The Librarian’s Guide to Micropublishing

The Librarian’s Guide to Micropublishing: Get it!
Walt Crawford, on his new book: “I’ve been saying that every public library (in the U.S. and in other English-speaking countries where Lulu offers its services or CreateSpace is available) needs this book. That’s probably a little grandiose, although the possibility of adding a new community/creative service to your patrons without any cost (other than a copy of the book), especially a service that speaks to long-form text, strikes me as worthwhile for even the libraries serving fewer than 100 people. (As part of my next book project, I’m now even more acutely aware of the sheer heterogeneity of America’s 9,000-odd public libraries: I’ve attempted to view the web pages of 5,958 of them. So far.) So I’ll offer some examples of libraries that should specifically find this book more than worth the price…”

January 23, 2012 by Uncategorized 10

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10 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:
    January 23, 2012 at 2:52 pm

    Kindle price WTF
    The Kindle edition is $10+ more expensive than the paperback… WTF?

    Reply
  2. Walt says:
    January 23, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    Sigh
    Odd. When I look at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Librarians-Guide-Micropublishing-Communities-Publishing/dp/1573874302/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327336369&sr=8-1) , the Kindle edition is $4 cheaper than the paperback.

    And I’m certainly pleased to see that Anonymous, in one form or another, is doing the same thing as with Open Access: What You Need to Know Now: Focusing entirely on price (which, as author, I have 0% control over).

    Anyway, there’s an easy answer: Buy the paperback (or the $59.95 hardcover edition from Lulu). Or, y’know, look at whether the book’s worthwhile instead of the laser focus on relative pricing.

    Now that I’ve calmed down a little: Realistically, there’s a legit answer: Amazon takes a huge chunk of Kindle prices and ITI had to spend money to get the book converted to Kindle format (non-trivial because there are a bunch of typographic and spacing examples that had to be turned into figures, since ebook formats pretty much ignore typography). (The hardcover is interesting because it’s a “proof of concept”: It’s produced using exactly the methods discussed in the book. It’s $10 more expensive partly because casewrap binding adds $10 to the cost of production through Lulu. And it came out looking great.)

    Reply
  3. Walt says:
    January 23, 2012 at 6:09 pm

    If price is what matters…
    …then you need the Sony Reader version, not the Kindle version: It’s $25 at the moment. http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/walt-crawford/the-librarian-s-guide-to-micropublishing/_/R-400000000000000574625

    Or from Kobo in epub form for $28: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Librarians-Guide-Micropublishing-Helping-Patrons/book-zAvD8cqCZ0-GcjJMAhK69A/page1.html

    Or for the Nook at $36. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-librarians-guide-to-micropublishing-walt-crawford/1104142734

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says:
    January 24, 2012 at 11:07 am

    Okay
    Walt, probably I shoud have mentioned that I’m from Hungary, Europe. 🙂

    Basically my best option would be the e-book. For me (Hungarian billing & delivery address), Amazon lists paperback $49.50 and Kindle edition $59.69. Plus shipping for the paperback ($20 or some). Ordering LIS stuff from Amazon and shipping it to Hungary suxx, but still is my best option to keep myself up-to-date.

    (FYI: $60 is approximately 1/7th of my monthly income as a librarian in Hungary. Just to explain why price matters… 🙂

    Anyway, I should order your book since it looks really interesting and useful. I’ll just have to save up a bit for it. 😉

    Regards,
    Adam

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says:
    January 24, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    Readers
    Most of the electronic readers have an app that works on a PC. That way if the Nook version is the cheapest you use the Nook PC app to read. If Kindle is cheapest you can use Kindle PC app to read. You then do not have to own the Kindle or the Nook or Kobo to be able to read the books.

    Especially for reference/nonfiction books this can be a good option and allows you to buy from whatever vendor offers the best price.

    These apps are also available for the iPod Touch. I know people that have multiple readers on thier Touch. One book the read with the Kindle app. another with the Nook app and another with the Google app. All on one device but using different software. Person I know had started this when there was a sale on books at Kobo. Did not own a Kobo reader but did own an iPod. Using the iPod app was able to read the books that were on sale.

    Reply
  6. Adam says:
    January 24, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    Thanks
    #5, thanks for your comment, this can be an acceptable solution (even though for long books I prefer my Kindle – because of the E-Ink display – and of course paper… LCD kills my eyes for good :).
    Since I use Ubuntu, I’ll check out whether one of those apps can be run under Wine (as I see, all have Windows and Mac versions, but no Linux version).

    Thanks again, regards,
    Adam

    Reply
  7. Walt says:
    January 24, 2012 at 4:24 pm

    Thanks for clarification
    I have no idea why prices in Hungary are what they are. Sorry about that. I suspect the comment after yours will be useful; can’t be sure, since I’m not an ebook person.

    As for the overall price: Not my decision. I had zero say in the book pricing, which is almost always the case for traditional publishing.

    Hope you find it valuable. Portions of it are somewhat reliant on availability of Lulu or CreateSpace; if neither serves Hungary, that’s a bit of a problem. (The rest of it–including the book templates–should work anywhere Word is sold or OpenOffice/LibreOffice are available, and that’s pretty much everywhere.)

    Reply
  8. Adam says:
    January 24, 2012 at 5:02 pm

    Will work something out
    Walt, thanks for your comment. Of course, I’m fully aware that publishers set the price, that’s pretty much the same here (and all around the world, I think).
    Basically I bought my Kindle to save the shipping fee on LIS books (and because I found that Kindle price is usually somewhat 60% of the print edition), that’s why I was quite shocked when I clicked the Kindle edition link on InfoToday. 🙂
    Anyways, I’m a bit ashamed for bringing up this whole money thing at the beginning. Just the thing is that I have to think at least three times before I order something from overseas… 🙂 Sorry about that.
    But I’m sure that I’ll work something out to buy the book. Thanks again,
    Adam

    Reply
    • Walt says:
      January 24, 2012 at 5:12 pm

      No need to be ashamed
      Adam: I’m the one who should apologize. I conflated your reasonable (under the circumstances) issue with, well, price-gouging by Amazon with my experience on a prior book (that the first, and for a while, only Amazon review was a one-star review by someone who clearly hadn’t read and had no intention of reading the book, flaming about the price).

      I think your concern is actually reasonable, now that I understand the facts. And it is worth noting that the Kindle version is the only ebook version (except maybe on iBooks) that isn’t discounted heavily from the print version. That’s Amazon’s doing. And charging an extra $14 for people in Hungary: That’s also Amazon’s doing.

      Reply
      • Adam says:
        January 25, 2012 at 2:21 pm

        Can’t really complain
        Yep, I’ve seen comic sans’ comment on Amazon, well, trolls are pretty much everywhere.
        I can’t really complain about Amazon, because it still is one of my best sources to order professional books from Hungary. 🙂

        Reply

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