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Jim Cox Report: March 2012

Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:

This time around the subject is "digital publishing".

Digitally published eBooks as an alternative to traditional print books have become commonplace as an option for the general reading public. Here's one interesting statistic courtesy of Dan Poynter (author of "Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book" and one of the most respected gurus in the field of self-publishing):

Dan Poynter interviewed on NPR "All Things Considered" today, Feb 18, 2012. More than $3 billion children's books are sold annually in the US, 13% are eBooks and that percentage is growing. The children's eBook market is huge.

Here is the link for the entire interview:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=3&islist=true&id=2&d=02-18-2012

-- Scroll down to "The Future of Children's Books" and enjoy listening.

One area where digital publishing is now dominated traditional print publishing are the multi-volume reference works such as encyclopedias and multi-volume library reference works.

The phenomena of "parallel publishing", bringing out a print and a digital edition of a books simultaneously, is now almost routine with the large New York publishers, a great many academic publishers, and a steadily growing number of small presses.

Then there are the self-published authors who for largely economic reasons only publish an eBook edition of their literary works.

For the past four years that I've been tracking them, eBooks have steadily increased their market share of book purchases and will continue to do so as new generations of readers easily familiar with electronic readers of one sort or another come of age -- and the generations of we who have spent our whole lives with print-on-paper books and magazines begin to pass from this mortal coil.

So expansive has digital publishing become (think Kindle, Nook, and iPad) that there is now an annual digital publishing awards event. Here is their announcement:

Global Ebook Awards

Multiply Publicity for Your Ebooks

The greatest challenge for ebook authors, both fiction and nonfiction, is getting them known. Known, read, loved, and recommended to others. This is the best publicity: “word of mouth.” The predicament is finding readers interested in your subject. Judges for the Global Ebook Awards select the categories of books in which they have an expertise and want to read. They are avid readers who voluntarily come to your ebook.

Enter now: Being nominated for an ebook award multiplies your investment three ways.

1. More reviews for your book.

Judges range from book bloggers to book reviewers, librarians, book club & reading circle members, publicists, book shepherds, as well as professional critics and subject-matter experts in the category they prefer.

Many of the more than 250 judges need material for their (category) blogs and many will review your book at Amazon, B&N.com, Midwest Book Review, etc. See the list of judges at
List of Judges

2. Six promotional projects.

Once your ebook is accepted into Nomination, you will receive a promotional project each week for six weeks. These projects will show you where to publicize your book’s nomination and how to track the results. You can use these publicity ideas and projects for this and all future ebooks.

3. Nominated “sticker.”

Bring attention to your ebook by placing a Nominated sticker in your blog, website, emails, etc.

Being accepted into Nomination into the Global Ebook Awards is a stepping-stone to more publicity. Reviews and publicity projects multiply your investment and maximize publicity for your book.

Your ebook will benefit from this fabulous publicity system for just $79 per ebook, per category.

Entering Your Ebook

Accepting entries: Now, from ebook authors and publishers.

Eligibility: Ebook released anytime on or before March 11, 2012.

Application deadline: March 12, 2012 (midnight Pacific Time).

The Second Annual Global Ebook Award ceremony will be held in gorgeous Santa Barbara on Saturday, August 18, 2012. To see what happened in 2011, go to Award Ceremony 2011

The Global eBook Awards are designed to help you achieve these publicity goals. The Awards are more than a “sticker” they come with a built-in publicity machine. Submitting your eBook for a Global Ebook Award is a publicity investment. Your ebook deserves this exposure.
Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Awards is a division of Para Publishing LLC of Santa Barbara.

Please note that the deadline for eBook submissions for the Global Ebook Awards is March 12th.

The web site for the Global Ebook Awards is: http://awardsforebooks.com

The event coordinator is Barbara Gaughen-Miller. Her email is barbara@rain.org You can contact her directly for any further information.

I should also note that I will be attending the Global Ebook Award ceremony on August 18th to receive a "Life Time Achievement In Publishing" award. More on that next time!

