Using Pictures and Images in Kindle Books - Review of Aaron Shepard's New Guide

Aaron Shepard is still one of the leading authorities on the physical design aspects of self-publishing. As a result of rewriting his guide on creating Kindle books from Word, Aaron realized he had expanded the project beyond it's original scope. 

The result, a new Kindle book on how to use images in Kindle books! 

Since most of my non-fiction books have photos, line drawings and graphics, I quickly purchased a copy Pictures on Kindle.

I am going to have to read this book multiple times and sit down with a project file and play with inserting images before I attempt to do this for real.

Please note, the reason for the above statement is NOT because Aaron does not do a good job of explaining things. Aaron writes in a clear and easy to understand style and provides plenty of information to accomplish the task of using photographs and images into a Kindle manuscript for digital publication.

The only other self-publishing authority I am aware of who understands the design and production aspects of crafting a self-published book, I am talking about the nuts and bolts of the process, is Joel Friedlander.

Aaron covers the basics of photos in detail including color photographs. There are a wide range of ways to "measure" color in a photograph for publishing and Aaron covers them all.

Also covered:

• selecting photographs
• editing photographs
• photo file formats
• scanning
• design aspects of placing photographs
• testing your final version by previewing
• HTML and photographs in Kindle books

This is a great book for authors who need, or want, to produce their own files for their self-published Kindle books. It is understandable for a layman like me but has the info a technogeek will enjoy.

The price is right as well, just .99 cents for now.

All I need to do now is finish my current project with one of the Book Designers new Word templates, use the one of the new Kindle templates to convert work, and then with the help of the info in Pictures on Kindle, insert all my diagrams and photographs. I have my first week of vacation from school all planned.

Self-Publishing Blog Posts of Interest - Selecting an Editor, Work With PDFs, Word to Kindle Conversion, the Latest from Morris Rosenthal and More

It is about that time again! Here are a few of the blog posts I have found interesting or helpful for self-publishers recently.

From the BookBaby Blog

Booking Your Own Virtual Book Tour - we all need to learn as much as possible about book marketing!

From Joel Friedlander's The Book Designer

How to Find the Just-Right Freelance Editor - something ever self-published author should read.

Also from Joel Friedlander's The Book Designer

Adding Photos and Creating PDFs - for self-publishers who use CreateSpace - a must read.

From Aaron Shepard's From Word to Kindle

Click here to visit the blog. There have been too many updates to pick one. If you are trying to learn the details of how to convert your Word manuscript into a Kindle ready file, you'll wan to visit this site.

From Morris Rosenthal's Self-Publishing 2.0

Publishers Facing Obsolescence On Amazon - the latest musing about Amazon from one of the early leaders in the modern self-publishing industry.

From Michael Marcus' Book Making

Do Authors Need to Work With Literary Agents? - Michael's take on this issue.

From  Dana Lynn Smith's  The Savvy Book Marketer

What's the Best Way for Author's to Use Twitter? - I haven't figured this out and I am not a big fan of social media. Huge time eater! Thus, I read what Dana had to say.

From Forbes - An article on self-publishing

Considering Self-Publishing? - An interesting read about what Guy Kawasaki things about the state of self-publishing and the future of traditional publishing.

New Source of Kindle Formating Information and Its Free!

Aaron Shepard, one of the founding fathers of today's self-publishing industry and the author of Aiming at Amazon, has created a new site for authors interested in converting their Word files to Kindle files for publication as Amazon Kindle ebooks.

Here is Aaron's announcement of his new blog:

In support of the upcoming major revision and expansion of my ebook"From Word to Kindle," I've launched a new blog with the same name.

http://fromwordtokindle.blogspot.com

I'll be posting draft sections to this blog as I write them, in hopes of receiving comments that help me refine the book. I also see it as a place for my readers to support each other with answers to each other's questions. A "Follow by Email" feature will bring you email notices of new posts.

This will be a helpful resource for many so you will want to bookmark this blog and visit it from time to time.

Trends, Reviews, Information and Some Self-Publishing History in the Making

I regularly read several blogs by individuals who are authorities on self-publishing, book marketing or book design in hopes of learning as much as possible. All of the individuals whose posts are referenced here and linked to are not only experts in the field, but are successful and experienced self-publishers themselves.

