Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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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.

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.

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!

When I first purchased this book I figured it was gonna be a waste of my time, but as soon as I began reading I was immediately relieved I had purchased it,some of the first information that was listed was about to save me from being embarrassed. I wanted to publish on my own since I had not made any real money on the first two books I had published without being involved in some of the choices made, so I decided I was going at it alone, and I thought since I had been published before I knew enough to go at it full force ( GONG!) boy was I wrong. If your gonna do it and want a place to start try this book it really is full of important information especially if you think you know enough, don't feel embarrassed to read it, it's got important facts that if you don't know and use you'll be embarrassed later for sure.

If you have no idea where to begin after your book is published, then this is a simple guide to use. Contains information on publicity, online marketing, book signings, conducting your own seminars, appearing as an expert even if you aren't.

This book was very easy to follow. Thanks to this, I have self-published my first book, with many more on the way.

I especially appreciated the step by step formatting.

I met the Smith's in 2009 at a writer's conference (BWRC). I had an entire book in my journal and I had no clue of the next steps. I bought this book and it became my guide into the publishing world. I had so many questions about everything and this book answered them in plain English. My industry standard, 5 Star rated, published collection was released February 2010. The proof is in the published! I am the published proof!
The Truth As I See It: In Poetry & Prose

I'm just starting to learn about publishing, both traditional and self publishing. The Smiths have done a great job of explaining the various aspects of the self publishing industry. The information is clear, concise and well laid out. They even offer a step by step timeline for getting your publishing business up and running. I'm still not sure self publishing is for me, but this book definitely helps shed some light on the subject so I can make an intelligent choice. Thank you Mack and Sara.

Mack and Sara Smith have created a down-to-earth, useful guide for anyone contemplating publishing. From the reality check on whether you should write and publish a book, to the resources to help your project succeed, you will find lots of useful information.

Two of the areas in which this book excels are the information on e-books and e-publishers and the extensive appendix of resources. Many of the resources, such as organizations, are of special interest to women and minority writers.

If you are thinking about publishing a book, start by investing in this book. It can save you time and money and help make your project successful.

If you are considering self-publishing, this is a book you definitely want to keep handy. Mack and Sara Smith have done an excellent job of taking aspiring writers through the often daunting process of taking their work from manuscript to printed book.