Self Publishing - Four Tips to Make Sure Your Manuscript is Book-Shelf Ready |
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By: Aransas Young Posted: 2010-04-08 08:06:34 |
| If you decide to self-publish your manuscript, aside from the perspiration and inspiration that you put into your manuscript, there are some necessary steps you need to make sure it is book-shelf ready.Self-Publishing is more than having a great idea and printing a book that has a number of pages between a front and back cover. Each of the following should be assigned to the book before it goes to print, and they are unique to each and every book. Technically, (again, aside from good writing) they make your hard work book-shelf ready.Your book must have an International Standard Book Number or ISBN. Currently, the barcodes on a book's back cover (or inside a mass-market paperback book's front cover) are EAN-13 and reflect the unique ISBN that you assign to your book. The ISBN is again a part of the separate barcode encoding five digits for the currency and the recommended retail price as well as country code.Your book must have a Universal Product Code or UPC bar code which is standard to the book industry. It is called an EAN-13 barcode (originally "European Article Number", but now renamed "International Article Number" even though the abbreviation has been retained). This UPC barcode system is now standard in the United States specific for the book industry. You have certainly seen these bar codes before in grocery stores and other retail outlets. Bookstores are no different.Your book must have a Library of Congress Control Number. Librarians all over the world use this number to identify in the process of cataloging most books which have been published in the United States. It helps them reach the correct cataloging data (known as a cataloging record), which the Library of Congress and third parties make available on the Web and through other media. There are an estimated 122,356 libraries of all kinds in the United States today. It would be unwise to ignore such a potentially huge and important market as libraries.Lastly, even though you are protected by using the copyright symbol on your book, it is prudent to acquire a TX Form from the Library of Congress and officially register your manuscript with the Copyright Office. This can be done before the book actually goes to print and once it is book-shelf ready, the Library of Congress requests two finished copies.Please, when all is said and done, there is no better feeling in the world than walking into a bookstore and seeing your finished book on the book-shelf or being able to order it from a major bookstore chain. Without these four necessary steps, your book, at least defined by industry standards, is not book-shelf ready and will be difficult, if not impossible, to place in any market.Aransas Young is a poet and author of nine books. Even though he still considers himself to be barely-an-author, it is infinitely much more fun than barely-not-being-an-author. For more information on your options in your own quest to evolve from a writer to an author, please feel free to visit him at his website http://myselfpublishingchoicesite.com |
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