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Apr. 1st, 2015 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Still plodding my way through Outlander - 80% of the way through now. Not sure I recommend it. It's awfully passive - too much of the action happens off-stage. I think the television series is actually better because it's in more than one point of view to start out, and we get to see the action as it occurs. For example? The second half of this season will be in Jamie's point of view.
I don't know what I'm reading next. Flirting with books.
2. So I've been researching ISBN numbers, because you have to pick one to publish your book. What is an ISBN? It's an International Standard Book Number that ties your book to the publisher in charge of distributing it to various channels, so when someone buys your book - the money goes back to that publisher, who in turn pays you. The amount or sales price is in the ISBN. It's that number people scan at the grocery store or book store when you buy a book. This is the best advice that I found, because there's a lot of misinformation out there by people who don't know anything about the business of content distribution:
"From an author's perspective, the only downside to accepting the free CS (Create Space) -assigned ISBN is that if you decide to print/publish the same title through another service (in addition to or instead of CS), that version will need a different ISBN (meaning similar editions of same title would be out there with two or more ISBNs, which might be confusing for buyers in some instances).From a publisher's perspective (for those of us here who run small publishing firms and use CS as an on-demand book printer), it's important from a branding and marketing perspective that a given edition be identified by one ISBN that is registered to and assigned by our own publishing imprints. So, bottom line, if you're not trying to be in the publishing business, and if (as an author) you're not trying to publish/print the same title through multiple print services, then the CS-assigned ISBN is terrific."
There's this guy named walton or seal on the message boards that is providing a lot of confusing information. Clearly this person knows zip about the publishing industry. He keeps pushing the custom ISBN, and states that book stores shy away from providing books associated with Print on Demand publishers. Okay, first off, book stores shy away from providing books not in demand and heavily pushed by the catalogues. I know I worked in a Book Store. They ordered through catalogue, customer demand, and book reviews. Even award winning books struggle to get into book stores. I have friends who have published books through traditional channels such as Random House who can't get into book stores - because they are genre, and Edgar Award just isn't enough. One author was even mentioned by Oprah and featured in a magazine. I've yet to see her books in area book stores.
Also, majority of books right now are purchased through digital or online channels.
Second, you can't publish your book through any one else if you have a $10 Custom ISBN.
Actually all it gives you is the ability to put on your own imprint name - which just provides Book Stores with a genre classification. (ie. Classical Literature, Children's Lit, etc...example of Imprints? St. Martins Press is an Imprint of Random House, or ACE books is an Imprint of Penguin.)
This blog post on imprints was helpful.
And this article:
From what I've managed to figure out - the major difference between using your own imprint/ISBN and using a publishers - is whether you want to be the publisher of record.
So if you use your own = self published. If you use a publisher's = not self-published.
Yet weirdly many bloggers state if you use your own, you are less likely to be seen as self-published and be considered more professional. Reverse logic. But whatever.
I still haven't done it yet.
The other thing I'm worrying over is do I go with "matte" or "glossy", "cream", "black and white", "white" and size 5"8, 6"9, 5"7 paper back. Seriously? The choices for this thing are endless.
What's scary is there are still folks out there who look down on self-publishing. The good news? They are being kicked in the proverbial ass by the e-book and self-publishing industry. The world has changed since my Dad started doing this in the mid-1990s. Thank god.
I don't know what I'm reading next. Flirting with books.
2. So I've been researching ISBN numbers, because you have to pick one to publish your book. What is an ISBN? It's an International Standard Book Number that ties your book to the publisher in charge of distributing it to various channels, so when someone buys your book - the money goes back to that publisher, who in turn pays you. The amount or sales price is in the ISBN. It's that number people scan at the grocery store or book store when you buy a book. This is the best advice that I found, because there's a lot of misinformation out there by people who don't know anything about the business of content distribution:
"From an author's perspective, the only downside to accepting the free CS (Create Space) -assigned ISBN is that if you decide to print/publish the same title through another service (in addition to or instead of CS), that version will need a different ISBN (meaning similar editions of same title would be out there with two or more ISBNs, which might be confusing for buyers in some instances).From a publisher's perspective (for those of us here who run small publishing firms and use CS as an on-demand book printer), it's important from a branding and marketing perspective that a given edition be identified by one ISBN that is registered to and assigned by our own publishing imprints. So, bottom line, if you're not trying to be in the publishing business, and if (as an author) you're not trying to publish/print the same title through multiple print services, then the CS-assigned ISBN is terrific."
