Today we had our monthly meeting of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association (BAIPA). Attendance was good, discussion was lively, and our guest speaker gave an excellent presentation.
What struck me today, however, was the one-hour Question and Answer session that occupies the first part of our meetings.
“What should be in a press kit or press release?”
“What is a pre-publication reviewer?”
“What do you send pre-publication reviewers?”
“Do I need an ISBN if I’m only going to sell on Amazon?”
Pete Masterson, (author of Book Design and Production) leading the meeting, patiently answered these and many other questions from new and aspiring self-publishers. Sitting in the back, I wondered how much research had gone into this decision to be a publisher.
Publishing a book yourself is a pretty complicated endeavor. If you’ve never been in publishing before, there’s an entire vocabulary to learn. There are trade customs, conventions, layers of distribution, book design, methods of production, it goes on and on.
But for $13.57 you can answer all of these questions and many more, simply by buying the one book that every self-publisher should own: The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter. $13.57 is the price from Amazon as of this writing, I just checked because I wanted you to be able to order it right here. Just click the book to order. If you don’t own this book, do yourself a favor and order it today.
If you are a first-time publisher, this book will become your bible until, and well after, your book comes off the press.
Dan’s publishing calendar alone is worth the $13.57 in the time, planning, and collection of detail it would take to put this together. The Self-Publishing Manual is in its 17th edition and gets better with each revision.
When I became a self-publisher in 1986 I used my copy so much the pages fell out and I had to carry it with a rubber band around it.
If you’re serious about self-publishing, this book will help you organize the vast amount of information you are learning and plan the launch of your first book without uncertainty or guesswork. Get it today!