Write Canada
2015
Toronto
Linda Hall
Before we begin
Preditors and Editors
http://pred-ed.com
http://accrispin.blogspot.ca
Small Indie presses
www.whitefire-publishing.com
http://www.redbudpress.com http://mountainbrookink.com
http://flavorwire.com/417838/25-independent-presses-that-prove-this-is-the-golden-age-of-indie-publishing
A few interesting articles
Huffington Post: Should you self-publish your first book?
Writing the book
Scrivener:
Titling the book
Covering the book
99designs.com
Bookgraphics.net
http://www.best-book-covers.com
Or do a Google search for eBook pre-made covers. Many sites.
Editing the book
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/07/14/how-to-find-the-right-editor/
Formatting the book
Do a Google search for book formatters. There are many. There are many resources at the Indie Author GroupHow to get an ISBN
Library and Archives Canada
CISS
Publishing the book
Kindle - https://kdp.amazon.com
Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/writinglife
Nook - https://www.nookpress.com
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/
Google Play - https://play.google.com/books/publish/u/0/
Apple - https://support.apple.com/kb/ph2808?locale=en_US
Print books
Create Space (owned by amazon) - https://www.createspace.com
Book baby - https://print.bookbaby.com
Audio books?
Currently ACX, amazon’s free site, is only available in the US and UK
Other options are there, but cost plenty. ACX.comHow to get a US ITIN tax number
Marketing the book
Many Indie marketing sites, many resources at the Indie Author GroupReviewing
Do a Google search for the many sites which list book bloggers and book reviewers.
http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers
Advertising
Bookbub.com
EReadernewstoday.com
Booksends.com
Pixelofink.com
bargainbooksy.com
Social media
Facebook: set up an Author Page
Twitter
Goodreads: set up an Author Page
Pinterest and others
For further learning
Online instruction -
Udemy.com
A few websites worth reading
For information on the business of eReaders - http://goodereader.com/blog/
Best five eReaders on the market: http://www.cnet.com/topics/ereaders/best-e-book-readers
A few blogs to follow
http://janefriedman.com
http://jakonrath.blogspot.ca
http://www.hughhowey.com
http://www.bookpromotion.com
A few podcasts of note
(Note - go to iTunes or Stitcher to subscribe)
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts
http://sellmorebooksshow.com
http://kobowritinglife.com/category/kwl-podcast
Some books worth studying
Business for Authors by Joanna Penn
How to Market a Book by Joanna Penn
Write, Publish, Repeat by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant
Let’s Get Digital/Let’s Get Visible by David Gaughran
Choosing A Self Publishing Service 2014: The Alliance of Independent Authors Guide by members of ALLI
Self-publishers legal handbook by Helen Sedwick
Discoverability by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Naked Truth About Self-Publishing by 10 NYT bestselling authors
Worthwhile organizations to join
The Word Guild - thewordguild.com
The Alliance of Independent Authors http://allianceindependentauthors.org
The Indie Author Group - a free Facebook group with tons of resources in its ‘files’: https://www.facebook.com/groups/smashwordsauthor
Nanowrimo.org
Graphics inside an eBook
The official guidelines recommend 600 x 800 pixels or less for internal pictures. My advice is about 500 x 700 or less. The size of your images in megabytes doesn't matter because Amazon's software will compress your pictures to under 127KB. The greater the number of pictures, the stronger the compression. For example, if you insert 20 pictures in one Kindle book, 5 MB each image, then inside the final book, each image will be only about 60KB. In regular Kindle books (not fixed layout) there is also a limit on the number of pixels: approximately 1.4 megapixels.
Print Book Fonts
Garamond, Minion, and Dante are probably three of the five or six most widely-used typefaces for trade paperback fiction published in the U.S. over the past several years. Among those, Garamond is the one most likely to come already installed on a home/office system, and is one that behaves predictably if you're trying to do page layout with word processing software (e.g, Word) as opposed to page layout software (e.g., InDesign).
eBook Fonts
Choose almost any font you want - your formatter will put your work into TNR or Ariel anyway. Why - because most eReaders will default to a sort of specialized proportional serif font themselves. Go with the flow, and, there are fonts that will not work at all and choosing one of those just makes your work look like cartoon "swear words" ((&^###,,(&%!)