The business of publishing continues to evolve and new finance models have emerged offering authors more than the option to self-publish or go the traditional route. Between the five big commercial trade presses – Penguin Random House, Hatchette Book Group, Harper Collins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster – and self-publishing with Blurb, or Smashwords, there are new routes for writers to consider in their pursuit of publication. Small and independent presses can’t offer authors large advances or extravagant marketing campaigns, but they do offer many advantages over self-publishing including distribution. Most self-published authors recognize the difficulty of getting their books into retail stores and libraries because they lack access to the distribution systems used by publishers. Finding a good fit with a small publisher who champions your manuscript can be an ideal scenario for authors. Some presses, if they endorse your manuscript editorially, may negotiate with an author for a subsidy to proceed with publication. When an author invests in the initial production costs, it is possible to negotiate a higher copyright royalty rate in lieu of an advance. Subsidy publication is an avenue to explore. Find a benefactor, or if the author has the financial resources, to provide a subsidy for the production expenses of publication. Subsidy publication is a “dirty little secret” in the publishing business. Many traditional publishers don’t want it well known that such business arrangements can be made outside of their traditional editorial decisions. That’s because an author must still meet all their other editorial criteria…

Once upon a time, you could make sweeping changes to your privacy settings with a single click of the mouse. Those times are now history – but by knowing all the different aspects of privacy on FB, you can better control who has access to your information on this platform. General Facebook Privacy Settings On the top right-hand corner, past the Open Graph search bar and the icons you’re probably familiar with, there’s an icon of a padlock. Click that, then click ‘See More Settings’.   Here is where you can change setting for your future posts and status updates. If you are going to be using your FB page as part of your marketing or social media platform, it’s a good idea to have this set to ‘Public’ – everything you share from here on out should be appropriate for the public’s eye. Unlike on your website, this shared content doesn’t have to be ‘on subject’ with your future book, but it should be appropriate for a general audience. If your past posts are less ‘public friendly’, here is where you change the general settings for who and how your past posts can be accessed. If people often post things that you don’t want on your timeline, you can also create settings so you can review posts and photos tagged with you before they are made public. Again, if you are using Facebook as an author identity platform, you’ll want to allow search engines to access your timeline. This…

In this day of high priced books and new technology, public libraries are an invaluable resource for authors as well as readers in general. I sometimes think my local library, the Tompkins County Public Library is beyond compare, but I constantly run into articles and posts by people around the country, around the world, who love their libraries just as much. For an author, a library can be a quiet place to work. Computers are usually available, both with internet access and with Word software. If you buy a thumb drive, you can instantly upload your work, add to it or edit, and even print it off at the library. There are also just large desks to spread your work out on, to bring your own computer (free wifi is also available.) There are free study rooms if you need a place for a meeting or discussion, but sometimes being out in the open, in quiet and yet with other people around can keep you from feeling too cut off from humanity. Most libraries have a space to use for author readings. Sometimes a fee may be charged, but sometimes the library will sponsor (and advertise) the reading. Usually there is a specific person who organizes community/author events, and it’s worth a call (or email) to find out who that might be. A reading in your local library is likely to draw more people than in a stranger’s town, and is a good way to “handsell” your book. A library…