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…

by Linda Meyer

A warm welcome, a full house for my workshop, and the chance to review good stories from some of the friendliest writers around—key ingredients for a successful writers’ conference, at least from this presenter’s point of view. For these reasons, the recent Idaho Writers’ League (IWL) state conference in Idaho Falls was a rewarding experience for me as a presenter, editor, and publisher. From the long but lovely twelve-hour drive, to the well-organized-and-attended events and productive critique sessions with individual writers, the entire weekend was a joy.

So, now that I’ve said all kinds of nice things, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Like writers the world over, the good folks in Idaho need to move beyond their comfort zones. In my workshop, “What’s Inside the Publisher’s Job,” I blazed through a fifty-minute overview of what’s going on inside a publishing house from the time a manuscript is submitted for review, to the long tail of marketing the title once it has progressed to the publisher’s backlist. To accompany my presentation (and to distract the attendees from my long, tall self pacing across the front of the room), I distributed piles of super-secret inside info in the form of Ink & Paper Group handouts: submission review forms, manuscript formatting tips, sample production schedules, marketing plans, and more. There were lots of smiles, nodding heads, note-taking, and questions throughout, but a few looks of apprehension too, particularly when I reached the part about how a modern author’s work is not done when “The End” is reached, nor even when the manuscript has found a home with a publisher and has made it through editing, design, and production. And I saw a few shudders in the room as I suggested that post-production is when the hard work begins—actually marketing the book.

More than ever, an author must work in tandem with his or her publisher to support his or her book in the marketplace. (Enough political correctness; I’m calling my author he from here on out.) Given today’s difficult economy and the proliferation of competing titles, he, the author, must put forth extra effort to promote his book and himself as a writer. Since writing is usually a solitary activity, more than a few authors have been known to be introverted, ill at ease in crowds, and maybe even a bit media shy. Add to this the “technology intimidation factor,” and you have all the makings of an author reluctant to try his hand at marketing his work to today’s media-savvy consumers.

Here’s where things get interesting. A publisher will be well served by grilling…er…politely asking her (yes, her) author about his comfort zone and how they might work together to stretch the boundaries of that happy place. So the author would rather be trampled in a bull ring than speak in public? How about creating a simple audio or video podcast for syndicated download to iPods and other such mobile devices? Or maybe the author has a healthy fear of bucking broncos and live broadcasting. Try prerecording a cable TV or radio interview so bloopers can be edited before the segment is aired. And speaking of radio, a call-in radio tour can be a great option for an author who is unable to travel but enjoys being on-air (for longer than an eight-second ride, of course). Community radio stations such as KBOO in Portland can be wonderful resources for an author able to position himself as an expert on a theme relevant to his book. Oh yes, and does Mr. Fun-loving Children’s Author freeze up at the thought of reading aloud in public? There just might be a spotlight-loving drama student eager to present Rex the Rodeo Clown to an audience of little people and their book-buying parents, with the smiling author on hand for autographs.

“Help me help you,” (thank you, Jerry Maguire) is a good tagline for mutually beneficial book marketing. A publisher should try to work with an author’s strengths while building his marketing know-how. After all, today’s author will likely continue to market his books long after their publishing release season has passed, which is good for everyone concerned. Once the book is on the backlist, his publisher will continue her marketing efforts as time, energy, and money allow.

I’ll send you off with one of the super-secret files shared with the IWL members: our own Allison Collins’ Marketing Plan Template. This is the place to record ideas—everything from back-cover blurbs to book launch events to what I like to call “Oprah-dreams.” This brainstorm document can form the basis of a kick-a…I mean, wonderful, marketing plan.

Visit the sites of these area publishers to learn more about their latest books and catalogs! And this list is by no means complete, so please contact us if you see that someone is missing. We’ll make sure the information is updated (jen.weaver-neist@inkandpapergroup.com).

