#book publishing

[criticalthinkingwitches]

Mark your calendars!

Our Next Witches' Brew is April 5th!

Register for our FREE virtual event with this link.

Our upcoming April Witches' Brew will be aimed at sharing how the written word can be a powerful way for witches and related friends to raise their voices - be it through editorials, fiction, non-fiction narratives, and more.

Are you newer to CTWC? What is a Witches' Brew, you may ask? Our Witches' Brews are small coming together of witches events throughout the year, focused on a particular topic to open up conversations and invite learning. These are short events compared to our full Con - about three hours on one day.

We'll open with our traditional potions, with a poetic and narrative tilt, from our Gnome & Cauldron host - Jul Bloomfield. Jul may have something extra special to share with our Brew-mates, about potions past and future! So be sure to tune in. [about 15 minutes]

Next up on our Brew agenda, an independent book seller will lead a panel on demystifying the publishing process with authors who have experience with traditional publishing, self publishing, and freelance writing work.

Join Alex Wrekk (book seller at The Spiral House and zinester, @upthewitchypunx), Lane Smith  (traditional publication and author of 78 Acts of Liberation: Tarot to Transform Our World), Lee Cotman (freelance and self publication), and Trae Dorn  (independently published author of The Mia Graves Saga, host of BS Free Witchcraft podcast, @traegorn) [about 45 minutes]

We'll break to chat together about what we've heard and what we think (you won't be left on your own for this!). It is traditional, and a wonderful way to meet other witches and friends of witches. [about 20 minutes]

April 5th! Free! Virtual! Sign up here!

[ariaste]

🚨WRITER BEWARE🚨

I've just gotten an email from a new "self-publishing platform" called Written (written.app), which is making suspiciously extravagant promises about the benefits they offer to authors. After further research, this is just "upload your book with us and we'll make it an NFT :)"

There is a "thesis" that you can read right on their website if you're interested in looking for yourself at the business model of their grift, but if you'd like to save yourself the trouble, I've pulled out some of the highlights of the receipts over on Bluesky. TLDR: I would not touch this platform with a ten-foot-pole. This is not a book-selling platform, this is a Coincidentally Book-Themed NFT Platform.

[dduane]

Hi, *insert childhood adoration here* just got home from work and don't really have access to true coherent thought. Um. Okay.

Do you know why sometimes, books in a series, from the same publisher, will be in two different sizes? My sister and I figured out that sometimes the exact same book from the same publisher will have two different thicknesses of paper and so one will be slightly thicker, but we can't work out the height and width thing. Same cover design type, like, same edition. Just. One of them is bigger. Do you know why?

Thanks for the wizard books that first made friends of my cousin and me.

First: you're very welcome. I'm glad to have been of service.

On the size question, though: This is one of the Great Imponderables that drives books' writers at least as far around the bend as their readers.

Now there are some explanations that make at least some kind of sense. Sometimes, for example, even within a single edition of a single book, there may be difference-in-thickness issues for some concrete reason: the challenge is discovering which reason (assuming the publisher hasn't themselves told you about it, which is likely to be the case about 99% of the time). ...A common problem is when, for some reason to do with ongoing geopolitical crap or national/international crises, the price of paper changes suddenly. This will cause publishers to try to reduce costs on a book by (the next time it goes back to press) changing the paper quality for something thinner. One of these changes might come between volumes of a series, which is why you might suddenly get a difference between the paper quality of book 5 and book 6 of what's otherwise supposed to be a unified set.

(There's also a similar weirdness in which going up a level of paper thickness will allow your publisher to shove a book of a given length into a slightly higher price point. So, whammo, it happens, and no one bothers consulting you about this detail.)

Or alternately: All of a sudden, somebody at your publisher decides that your series needs to be packaged in a slightly different format that—for reasons that possibly no one in the field even fully understands—is becoming associated with better sales at some other publisher (or some other imprint at your own publisher). So, bang, between one book of a series and the next, the next volume to come out is a quarter inch taller or half an inch wider. And/or 15% thicker (because the pulp of the paper involved has had more air pumped into it than previously). And your books will continue to look like that until some other fad or trend at the packaging end affects them.

(Or alternately, it doesn't affect them, because your publisher's focus has changed in some inexplicable way—or the in-house accountants have crunched their numbers in some new manner—and they've decided your books aren't worth spending the format-change money on.)

(sigh) Tl:dr; There's no damn telling. (It's vanishingly rare that anybody tells us, anyway.) And I wish I had a clearer answer for you than this. Apologies. :/

[reasonsforhope]

Book Publishing Resources

Well, since a few people said they were interested and/or that posting about it on here occasionally was a decent idea, here we go!

I'm MC Calvi, a freelance editor specializing in self-help, psychology, spirituality, paganism, workbooks, and LGBTQ books.

You can find out more about me at my website, where I also offer free twenty-minute book/publishing consultations, in addition to regular editing services.

I am also now offering some pay-what-you-can resources on my website and on Gumroad. I'm committed to offering pay-what-you-can resources because the odds are already so stacked against marginalized authors, and publishing shouldn't be pay to win.

