By guest writer/editor Rosie McKinlay

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for book lovers. With only a few days between the Publisher’s Association of the West (PubWest) conference last week and Wordstock Festival the previous weekend, our city has been a frenzy of reading material since the month began, even more so than usual.

“What are you doing this weekend?”

“Oh, I’m going to be a panelist at the PubWest Conference.”

2008’s PubWest conference was held at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel, which was temporary home for publishers from all over the country. For the last session of this year’s conference, publisher Gibbs Smith hosted a question and answer session with college and high school–aged students about our reading habits, our likes and dislikes, and our thoughts on new wordy technological advances (the Kindle™ reading device was a hot topic.) How special did I feel to have this honor? Extremely. With a name tag and a microphone, I felt at one with the publishing world. And though the sound of my own voice magnified across the Pacific Northwest Ballroom was alarming, I felt surprisingly comfortable. The audience was welcoming, and it was fun to offer my/our brains for the picking. And then they fed us!

For an aspiring editor, the networking opportunities were bountiful, and I hope to attend the conference next year.

If you went to Wordstock Festival 2008, there’s a good chance you left in a state of literary bliss with a bag full of McSweeney’s magazines, small press business cards, and clever bookmarks (book dart, anyone?). The great thing about Wordstock is the sheer volume you are exposed to. Plop down at any stage at any time and you can’t avoid enlightenment. Wander the rows of booths and become a publication expert in a matter of hours. I volunteered on the Author Team this year and was blessed with the opportunity to escort the likes of John Hodgeman and Jonathan Coulton from the VIP room to the Powell’s Stage.

Volunteering is a fantastic way to really feel the festival, to understand how much work goes into it and how important an event like this is. I recommend it for Wordstock 2009. There is a variety of jobs that get you inside all aspects of Wordstock—from the information booth to the sound booth. Whether you wish to hobnob with the authors themselves or just to discover one who will become a favorite, Wordstock has something for everyone. A good time for all or your (mere) five dollars back.

The bookworms of Portland have gone home to read for now, but isn’t it lovely to live in a city that houses events like Wordstock and the PubWest conference? And isn’t it nice to know that the book, in whatever form, is alive and well?

As much as we believe in exploring new ways to spread the written/published word, we still believe in the effectiveness of some good, old-fashioned, voluntary feedback. A little communication can go a long way toward achieving desirable results for all, and we intend to offer just that to the hard-working planners of Wordstock. In fact, we want to get a direct response from them in our next newsletter in a few weeks.

In the meantime, we invite you to do your part by participating in this short, 8-question survey about your Wordstock experience. Consider it the first step in getting to know each other while contributing to a good cause—the spread of book love and peace and maybe even dibs on those cool lil’ Wordstock buttons next year! Just click on the link below, and follow the directions.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228JU2X8NRX

Thanks for your extra efforts (in advance), and please stay tuned for the results in our next newsletter.

By Jen Weaver-Neist

So, you’re down to the wire with getting your Wordstock booth and/or networking materials in order, but you’ve been so darn busy, right? There’s always something that requires our attention in this business, and many of us are quite familiar with wearing a variety of publishing hats. Yes, I could start my local shopping plug with area chiropractors and massage therapists, who’d make a sweet living on treating us for the pain and strain of these hats on our spines—maybe even as much as costume companies made on Governor Palin costumes this Halloween!

There’s no need to fear or to feel badly, as now is the perfect opportunity for you to branch out into the local neighborhood to tap those friendly resources just down the street. (We’ve talked about the benefits of this before!) With the economy being what it is, and with many of our jobs employing laborers overseas, you can consider this a bailout package that actually supports the local marketplace while spreading the goodwill of days gone by. After all, Portland’s Joe the Printer needs to eat, too!

