Author’s Corner: The Indie Publishing Revolution

The Indie Publishing Revolution As recently as ten years ago, it was a print-centric world. Printed books accounted for nearly all book sales and the traditional publishing houses controlled the means of production, distribution and sales, working strictly with agents who would screen manuscripts before they were sent anywhere. The agents and publishers of the traditional houses decided which writers actually got published; which books would become available for the public to read; which … [Read more...]

Author’s Corner: Preparing Your Manuscript for Printing

Preparing Your Manuscript for Printing For my first book, I had written the original draft in WORD. I told you in my last column what an effort it was to create the digital versions. The paperback books were a bit easier (or maybe I was just numb from creating those digital versions). In any event, when I was ready I downloaded that original manuscript (still in Word), into the size I wanted (5.5 x 8.5 is a standard trade paperback) making the necessary tweaks to the file for proper type … [Read more...]

Author’s Corner: Formatting Your e-Books

Formatting Your e-Books A friend asked me earlier this year which company put together the Kindle and Nook versions of my books. When I told him I did it myself, he seemed amazed. “I didn’t know you knew how to do that kind of stuff,” was his response. I smiled and let him think I was a genius. The truth is, I didn’t know. I had to figure it out. I started the same way I suppose many author wannabes begin. I Googled "self-publishing companies" and looked at the first page of 28.2 … [Read more...]

Kindle Books Now Free at the Rochester Hills Public Library

Digital books have taken off and the library has become a great place to find eBooks at no charge.  Amazon’s Kindle has now joined the Nook, Sony Readers, Kobo and Pandigital readers, and many mobile such as Blackberry, iPhone, iPad, iPod of portable devices that allow for borrowing library books.   Amazon and OverDrive, the Rochester Hill’s Public Library’s supplier of eBooks, are now offering Kindle Books as part of the library’s downloadable book service.  “This is very exciting news,” … [Read more...]

Rochester Library to Offer Downloads to Kindles

On April 20th Amazon announced a new alliance with Overdrive which will make Kindle compatible e-books available later this year.  The Rochester Hills Public Library has been offering free downloadable e-books for several years and is looking forward to this new alliance.  Last year over 16,000 e-books were borrowed through the library. The usage was slightly over 9,000 the previous year so it is obvious that there is growing interest in e-books.  Librarians noticed a dramatic increase in … [Read more...]