There's this guy named walton or seal on the message boards that is providing a lot of confusing information. Clearly this person knows zip about the publishing industry. He keeps pushing the custom ISBN, and states that book stores shy away from providing books associated with Print on Demand publishers. Okay, first off, book stores shy away from providing books not in demand and heavily pushed by the catalogues. I know I worked in a Book Store. They ordered through catalogue, customer demand, and book reviews. Even award winning books struggle to get into book stores. I have friends who have published books through traditional channels such as Random House who can't get into book stores - because they are genre, and Edgar Award just isn't enough. One author was even mentioned by Oprah and featured in a magazine. I've yet to see her books in area book stores.
Also, majority of books right now are purchased through digital or online channels.
Second, you can't publish your book through any one else if you have a $10 Custom ISBN.
Actually all it gives you is the ability to put on your own imprint name - which just provides Book Stores with a genre classification. (ie. Classical Literature, Children's Lit, etc...example of Imprints? St. Martins Press is an Imprint of Random House, or ACE books is an Imprint of Penguin.)
This blog post on imprints was helpful.
Imprints typically have a defining character or mission. For example, the objective of Viking, an imprint of The Penguin Group, is “To publish a strictly limited list of good nonfiction, such as biography, history and works on contemporary affairs, and distinguished fiction with some claim to permanent importance rather than ephemeral popular interest.” Many imprints publish only one type (or one format) of book — Crown Business (Random House) and Portfolio (The Penguin Group) publish business books for example, Fireside(Simon & Schuster) publishes (paperback) inspirational books and HarperPerennial(HarperCollins) publishes paperbacks. Other imprints like Penguin Books and Random House publish a variety of fiction and nonfiction titles.
Which brings me to one of the most confusing (yet one of the most important) distinctions to make in publishing: the difference between publishing houses and their eponymous imprints. So Random House the company has a division called The Random House Publishing Group which is itself broken down into several imprints including Ballantine and the Random House Trade Group (known as “Little Random). The Penguin Group (the company) has one imprint called The Penguin Press, that publishes hardcover fiction and nonfiction, and another imprint called Penguin Books, that publishes paperback fiction and nonfiction. (And to make matters even more confusing, Penguin Press titles are published as Penguin Books paperbacks.)
Several months ago, Sarah Weinman of Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind broke down the imprints at all the major publishing houses: Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins, The Penguin Group and Random House. (You should note, though, that her series was written before the reorganization at Random House, so the scene’s changed a bit since then.)
For bloggers and journalists attempting to get in touch with authors, make a note of a book’s imprint and contact that department, not the company as a whole.
And this article:
The ISBN is just an identifier, a 'part number' so that publishers, distributors and bookstores can keep it straight with all the millions of other books out there.
It's also important to understand the concept of the imprint. If the ISBN is the part number, the imprint is the brand name. WingSpan Press is an imprint of WingSpan Publishing, Inc. Author House and iUniverse are imprints of Author Solutions, Inc. Bantam, Dell, Knopf, Doubleday and Random House are all imprints of Random House, Inc. It's like Chevrolet and Cadillac are 'imprints' of General Motors. Publishers use imprints mostly as marketing tools. If you want to self-publish your book and market it under your own imprint or company name, then you may have a good reason for owning your own ISBNs.
ISBNs are assigned to publishers in blocks from ten up to one hundred thousand numbers. That publisher becomes the 'publisher of record' for books published with those ISBNs. Generally that means that the publisher's imprint will appear on the book as well. So if you plan on calling yourself 'Bob's Really Big Publishing Company,' a block of ISBNs just might be a good idea. Assign your own ISBN and you become the publisher or record, and you can put your own imprint on the book and market away.
...............
What effect does ISBN have on the copyright? The answer is 'none.' ISBNs are not related in any way to who owns the rights to your work.
From what I've managed to figure out - the major difference between using your own imprint/ISBN and using a publishers - is whether you want to be the publisher of record.
So if you use your own = self published. If you use a publisher's = not self-published.
Yet weirdly many bloggers state if you use your own, you are less likely to be seen as self-published and be considered more professional. Reverse logic. But whatever.
I still haven't done it yet.
The other thing I'm worrying over is do I go with "matte" or "glossy", "cream", "black and white", "white" and size 5"8, 6"9, 5"7 paper back. Seriously? The choices for this thing are endless.
What's scary is there are still folks out there who look down on self-publishing. The good news? They are being kicked in the proverbial ass by the e-book and self-publishing industry. The world has changed since my Dad started doing this in the mid-1990s. Thank god.