Just last week, I connected with a digital printing company that is literally 300 steps away from our offices (150 if chased). Precision Digital Printing offers a quick turnaround and a witty staff (just ask for Derek), in addition to affordable, quality printing. You can get 250 (4 over 4) business cards very reasonably priced, and 200 (4 over 1) postcards are just as cost effective (you have to call them directly if you wish to end the suspense with actual prices: 503.542.4433). If you want proofs, it’s a little extra, but that’s not too shabby! Derek just asks that you kindly remember that there are some limitations with digital versus offset. For instance, with the machines being fed single sheets of paper instead of being fed from a roll, there can be some shifting during printing and trimming. Slight shift or not, for a turnaround of 24 to 48 hours on a dime, how can you go wrong?

And here’s another deal we just learned about. Phoenix Media, also in SE Portland, is running a November special that will make your day. For five nonperishable food items (to be donated to Oregon Food Bank), they will print 250 full-color, one-sided business cards FREE! If you can live with one side of info, this is both a winning deal as well as a worthwhile cause.

Banners and foam core signs are two large-scale perks that can draw booth traffic like a new Krispy Kreme location on opening day, and you still have time for getting one of these through local companies like Signs By Tomorrow (yet another neighborhood resource near Ink & Paper Group). Again, the turnaround is 24 to 48 hours, and the price is right (prices vary with size). As long as you allow at least 24 hours for adequate drying, you’re set!

Growing up in a small town, I learned the benefits of local business in comparison to those of chain stores and convenient Internet resources. I’ve also witnessed the loss of local character and the boarding up of downtown stores as residents flocked to the “low, low prices” of the new superstore in what was Joe the Farmer’s cornfield. And while I support a global economy, I still believe in the ripple effect of a strong local economy. (OK. Using that Krispy Kreme reference earlier was hypocritical, and even though I admit to enjoying the southern-born Krispy Kreme doughnut on occasion, I refuse to savor more than 90 percent of it on principle.)

In conclusion, whether it’s Wordstock or any other occasion that requires outside resources, I invite you to first consider the old-fashioned investment of shopping locally. It’s convenient, environmentally friendly, neighborly, and probably more hygienic (results may vary). If nothing else, it’s yet another chance for you to “accidentally” leave one of your books in a public (nonreturnable sales) place, and for that, I’ll head for the reliable shop next door anytime!

We look forward to seeing you this weekend at PDX’s annual book festival! Wordstock hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both Saturday (11/8) and Sunday (11/9) at the Portland Convention Center, and you can find us at booth #353. The entrance fee is only $5, and there will be plenty to do once you arrive. Go to the Wordstock website for a complete listing of events. In the meantime, here are the top five reasons for stopping by to see us!

1. BIKE GIVEAWAY: For those already on our newsletter mailing list and for those yet to sign up, we invite you to come by to drop off your business card and enter to win a *NEW* step-through, 20″ Trek 7100 ($300+ value), which is no longer available in this size or in these colors. There are only two items to note: (1) you must stop by to enter the drawing, even if you’re already on our mailing list, and (2) you will have to pay a local bicycle shop to properly adjust the bike before it is ready to ride. We will announce the winner in the next issue of Inside Ink.

2. PREMIERE OF I&PG CUSTOM BOOKS: It’s official! We’re ready to properly introduce our custom publishing program for nonprofits, businesses, and individuals. Our Partnership Books division for nonprofits is of particular importance to us, as we wish to share our publishing knowledge for the betterment of the community in the form of a classic, 24/7 advocate—a book!

3. HATE MAIL IS BURSTING ITS EFFIN’ COVERS: The ever-popular Jean Luc the Cat has been on the prowl for more places to leave his signature mark, landing one more insult just in time for Wordstock. Come to see him and his new American Apparel t-shirts, which will be selling at a festival special of $15 (normally priced $16.95).

4. COOL BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS: Our diverse family of books will be present and available for sale at friendly festival discounts. You’ve heard about all of them before, but here are a few links to familiarize yourself again: Kid Beowulf and the Blood-Bound Oath, Visibility, Keeper of Secrets, nothing but squares, and Hate Mail. We’ll also be offering a sneak peak at what’s coming in December.

5. WE’RE A UNIQUE & FUN CROWD: Distinctive imprints + varied personalities (much like those of the Spice Girls [you can decide who's who]) + a captive audience = a booth worth visiting. Come experience the Ink & Paper phenomenon for yourself! We promise not to disappoint.