From Joel Friedlander's The Book Designer: The Biggest Secret of Book Marketing Success

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/09/biggest-secret/#more-23674

An interesting post about book marketing. Joel reveals the method of book marketing that will produce the absolute best results.

From Aaron Shepard's Publishing Blog: Stumbling on Hyphenation

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#Wordhyphenation

A review of Microsoft's Word 2011 by Aaron, who among other things, is the author of Perfect Pages, and extremely proficient in the use of Word to lay-out book interiors for use in POD publishing. In this review, Aaron focuses primarily on the problems with the hyphenation feature of the 2011 version of Word.

From Aaron Shepard's Publishing Blog: Counting on Amazon

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/AmazonCounting.html

For you coding fans and anyone who sells their book on Amazon, this blog is worth reading. Aaaron examines the inner workings of many of the marketing tools for authors on Amazon. A blog post well worth reading from one of the experts in book marketing using Amazon.

Morris Rosenthal's Self-Publishing 2.0:  The Decade of POD Publishing Gives Way to eBooks

http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=2101

I wrote about this post a bit earlier this week and linked to it. Thought provoking look at the changing nature of the industry of self-publishing as it relates to the technology of print-on-demand and ebooks.

From Dana Lynn Smith's The Savvy Book Marketer: Free Images for Your Blog or Website


http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2012/09/where-to-find-free-images-for-your-blog-and-website.html

Free is good! Ms. Smith provides information about locating images for use to improve blogs and websites that cost nothing for the user.

Aiming at Something Other Than Amazon?

Aiming at Amazon, POD for Profit by Aaron Shepard and Print-on-Demand Book Publishing by Morris Rosenthal should be required reading for authors considering self-publishing. While things have changed in the industry significantly since these two books have been published, these three books are still excellent primers on the business of self-publishing and developing a market strategy.

Successful self-publishers have found numerous ways to market and sell their books. Aaron Shepard's strategy outlined in Aiming at Amazon focuses on "aiming" sales at Amazon, allowing Amazon's sales and marketing machine do much of the "heavy lifting" of promoting the book. This approach has the added benefit if POD or Kindle ebooks are the format your books are published with of Amazon doing all the collection funds, shipping of books, etc, leaving you the author free to write and engage in marketing efforts rather than fulfillment of orders and bookkeeping.

Mr. Shepard's basic premise in Aiming at Amazon is by directing all sales to Amazon and using POD for publishing, the author does not have to deal with fulfillment, collection of payment, maintaining inventory or many of the other potential drawbacks of self-publishing. Once the book has been set up for POD the author can focus on marketing and have the money deposited in the bank once a month.

Why direct sales to Amazon? In addition to the aforementioned services there is the advantage of the Amazon long tail, the effect of Amazon's search engine and software helping potential buyers of your book find your book (If you are considering self-publishing and can only buy one book to research the industry, Aiming at Amazon is the one to buy).

Does this mean authors should avoid selling their books via other avenues. Not at all. I sell books on Barnes and Noble, Amazon Europe and a specialty retailer. But I direct all of my sales to Amazon and Mr. Shepard's approach has worked extremely well for me, particularly with the Kindle editions of my books. If I were to direct sales to Barnes and Noble and the specialty retailer though, I would lose much of the impact of the concept of pushing sales to Amazon to encourage the Amazon machine to push and promote my book(s). The more a title sells, the more Amazon promotes it.

Still, there are lucrative markets out there that I, as a niche market author, would like to tap into. Libraries are one such market. Selling one or two copies of a book at a time to a library does not sound like it would be very profitable concerning the amount of effort and time it would take. I would earn more money over the long haul by spending that time writing more books.

Thus the question of how to sell my book to libraries? Book distributors who deal with libraries! While I have not had a lot of time to spend researching this, I have managed to find a couple of distributors who serve the library market. Here is my list so far:

http://www.brodart.com/
http://www.quality-books.com/
http://www.midwestls.com/

As I investigate and pursue this possible avenue for sales, I will share what I learn here at The Self-Publisher's Notebook.

I would love for anyone who had had success selling books to libraries through a distributor or through direct sales efforts, please post a comment and share your experiences with the readers here so we can all benefit.

Sites for New and Veteran Self-Publishers to Visit

I really appreciate every author, or individual considering taking the leap and becoming an author, who visit this blog. It has been an uphill struggle to learn everything I need to know to make this a successful business and like any endeavor worth engaging in, you can never afford to stop learning.

