We took two conferences on Creative Suite 3 Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator and the book reflects improved formatting and layout. We previously used Adobe Pagemaker which is now generally obsolete and not accepted by most book printers. We also discussed many of the details we learned like balancing subheads and titles, first paragraph after a subhead, and so forth.
We discovered and switched to Endicia for postage. That enabled us to start shipping outside the U.S. and to U.S. servicemen overseas because Endicia can calculate the international postage and automatically generates the necessary customs form. Endicia is also much better than the Neopost postage meter we talked about in the first edition in many ways including reducing the number of steps required to ship a book.
Our local postal clerk, George Bailey, pointed out that we could save money using more flat rate envelopes and boxes. Now most of our shipments go out flat rate and it does indeed save money. We pass those details on in the new edition.
The new edition provides the entire text of my original contract with my old book store distributor Publishers Group West. It also tells the story of how they went bankrupt since the first edition. Didn’t cost me a penny, but it did cost many author-publishers I know, including probably Dan Poynter, author of the Self-Publishing Manual. FBI and SEC investigations of PGW’s owner that went bankrupt.
Discussion of the importance of self-distribution as more than self-publishing. Avoiding the distribution trap.
More details on our experiences with Amazon and why we refuse to sell to them any more. Details on Amazon’s trouble with other companies.
An account of the first time I sued another publisher for copyright infringement and lessons learned therefrom.
Details showing the email we receive from Yahoo Store which we use as a packing slip for all our shipments.
Discussion of the various customer service policy changes we have made or tried in 2007. Description of our main customer service problems nowadays.
Radically different shipping labels we now use.
Our switch to Adobe Dreamweaver to replace Adobe GoLive for creating and operating our Web sites.
More discussion of other self-publishing authors like Dan Poynter and John Kremer.
Warning against weekend radio “shows” on stations with a relatively small audience. They are phony “shows” paid for by the host. You can tell by going to the Web site of the station in question and seeing whether the “show” host is listed as one of their staff personalities. If not, the “show” is a paid commercial not programming.
Prosecution of a vanity “publisher.” Web site for book “publishing” scams.
John T. Reed also went over every word of the book looking for and making improvements and updates as needed.
Warning: Book stores falsely tell you they can sell you my books. I am the sole author and publisher. I do not sell to any library or book store including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and so forth. Therefore, they cannot have any new books of mine to sell you.
$29.95, 190 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 paperback