SELF-PUBLISHING | Amazon, BookBaby, IngramSpark

Sample Comparison of Services, from
Daily Cos. Ingram is more geared to
bookstores (accepts returns).

I am having to compare self-publishing options and this may be of use to other authors going through the same process. It is not easy to sort out what is the best way to go. Each step costs money. Good service has to be paid for. But there are ways to get better value for money. Here's a 2015 post that compares costs for a $14.99 book. 

Amazon/CreateSpace

Amazon is the way to sell ebooks, and it now owns CreateSpace, which is a good way to sell print on demand (POD) books but they have two problems. First, their discounting practices annoy bookstores and going with them makes it hard to get into bookstores. Ingram Spark is better. Second, they have given up a lot of their editorial and design assistance. They have become just a platform for distribution.

BookBaby: Good for eBooks

I had a good experience dealing with BookBaby and getting estimates of costs for putting out a book. The information came quickly and seemed reasonable, and were delivered professionally.

A review of BookBaby from the ebook publishing perspective in 2014 reported that the new management under President Steven Spatz is making positive changes but the reviewer recommends Smashwords and Draft2Digital over BookBaby as primary distributor, mainly because of the charges that BookBaby imposed for changes to the text that is filed.

The Independent Publishing Magazine in 2014 said that BookBaby is competitive on ebooks but not on printing books. I came to that impression myself by comparing quotes. One reason BookBaby can get away with noncompetitive printing charges is that it masks the charges by giving “royalty” estimates.

As of 2017 there were a lot of complaints about BookBaby. However, the overall recommendation by the Independent Authors Association is favorable.

TrustPilot has some more recent reviews and BookBaby is responding to the negative ones. Someone seems to be taking charge. The overall rating is 8.8 out of 10. That’s pretty good.

In sum, BookBaby seems to excel at book design and preparation, and distributing ebooks. On the printing side, the 2014 negative review on noncompetitive pricing seems still to be applicable.

Ingram Spark

Ingram Spark is great for POD books. They are getting more involved in assisting with the details of editing and design, providing guides and a list of certified providers, but they are not as good as BookBaby. They are significantly better than BookBaby and Amazon/CreateSpace as distributors.

All of these assessments are subject to change. I am in this marketplace and am working with these providers.

Hiring Someone to Help

Rather than try to figure out which distributor is best, one approach is to just hire a designer to help you through the process. Then you are stuck with the question where to find a good book designer. Not as easy as it sounds. There are people out there who claim to be book designers who are not qualified. Best to talk to someone who has been through the process and use someone who is recommended. Caveat emptor. Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.

Summary

For someone knowledgable about publishing but nervous about making a mistake (the more you know, the more nervous you should be), the solution is either to use Ingram Spark for their guides and certified providers or to rely on BookBaby. Once the book is ready, BookBaby is an expensive route to go for POD, but is fine for ebooks. For someone new to the game, the best idea is to hire someone who has been through the drill. Goose Tracks has a strategy for releasing a book in steps, and structures his publishing program that he uses the services of all three of the main outlets for print-on-demand publishing.

LAURA INGALLS WILDER | Her Home in Mansfield, Missouri

Yesterday, going through books after the challenging immersion last week in #BookExpo2018,  I was dipping into "Dear Laura," a collection of letters to Laura Ingalls Wilder from her young fans.

That prompted me to send a letter to the woman in charge of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri, Jean Coday.

I watched an interview with her on YouTube, about the Wilder Home and Museum, and was pleased that the Wilder books and home and the memory of the author are being kept alive so energetically. You can watch the interview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl3CWzZACYQ

My mother, Hilda van Stockum Marlin (Newbery Honoree in 1935), was – like Wilder – a Viking Press author and we used to get each "Little House" book from May Massee, the editor, as it came out. 

My sister Olga Marlin was a special fan and she kept up a correspondence with Wilder. I asked Jean Coday whether any of that correspondence survives in the Mansfield home and museum. 

"Dear Laura" was published in 1996 by HarperCollins. 

If fan letters from Olga are not in Mansfield, they could be in the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa. Perhaps there is also another location for storage of these letters.

My sister Olga this year has just had published her second book, released by Scepter, which is located in New York, New York and Princeton, New Jersey. The book is called "Our Lives in His Hands: An Ordinary Couple's Path to Holiness," with a Foreword by Mary Ann Glendon.

Boissevain Books published a second edition of her first book, "To Africa with a Dream," which was initially published by Scepter.

OXFORD COMMA | Origin

The Comma Queen, at the Players Club,
November 21, 2017.

November 22, 2017 – How did the comma happen?

And then, how did the Oxford Comma happen?

And how does the Oxford Comma differ from the Harvard Comma?

I listened to a report at lunch today at the Players Club, New York City, by Mary Norris, the "Comma Queen". 

She wrote a book called Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen.

(To be continued. Watch this space.)

KERSTI | Rights Trail

Rights are Asserted in the following book by Hilda van Stockum through 2056 or 2076, depending on prevailing copyright law.