Many individuals have taken the time to share their experiences, both good and bad, in the field of self-publishing with the intent of helping me along and to shorten the learning curve for me. I feel an obligation to do the same.

There are certainly readers of this blog who probably get a chuckle out of my mistakes as they are more experienced in the field of self-publishing. Then there are the authors who are new to the game and I hope they learn information of value from reading this blog. The third group are probably authors who are at about the same state I am in the learning process.

So, in an effort to share sources of information, here are a few sites I visit regularly and I have learned a great deal from.

Aaron Shepard's Publishing Blog

Aaron is the author of Aiming at Amazon and the guru of self-publishing when it comes to the business model of selling self-published books via Amazon. He is also the author of POD for Profit and the creator of "Plan B" since Amazon has revised its dealings with Lightning Source. Aaron is just a treasure trove of information and views it as both a creative endeavor and a business.

Aaron has a realistic view of Amazon, how it works and what truly drives this company. In other words, he sees Amazon's good and bad points, of which there are both.

Morris Rosenthal's Self-publishing Blog

Morris is another of the leaders of the self-publishing movement and the use of print-on-demand as a business model for self-publishing. His book Print-on-Demand Book Publishing is another book self-publishing authors should read, even with the rise of the ebook. It describes the business model of POD for self-publishing. Remember, self-publishing is a business!

Morris writes about a lot of things on his self-publishing blog, ranging from understanding Amazon Sales Rankings, dealing with copyright violations, building an author platform and some just off the wall stuff that is really funny if you get his sense of humor. I have learned a lot by reading his blog and the archived posts.

Joel Friedlander's The Book Designer

This site is a great source of information about the design end of self-publishing as well as a wide range of topics that deal with self-publishing and publishing. Joel constantly provides new blog postings addressing topics both of interest and importance to authors who self-publish. Like Aaron and Morris, Joel views self-publishing as a both a creative and a business endeavor.

Joel also provides courses designed to teach new authors and veteran authors venturing into self-publishing learn the process and business of self-publishing. Joel also designs books as a service to self-publishing authors.

J.A. Konrath's A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Konrath is a leader among the fiction authors who have become successful financially through self-publishing, primarily via Kindle ebook sales.

I don't always agree with his worldview on a range of topics, but I always come away from visiting his blog having learned something about the publishing industry. I write non-fiction and doubt I could ever write anything fictional worth publishing.

I have learned a great deal about the ebook explosion from his blog. Like the other three bloggers I have listed, Konrath views self-publishing as a business, and this from a very creative author. I have read many of his thrillers, particularly the Jack Daniels detective thrillers, and can attest Mr. Konrath knows how to spin a thrilling tale.

Michael Marcus's Book Making

I don't quite know how to describe this blog.  Sometimes I visit and exit the blog with my blood pressure about to come out my ears telling myself I will never visit again. I always do though and I am pretty sure if Marcus could see me turn red in the face he would get a good chuckle out of it. If you already read this blog, you know exactly what I mean. Marcus loves to yank a chain, anyone's chain.

Why do I go back time after time? Because as mad as Marcus can make me, he also makes me laugh and often he writes about issues that are both important and informative for authors who self-publish.  Perhaps I just need thicker skin.

Like the other sites, I learn from the information Marcus shares and that is what makes the site worth putting on your list of self-publishing blogs to read.

In all fairness, if you wind up on the sharp end of Marcus' wit, you might have done something to deserve it. Just as quickly has he can take a poke at you, if you have done something praiseworthy, Marcus will be one of the first to point it out. He will also take a poke at himself from time-to-time.

Also, Marcus likes The Rolling Stones, The World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band. So do I.

Kindle Nation Daily

All things Kindle. If you plan on making ebooks, Kindle in particular, part of your business plan, this site needs to be on your list of blogs and sites to visit. 

The focus of late is largely on books selling well on Kindle and the technology itself. While I am not trying to compete with best selling authors, it is a way to track what is going on with different topics and niches as well as changes in the technology. Something we all need to be aware of as authors who sell Kindle books.

If anyone knows of a site or blog that would be a good addition to this short list, please share it via the comment sections for this post.

Updates on Self-Publishing

There are so many blogs about self-publishing it can be hard to keep up with reading about the industry. Of course, there is the added issue of which blogs are worth visiting on a regular basis. Aaron Shepard is one of the foremost experts on self-publishing. 