By guest writer/editor Rosie McKinlay

We’ve all been waiting for November 4. This year’s campaign has been a stressful one, regardless of who your choice presidential hopeful is. And as the tension rises, there seems to be an unspoken sense of exhausting tedium. Now that the end result is mostly out of our hands (but if you haven’t mailed your ballot yet, get it to the closest drop box this instant!) and the politician-endorsed TV ads are really starting to grate, why not take a deep breath and get a literary perspective on the matter? There are several biographies in the works and already on the market, among them a few of the independent persuasion.

To start, let’s talk Palin. Despite how you may feel about her policies and views, I think everyone can admit she’s intriguing. To keep up with her sudden appearance on the campaign trail, Zondervan, a division of Harper Collins, published a book written in just three weeks, Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader. Portland’s own KenArnold Books recently released a satirical e-book called The Palin Prophecies: Apolcalypstic Now!, written by fictional author Brent Mooseburger. Also on the local front, the Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company managed to get an additional 40,000 copies of Kaylene Johnson’s Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down on the market. The book was originally published last spring, before Palin was announced as McCain’s vice presidential candidate.

Of the candidates and their running mates, Joe Biden has spent the least time in the spotlight. This appears to be the case for published works by and about him as well, despite his long career in politics. His book, Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics (Random House) is worth having a look at. There is also a biography available through Amazon Digital Services called, Joseph Biden: From Scranton to Wilmington.

John McCain’s autobiography, Faith From My Fathers: A Family Memoir (Harper) is said to be chock full of well-written tales of the republican’s life—you may know some of them already if you watched the debates. If you’re into graphic novels, Badger Comics has released one about McCain called Presidential Material: John McCain by Andy Helfer.

As you may know, Barack Obama is no stranger to the written word. Some of his published works include Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Crown), The Audacity of Hope (Vintage), and Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama’s Plan to Renew America’s Promise (Three Rivers Press). Author Bob Kuttner recently wrote a book, Obama’s Challenge: America’s Economic Crisis and the Power of Transformative Policy, which was picked up by Chelsea Green Publishing, an independent company. It is available on Amazon as a print-on-demand book. In a recent online article for The American Prospect: Liberal Intelligence, Kuttner explains his reasoning for going indie: “As an independent, [Chelsea Green] is lighter on its feet, and could turn this book around very fast.”

So turn off the news, get away from the negative slanderous muck, and get to know the candidates and their running mates by way of one of these titles. After all, they’re just people too. And perhaps, on Tuesday evening, as the ballots are counted, you can accept the results with a sense of knowing calm.

By guest writer Mary Artz

Noah Brockman, a business advisor at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) hosted by Portland Community College, stopped by Inside Ink this week to lend his virtual shoulder to cry on, to spread his wealth of wisdom, and to toss a proverbial life preserver to you and your indie publishing business during these unpredictable times.

He cites these Top 5 (recent) Concerns of Small Businesses:

1. Decreased revenues compared to last year at this time. Solution: Increase sales, lower operating expenses, or increase gross profit margins. Suggestion: Ask yourself, “How can I make my company more efficient?” Cut costs on book shipping and warehousing—scrutinize your operation logistics. Work with authors who have a budget, start-up $$$, and/or their own marketing and promotional plans. Often, authors already have relationships within their book’s niche. Research and develop this market to enhance your product’s worth.
2. How do I drive sales? You may feel as though your product has tapped the market domestically, so develop a foreign rights plan. Consider cross promotion; it’s a great way to split the bill. Send your book (but not yourself) to valuable trade shows via the Independent Book Publisher’s Association.
3. As existing sales slow, people start considering, “What else can I sell or produce?” Before choosing new products or services, perfect what you already have and leverage existing products. Perhaps you could convert some of your titles into audio books or e-books. Hone in on your specific market; concentrate your energy and monies there. Consider marketing to libraries or marketing your book as a textbook. Get creative about reaching professors and the academic market. Look for ways to differentiate your book from the competition. Apply for awards! They’re a great addition to any press release. Optimize meta-data (tags), and visit bowkerlink.com and booksinprint.com. Do an audit of what your books look like and enhance them. This will allow book buyers to find your product more easily. Consider Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow, where he advises small business owners to put their marketing budget into product development; push yourself to make an exceptional product.
4. Access to capital (bank loans, lines of credit). See #1 and tighten those bootstraps. Cut excess costs, and work with what you have.
5. Fear: don’t let it overrule you. Prevent yourself from being consumed by the fear of global economic crisis. Right now, information about our tumbling economic crisis is proliferating across the media. Fear sells newspapers and makes ominous sound bites for the evening news. Focus on managing a responsible business within its means and, as Tim Ferriss suggests in his book 4-Hour Work Week, “practice a low-information diet and unplug from CNN.” Shift spending from wants to needs. Perhaps consider less hardcover copies and more paperbacks.

