FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions about Publishing & More

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Provided by Propriety Publishing™ and SelfPublishing.com (Q10-q32).

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  • According to data from a new survey from Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest, the median income range for self-published authors is under $5,000 and nearly 20% of self-published authors report deriving no income from their writing.
  • By comparison, authors published by traditional publishers had a median income range of $5,000 to $9,999 and “hybrid authors” (those who both self-publish and publish with established publishers) had a median income range of $15,000 to $19,999.
  • At the high end of the spectrum, 1.8% of self-published authors made over $100,000 from their writing last year, compared with 8.8% of traditionally published authors and 13.2% of hybrid authors.
  • “Few authors are getting rich off of their writing or even earning enough from their writing to quit their day jobs,” writes Dana Beth Weinberg, Ph.D., professor of sociology at Queens College in New York City, and lead researcher for the study.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/2013/12/09/how-much-money-do-selfpublished-
authors-make/#349d7a96346d

There is a plethora of information available out there, and more than one route to publication. You can research details online by Googling “getting published”, or look to one of many current “How to get published” books on the market.

If your manuscript is finished and polished to a high shine, there are several avenues for you to consider for publishing your work:

  • Send a query to an agent asking him or her to represent you and sell your book to a publisher.
  • Send a query to the editor of a publishing house.
  • Build your credentials by getting published in literary magazines.

If you are sending queries, always do your research and carefully follow the specific
agent’s or publisher’s submission guidelines.

Traditional publishing means you will need to submit your work and have it selected for publication. There is no fee associated with this form of publishing.

  • Publishers may take unsolicited manuscripts from authors, but often find books via literary agents. Publishing houses pay for the editing, marketing and production of a book, and will sometimes give an advance to the author upon signing the book deal. Authors receive a royalty (7-12% of cover price for emerging authors), based on the book sales.
  • Because publishers are taking a financial risk before the book earns any sales, they only take on select books that they feel will be successful in the marketplace. Most publishing houses are inundated with unsolicited manuscripts on a regular basis, so becoming a successfully published writer takes a lot of determination, research, luck, and tenacity.
  • Self-publishing means you pay to have your work published and may manage some or all of other parts of the book publishing process such as editing, cover design, marketing and production. If you pay a fee to have your work published, your work is considered self-published.

This answer has been excerpted from “Self-Publishing & POD Services” an article by author Victoria Strauss, reprinted with her permission in the Winter 2014 issue of our Canadian Author ezine. “Print on demand (POD) is the commonly used term for the digital printing technology that allows a complete book to be printed and bound in a matter of minutes. Digital printing makes it easy and cost-effective to produce books one or two at a time or in small lots, rather than in larger print runs of several hundred or several thousand…“A few POD services are free or very low-cost, but most will set you back anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Typically, POD services’ contracts take only nonexclusive digital rights, and can be terminated at will. Low-cost POD services such as Lulu.com and CreateSpace let authors set book prices and control profits, but other services determine the prices and pay the author a specified percentage of the net (cover price less discounts)—recouping their manufacturing costs at the point of sale.

  • In today’s market, authors have more options than ever in terms of deciding how to pursue their publishing goals. What do you want to get from the publishing experience and what does “being published” mean to you?
  • If you think self-publishing is the best choice for you, be prepared to act as your own agent, editor, book designer, publicist, distributor, and marketing expert – or to pay for each of these services in order to produce a professional book that finds success in sales.
  • Understand that any avenue to get your work published is an arduous path that requires research, tenacity, and patience. Professionals of any sort – from athletes and musicians, to those in science, medicine, or law – don’t achieve success easily. Nor do writers.
  • Dedication to your craft is only one part in the business of your written work. Be prepared to work for success regardless of which publishing route you decide to take.
  • Send your manuscript to the right publisher – ones that publish in your genre.
  • Do your research. Determine who publishes material that is similar to yours by visiting bookstores, and researching similar work in your genre. If you can’t find anything like yours to compare it to, you haven’t looked hard enough. Know your own work.

