Great online resources for self-publishers (pt. 1)

Never before in the history of the universe has there been such a time as this for self-publishers. The power to make and sell books is ours!

Reality check: yes, publishing has been democratized, but that means you've got a lot of work to do. The good news is that there are a ton of resources on the web to help you take your place among the self-publishing superstars.

1. One of my clients self-published his book (Hip Hop Hypocrisy: When Lies Sound Like the Truth) with iUniverse.com. In addition to co-writing and editing the book, I managed the production process for him. There are pros and cons to working with services like this (it can get pricey), but for the most part our experience was positive and painless. HHH has an index at the back of the book, and even that was easy to do. iUniverse chooses the retail price for your book and pays royalties. We thought the original retail price was way too high, and I negotiated it down $1. I had to really fight for that dollar reduction.

2. My sister edited a novel that was published through Lulu.com. Although services are available, there's a real do-it-yourself spirit there. If you do everything yourself (editing, proofing, layout, design, ISBN, copyright, etc.), you don't pay until you place your first order ("Free To Publish; No Setup Fees"). For the design impaired, the site offers helpful templates. Also, you decide on the price of your book, not the service.

3. A client published 3 books through SelfPublishing.com. To call them a broker doesn't seem fair because they do so much for their authors. "We deal with a group of offset, offset web and digital book printers...We buy book printing in large enough bulk that we can print and sell the self publisher books for less than the printer can sell to the self publisher direct." They offer a ton of information about the self-publishing process. You decide on the price of your book, not the service. I wish they offered a wider range of book sizes, but still, I like them.

By the way... A client self-published her book through what we now know was a broker, not an actual printer. The broker was recommended to my client, and when I tried to do some due diligence on this person, I was blocked at every turn. That was a foreshadowing of all the unnecessary and costly problems that followed. You can't mess with my client, though. Even though she needed the books for a big upcoming conference, she refused to pay one dime beyond the original agreement. A tense couple of days (a lifetime when you're on deadline) followed the showdown, but the broker finally relented. The many problems that kept arising did cost us time. Moral of the story: SELF-PUBLISHER BEWARE. Do your homework before deciding on a service because bottom line, you're going to have to pay something. Make sure your dollars are well spent.

4.  Thanks to GalleyCat, I discovered 2 sources of public domain (a.k.a. FREE) images: the Library of Congress and the American Memory project. Also, Google "public domain images" for a list of sites. These sites are great resources for creating your book covers. Just make sure the images are really in the public domain.

5. Here are some dictionaries you'll probably need from time to time: Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.com, UrbanDictionary.com (interesting).

6. I use BibleGateway.com a lot. This site lists many biblical versions, from the traditional King James to the Message. Excellent for fact checking scripture.

7. Unless your publishing service provides ISBN's, you'll need to purchase your own from the U.S. ISBN Agency.

8. Go to the U.S. Copyright Office to get a copyright for your book and to get your copyright questions answered.

I love this business because my superstar clients keep challenging me to grow and expand my knowledge base. Seriously, everyday I learn something new. As I find more helpful resources, I'll pass them on to you.

Donna Marie

Your prosperity is wrapped around a stone

What if I told you that your financial collapse – unemployment, debt, bankruptcy, foreclosure, hospitalization – is a blessing in disguise? Can you stand to be blessed? I mean, can you stand it because despite what the prosperity folks are saying, you’re about to go through some things.

This is what’s occurring in our country on a massive scale. We are being blessed, but right now, we really can’t stand it.

When the collapse of my financial house began a few years ago, I was a desperate, emotional wreck. Seriously, I cried every day for a year as the unimaginable was happening in my life real time: unemployment, bankruptcy, foreclosure, and after all that, an extended hospital stay. Despite all my begging to God (or maybe because of it), I lost everything.

My children went from one of the best public school districts in the country to one of the worst. We went from living in our own little home to depending on the kindness (and tolerance) of others.

I know what it’s like to stand in the unemployment line and later, when that runs out, to sit for hours in the welfare office, waiting your turn. I’m not proud, but I did what I needed to do to take care of my family.

Through it all I learned how to be more resourceful. See, I never wanted to work a job. I have an entrepreneurial spirit, but through the years of doing the 9 to 5, I hadn’t honored it. Since I had to care for my two children by myself, I never felt that I could stop working.

