How to Self-Publish & Market Your Own Book: A Simple Guide for Aspiring Writers Includes Special Section for Women & Minority Writers [Paperback]

Sara Freeman Smith (Foreword), Mack E. Smith (Author), Dan Poynter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0966232879 | ISBN-13: 978-0966232875 | Publication Date: January 2001 | Edition: 2 Rev

This book provides easy yet effective tools used in publishing and marketing successful books. The authors include their personal experiences in publishing their first book, Turning Stones Into Gems. Sara and Mack list many resources in the appendix. Their book, How to Self-Publish and Market Your Own Book, explains how to: get free advertising, avoid common publishing mistakes, prepare a marketing plan, complete important registrations, select a book printer, etc. It also contains important information on the Internet and electronic publishing, including e-books, CD-ROMs, audio books, and websites. This book provides sample forms, pricing information, and sample budget worksheets. The book includes a special section of tips and resources for women and minority writers. Every aspiring writer can understand this simple guide.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As a book reviewer, I constantly see new authors, who might have a good story to tell, but don't have a clue as to where to start. This book is the road map! -- Pamela Walker-Williams, President-The Good Book Club

"Mack and Sara do a great job of walking you through the process of publishing in an easy to understand format." -- John Kremer, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books

"Many people offer advice on how to get published. But this book is unique because it offers both information and inspiration between the covers of one book." -- William July II, Understanding the Tin Man

Mack and Sara use their personal experiences to simplify the process of publishing and marketing your own book. And they do it well. -- Dan Poynter, The Self-Publishing Manual

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: U R Gems Group; 2 Rev edition (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966232879
• ISBN-13: 978-0966232875
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,742,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for aspiring writers who will self publish., December 1, 2001

By 

Pamela Jarmon-Wade "Tx Red Rose" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Self-Publish & Market Your Own Book: A Simple Guide for Aspiring Writers Includes Special Section for Women & Minority Writers (Paperback)

This book contains a vast wealth of crucial information for the self publisher. Mack and Sara have done an excellent job of outlining the steps and providing additional reference information. A few of the the topics covered are the publishing industry, starting a business, ISBN & copyright info, book cover designs, publicity campaign, media release, budget, advice, tools of the trade and literary organizations.

Mack and Sara conduct regular free workshops at local Houston bookstores. I highly recommend this book for all aspiring literary entrepreneurs. Add it to your resource library prior to embarking on the publishing journey and it will help you avoid mistakes. If you have already begun the journey, it is still a must read for future references.

I am speaking from experience. I am included in the large number of self published literary entrepreneurs. This book provided me with expert advice, motivation and encouragement.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars But I thought the Publisher would do that, June 17, 2001

By 

Dan Poynter "Author-Publisher-Speaker" (Santa Barbara, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: How to Self-Publish & Market Your Own Book: A Simple Guide for Aspiring Writers Includes Special Section for Women & Minority Writers (Paperback)

Whether you sell out to a large (New York) publisher or publish yourself, the author must do the promotion. Publishers only produce books and place them in stores. Authors must generate interest to encourage people to go into the stores to pull the books through the system.

Getting published is like giving birth. Along with the joy of being published, you now have the responsibility of raising your new family member. Fortunately, your book is not a 20-year commitment and you do not have to send it to college. :) But, your book will not raise itself.

Mack and Sara use their personal experiences to simplify the process of publishing and marketing your own book. They not only provide easy-to-understand guidelines, they also motivate aspiring writers to overcome obstacles on their journey to successful publication. And they do it well.

As a publisher and an author of 114 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles, I recommend this book to both authors and publishers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to Self-Publish and Market Your Own Book, July 24, 2001

By 

Saundra and Rakesh Jain (Lake Jackson, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Self-Publish & Market Your Own Book: A Simple Guide for Aspiring Writers Includes Special Section for Women & Minority Writers (Paperback)

We loved Sara and Mack's book. We are now in the final stages of preparing our first book for publication. We purchased this book and then met with Sara and Mack to discuss our ideas before we started on this project. We have both read and used Sara and Mack's book so much that the pages are beginning to fall out. We will definitely buy another copy for future reference. With the help of this book, we believe our goal of writing and self-publishing is about to come true!

The book is well organized and thoughtfully presented. All the questions we had are covered at length throughout the book. To begin the process of writing and self-publishing without first reading this book is definitely a mistake. Take the time to read through the book and then refer to it frequently and you will save yourself a lot of time and unnecessary mistakes.

After reading the book and meeting with Sara and Mack, we were definitely motivated and excited to begin our project. It's been a great learning experience and lots of fun!