Books About Publishing
Self-Publishing
- The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell Your Own Book by Dan Poynter
- A complete guide to the necessary steps; in print with regular revised editions since 1979.
- The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote and Sell Your Own Book by Marilyn Ross & Sue Collier
- Originally self-published, this book was picked up by Writers Digest Books.
- Aiming at Amazon: How to Publish Your Books with Print on Demand and Online Book Marketing on Amazon.com by Aaron Shepard
- Discusses how to maximize the selling features offered by Amazon.
- POD for Profit: How to Publish Your Books With Online Book Marketing and Print on Demand by Lightning Source by Aaron Shepard
- Explains how to sell books profitably using print-on-demand book printer Lightning Source.
- The Publishing Game series (Find an Agent in 30 Days, Publish a Book in 30 Days, Bestseller in 30 Days) by Fern Reiss
- The tasks that need to be completed are sorted into manageable steps.
- The Fine Print of Self-Publishing: The Contracts & Services of 48 Major Self-Publishing Companies—Analyzed, Ranked & Exposed by Mark Levine
- Analyzes the contracts used by 48 self-publishing companies, and compares the services they offer.
Book Marketing
- 1001 Ways to Market Your Books: For Authors and Publishers by John Kremer
- Pick and choose the techniques that will work for you.
- The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform: Leveraging the Internet to Sell More Books by Stephanie Chandler
- Especially helpful for nonfiction writers.
- Publicize Your Book!: An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves by Jacqueline Deval
- For authors or publishers.
Design and Production
- Bookmaking: Editing/Design/Production by Marshall Lee
- A basic reference for the traditional craft of making books.
- Book Design and Production: A Guide for Authors and Publishers by Pete Masterson
- Aimed at new self-publishers.
- The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type by James Felici
- Recommended for publishers who want their books to look professional.
- Real World InDesign CS5: Industrial-Strength Publishing Techniques by Olav Martin Kvern, David Blatner, and Bob Bringhurst
- The book to have for anyone who uses InDesign. Even older editions (CS2, CS3, CS4) are packed with essential information.
- The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers
- The standard style guide for professionally published books in the United States.
E-books
- EPUB Straight to the Point: Creating Ebooks for the Apple iPad and Other Ereaders by Elizabeth Castro
- Shows how to use Adobe InDesign to create ePub files, the standard e-book format that can easily be converted to Kindle and other proprietary formats.
- Kindle Formatting: The Complete Guide to Formatting Books for the Amazon Kindle by Joshua Tallent
- Much of the information doesn’t apply to the latest generation of Kindles. I recommend creating a validated ePub file and after a few tweaks converting that to Kindle format.
Updated January 26, 2011