Posts By: tmcgann

Publishing with CreateSpace vs. IngramSpark

Publishing with CreateSpace vs. IngramSpark poses a dilemma. Both options are viable, each offering perks all its own, but which one is best for you. Naturally, that depends on your needs, what you need to accomplish. This information is specifically for print books. *Here is a breakdown of the advantages/disadvantages of each:  *Thank you Dave Chesson, Kindlepeneur. Besides the incidental costs to use either, the major differences are the ability to create hardcover books and the cost of color books. That much is self-evident. Also, there is information out there that brick and mortar stores (e.g. Barnes and Noble) will… Read more »

Creating Your Book Cover

Your book cover is one of your most important  marketing strategies. Unless you have a marketable name up  there with John Grisham, Stephen King, or Margaret Atwood, one that readers already know, their first exposure to your book will by its cover. You may not be able to “judge a book by its cover,” but you can certainly entice readers to pick up your book and look through it, read what you’ve written on the back to find out if they’d like to give it a read. Do not neglect the importance of your book cover. I hired an artist… Read more »

Use Createspace to publish your book

Use CreateSpace to publish your book is not difficult. It is involved, but doable. Here is a brief update on the steps necessary to get your book published by Createspace up to creating your book cover. Go to createspace.com. This is a subsidiary of Amazon, but  use your search engine to go directly to createspace.com. You will need to set up an account if you do not already have one. I suggest you open an account page now and follow along as we progress here. You can toggle back and forth to make the procedures easier to follow. Once you… Read more »

Tying up Loose Ends after completing your manuscript

After completing my latest book “Chance” for publication I found it necessary to tie up some loose ends. I filed for my copyright (it takes about six months to receive the actual copyright), but there were some additional steps necessary that needed attention. CREATESPACE If you are using CreateSpace, you follow the directions for listing title and author information. You select the size for your book,and its physical properties (B&W or color, and page color). Then you tackle ISNBs before downloading a PDF version of your manuscript. One of the loose ends tied. ISBN Each book requires an International Standard… Read more »

Additional Information on Copyrighting and Formatting

Copyrighting and formatting your work follow the the same procedures as previously posted. (See “To Copyright or Not to Copyright – That is the Question” at  http://thomasmcgann.com/so-you-want-to-be-an-author/copyright-copyright-question/ and “Formatting your manuscript for paperback publication Part II” at http://thomasmcgann.com/so-you-want-to-be-an-author/formatting-manus…lication-part-ii/ ‎) A review of these posts is definitely in order for those who still believe in the concept of the “Poor Man’s Copyright,” (not a good idea) or who have problems with formatting. The only thing I did differently this time around is that I registered my copyright electronically. It’s just as easy (easier in fact) and saves money. The fee for a paper copyright, one… Read more »

Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans

It has been two and one half years since I last I last wrote here. I had just published my first book, The Riddle of Riddles, both on Kindle and in paperback, and I had vague plans for my next project when life suddenly got in the way. As John Lennon reminds us in his song Beautiful Boy, “Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.” Ain’t that the truth. A cascade of events that included a replacement, a renovation, and a relocation (joint,  kitchen, Dunedin, FL.) occupied my time, and that of my wife… Read more »

This is how I became an author – Part III

As mentioned in the last post, I had hoped to finish this recap of the series “So you want to become an author…” in two parts but there was still so much more to tell that I needed to include Part III of “This is how I became an author.” My book had been published both as a Kindle eBook (KDP) and as a paperback with CreateSpace (CS), but if I expected it to be available to all readers, I needed to consider the other platforms out there that Amazon did not cover – Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, and… Read more »

This is how I became an author – Part II

We left off “This is how I became an author…” last time with the understanding that the hard work, the formatting, lay ahead. This step by step explanation of my process will sometimes include the titles of the posts that contain more in depth details if you want to go back to learn more. The manuscript was finished. It had been copy edited and proofread. It was now ready to be published, and I would become an author. I am unsure whether publishing a paperback or an eBook first would have made a difference, but I choose to publish the… Read more »

This is how I became an author

This is how I became an author. I now have a paperback book published with Amazon, along with a Kindle edition. In addition, my book is available on all other devices through Smashwords. I am an author, and if I can do it so can you. If you have been following this blog, you will remember that I began this series of posts called “So you want to be an author…” back in March of 2014, although I had started building my website a year earlier. In total, I have been at this for about two years, not counting the time it… Read more »

Smashwords has major shortcomings

Smashwords has major shortcomings. After plowing through their 100+ page manual (The Smashwords Style Guide), and following, exactly, each of its instructions, I submitted my newly formatted work for its review process and waited for their reply. Smashwords says that they will reply within 24 hours, and they did. They informed me that my work had failed their tests, and that I needed to correct the nine errors listed. OK. No problem. I had made some mistakes, and I needed to correct them. The errors are displayed by clicking a link on Smashwords’ dashboard page. The problem is that the… Read more »