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Indie publisher here. Nice job - it came out quite well, judging by the images. Curious if the editor and proofreader were working with the same software, or it

Indie publisher here. Nice job - it came out quite well, judging by the images. Curious if the editor and proofreader were working with the same software, or it had to be exported to markdown or some other format. Facebook ads are not a good investment, IMHO. They are expensive, campaigns take time to set up, and most people on FB are not on the site to browse books. Amazon Advertising is more effective and will be available to Amazon KDP users. A note about ISBNs: You don't need one if you are just publishing a PDF on Gumroad or an ebook on KDP. If you are creating a print edition through KDP or a service like IngramSpark, you will need an ISBN, though. For authors based in the states, a warning: The U.S. ISBN registry, Bowker, is a monopoly and prices accordingly so if you do want to go that route the outlay will be significant: $125 for a single ISBN in the registry and $250 for 10 (the last time I checked). Bowker will try to upsell overpriced and unnecessary services, like $25 barcodes and copyright assistance for $80 a pop not including Copyright Office fees. Bowker also left the barn door open on its CC page for six months earlier this year (https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/78506-bowker-investigating-breach-of-isbn-site.html https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/b...).

themodelplumber 8y ago
Thanks for this comment. I recently self-published for the first time and went the Gumroad route. No regrets so far. But I got advice from all over the map, from "you need an ISBN and more" to "don't ever publish on Amazon, they drive the more ethical businesses out of the market." It's a maze for first-timers.
- ilamont 8y ago
  Some of the writing and publishing associations try to point newcomers in the right direction. Science Fiction Writers of America/Writer Beware (https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/ https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/), Romance Writers of America (https://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=2101 https://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=2101), the Alliance of Independent Authors (https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/ https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/) and the Independent Book Publishers Association (http://articles.ibpa-online.org; http://articles.ibpa-online.org; disclosure: I'm on the IBPA board) have lots of free information on their website concerning best practices and pitfalls.
michalskop 8y ago
$125 for ISBN seems like a ripoff to me - the ISBN are given for free where I come from: the Czech Republic; and the system is administered by the National Library
- apocalypstyx 8y ago
  ISBNs and healthcare tend to follow similar patterns in the US, contrasted with the most of the rest of the 1st world.
  - mdpopescu 8y ago
    Internet access too.
  - _red 8y ago
    The AMA to both certifies doctors and runs the medical schools. Obviously, they have a vested interest in controlling supply to protect their membership, thus artificial scarcity leads to high prices.
- ilamont 8y ago
  That's part of the reason it's so outrageous - it's free in countries like the Czech Republic and Canada, but some old-school publishing company was granted the monopoly in the U.S., and as a result authors and publishers are getting gouged in the U.S. The other thing that bothers me is the shameless, mercenary upsells that are designed to trick newbies. $25 for a barcode? Many book designers throw it in for free or you can get a free one on your own at bookow.com/resources.php When I first got started in book publishing, it was even worse. Bowker was selling website widgets for some ridiculous subscription fee - $120 to start and $60 every year thereafter (https://in30minutes.com/bowkers-isbn-markup-new-authors/ https://in30minutes.com/bowkers-isbn-markup-new-authors/). I wonder how many poor souls are still getting charged for that?
pablo_c 8y ago
Hi! I created the post. Will answer your points below: - There was no editor, or more precisely, I was the editor. What you are addressing is interesting. The two proofreaders, both grammatical and the technical work directly on the ".Rmd" (r markdown). I had to explain -in the grammatical case- "what to change" and what "not to change" about the markdown syntaxes. Even more, if you are working with R package bookdown, you can correct some figure captions, text links, and so on... all of this is r markdown syntax; the proofreader had to change with caution all of this. - You are right about you don't need an ISBN to publish on gumroad. Just for Amazon (or other publishers).

themodelplumber 8y ago

Thanks for this comment. I recently self-published for the first time and went the Gumroad route. No regrets so far. But I got advice from all over the map, from "you need an ISBN and more" to "don't ever publish on Amazon, they drive the more ethical businesses out of the market." It's a maze for first-timers.

ilamont 8y ago
Some of the writing and publishing associations try to point newcomers in the right direction. Science Fiction Writers of America/Writer Beware (https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/ https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/), Romance Writers of America (https://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=2101 https://www.rwa.org/p/cm/ld/fid=2101), the Alliance of Independent Authors (https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/ https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/) and the Independent Book Publishers Association (http://articles.ibpa-online.org; http://articles.ibpa-online.org; disclosure: I'm on the IBPA board) have lots of free information on their website concerning best practices and pitfalls.

michalskop 8y ago

$125 for ISBN seems like a ripoff to me - the ISBN are given for free where I come from: the Czech Republic; and the system is administered by the National Library

apocalypstyx 8y ago
ISBNs and healthcare tend to follow similar patterns in the US, contrasted with the most of the rest of the 1st world.
- mdpopescu 8y ago
  Internet access too.
- _red 8y ago
  The AMA to both certifies doctors and runs the medical schools. Obviously, they have a vested interest in controlling supply to protect their membership, thus artificial scarcity leads to high prices.
ilamont 8y ago
That's part of the reason it's so outrageous - it's free in countries like the Czech Republic and Canada, but some old-school publishing company was granted the monopoly in the U.S., and as a result authors and publishers are getting gouged in the U.S. The other thing that bothers me is the shameless, mercenary upsells that are designed to trick newbies. $25 for a barcode? Many book designers throw it in for free or you can get a free one on your own at bookow.com/resources.php When I first got started in book publishing, it was even worse. Bowker was selling website widgets for some ridiculous subscription fee - $120 to start and $60 every year thereafter (https://in30minutes.com/bowkers-isbn-markup-new-authors/ https://in30minutes.com/bowkers-isbn-markup-new-authors/). I wonder how many poor souls are still getting charged for that?

pablo_c 8y ago

Hi! I created the post. Will answer your points below: - There was no editor, or more precisely, I was the editor. What you are addressing is interesting. The two proofreaders, both grammatical and the technical work directly on the ".Rmd" (r markdown). I had to explain -in the grammatical case- "what to change" and what "not to change" about the markdown syntaxes. Even more, if you are working with R package bookdown, you can correct some figure captions, text links, and so on... all of this is r markdown syntax; the proofreader had to change with caution all of this. - You are right about you don't need an ISBN to publish on gumroad. Just for Amazon (or other publishers).