Released December 2012
Guy Kawasaki
Shawn Welch
Nononina Press
Book Review by Tracy Farnsworth
First off, I'd like to thank the authors for dishing out a moment of truth. I'm members of a few writing forums, and there are so many people will tell a writer that it's easy to publish a book a month if you put your mind to it. While it is possible to self-publish a book a month, it won't be of quality. I've read hundreds of books over the years, and books that were rushed are always obvious.
The authors go on to say that there are bad reasons to write a book, and of all the horrible books I've read, many times, I've had the author tell me that their friends and family members LOVED the stories they tell at parties and urged them to write. It's nice to hear the author list that as a reason NOT to write a book. If you want an honest guide to self-publishing something worthwhile, you need to read
APE: How to Publish a Book.
Each chapter is clearly laid out and packed with vital information. Things start out with the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing and continue into e-books vs. print books. Obviously, the author's ties to certain companies lead to somewhat biased opinions on the equipment you should use, I definitely disagreed with them in that chapter, but then that's because I'm just as biased about finding computers that use as few parts from FoxConn as is humanly possible and then have my son build it for me.
It then progresses into writing and editing your book. The advice there was spot on, and I would suggest before anyone writes a book, try a
NanoWrimo competition in November to see if you can make the words just spew forth without wanting to stop and edit as you write. It's a good way to train yourself to simply write.
From there the chapters cover choosing a book cover, publishing, distribution, and marketing. They answer questions, sum up each chapter with things to remember, and give step-by-step details into how to convert and upload your document to an e-book site, using Amazon as an example. I personal have mixed feelings against Amazon. If you've read the article by Martin Bekkelund about DRM with Amazon, you'll know why.
APE is available in paperback and
Kindle edition. I've included the link to the Kindle edition for one reason. The book is full of links and while they're included in the paperback version, I would say it's going to be a pain for people who have multiple links to look at. With the e-book, you can at least click the links. That said, I am disappointed that the e-book is only available with Kindle. I have and prefer my
Nook. It looks like after 90 days of exclusivity with Amazon, they'll branch out, but in three months, with the number of books I read, I'll likely have moved on.