Periodically Aaron posts interesting articles about issues of importance or interest to self-publishing authors as well as updates to his books about self-publishing. To save the readers of this blog a bit of time, here are links to some of Aaron's recent posts about the industry as well as some updates to his books on self-publishing.

The "Biggest Problem with Lightning Source"

www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#LightningSourceproblem

Updates for "Perfect Pages"


http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#Pagesquickies


"Is Lightning Source Cheating You?"


http://www.newselfpublishing.com/LightningSourceCheating.html

Quickie Updates for POD for Profit

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#PODquickies


Plan B


http://www.newselfpublishing.com/PlanB.html

Morris Rosenthal is another interesting individual who is a valuable source of information on self-publishing and entrepreneurship as an author. Authors who sell their books online and offer non-fiction ebooks to specialty topics would do well to visit his site often to see what Morris has to say. Lately, Morris has been focused on the changes in Google and the impact this has on rankings for non-fiction authors, ebook sales and the impact on changes in use of information.

Some blog articles of interest:

ebook Sales Multipliers

http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1706

The Disposable Information Culture

http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1469

Using Free Kindle Books for Marketing

http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1661

I hope you find these links interesting and helpful.

Updates to Self-Publishing Classic Aiming at Amazon

If you only buy one book before entering the world of self-publishing it should be Aaron Shepard's Aiming at Amazon. Even with the ability to update content in print-on-demand books, with all the changes at Amazon in the past 18 months, it is a bit much to expect Aaron to keep updating Aiming at Amazon every two or three months.

So Aaron has posted some changes and updates at his self-publishing website. All of the changes and updates posted are related to the content in Aiming at Amazon.

Here is the link: http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#Aimingquickies

Does POD Still Have a Place in Self-Publishing?

In just a few short years the publishing industry has changed dramatically. So has self-publishing. The eBook is radically changed both industries. Technology, history has shown, simply has no feelings when it comes to people and the inevitable march forward shows no mercy it would seem.

I am fairly certain when Gutenberg began printing books with his press, particularly the Bible,  some people decried the certain loss of the beautiful books painstakingly produced by skilled and artistic scribes. Technology won that battle fairly quickly as evidenced by the quick spread through Europe of the printing press.

With Kindle sales in the millions this past Christmas and the Nook generating some much needed revenue for the struggling BandN, eBooks have been a boon to the industry, the reading public and the self-publishing author. So much so, some self-publishing authors are beginning to question if print versions of books, even using print-on-demand, still has a place in self-publishing.

For many self-published authors, print-on-demand was what allowed us to publish our books and at least have a chance of recouping the money invested, and if nothing else the joy of holding a copy of the finished book in hand.

But has POD print publishing become a form of vanity publishing? Joanna Penn takes an interesting look at the role POD and print books have in the life of self-published authors in a guest blog on Joel Friedlander's blog The Book Designer.

Ms. Penn argues print books are now vanity publications, but in a good sort of way. While I understand the point she is making, which primarily are for authors of fiction, I am not so sure POD paper books no longer have a role in the business of self-publishing for non-fiction authors.

The term "vanity publishing" used to refer to an author's work that was so poor the only way it would be published is if the author paid to have the book printed. These books were indeed often horrible and did little to help the reputation of any author who self-published. When legitimate author services companies began to crop up, most of whom used POD to print their clients books, these companies were often labeled as vanity publishers.

With the advent of Amazon allowing self-published authors to have access to customers, the POD business model, made popular by Aaron Shepard and Morris Rosenthal, helped many self-published authors be able to not only market and sell their books successfully, but to make money in the process.

Times change and so does business. The advent of the eReader has made a huge impact in the self-publishing industry. In my case, my Kindle sales outnumber my POD sales by a ratio of 200 to 1 as of last month! On the surface it would seem Ms. Penn is correct in her thinking the day of POD and print editions are over for self-published authors.

It is true I have not purchased a single print edition of a fiction book since receiving my Kindle. The same is not true for non-fiction books. While I do purchase non-fiction to read on my Kindle, I still purchase print books for research (I still want to be able to write in the book the old fashioned way and dog ear pages to find easily) or when I know the content will be image and graphic intensive.

