Authors who talk at events, sell their books – it’s that simple (as long as you talk well).

Engage in online forums. Create your own newsletter. Chat on social media about your writing. Mention your book at work, at your local shops, to friends … anywhere you can think of really. Start a blog at Posterous.com. Visit your local bookshop. Visit your local newsagent.

John Hanlon’s Golf book is featured in the Sydney Morning Herald Father’s Day Gift Guide 2012.

There is an important point that we feel needs clarifying after some recent inquiries.

We are often asked: ‘What royalty will I be paid on my book sales’. So what is a royalty?

When entering a publishing contract, you give a publisher exclusive rights to your work for an agreed period of time and they pay you a percentage of revenues for that right. Called the royalty, this amount is usually 10% of gross sales revenue.

In self-publishing there is no such thing as a royalty.

As a self-published author, you own your book and you retain the rights. You may choose to employ particular retail outlets to sell your book for you and they will pay you based on the sales they make, but this is not a royalty. These shops are buying from you at a wholesale price.

This difference between a royalty and a return on sales from shops is important to understand.

I recently found that I wasn’t alone in finding it difficult navigate and remember what I have read in eBooks. Click here for more – navigating-ebook-space

While you may want to leave font selection up to our designers, it’s always good to consider a few simple things first. Click here for more – davidlongfield.com/font

So many reasons to love Moleskine notebooks … not the least of which is their creative cross-promotion. An interesting model for authors and publishers.

Our new lead-in promotional video for Publish-Me! is now complete.

We recently had a request for help on how to prepare a recipe book fundraiser of parents’ favourite recipes. So if you’ve found yourself on a book committee at your school, here are some tips we hope will help:

1. Think about the format of your recipe book: how many recipes can you get based on the number of parents you think will contribute at your school – use 1 recipe per page as a guide. You can then get design and print quotes up front so there are no cost surprises.
2. We suggest 170 mm x 220mm is a nice recipe book format and is relatively economical to print. Alternatively A5, that’s half an A4 page is also a good size if you want something smaller.
3. Prepare a brief and template for contributors outlining what they need to supply, including:
• Number of photos and that these should be delivered in electronic form at the highest resolution their camera can work.
• The number of words they should supply, that is: 1 recipe should include the ingredients list and perhaps 100-150 words on preparation. This will help keep the recipes relatively easy.
• Request that all measurements are metric (this should be obvious in Australia, but it’s not always)
4. Provide some ideas about how to photographs their recipe, for example, if it’s a BBQ meal, suggest they photograph it outside on a table, or by the pool; if it’s a picnic salad, perhaps on the lawn or at the beach on a picnic rug. You get the idea: ask contributors to think about some interesting place that is relevant to the recipe so you don’t end up with every shot of a meal on a kitchen bench.
5. Provide them with guidance about which categories they should submit recipes to ensure you have a range of meals from entrées, through salads, and main courses to desserts.
6. When you send the letter out to the parents at school, include a line saying: ‘The compilers of this recipe book reserve the right to edit your work’, as some people can get funny about others touching their recipes/writing.
7. VIP: tell parents that their recipe should be an original or variation and not copied directly from a recipe book, or you may have copyright troubles.
8. Work out some hard deadlines for submission of recipes and include these on your call for recipes letter to parents. For example working back from delivery date you may need:
• If you want stock of the books to sell by 1 August …
• You need to go to print in mid June (if printing overseas, which I would recommend due to cost factors)
• You should start designing early to mid May
• You need to have all photos and recipes in your hands to submit to design by 1 May (or even better mid-April) ready for editing and photo retouching. Depending on the number of people that need to sign-off on the recipes and book design – this can be a complex task if you have a book committee so be sure to allow time!

This post from David Longfield, hopefully contains some useful tips about writing and remaining clear and motivated. Click here to go to David’s blog post.