I love and respect my entrepreneurs, freelancers, self-publishers, and independents so much because I know what they’re going through to achieve their goals.

If you really want something, if Life calls you to do something but you’re afraid to take that first step, Life has a way of shoving you onto your path of destiny – and it won’t take no for an answer.

I was shoved onto my path of being an independent writer, editor, and publishing consultant to the stars kicking and screaming. But eventually I accepted where Life was leading me. Slowly but surely, strengths within me that I didn’t know I had rose to the surface. My tears stopped falling. I was being remade into the entrepreneur I always wanted to be.

From time to time I fought it. I can’t tell you how many resumes I sent out and not one interview. I wanted to come in from the cold, but Life said, “No no no.” To keep me going through the dark times I read inspirational books. I listen to inspirational speakers, and I’ve probably been taken in by some thieves along the way.

A minister friend always says, “Donna, your blessing is wrapped up in a stone.” I heard another say, “Can you stand to be blessed?” Two different ways of saying the same thing. This is Jacob wrestling with the angel. Even Cinderella had to go through some things before she married her prince. (And who knows what she went through after the wedding. Did he pick up after himself? Was he on the DL? Sorry, Eddie Long on the brain.)

Before you ask to receive, make sure you’re ready to do whatever it takes (legally, ethically) to make your dream come true. It’s easy to say yes at the beginning of your journey when you're visualizing and affirming your millions and mansions, but what will you say when they’re threatening to turn the lights off? How will you turn them back on?

Learning how to turn the lights back on when you have no money is your blessing in action. Believe it or not, it's a step toward manifesting your heart's desire.

Now do you think you can stand to be blessed?

Donna Marie

 

5 steps to writing a book from tape

I just finished working on a manuscript for one of my speaker clients and thought it might be instructive to deconstruct the process for those who are wondering how to get their books started. 

Now there’s writing, the laborious (and sometimes inspired) process I use to put one word after another on a blank sheet of paper or screen. And then there’s speaking-writing, for lack of a much better term. This is the method I use with this particular client. Let’s call him Dr. M. 

When we first started working together 10 years ago, Dr. M would give me a hard copy of his manuscript, and I’d make changes on the copy. A very messy process.

Thankfully, Dr. M's trust in me grew over time. At one point he'd give me a floppy disc (those were the days), and I'd make my corrections on the computer.

Over the years we fine-tuned this labor of love into a 5 step process.

1. Dr. M dictates his book into a microcassette recorder.
2. I transcribe the tapes. 
3. I rewrite, research, and reorganize (if necessary) to flesh out the work. 
4. I'll edit the entire manuscript a couple of times. This is the most humbling of times for me because of all the stuff I miss on the first editing pass. That's why I take the time to edit more than once.
5. I proof. At this stage, I'm looking for typos and formatting issues. That's it. In a future post, I'll discuss proofing in depth. Technically I shouldn't even be proofing because my brain is probably decoding typos instead of seeing them, but when the client is on a budget, the editor wears many hats.

So that's the process. I think everyone should try and write at least one book, but if writing is like getting a root canal for you, then why fight it? If you're a talker, then go with the flow.

My part of the process, from transcribing to proofing, takes around 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the length and complexity of the manuscript. The benefit of having an editor or writer transcribe your speech is that I can do a couple of steps at one time. For example, a typist may give you a long paragraph of a document, including all your uh's, um's, and ya know's. As I'm transcribing, I'm paragraphing and doing minor copy editing along the way.

Speakers, make sure your equipment is working and your batteries have juice. Also, make sure you speak clearly and audibly into the recorder. There's nothing more frustrating than the McDonald's drive-thru experience where you can barely hear the person on the other end.

Dr. M and I are now a lean, mean writing team, and still, there's room for improvement. For example, he could email me MP3 files. Microcassettes are so 6 months ago. I used Express Scribe (free transcription software) to transcribe some sermons on MP3 files for a pastor friend, and I literally zoomed through the transcribing.

Our process works so well because Dr. M does a great job of planning out his books before recording. This is important: he doesn't just start recording extemporaneously. By the time he has recorded his first word, he has already sketched out his Table of Contents and the general direction of each chapter. Research and notes are at hand as he talks. 

Dr. M does his homework before he speaks one word, and that makes my job a lot easier – and his bill a lot cheaper.