In the case of my own non-fiction books, I will continue to publish my large, meaning 8.5 x 11 and 200+ page books in a POD print edition as well as a Kindle and Nook edition (even though my Nook sales have been laughable) precisely because my books are both image and graphic intensive. I also know my reader population and many of my potential readers will be slow to adapt to the new eReader technology. If I want to sell books to that segment of my potential market, I must continue to offer a print edition.

I should mention that while my Kindle sales went through the roof last month, I also had the best month ever in selling print editions. While the percentage of total sales was low, it was still lucrative and worth the time, effort and cost to have those titles available in POD print editions.

Will I change my approach to how I produce my new books in the future? Yes. I plan to offer a series of short, informative books, designed to introduce a topic and then promote my full length book at the end of the short version. These books will be text only and sell for .99 cents as Kindle shorts. These books will be targeted at potential readers who are just entering the market and are already technology oriented, not the older, more experienced potential readers.

Does POD still have a place in a self-publishing author's business plan? I think the real answer is "it depends." The author must know his or her potential readers and the quality of book the technology can support and still have the reading experience be enjoyable or informative in an easy to understand and use fashion. If I were in the fiction writing business, I would always release a Kindle version first and depending on sales and target audience follow up with a print version.

The real issue is not whether or not POD still has a place in the self-publisher's business model. It is being market savvy enough to know what the author's readers want and need from their reading experience and matching the book production to meet those wants and needs.

Lightning Source and Amazon - Do You Need To Move Your Books To CreateSpace?

Evidently the glitch I mentioned in an earlier post is not the issue causing my best selling title to show as being available in 2 to 3 weeks but rather is due to new tactics by Amazon. This particular book is printed by Lightning Source Inc.

Aaron Shepard seems to have a good understanding of what is going on and can explain the situation and how to resolve it much better than I can. With that said, I would like to steer you to his post about the issue of using LSI for your print-on-demand printer and dealing with Amazon.

Books for the Author Considering Self-Publishing Part I

Self-publishing is more than just writing a manuscript and getting the book into print. It is an entire business and a growing industry. Technology plays a huge role in today's self-publishing industry, allowing a single author to build a successful small business.

Self-publishing is also a jack-of-all trades industry. Not only does the author have to write a good book for the book to succeed, the book has to be designed, both the interior and the cover, a method of printing selected, a business model devised, accounting procedures set-up, a marketing and distribution plan created and put in place, book reviews obtained and entire host of other skills learned, mastered or at least aware of.

I have read dozens of books, some really good, some really bad and some in between. For my next few posts I am going to post the books I strongly suggest authors considering self-publishing obtain and read as part of their self-taught learning curve.

The first suggested books are essentially mandatory reading if you are going to self-publish. Aiming at Amazon, Perfect Pages and POD for Profit are all written and self-published by Aaron Shepard, one of the foremost authorities on today's self-publishing industry. Aiming at Amazon focuses on selling books through Amazon.com and provides an entire business and marketing model for self-published authors using this approach.

Perfect Pages describes how to use Microsoft Word to design and create the interior file of a book for use with a print-on-demand printing and distribution service.

POD for Profit focuses on using Lightning Source as a print-on-demand printer and distributor. The book also discusses all the ins and outs of this business model and using LSI effectively and dealing with the quirks of this POD printer and distributor. Even if CreateSpace is to be used as the POD printing service, this book is mandatory reading.

Morris Rosenthal's Print-on-Demand Book Publishing: A New Approach to Printing and Marketing Books for Publishers and Self-publishing Authors is the best overview of the print-on-demand business model. This book is essential reading in order to understand the business side of self-publishing using print-on-demand.

For those authors who are considering using CreateSpace for POD service and distribution I suggest two books. My own Self-publishing With CreateSpace: A Resource Guide for Authors Considering Self-Publishing and Christie Pinheiro's Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit!:Start Your Own Home-Based Publishing Company and Publish Your Non-Fiction Book with CreateSpace and Amazon.

Aaron Shepard Announces Change to CreateSpace For His Color Books!

Aaron Shepard, one of the leading figures in the world of self-publishing and a strong advocate for using Lightning Source Inc. (LSI), announced on his self-publishing blog he will be changing POD services for several of his books with color interior books. Mr. Shepard will continue to use LSI for his all black and white interior books.

The decision to make the change came about due to CreateSpace's ability to handle interior color printing on a more consistent basis and with greater ease than using the LSI system. The information concerning the technical differences between color printing is explained in a bog post by Mr. Shepard.