In traditional publishing, who is the “vice-president of marketing” for a book?
Agents help authors find an editor. Editors sign authors for book deals and act as a project manager. Publicists market books to the world. In self-publishing, you must find a way to fulfill all these roles.
The typical amount of time a traditional publisher takes to publish a book, starting from the point you sign a contract, is:
Many traditional publishers have an established timeline of events. This workflow involves a lot of people making a lot of decisions about you and your book. One of the advantages of self-publishing is the ability to streamline this process by fulfilling the role as Author, Publisher, and Entrepreneur yourself.
What is the delivery charge for Kindle ebooks if you select the 35-percent royalty deal?
Kindle Direct Publishing only charges a delivery charge when you select the 70 percent royalty.
Who has not self-published a book?
Have you?
What percentage of total U.S. sales is ebooks?
The estimate for total book sales in the U.S. in 2011 was $27.1 billion. Only $2.1 billion of that was in ebook formats.
True or False: If you’re just creating an ebook, you should still occasionally print out your manuscript and edit copies on actual paper.
One of the marks of a good self-publisher is attention to detail. By printing out your book you will find errors you did not see in electronic formats.
The step in the book publishing process that you probably cannot do yourself is _________.
Don’t even try copy editing your own book. Seriously.
True or False: The goal of writing a book should be to establish yourself as a thought leader, speaker, author, or consulting expert.
The goal of writing a book is to add value to the reader’s life. While it’s true that some books add value to the author’s lives, this is only true when the book added value to people’s lives first.
Which service offers you, the author, the highest profits per book?
Gumroad is an online service that allows you to sell copies of your book directly. Because there is no middle man, there’s more profit for you. However, you must be able to drive people to Gumroad to buy the book.
When using the 70 percent royalty rate for Kindle Direct Publishing, what are the price limits of your book?
Prices outside of this range are automatically the 35 percent royalty rate. If you choose the 70 percent royalty rate, Kindle Direct Publishing deducts a delivery fee from the royalty.
What is the de-facto standard word processor for writing books?
Microsoft Word is what you should use to write a book. Get over it. No other Word processor comes close, and almost every other person involved in the “book publishing process” use it.
What is a good reason not to use Microsoft Word to write your book?
Like we said, get over it.
On what platforms can people read a Kindle ebook?
You really can read a Kindle ebook on almost every computer, smart-phone, and tablet device.
What royalty percentage is paid to the author from the iBookstore?
Apple likes things simple, authors get a 70 percent royalty rate for books. There is no charge for delivery.
Contracts, royalties, and accounts for the iBookstore are managed through what service or application?
You can access the iTunes Connect portal at http://itunesconnect.apple.com
Books are uploaded and managed for the iBookstore through what service or application?
iTunes Producer is available as a free download from the iTunes Connect portal after registering as an iBookstore content provider.
True or False: You can sell Multi-Touch iBooks outside of the iBookstore
You must sell all Multi-Touch iBooks through the iBookstore. However, you can give away copies for free or sell PDFs generated with iBooks Author.
Which of the following is NOT a royalty tier for Barnes & Noble’s PubIt service?
For prices between $2.99 and $9.99, Barnes & Noble pays a 65-percent royalty
Which of the following services does NOT accept a Word document for conversion?
The iBookstore requires that you upload an EPUB (for normal iBooks) or an iBOOKS file (for Multi-Touch books). Google Play allows you to upload EPUB or PDF, but if you upload PDF the ebooks will be forced to a static page layout (EPUB is required for free-flow text).
Which of the following services does NOT sell your book as an EPUB to readers (after conversion)?
Kindle Direct Publishing distributes and sells books in the MOBI format.
Which of the following file formats is not supported as an input format for conversion with Calibre?
Calibre does not accept Word files. If you want to use Calibre to create a file from Word, you need to export the Word file as HTML of PDF first.
Which of the following is not an author-services company?
Lightning Source is a print-on-demand company and does not offer author services. When working with Lightning Source, you should be prepared to fill the role of publisher and just use Lightning Source as a printer.
True or False: If you are only publishing your book with Kindle Direct Publishing, you must buy an ISBN.
If you only plan on selling your book through Kindle Direct Publishing, you don’t need to buy an ISBN. Amazon will assign your book an ASIN, an Amazon unique identifier. If you want to sell a printed book, or an ebook in any other online-reseller platform, however, you need to buy at least one ISBN.
True or False: You need a separate ISBN for each format (or platform) of an ebook.
All versions of your ebook should have the same ISBN. You will, however, need separate ISBNs for each print variation (hardcover, softcover, audio, etc.).
Which of the following are the three pillars of building an online brand?
Read Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki.
True or False: When you are trying to build your brand and someone comments on your post to disagree with you, it is important that you never back down and reassert your opinion to demonstrate a unique knowledge and experience in the field you represent.
Take the high road. You can never win or come out looking like the good guy if you engage trolls.
True or False: Social-media has completely replaced the need for traditional PR firm to introduce a book.
Digital is changing everything, and there is certainly a lot of power behind social-media, but experience shows that traditional PR still sells books. This is true even if you have a few million followers.
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0 to 9: You are a dinosaur, but there is hope! Read APE, take notes, and try again!
10 to 14: Read APE, and you’re good to go.
15 to 20: Skim APE, and you’re good to go.
21 to 26: You are an APE and ready to self-publish your book.
27: Jeff Bezos should hire you. (You could write a book about self-publishing)
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