1. Kersti and St. Nicholas: COPYRIGHT in name of VIKING PRESS 1940. Originally published by Viking Press. Registration was made October 18, 1940. The book is described as having been published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on October 11, 1940. Recorded in the Register of Copyrights at the Library of Congress by the Commissioner of Patents, November 4, 1940.

Historical note: Hilda van Stockum was born in Rotterdam, Holland and saw her country invaded on May 10,  1940 and her home city bombed to the ground by the Nazis a few days later.

The shock of this for her and her mother Olga Boissevain van Stockum must have been agonizing.

Her book describes a little Dutch girls who persuades St. Nicholas to give presents to the naughty children as well as the good ones.

An edition of Kersti and St. Nicholas was published by Boissevain Books LLC.

For other books and articles and artwork to which rights are asserted, see
http://boissevainbooksllc.blogspot.com/2018/05/van-stockum-hilda-van-stockum-assertion.html.

2. VIKING REVERSION OF RIGHTS to Author, 1967 (Seven Books including Kersti)

3. APPOINTMENT OF EXECUTOR AND TRUSTEE 2006 (Death of author)

4. TRANSFER OF RIGHTS TO BOISSEVAIN BOOKS UPON DEATH OF EXECUTOR

VAN STOCKUM | Hilda van Stockum, Assertion of Rights

Rights are Asserted and Hereby Documented in the following literary works of Hilda van Stockum a/k/a Hilda Marlin aka Mrs. E. R. Marlin. The executor is John Tepper Marlin, Ph.D., Managing Partner of Boissevain Books LLC, to which rights have been assigned.

Hilda van Stockum died in 2006. Rights are asserted for her literary works until 2056 or 2076, depending on the governing copyright law.

The following list is in formation.

Kersti and St. Nicholas. Originally published by Viking Press. Registration was made October 18, 1940. The book is described as having been published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on October 11, 1940. Recorded in the Register of Copyrights at the Library of Congress by t he Commissioner of Patents, November 4, 1940.  Historical note: Hilda van Stockum was born in Rotterdam, Holland and saw her home city bombed by the Nazis earlier that year. Her book describes a little Dutch girls who persuades St. Nicholas to give presents to the naughty children as well as the good ones.

WW2 | Remembering V-E Day

Charlie Miner, Jr. at the Vero Beach, Fla. Veterans
Memorial. Photo by JT Marlin.

Amsterdam, Holland, May 3, 2018 –The East Hampton Star just published my "Guest Words" on the death of Charlie Miner and the ending of the war in Europe, 73 years ago this coming week. 

I plan to attend the May 4 Remembrance Day in Overveen, for the ending of the Nazi Occupation of Holland. 

This Occupation took the lives of many of my Dutch-born mother's relatives, who fought against Hitler in the military or in the Resistance. Her brother Willem was piloting a Halifax III for the RAF when he was shot down over Laval, France during the week of D-Day in June 1944.

Army Major and pediatrician Dr Robert Wack wrote a book focusing on Willem. It is called Time Bomber and it is published by Boissevain Books.

BOOK BIZ | How to Get an Indie Book Reviewed

At #BookExpo2017 I ran across a media kit for Foreword Reviews. This is a competitor to Kirkus Reviews that only looks at indie books — i.e., books published by anyone except the Big Five of publishing and their imprints:

• Hachette
• HarperCollins
• Macmillan
• Penguin Random House
• Simon & Schuster

The faster and cheaper technology for producing books on demand means that more books are being published every year.  There is room for another reviewing company. In fact more competition in this field is on its way.

Kirkus Reviews accepts books for review in its magazine, which is based in New York City. It reviews the best ones for free. It requires books be submitted ahead of their publication date. To be sure of getting a review to quote in advertising, indie publishers send books in with a $425 fee, and Kirkus sends back a review for use by the publisher. It prepares reviews of 10,000 books per year. It also provides editing services, again for a fee, prior to publication, independently of its reviewing service.

Foreword Reviews is based in Michigan. It receives about 1,500 books prior to their publication every two months for review in its magazine and publishes 150 of them. This service costs $499 per title and is called a "Clarion Review" to distinguish it from the unpaid reviews. The paid review belongs to the publisher, but with the publisher's permission it is posted on the Clarion website and is used by book distributors and selling outlets. The books for paid review do not have to be submitted in advance of publication. Books of special merit are given a "Five Star Clarion Review".

Typically the reviewers ask for two printed copies or one pdf file of the book. They take about two months to generate a review, so advance planning is essential.

The lead time for the editorial in Foreword Reviews is awesome. The deadline for editorial for the September-October issue is already past. The deadline for the November-December issue, which covers Health & Fitness, Biography and Historical, is July 15.

For Foreword Reviews consideration, send books and a "tip sheet" to
Book Review Editor, Foreword Reviews
425 Boardman Avenue
Traverse City, MI 49684
Or... better still... send a pdf file, or ebook, to ebooks@forewordreviews.com.

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