Tag Archives: ebooks

Laura English by Lynn Arias Bornstein — Now at a Bookstore Near You!

Laura English by Lynn Arias BornsteinStillpoint Digital Press has released Laura English, the debut novel of glamour, intrigue, and heartbreak by author Lynn Arias Bornstein.

A fairy tale of Hollywood glamour that shows that even the most blessed lives may not have the happily-ever-after that we would expect, Laura English follows the life and loves of a young British actress who rises to fame and yet struggles to find what she actually needs. By turns heart-warming and heart-wrenching, funny and tragic, this novel takes you on a journey around the world and into the deepest recesses of the human heart.

This is a book of joy, loss, rejection, as well as fear and happiness. The author weaves a complicated web of intrigue, passion, and profound loss, which I found captivating. Definitely a must-read— Patricia Day for Readers’ Favorite

Laura English  is available in trade soft-cover and ebook formats through Stillpoint Digital Press, through IndieBound and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Apple’s iBooks Store, and wherever else you buy books.

Continue reading Laura English by Lynn Arias Bornstein — Now at a Bookstore Near You!

Smidget for Smashwords (and MS Word)

My post on how to add social media and review links to your ebook has remained one of my most popular — no surprise, when every author and publisher (and author/publisher) is trying to make it as easy as possible for readers to share what they think about the book!

Someone asked recently if it were possible to use the same technique in a Microsoft Word document that was going to be uploaded to Smashwords and put through the dreaded Meatgrinder. The answer, of course, is yes!

Here’s how you do it:

The first thing you need to do is find images for the buttons. In most cases, the stores/social media companies have such icons available for the purpose on their sites. In my case, my own site (like just about every site out there) has a line of such icons across the bottom of every article; I right-clicked on each icon (that’s control-click on a Mac) and selected Save Image as…, downloading each of the icons to my computer as an image file — in each case either a JPEG file or a PNG file, either of which will work in an ebook.

The larger Amazon and Goodreads images I found on their websites. You could just do a web search for “Amazon icon” or “Goodreads icon” and find the ones that you want. (If you’re uploading to Smashwords, however, don’t include the Amazon icon and link — they’ll kick the book back to you. The only links they’ll allow are back to your own page or to Smashwords.)

To get them into your Word document, go to the Insert menu, and select Photo and then Picture from File…. (I’m using Word for Mac 2011 — I believe it’s the same in most versions of Word created in the last decade.) Find the image files wherever you downloaded them to, and hit the Insert button. The images will now be loaded into your Word doc.

You can play around with formatting them however you like — in a single row, in a tower, in a pyramid, whatever.

Now select each image one by one. The easiest way to do that is to place the cursor down right next to the image, then hold down the Shift key and the left or right arrow key. The icon will now be highlighted (on my computer, it turns bright yellow). Now go up to Insert menu again and select Hyperlink… (or hit Command-k on a Mac or control-k on a Windows computer). Take the hyperlink for that site that you’ve created using the directions I gave above, and then paste them into the field provided in the dialog box and (once again) hit the Insert button. Voilà! You should have a working link.

Now try clicking on the link you’ve just created. Does it behave the way that it should, creating a dialog to post a Tweet, update or review? If not, double-check the code and make sure that everything is as it should be. (The sites all occasionally change their code, and so some of these links may not be workable in a year or five — but they all work now.)

Repeat that for each of the icons, and you should have a working widget. Upload to Smashwords, and watch the book start to sell itself.

What's an Independent Publisher?

So, I was astonished earlier this month to find myself elected president of BAIPA — the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association.

You may call me Mr. President.

Born in the early, heady days of the desktop publishing revolution, BAIPA is a wonderful collection of folks involved in various parts of the non-corporate end of the publishing industry who get together to swap knowledge and offer services and listen to expert speakers give information about the esoterica of the publishing craft. We’ve got authors, editors, designers, publicists — if it’s got to do with the creation of books (in whatever form) and their sale, there’s someone there who can help. The collective is capable of creating books that are every bit as polished and attractive as those put out by the Big Five publishers. (Is it still five, by the way?)

I’ve learned a lot at BAIPA meetings. I’d like to think I’ve also managed to share some helpful information.

Meetings always start off with a free-form Q&A session. It gives people the chance to ask whatever burning question they may have up front; the BAIPA hivemind then sets about answering the question.

A few weeks ago, at the first meeting that I ran as president, no one had any questions to ask up front. This sometimes happens, so I threw out a question that I hoped would spark some interesting conversation: What exactly is an independent publisher? Continue reading What's an Independent Publisher?

What’s an Independent Publisher?

So, I was astonished earlier this month to find myself elected president of BAIPA — the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association.

You may call me Mr. President.

Born in the early, heady days of the desktop publishing revolution, BAIPA is a wonderful collection of folks involved in various parts of the non-corporate end of the publishing industry who get together to swap knowledge and offer services and listen to expert speakers give information about the esoterica of the publishing craft. We’ve got authors, editors, designers, publicists — if it’s got to do with the creation of books (in whatever form) and their sale, there’s someone there who can help. The collective is capable of creating books that are every bit as polished and attractive as those put out by the Big Five publishers. (Is it still five, by the way?)