You can survive this! Just remember to stay focused and to stay the course. And if you need further assistance or information, please call or visit one of Oregon’s nineteen Small Business Development Centers. The SBDC provides many pro bono services, including one-on-one business counseling. You can contact the PCC branch at 503.978.5000.

Noah Brockman holds an MBA from the University of Portland’s Pamplin School of Business, and, in addition to being an SBDC Business Advisor, he owns and operates PointMan Consulting, LLC.

© 2008 Mary Artz

By guest writer Tom McCluskey

Welcome back to the world of e-book design! Last time, we talked about the necessity of mutable design for e-books, specifically about the need for things like reflowable text and proportional rather than static margins. Today, we’ll be looking at how to achieve that mutability of design.

Fortunately for us, web pages are already built with this root of flexibility in mind. In fact, most e-book formats are based in XML, a language that allows you to build your own markup languages. The most widely-known of these markup languages is HTML, the language that web pages are built in.

So what is a “markup language?” Essentially, it is a language that allows you to assign semantic meaning to text. For example, when using HTML, you can use the <h1> </h1> tags around a term to mark that term as a primary header. While this will usually result in that term being set in large print and perhaps bolded, that is not the primary intent of the tags. Those tags are there to let the computer know that that term is a primary header, and what follows that header is related to that term, at least until another <h1> </h1> tag set is encountered. This is particularly important to know if you think that search engines might be interested in checking out your e-book, as proper tagging will allow search engines to provide more meaningful results and better matches to people using those search engines.

HTML and other markup languages, then, are not used to change the layout of a manuscript, though they will do that to a minimal degree. Instead, they are used to define the parts of a manuscript, saying things like “This is a paragraph but this is a chapter header, and this section here is a block quote.” In order to change the layout, we borrow another tool of the Web: style sheets. Cascading style sheets, or CSS, are where the lion’s share of the layout information of any modern website is. Essentially, you use a style sheet to tell your browser or other e-book reading device “I want the text to be in 12-point Arial, except that the chapter headers should be 18-point Papyrus and the block quotes should be indented and set in italic.” You can also define text and background images, colors (though colors, of course, will not work on black-and-white screens), and many other aspects of design. However, most e-book formats use only a portion of CSS, so it is not as powerful as it is on the web.

And this brings us to the different formats of e-books that are available today. A quick glance at Wikipedia will show that there are many different options available; at the time of writing this, there are over two dozen. Many of these formats are a bit too limited for one reason or another, however. Plain text files, for example, are very flexible but contain no formatting information other than line breaks, which make for an unsatisfactory reading experience. By contrast, PDF files offer too much format and not enough flexibility—there is no reflowability of text. Other formats are outdated, not widely used, or too proprietary.

Two of the biggest formats at the moment are epub and Mobipocket. Epub is a nonproprietary format developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum. It is based on XML, so it offers excellent flexibility. And because it is nonproprietary, it doesn’t lock readers into using a single device. It is a relatively new format but is gaining a lot of support. Of particular interest to publishers, in late July Sony opened up their Reader to epub files, so people with Sony Readers will be able to read e-books in epub format.

Mobipocket is another XML-based format. In contrast to the months-old epub, it has been around since 2000. While it is nonproprietary, the company was purchased in April of 2005 by Amazon, and Amazon uses a DRMed version of the Mobipocket format on the Kindle. The Kindle can also read a standard Mobipocket file, though it cannot read one that has been encrypted with Mobipocket DRM.

