The Velvet Zebra

Author: The Velvet Zebra

  • hog the covers

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    by

    The Velvet Zebra
    in , ,

    So you’ve written your novel, and picked POD as your method of publication. You’ve got your book all nicely edited and formatted in whatever size/shape you’ve picked – be it trade paperback or a hard cover. You have a nice teaser for the back, to entice readers, and you’re ready to take the plunge. Hang…

  • r-e-s-p-e-k-t

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    If you’re doing it yourself, going alone, self publishing, being an independent – whatever you prefer to call it – there’s something you need to be doubly aware of. Something a whole lot of writers are ignoring these days, including the ‘traditionals’, and that’s Respect. For yourself, your fellow writers, but most of all –…

  • more on isbn’s

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    It’s too hot to really think clearly (current temps: 101*F) so I’ll elaborate next week, but it would appear Lulu has made a few changes since I started using them this year. Right now, if you wanted an ISBN for your book, and didn’t care if you own it or Lulu owns it – they’re…

  • not dead!

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    I haven’t stopped my Indie publishing series – I’m just swealtering in a nasty, evil heatwave-from-hell.  I’ll resume posting next week, when the temps come down from the triple digits. Gah!

  • two thumbs up?

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    So now that you have that novel written, edited, polished and printed – you’ve gone out and found yourself an ISBN, maybe a bar code too – and while you realize your pretty new novel isn’t going to sit neatly on the shelf at Barnes & Noble, it’s really only lacking one thing you’ve always…

  • commercial break

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    One of the biggest hurdles facing anyone self publishing or trying to make it in the Independent world is reaching the public. Letting readers, potential readers, buyers, and creepy stalkers know you have a book out there. Finding ways to bring eyeballs to your website or storefront. In a word: Advertising Your book isn’t sitting…

  • isbn addendum

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    I’ve just stumbled into something that might allow the purchase of a single ISBN for a cost of $125.00 without requiring enrollment into any sort of service while keeping myself (yourself) listed as Publisher of Record. (power to the people!)  With optional barcode purchase for another $25.00 (still, ouch). The reason a single purchase looks…

  • to isbn or not to isbn

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    Okay, so I’m struggling with this question myself right now, and I thought it might help to talk it out, hopefully inform everyone else out there still trying to figure it all out. The ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, can be found on every published book. It’s the identifier that lists the title and…

  • adventures in eBooks

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    Or How I Stopped Worrying, and Learned To Love The Byte. When I first made the decision to become an Independent, I knew I’d be posting my novels on the web, for people to read for free, and I knew I’d be making them available to purchase as a paperback – but I hadn’t yet…

  • it’s dark in here

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    The Velvet Zebra
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    The big scary world of Going It Alone — or as I and many others prefer: Indie publishing — is huge, dark, a tad chilly and often intimidating. And if you’re a reader of “those” blogs who enjoy nothing more than mocking a self publishing writer who prefers the term Indie I have just one…