I’ve learned a lot at BAIPA meetings. I’d like to think I’ve also managed to share some helpful information.

Meetings always start off with a free-form Q&A session. It gives people the chance to ask whatever burning question they may have up front; the BAIPA hivemind then sets about answering the question.

A few weeks ago, at the first meeting that I ran as president, no one had any questions to ask up front. This sometimes happens, so I threw out a question that I hoped would spark some interesting conversation: What exactly is an independent publisher? Continue reading What’s an Independent Publisher?

New Stillpoint title: Laura English

We’re excited to announce the imminent publication of Laura English, Lynn Arias Bornstein’s new novel of glamor, love, and intrigue coming in print and ebook formats to Stillpoint Digital Press in February: Continue reading New Stillpoint title: Laura English

The Mercenary Major Free on Amazon Today!

For today only, you can get Kate Moore’s Stillpoint Regency Romance The Mercenary Major for free on Amazon.com!

The Mercenary Major by Kate Moore

The Mercenary Major

A POSSIBLE HEIR
Escaping death in a stagecoach ambush which left him an orphan. Jack Amherly joined the ranks of the rowdy British army. But his eccentric aunt eventually tracks him down, and when the troops return to London, Aunt Letty makes it her mission to reintroduce her wayward nephew to the ton. . . and to find him a proper wife.

AN IMPOSSIBLE HEIRESS 
Alas, the outrageously unconventional Jack is taken for a fortune-seeking impostor, a circumstance he finds rather amusing given his disdain for young heiresses. But that is before he encounters the tantalizing Victoria Carr. She’s determined to ascertain the truth of his identity and get on with the pleasures of the Season. Yet exposing the handsome rascal who distracts her quickly turns to a risky game of hearts-one that is never dull for either player.

For more on Kate Moore and her library of novels, visit her page on Stillpoint/Romance or her website at http://www.katemoore.com.

Used InDesign to export your ebook and now can’t upload it ’cause it’s “encrypted”? Here’s why.

ePub LogoIn the past couple of weeks, I’ve had three separate friends come to me grumbling about not being able to upload their ebooks because the ebook site tells them the files are encrypted.

“Did you export the ePub file from InDesign?” I ask.

“Yeah,” they say. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything,” I answer….
Continue reading Used InDesign to export your ebook and now can’t upload it ’cause it’s “encrypted”? Here’s why.

Used InDesign to export your ebook and now can't upload it 'cause it's "encrypted"? Here's why.

ePub LogoIn the past couple of weeks, I’ve had three separate friends come to me grumbling about not being able to upload their ebooks because the ebook site tells them the files are encrypted.

“Did you export the ePub file from InDesign?” I ask.

“Yeah,” they say. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything,” I answer….
Continue reading Used InDesign to export your ebook and now can't upload it 'cause it's "encrypted"? Here's why.

Make your book its own best marketing platform!

What if you had a tool right now that would make your book the best tool you have for selling itself? A tool that makes it incredibly easy for your most devoted readers to review and post at the moment when they are most motivated — just after they’ve finished the book!  People can click here if they want seo teams for marinas!
 

Smidget is that tool!

 

Continue reading Make your book its own best marketing platform!

Six things you should be including in your ebook (and probably aren't)

Or, How to Use Your Ebooks as Your Best Marketing Platform

Last month I came up with a flash of inspiration: a way to use ebooks to market themselves. After trying it out on a number of my own ebooks, I wrote a post for Joel Friedlander’s wonderful resource for independent publishers, TheBookDesigner.com.

That post sparked a lot of interest and so I knew I wanted to share it here as well. (Since a number of folks have asked: yes, I will help you do this if you’d like. The directions here should be easy to follow — for someone comfortable getting in under the HTML hood of an ebook. Not everyone is, however, and so I can provide assistance.

I’ve created a service to add these buttons to your ebook; head on over to our new order page for Smidget — the social media widget for ebooks!

Quick: who—aside from you, your immediate family, and your dog—are the people most excited about your book, most ready to talk about it with their friends, and best equipped to talk about your book’s virtues? Anyone?

Well, there are lots of possible answers for each of those questions, but when it comes to identifying the whole bunch, I’d bet it’s a group that you haven’t thought much about: The people who have just finished the last page.

Think about it. If someone has actually finished your book, they’re committed to it. They’re interested in what you have had to say, and it’s fresh in their minds. They are your ideal advocates, your perfect evangelists for generating more excitement about your work and making sure that people hear about it. So what are you doing to harness that potential?

Most self-publishers don’t do much of anything. Maybe they put a bio at the back, and, possibly a link to their web page. Commercial publishers don’t do a whole lot more—they’ll put a list of similar titles the reader might be interested in, and, if they’re very twenty-first century, they’ll hyperlink those titles to the appropriate pages on their site.

Those are all really, really good ideas, and a great way to make the next sale. Is that enough? No, no, no.

What are you going to do to make sure that this title finds its audience? How are you going to harness that band of potential sales reps who’ve just finished your book and really want to talk with someone about it? I was thinking about this recently, and realized that the answer was pretty simple, when you remember that an ebook is simply a specialized web page. You do something like this: Continue reading Six things you should be including in your ebook (and probably aren't)