Both epub and Mobipocket can be read on personal computers; the Mobipocket Reader is available for free download from Mobipocket.com, and Adobe has recently released Digital Editions, which reads both Adobe’s own reflowable PDF files and epub documents. In addition, both epub and Mobipocket can be secured with Digital Rights Management should you wish to (and I’ll leave it to Cory Doctorow to explain why that’s a bad idea). Again, though, the Kindle cannot read files that have been secured with Mobipocket’s DRM system—Kindle files have their own version of the Mobipocket DRM that is just different enough to make them unreadable.

Creation of Mobipocket files is, for the moment, somewhat easier than creation of epub files. Mobipocket has a free Creator tool that allows you to easily create e-books from a number of different sources, including HTML and epub files. Epub is a new enough format that there are far fewer tools available for it, but Bookglutton.com has developed a web page that will convert HTML to epub. Your other option is to consult Harrison Ainsworth’s epub Format Construction Guide to make your epub files by hand, but be warned that it’s not for the faint of heart.

Creating your own epub or Mobipocket file is great if you are distributing e-books yourself, but if you are interested in selling on Amazon.com or Sony’s e-book store, you’ll need to submit your e-book to those companies. Sony’s submission site for publishers is now up and running, and they accept several different file formats. Amazon’s Digital Text Platform also accepts submissions in a number of different file formats. These large online stores certainly expose your e-book to a much larger market, but they take a very large slice of the money you make (Amazon takes 65 percent of the cover price from each sale).

There are, of course, many other formats and many other options available; this article is by no means exhaustive. Now that you’ve gotten your feet wet, follow the links and explore the world of e-book publishing. Like any high-tech field, it is rapidly changing, and there’s no telling what the next Big Thing will be. Whatever happens to e-books, though, it’s bound to be a fascinating ride.

For more of Tom’s helpful musings, please visit his blog at tom-mccluskey.com.

© 2008 Tom McCluskey

By guest writer/editor Rosie McKinlay

Western Fiction is a genre you don’t hear much about these days. Its popularity may have peaked in the 1960s, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead, not by a long shot.

I knew little of these Old West tales (by definition, Western Fiction covers the years between 1860 and 1900) and thought of them as nothing more than special interest collector’s books that were no longer being produced. Turns out, I was way off target.

I had the opportunity to read submissions from the Idaho Writers League Conference, which was held in Idaho Falls last month. Many of these courageous authors are ignoring the stigma attached to Historical Fiction in these oh-so-modern times and capturing the essence of a wild west that should never be forgotten.

And guess what? There are several publishing firms in the USA that are seeking this very genre. Sounds like the Old West is making a comeback!

Here’s a brief list of companies that list Western Fiction in their submission guidelines:

For Books:
Kensington Publishing Corp.? (www.kensingtonbooks.com)
Forge Books? (http://us.macmillian.com/forge)
Five Star Press ?(www.gale.cengage.com/fivestar)
Tres Picos Press ?(www.trespicospress.com)
Harcourt Trade Publishers ?(www.harcourtbooks.com)
Wheatmark Publishing? (www.wheatmark.com)
Bantam Dell Publishing Group? (www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell)
Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster? (www.simonsays.com)

Other:
Roundup Magazine, Western Writers of America ?(www.westernwriters.org/roundup.html)
Virtual Tales eBooks ?(www.virtualtales.com)

© 2008 Rosie McKinlay

By guest writer Tom McCluskey

At first glance, e-books may seem just one short step removed from the electronic files used in publishing. After all, once the book has gone through editing and design, it is usually in a PDF or InDesign format. Why not just package that up and put it on the Internet as an e-book?

The answer to that question is that e-books require a different design paradigm than standard printed work, because with e-books we can never quite be sure how the book we have published is being read. Consider three persons reading the same “traditional” book: a commuter on the train on the way home from work, a child reading by flashlight under the covers after bedtime, and a student relaxing with a book in a coffee shop. The book they read is perhaps 5½” by 8½”, with black text on white or off-white paper and a fixed number of lines per page. Page 44 for the student will be page 44 for the commuter and page 44 for the child.