Now on to reviews of new "how to" books on writing and/or publishing:

The Writing/Publishing Shelf

Writing Stories
Carolyn Coman
Stenhouse Publishers
477 Congress Street, Suite 4B
Portland, ME 04101-3451
9781571108715 $17.50 www.stenhouse.com

Writing Stories: Ideas, Exercises, and Encouragement for Teachers and Writers of All Ages comes from an award-winning author who has written stories for children and young adults and taught writing to all ages. She believes that good writing lies in the ability to build a good story, and her book provides basic strategies and inspiration for developing character, plot and dialogue. This could have been featured in our 'Education' shelf, but is reviewed here for its fine guidelines for aspiring writers of all ages.

The Librarian's Guide To Micropublishing
Walt Crawford
Information Today, Inc.
143 Old Marlton Pike
Medford, NJ 08055-8750
www.infotoday.com
9781573874304, $49.50, www.amazon.com

A 'micro publisher' is any publisher or self-published author that produces books in a 'print on demand' format thus avoiding the necessity and expense of book storage while awaiting sales. The numbers of authors utilizing publish-on-demand (POD) companies to turn their manuscript into a saleable book is steadily growing and has seen dozens of POD companies arise to service this demand. But there are a great many pitfalls for an author taking this route to see their literary efforts become published and available to the reading public. That's why, although directed primarily to community librarians seeking to assist their patrons on in this area, "The Librarian's Guide to Micropublishing: Helping Patrons and Communities Use Free and Low-cost Publishing Tools to Tell Their Stories" will prove to be an invaluable, comprehensive, superbly presented, and thoroughly 'user friendly' instructional guide for anyone seeking to utilize MS Word to design and edit a manuscript to take advantage of such POD resources as Lulu, CreateSpace, AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford, Tate, Xlibris, or any of the other dozens of publishing resources.

Finally we have "The Midwest Book Review Postage Stamp Hall Of Fame & Appreciation" roster of well-wishers and supporters. These are the generous folk who decided to say 'thank you' and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating postage stamps this past month:

Ralph L. Bayrer
Nancy A. Kaiser
Edward G. Busch
Tom Mach -- "Angels At Sunset"
Barb Herding -- "Before I Disappear"
Sharon Black -- "The Gigs Handbook"
Sarah Cavallaro -- "Dogs Have Angels Too"
Peter Chestnut -- "Attila & The Battle Cruiser"
Cindy A. Christiansen -- "Hazardous Hideaway"
Linda Petrie Bunch -- "A Beach Day For Hannah"
Vivian Bolland Schroader -- "Camellias and Cannons"
Francine L. Trevens -- "Gremlins, Genies and Trolls, Oh My!"
Julie Mucha-Aydlott -- "How to Open Your Own In-Home Bookkeeping Service"
Laura Helland Stolmeier -- "The Hellandback Kids: Be Careful What You Wish For"
Bold Type Press
Birch Brook Press
Book Worm Publishing
Chamberton Publishing
Scott Martin -- Daylight Books
Nan Wisherd -- Cable Publishing
Yossi Leverton -- Hachai Publishing
Joel Gafni -- Lifeline Publishing Books
Ethan Rappaport -- Owl King Publishing
Becky Coffield -- Moonlight Mesa Associates
Dorota Harrington -- Owl About Books Publisher
Elizabeth Waldman Frazier -- Waldmania!
Maryglenn Mccombs -- MM Book Publicity
Barbara Gaughen-Muller -- Gaughen Global Literary Agency

If you have postage to donate, or if you have a book you'd like considered for review, then send those stamps (always appreciated, never required), or a published copy of that book (no galleys, uncorrected proofs, or Advance Reading Copies), accompanied by a cover letter and some form of publicity release to my attention at the address below.

All of the previous issues of the "Jim Cox Report" are archived on the Midwest Book Review website. If you'd like to receive the "Jim Cox Report" directly (and for free), just send me an email asking to be signed up for it.

So until next time -- goodbye, good luck, and good reading!

Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI, 53575
http://www.midwestbookreview.com


James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
http://www.midwestbookreview.com


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