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*** Greetings and Gratitude *** Happy holidays to everyone who reads this newsletter! You've made it incredibly rewarding to serve as advocates for the self- publishing author and independent publisher over the years, and we are sincerely grateful. -- Poynter and Snow ================================================================ *** Last Call: Advance Copies for Insiders Only *** Advance copies of the upcoming 2005 edition of our book are available exclusively to U-Pub insiders from Books Just Books, with public release to follow in January. As an additional gesture of appreciation to newsletter subscribers, those who reserve advance copies will get a substantial discount and a free copy of "Publishing Basics." http://www.u-publish.com/order.htm This offer ends December 31. Please reserve your copy today! ================================================================ *** Promising New Google Features *** Google will scan your book and add its keywords to their index. When readers search on your subject, they can click on your book to see the page on which the search terms appear, as well as publisher info and links leading to online booksellers: https://www.google.com/publisher Google is also working with libraries to scan their collections, bring that information online and make it searchable. Authors and publishers will benefit from the increased visibility of their books: http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html ================================================================ *** Welcome Back to "The Book Connection" *** One of our favorite (and free!) newsletters will be returning in January: "The Book Connection" by Rita Mills, Executive Director of the American Book Cooperative. Contests, scam alerts, book events and more topics of interest to authors and independent publishers are covered. FMI: Rita Mills, books@ghg.net or rmills@ghg.net ================================================================ *** Reminder: Hold Free Books Until January *** Co-author Dan Poynter reminds us to be careful about sending out review copies in November and December. This is due to reports that some unethical "reviewers" may use them for holiday gifts! It is fine, however, to send galley proofs for possible review, as well as copies to members of the working press. At this time of year, books in production should use a 2005 copyright and publication date, rather than 2004. This avoids a situation where a book looks like "last year's news" in early 2005 when it is actually fresh. ================================================================ Please feel free to forward copies of this bulletin to your fellow authors and publishers. This is a free service that is available to anyone in the book world upon request. We don't endorse specific products or services, and we do not accept advertising. You may subscribe or un-subscribe at any time. ================================================================ *** Find Markets for Freelancers *** Worldwide Freelance has a new fully-searchable Markets Database. Writing markets from North America, Europe, Australia and other places: http://www.worldwidefreelance.com Tip courtesy of Jenna Glatzer, http://www.absolutewrite.com ================================================================ *** Picture Book Contest: $30,000 Prize *** Enter your manuscript in ABC's Children's Picture Book Contest. The winner will walk away with a prize package valued at more than $30,000, and 3,000 finished books. Deadline December 31: http://www.abcbookcompetition.org ================================================================ *** Avoid the #1 Mistake *** Kim Dushinski of www.MarketAbility.com writes: "The single most common mistake we see is authors who fail to clearly define their target market. They believe that 'everyone' will buy their book. "They waste their valuable resources trying to market to an audience that is too broad. Let me give you an example from the TV show The Apprentice. "Two teams are in New York trying to sell wedding dresses. One team goes to Grand Central Station where there are tons of people and hands out flyers to everyone walking by. The other team stays in the office, goes online and buys an email list from a popular wedding site (theknot.com) of couples getting married who live in the New York area. "The first team trying to sell to 'everyone' is reaching tons of people who simply do not care about what they are selling for one very simple reason -- they are not getting married." -- Exerpted from Independent Publisher Online -- http://www.independentpublisher.com/subscribe.lasso ================================================================ *** Reminder: Pledge for Ethical Business *** Shel Horowitz wants 25,000 people to endorse and spread the idea that ethical business is effective and profitable. His goal: a "critical mass" to make the next Enron impossible, because employees won't cooperate with crooked directives: http://www.principledprofits.com/25000influencers.html ================================================================ *** Reminder: IndyLit Now Accepting Award Entries *** The Independent Literature Institute, a non-profit, online co-op known as IndyLit, hosts an annual "Ulysses" Award. Now accepting submission of short stories or novel excerpts from independent presses and self-published authors up to 6,000 words. $10 reading fee. http://www.geocities.com/indylit ================================================================