E-books, however, are completely different in that one person may download an e-book to read on his Sony Reader, while another may view the same book on her iPhone, and still a third person may be using his desktop computer’s 22-inch monitor. These devices have quite different screen resolutions, screen sizes, and overall appearances, which means that the notion of fixed book design needs to go out the window to avoid the very real risk of creating e-book content that is not viewable on some devices. A PDF file of an 8 ½” by 11″ document, for example, would be larger than the Sony Reader’s screen and far larger than the iPhone’s.

In order to deal with this issue, e-books must either be designed individually for each specific e-book reading platform (a project so massive in scope that it would not be surprising to learn that it was never-ending, as more platforms are added faster than old ones can be designed for), or they must be flexible enough to fit any platform. Reflowability of text is one of the most crucial elements to ensure this flexibility. In essence, text must be able to flow by itself, much as text on web pages will shuffle itself about in order to fit on the page as width changes. And this, of course, leads to many consequences for editors, as it becomes meaningless to ensure that there are no widows, orphans, ladders, or other such typographical eyesores in a given manuscript.

Fonts are another important area to consider; beyond a certain few basic fonts common to nearly all systems, it’s impossible to know which fonts a reader will have on his or her device. Font families (serif, sans serif) rather than individual fonts should be specified for e-books, and margins, padding, and other spacing should be proportional (4.5 em margins rather than 1-inch margins). This helps to ensure that the page will scale well and be presented well on a screen of any size. In many ways, the design of e-books is similar to the design of web sites.

Publishing e-books, then, requires a shift in how we think about design. The format of a book is no longer static and unchanging; rather, like the publishing industry itself, it must be flexible and adaptable.

In the next issue of Inside Ink, we’ll look into the specifics of what sorts of e-book formats are common in the market, and the nuts and bolts of formatting for them. Until then, enjoy the flexibility of a new way of looking at book design!

by guest writer Ken Arnold

Two weeks ago I was a presenter at the Idaho Writers League conference in Idaho Falls (along with Ink & Paper’s Linda Meyer and freelance editor Laura Meehan). As a Manhattan transplant, I was excited to see more of the Northwest and especially Idaho. The three of us shared the driving, which allowed some time to watch the hills, the Snake and Columbia Rivers, the empty spaces.

Here’s what struck me most forcefully about the conference. The writers who gathered to learn more about writing and publishing were focused almost exclusively on publishing and marketing themselves. One group of writers has formed Bitterroot Mountain, LLC, a company (not, the leaders insisted, a cooperative) to help them publish and market their own books. Is Bitterroot a publishing company? No. The explosion of self-publishing options and tools has created a growing alternative to the traditional publishing model. Last year, 132,000 books were self-published. Few of them sold very many copies. But the point—it was clear from the discussions I heard at IWL—is not to build sales. It is simply to publish.

And modern technology is a huge help in this. Computer programs make it easier to self-publish from your home office, and print-on-demand makes it affordable because authors do not have to purchase quantities beyond what they can sell. Amazon.com and electronic bookstores make it possible to distribute without going through bookstores. The writers at IWL know how to publish and work together to improve their skills, and I suspect that the same thing is happening around the country.

Publishers are using the same tools these writers are using, of course, but what it means, I think, is that technology is facilitating a two-tier publishing system: at the “upper” level mainstream authors and publishers make a lot of money through normal distribution channels; at the “lower” level, authors are not making money but they are able to publish and sell their books without having to deal with publishers who, for the most part, do not care about them.

I do not think that this situation will change; in fact, it is probably the first sign of the publishing future: not the end of the book but a dramatic change in the way books are published and distributed. Regional systems may become more important as authors reclaim the rights to their own work, and it’s our job as publishers to both pay attention and to acknowledge this growing trend among us.

Ken Arnold is the publisher of Portland’s KenArnoldBooks, which, in addition to its “Provacative, Profound, Hilarious” books, offers its own regular newsletter. Go to the website to learn more about signing up for the newsletter AND winning your free toaster…