Literary agents represent your work to publishers. They have established relationships with editors within publishing houses and can find the best fit for your work. They also look after negotiations with contract details and can provide representation if any part of your book is illegally reproduced.

  • Reputable agents will be up to date on current publishing trends and can give authors expert advice on market changes and shifting trends. An agent also serves as an expert in market sales, so they will help ensure your book gets a good cover design, and more attention from the publisher’s publicity department.
  • Agents track payments to see that the author is paid, and paid on schedule by the publisher. An agent is paid only when the writer is paid – so you can bet they will have accurate records of all payments. Having an agent look after this detail is a real advantage as it puts a distance between a writer and any conflict they might have regarding payments.
  • Many authors publish their work without agent representation, but of course the authors themselves would then be responsible for finding a publisher and securing a book deal.

Download our list of Literary Agents and begin researching to see whether any are a good fit for your manuscript. For a more complete listing of literary agents in Canada, please refer to Quill & Quire’s Book Trade in Canada, available in the reference section of most public libraries.

You can also check out the listings under “Agents and Attorneys” at Preditors and Editors.

An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric code used to uniquely identify a book, right down to the language, publisher, edition – and whether it is an ebook, paperback or hardcover. It makes life easier for booksellers, libraries, schools, book distributors, and anyone searching for a book to find it.

Copyright protection is automatic under Canadian and international law from the moment of creation of work, provided that the work meets these three criteria:

1) The work must be original.
2) It must be fixed in a somewhat permanent material form.
3) The author must meet the qualified person requirements set out in the Copyright Act.

Registration is not required for protection in Canada, however, the Copyright Act provides that a certificate of registration of copyright is evidence that copyright exists and that the person registered is the owner of the copyright. Having your work on the Register of Copyrights may also help those wishing to see permission to use the work. For more information go to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office at www.ic.gc.ca.

Keep in mind that there is a cost associated with registering copyright, and if you decide to copyright every work you create, you may not receive a return on your investment.

Is mailing myself a copy of my work the same as copyright registration?

Mailing a copy to yourself is not the same as copyright registration and is not a form of copyright registration, nor is it a reliable form of evidence of copyright ownership because there are several ways with which registered mail can be tampered with (for example, mailing yourself an unsealed envelope and entering contents at a later date).

There is no harm in mailing yourself your own work, but it will likely not be given serious consideration in the event of a legal dispute.

One thing you can do to help support a claim of copyright is saving the different versions of your work on your computer, beginning with the earliest, and maintain back up files. Of course, if the other individual has computer files with original content predating yours, you will not win a lawsuit unless you have compelling evidence of copyright infringement.

Benefits of self-publishing:

  • You get to make all the decisions; you don’t need to gather input from anyone
  • If you’ve done some market research and found a niche- you could create a demand for your book and sell a lot of copies; no need to share revenues- just with book seller so you will make more money
  • You can arrange print on demand as well as publish when you want- no need to adhere to a Publisher’s schedule
  • You can distribute your book on your own- e.g., through Amazon
  • You can decide where to spend, e.g., cover design, promotions, distribution, professional edit- etc. you can pay for some or all of these services and you decide the cost.

Benefits of going with a publisher:

  • You will have support and expert advice when you make decisions
  • You will share revenues with the Publisher- but you may also actually sell more copies because the Publisher knows how to promote, distribute and sell – it’s what they do.
  • You can do other things, e.g., work your full time job- while writing/getting published because the Publisher takes care of a lot of the planning, strategy, editing etc.
  • Publisher’s usually have wider distribution channels than self-publishers
  • You can control upfront costs- just be sure to research different publishers, ask questions, and don’t sign anything until you review with a trusted advisor.

