I self-published a non-fiction technical book recently. A Chinese publisher has just approached me and wants to buy the 5-year Chinese foreign distribution rights. How do I evaluate their offer?
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posted by anonymous
on May 21, 2013 -
5 answers
It seems (could just be confirmation bias) that book cover/dust jacket materials have changed over the years. I find a lot of trade paperbacks and hardcover dust jackets now have a "soapy" feel to them rather than the previous plastic feel. What is this material? Is it new? What drives choices of materials?
posted by Jahaza
on May 14, 2013 -
5 answers
I'm a freelance reporter who just finished a multi-part series for a nonprofit news organization. Now I'd like to turn it into an ebook. I am not savvy about rights, commissions, etc., and neither is my editor/publisher. What do we need to know to negotiate a fair revenue split?
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posted by croutonsupafreak
on May 9, 2013 -
4 answers
I am trying to build a blended learning web-app for a professor to replace his Blackboard-based discussion forum. I think a great model is RapGenius's annotation system. Do open-source clones exist for this? Any out-of-the-box tools I can quickly hack together to mimic RapGenius's annotation system?
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posted by shotgunbooty
on May 2, 2013 -
2 answers
I have a number of (self-published) photobooks which are currently PDFs, with each side on a separate PDF page, as one would normally expect. However, the book is laid out as diptychs, meant to be consumed 2-page spread by 2-page spread. I want to produce a PDF which is the same book, but each page is the 2-page spread.
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posted by unSane
on May 1, 2013 -
9 answers
I need to create a user-friendly InDesign template for a client that they can re-use and customize slightly over and over. Normally I'm the one doing the customizing so I'm a little leery of my ability to produce an editable template document that will be easy for someone else to use with less InDesign knowledge. (I'm somewhere between being a beginner and an intermediate user.) Fellow designers, could you weigh in with tips, warnings, and resources?
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posted by Hello Darling
on Apr 27, 2013 -
2 answers
Given that I've found some great novels that I could've overlooked due to being regarded as 'genre fiction', I've often been curious: are there amazing hidden gems hiding in the least literary of places? Are there stellar novels that are ignored as they're published as Harlequin, Mills and Boon, teen book-packagers or under 'inspirational fiction' imprints?
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posted by mippy
on Apr 25, 2013 -
11 answers
Help me understand the editor hierarchy at the magazine I write for. Every article I do for them seems to take a different path, with different editors contacting me about different things, but it's never consistnet. I can never figure out if I'm communicating with the right person.
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posted by Ookseer
on Apr 25, 2013 -
9 answers
What is the publication history of Philip Agee's Inside the Company: CIA Diary? Are European editions vastly different? Or, more to the point, are American versions censored?
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posted by history is a weapon
on Apr 10, 2013 -
1 answer
I've been writing short fiction. I've got my process down pretty well, to the point that I am not getting stuck in writer's block hell or any other common pitfalls. I have ideas, and I'm capable of getting them down on paper. I revise them, I produce new drafts, etc.
My problem comes in the last phase of the process. I don't know when to say something is
done.
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posted by deathpanels
on Mar 21, 2013 -
11 answers
A question for the alternative comic book artists out there who sell their books at small press festivals across the country. What are the must-attend festivals I should try to register for and how hard is it to get in?
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posted by emiljaeo
on Mar 17, 2013 -
11 answers
For the last few years, I have reviewed every book I read on Goodreads, just for my own edification. I read a lot. I have written
a lot. Is there a better use to put this content to?
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posted by restless_nomad
on Mar 16, 2013 -
25 answers
I'm starting to get bids to do phone interviews with touring artists and have never done this kind of thing before - can the Mefiverse give me good tips on how to capture/get quality quotes, ask non-stupid questions and frame the lede/narrative?
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posted by Lipstick Thespian
on Feb 27, 2013 -
8 answers
An agent from a very large, well-established literary agency contacted me to say he liked my self-pubbed sci-fi, that he'd seen all the glowing reader reviews, and to ask about my future plans and if I had taken on representation. I answered those questions directly (plans for new books and no, I don't have representation). Presuming he writes back... what do I need to know?
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posted by scaryblackdeath
on Feb 27, 2013 -
6 answers
Content Management Systems allow users to manage/publish web content. A Print on Demand system allows users manage/publish print content. I need a single system that does both.
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posted by pmaxwell
on Feb 10, 2013 -
3 answers
So, the book is done. Woo hoo! I intend to seek an agent and a publisher, but I would also like to self-publish a small quantity for friends and family. I'm also considering self-publishing a somewhat larger quantity for local distribution. Would doing either of these things adversely affect my chance of being picked up by a traditional publisher?
Other considerations I could use help with: get an ISBN or not? E-publish? Any other guidance would be most appreciated!
posted by ecorrocio
on Jan 21, 2013 -
13 answers
I am in the process of moving from my abusive family's house/city to another city with the wages I have saved over the past few years, but I have been unable to choose a city. It would ideally be affordable, and have a supportive environment for artists/illustrators with natural beauty and publishing opportunities. Do any cities come to mind? Any help would be very much appreciated!
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posted by timespacewheredoifit
on Jan 20, 2013 -
17 answers
I want to write a non-fiction book with basic formatting like bulleted lists, numbered lists, along with some callouts. Think "XYZ for Dummies". I'm on Windows XP / Windows 7. Don't want to upgrade XP on my seconday machine if not absolutely necessary.