Transcription is not appropriate for all speeches. For example, if you are a purely extemporaneous speaker who, like my sister, likes to meander with stories that have nothing to do with the subject but are great audience pleasers, your off-the-cuff speeches may not be good candidates for this process. I once tried to transcribe the sermon of a preacher who spoke from the Spirit. That was an exercise in futility. Powerful on the pulpit, not so on the page. But try it. You never know.

On the other hand, I once transcribed a few sermons for a pastor, and I was amazed at how well they turned out. Not a lot of repetition, uh huh's, mmmm's, and amen's?. I told him, "You speak book!"

Transcribing speeches is a wonderful way for speakers to speed up the process of writing a book. Just keep in mind that you'll still have more writing to do.

Donna Marie

Jay-Z memoir: advertising like no author has advertised before

Most of us can't afford (yet!) to advertise on the scale that's about to be unleashed for Jay-Z's soon-to-be released book, Decode. Andrew Adam Newman explains the campaign in The New York Times. You MUST read this article. It’s a revelation.

I've long felt that book promotion is a little too old school for our high tech times. You send out a press release. You do a press kit. Maybe if you have a strong platform, your publisher might even buy ad space for your book. All necessary but kind of boring.

Authors need to think like rock stars, or in this case, rappers. We need to think out of the box. 

“Reproductions of entire pages of the book will appear unannounced in locales referred to in those pages.

“‘If in certain pages Jay-Z is talking about something related to Times Square, then those pages might be on billboards in Times Square,’ said David Droga, creative chairman Droga5, the New York agency heading the campaign. Mr. Droga declined to reveal locations beforehand ...”

This is like the tried-and-true magazine excerpt of a book, only on a massive scale. Is it possible to do a similar campaign on a smaller scale? And can we DIY? Anything’s possible!

Source: New York Times


p.s.: I suspect there will be a lot of marketing going on within the pages of Jay-Z's memoir as well. Hip hop has no problem blurring the line between art and promotion. I'll file a report as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. 

p.s.s.: Here's the slick cover of Jay-Z's book. It looks like an album/CD cover. Anyway, Decoded is available for pre-order on Amazon. The release date is Nov. 16, and already the ranking is 560. Note to self: don't get jealous. Learn!!

Donna Marie

Marketing beyond brick & mortar bookstores (R.I.P.)

I've always said that if a guy can hang with me at a bookstore, how bad could he be?

Over the years I've seen bookstores come and go, but a couple of years ago, I mourned the loss of a great friend: Transitions Bookplace in Chicago. Whenever I wanted to surround myself with the unusual and the provocative, I'd go there. Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Caroline Myss, and other spiritual-type celebs signed and did readings there.

Another great bookstore, African American Images, has relocated exclusively to the Internet, but I'll miss the store's physical presence on 95th off Longwood. Nikki Giovanni, Tavis Smiley, Terry McMillan, and other notables signed there.

Even the big chains are not immune. Borders stores are falling away. What's next? Barnes and Noble? OMG!

I did the signing for my first book, Sister Feelgood: A Year of Health and Fitness for Our Bodies and Our Souls, at the Barnes and Noble on Diversey. It was a thrill to see my name on the cover of my book, but you know you're a real author when you do a signing at a bookstore (better yet, when you get your advance and royalty checks). 

Marketing beyond brick & mortar bookstores

Whenever my writers embark on a new book project I always ask them, "How are you going to sell your book? Do you have a marketing, sales, and distribution plan? How are you going to get paid?" There was a time when you would include your friendly neighborhood bookstore in your promotion plan, but today, that venue seems to be a dying breed. 

I have to admit to the lure of online book selling, and so, like the senators who each gave old Julius Caesar a stab, et tu Donna Marie?

The Internet is a fantastic place for authors. From publishing to sales, you can do everything online. You can even do author tours of blogs and sites, and I'll write articles on how the superstars are laughing all the way to the bank in future posts. If you're willing to take the time to investigate your online market, you'll find that for very little money, you can sell books.

However... book lovers and authors will always want to meet and mingle in the 3D world, whether or not bookstores survive. So don't market yourself exclusively on the net. Be creative and seek out nontraditional venues for doing book readings and signings. Here are a few off the top of my head:

• Book clubs
• Churches
• Schools (PTA meetings, teacher in-service meetings, parent workshops, special events)
• Association meetings
• Fraternity/sorority meetings
• Friends' homes
• Flea markets
• Yard sales
• Conferences
• Grocery stores (for cookbook writers) 

 

Donna Marie

 

Author branding: Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel has one of the most beautiful, romantic feeling author websites I've ever seen: check out her Danielle Steel Beauty. All pink, black lace, and floating sheets of rose-hued stationery.