SUBSIDY PRESS: this means that the publishers puts its ISBN number ono the book and then charges the author a fee for producing the book. The author usually gets a share of books sold by the Publisher and/or the distributors/sellers the Publisher arranges.

VANITY PRESS: This is a term used when an author is simply publishing a book to check off a box on his/her “bucket list”, to feel a sense of personal accomplishment, as a prop for a particular event or product, or just for an ego boost. Often authors who are publishing for reasons of vanity will choose to self-publish because then they don’t have to accept feedback, edit as per a Publisher’s request, and/or they can put out any content and quality of book they wish.

On-demand publishers set up your digital manuscript to be printed one book at a time using a Docu-tech. You pay a set fee of between $350 and $1,250 and receive in return one hardback copy of your book and one softback copy. If they set the retail price of the softback at $18, say, then each additional book you order from them costs you $10.80 (40% off the retail price). If a bookstore, wholesaler, or on-line bookseller orders your book, you receive a royalty ranging from $1 to $2.30 per book. Think about it from a strictly business point of view. Every time you sell a book that you’ve paid for and published through Self Publishing.com, you recoup the cost of that book and more— perhaps double or even triple the cost. The sale of a book through an on-demand publisher recoups only a small percentage of that book’s cost for you. If you don’t think you can sell any more than five or ten or twenty books of a new title, on-demand is the way to go. If you think you can sell at least a hundred books, you want to stick with Self Publishing.com. On-demand printing also allows publishers to economically keep a book in print that may sell only a handful of copies per month after the book has run its course in the marketplace.

It is no secret that computers of all types are an integral part of nearly everyone’s life. The idea of e-publishing has been the darling of a certain crowd since the early part of the decade. Tens of millions of venture capital dollars have been dumped into the concept that people have grown tired of reading paper bound books and will jump at the idea of staring at a computer screen to fill their reading needs. The first round of epublishing died off the second the venture capital money ran out. Book people were book people—period. The e concept is attractive for a variety of reasons, with the main one being that the production costs are pretty much non-existent. The idea of cutting the printer out of the picture is not new. The problem is getting the consumer on board and I just don’t see it happening anytime soon. It’s not that it doesn’t work at all. You might be reading the e-version of the publishing basics book right now but I’ll bet you a dozen donuts that if you are, you have printed out the PDF and are reading a pile of printed paper. Another situation perfect for e-books are study guides, such as Cliff ’s Notes. Picture yourself back in college on a Sunday night and you are just getting around to studying for a test in the morning. The bookstores are closed so the only way you can get your hands on the material is to go online and buy the e-book. But even in this example, couldn’t the study guide people do just as well offering the same information for a fee, on their Web site?

Absolutely.

The latest entry into the black hole money trap of e-publishing is Amazon with their Kindle reader. All of the press clippings would have you believe that every other person out there is shelling out $399 and reading their books on their Kindle. Actually, if you read in-between the lines a little on the latest press hype, all of the Kindle functions except for the reading of books are mentioned. One last note on the subject; I ride the train to and from work each day with four hundred thousand other commuters into New York City. I take an informal poll each day of who is doing what to entertain themselves during the hour commute. I have yet to see a single person with a Kindle doing anything, much less reading an e-book. How about you?

Have you seen one? That’s what I thought.

The race is not over and it’s hard to say exactly how it will turn out, but for now my advice is to save your money. It’s less clear than ever whether the e-book will be the next CD or MP3 or just another 8-track.

If you have an image that you want to print to the edge of the book, then that image “bleeds”. This is often done on book covers. For the printer to be able to trim the books so that the image is at the edge there must be some part of the image that gets trimmed off (or else you will have a white stripe of the paper showing). The amount that gets trimmed off is the “bleed”, and printers require a minimum of .125″ (.25″ is preferable especially for children’s book pages). So, be sure that you set up your files so that you have enough image to go beyond your trim. In other words, a 6 x 9″ cover that bleeds all 3 sides on the front will really be a minimum of 6-1/8 x 9-1/4″. And a children’s book that is 8 x 8 will have pages that are 8-1/2 x 8-1/2″.

