Writers and Editors

by Melinda Clayton

If you want to use both KDP Print and IngramSpark for paperbacks, explained novelist Melinda Clayton recently on the Authors Guild forum, you must be careful to "un-check" Expanded Distribution through KDP Print. These are the steps you need to take:

1. Own your own ISBN (purchase at Bowker if you're in the U.S.)
2. Un-check Expanded Distribution on KDP Print, but don't un-publish your book. You want to leave it on KDP Print for distribution through Amazon; you just have to remove it from Expanded Distribution. This is because Expanded Distribution makes your book available in the Ingram catalog, and Ingram won't list the exact same book twice.
3. Send KDP Print an email asking them to remove your paperback from Expanded Distribution while leaving it with KDP for distribution on Amazon. Although you've unchecked it, emailing KDP Print speeds the process along.
4. Set up your account on IngramSpark .
5. Email IngramSpark a Title Transfer Addendum request. The link will take you to a page on Ingram that explains the process, and at the very bottom of that page is a link to click that will allow you to download and print the Title Transfer Addendum.
6. Once KDP Print and Ingram have transferred your titles from the KDP Print Ingram account to your own, you'll get an email from IngramSpark letting you know the transfer has taken place and asking you to approve your proofs. If you approve, you're all set. Your books will still be available through KDP Print for distribution to Amazon, and they'll also be available through Ingram for other stores and libraries.

 

Here are links to Melinda's novels and if you are thinking about self-publishing, check out her explanations on Indies Unlimited, See, for example, Do I Need Different ISBNs for CreateSpace and Ingram? (read the whole thing).

In January 2015, SPJ and ASJA hosted an event focused on New Options for Authors in the Changing Book Publishing Game. Nell Minow and Tom Allen spoke at the beautiful Fund for American Studies in Dupont Circle. Here, by request, is the handout, helpful links from my Writers and Editors website.  Read More 

Guest post by Tom Benjey

Major publishing houses have been using POD technology for some time to keep their backlist titles in print. POD technology allows books to be printed digitally one a time, thus relieving the publisher of the cost of printing a batch of books and having capital tied up in them until they sell. The small capital investment required to publish books via POD technology also makes it possible for an author to become a publisher  Read More 

TweetDigging for experts to guide us in the new worlds of self- and indie publishing I belatedly discovered some excellent resources. First, you can listen online to podcasts of three excellent panels on self-publishing presented at the Commonwealth Club of California in 2010:

Tutorials from the Trenches: 1. Options, Directions and Resources. What does it take to publish a book, Read More 

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Young Amanda Hocking's digitally self-published young-adult paranormal novels have sold a million copies online, making her rich at $2.99 and 99 cents a copy (some of which Amazon.com collects). So why is she about to sign a deal with St. Martin's Press?

"Hocking credits her success to aggressive self-promotion on her blog, Facebook and Twitter, word of mouth and writing in a popular  Read More 

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, writes about the economics and practical realities of being published in print, in e-books, and through self-publishing (vs. traditional publishing) in How Authors Really Make Money: The Rebirth of Seth Godin and Death of Traditional Publishing. Read More 

Publishers are cutting back on how much they publish, brick and mortar bookstores are declining in importance, and media companies that succeed will do so only by finding how to reach a niche audience, writes Jane Friedman in There Are No Rules:An Exciting Future for Authors (That Can Succeed Without Publishers or Agents) Read More 

How do you find something good to read in a brave new self-published world? asks Laura Miller in When anyone can be a published author (Salon, 6-22-10). Those of us who have worked in book publishing know how much really bad writing comes through slush  Read More 

Digital Self-Publishing Shakes up Traditional Publishing. "Much as blogs have bitten into the news business and YouTube has challenged television, digital self-publishing is creating a powerful new niche in books that's threatening the traditional industry," write Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the Wall Street Journal online. "Once derided as 'vanity' titles by the publishing establishment, self-published books suddenly are able to  Read More 

After being rejected by all the publishers to whom she sent her manuscript, a seven-year labor of love titled I Am Hutterite, Saskatchewan author Mary-Ann Kirkby self-published it under the imprint Polka Dot Press. This was NOT a print-on-demand publication  Read More