Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design (cover/interior), formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR. The authors can do it all themselves or outsource all or part of the process to companies that offer these services.

In 2008, for the first time in history, more books were self-published than those published traditionally. In 2009, 76% of all books released were self-published, while publishing houses reduced the number of books they produced.^[1]

Technological advances have enabled this growth:

• Print-On-Demand technology which can produce a quality product equal to those produced by traditional publishers – in the past, you could easily identify a self-published title because of its quality.
• Online retailing where dominant players like Amazon.com have enticed readers away from bookstores into an online environment.
• Technological advances with e-book readers and tablet computers that enhance readability and allow readers to 'carry' numerous books in a concise, portable product.

The stigma of self-publishing is quickly eroding with many best-selling authors choosing to self-publish their work. For example, J.K. Rowling will sell the e-book versions of the Harry Potter series directly from her new website, Pottermore. The estates of Ian Fleming, Barbara Cartland and Catherine Cookson are also publishing their authors' printed work as e-books and selling directly to public.

Business aspects[link]

The key distinguishing characteristic of self-publishing is that the author has decided to publish their work independent of a publishing house. Long gone are the days when self-published authors had to spend considerable amounts of money preparing a book for publication, and to purchase bulk copies of their title and find a place to store them. Print-On-Demand technology means the author, via numerous, accessible global distribution channels like Amazon.com, can have a book printed only when an order has been placed and it is available for purchase world-wide.

Types of self-publishing[link]

Vanity publishing[link]

The term 'vanity publishing' is mostly obsolete today as a company contracting with an author to assist with the production of a book is considered 'self-publishing', not vanity publishing.^[2] The author may engage a company that offers services—usually designed as publishing packages including editing, marketing, design, etc.—and outsource all or part of the process to these companies.

There remains, however, a small number of companies that refer to themselves as a 'publisher' but only offer to publish an author for a fee. These are 'vanity publishers' and should be distinguished from the above companies that offer services to the independent author and do not pretend to be a publisher. These companies make the majority of their income from the fees paid by the author and not from sales as would be the case with traditional publishers. These companies are also known as joint venture or subsidy presses.

Marketing & Promotion[link]

In today's publishing environment, all authors, whether published traditionally or independently, must undertake the marketing and promotion of their book. This includes social networking, blogging, having a website, etc. It may also include virtual book tours or blog tours, book signings, book award programs. There are numerous companies today offering a range of promotional services for every budget with varying programs for different genres, etc.

While bookstores remain the primary domain of traditional publishers, online retailers such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords etc, cater to the self-published author making it easy to upload books, to have them printed on demand, and distributed globally.

Given the ongoing demise of bricks-and-mortar bookstores with the closure of major chains like Borders, Angus & Robertson, Hughes & Hughes and others, it is predicted that within three years, 75% of books will be sold online (50% as ebooks and 25% as printed books). Only 25% of books will be sold in physical bookstores (down from 75% today).^[3]

Advantages of self-publishing[link]