Turn to page 1 of any book. Then turn the page. The back of page 1 is page 2. Then comes page 3, and the back of page 3 is page 4, and so on. Odd-numbered pages are always on the right, and even-numbered pages are always on the left. I know this seems so obvious, but counting pages is one of the single most misunderstood simple things in printing. Self Publishing has received its share of manuscripts with the pages numbered 1F and 1B (1Front and 1Back), 2F and 2B, and so on, instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. And yet, have any of us ever seen a book in print with pages numbered 1F, 1B, 2F, 2B, 3F, 3B, etc.? Could it be mind-numbing x-rays emanating from the copy machines at Kinko’s which are causing this confusion? Remember that every page counts as a page whether it is blank or part of the text, numbered or not.

These are related in that they all print and wrap around the text pages of your book. A cover is the term we use to describe what wraps around a paperback book. Jackets and casewraps are on hard cover books. The difference here is that a jacket is loose (i.e. it can be removed from the book) and has flaps. Casewraps are more like a “cover” in that they wrap the binder board, which is what wrap your text pages. Casewraps are typically used on children’s books, field guides, cookbooks and short run hard cover guides.

All of the books in the Self-publishing children’s book program will have a printed casewrap. Casewraps are what “wrap” the boards used in the hardcover binding and they go underneath the endpapers. Typically, a jacket is visually the same as the casewrap, but it is loose (i.e. it can be removed from the book, just the way we can take off a jacket). The advantage of having a jacket is that it allows you to have flaps, which are the parts that turn in at the front and the back of the book. Flaps are used to tell a bit about the book (front flap) and the author and illustrator (back flap). In other words the flaps are real estate that you use to sell your book. Many readers feel that the perceived value of a book is greater if there is a jacket. On the other hand, many parents tell me that their children just rip the jackets anyway, so they remove them as soon as they buy a book. The choice is yours. The bottom line is that the jackets do add a bit to the cost, but the choice is yours.

No. The white of the paper never counts as a color. A one-color cover is one ink-color on white paper, so unless you fill up the whole cover with that ink-it could be black or red or green or any other color-you’ll have contrast. You start with blank cover stock, you add one ink to it, and you have a one-color cover. A two-color cover is two colors on white, and a three-color cover is three colors on white. Designers often use screens to get other tints or colors without having to pay for them. For example, a 50% screen used with black will yield a gray in the area screened, and a 50% screen of red will yield a pink, and so on. In addition, the combination of two screens gives you the effect of a third color. (I.e. blue plus yellow equals green, yellow plus red equals brown and so forth.) Once you get to four-color the rules change. Sometimes people new to publishing make the mistake of not thinking of black as a color. It surely is. The confusion comes in because we contrast black-and-white movies with those that are “in color.” A book cover printed in black and red is a two-color job. What color ink will you be using for the text of your book? Black!

I believe a personal anecdote can best answer this question. Several years ago I produced a monthly ad-supported comedy magazine called the “Broadneck Baloney”. It was thirty-two 8-1/2 x 11 self-covered pages, printed in two colors on 50# offset paper, and the circulation was 10,000. Although I live in Maryland, I got the lowest price from a firm in Dover, Delaware, that used a huge web press that printed all 32 pages at the same time. It took them less than two hours to strip, print, fold, and staple my publication. Of course, they were very busy and I had to schedule my time on their press in advance if I wanted to meet my first-of-the-month publication date. During this period, a local printer did my letterhead, business cards, and flyers. He also distributed about a hundred of my Broadneck Baloneys to his other customers each month. He wanted to give me a price on the Baloney. Without telling him the price I was getting in Dover, I told him he couldn’t possibly beat it. He insisted. I said okay. Several days later, he sent me a written bid. It read that he would be so kind as to print 10,000 copies of Broadneck Baloney for a mere $8,260. I was paying $1,240 in Dover. Yes, I could have just gone to my local printer to have my comedy magazine manufactured on his onecolor press that printed two pages at a time—if it weren’t for that $7,020 I’d be throwing out the window! What is true of magazines in this regard is true of books. One of the many advantages of working with Self Publishing is that their experts will make certain that the printer with the right press for your specifications prints your book.