Bedbug Press (Brownsville, OR): www.bedbugpress.com
Beyond Words Publishing, Inc. (Hillsboro, OR): www.beyondword.com
Bowler Hat Comics (Portland, OR): www.bowlerhatcomics.com
Cellar Door Publishing (Portland, OR): www.cellardoorpublishing.com
CoreWay Media (Portland, OR): www.coreway.com
Dame Rocket Press (Portland, OR): www.damerocketpress.com
Dancing Moon Press (Newport, OR): www.dancingmoonpress.com
Dark Horse Comics (Milwaukie, OR): www.darkhorse.com
Eberhardt Press (Portland, OR): www.eberhardtpress.org
Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company (Portland, OR): www.gacpc.com
Golden Quill Publishing (Hillsboro, OR): www.gqpub.com
Hawthorne Books and Literary Arts (Portland, OR): www.hawthornebooks.com
Hot Off the Press (Canby, OR): www.b2b.hotp.com
Ink & Paper Group, LLC (Portland, OR): www.inkandpapergroup.com
KenArnold Books (Portland, OR): www.kenarnoldbooks.com
Microcosm Publishing (Portland, OR): www.microcosmpublishing.com
Nestucca Spit Press (Pacific City, OR): www.nestuccaspitpress.com
New Sage Press (Troutdale, OR): www.newsagepress.com
Oni Press, Inc. (Portland, OR): www.onipress.com
Ooligan Press (Portland, OR): www.ooliganpress.pdx.edu
Pinball Publishing (Portland, OR): www.pinballpublishing.com
So New Media (Eugene, OR): www.sonewpublishing.com
Three Muses Press (Portland, OR): www.threemusespress.com
Timber Press (Portland, OR): www.timberpress.com
Tin House (Portland, OR): www.tinhouse.com
Top Shelf Productions (Portland, OR): www.topshelfcomix.com
Virtual Tales (Vancouver, WA): www.virtualtales.com
Wordcraft of Oregon (La Grande, OR): www.wordcraftoforegon.com

by guest writer Lake Boggan

MEDIA RELATIONS
Begin a discourse with a half dozen freelance writers or editors in your field of expertise and keep the conversations going over a long period of time. Take a moment each Monday morning to write a brief e-mail just to say hi: “I read your article in Sunday’s paper (for instance), and I liked your ideas. How was your weekend? What is the weather like in your neck of the woods?” The real truth is all editors are lonely, hard-working nuts just like you, sitting long hours in an uncomfortable chair in front of a monitor. If you are sincere, you know your stuff, and they know you are the real deal, eventually they will want to have a real conversation that can lead to your being quoted in the media with a reference to your book.

BE YOUR OWN PUBLICIST
Make a big splash with local newspaper articles and radio/TV interviews. Arrange these interviews yourself by sending an e-mail press release to newsrooms, and then follow-up with a cover letter and a review copy of your book. Become a media junkie and plug yourself–as well as your book–with your press release:

• To broadcast that you are someone who can provide content and background for a breaking news story
• To release new data on a controversial issue, current piece of legislation, or similar trendy concern to the public and your community
• To respond to a recent shocking development on the national stage and offer your expert opinion, reaction, or position on how it affects your region by naming you and your book as the expert on the subject
• To expose a new angle to a current issue–the media of the day says one thing and your book has a substantially important spin
• To announce a newsworthy event related to your book and to invite the press to offer a more interesting or controversial look
• To show a local perspective on a national issue, including your quotes that set the record straight because the research in your book can prove it

BOOK-SIGNING SUCCESS STORIES

1. Books don’t sell themselves; people sell books. Be sure to make friends of booksellers. If they like you, they are going to tell customers about your book.
2. Carry a copy of your book with you at all times. Arrive ahead of the scheduled time, and MINGLE and INTERACT. Do not sit at a table and stare at the empty room. Tell customers who you are and invite them to hear you talk.
3. When your event begins, get to the point. Speak loudly, and with energy and enthusiasm. You are now a public speaker. Leave that introverted writer at home and become a whimsical entertainer. Don’t leave anything to chance. Script an introduction for the bookstore to introduce you and your book.
4. Conduct yourself in the bookstore like a gracious guest. BE HELPFUL! Clean up your mess.
5. Create and use collateral and support materials for your events like bookmarks, postcards, invitations, posters, and all the good take-away stuff that can help make a sale after the event.
6. Support your own events by inviting friends and family. It’s just like an election; go to your base for support.
7. When you get events, do media-related, tie-in interviews, or get listed in event calendars, newsletters, and anything you can to support the event for the store.
8. Don’t complain when only a few attendees show up, and don’t apologize for a low turnout. Treat the few who are there very well. They will tell many other potential readers how wonderful you are. Authors are celebrities in everyone’s mind–even today. Get their addresses, send them thank you notes, and they will remember you forever.
9. Always have a signup sheet for e-mail and addresses so you can create a fan base for your next book.
10. Think about non-bookstore events and venues. Grocery stores, hotel lobbies, corporate meetings, schools, and other nontraditional book places are options for future events and ways to sell books.

