This week's Publishize article is about a topic that I've been avoiding: discounts.

I've had a number of people ask me loads of questions on this topic for one major reason: it's incredibly confusing. I tried to make it as clear as I could, but it's difficult to explain. If you have more questions, let me know.

Enjoy!

The Wacky World of Discounts

by Susan C. Daffron

Although it's confusing, understanding how discounts work is big part of the money matters in publishing.

Yesterday, amidst great fanfare, Steve Jobs released the iPad. You might think that as an author, avid reader, and book publisher, I'd be wildly excited about this new gadget. Do I view the iPad as the "future" of publishing?

No.

Like many techie devices, it has been saddled with an utterly stupid name. Yo Steve, what were you thinking? The feminine protection jokes made at least 79 circuits around the Internet mere hours after the announcement.

Beyond the name, I find I have a problem with hoopla-laden technology launches. It feels like déjà vu all over again.

Unlike a lot of people in book publishing, I actually come from a computer-related background. I was a technical writer, wrote computer books, beta tested buggy software, and witnessed a lot of the less savory aspects of high-tech.

The music industry already has gone down the high-tech path, and apparently learned nothing from the problems that have plagued the computer industry. Now book publishing seems to be doomed to the same fate.

Has no one learned anything? Here's what book publishers can look forward to when books go high tech.

1. Compatibility issues. Will books you buy for the Kindle work for the iPad? Will they work on the Sony device? Will they work on any device 20 years from now?

2. Piracy. Yesterday a big shot at Macmillan said they would "fight" piracy. Books are already being stolen. The trouble is the fight he's waging is using weapons already proven not to have worked in the computing and music industry for years. (Have a little chat with the folks at Microsoft, dude.)

3. Usability issues. Most people know how to open a book and read it. Anyone who has written computer documentation knows that no matter how "easy" something is, someone will have trouble with downloading, storage, transfer or other issues.

4. Archival formats. Libraries are filled with 20, 30, or 50 year old books. Just as old photographs preserve history, old books are a treasure-trove of information. Where are betamax movies now? A few have been transferred to DVD. Maybe. Bits and bytes are disposable in a way that tangible objects are not.

After this discourse, you may think I am a Luddite who is against ebooks. Actually that isn't true. I believe that many people will use and enjoy ebooks on readers.

However, I also believe that physical print books will not go away entirely. I think all the teeth gnashing about the "death of the book" is absurd.

Digital photography did not signal the demise of the printed photograph. In fact, it led to new ways of printing out photos. Whole businesses, such as Shutterfly.com, are built around the fact that people still want to have something they can hold in their hand. You may have 10,000 photographs on your hard disk, but you still want to have printouts of the best 300 to put in your photo album, so you can share them with your family and friends.

In much the same way, I think that people will use and enjoy e-readers for books they "consume" like mass-market novels. But some books you want to keep on your bookshelf to refer back to later. New markets will arise both from these "archive quality" books, ebooks, and e-readers.

I only hope that the next e-reader gets a better name.

_________

Susan Daffron is the president of Logical Expressions, Inc. a book and software publishing company based in Sandpoint, Idaho. She is the author of 11 books, including Publishize, Funds to the Rescue, Web Business Success, Happy Hound, Happy Tabby, and Vegan Success. She is the co-creator of a writing and creativity software program called IdeaWeaver and the President of the Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN)

I was reading a magazine article about happiness and it said the most content people take pleasure in little things. According to experts, having tons of money and an expensive car aren't what make people happy. It's the little day-to-day stuff. Since it's January and the gray weather in many parts of the country is bringing people down, here are five things that made me happy today:

1. The sound of my husband's laugh and his big grin when he was amused by something dopey I said while we were doing dishes this morning.

2. The sight of four canine tails wagging to and fro as we walked down the trail on the daily hound walk.

3. The aroma of artisan bread, wafting through the house while it was baking this afternoon.

4. The feel of Cami's wooly white fur as I gave her a full body rub, after she came over to my desk looking for affection. (She's shedding, by the way.)

5. The taste of the extremely fine spinach manicotti leftovers we had for lunch. (Made with tomato sauce we canned and garlic scape pesto from last summer's garlic crop.)

I bet if you think hard, you can find five little things that made you happy today too. Knowing what makes you happy (and unhappy) actually relates to the subject of this week's article.

Enjoy!

Happy Hermits Are We

by Susan C. Daffron

When you look at your options for marketing your book, be sure to take your own personality and lifestyle choices into account.

Sometimes you have to write an article to answer a question you get repeatedly. This week’s Publishize newsletter article is one of those.

As many of you know, I'm the president of a non-profit organization called the Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN), which offers information and resources for people working in publishing. Our members are publishers, authors, designers, or other creative pros. This week's article "Are You Really Self-Publishing or Not?" is based on a lot of rather lively conversations that have been going on in the SPAWN member discussion forum.

After trying to explain the difference between a subsidy press and true self-publishing many times, the thing that really burns me is that a whole lot of companies are using misleading and deceptive advertising to try and extract a whole lot of money from creative people who simply want to realize the dream of seeing their book in print. Many of these authors end up disillusioned, depressed, and even broke. I know because afterward, they ask me questions about how they can REALLY self-publish their books.

Oh and if you don't have time to read the article, here's the last line, which has something I want you to know: Logical Expressions is not and never will be a subsidy press.

Enjoy!

Are You Really Self-Publishing or Not?

by Susan C. Daffron

When you sign up with a "self-publishing company" you probably are not really self-publishing and you may end up regretting it.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. We had a lot of fun, but also spent a lot of time doing business and marketing planning. In the process, we thought a lot about what worked and didn't work in 2009.

Upon reflection, I realized that the people I most enjoyed working with all have one thing in common: they love books. And going to publishing conferences is fun because everyone there actually reads. It seems insane to me, but not everyone who wants to create a book actually reads books.

Obviously, I do not have that problem. I read a lot. In fact, I have a big pile of books that I’m getting ready to donate to our local library.

This week's article answers a question I see a lot in publishing forums: how hard is it to lay out your own book?

Enjoy!

How Hard Is It to Lay Out Your Book with InDesign?

by Susan C. Daffron

Take your level of computer savvy, patience, graphic design skills, and willingness to learn new software into account before you tackle doing your own book layout with a program like Adobe InDesign.