No, and the reason for this is because we are using direct-to-plate technology with your PDF files, so we do all of the same steps all over again. You may be able to skip seeing a proof though and that could save you a bit of time, but there is no monetary savings for reprinting.

The law grants you copyright protection automatically upon the creation of your work. Your work need not be completed to be protected! You own the copyright on your work as you create it. No publication or registration or other action in the U.S. Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. There are, however, definite advantages to registration. Among these are the following: Registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim. Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration is necessary for works of U.S. origin. If made before or within five years of publication, registration will establish prima facie evidence in court of the validity of the copyright and of the facts stated in the certificate. If registration is made within three months after publication of the work or prior to an infringement of the work, statutory damages and attorney’s fees will be available to the copyright owner in court actions. Otherwise, only an award of actual damages and profits is available to the copyright owner. Registration allows the owner of the copyright to record the registration with the U.S. Customs Service for protection against the importation of infringing copies.

The copyright notice, which appears on your published books should include the name of the copyright owner, the year of first publication, and the word copyright or the symbol ©. When the copyright notice appears, an infringer cannot claim that he or she did not realize the work was protected. You, as author and copyright owner, are wise to place a copyright notice on any unpublished copies of your work, or portions there of, that leave your control. The use of the copyright notice is your responsibility and does not require advance permission from, or registration with, the Copyright Office. Your copyright lasts from the moment of your work’s creation (when it first appears in tangible form) until 70 years after your death. The copyright for a work prepared jointly by two or more authors lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author’s death.

Every good word processor today gives you access to important characters that do not appear on the keyboard. They are called ANSI and ASCII character sets. To get the © character make sure the “Num Lock” key on the right-hand side of your PC is on, and use those numbers (the numbers at the top of the keyboard will not work). Now, hold down the “Alt” key and press 0169. When you release the “Alt” key, © will appear where your cursor is.

The ISBN for your book is easily translated into a worldwide compatible bar code format called a Bookland EAN (European Article Number). Every bookstore chain and most smaller bookshops use bar code scanning at the checkout register. If you didn’t know that, you haven’t been to a bookstore in the last ten years, and I’d say it’s time for you to visit one. Putting the bar code on your book is part of the book cover designer’s job, and it’s a simple one. Using a software program, the designer types in your ISBN and out pops the bar code in just the right place on your back cover. You can put your book’s retail price near the bar code on the back cover if you want to. That doesn’t mean that retailers will always have to charge the full amount. Using their computers, they can tie your Bookland EAN code to a sale price, and that’s what will appear on the register when your book is scanned. If you are using a bar code, it must be black or a color dark enough to be scanned. Keep this in mind when counting the number of colors on your cover.

Because it is relatively new, digital printing gets a lot of attention these days. Digital is associated with on-demand, which is associated with short runs, low cost, and fast turnarounds. Do most on-demand printers live up to the hype? Not really but… it’s better than it was even a few years ago and it’s definitely here to stay. Is this process fast for short runs of books? Sure it is. Is it less expensive than other forms of short-run printing? Until a few years ago, despite the hype, the answer was no. Now the answer is yes, depending on the company, equipment, and pricing philosophy. Self Publishing used short run offset for all quantities from 100 to 500 up until about a four or five years ago because it was less expensive than digital. That is no longer the case. The path to the new “economies” of digital printing probably started with the entrance of competition on the equipment side of the equation. Where Xerox once enjoyed a near monopoly, there are now many newcomers to the field of digital printing. Increased competition on the equipment side has had a general lowering effect on the price of all digital book printing. What are the strengths of digital printing? A digital press can take the digital files from your computer and go right to print. In the case of text type, it’s hard to tell the difference between the different types of equipment. What is the major weakness of digital printing? There is no real quantity discount. Your unit cost stays more or less the same no matter what quantity you print. That’s great if you want a small number of copies but not so great if you want several thousand copies. Digital “printing” is generally more expensive than offset in quantities over 500-600.