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posted by 4midori
on Jan 18, 2013 -
8 answers
Am considering publishing an unusual philosophical self-help tract written in a fiery, contrarian tone. Think Hegel meets Deepak Chopra, for lack of a less weird description. Right now the manuscript is short. I'd like it to provoke conversation, make a reputation, and build an audience. I lack these currently. Am I better off a) self-publishing, b) creating a Kindle Single, or c) publishing traditionally? C would require me to expand my manuscript to 5x its current length, but give me prestige, a (likely small) advance, wider distribution, and perhaps more publicity. The other options would be far faster and might allow me to iterate my ideas / write other pieces based on audience reaction. Any advice on which option (feel free to add options) would best serve my goals?
posted by shivohum
on Jan 16, 2013 -
8 answers
After a torturously long stint in grad school, I’m trying to figure out what to do next. The only things on my resume are my education, a couple of summer jobs from the early 00’s, grad-student stuff (TAing, running a colloquium for a few years), and some part-time adjuncting. Should I 1) try to get a job in publishing or some other word-related field, or 2) pursue my burgeoning interest in computer programming? (If you’ve got a plausible 3, I’d love to hear it.)
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posted by DaDaDaDave
on Jan 15, 2013 -
7 answers
I had a successful
Kickstarter for a photography project, largely thanks to
MetaFilter. Now I need to produce the Big Book (photos of every dot on the map in North Dakota), and, while I can print and bind it myself, I'd like to find a publisher. Where do I start? What do I say?
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posted by afiler
on Jan 14, 2013 -
12 answers
What are the legal rights and obligations of someone reading aloud in public from a published book?
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posted by anonymous
on Dec 24, 2012 -
5 answers
Is it possible for a songwriter or musican to entirely live off the proceeds of a Christmas single? Is it enough to live comfortably off years after release?
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posted by mippy
on Dec 5, 2012 -
9 answers
I'm working on a graphic novel. Should I submit it to publishers, or just run it as a webcomic? And if I were to submit it, I have a bunch of secondary questions.
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posted by COBRA!
on Oct 30, 2012 -
9 answers
I just got an offer to publish my first novel. I know very little about the publishing industry and the business aspect of being an author. Help!
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posted by inire
on Oct 22, 2012 -
13 answers
I want to write a children's picture book, submit it to a publisher, and get it published. Now what?
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posted by booksherpa
on Sep 26, 2012 -
10 answers
I'm looking for information on the process of fact checking a book manuscript. What are the norms in this field?
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posted by anonymous
on Sep 17, 2012 -
3 answers
Can you help me determine a new career path and the steps I need to take to get there? Currently in editorial/publishing and considering communications, education, and maybe information architecture.
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posted by anonymous
on Sep 11, 2012 -
3 answers
A very simple question about public domain and publishing, specifically regarding the use of a poem in a book.
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posted by jonathanbell
on Sep 11, 2012 -
5 answers
I'm looking for an online tool to create a daily web-based magazine for a citizen journalism collective. Ideally, it would gather articles, links and photos from designated multiple users on Twitter, and allow an editor to lay them out and edit them to create nice, readable pages.
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posted by scrm
on Sep 1, 2012 -
4 answers
I'm looking for literary/media outlets specifically relevant to purveyors of rambly, tangential narrative mostly-autobiographical non sequiturs (i.e. the sort of writing that's my stock in trade). The recent death of David Rakoff has managed to make my old joke about just accumulating all my writing in a well-marked little box so I can be discovered posthumously seem a little less funny, given that I'm only a few years younger than he is and have been steadfast in my dedication to purposely sabotaging every opportunity that comes my way. Thing is, I have a terrible confession—
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posted by sonascope
on Aug 25, 2012 -
11 answers
What are the realistic odds of a movie studio buying rights to fiction? What steps could one take to even attempt this?
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posted by anonymous
on Aug 6, 2012 -
21 answers
I serve on the editorial board of a historical publication that walks the line between scholarly and popular articles. It is a magazine format publication, known for the high quality of its illustrations as well as articles. How do we create an iPad (and maybe Android) app for the magazine?
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posted by LarryC
on Jul 30, 2012 -
10 answers
I have a manuscript of a roughly philosophical/literary essay, and I'm trying to figure out where I should try to publish it. How can I find someone objective, with solid knowledge of "high-brow" magazines and related publications, to read my piece and tell me where it might best fit and what my chances are of publishing it in various venues?
posted by shivohum
on Jul 23, 2012 -
1 answer
How can I best manage documents for a fleet of freelancers online? Particularly including signing W-9s and contracts digitally.
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posted by RJ Reynolds
on Jul 16, 2012 -
5 answers
What is the best way for my teenage son to distribute a self-published book on skateboarding tricks?
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posted by zagyzebra
on May 30, 2012 -
12 answers
What constitutes token versus semi-professional payment in the North American short fiction market? What's reasonable to expect?
What are reasonable contractual expectations when signing away a piece for first publishing?
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posted by Stagger Lee
on May 29, 2012 -
5 answers
Looking for the best way to publish a frequently-updated document to multiple electronic formats (PDF, ePub, mobi, etc.).
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posted by GJSchaller
on May 29, 2012 -
8 answers
Tell me stories of people finding unusual routes to getting their books to readers. I have written a book and would love to hear about people who found readers through more DIY channels. Not interested so much in how to self-publish, as in hearing stories to help me find the next step for my creation.
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posted by bobbyno
on May 13, 2012 -
20 answers
