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Although I’ve been publishing books for decades, I haven’t been doing much of it recently. Too busy writing about publishing, I guess.
There are many book projects scattered on my hard drive in various stages of completion, but as I’ve said before, a book isn’t always the best way to distribute content. There are so many choices these days, and that’s great for readers, don’t you think?
But when my friend Betty Sargent (Bookworks) suggested that we collaborate on a resource guide for self-publishers, I jumped on board immediately.
Why?
What Self-Publishers Are Asking About
Like others with book publishing experience, I get asked a lot of questions by writers who have become interested in publishing and marketing their own books.
And like everyone else, the one thing I get asked more than any other is simply this:
“Where can I find (insert job description here) who can help me get my book published?”
And hey, I get it.
Maybe you’ve got a highly skilled technical job, or maybe you’re in government service, that’s your day job.
How would you know where to find a developmental editor?
So this whole issue of finding good contractors to work with becomes a source of anxiety and discomfort, taking hours or days or weeks of research and evaluation.
That’s why Betty’s idea really appealed to me: to create the “ultimate” resource guide for self-publishers.
What’s In The Book
We’re publishing later this week but the ebook is available right now for preorder for Kindle.
Here’s what you’ll find inside, and why this project was destined to be an ebook:
We broke down the publishing process for the sake of reference into three main parts:
- Prepare
- Publish
- Promote
Then within each part we set up categories (a total of 33 of them) to hold listings of companies and individual vendors, complete with
- a short blurb giving a little information about the listing
- the person responsible for the site or business where appropriate
- email addresses where available as live links
- website addresses as live links
- phone numbers where available
All alphabetically arranged.
I can’t wait to start getting this Resource Guide into people’s hands. It’s got over 850 curated and verified links. Hey, it may cost me a lot of income because people will cancel their consulting sessions, but so be it.
For years I’ve worked, along with other professionals, to help educate authors to take advantage of the great tools for publishing and distribution we have now. Without falling into the hands of scammers and rip-off artists.
The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide could end up being the best effort of all. And it’s only $7.99.
How You Can Help
I love the community of writers, designers, editors, artists, and authors who read this blog. It’s a joy to be able to keep supplying high-quality content that helps thousands of authors get into print and have fun doing it.
Now I’d like to ask something from you.
Help me get the word out about this new book. It’s going to save lots of people time, energy, and frustration.
We’d love to start off with a pile of preorders, that would be terrific. And we’d love it if you would help spread the word by letting other people know about the book.
It’s got links to every product, service, or kind of vendor you might need to self-publish. It’s going to be awesome.
Watch for my post on publication day, this Thursday, with all the details, links to retailers, and an incredible launch offer you just won’t believe. I’ll also share some of the amazing responses we’ve been getting from industry leaders and early reviewers, and a complete list of contents.
I promise you won’t be disappointed.
So help me out. Go do your preorder now. Here’s the link: The Self-Publisher’s Ultimate Resource Guide Preorder—Do It Today!
(And if you do, here’s a hint: save a copy of your receipt, you’re going to need it.)
As I am not a US resident – I live in Australia- I’m wondering how much would be relevant to us here in OZ?
Awesome!
Sounds like this book really hits it out of the park!
Looking forward to getting it :-)
Of course I shared the link everywhere I could.
Thanks so much Mgon, I think it’s going to help a lot of people.
I can’t wait!
Looks like you shot it right up the charts in one day, getting up to #5,320 right now, and #1 in Directories, #2 in Publishing & Books, and #8 in Catalogs & Directories.
Pretty dang good! I wish there was a Look Inside. Maybe there will be in a day or two, or maybe they just don’t do that on preorders.
Yep, as far as I can tell they don’t offer the Look Inside feature for preorders. It should be automatic for Kindle based on my research so that is likely to be available come publishing date.
Sounds great Joel – I promoted your article across all my social media channels. Would be great if you could put a link for other Amazon sites for your friends outside of USA. I use a great site called Georiot that enables you to have one URL that then forwards your reader to whichever Amazon site is appropriate based on their geographic location.
Thanks for the tip, Hazel, we’re looking into it now.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on our service. Feedback, good or bad, is always great. Thanks and good luck!
Sounds like an amazing resource for writers, Joel! Best of luck to you and Betty with the launch!
Thanks, Shelley, and thanks for all your help moving this project to completion.
Just preordered it on Amazon. I guess my receipt would be the confirmation of order from Amazon? :)
I’m sure this will be a terrific resource. Thanks, Joel, and best with the launch.
Joel shame on you – how do you expect to inspire writers if you can’t spell ‘Peek’!
As in a sneak peek – not as in mountain. Tut tut. And please stop using ‘Awesome’ it’s for kids.
Good luck with your literary endeavours – not ‘endevors’ or endevours – anyway…
LOL!! I just HATE nit-pickers, don’t you? Actually, I love them. I have a young friend who very much emulates what I once called “Grammar Nazis”, and unkind term, to be sure, but now I consider the finger pointing a crucial element in alerting any writer that laziness or failure to pay strict attention to detail does not get better with practice, it gets worse. I am reminded of the stern attitude described in Strunk and White’s ‘Elements Of Style’. Composition is not an easy skill to master, but it is not brain surgery, where a slip can kill the patient. You can always go back and correct errors. It is not easy. Long days produce blurring vision in me and lazy habits, but that is no excuse. Few people ever notice perfect composition, but everyone sees mistakes. There are probably several in here. :)
Yes, you’re probably right. And blogging on an almost-daily basis doesn’t leave much time for editing or proofreading. Having said that, I think the writers here and our editorial directory Shelley Sturgeon do a great job of keeping the errors in check. That leaves me, and sadly, I have no excuse. However, I’ve corrected the error, so thanks for your input Ben.
Well, right your are Bob. Proof that I stayed up waaay too late getting this article ready to post. Corrected now, thanks for taking the time to correct me, I really appreciate it.
Thanks Mirtika, much appreciated. Yes, the order confirmation is what you’ll need, I’ll explain it all on Thursday.