Short-run Offset

Short-run offset printing is a scaled-down version of the traditional book manufacturing process. The average short-run press prints 8 pages of a 51/2 x 81/2 book at a time, as compared with 32, 64, or 128 pages at a time on the traditional sheetfed book press. While the traditional sheetfed press uses metal plates, the short-run press uses lessexpensive paper plates made directly from your laser-printed text. Advantage: no pesky electronic files moving to where you don’t want them. If it shows on your laser copy, it will print the same way. The finishing processes for digital and short-run offset are essentially the same. The sheets go to “little” collators, and then to “little” perfect or case binders, and then to “little” cutters to complete the book. Short-run offset is real printing. Your book looks like a book, feels like a book, and smells like a book. The only real downsides are that the ink density from the front to the back of the sheet may vary a bit, and the paper plates do not do the best job with halftones. Short-run offset is about 25% higher than digital printing on quantities of 100 and falls to only about10% higher on quantities of 400-500. Self Publishing only uses this process when specifically requested by the customer.

Traditional Sheet-fed Printing

The traditional sheet-fed press has little use in today’s book manufacturing. I can almost guarantee that if your book is being printed on a sheet-fed offset press; you are paying more than you need to. This method used to fill the gap between short-run sheet-fed and web. That is no longer true due to the fact that the newer web presses are efficient right down to around 500 copies, where the short-run presses leave off. There is still room for traditional sheetfed printing. Most book webs and all digital presses cannot print on coated paper. A sheetfed press using metal plates on coated paper does a much better job on halftones than any other process. Using a standard paper and trim size, the traditional sheet-fed press cannot compete with modern web presses. If you want coated glossy paper for a lot of halftones, and/or your book has an odd trim size, traditional sheet-fed printing may be the best for you.

Web Offset

A web press prints on rolls of paper, which are cheaper than sheets; and at the end of the press run, it delivers a folded signature instead of a flat sheet, thus consolidating two book manufacturing processes. Running speeds sometimes exceed 25,000 impressions per hour. This compares with about 2,000 per hour on the short-run presses and about 5,000 per hour on the larger sheetfed presses. Makeready spoilage used to be very high on web presses, making them economical only on quantities over 5,000 or so. This has all changed for those printers who have replaced decades-old webs with the more efficient up-to-date machinery. Modern-day makereadies are extremely efficient and spoilage is low. The advantages of a web press are speed and low cost. If you are printing more than 500 copies of a standard-sized book on uncoated paper, there are no disadvantages to printing on the web.

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a thirteen-digit number (it used to be ten-digits) that uniquely identifies books and book like products published internationally. The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers, and distributors. If you have established your own publishing company—basically a name and an address to begin with—you can purchase ISBN numbers from R. R. Bowker, the U.S. agency licensed to sell them or from Self Publishing.com (an authorized agent of R. R. Bowker). If you are producing a softback and hardback version of your book, you will need two different ISBN numbers to identify them. The ISBN is printed on the copyright page of hardback and softback books, and on the lower portion of the back cover of softback books above the bar code.

Some major publishers place the ISBN on the back of hardback books, and some don’t, it really doesn’t matter. Let’s say you have started a publishing company and published your first book, assigning to it the first of your ten ISBNs you purchased. Be sure that when you have finished copies of your book, that you go back to R. R. Bowker, the database of record of the ISBN Agency and do what is required to be listed in Books in Print. This is a very important directory used by many bookstores. And always be sure to put your ISBN on all your promotional literature.