Lake Boggan has sixteen years of book selling and book marketing experience. She is currently Publicity Manager in the marketing department for Timber Press. She taught Book Marketing and Promotion for five years at Portland State University’s Center for Excellence in Writing, in the Ooligan Press Graduate Publishing Program. Lake is also the instructor for Ink & Paper’s “From Write to Read” book marketing course (info below). Future classes have yet to be scheduled, but you can send a query to our class coordinator, Linda Meyer, if you are interested in future class details: linda.meyer@inkandpapergroup.com.

“From Write to Read” Class Description:
Book marketing for writers is filled with mysterious language and tricks of the trade that every successful author needs to know. The sooner you learn the language and understand the process, the stronger your book sales will be.

Lake Boggan believes in the basics. She also likens marketing your book to preparing a great recipe for your favorite dish: when fresh, new ingredients are available, you should use them. She will share what’s tried and true in the book marketing business, and add pointers about blogging and getting linked on the internet.

Lake will share a bundle of information that will serve you well before your book is published (your “marketing platform”), during the season of your book (when it’s a “new release”), and after your window of time has closed (and you’re on the “backlist”).

by Jen Weaver-Neist

I’ve always wondered how our founding fathers and mothers could perpetuate our population without ever acknowledging how it was done. Our survival shows clearly that there was more than praying going on in those humble bedrooms! And yet these pesky, puritanical roots still plague us today, heaving out judgments when our primary goal remains the same: survival.

What’s this got to do with publishing?

I’m doing my best to make a go of this publishing dream of mine, and I’ve found many kindred spirits in my journey to do so. In fact, I love Portland because of its constant sharing of resources, and its diverse and passionate work force, particularly in publishing. There’s always some connection being made, contact information being shared, ideas being exchanged-that is, UNTIL the dreaded subject of custom publishing (aka book packaging) comes up. (My palms are sweating even as I type this….) Bring up those dreaded words, and friendly eyes are suddenly narrowing and brows are furrowing at you as your character is shackled and thrown before a shocked congregation. It’s as if you’ve just revealed a demon tit on your elbow! God forbid that you even entertain the idea of sinking so low as to make a buck in order to perpetuate your dreams! And let’s not even touch the subject of print on demand, for my everlasting soul is in enough peril as it is.

So, what’s the deal? Why does the lovey-dovey support wane when you actually put forth the idea of making a solid living in this business? Is the struggle so important that your worth only comes with the battle scars? Does being the publisher of a small press automatically put me in the ranks of Depression-era workers like my maternal, self-taught grandfather, who made engineers’ ideas work at Honeywell but never got the credit-or proper pay-for it? Sure, Grandpa kept his family fed and he was an intelligent mentor in my life, but suffering was supposedly part of what built his character. (He was also Lutheran, by the way.) I’m not sure that he had it in mind that he’d be working nearly up until the time of his death (a few months shy of his 90th birthday) because he couldn’t afford not to.

Back to the business of books, we all know that there’s no way around the high front-end costs of book publishing and the painfully slow return from book sales, assuming you make it through the returnables, moody consumer trends, and other sidebar influences. (Remember, we’re only dealing with one awkward topic at a time, so we have to keep that increasingly viable option of print on demand invisible in this discussion.) And we all look forward to that day when book sales actually fund the creation of future books versus paying for a ramen noodle diet and those candles you use to heat your office in the winter. It all comes down to how a publisher survives in the meantime, and there are plenty of us who never even make it to “the meantime.”

Why is it, then, that we refuse to acknowledge that almost nobody-including the big dogs-is making it these days without alternate income streams? And why don’t we stick together as a community when the going gets tough? Even our New York brethren are creating “speakers bureaus” and other such to-dos to stay afloat (though few are likely to admit to the true reasons behind it). And despite the fact that they’re “absorbing” many of us little tikes, and creating more and more nonreturnable products like cards, calendars, character figurines, and other gift lines to go along with the movie that made the book that made the movie, we still hold ourselves to this unrealistic expectation of making it book by book.

Then there’s Chronicle-and God bless and kiss Chronicle-who flat-out advertises…on its website…with easy-to-read language and everything…that it does custom books. And the people at Chronicle are damn good at everything they do, sticking to a memorable, in-your-face mission and product lines that have served them-and their consumers-time and again across the globe. “We see things differently,” they tout, and I ask, “Shouldn’t we all?” I don’t hear anyone questioning their methods or denying their obvious success, and I think it’s because they most assuredly have both feet planted in the Promised Land, my people! It’s just that their omnipotent presence casts such a high glow that we can’t immediately see the road that they traveled to get to-and to stay-where they are today.