Of course she's a best selling author with millions of romance novels sold over the years, and although I'm not a big fan of the genre, she got my attention when she came out with her perfume, Danielle by Danielle Steel, a couple of years ago. That an author could brand herself and then actually merchandise that brand beyond books was a revelation. 

Now book series have been branded forever. That's why I loved reading Nancy Drew. From book to book, I knew what to expect. Girl detective, formulaic mystery. 

The best brands touch your soul. They feel authentic. Danielle Steel the person (at least the public persona) seems to be all femininity and romance, and everything flows from that fount: her books, her website, her eau de parfum spray.

The type of writing stars I work with – self-publishers, entrepreneurs, educators, activists, speakers, spiritual leaders – should consider their brand in everything they do, including their books and spinoff products. When planning a new book they should first ask, Does it fit my brand?

What is your brand? Can you state it in one simple declarative sentence? Here's some help:

• My mission is to blah blah.
• My vision is blah blah.
• I like making people feel blah blah.
• The goal of my company is to blah blah.
• My life has been about blah blah.

The experts say that branding is marketing. In my opinion, author branding is more than just marketing. Maybe it's existential marketing. It's answering the question, Who am I? You can tell when authors haven't answered this question for themselves. They end up rehashing what others have written. They plagiarize their thoughts, maybe not word for word but the theft is there just the same. That comes from not knowing what you're about.

Exodus 3:14: I AM THAT I AM. Brilliant!

One of my pastor clients knows exactly who she is, down to the font. She is a woman of God with the emphasis, from a branding perspective, on woman and God. She absolutely adores cursive lettering and knows the Bible inside and out. Her ministry is of the heart and everything flows from that: her Sunday sermons, her books, her website, even the way she talks in everyday conversation.

Another client, a national speaker on the education circuit, coaches hip hop student athletes (high school football) in the inner city. That's who he is. Everything he does, from workshops to books, is informed by this identity and his desire to help underserved students and those who work with them. His products don't always look the same, but neither do the Geico commercials. When you see the name Alfred "Coach" Powell on the cover, you know what you're getting.

Why is author branding so important? There's a lot of noise out there in the marketplace. The author brand helps you distinguish one product from all others that are similar. A good brand makes you feel that you know something personal about the author and that you're connected to her. Any good sales person will tell you that sales and repeat sales are all about relationships.

If you feel Danielle Steel's romance novels, you'll feel her perfume.

Donna Marie

Conjunction Junction

Need a break?

Jumpstart Monday // writer's procrastination

Sometimes we writers say we can't write because of "writer's block." Uh huh.

Oh, I'm the only one? Okay then, I'll just speak for myself. When I'm working on a writing or editing project, I'm highly focused and on task. When my children were young, it used to really get on my nerves when they'd be like, "Mumz, I'm hungry" or "Mumz, can you help me do my homework?" or my favorite, "So what you doing, Mumz?" (Hip hop children. Their grandmother is G-Ma.) They didn't care what I was doing when they were playing with their friends, but now they need my attention?

Getting started on the project, well, that's a whole different story. I will allow a million things to distract me. I'll run to the thrift or the flea even though I don't need anything. I'll make up up urgent errands. I'll find sites and YouTube videos that are just soooo fascinating. I'll wash the dishes. Anything.

Is it just me or is procrastination more stress-inducing than the actual work?
 
I saw this quote today and it really struck me.

"When you choose a behavior, you choose the consequences." Dr. Phil McGraw 

Most of the time, procrastination is a behavior that leads to nowhere. Writer's procrastination leads to no writing getting done.

On the other hand... If you can be disciplined about it, procrastination can, at times, lead to new ideas about your project. If you really have been stuck (and not just making excuses for not writing), goofing off, doing something completely different, can lead to delightful revelations. This happens to me all the time.

You have to be disciplined about it, though, and honestly, I'm not always that disciplined. The other day I looked up and it was 4:00 in the afternoon – and I had not written not one word. 