• Time to market: author's book can be ready for the market in a matter of weeks compared to years with the traditional publishing process. Before an author can approach a publishing house they will need an agent, and this process alone can take months or years. Publishers will then take a further 18-24 months before the title is available.
• Opportunities not missed: If an author has written something that is currently popular, it will still be popular in a matter of weeks (the time it takes to self-publish) but may not be so in a couple of years (when it would reach the bookshelves). This may partially explain why 70-80% of traditionally published authors fail to earn out their advance.
• Control: the author makes all the decisions regarding the content and design of their book. When an author signs with a publisher, the publisher is in control and is free to make any changes. This may result in elements of the story being changed in a way that is not desirable to the author, and in extreme circumstances, a publisher might make decisions that cause controversy and distress for an author, in particular decisions on the cover.
• Rights: the author retains all rights including foreign-language rights, e-book rights, movie rights, television rights etc.
• Income: authors earn higher royalties per book — 30-70% of the retail price compared to 5-25% for traditionally published authors who will also have to pay an agent 10-20% commission on all sales.
• Payment: publishers tally royalties once or twice a year, whereas authors will receive a monthly check for sales made from Amazon.com, The Kindle Store, B&N, Smashwords etc. The author will also receive weekly sales reports from Amazon.com.
• No Backlist: A publisher can backlist an author's title if sales are inadequate, which means the author's book is no longer available for purchase. The average life span of a book printed by a traditional publisher is approximately 18 months which is not sufficient time, for a debut author particularly, to build a platform and garner a fan base. The life span of a self-published book is indefinite.
• ISBN: Authors can obtain an ISBN, which is an industry standard number that identifies each book and its various formats, easily and for minimum cost. An ISBN is not essential for an e-book, but it is desirable.
• Outsourcing: There are numerous companies today offering a range of services for self-published authors with packages to suit any budget. These packages can include editing, marketing, promotional materials, press releases, video book trailers etc.
• POD: self-published authors no longer have to order large quantities of their book and find a place to store them. Print-on-demand technology means a book will be produced whenever someone buys it, and the quality of the end product is equal to that of a publishing house.
• Control over Production Costs:self-published authors can keep their books at competitive prices by having the power to decide what formatters, designers, etc. to choose. This allows them to keep their books competitive in a market with an influx of new authors.

Disadvantages of self-publishing[link]

• Cost of creation: The author is responsible for the cost of creating their book. This can be expensive when outsourcing aspects of it including editing and design, or when purchasing a publishing package. The cost of creating an eBook however is minimal at best, and zero if the author creates their own cover.
• Cost of printing: When an author lists their title with online retailers, the retailer will print a book as and when a reader buys it. This means printing one book at a time, which is more costly than printing thousands of copies at once as a publishing house would do. For example, a 250-page novel would cost approximately US$3.85 per book to print and this is deducted from the retail price along with other production costs to leave the author with their net profit per book. The advantage is that the author controls the price and their profit margin. Care must be taken not to over price a book compared to other titles in the market.
• Physical bookstores: not generally accessible for independent authors, and authors need to offer industry standard terms and conditions, for example, the ability to return unsold books at the author's expense, discount on the Recommended Retail Price (RRP)(approx 40%) and 90-day payment terms. A distributor will require 10-15% of the RRP. It is therefore significantly more viable to sell books in the online market.
• Marketing/Promotion: The author is responsible for marketing and promoting their book, however this now works both ways—authors published via a publishing house are also expected to promote themselves and their books with blogging and social networking, and very few traditionally published authors receive marketing financial support from their publisher.
• Author advance: This used to be a major negative, but is much less so now with advances to debut authors likely to be US$1,000 to $5,000, and it is only an advance on future sales.

Self-published best-sellers[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

Self-published works that find large audiences are extremely rare, and are usually the result of self-promotion. However, many works now considered classic were originally self-published, including the original writings of William Blake, Virginia Woolf, Walt Whitman, William Morris, and James Joyce.

Other well-known self-publishers include Adam Croft, Stephen Leather, Stephen Crane, E. E. Cummings, Deepak Chopra, Benjamin Franklin, Zane Grey, Pat Ingoldsby, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Paine, Edgar Allan Poe, Ezra Pound, Carl Sandburg, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair, Gertrude Stein, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain.^{[citation needed]}

Self-publishing in music and in other media[link]

Musical performers often self-publish, or "self-release" their recordings without having access to record label resources. While some acts who enjoy local or small scale popularity have started their own labels in order to release their music through stores, others simply sell the music directly to customers, for example, making it available to those at their live concerts.

In the years since the Internet became prominent as a medium for publicizing and distributing music, many musical acts have sold their recordings directly over the Internet without a label, either through their own websites or from third party websites. In some cases the sale takes the form of a physical CD or LP that is shipped to customers, while more sales today are beginning to take the form of downloads. Several musicians who first found prominence recording for record labels have recently attracted wide attention for self-releasing records online, among them Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Brian Eno.