With the strength of this knowledge behind me, I am now prepared to make the following statement:

Friends and colleagues, I am Jen Weaver-Neist, publisher of Dame Rocket Press, an imprint of Ink & Paper Group in Portland, Oregon, and, in addition to being a traditional book publisher, I am a custom book publisher / book packager. If somebody comes through the doors at Ink & Paper Group with a dream in their heads, the money to foot the bill, and a reasonable disposition, you can bet your sweet chastity belt that I will provide the tools, expertise, and staff to help them do it! I take pride in the fact that I’m sharing my abilities to uphold a win-win arrangement for all, and I never went into this business with the idea that I would be keeping my talents to myself. There’s a big difference between making someone’s dreams come true in a quality fashion and exploiting someone’s dreams in pursuit of personal gain.

In the nine years that I’ve been in publishing, I’ve finally grasped that this gig is as much a dream as it is a business, and refusing to recognize that relationship is to refuse your future success. People will say, “It’s so great that you’re doing what you’ve always dreamed of doing,” but there are costs that come from investing so much of yourself. And isn’t it a disservice to these people-and to potential authors and investors-to put forth a happy façade when the day-to-day business of publishing is far from dreamy? Perhaps an honest approach would warrant a more balanced relationship. After all, there’s only so much room on that best-seller list! But there’s a whole lotta greatness keeping the foundation secure, with a collage of chewing gum filling the corners, duct tape smoothing the edges, and big, warm hearts melting together any remaining gaps.

I suggest that we take the best from our puritanical founders (i.e., their black and white fashion statement and the way it really jives with clean text on a crisp page) and be more forgiving. Go back to the 1960s, and think about how “doing it” can actually be a pretty groovy, win-win thing. Then shower the people of Portland publishing and beyond with a love of this profession and a willingness to welcome resourcefulness in the pursuit of survival. As they say, “sex sells,” and our dusty ol’ industry wouldn’t still be kickin’ if it weren’t for the timeless creativity of a good romp between the sheets (sheets of paper, of course!).

by Cameron Marschall

Traditionally, a trade book is paid for by its publisher, whose goal is to balance the risk of investing in printing, promotion, and staff time versus perceived commercial returns. The manuscript becomes a book in the publisher’s catalog. Author and publisher share credit in the physical expression of the original creative vision. (Granted, to the public, the author gets almost all the credit.) This common book-building process is most widely known but it is not the only way books are born. Sometimes books are conceived to enhance a reputation.

Imagine three consultants, equally respected for their expertise, ability to attract clients, and delivery of solutions to customer problems. All three wish to become known as the premier expert in their field. The first, in an effort to secure such a reputation, attends several local business associations where her clients gather. By volunteering time and offering free advice, she becomes known locally and eventually gains new business. The second consultant also networks and volunteers. In addition, she publishes a blog with valuable information and industry news. Even more new business results.

What about the third consultant? She too wants to position herself and her company as an expert, with the ability to demand better-paying work for more difficult consulting jobs. What more can she do to build a powerful reputation, both locally and nationwide? She decides to combine her experience, testimonials, and articles for trade magazines and write a manuscript for a book. Identifying the most common problems encountered by her clients, she sets out to help ease their pain by offering solid advice and simple steps to solve their problems. Our happy writer has a good beginning to the contents of a useful book.

The other two consultants find themselves being compared to the new author/consultant, or asked if they can perform at her level! All things being equal, the book raises the perceived value of the third consultant above the rest.

Her goal is to have the book available for sale on Amazon.com and at her speaking events. Working with a custom book publisher, she pays for the editing and design of her manuscript into print-ready files. Print-on-demand (POD) technology provides a good solution to her selling goals and soon she is able to offer potential clients free seminars and web content based around her book. Interviews, reviews, and requests to speak at events increase, as her status as an expert steadily builds. The other two consultants find themselves being compared to the new author/consultant, or asked if they can perform at her level! All things being equal, the book raises the perceived value of the third consultant above the rest.

Rose St. John, originator of the St. John Birthing Method, is one such professional putting her experience and expertise down on paper. Her book, Fathers at Birth: Your Role in Bringing Your Child Into the World, will be released this fall. Working with Ink & Paper Group, she polished her manuscript and refined her marketing plan. Reviews and requests for interviews are already coming in, and her status in her field is growing markedly.

Custom books offer different value to each person or organization; consultants are just one line of professionals who can benefit. The options for each custom book are great, and it takes experience and training for a publisher to determine the best solution to meet the client’s goals. Books offer the perception of authenticity and expertise that other mediums and formats rarely garner.

*Fathers at Birth: Your Role in Bringing Your Child Into the World will be distributed nationally by Franklin, Beedle & Associates. Preorders available at 800.322.2665.