Valuable tools for authors available to
you 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 or the headings on this page. 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 the organization referenced in the code as the owner and publisher of this book. If another provider gives you an ISBN, you have probably given up all of your rights to the book you have written.

Work created by you in the US is covered by US copyright law from the moment you write or design it. However, to prove that you are the rightful owner of copright protection for your work, you need to register it with the US Copyright Office. Choose "Form TX" or "Form TX with instructions" for book copyright forms and information.

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 theIBPA, "the largest non-profit trade association representing independent publishers."

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 for final editing, cover design and printing? Call us at 800 359-9503. Or send us email at hodi@mindspring.com