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Talk Tech-y To Me

By Amanda Smyth Connor1stGen-iPad-HomeScreen

January 19th brought a wave of excitement as Apple announced their latest and greatest technology. Not only will they be selling iTextbooks (at $15 a pop) but they will be offering iBooks Author, a new self-publishing app that essentially allows authors to upload PDF’s, edit, complete layout and upload to the iBookstore.

This is clearly not the first self-publishing platform to emerge and it won’t be the last, but as an editor, I find myself a traitor to the cause for selfish reasons and not-so-selfish reasons.

Obvious questions arise that Apple has yet to address. How will they approve these new iBooks? Will they offer editing services? What requirements are there for content, layout, etc? What kind of reimbursement can writers expect from offering their books in this fashion and will Apple offer various packages that would include marketing or promotion?

Furthermore, will this lead to an increase or a decline in the quality of self-published books? I like to think that by enabling authors with better tools and resources, the quality will increase, but you have to wonder –  if the increase in the volume of new self-published uploads increases, will quality remain top priority, or will these self-published books look as messy as my Freelance-Zone posts? I shudder to think.

What are your thoughts on this buzz story?

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company, owns her own wedding planning business and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

advice, editorial

Jennifer Layton: Publishing Your Book, Part I

Well readers….as promised….part one of Jennifer Layton’s guest blog on publishing her book….enjoy! Tune in tomorrow for part two and more juicy details….

How to Deliver Your Own Baby

(In other words, how to self-publish your own book)

by Jennifer Layton

  

Before we get started, let me share a blog entry.  This is what I posted on the evening of October 17, 2008:

 

I did not expect to have a baby tonight. But at 5:30pm, I stopped by the post office after work, and Trap Door Confessional was in my arms. She is perfect. And this is where the baby analogy ends because I’m about to talk about putting it up for sale on the internet, and that’s kinda creepy.

 

Trap Door Confessional is my collection of humor essays about being single, turning 40, and just exactly how weird I am.  It really is my baby.  Since I’ve decided I don’t want to have actual children, this is my offering to the world – the spirit that I’m going to leave behind as my legacy. 

 

And just like having an actual baby, it was a decision I made with my heart instead of my head. I figured it would be expensive.  I didn’t really know how to go about it, and there are no books or classes that can prepare you for every single thing that can go wrong.  But I knew it was right.  And even though it wasn’t going to be Pulitzer material, I was meant to share my story with the world.  (Even if the world was a little put off by my insistence on referring to Pope Benedict as “Pope Benny and the Jets.”  I blame my Catholic upbringing for the strangest stuff in my book.)

 

Now that my book is published and for sale at Amazon (Order now! Makes a great stocking stuffer!), it’s time to sit back, sort through the aftermath, and figure out just how I managed to do this in the first place.  Continue reading Jennifer Layton: Publishing Your Book, Part I →