The

Special

We take a break from the regular podcasts for a special interview with Zoe Winters,
one of the Web’s most fervent and fun advocates of indie publishing.

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Buying Stuff

This time around, we look at the possibilities — and perils — of running a micropress,
along with some strategies for staying focused on what matters to you.

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How to Make a Hardcover Book


A video episode in which I demonstrate how you can make a hardcover book with basic materials.

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(you may need the QuickTime plug-in)

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Printed guide:
Quick’n’Dirty Bookbinding (A4)
Quick’n’Dirty Bookbinding (Letter)

Here are some other folks’ guides to making stitched signature books (in case mine left you confused):

• Curiously Crafty
• Kvasir House Press: “How I Wrought Certain of My Books”
• About Bookbinding - online bookbinding texts
• “Make a Moleskine-Like Notebook”

Perfect Binding
(Or as Close as We Can Get)



In this video episode, I demonstrate three ways to make a perfect-bound book.

Watch the video
(you may need the QuickTime plug-in)

...or subscribe on iTunes:

A Simple Chapbook


In this first video episode, I’ll show you how to print and bind two types of simple books.
Watch the video
(you may need the QuickTime plug-in)

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E-books & Imposition


In this episode, you'll learn how to create an e-book from your manuscript, and how to use software to do the "imposition" of your book's pages so they can be printed out, folded, and stacked into a book.
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Podcast notes:
Smashwords
Scribd
ManyBooks
Sigil
Calibre
ClickBook
CocoaBooklet
Cheap Impostor
PDF Clerk Pro
Pulp paper stock

Cover Yourself!

Coming up with your book's cover design and getting it on paper.
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Podcast notes:
The Book Cover Archive
The Pelican Project
CrowdSpring
Barcode generator
MyFonts.com
QVectors
123FreeVectors
TinEye
Public domain images on Wikipedia
CompFight

Making Your Pages


In this episode, we look at how to prepare the pages of your novel for printing as a book.

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Podcast notes:
The Book Designer Blog - The Parts of a Book
The Book Designer Blog - The Copyright Page

Your Publishing Options


A look at the four main publishing options available for getting your book out into the world.


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Podcast notes:
The Future of Publishing
Booklife

Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook
Nathan Bransford’s blog
The Burry Man

Preditors & Editors
One New York Times Bestseller Per Year Will Barely Keep You Above The Poverty Line
Show Me the Money, Bitches

Café Press
Lulu
Lightning Source
Blurb
Writer Beware

Calibre
Sigil
Lib2Go
Smashwords

Cory Doctorow

Fully Licensed


In this episode, we'll review all the bits of legality and registration involved in do-it-yourself publishing — from protecting your ideas to making sure your book can be found anywhere in the world.

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Podcast notes:

ISBN registration

Obtaining an ISBN - UK
Obtaining an ISBN - US
Obtaining an ISBN - Canada
Obtaining an ISBN - Other countries

Independent single ISBN resellers (not recommended, as they will be identified by the ISBN prefix as the publisher when you’re doing all the work!):
Aardvard Global Publishing
My Identifiers

Cataloguing-in-Publication, Legal Deposit
UK CIP programme
UK legal deposit programme

Copyright & Creative Commons
Copyright overview on the Wikipedia
UK copyright office
Canadian copyright office
US copyright office
Creative Commons

Preview of the Novel-to-Book Process


A preview of the next series of podcasts which will teach you how to take your finished work and turn it into a physical product you can share — in other words, a book!

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Fin!


At last, your beloved novel is finished! But here are a few final touches to add before you go on.

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Show notes:
Editing cheat-sheet

Further self-editing resources

Serialise Like the Dickens


Your novel is underway, and sharing your work in progress can be a great way to keep it alive. But beware the lurking murderers!

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The Writing Session


In this episode, we look at ways to outsmart mental obstacles and get down to writing your novel.

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The Novel Timeline


How long will take you to write your novel? And how do you balance this with the rest of your life?

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Show notes:
Exercise sheets

Chaptermath!


In this session, you'll break your story arc into individual chapters, then divide those chapters into scenes — leaving you ready to start writing your book!

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...or subscribe on iTunes:


Show notes:
Exercise sheets

The Shape of Your Story


In this episode, you'll get to work defining what particular story you're telling, and starting to map it out.

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Show notes:
Exercise sheets

Strength of Character


This episode contains several exercises to help you define the characters who will populate your novel.

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Show notes:
Exercise sheets

Snapshots, Archetypes, Themes, & Gumption


We take a look at the way ideas begin to connect after you've been gathering them for a while, the major story archetypes, and some ways to prepare for the task ahead.

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Show notes:
Exercise One

The Archetypal Stories:
http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html
http://everything2.com/title/Basic%2520plots

John Vorhaus:
http://vorza.com/
http://vorza.com/comicthroughline.htm

Where do you get your ideas?

In this episode, we take a look at where you’ll get the ideas that will ultimately become your book. This involves training yourself to notice and capture ideas, as well as finding a way to store them and work with them that's effective for you.

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Show notes:

Thematic Apperception Test

Quick'n'Dirty Bookbinding(A4)
Quick'n'Dirty Bookbinding(Letter)

Software mentioned:

• PocketMod
• PagePacker
• Evernote
• OneNote
• Together
• ShoveBox
• MindNode
• FreeMind
• MindManager
• Scrivener

This introductory episode of “DIY Book” provides an overview of what’s to come in this podcast series about do it yourself publishing.

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...or subscribe on iTunes:

Show notes:
Exercise One

Over the next few months, I'm going to create a series of free podcast tutorials teaching everything I know about writing a novel and becoming your own publishing house. I call it “DIY Book”. It's just one out of an infinite number of methods for achieving “do it yourself publishing”, but it's worked consistently for me.

You can take your chances with this:

(Thanks, David Hewson.)

Or you can go about it this way:


Here’s what I’m proposing:

• Write your story.
• Make your own books.
• Find your readers.
• Make your books available to them.

Become a ‘zine novelist. Forget the nonsense about becoming a rich and famous celebrity. Forget about contests and meat-grinder submissions and the industry’s awful advice to reverse-engineer putrid bestsellers. Keep your day job, keep your soul, cut out the middlemen and do you own thing!

This series is FREE. It’s not a “super-secret industry report” or a teaser to entice you to buy something else, and I’m not selling or representing Print-on-Demand services; I’m actually going to teach you how to make books yourself at home. Sure, feel free to buy my novels, but, honestly, this series is just me giving back what I’ve learned because I want to see more people realise and exercise their creative freedom.

You don’t need anyone’s permission!

If you'd like to be informed when I post new episodes, please send a message using the contact page. In the meantime, start thinking about that book you've always wanted to write!

(Series title illustrations by Manhattan, used under a Creative Commons license.)