Review: "APE: AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, ENTREPRENEUR-HOW TO PUBLISH A BOOK"
Over the years, I have read a host of books on publishing, self-publishing, and marketing. Before APE: AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, ENTREPRENEUR—HOW TO PUBLISH A BOOK (simply APE for the remainder of this review), I thought I had a pretty good take on the latest in publishing and marketing.
Apparently, I’d only scratched the surface.
In this ever-changing world of publishing, APE is about as current and thorough as it gets.
APE deals extensively with Amazon, but it covers many other publishing options as well:
- For ebooks, APE covers Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Kobo.
- For printed books, APE goes over various POD companies, including, of course, Lightening Source. (But information on author-services companies and POD options is available in abundance from many sources.)
- Financing options such as raising money through crowdfunding
- Crowsourcing for feedback and copyediting
- Do-it-yourself file conversion from Word to various ebook formats
- How to price your book
- How to create audio files and foreign language translations
- How to guerrilla-market your book
- How to make a great profile for social media
- How to post, comment, and reply on social media
- How to pitch bloggers and reviewers
APE is the best-looking, most professional independently published book I have ever seen, not only making a real-life example of everything the book expounds, but raising the bar for all non-fiction books in general. And the editing was superb; I didn’t catch a single mistake. (A book on publishing blemished with mistakes would have immediately raised a red flag.) It was as visually appealing as it was easy to read; even the highly technical section on converting a Word document into various ebook formats flowed so smoothly, I didn’t have to re-read a single paragraph.
Guy Kawasaki has the guts to voice his own opinion. I really respect that. He doesn’t hesitate to say Windows sucks and Apple rules. Oh, and love his sense of humor!
At one point, Guy Kawasaki discusses the advantages of ebooks over printed books. One of these advantages, he says, is privacy. He gives the example someone reading on an airplane. With an ebook, people around you can’t see what you’re reading. Kawasaki says, “Maybe you’re an S&M fan so you’re reading a book about Microsoft Windows or Fifty Shades of Grey. With ebooks, there’s no external cover to reveal your literary tastes. For all people know, you’re reading War and Piece...”
I highly recommend Guy Kawasaki’s book to anyone considering publishing. It’s ranked #1 on Amazon for publishing & books. It’s funny, easy to read, and chock-a-block with useful and up-to-date information.
Guy will tell you the advantages and disadvantages of every option he covers, be it a comparison between traditional publishing and self-publishing, or Hootsuite v Hibari. He also pushes Microsoft Word, believe it or not, saying it is the best software for writing a book. He doesn’t even try to sell Pages, though he does mention it as an option for writers on an extreme budget. That’s cool coming from a guy who used to work for Apple. I wish he’d taken a bit more time with Scrivener. I didn’t get the impression he’d actually tried it before dismissing the program as being too organized for his mind.
Guy calls ‘em as he sees ‘em. And this is a man (I almost wrote "guy") with a hell of a platform. I read his book carefully, and I’ll be using it as a reference from now on, though, as he himself admits, information on indie publishing changes all the time. In a year or so, this book could very well be old news. (Look for APE version updates.)
APE is full of practical advice and information I was hearing for the first time. I wish I’d known a tenth of this years ago, before I published my first novel.
Whether you’ve published before or not, APE is an absolute must for any author hoping for success.
blog comments powered by Disqus
