Self-Publisher's Manual. It is an excellent overview of the general issues that apply to publishing using the now out-of-date technology of paper, and it contains many ideas that can be applied to electronic publishing. Individual copies of this 416 page trade paperback book can be ordered from: Para Publishing P.O. Box 4232-199 Santa Barbara CA 93140-4232 for $19.95 plus $2.00 for shipping and $1.55 sales tax if shipped to a California address. PRESS the RIGHT ARROW (numeric keypad) for next file, or PRESS INS key to return to the INDEX MENU. To QUIT, return to the INDEX MENU, then enter 0 (zero). 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