Your work is copyrighted as soon as you say it is. IE: Copyright, 2008 Ron Pramschufer means Ron Pramschufer owns the copyright. The copyright symbol also works. You can formally file for the copyright through the US Copyright office. This can be done at either the manuscript or finished book stage. The copyright office website is http://www.copyright.gov.

It’s a good idea to get one if you plan to sell your book to libraries, but you don’t have to have it printed in the book itself (so it’s OK if you do apply for it while your book is printing). All you have to do is apply for a Library of Congress (LC) Pre-Assigned Card Catalog Number (PCN). It doesn’t cost anything and it can be ordered for any book over fifty pages (genealogies and children’s books fewer than fifty pages are an exception to this rule).

We use the word “text” to describe everything that is in the interior of the book, not just the words. So, if you have artwork or photos, that is all part of the “text”. If the artwork or photos are black and white, then your “text” is one-color (black). If your artwork or photos or you have anything in color, then your “text” is full color.

An ISBN gets placed on the copyright page and, if there is no bar code, on the back cover.

What is the difference between a bar code and an ISBN?

An ISBN is a number. A bar code is the graphic with vertical lines that encodes numerical information for scanning purposes. An ISBN and a bar code are two different things.

Are different ISBNs used if a book appears in different languages?

Yes. Each language version is a different product.

If the price of the book changes, does the ISBN?

No. The ISBN only changes if the product changes.

If typos are being corrected, is a new ISBN necessary?

No.

Can an ISBN be reused?

No, once a title is published with an ISBN in it, the ISBN can never be used again. Even if a title goes out of print, the ISBN cannot be reused since the title continues to be catalogued by libraries and traded by used booksellers.

A reprint means more copies are being printed with no substantial changes. Perhaps a few typos are being fixed. A new edition means that there has been a substantial change: content has been altered in a way that might make a customer complain that this was not the product that was expected. Or, text has been changed to add a new feature, such as a preface or appendix or additional content. Or, content has been revised.

If a second edition has the same title as the first, does it keep the same ISBN?

No. a new edition is considered a different product and gets its own ISBN.

How are ISBNs assigned to multi-volume works?

ISBNs are assigned to the volumes as they are sold as products. If they are only available as a set, the set gets one ISBN. If each volume is available separately and as a set, each volume gets an ISBN and the set gets an ISBN.

How are ISBNs assigned to books in a series?

An ISBN is assigned to each book in the series. A series of books is also eligible for an ISSN (International Standard Series Number), available from the Library of Congress.

If an ISBN is assigned in another country, does a US ISBN have to be gotten to sell the book in the US?

No. All ISBNs are international. There is no such thing as a US ISBN. ISBNs are international, but assigned locally.

I got my ISBN from my printer and now I want to make sure it’s in my name, how do I transfer the ISBN?

ISBNs cannot be transferred on an individual basis. If a self-publisher wants to be identified as the publisher, the self-publisher must get their own ISBN. A printing company or publisher services company cannot sell, give away or transfer one of their ISBNs to a customer.

If a spouse or family member passes away, can a relative or surviving spouse use the remaining ISBNs?

The ISBNs are considered property of the publishing company and all of the ISBNs can be transferred to the new owners, including a family member. The entire block of ISBNs is transferred to the new company owner(s). The block of ISBNs cannot be divided up among family members.

If an author gets the publishing rights back, does the original publisher’s ISBN remain?

No. The author cannot use the original publisher’s ISBN. The ISBN identifies the one who holds the publishing rights—that is, the publisher who should be contacted when ordering the book. If the author is going to be publishing the book, the author must get their own ISBN.

Do I use the same ISBN on the print book and on the e-book since the content is the same?

No. The print product and the e-book are two different products and should be tracked separately since the ISBN acts like an ordering number or a serial number.

