Background: I am interested in writing a book about technical toys such as mobile Internet devices and smartphones. I have a lot of articles, but I have never actually written a full blown book, my only experience is as a technical editor of programming books. So I was looking into self-publishing, and submitting my ideas to big publishers.
In general I did not enjoy this book, but it did have some good information, namely legal, which is hard to find anywhere else because most people are afraid to give legal advice (or what could be considered legal advice).
I gave two stars because I think I am a little bit smarter for reading the book. There are several good tidbits about contracts, and a couple good items on how self-publishing (and POD) companies operate. The companies listed are represented pretty fairly, but that's where the pros end for me. Most of the good tips I have already read about online for free, but I don't hold that against the author, nor does it play into the rating.
Cons (and it really seems I am in the minority here looking at other reviews):
- My main problem with this book is the underlining concept of hiring a self-publishing company - to the tune of anywhere from $1000 to $5000 (in general). This sounds unwise and somewhat un-american. I think an aspiring author should really do it themselves. What I mean by this is format the document yourself, prepare it, and send it off to the printer yourself. It sounds ludicrous in this day and age to rely on a company to do this for you. The author does mention "do-it-yourselfers" a couple times in passing, but the book is not directed to them. IMO if a person really wants to write their own book, they should learn how the technical stuff works, it's not that hard. You will be a much smarter person for doing so. There are plenty of good books out there to help you along the way (see Aaron Shepard for example). And finally, you can put that money you saved towards your marketing campaign! Oh, by the way, anyone who pays $1000 (or more) for a website is strictly out of their mind. Either learn how to build your own website, or use free tools out there from WordPress to Facebook, YouTube, and so on...
The thing is, the author talks about vanity publishing for several pages in the beginning of the book, but to me spending that kind of money is vain when you could do it yourself. It's just not sound business. Now, I do agree about getting some kind of editor, if at least a copy editor/proofreader. But here's the thing, if you can't shore up your grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and so on to a certain extent, then you might want take some English classes, read some more books on the subject, or re-consider writing in general. Here's another key point: Even the professional editors make mistakes. I think that the author should be the number one editor of their own creation. That said, I know my English skills etc... are not great, nor am I re-checking this review for grammar and what have you. I am writing this review to help "do-it-yourselfers" to steer clear of this book, and to promote doing it yourself instead of paying a ton of money to someone. The cover is up for debate. It's not hard to set up the technical specs for a cover, but knowing your market, and being able to develop a cover can be challenging.
- Second issue with the book is that it is NEGATIVE, very much so in fact. The author appears to have a big chip on his shoulder, and has obviously had some bad experiences with big publishing companies. The book was quite depressing during the first couple chapters. A lot of it was opinion, not fact. And ended up being a buzzkill.
- Third - the author went wild about editing during the first few chapters, but they themselves were edited poorly. Add to that I was reading this on the Kindle, which I believe had additional typos, but that is expected with e-books and so I don't hold that against the author. You can tell which are Kindle conversion typos, and although the author (or editor) should be checking that thoroughly, it is still understandable.
- Finally - the information about the companies is ok, but a lot is outdated. I primarily was interested in using Lightning Source or CreateSpace (which is really what it comes down to if you are a do-it-yourselfer) and I already had researched CreateSpace. Some of the details about them are out of date, the same holds true for a few other companies I was already researching. But that is to be expected, information like this is better served on a website where it can be updated often.
For a person who aims to do it yourself:
I recommend the Aaron Shepard books, and do some research on the Internet. I also just downloaded a free book on Kindle called "Write Good or Die" (smart title right?). It has articles from various authors, some famous, some not, with a lot of good tips. That book also has a few negative articles though, I just skipped over those.
As far as tech, I have an old version of Photoshop which both Lightning Source and CreateSpace except for cover art. And I have a couple year old version of Adobe Acrobat Pro. Add to this Microsoft Word and if you have all the software you need to create print ready files. I got these versions of Photoshop and Acrobat on e-bay for a total of $300 spent. Just make sure that the version you get is supported by CreateSpace or Lightning Source.
I used these tools and self-published a test book. It was a test run just to see how it would look. A couple minor issues, but I recommend a test run of something small so you can learn the process and apply that to the bigger text, that's where I am at now. What I've been doing is talking to people in the industry. I go to trade shows and author conferences. I try to learn from the community, check authors blogs and websites. Over time I have met people who are professionals some of which have offered to help me for free on my cover and for developmental editing. Well, not really free, we are swapping information about various technical arenas, but that's what it's all about, and it sure beats paying someone X thousands of dollars.
