Earlier this week we talked about How Not to Get Overwhelmed: The Book Cover Design, and I felt like something was missing. Yesterday I listened in on a webinar hosted by Joseph Michael and featuring Mike Balmaceda that discussed making your book cover the best it can be to sell your story. That’s when it dawned on me what I’d forgotten to add when we discussed cover design! Color! I wanted to give you one more bit of info whether you plan to design your own cover or commission one.

Colors Matter

I have always enjoyed the feel of colors, and any time I’ve asked for feedback on the various covers I’ve designed the response often comes with an emotional connection of some sort. There is something about colors that attract and repel us, and they also convey a sense of emotion, which as writers and indie publishers we…

This is the fifth article in the series: How Not to Get Overwhelmed with Indie Publishing. Below is the list, including links to the subjects we’ve already covered. Today’s topic is Copyright. We’ll be focusing on US, though, because that’s where I live. It will be purely informational since copyright involves law, and I do not give legal advice.

• Acquiring Beta Readers
• Editing/Editor Considerations
• Book Cover Design
• The Back Cover Synopsis & Author Bio
• Copyright (US)
• Paper & Ebook Publishing Platforms (mainly US)
• ISBN (and bar code (US))
• Ebook Formatting
• Paperback and Hardbound Formatting
• Uploading Your Book to One or Various Platforms
• Marketing Strategies

Here’s the symbol

Here are the codes for various uses of the copyright symbol:

http://www.alt-codes.net/copyright_alt_code.php

Here’s the definition of Copyright from Merriam-Webster:

“the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work)”

This is the sixth article in the series: How Not to Get Overwhelmed with Indie Publishing. Below is the list, including links to the subjects we’ve already covered. Today’s topic is publishing platforms. These apply to most countries for accessibility as far as I know, but since most of my research has been about my own publishing, some of the info I share may only be useful to US authors.

• Acquiring Beta Readers
• Editing/Editor Considerations
• Book Cover Design
• The Back Cover Synopsis & Author Bio
• Copyright (US)
• Paper & Ebook Publishing Platforms (mainly US)
• ISBN (and bar code (US))
• Ebook Formatting
• Paperback and Hardbound Formatting
• Uploading Your Book to One or Various Platforms
• Marketing Strategies

Main Types of Book Formats

1. ebook
   1. epub
   2. mobi
   3. pdf; etc.
2. paperback
   1. varying sizes
   2. I prefer 5.25 x 8
3. hardbound
   1. varying sizes
   2. I prefer 6×9

Depending on how you plan to make your book available you…

Sorry there’s been such a delay in getting on to the next chunk of this indie publishing break down! Life has been full. But you might be struggling with this whole ISBN business. I want to help you as much as I can. Here in the US, we have to buy our ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers). In some countries you do not, like Canada. It’s currently December, so I don’t recommend moving there right now. . . .

If you’ve missed any of the previous articles in the How Not to Get Overwhelmed with Indie Publishing series, here is the list of what we have been and are covering:

• How to Make Your Big Goal Manageable
• Acquiring Beta Readers
• Editing/Editor Considerations
• Book Cover Design
  • Extra: The Importance of Color in Cover Design
• The Back Cover Synopsis & Author Bio
• Copyright (US)
• Paper & Ebook Publishing Platforms (mainly US)
  • VIDEO:…

As it’s my one hundredth and eleventy fifth birthday today, I thought I might do a quick check. There is an old joke about a Jewish man being knocked down by a car and when he gets up he blesses himself by making the sign of the cross. The driver of the car at first checks that the man is not hurt and when he discovers that the man he hit is uninjured, the confusion hits him.

“You’re Jewish?” He enquires, observing the obvious from the man’s attire.  When the man tells him that he is indeed Jewish, the driver of the car then asks why he blessed himself to which the Jewish man answers,

“Bless myself? I didn’t bless myself! I was just checking.”  The driver asks what he was checking.

“Spectacles, testicles, heart and wallet”

I’m a bit like that these days.   As the years pass, I have…