What will always pull me back to a project, even if I have to stare at a blank screen or sheet of paper is the DEADLINE and the $$. If I don't do the work, I don't get paid. And mumz needs a new pair of kitten heeled boots. 

Time to get to work.

Donna Marie

New book: Old Testament patriarchs had a direct line to God

What if you could talk to God via a special cell phone, walkie talkie, or land line? What if you could dial 911 for emergency assistance or 411 for information and guidance and actually get the Creator of all the universes on the line?

David had just such a direct connection to God in the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel 23:9-12, David learns that King Saul wants to kill him, and he doesn't know what to do. So he tells his priest to go get the ephod. David then proceeds to have a conversation with God via the ephod!

Is it a stretch to note that phone and ephod both contain ph?

As a little girl, I learned that the only way to talk to God was to get down on your knees, fold your hands, and get to praying. We were never ever taught about this ephod device that enabled David (and others) to talk directly to God. When I first read this passage in the Bible, I was blown away. In fact, I had to put the Book down. Were we to take it literally? Metaphysically?

Well, Roger Isaacs, author of a new book, Talking With God: The Radioactive Ark of the Testimony. Communication Through It. Protection From It., believes we should take the story literally. Isaacs comes not from a fundamentalist approach but an emerging revisionist approach to scripture that looks at the events, history, and artifacts of the Bible from modern multidisciplinary scientific perspectives.

Talking With God is an etymological investigation into the purpose and rituals surrounding an ancient communications system that included the ephod, the Ark of the Testimony (a.k.a. Ark of the Covenant), and other devices. While some high profile investigators have tried to actually locate the Ark, Isaacs has taken a radically different approach to trying to understand this mysterious artifact. 

The words in the Hebrew Bible are trying to convey instructions relative to the care and feeding of a unique communication system. My goal in this book has been to bring clarity to those puzzling ancient Hebrew words and ideas not previously understood by studying the ark within a totally new, technological context.

Now in the interest of full disclosure I must state that my sister, Janice Miller, published and edited Talking With God through her company, The Publishing Institute (Sacred Closet Books imprint). A couple of summers ago, she asked me to consult editorially on the project.

Talking With God was one of the most difficult, frustrating, complicated, and rewarding books I've ever been honored to work on.

I'm so proud of my baby sister (sniff). It took her 10 years of dogged determination (not to mention Isaac's 30 years) to complete this magnificent study. (My mother, the retired high school English teacher, proofed the book.) Talking With God is 514 pages, hard cover, and is so thoroughly grounded in scholarship that the endnotes, bibliography, index, and appendices could have been a book.

An Amazon.com review reads:

I think the author has done a wonderful job with Talking with God. First of all, it is very well-written: accessible, easygoing, and able to make a complicated subject easy to follow. Jargon and obfuscation have practically become the hallmarks of the academic literature of the present era, and I can't tell you how pleased I was to see such simple, clear writing.

There are no more beautiful words for an editor than those highlighted in red. That's when you know you've done your job right.

I asked Roger Isaacs to share his thoughts on his provocative book and the collaborative writing process. Here's what he had to say.

THE CELEBRITY EDITOR: Your book revolutionizes our thinking about how the Old Testament patriarchs actually talked to God. If these ancient technological devices were truly used, does that mean we've been deluding ourselves with the spiritual belief that we can talk to God via traditional prayer and meditation?

ROGER D. ISAACS: It’s interesting that the word translated prayed or pray (pawlal) is found twice in Genesis and twice in Numbers in all of the Four Books. It is found twice in the fifth book, Deuteronomy, and that book was produced much later. It is not found at all in Exodus and Leviticus, books much more important to my thesis. Pawlal involved Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerer in one story and Moses and the rebelling Israelites in another. But it is generally acknowledged that the actual meaning of pawlal is to intercede, not to pray in the traditionally accepted form. (To be exact, pray is used in one of the two times in the accepted way in the Abraham/Abimelech story, but that was in a dream by the king.

On the other hand, pawlal as prayer is used as such many times in the following books.

This indicates to me that prayer as we know it was not used in the part of the Bible involved primarily with the Ark and the Ephod but that, when the use of the devices faded away, the people did much as we do today to try to reach God.

