Valuable tools for authors at the click of a mouse
Choose a professional publishing consultant such as Griffith Publishing or strike out on your own. Either way you need some basic tools to get the job done. Here are links to outstanding Web pages with information you need for your book and your publishing business.
NOTE: Hover your mouse over the items on this page. The text turns blue, indicating a link. Two clicks with the mouse, and you're there!
You need an ISBN number if you will be selling your book online or at a retail store. The ISBN is reflected in a bar code printed on the outside cover of your book. This link takes you outside our pages to the R. R. Bowker site and the home of ISBN numbers. Look on the first list under "Order ISBNs" and choose English language forms. As a self-publishing author, you need to own the ISBN for each of your books. Do not buy an ISBN from any other source because the number identifies you as the owner and publisher of this book.
As if to dispel the notion that the government is too big to care about individual book publishers, the U.S. Library of Congress has prepared an excellent site called "Services for Publishers." Refer to this site for answers to questions about International Standard Book Numbering (ISBN), Cataloging in Publication (CIP), Preassigned Card Numbers (PCN) and copyright issues.
Work created by you in the US is covered by US copyright law from the moment you wrote or designed it. However, to prove that you are the rightful owner of a copyright, you need to register your book with the US Copyright Office. The forms you need are Form TX or Form TX with instructions.
At this site, Answers.com provides essential information you need to know about self-publishing and the law. The page also shares interesting examples of how authors and publishers have run afoul of the law.
As a self-publishing author, you are now an independent publisher. Visit the home page for the PMA, "the largest non-profit trade association representing independent publishers of books, audio, video and CDs."
This organization's mission "is to advance the image and profits of authors and independent publishers through education and marketing opportunities." The "national voice of the independent publishing profession," SPAN claims to be the second-largest publishing organization in the world.
A classic collection of English language tools, including rules of usage, words and expressions commonly misused, and common misspellings. All online.
Quick access to some of the web's best online resources for writers, including the Columbia Encyclopedia, American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, American Heritage Book of English Usage, Bartlett's Famous Quotations, and many others.
Is your book ready to prepare for printing? Request a proposal.
Call us at 800 359-9503. Or send us email at hodi@mindspring.com.
Is your book ready to prepare for printing? Request a proposal.
Call us at 800 359-9503. Or send us email at hodi@mindspring.com.
