books

Immersive Storytelling

by Sabrina Future

Transmedia, apps, and other forms of immersive storytelling are getting more and more popular. For large worlds like Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones, to name a few well-known examples, immersive storytelling can be a great extension or better way to connect with readers.

6 Tips to Successfully Crowdfund a Project

by Sabrina Funding

Crowdfunding is hard. To do it successfully, and to be like the high profile projects on Kickstarter, Indie Go Go and other platforms and raise thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars means treating the crowdfunding process like a full-time job. Here are some tips I’ve learned the last couple years, both from experimenting with crowdfunding [...]

What Self-Publishing and Internet Marketing Have in Common

by Sabrina Information

Thumbnail image for What Self-Publishing and Internet Marketing Have in Common

For those of you who don’t know, ClickBank is an affiliate marketing website. People can sign up to either sell their information products, or to promote products and receive a cut of the sale. Recently I was looking through ClickBank’s site, and I stumbled across their tips for Internet marketers. Many of their tips can also be [...]

What’s Going on With Readers Today?

by Sabrina EBooks

What’s Going On With Readers Today from Goodreads A while back, Goodreads asked publishers what questions they would like to ask readers. The results of the Goodreads survey from December 2012 are now up, and there are some interesting finds. I do wonder, however, how accurate these findings are. Yes, Goodreads has a huge base [...]

Polishing a Self-Published Book

by Sabrina Design

I read a couple really helpful articles on Digital Book World that can help indie authors. The first gives some tips on how to design a cover optimized for Amazon, and all the other retailers where readers only see a thumbnail image. The second article gives a list of front matter and other tips on [...]

Trends and Startups in Book Publishing

by Sabrina EBooks

The last couple years have been a time of change for the publishing industry, and I expect this year to be the same. Every few weeks I’ve been hearing about new startups and ventures that expect to–and probably will–disrupt publishing. I think it’s worth sharing some of them here, and what their success could mean [...]

All About Amazon

by Sabrina Publishing

Amazon aggregator, distributor, publisher

Amazon is best known for selling books, but the company is more than that. They aggregate, and in doing that they’re able to offer almost any product.

BookStats, What Happened in the Publishing Industry in 2011

by Sabrina Future

BookStats, the annual survey conducted by BISG that captures the size and scope of the publishing industry, was released today. See the press release below; there are some interesting factoids, particularly for anyone working with ebooks.

ONIX and Metadata

by Sabrina Metadata

This week was the last of the BISG’s series of webinars on metadata. The third and last webinar was Navigating the transition from ONIX 2.1 to 3.0, presented by Graham Bell, Chief Data Architect of EDItEUR. (You can read about the other two webinars on my posts The BISG’s Metadata Research Project and Understanding Metadata).

Understanding Metadata

by Sabrina Metadata

metadata effect on sales

Yesterday was part 2 of the BISG’s 3-part webcast series, Evolving Metadata Practices: Latest Research on Workflow, ROI, and the Transition to ONIX 3.0. Part two was called, Understanding Metadata ROI: Inisghts from Nielsen’s White Paper, The Link Between Metadata and Sales. Jonathan Nowell, from Nielsen BookData, presented data about the findings described in Nielsen’s white paper. [...]

The Reader Revolution: Recap of How the “Publishing Game” is Changing

by Sabrina Future

BEA offered an education series, where many experts participated in panels about a wide range of topics relating to publishing. One of the most interesting panels was called “The Reader Revolution: Changing the Game for Readers, Writers, and Everyone in Between.”

The BISG’s Metadata Research Project

by Sabrina Metadata

Today I listened to the first of three webinars hosted by the BISG about metadata. The series is called Evolving Metadata Practices, and today’s webinar was on A Research-Based Understanding of the Current Metadata Landscape: Full Results from BISG’s Metadata Research Project.

Espresso Book Machine at McNally Jackson

by Sabrina Future

Espresso Book Machine at McNally Jackson

My last field trip with NYU was to McNally Jackson to learn about their Espresso Book Machine. Basically, the Espresso Book Machine can do print-on-demand, and customers can order their books and watch them be printed.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

by Sabrina Uncategorized

Amazing short film inspired by a book and nominated for an Oscar award. Watch the whole film and download the app!

An Overview of Digital Book World 2012

by Sabrina Publishing

Digital Book World

Digital Book World (DBW) is an annual conference that, according to its website, “offers trade publishers hard data on the state of the book business as well as actionable, proven strategies for taking immediate advantage of opportunities as they develop in today’s publishing industry.” I was able to attend one day for free, in exchange [...]

Love and Care Pop-up Bookstore

by Sabrina Photography

Pop-up Bookstore

Gotta love the holiday season. New Zealand publisher PQ Blackwell opened two LOVE AND CARE pop-up bookstores in Manhattan. Today, a friend and I explored the one in the Meatpacking District, on 344 W 14th Street. The store is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., until the end of December (or possibly [...]

Kindle Owners Lending Library

by Sabrina Publishing

There have been rumors, scary rumors that may have put some publishers on edge, but it turns out things aren’t so bad. Amazon announced the launch of the dreaded Kindle Owners Lending Library, where Amazon Prime members can borrow books. But this service does not include any books from the Big 6 publishers, and members [...]

The Thorn and the Blossom

by Sabrina Publishing

A new book published by Quirk Books, The Thorn and the Blossom is the story of Evelyn Morgan and Brendan Thorne, who meet at a bookstore and do not meet again for many years, though they can’t stop thinking about each other. The book will be out in January, and the physical version will be printed in a [...]

Editing: How Much is Too Much?

by Sabrina Publishing

The more I learn about editing, the more I realize it’s like walking a tightrope. And that rope is as thin as dental floss. As a book editor (magazine editors have much more leeway), you have to watch for structure, grammar, and spelling, but you also have to look at stories from both a macro [...]

BEA Day 3: Swag

by Sabrina Publishing

Today was the third and last day of BEA. At 2:30 p.m., all the exhibitors shut down and started giving away their display copies, which meant I (and everyone else in the Jacob Javits Center) got a lot of stuff. In addition to books, I picked up posters, pencils, bags, and even a coupon for [...]

BEA Day 2: Book Country

by Sabrina Publishing

Book Country is an online community for writers of romance, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, and mystery novels. The name gives the website a sense of being a real place. The site opened its beta site to the public one month ago, and already it has 2,500 users. That’s a lot, especially considering the site is run [...]

BEA Day 1

by Sabrina Publishing

First day of my first BEA, BookExpo America. Fortunately, because of this publishing blog, I was able to attend for free! I spent about five hours today at the Expo, and I still wasn’t able to cover everything. It can be a little overwhelming, as some attendees may agree, but totally worth it. This year, [...]

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