I have two new booklets I'm actually super happy with! They both draw on my eight years of experience in the publishing industry to give authors a leg up.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming as I hit "publish" on another good news post!

[thebibliosphere]

My apologies if you have talked about this recently, but, as an aspiring author-if-i-ever-manage-to-finish-something-haha-can-you-imagine, I have a question! I discovered Draft2Digital thanks to one of your old posts and it caught my attention very fast because it looked very promising, but lately (as much as I've been able to consult with Tumblr's search, magnificent and very functional as it famously is) you've been mentioning IngramSpark more, so if I may ask! Is D2D still an acceptable platform nowadays, or is it better to go look for other alternatives? Thanks!

Oh, Ingram Spark used to be one of the only options for paperbacks other than Amazon in the US and I am moving AWAY from them because they’re such assholes.

They’re responsible for the price hike in my books and I’m 99.9% certain they’re skimming profit off my retailer discount. They also put the ability to call customer service behind a paywall ($25 per 30 minutes). You can still email them but good luck ever getting a reply. Which is an issue when they send you a box of hardback books covered in binding glue with pages falling out that they still maintain are in sellable condition and won’t issue a refund for 🙃 (yes to anyone who has been paying attention it’s been 2+ years and I’m still fighting with them over that)

Yeah, no. I’ll be a d2d author going forward. They’ve got the same global market reach as Ingram, as well as recently merged with Gardners in the UK (a big distributor)

Plus it means I can do my ebook, paperback and audio all from one place. (Findaway is partnered with d2d)

I’ll still keep Amazon separate, but that's because Amazon pays better royalties for direct uploads. Everything else I’m using d2d.

Fuck Ingram. They’re never getting another direct penny from me 😅

[jamesfitzjamesdotcom]

Future publication

One of the things I want to publish is Fitzjames' 1833-34 Midshipman journal, which was donated to the National Maritime Museum Greenwich. I had my book concept printed to see what it looks like in print, and I love it! 🥰

The cover is a picture of the actual journal, so that you feel like you're holding the real thing! When I've finished writing the biography I'm finally going to approach publishers.

[JOD/86, National Maritime Museum Greenwich. See the original journal here.]

[norapotwora]

Hello folks!

Last year I had an amazing opportunity to unleash creativity and came out of my comfrot zone by creating the character design tutorial for "Inspired by Nature".

The book, published by @3dtotal, just had it's premiere not so long ago, and is now available in the 3dtotal store!

It was a huge fun, and I hope you like how the Periwinkle came out!

[thetransfemininereview]

Guess what day it is? We're back at it with a broad overview of trans-forward indie presses, looking both at some of the better known ones (Topside, Metonymy, LittlePuss) as well as a few lesser known ones (Reluctant, Doppler, Instar). We ❤️ our indie presses!

[maream2636]

2024.29.7

Yesterday I went out to the beach with my family and it was really fun although I fell on my knees and hurt myself but I still walked! Today I found myself lost so I sat down and wrote down all the important and silly tasks that came to mind and things I wanted to do and more and more are still floating around and I won't be able to finish them all in one day but I want to focus on the more important things so I will finish the simple now

So :

1.Looking for a suitable sports schedule for me

2.I agree with my sister to prepare healthy meals for me in exchange for money (I know how to cook but I hate it)

3.Search for a psychological improvement course (I had it but I don't know where I lost it!)

4.Clean the room

[chroniclesofnadia111]

🙏🏾Publishing my first book at this time in life has been a deeply sentimental and spiritual experience. Thank you to all who have supported. I truly believe these poems and musings will deeply resonate in the hands of whoever it comes in contact with. Words are Life and Art is eternal. 🌹

If anyone wants a real insight into my mind, you can find that in Hopeful Nets. It’s me at my most transparent and vulnerable.

Available now on Amazon at the link below.💫✨👇🏾 📖 Blessings.

[fanfictiongirlie]

decided I'm going to write a real life book (and it terrifies me.. Ive been writing fanfiction for fourteen years, I shouldn't be scared) anyone have any advice, or words of encouragement? 💖

edit: thank you everyone who's written! <3

[intothestacks]

Adventures in Librarian-ing

This week I've been reading How This Book Was Made by Mac Barnett to the Grade 1 to 3 classes.

When I announced the title of the book to one of the Grade 1 classes one of the kids raised their hand and asked me if I'd ever written a book.

"Kinda," I replied, "My mom's a children's author and she wrote a dictionary for kids. I helped her with keeping track of things like which words were being added to the dictionary. Because there are a lot of words out there ("There sure are!" one of the kiddos agreed) and no dictionary can have all of them, right? So she had to pick out what words to put in and leave out."

^ I worked on this dictionary. It sold over a million copies.

[novlr]

How to create a Copyright for my fiction novel?

For example:

All right reserved. This is a work of fiction...