I’ve heard that the International ISBN Agency, BIC and BISG recommend that every separate eBook format, and every library platform should have its own unique ISBN. Can’t a publisher use one ISBN to cover all eBook formats?

No. The ISBN standard (ISO 2108) doesn’t permit one ISBN to cover multiple formats. “Different product forms (e.g. hardcover, paperback, Braille, audio-book, video, online electronic publication) shall be assigned separate ISBNs. Each different format of an electronic publication (e.g. “.lit”,“.pdf”, “.html”, “.pdb”) that is published and made separately available shall be given a separate ISBN.”

First of all, what is an Epub? An Epub is a digital version of a book that is designed to be read online using free applications like Adobe Digital Editions and Calibre, or on a number of eBook readers such as the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook. You can even download applications that will allow you to read eBooks on your iPhone and iPod touch. The Epub format can also be easily converted to Mobi, which is the format read by the Amazon Kindle. You can easily do this conversion yourself using Amazon’s Kindle Previewer software. Check out www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/devices for a complete list of devices capable of reading Epubs.

Why does my eBook (ePub) look different than my book?

An Epub is based on XML, XHTML, and cascading style sheets (CSS)—terms you’re probably familiar with that are associated with web pages. And this is sort of what an Epub is: a webpage. So you can see your Epub on a small handheld device and the text will flow to accommodate the screen size of the reader you are using. Depending on the capabilities of your eBook reader, you might also be able to change font and font size.

Page structure is not defined in the Epub format so when your book is formatted, everything flows together in one continuous file, images included. If you have a fairly simple layout for your book you might not see much difference in the Epub, but a complex designed book might not lend itself to the Epub format and look totally different. Some content such as page numbers, page breaks and some vector based files are actually discarded when a book is converted to Epub. Because the format is based on several open standards, some things will look different depending on what eBook reader you are using.

What happened to my fonts in my eBook (ePub)?

Although the Epub format allows for embedding fonts that would to some extent preserve the look of your book, there are some eBook readers that will not work with embedded fonts. Besides, sometimes there might be licensing issues, as fonts are only licensed for use when purchased. For that reason, we at Self-publishing do not embed fonts but rather let the eBook reader determine what font is used.

At this point, the Epub format uses very basic code and has many limitations. Who knows what changes lie ahead. At Self Publishing, our goal is to provide you with an Epub that looks good and is readable on any device your customer chooses. And, we’ll do our best to keep up with the changes as they happen.

The folder we will be sending you is in a zip format. Before you can upload your file to Amazon, you’ll need to extract this folder using a utility like Winzip. If you have a zip utility, clicking on the folder will automatically open it allowing you to open and save the files in different ways. Once extracted, you should be able to open the folder and see three files in it;

  • A jpeg of the cover
  • A file with the extension .mobi
  • A file with the extension .epub

The .mobi file is already in Kindle format and is the file you must upload to Amazon. The .epub file is a format common to other eBook readers and can be uploaded to other sites that can publish your book.

Please note that the best way to preview your book is to upload it to your Kindle or whatever eBook reader you are using. Any other application you use to preview your book such as Adobe Digital Editions or Calibre and even the Amazon site preview itself, may look slightly different.

Not all eBook readers are the same and if one creates an eBook using InDesign it gives you a lot more flexibility with regards to what you can do with the formatting of the final file. At this juncture, Amazon has made pdfs more user friendly insofar as pdfs can be converted and will allow text reflow, but beware, only books with straight text and without headers are the only ones that will really work well. Recently we did a test on a book that was not straight prose. The result really had to be seen. Charts didn’t come out correctly, page numbers wound up showing up oddly, in some cases two separate page numbers at once. Some text was capitalized and not capitalized in the same word. Photos wound up with the corresponding text in the wrong location. In short, it was a complete mess. If you want to test what your pdf will look like as an eBook, download Calibre, convert your file and see if you like it. That’s not to say that things won’t change and one day pdfs will be usable, it’s just not now.