See also[link]

• List of self-publishing companies
• Print on demand
• Samizdat
• Vanity press

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Self-publishing at the Open Directory Project

Wikiversity has learning materials about Collaborative_play_writing

Guy Kawasaki
Born	(1954-08-30) August 30, 1954 (age 57) Honolulu, Hawaii
Ethnicity	Japanese American
Alma mater	Stanford University, B.A UCLA, M.B.A.
Occupation	Venture capitalist Former Apple evangelist
Influenced by	Harold Keables
Home town	Honolulu
Religion	Christian[1]
Spouse	Beth
Children	4

Guy Kawasaki (born August 30, 1954) is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, bestselling author, and Apple Fellow.^[2] He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984. He is currently a Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, and has been involved in the rumor reporting site Truemors and the RSS aggregation Alltop. He is also a well-known blogger.^[3]

Early life[link]

Guy Kawasaki was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he attended the Iolani School. He cites his AP English teacher Harold Keables as a major influence, who taught him that “the key to writing is editing.”^[4] He graduated with B.A. in psychology from Stanford University in 1976.^[5] After attending Stanford, he went to law school at UC Davis, where he lasted one week before realizing that he hated law school.^[6] In 1977, he enrolled in the UCLA Anderson School of Management, from where he received his MBA.^[4] His first job was at a jewellery company, Nova Stylings; in regards to this, Kawasaki said “the jewelry business is a very, very tough business — tougher than the computer business... I learned a very valuable lesson: how to sell.” ^[7]

Career[link]

In 1983, Kawasaki got a job at Apple through his Stanford roommate, Mike Boich.^[4][8] He was the chief evangelist for four years, until he “started listening to [his] own hype, and wanted to start a software company and really make big bucks."^[9] In 1987, Kawasaki was hired to lead ACIUS,^[10] the US subsidiary of ACI, which published the popular Apple database software system called 4th Dimension, that still remains popular today.^[4][11]

He left ACIUS in 1989 to further his writing and speaking career; during this time, he wrote columns that were featured in Forbes and MacUser.^[4][12][13] He also founded another company, Fog City Software, which created Emailer, an email client that sold to Claris.^[14][15]

He returned to Apple as an Apple Fellow in 1995.^[4] He is a founder of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm that has made investments in The Motley Fool and D.light Design.^[16][17] In 2007, he founded Truemors, a free-flow rumor mill, that sold to NowPublic.^[18][19][20] He is also a founder at Alltop, an online magazine rack.^[8][21]

Bibliography[link]

• What the Plus! Google+ for the rest of us. (2012) (Only available on the Amazon Kindle, iBooks and on Google Play).
• Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. Portfolio Penguin, London 2011, ISBN 1-59184-379-0.
• Reality Check (2008) ISBN 1-59184-223-9
• The Art of the Start (2004) ISBN 1-59184-056-2
• Rules for Revolutionaries (2000) ISBN 0-88730-995-X
• How to Drive Your Competition Crazy (1995) ISBN 0-7868-6124-X
• Hindsights (1995) ISBN 0-446-67115-0
• The Computer Curmudgeon (1993) ISBN 1-56830-013-1
• Selling the Dream (1992) ISBN 0-88730-600-4
• Database 101 (1991) ISBN 0-938151-52-5
• The Macintosh Way (1990) ISBN 0-06-097338-2

See also[link]

• Apple evangelist
• Evangelism marketing

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Guy Kawasaki

• GuyKawasaki.com
• Garage Technology Ventures, founding partner
• Alltop.com co-founder
• Guy Kawasaki’s uFollow page with an index of his columns and posts
• What I learned from Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, CNET News, October 8, 2011
• Works by or about Guy Kawasaki in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Profile at Keynote Speakers

Ed Robertson
Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies in 2005
Background information
Birth name	Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson
Born	(1970-10-25) October 25, 1970 (age 41) Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Associated acts	Barenaked Ladies, Yukon Kornelius

Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson (born October 25, 1970), better known as Ed Robertson, is the Canadian lead singer, as well as a guitarist and songwriter in the band, Barenaked Ladies. Robertson, along with former member Steven Page, founded the group in 1988.

