This Week's Podcast Guest: Dan O'Brien

Clearly, Dan O'Brien was born to be a writer. As a small child, he created stories to entertain his friends and relatives. As an adult, his many novels and screenplays bring enjoyment, knowledge, and often, a new perspective on the world.  This Friday, he will dish about his writing process and publishing experiences on the WITS podcast.

Dan will also talk about The Path of the Fallen, his riveting Science Fiction/Fantasy novel. However, in true Renaissance fashion, Dan has not limited himself to one genre. Instead, he has committed himself to growing as a writer, which for him means telling stories that move him, including romance and philosophy.

He has also created an online writer's marketplace of sorts, The Dan O'Brien Project. Whether you are a full-time writer or on the verge of starting that first book, you will find a wealth of information on all things writing. You can also read Dan's novels and contact him regarding his writing and publishing consulting company.

Path of the Fallen was originally a much longer book, but Dan shortened it for publishing purposes. Now, he is preparing to release the unabridged version! For more information, visit his Kickstarter page.

You can also connect with Dan on Facebook or Twitter.  And don't forget to tune into the WITS podcast on Friday to hear more about his work.

WITS Podcast: Self-Publishing Guru Dara M. Beevas Talks about The Indie Author Revolution

Anyone in the book business these days knows that self-publishing has become a powerful force in the literary world. Gone are the days when self-published books carry the stigma of not being "good enough" for agents and traditional houses. On the contrary, many authors are choosing to forgo the querying process altogether, simply because they want to maintain control over their work.

That doesn't not mean it's easy (because, let's face it, not much is easy when it comes to writing and selling your book). Self-publishing can be extremely daunting, especially for first time authors. Someone who just wanted to write is now making critical decisions about formatting their manuscript (and cover art!) that can really impact their book's reception in the marketplace. They also must be ready (and sooner rather than later) to promote both themselves and their work through traditional and social media.

That's why Dara M. Beevas' book is such a godsend. Drawing on her experience as both a traditionally and self-published author, Beevas has created a comprehensive guide to joining the indie revolution. Also apparent in the book is Beevas' passion for mentoring other writers, which is no surprise, given her "day job". Beevas is Vice President of Beaver's Pond Press, a Minneapolis-based company created for the sole purpose of helping indie writers get their story (and a quality product) out into the world.

Click here to listen to the podcast:

Like what you heard? Visit Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Beaver's Pond Press to order The Indie Author Revolution. For more information on Dara's work, visit Wise Ink.

This Week's Podcast Guest: Author and Writing Mentor Dara Beevas

Join us this Friday when author and self-publishing expert Dara Beevas discusses her new book, The Indie Author Revolution: An Insider's Guide to Self-Publishing. The book is both comprehensive yet easy to follow, and draws on Beevas'  experience as a writer, publisher and mentor.    

Self-publishing can be intimidating and difficult to navigate, especially for new authors. And Beevas would know. She has been writing since she was a child, when traditional publishing was an author's only option. But as anyone in the writing business knows, things have changed quite a bit since then, and Beevas found herself part of a fascinating new literary world.   

These days, she not only self-publishes her own work but mentors authors as Vice President of Beaver's Pond Press in Minneapolis. Created for the sole purpose of helping authors create books of the highest caliber, the Press takes them through every step of the process, from writing and editing to printing and marketing. The key, Beevas said, is to understand that there is more to creating a book than just writing it. Self-published authors must be willing to look at their book as a business.    

She even finds time to write her own blog, Wise Ink, which offers tips and tutorials on writing and publishing for the novice and expert alike. 

Quick & Easy Book Production: Do You Know the Secret?

By Joel Friedlander

It never fails to surprise me. I realize that I should know better. Believe me, I’ve been down this road too many times, yet I still get caught flat-footed, my dream of a quick and easy book production vanishing into thin air.

You see, when I’m planning out a book, I’m looking for the best way to put it together. Since every book is different, this involves adjustments to a standard workflow for book production.

Look at the steps we have to go through:

 Examine the manuscript

It’s vital to know what’s in the book. While this is true for all books it’s particularly important for nonfiction books which are likely to involve more complex structures with parts, sections, chapters, notes and other elements like sidebars, graphics, tables, illustrations and other non-text material.

 Analyze the formats used

How many different unique formats will be required? Each has to be accounted for in the design scheme for the book, and it’s important to understand the way the author is presenting her information.

 Verify a consistent hierarchy of information

This is particularly important if you suspect the book was not edited by a professional book editor, who is trained to pay attention to subheads, section titles, and the need for consistency throughout the manuscript.

 Look at the word processing files

Some book files have been worked on for years, and by different people reviewing, marking up, revising and commenting on the files. Some of the material may have come from other publications and be patched together. All of these files contain varying amounts of “junk” codes that have to be eliminated.

 Determine the optimal way to import the files

Different books call for different strategies. Books heavy with complex drawings or lots of photographs may be split into individual chapter files to keep the file size down. Special characters, symbols or formats might be coded with search and replace functions in Word before being imported.

 Prepare the files

Once all of the preparation is complete, the routines are put into action to clean, and prep the files for import.

And About That Secret

This all seems very orderly and precise. And these initial steps have a lot to do with how smoothly your project will get to completion.

There’s only one problem: It never happens this way.

There’s a bomb waiting to go off, and it goes off almost every time. And you know what the bomb is?

The file you’ve been slaving over isn’t the final file.

Oh, you thought it was final. The author or publisher told you it was final. You believed them. But halfway through the book layout you find a chapter missing. Or this chapter has no subheads, while all the other chapters are full of them. Or every chapter has an epigraph, but Chapter 9 has a cartoon.

Or the author discovers the book is too long and decides to remove 30% of the copy. Or half the illustrations are still 72 dpi and can’t be used for print production. Or the author discovers the missing file with the rest of the endnotes. Or that last peer reviewer just got back from vacation and can’t we fit his essay in, too?

It doesn’t matter. What matters is that your project has gone off the rails, and you’re looking at re-doing all your lovely schedules.

The Secret to Quick and Easy Book Production

This is the single most important thing you can do to make sure your book production runs smoothly. It’s the difference between staying on schedule and on budget, and the books that end up months late and costing more than they really should have.

So here’s my message: The biggest secret to quick and easy book production is this:

Make sure the final manuscript file you release for production is actually the final, finished, fully corrected, consistent, edited, and ready-to-go-just-the-way-it-is file.

That’s it. Now you know the secret too, and I’m sure all the books we publish will go without a hitch. Won’t they?

Joel Friedlander is a self-published author, a book designer and blogs about book design, self-publishing and the indie publishing life at TheBookDesigner.com. He's also the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, where he helps publishers and authors who decide to publish get to market on time and on budget with books that are both properly constructed and beautiful to read.