Merrimack Media

Steve Pinkham’s Old Tales of the Maine Woods on the Author Connection

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:13:30 +0000

Hear Steve discuss his new book, Old Tales of the Maine Woods on the Author Connection.

CLICK HERE to hear the show.

About the Book:

From his phenomenal collection of over 22,000 articles and stories of the Maine Woods, Steve Pinkham has selected many of the most exciting and old hunting and fishing tales, as well as stories of animal encounters, lumbering, canoe trips, and even a few ghost stories for this book. Ranging from 1849 to 1913, the book covers the Maine Woods from Magalloway to Moosehead, and Mopang to Madawaska. Most people know that Thoreau went to Maine several times, wrote eloquently about his travels and coined the phrase “Maine Woods.” Now for the first time the reader will get to read stories by many of the other known and unknown men and women who also travelled to northern Maine and wrote about their experiences or penned fictional stories set in the backwoods. Included are brief biographies and portraits of the known writers. For the many anonymous authors, Pinkham has included appropriate pictures of the region where the story took place and other pertinent information from his vast sources.

Robert Mark Alter on The Author Connection

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:44:19 +0000

Robert Mark Alter discusses his recently released book, Sex With a Married Woman, a Man’s Guide to Loving his wife, on The Author Connection. The book is short and sweet and Alter discusses his motivations and the point of it all in this 15 minute interview with Jenny Hudson.

Hear: The Author Connection with Robert Mark Alter

What Does It Cost to Self Publish?

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 11:48:18 +0000

Once you decide to self publish, there are LOTS of options. The actual POD printing can be minimal, but it’s the book preparation that is much more costly. There are professional pagination standards that will make your book look as good as, or better, than traditionally published books.. and that’s important. What you don’t want is an amateurish product if you self-publish. Good editing is crucial here too as well as your cover design. Anyone can slap a cover together with a photo and a book title, but to have a book that is enticing and reflects your contents is another story… and all of these services can add to your costs if you need to hire them out. Remuneration for your hours or years of writing will hopefully be recovered over time as well as these other costs. POD sales are a long term effort… maybe think of it as bringing up baby (but much cheaper than his college education).
Tell us about your project and we’re happy to give you a free estimate.

The Author Connection: Interview with Ian Smith

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:48:32 +0000

Merrimack Media has launched an author radio station and will be interviewing self-published authors. The first show is with author and business guru, Ian Smith. Ian has been creating remarkable businesses since the 1980′s and now works as COO for select clients. He authors the popular business blog, The Smith Report, a series of operational tips for busy executives. Last year he compiled the first 100 into his book, Fulfilling The Potential of Your Business, which recently won a Small Business Book Award in Management.

Click here to hear the interview.

Steve Pinkham, Old Tales of the Maine Woods: Speaking Engagments

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:54:38 +0000

International Appalachian Trail
Maine Chapter Annual Meeting May 17-19, 2012
Shin Pond Village, Shin Pond, Maine
http://www.internationalatmaine.org/pages/index
Steve will introduce his book on Friday at 5 pm

West Paris Old Home Days, Sat., June 2, 2012
25 Kingsbury St., West Paris, Maine
http://www.maine.info/cities/west_paris/events.php
Steve will tell stories and sign books during the afternoon.

Maine Canoe Symposium, June 8-10, 2012
Camp Winona, Bridgton, Maine
www.mainecanoesymposium.org
Steve will tell tales of the Maine Woods twice during workshops on Sat. June 9th.

Five Things You Need to Know Before Self-Publishing

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:22:32 +0000

As owner of a print-on-demand publishing business, I get asked a lot of questions and thought it would be useful to give answers to the five most common ones.

1. ”My friends and family say my manuscript is really good. Is it ready to publish?”

Your writing might be excellent and perhaps you are the next literary genius, but for most of us, it’s a good idea to have an editor take a look at it. Typos and punctation errors are easy for an author to overlook; after you read your own work so many times you know what the words are supposed to say so you see them that way, not as the nasty typos that are on your page. Spell checks won’t catch everything, and when your typo is an actual word, spell checks will overlook it. There may be extra spaces or a multitude of other picky problems which will really effect the professional look of your book, so basic proof-reading will solve this.

Other kinds of editing are equally important and if you’re a beginning writer, you may need copy editing that will help you tighten up any rambling passages and make your work more readable. Book doctoring takes it a step further and will look at structure, plot, characterization, and style. When we publish a book, authors often find their own editors, or we can provide them with someone appropriate.

2. “What happens when my manuscript is ready to send you?”

At Merrimack Media, after you submit your manuscript to us as a Word doc, it goes to a designer who paginates it. Pagination is the formatting that makes it look like a book. We add the title page (providing you with an ISBN, a Library of Congress number, and a SKU), styles, format, and make sure that chapters start on the proper pages. We insert your illustrations in the right place also will create your table of contents and if needed, an index.

While the book is being formatted, we will design your cover. It needs to fit into a template so that spine will be in the right place, so if you have an illustration you want to use, we can incorporate it, but it’s important that we do it so that it works with our system. We include your bio and synopsis on the back, any quotes you have, and provide you with an illustration that coveys your book.

3. “What makes a good cover ?”

Actually, at a book store, people often do judge a book by its cover. We believe in non-verbal communication and color, fonts, the the image you chose and the design itself, can say a lot about your book. It’s important to gear all of these elements to make a potential reader interested, since you’ve already hinted at what’s inside with your cover. Try to use colors that convey the feeling of your book. There are many books and websites on the psychological effects of color and it’s your strongest tool in non-verbal communication.

4. “How does my book get sold when it’s done?”

Every company is different and if you’re looking just to get an ePub for mobile devices, you can find companies that will do that. We provide both quality paperback or hardcover books along with ePub editions and PDF’s. As soon as you approve your proof (which comes to you as a real paperback or hardcover book), it is immediately available for sale on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles website, Nook, Kindle, and iPad and other eReaders. It is also on the Ingram list, which makes it available for wholesale ordering. Make sure that the company you chose offers the marketing options that you are seeking.

5. “How do people find out about my book?”

Unfortunately, just putting your book online isn’t usually enough to generate lots of sales, but you need to think about what your goals are: Are you publishing a family memoir? If so, you won’t want to market this book. Is this a book that you would like to have create a buzz? That’s a different story and you will need to develop a plan to get to the word out. I will go more into this in my next blog post, but here are the basic areas you will want to have in place.

A Website for information about you and to sell your book and preferably one with a blog included in it
A Facebook and Twitter presence that point to your website
YouTube clips about your book that point to your website
Email notices to announce the book and readings and events that you might have

by Jenny Hudson, owner, Merrimack Media. For information on how to turn your manuscript into a book, contact us.