Biography[link]

Early and personal life[link]

Robertson was born the youngest of five children, with two sisters, Lynn and Bonnie, and two brothers, Bill and Doug;^[1][2] He claims to have been named on a bet. His mother, Wilma, was a secretary for Imperial Oil, and his father, Earl, worked both as a shipping foreman for Honeywell, and as an egg grader.^[3] He believes that his conception was an "accident" due to the fact that he is several years younger than his siblings, who were all born about one year apart. He credits this situation with allowing him to have the experience of being both in a big family, and an only child—once his siblings moved out of their home.^[4]

Robertson began working part-time when he was 13 years old. He has bragged about being named employee of the month at his local Wendy's in July 1985.^[3] He also answered phones at a CAA office.^[3] Robertson appeared in the music video for "All We Are" by Kim Mitchell from Mitchell's 1985 album Akimbo Alogo.

Robertson was brought up in a home where country music was played almost exclusively; he is still fond of it today. He sang harmonies with his family and learned how to play guitar, which his father also played.^[5] Once he began playing guitar for other people, around grade five, he knew he wanted to be a performer.^[4] He was in several bands during his school days including a band that covered a collection of rock artists, such as Rush and Kim Mitchell.

In grade four, Robertson entered the gifted program at Churchill Heights Public School. Robertson's first run-in with Steven Page, who was a year ahead in the same gifted program, was when he unknowingly "stole" Page's best friend. It would be several years before the two would really speak to each other. Page saw Robertson at a Harvey's restaurant after a Peter Gabriel concert and was surprised to find that Robertson was also a fan. This ultimately led to them talking and becoming friends.^[4]

Robertson attended Woburn Collegiate Institute with Page and, around grade twelve, realized he needed to focus on passing his courses to get into university, believing his goal of being musician was somewhat of a "pipe dream". It was around this point when he began playing with Page.^[4] The two became counsellors at Scarborough Schools Music Camp in the summer of 1988, and spent a lot of time together singing songs and playing guitar. Page was flattered that Robertson knew some of the songs he had written, which Robertson had learned after acquiring a copy of a cassette tape Page had recorded. Page was also impressed by Robertson's ear for singing harmony.^[6] Upon receiving a telephone call from an organizer of a benefit concert which Robertson had committed his recently-broken-up band to play, Robertson quickly advised that he would still be performing but the name of the band had changed to Barenaked Ladies, a name he had previously joked with Page about. Robertson then phoned Page and invited Page to be his bandmate in Barenaked Ladies. The benefit concert marked the first performance of the duo as Barenaked Ladies.

Robertson was accepted to York University, but dropped out after only half a year, choosing to devote his time completely to the band. He and Page spent the next two years building the reputation and following for Barenaked Ladies, joined along the way by Andy and Jim Creeggan, and Tyler Stewart.

Robertson was the second member of Barenaked Ladies to get married, and the first to have children. He married his longtime girlfriend, Natalie Herbert,^[1][2] in June 1994. They had their first child, Hannah on November 17, 1995; their second child, Lyle was born September 29, 1999; and their third child, Arden was born August 7, 2002. As the first in the band to have children, he was also one of the first to advocate for spending less time touring and more time at home with family. When he is not working with Barenaked Ladies, Robertson prefers to spend as much time as he can with his family in Toronto, or at their Bancroft-area cottage.

