The first project of the day (or how to work ON the business rather than IN the business)

Five years ago I sent out a newsletter with what has turned out to be the most helpful of all the ‘how to’ business tips I have ever found. I could not write blogs, newsletters, work on our web site and so on without having taken the advice below to heart and gradually, slowly, learnt […]

Avoid looking stupid when self publishing: don’t make common grammatical and usage errors

Avoid some of the more common mistakes, and make your work read more professionally. Here are some examples. When referring to a decade, don’t use an apostrophe as in 90’s, use ’90s. Use hyphens as dashes to hyphenate words (in-between), en rules between numbers (100–200) and em rules between words (different files — for instance). […]

Bad email habits you need to break

I came across this excellent, down to earth article this morning on PrintPlanet, one of the regular email newsletters I receive each day. I reckon it has some useful suggestions, so I quote it below in full. I hope you find it helpful. The author, Armya Inc, from Toronto, Canada, observes that whilst there is […]

The discipline required to write a book (Part 2)

Yesterday I posted part 1 of this series. I conclude today with part 2. However I will be posting at least another ten blogs on self publishing over the next few weeks, covering subjects such as: ISBN, CiP, stupid mistakes that make you look unprofessional, the cover, the need for an editor, and marketing advice. […]

The discipline required to write a book (Part 1)

At Kainos Print, we constantly encourage our customers to consider turning their accumulated wisdom, or creative ideas into books. We wrote in a recent blog “Marketing gurus such as Perry Marshall (acknowledged as the leading Google AdWords expert in the world), and our own customer, John Dwyer of “the Institute of WOW” both encourage their clients […]

The supreme value of wisdom, where to get it (and share it if you’ve got it!)

I often refer to one of my favourite Google experts, Perry Marshall. I guess that’s because he comes up with more tips, tricks and, occasionally, inspirational articles, than anyone else I know of. He recently sent a newsletter with the title “How much is that library worth?”. He tells the story of a consultant with […]

“I’ve got this great idea for a book . . . but I don’t have the time.”

Just get on with it. As one writer observes “Writing is the only profession I can think of that requires no license, no certificate, no special training, and no special tools. Anyone who wants to can be a writer. All you have to do is write.” And he adds “Here’s my theory about the New York Times bestseller […]

Australian publishers say the book is not dead

Last week, the ABC ran a very interesting article entitled “Australian publishers say the book is not dead, it is being redefined by new technology”. Here are a few snippets from the article. “Australians have always been in the top three book consumers, along with New Zealand and the Netherlands,” says Shona Martyn, publishing director of HarperCollins […]

The rise and rise of self-publishing

Publishing Market Shows Steady Title Growth in 2011 Fueled Largely by Self-Publishing Sector Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information (they issue ISBNs and produce “Books in Print”), released a report some months ago on print book publishing in the United States for 2011, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The report […]

Do typos matter?

Here’s an article that’s been sitting in my in tray for a while. It is a timely call to pay attention to detail in our written communications. In an age of tiny keyboards and emoticons, you may think typos don’t matter. Not so, according to someone who’s been addressed as Mr. Renay Seagull. In the […]