WEBSITE HELPS TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK
The Internet lets us do things and affords us opportunities like
never before. Take publishing for example. The Internet has
literally transformed the music business. Things like iTunes and mp3
players have really turned the music industry around. But the web
has changed the music publishing industry as well. There used to
only be a few record label companies out there that were capable of
taking a new artist or music group to stardom. Now the Internet
helps you to get you started by making it a lot easier to get your
music heard. Of course you still need the talent to make it. It's
just a lot easier to get the exposure that was once reserved only by
those major recording labels.
Writers are also beginning to tap into that power as well. But there
were still a lot of obstacles to overcome. But now a new website is
making it a lot easier to get your book into circulation and its
doing it by using a "Printing on demand" model. Wwaow (World Wide
Association of Writers) lets you get your book printed and makes it
available to anyone with a minimum amount of effort.
To get started, you enter in your book's title, a description, the
language it's written in and any keywords you think may be used by
anyone who might be looking for a book like yours. Once that's done,
you upload your book to the Wwaow website. The book needs to be a
Word or PDF file along with some general formatting such as the
paper size and if you want color or black and white pages. Your book
must contain at least 30 pages, so this won't work if your story is
a really short one.
The next step lets you design the appearance of your book such as
adding your picture as the author as well as the cover of the book.
If you can't come up with something, you can just keep it blank or
choose from a variety of generic cover art. Other options that help
to individualize your new book include background colors, hardcover
or paperback, dustcover layout, font sizes and more. After all is
chosen, you will see a preview of what your book will finally look
like. You can go back and edit any changes until you see what you
like.
Finally, you get to choose how you will receive all the royalties
you will get from anyone who buys your book. PayPal is currently the
only method available. What you do need to decide is how much of a
royalty percentage (5, 10, 15 or 20 percent) you will want to
receive from the sale of your book. If this is your first book,
Wwaow suggests you might go for 5 or 10 percent. After you're a big
name, then go for the bigger bucks.
Also along with the final preview of your book is the selling price
and royalties breakdown. As part of your publishing agreement, you
must agree to purchase five copies of your book. Once that is done,
you're on your way to fame and fortune as a published author. Your
book will be proudly displayed on the Wwaow website. Anyone visiting
can see your book, read an excerpt and decide to buy it right there
on the spot.
Since this is printing on demand, you don't have to be concerned
about how many copies you need to have printed. Wwaow will bill,
print and deliver as many books as are ordered and your only expense
is buying the five copies that you're going to give away to your mom
and some of your friends who are probably too cheap to buy their own
copy anyway.
Granted this wasn't the route Stephen King took to get started but
then again, the Internet wasn't very robust back in 1973 when he got
started anyway. And the worst thing that could happen is that you
and your mom will own five autographed copies of your book that you
can proudly display in your home on your book shelf. I'd say that's
a pretty good deal no matter how things go for you in your new
career as a published author.
www.wwaow.com
| Craig Crossman is
a McClatchy-Tribune newspaper columnist writing about computers and
technology. He also hosts the nation's longest running nationally syndicated radio talk show on
computers and technology, Computer America, heard on both the Business TalkRadio
Network® and the Lifestyle TalkRadio Network®, weeknights at 10PM Eastern
time. Visit his website at http://www.computeramerica.com |
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