Robertson's brother Doug died after crashing his motorcycle in June 1993.^[3] The experience had an impact on Ed, which came through in his songwriting. The song "Am I The Only One?" from the 1994 Barenaked Ladies album Maybe You Should Drive, which he had been writing about his then-future wife, ended up being about the loss of his brother; the song "Leave" from 1998's Stunt is about the image of his brother haunting him in hotel rooms while on tour; and the song "Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" from 2000's Maroon was based on Robertson's curiosity about what his brother was thinking about in his last moments.^[3] His mother died on December 13, 2008 at age 72,^[1] and his father died on June 10, 2011 at the age of 76.^[2][7] Robertson wrote the song "Moonstone" about his mother passing away. It was recorded during the All in Good Time sessions, and although it was not included in the basic album, it was released as a bonus track.

Role in Barenaked Ladies[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2008)

Robertson is the primary guitarist for the band, playing dominantly rhythm guitar (evenly split between acoustic and electric) on nearly all of the band's songs. Two of his three bandmates also play guitar with the band on certain songs (Kevin Hearn sometimes on lead, and Jim Creeggan occasionally playing rhythm guitar for songs he sings lead on). During his tenure with the band, Steven Page also played rhythm guitar and, occasionally, lead guitar on around a third of the band's songs. Robertson is capable of playing several other instruments including drums, pedal steel guitar, banjo and mandolin, but he rarely plays anything other than guitar, or occasionally 6-string banjo, on stage. On each passing album, he has sung lead on an increased number of songs, to the point where he shared approximately equal duty with Page by the time the latter left the band. Robertson has sung lead on a number of the band's singles since the success of 1998's "One Week", the first single released with a Robertson lead (not including "If I Had $1000000" which featured a Page/Robertson call-and-response lead vocal). He, along with his other bandmates, has taken over some of Page's lead and harmony vocal parts following the latter's departure. Robertson also often includes rapping and beatboxing into performances with Barenaked Ladies.

Robertson contributed to the writing for the band from their first album. Much of his contribution initially came in the way of co-writing with Page. As the years have passed, Robertson has written an increased amount on his own. He credits Jason Plumb in part for changing his perspective on songwriting, in that instead of trying to write one great song, he would commit to writing a certain number of ideas and they might not all be great, but parts of the songs would sometimes fit together into great songs. As well, Plumb encouraged Robertson to simply come up with an idea that fascinates him, and then to analyse it. The first song he wrote with this method was "When I Fall", based on the concept of "a window washer who's afraid of heights".

Besides Tyler Stewart, who does not typically compose, Robertson is the only other band member who has not written and recorded songs outside of the Barenaked Ladies for himself in the form of a side project. Robertson has preferred to spend creative energy outside the band in co-writing and producing songs for other people (including Andy Kim and Jason Plumb).

Television[link]

In 2006, Robertson began starring in Ed's Up for OLN Canada.^[3] The program covers his journeys by plane to various locations given to him only in the form of GPS coordinates. At these locations, he learns about and participates in a local occupation. The series premiered on November 1, 2006; Robertson filmed a second season in the summer of 2007, which premiered on November 7.^[8] A third season was filmed over the summer of 2008.

In 2008, Ed Robertson guest co-hosted Daily Planet on Discovery Channel for several weeks while one of the regular hosts was away.

He can be seen in a handful of season 8 and 9 episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation as the music teacher, Mr. Fowler, which aired new in 2009 on Canada's CTV and TeenNick in the States.^[9]

On May 29, 2012, Robertson was the guest co-host on the U.S. television morning talk show, Live with Kelly.

Other activities and interests[link]

Robertson received his pilot's license in 2005, and the 2007 season of Ed's Up was purportedly designed around his attempting to earn his floatplane license. He also rides a motorcycle, which he has taken on some of the band's tours in the past to ride during off-time.

