A Practical Guide to Publishing Books Using Your PC
Organising, Writing, Manufacturing & Marketing Your own Books
By Peter Domanski & Philip Irvine
ISBN 0952604337, (ISBN13 - 9780952604334)
2nd edition (2006) 185 pages A4 Softback, Normal Price: £19.95
Published in 2006, this book pre-dates the massive rise in ebooks and in social media sites and the effect that these have had on marketing and distribution – but as a sourcebook for the process of planning, writing, manufacturing and publishing your own books, this publication remains highly relevant.
For preview of the Table of Contents, Project Plan & Index download PDF
This is a comprehensive, practical guide on how to use your PC to publish books. We explain techniques for writing, printing, constructing, registering and marketing; how to use the Internet and create web pages for selling into national and international markets. We provide step by step plans for your publishing project with indicative timescales and realistic costs.
If you are considering self-publishing, whether for pleasure or profit, this will be an invaluable source of instruction and information to you. The main requirements to write and publish your work are determination and single-mindedness, but some basic experience of using PCs (e.g. familiarity with using a Word Processor such as MS Word) will be of help! We explain in straightforward terms, your options and describe tried and tested methods of manufacture, marketing and distribution - to suit a wide range of budget and levels of experience.
Registration, Printing, binding finishing & Print-on-Demand alternatives
We describe in detail, the complete publishing process including obtaining ISBN and registering your titles, and detail options and methods for home book production, including printing and binding techniques (e.g. spiral, staple, wire and perfect binding). We also discuss the pros and cons for less labour intensive alternatives including Internet 'Print-On-Demand' services such as Lulu).
Costs and Pricing Models
We consider production and distribution costs at length and give advice on pricing and the various sales and distribution models available to you - particularly how to retain as much of your cover price as you can without giving it all away to Internet POD services, distributors and retailers!
Marketing Books and eBooks
For effective book marketing, the Internet is now a must; but getting your book noticed is a a major challenge, so we describe ways of being listed by search engines - increasingly difficult these days as they become more commercialised. Traditional methods are not neglected - we discuss ways of advertising without avoid wasting money on ineffective campaigns and include methods for utilising free and low cost publicity. The importance of keywords on the Internet is emphasised and pay-per click advertising is introduced for targeting customers who increasingly use search engines to find information, goods and services. To maximise earnings, direct sales are to be encouraged and eCommerce can make your sales process simple for both conventional books and ebooks - we describe how this can be done for very little outlay.
Depth of Technical Guidance
For those of less experience we detail simple, inexpensive methods of book production and give 'project plans' to give an idea of the endeavours ahead and the scope of the whole publishing process.
For those with more experience of Desktop Publishing (DTP), we describe some less well-known techniques for getting the most out of your application, MS Word in particular. For the more ambitious self-publisher we describe the options for scaling up for higher volume production and describe equipment such as perfect binding machines, guillotines, shrink wrappers, etc. and how to find them at affordable prices.
Customer's Comments:
"I received a copy of the above book this morning and I'd just like to say - from a very brief perusal - that it is outstandingly good. - I've been looking for a book like this for months - it answers virtually every question I wanted to ask." J. Wright, Hampshire