Product Description

Electronic book publishing is booming, a trend that fascinates and frightens most writers. Richard Curtis, author, agent, e-rights guru and e-publisher, both allays writers' fears and gives them the guidance they need to conquer this exciting new marketplace. They'll find information on: * The basics of how an e-book works * E-book security methods * Ethics and copyright issues * E-readers, such as handheld computers and Rocket Books * Print-on-demand books * Agents, marketing and promotion Curtis also explores the process of e-publication, helping readers decide if they should seek an e-publisher or e-publish their own work. This book is the most authoritative, step-by-step guide of any book in the marketplace--packed with the information any writer can use to navigate the dark waters of this mysterious new technology.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #948518 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 278 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The Internet and the World Wide Web gave birth to digital publishing as we know it today an industry still in its "drooling infancy," according to Curtis and Quick. In a witty, chummy sometimes corny style, Curtis, a literary agent turned online publisher, and Quick, a self-described computer geek and science fiction author, deliver an impressively thorough and up-to-date operations manual for writers who want to navigate the world of electronic publishing. Writers who shrink from anything remotely technological will be pleased to find that they can follow a discussion of the ins and outs of the various HTML editors, for example, distilled into clear, relevant and practical explanations. But the best feature of this book is that it explores thoroughly issues that are larger than the dauntingly large technological ones. Curtis and Quick expound upon the developing area of digital rights management that writers who e-publish will have to contend with. How do authors protect their copyright when the ability to make an infinite number of copies or, worse, to change the original composition is only a mouse-click away? Much about digital publishing is yet to be resolved, but Curtis and Quick present an articulate, reasoned contribution to the revolution. Writer's Digest Book Club main selection. (Feb.)Forecast: The book's gung-ho tone may seem misplaced in light of the folding of iPublish and other major e-publishers. But the tactic of going with smaller e-houses or self-publishing, both covered here, will appeal to many aspiring authors.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Richard Curtis is the owner of Richard Curtis Associates, Inc., a leading New York literary agency. He is the author of a number of books on writing and publishing. In 1998 he formed E-Rights/E-Reads, Ltd., an online publisher, retailer and electronic rights clearing house. Curtis is a recognized e-publishing expert, author's rights advocate and speaker at seminars and conferences nationwide. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

This Can Help You
I bought How to Get Your E-Book Published: An Insider's Guide to the World of Electronic Publishing from Writer's Digest Book Club. It was on sale, and I was curious to see if it would help me when my SF novelette, Hidebound, comes out as an e-book. (It's been published in print; I decided to go the e-book route too.) It's from 2002 so some things are way out-dated (oh, the changes since then!), but there's lots of interesting history, background, and resources. I think it's helpful; it covers the basics, and I learned a lot about the Internet too, AND it made me less fearful of html. Some websites are probably gone, but I know some are still viable; I'll do a little browsing. I think the resources and background make the book worth buying. The two authors appear to be knowledgeable in their fields.

As soon as you send the book, I can review it.
Have waited for months for this title to come in. Did I miss something? I have books to sell, am waiting eagerly for this book for the how-tos I am missing.
Judy M Johnson, author- "Tapping Into Joy, A Handbook to Reveal Your True Light" available on Amazon.

Skim it or skip it
This book is meant to be a tool. As such, I'm grading it harshly -- if you find it at the library, by all means read it, but if you feel compelled to buy it, I hope that you don't pay more than a dollar or two.

My copy was sitting on my shelf for more than two years before I got around to reading it, because I quickly found all the info I needed on the Internet, back around 2001, & I bookmarked many of the sites I found to keep myself updated.

I'm an editor & a writer, so I fault this book on a few technical levels that might never occur to most readers. The first thing that leapt at me is that it's an awkward combination of "type in this incredibly long URL" clashing with "there's this new invention called the Internet."

Though first published in 2002, it feels like a collection of disjoint articles from maybe 1999 with post-hoc connectivity. The e-book phenomenon is a fast-changing fragment of two fast-changing industries, publishing & e-commerce. Given those factors alone, half the advice you give on something like e-publishing will be aging badly in a year.

And let's look at what businesspeople call "proof of concept." Richard Curtis appears to have all of three titles listed on Amazon.com -- NONE of them available as an e-book. As a reviewer, that makes me question whether making an e-book is as easy (or profitable) as the authors claim. If Curtis can't get an e-book onto Amazon.com between 2002 & (to be fair) late 2005, what hope does anyone else have? He's not only a proven how-to author, but a respected literary agent.

As for co-author William Quick, who's held up throughout the text as an example of a published author whose out-of-print titles benefit so richly from the "e-book revolution," I find seven other books on Amazon.com, only two of which are available as an e-book. (Apparently, Mr Curtis has not had much luck at getting the e-book rights for his writing partner, which does damage a few of his claims.) One title (in either available e-book format) has an Amazon sales ranking of about 3,641,200, which means "has sold a copy in the last three years." The other fares somewhat better, at about #1,412,000 in Microsoft format, or "one or two a year" (but the Adobe format crawls in at #3,441,000).

The only reason I give this book a solid solitary star is because it's well-written, the research is credible, & it's not outright misleading. Simply, the authors took on a light-speed topic & covered it methodically for the horse-&-buggy crowd -- the very people who probably wouldn't read such a book in the first place.