In April 2009, Robertson was recognized for his interest in aviation and the Canadian military by being named Honorary Colonel of 424 Transport and Rescue Squadron of the Canadian Forces.^[10] Following the signing, HCol Robertson said that the investiture was “the most incredible honour” he has received. “I have always been thoroughly blown away by the incredible work of our military,” he said. “It’s a day I thought I would never see come. When I got the letter from the Defence Minister, I was, like, ‘This is real; I am actually going to be an honorary colonel!’”^[11] Robertson held the position until March 2012, noting that, although he had not been able to be around as much as he would have liked, the Squadron felt like family to him.^[10]

Robertson is fan of video games, and claims to have had almost every console system released since he was a child. He usually brings several consoles and many games on tour with him. Robertson is a fan of the popular RoosterTeeth series Red vs. Blue, lending his voice to the series to voice Captain Butch Flowers, during a time travel episode. Originally for a one-off episode, Captain Flowers was re-introduced in late season 5, 4 episodes before the announced finale. Rooster Teeth Productions has also made special videos, using Red vs. Blue characters, to be shown at Barenaked Ladies shows. In February 2009, he began starring as Captain Dynamic, in Rooster Teeth Productions live action mini-series, Captain Dynamic, which promotes the video game City of Heroes.

Robertson has several tattoos. The first one he got was on his right deltoid—a stylized Canadian flag with a green maple leaf and diagonal red bars. The next one he got was a Mercator projection of the continents of Earth circling his left deltoid. For his next tattoo, he visited a shop in Portland, Oregon run by Matt Reed. Reed enhanced the Canadian flag, and recoloured the map. He also added a third tattoo; a jumping fish, on Robertson's left arm, above the map. At his next session, Robertson got a band of acorns and Oak leaves on his right arm, below the flag (possibly also from Reed). Robertson decided to exclusively use Reed for his tattoos, and has said that he gets a new one every time he is in Portland. Reed has also designed t-shirts for the band. He e-mailed Reed photos of both arms (each having a band and a single image, in about the same place) and asked him to design a way to tie everything together. Reed enhanced the existing tattoos by framing the fish with a nautical themed frame, and the flag with a natural wooden themed frame, and adding backgrounds. In 2004, on the Au Naturale tour, Robertson added a dragonfly across part of his chest while in Portland.

Robertson won Humber College's inaugural Euterpe Award at the close of the 2005 Humber Songwriting Workshop. In his honour, the school named a scholarship after him for their summer songwriting workshop.

Having an interest in acting, Robertson had a brief appearance in Charlie's Angels 2, which was offered to him by director Joseph McGinty Nichol, who had directed Barenaked Ladies' video for "One Week". Robertson had a larger role in the independent Canadian film Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, which was directed by childhood friend Sudz Sutherland.

Robertson will be collaborating with astronaut and musician Chris Hadfield to write and premier a brand new song for Music Monday 2013. Music Monday is a Canadian event to spread the importance of music education. ^[12] The song will be written and premiered by Ed and Chris while Chris is in space. ^{[13] [14]}

Plane crash[link]

At 12:30 p.m. on August 24, 2008, Robertson was involved in a plane crash while piloting his amphibious Cessna 206, north of Bancroft, Ontario. He and his three passengers walked away from the crash with no apparent injuries. The Transport Canada Civial Aviation Daily Occurrence Report (CADOR) indicated that the crash occurred after take-off from Baptiste Lake when Robertson apparently lost airspeed and settled into the trees approximately 300 metres in from the shoreline.^[15] The Transportation Safety Board handled the investigation.^[16] After several weeks, the TSB was unable to determine a cause of the crash, but cleared Robertson of any misconduct. Additionally, no evidence of mechanical problems was found. Investigator Ray Simpson reported that the investigation was unlikely to produce any further results, and had therefore been essentially closed. Simpson added that undetectable air currents could have been the cause of the crash, but there is no evidence for or against the possibility. He commended Robertson for being "outstanding" in his cooperation with the investigation.^[17]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ed Robertson at Allmusic
• Ed's Up homepage
• Ed's Up Mobovivo page