(I forgot all of it)

In August we wrote a beginners guide to copyright, in which we talk about whether you need it, how to get it if you do, and what information you should include in a copyright page. We've even given you a downloadable template that you can customise to your needs for both fiction, and non-fiction books! Click the link below.

[turnthepagepub]

Open call for submissions!

We at Turn the Page Publishing are looking for any- and everything romance—that means a plot that focuses on the love story and ends with an HEA/HFN, but other than that our wish list is wide open.

Contemporary, comedy, historical, paranormal, suspense, you name it and we want to check it out. All sexualities and all heat levels are welcome. Check out our Submission Guidelines for more info!

We're especially interested in novellas (15-35k) for a multi-author collection. Again, all subgenres are encouraged, but for these we're definitely on the lookout for queer romance. Any questions about this can be directed to our LGBTQ+ inclusivity editor, Kat Majik, at maj@turnthepagepub.com, or here on Tumblr @katmajik and @majicmarker.

What's the deadline? Whenever you've got something ready! (If you work better on a certain timeline—namely, for the queer romance anthology—feel free to DM one of Maj's aforementioned blogs and we'll work it out.)

You can also visit our website for further clarification and contact info. Our inboxes—email, Tumblr, and other social media—are always open!

We're looking forward to hearing from you and reading your stories ~♡~

[reasonsforhope]

"At HarperCollins, a lot of attention and thought is given to deciding exactly what combinations of margin measurements, font, and layout feel most appropriate for the genre, and writing style.

But in a case of do-your-part environmentalism, designers at the publishing house have now standardized a series of subtle and imperceptible alterations to normal font style, layouts, and ink that have so far removed the need for 245 million book pages, totaling 5,618 trees.

Telling the story in Fast Company, representatives from HarperCollins, one of the four largest publishing houses in the world, explained that the idea first arose in Zondervan Bibles, HarperCollins’ Christian publishing division. Being that the Bible is 2,500 pages or sometimes more, saving ink and pages was not just an environmental consideration, but one of production costs.

A new typeface called NIV Comfort Print allowed Zondervan to shave 350 pages off of every Bible, which by 2017 had amounted to 100 million pages, and which, as Fast Company points out, would be four times higher than the Empire State Building if stacked.

The production and design teams then wondered how much they could save if they applied the same concepts to other genres like romance and fiction. Aside from the invention of the eBook, publishing hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years, and the challenge was a totally novel one for the teams—to alter all their preconceived ideas and try and find a font and typeface that resulted in fewer pages without being harder to read.

They eventually standardized 14 different combinations their tests determined were the most environmentally friendly, and which delivered an unchanged reading experience.

But the challenge didn’t stop there. Printed books, one might not know, are printed in large sheets which are then folded into sections of sixteen pages, meaning that Leah Carlson-Stanisic, associate director of design at HarperCollins, has to calculate the savings of space, words, and ultimately pages with the help of her team to fall in multiples of sixteen.

Nevertheless, they have been successful with it so far, and in the recent print run of one popular book, 1 million pages (or a number near 1 million that coincides with the 16 times tables) were saved.

“We want to make sure our big titles, by prominent authors, are using these eco-fonts,” Carlson-Stanisic said. “It adds up a little bit at a time, saving more and more trees.”"

-via Good News Network, April 4, 2024

--

Note: Great! Waiting to see this on the rest of their books and at the other big publishers!

Actually, though, it's worth noting that this may not come quickly to the other large publishers, because Harper Collins almost certainly owns that font - meaning that other publishers would have to pay HarperCollins in order to use it, on an ongoing basis.

More on publishing shit and more realistic solutions here below the cut!

What I'm hoping for and think is more likely is that this will inspire the development of open source eco-friendly fonts, which would be free for anyone to use. That would make it far more likely other publishers would adopt eco-friendly fonts.

I'm also hoping it would inspire other publishers to create similar eco-friendly fonts of their own.

Ideally, there would be a whole new landscape of (hopefully mostly open source) eco-friendly fonts. And/or to see calculations of the eco-friendliness of popular existing fonts, compared to each other.

If we could have a publicly accessible list of calculations for different fonts, including fonts designed to maximize eco-friendliness, I really do think that it would affect which fonts publishers choose to use. Here's why:

Most people in publishing are on the left (notoriously, actually) and really do care about the environment

People in publishing are plenty aware of these issues re: paper and trees, I promise

Shorter books means smaller production costs - and possibly smaller shipping costs as well, over time! So it would save them money too.

Eco-friendly fonts could also be combined with other measures for greater effect, such as bamboo paper (already in use for a lot of projects where page color/quality is more flexible) and thinner paper (aka paper with a lower weight) that uses less trees.

Don't expect books to all move to just one or two different fonts, though. Publishers and typesetters and font designers will innovate to create more options instead, though it will take longer. This is because different books really do use different fonts for various different reasons - one new font to rule them all isn't really a solution here.

"Every book is in the same font" may sound like a "whatever" deal to a lot of people, but as someone who works in publishing - trust me, it would actually make your reading experience worse, even if you could never quite put your finger on why.