E-Book Hits Top Ten on Amazon Bestsellers List - Again!

While observing the one year anniversary of its debut release, author Dehanna Bailee learned that her e-book "The ABC's of POD: A Beginner's Guide to Fee-Based Print-on-Demand Publishing" remains on top as it yet again hits No. 3 on Amazon for being the third highest bestselling Adobe formatted Reference work.

With its easy to read articles, special questions by section, over forty exploratory inquiries and recommended reading selections, "The ABC's of POD" attempts to provide writers information they need so that they can make an informed decision regarding independent publishing.

Patricia Fry, author of "The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book" and President of SPAWN recently commented of how "Dehanna gives hopeful authors the information they need in order to make one of their most important publishing decisions."

Fern Reiss, an expert in publishing and the author The Publishing Game series said, "Her clear discussion of POD's hidden costs alone makes this book worth every penny."

And Jim Cox, Midwest Book Review, noted, "The 'ABC's Of POD' by POD Expert Dehanna Bailee is an ideal introduction..."

Dehanna's first non-fiction book "A Basic Guide to Fee-Based Print-on-Demand Publishing Services" and online "POD Database" have received praise and support from the writing community, including recommendations from such notable sources such as Dan Poynter and Writer's Digest.

"The ABC's of POD: A Beginners Guide to Fee-Based Print-on-Demand Publishing" is available in both print and e-book format. For more information visit the author's website: http://dehanna.com

# # # #

Of Werewolves and Bestsellers

So, here we are halfway through the month of January and what have we accomplished? Well, more than I'd hoped but I'm still (like usual) running behind.

For those who haven't heard yet, the movie Underworld Evolution is about to hit the theaters this Friday and for those who feast upon the werewolfie or vampire genre, from what I've heard so far it's going to be yet another moonlit delight.

And yes, I do realize the first movie in it's series had it's moments of "cheese" or those where viewers found the occasional glitch in plot, flow, editing, or flaw in characterization (like when the oh-so dignified Viktor broke down in a somewhat Christopher Walken-ish moment - '...I loved my daughter...') but overall it was exactly what was needed in a sometimes forgotten but much followed spectrum of wolfie films: an enjoyable escape from the mere mortal world if only for a few hours.

But since we are mortal (at least for the moment lol) and many of us hard at work on improving our writing career, today I'm passing along a few interesting links for your use in making your next book a bestseller!

Statisticians crack the code for producing bestseller--The title!

• LINK: http://books.guardian.co.uk/

And to see where your own title ranks with the best of them, try this scientific test and find out whether it has what it takes for bestseller success:

• LINK: Lulu Titlescorer

If you're curious about those Amazon rankings (and who isn't) check this out:

Title Z. This service enables you to track how well books sell on Amazon over time. You can track your own books as well as competitors and you can check out how well books on topics perform. This is a very useful tool for market research -- before you choose which books to publish.

• LINK: Title Z

And now that you've done your research, don't miss this tele-seminar, Thursday, Jan 19th, on how to make your book an Amazon Bestseller:

• LINK: Free Publicity

Review: "Writing Nonfiction" by self-publishing guru Dan Poynter

Read on...

Chapter One asks "What will your book do for you?" but a better question would be: "What can this book, "Writing Nonfiction" by self-publishing guru Dan Poynter, do for you?!"

When it comes to writing, nonfiction (like any genre) is it's own animal however authors shouldn't be deterred for with this simple but valuable text Dan provides the fundamentals of what they'll need to know in order to effectively select and research their topic, choose a title, establish a writing system, find a publisher or self-publish, layout a work, create a cover, and more.

By walking the reader through the "New Book Model" and enhancing the text with helpful tips, ideas, examples, references and resources, this book is a wealth of information designed to help authors learn how to succeed when "Writing Nonfiction."

A valuable resource for any author's bookshelf, this book (along with most of Poynter's works) can help an author successfully start their nonfiction publishing career then take it to the next level all while sharing what they already know.

Great job, Dan!

Additional info:

Writing Nonfiction: Turning Thoughts into Books By Dan Poynter
ISBN 1568601107
144 pp. $14.95

©2006 Reviewed by Dehanna Bailee

Want me to review your book next?? Just visit my main website to find out how!!

Prevarication, Evaluation, Publication, & Opportune-ation

This week as the New Year begins, I've been busier than usual whilst learning a new program just for the fun of it, reading another work for a review that I hope to post in the next day or so (check back soon!), and trying to see if I want to use the new blog feature Amazon is beginning to offer authors who are interested in the program's potential--all while trying to (of course) write.

Does it sound like I'm avoiding my work? Well, although on occasion I do have a rather bad tendency to prevaricate the task at hand, at least this time the projects I've been distracted with actually do have something to do with the main event.

But onto the show:


Here's an interesting article by Margaret Jennings titled, "The Power of a Comprehensive Editorial Evaluation." The point of the article is to make one consider what they're actually getting when ordering an editing service based on a per-word fee schedule and also discusses the average going rates for independent copyeditors and roughly how much they can do in an hour or so, depending on the material. Check it out when you get the chance.

LINK: http://blog.selfpublishing.com/?p=81


And I also came across this interesting tidbit titled: "Know do's, don'ts of self-publishing: Outlets offer unknown writers fair shake at cracking the market" by Billy Cox published in Florida Today.

I don't think the title is as appropriate as it should be since it isn't so much a "do or don't" thing, but it starts with the tale of two authors--one who published on his own (self-published) and another who pubbed via PA--and the reasons they chose those directions then continues into some comments about publishing from Joyce Henderson, president of the Space Coast Writers Guild. Also included are some very interesting stats about the average amount of books sold and how many were sold by a recent "best seller."

But what's really interesting are the numbers from Bowker (I love numbers lol) in regards to publishing revenue and readers and what category of books hit an all-time high in 2004. There's also a quote from Andrew Grabois, a consultant for Bowker Books In Print, about self-publishing too that you don't want to miss as well as hint from Henderson of "…how many rejection slips writers should suffer before bailing out…"

Something I think we all really want to know … right?

Anyway, here's the LINK: http://www.floridatoday.com/


And not to be outdone … here's a great way to reach a whole lot of readers (like more than 15,000) with an offer from the man himself, John Kremer.

Mr. Kremer is working on the 6th Edition of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books and for only a bit of cash (much less than an ad in the NYT) and a well-written article you and your book could be featured in the text of his upcoming work!

Time is short though folks, so if you're interested don't delay. Pop on over to: http://www.bookmarket.com/sponsor.html and see what opportunities await you!