As to your specific question, while I have no way of knowing whether prayer is efficacious in reaching God, there certainly would be no problem with doing so.  The problem would lie in God’s communicating with us. That is, if it is true that the ark was reached through the dangerous radioactive cloud, if suddenly He were to do so today, it would be lethal to us unless we were properly protected. I have given many examples of the Bible’s clearly stating the necessity for the Israelites to be so protected under these circumstances.

But as to the results of our praying today, until there can be a controlled experiment that proves there is a definite cause/effect, I’m afraid the true answer will have to be left in limbo.

EDITOR: As a scholar, were you ever concerned about how the public would receive your ideas? The impact on faith?

RDI: First and foremost I am interested in truth. I know my ideas will be controversial, and that’s just fine. But for that controversy to be substantive it has to rest on debate surrounding facts. This work doesn’t in any way argue one’s faith. One’s faith, or lack of it, is very subjective. What I have done is to attempt to clarify a subject that may or may not impact on one’s faith depending on how receptive, open-minded, the reader is.  

Personally, I think a person’s beliefs should be based on facts, not fancies. An example would be attitudes toward evolution. It is hard, scientific fact, easily proved, that evolution exists. To deny this is pure fancy and does not in any way strengthen faith, it only obfuscates it.

To summarize: When faith and fact merge, the result is a strong partnership.  When they diverge, the result is confusion.

EDITOR: In the book you mention that your father, a hematologist and researcher, launched your study. From the discussions with your father to the publishing of your book, how many years did the journey take? How did your father's ideas evolve, and how did you fine tune them?

RDI: In the early 1950’s my father was deeply involved with his hematological research at a leading Chicago medical center, as well as his practice. At the same time my late partner and I were rapidly expanding our young public relations company, and my wife and I were building a family. It was during this period that my father, a true scientist and biblical scholar, and I began to have conversations about a thought he had concerning the possibility that the Ark of the Testimony (also called the Ark of the Covenant) could have been an electrical apparatus that was used to communicate with God. Then, in spite of our heavy schedules, we began to plumb the Bible for any evidence to substantiate this thought.

The first result was an unpublished article on the topic in the mid 1950’s. Then we wrote a 24 page monograph published by Bloch Publishing Company in 1965. It was titled Puzzling Biblical Laws Interpreted in Terms of ModernPhysics. In that same year my father died.

After a time I began thinking of the theory behind the monograph, and realized that there were more possibilities to be considered. My thought was to work in my spare time for a year or so and get them on paper. It turned out it would take more than 40 years until the book was published.

The reason for all those years (other than having the daily work of running a company) was that it had become apparent that, while the general approach we were taking was a start, it left great gaps in what the Bible was trying to convey about the Ark and its “care and feeding.” That’s when I started my research in earnest. The result took me into other paths that we hadn’t followed before, and the final result was different in many ways from our original thinking.  So while the seed was planted, the tree (of knowledge?) that grew from it was something I never expected. I’m only sorry that my father didn’t live to see the tree as it looks today.

Donna Marie

 

TGI marketing Friday

I subscribe to quite a few mailing lists, but the one email I always open is from John Kremer, marketing guru to litpreneurs. Why would The Celebrity Editor fool around with marketing, you may ask?

To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 10:19, marketing answereth all things. A writing purist, I learned this wisdom the hard way. Now whenever a client approaches me with a new book idea I immediately ask, "What's your marketing plan? What's your distribution plan?" How will you ever become a writing superstar if your books don't sell? I know it sounds mercenary, but for me, writing well and getting paid go hand in hand.

Here are some interesting Kindle stats John sent out today:

• 44% of Kindle owners make more than $80,000 a year (Nielson).
• 83% of their parents would allow or encourage their children to read books on an e-reader (New York Times).
• 27% of Kindle owners have Master's degrees or doctorates (Nielson).
• For every 100 hardcover books Amazon is selling, it sells 143 Kindle ebooks (Jeff Bezos).
• Some publishers are now considering including advertising in their ebooks (Wall Street Journal).

It's this kind of information that keeps you current with new digital formats and can increase revenues. I love a book that I can hold in my hands, but I'm no fool. I see which way the wind is blowing.

In fact, I'm getting a Kindle specifically for travelling. I've been known to pack more books than clothes when going on a trip. With airlines charging more and more for luggage poundage, that can get pretty expensive. But with Kindle, I can pack as many books as I want and read to my heart's content. 

BTW, if you haven't already, subscribe free to John Kremer's Book Marketing Tip of the Week.

Donna Marie