The Savvy Self-Publisher, September-October 2008

Tip of the Month

If you have a book in production during October, November or
December, use a 2009 Copyright date rather than 2008. This way,
in January your book won't appear as if it's "last year's" book
when it's actually still fresh and new.

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Lead Story:
Booker Prize by Phone: a Lesson for the Future

Britain's oldest and most prestigious literary award will be
posting extracts of leading books to cell phones starting
September 9. Both text and audio will be available. FMI:

http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/16085

Why is this important to writers? Because it's the wave of
the future! We all love traditional tree-Books made of paper
and ink... but e-Books made of bits and bytes are here to
stay. Moreover, we predict a growing trend toward reading
on multipurpose, handheld devices. Why?

-- Who wants to sit in front of a desktop computer for hours,
reading a book?

-- Laptops are portable, but most are fragile and weigh more
than a book.

-- The mighty iPod can now display text, but the screen is
tiny.

-- Will millions of people pay $200 to $300 (plus the cost
of books) for single purpose devices, and books in formats
that don't work elsewhere?

Enter the iPhone and its ilk: it's a phone, a PDA, an
e-mail device, a Web browser, a TV... and now an e-Book
reader.

Fictionwise has released eReader 1.1, the first of several
upgrades of the eReader software for the trendy iPhone:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6587044.html

Last year, half of Japan's top ten sellers were "cell
phone novels" meant to be read as text messages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_novel

If the staid, traditional old Booker Prize recognizes
the trend, so should we. For years, Poynter and Snow
have held that e-Books are virtually guaranteed to play
a growing role in the book world, and that portable,
multi-purpose devices will prevail as the leading
vehicle for delivering them.

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Freebies and Discounts

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http://www.u-publish.com/services.htm

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