Now planning to publish independently? What better place to start than with the man who has helped launch the publication of thousands of books? You'll find lots of good information from guru Dan Poynter's site. Dan Poynter is one of the pioneers of self-publishing. His site includes his free newsletter as well as information on his many books and special reports.

Midwest Book Review:
     Mark this site for frequent returns; you may also want to mark individual areas in this site. Thanks to our estimable Jim Cox, MBR has become a treasure trove of information on Publishing and writing, not to mention the reviews that appear there and then go elsewhere.

The Midwest Book Review also has hotlinks available to over 80 search engines. "about.com". About.com is a very large site with a number of veins. This link leads to the mother lode. This is a great site, with the publishing concerns ably addressed by Wendy Butler. For sure, mark this one and come back to it.
The Book Coach, has a friendly and well-stocked site for the novice publisher or would-be publisher.

Another new site well worth marking is at BookIdea.com, in particular at the section for publishers. This rapidly developing site includes tips on various aspects of publishing, articles, and comments regarding experiences with various vendors. Feels like being in on some conversations with other publishers about what's good, who's good at it, lots of resources and articles. This is a keeper.

An all-too-frequent mistake made by writers who want to publish is the failure to recognize that they are embarking on an entrepreneurial business venture. Whether dealing with business matters is to one's liking or not, it is an issue that must not be ignored. It is essential to do it right. Fortunately, there are several sources of help. You'll find more on the business aspects in another part of the Tool Shed as well.

The Small Business Advisor is an award-winning website that provides a variety of on-line information to help the entrepreneur and small business owner be successful. Information includes book reviews, U.S. State-specific assistance, online articles, tax information, doing business with the U.S. Government, useful links and more. This site has been featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Computer World.

SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives) is an invaluable (yet no cost) resource to one starting up a business. These retired executives can give small business assistance in almost every way from business planning analysis through implementation and problem solving. Access is provided through the Small Business Administration; they can match you with a SCORE advisor who has some expertise in your area.

The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created by Congress in 1953 to help America's entrepreneurs form successful small enterprises. Today, SBA's program offices in every state, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico offer financing, training and advocacy for small firms. In addition, the SBA works with thousands of lending, educational and training.

HCM Publishing has an excellent list of resources for the entrepreneur. HCM Publishing focuses on entrepreneurial work, and most recently published How To Start and Run A Small Book Publishing Company, by Peter I. Hupalo.

John Kremer's Book Marketing site is a 'must' for any small publisher (or for writers who want to do a better job of promoting their books). John Kremer is an acknowledged guru by independent Presses for his marketing acumen. While the focus is on marketing, the site points to exemplary publishers' sites, outstanding book stores, sites of interest to publishers (Blush, blush, brag, brag -- the Tool Shed is one of the top 101 here), and numerous other valuable links.

Add "/bmarchives" to go into the archives for the Bookmarket mailing list.

A frequently asked-for site for Promotion of authors and books, GuestFinder is an on-line directory of authors/publishers/experts, frequently used by electronic media for shows. GuestFinder is a relatively inexpensive but highly effective promotional tool for independent publishers. More and more show producers are using it as they become acquainted with GuestFinder.

Getting a book into production is a much more technical process than it was some years ago. Typesetting and pasteup have evolved into electronic page layouts. Pasted-up boards have given way to electronic files which have reduced the number of steps involved in the production process. All this can be pretty bewildering. However, help is at hand from a number of sources.

One of the most helpful sites for the technical know-how offered on the production side, particularly on PDF formats, preparing files for electronic delivery, and Publishing on Demand, is that of Aeonix Publishing Group. One of the things I like here is you find tips on common typographic errors (those that will mark your book as "self-published"), informative articles on distinguishing between a vanity press and a legitimate publisher, a description of Print on Demand (POD) publishing. See about more of Aeonix's services in the Tool Shed. Several book manufacturers also have excellent information pieces in their sites. Check the Tool Shed's Vendor room for some specific ones.

Five Star Publications, Inc. offers full book publishing services. Owner Linda Radke fully understands the situation of the neophyte publisher.

Of course, marketing is a key factor in the success of any publisher. From the very beginning throughout the life of your book, John Kremer has more than 1001 ideas to help spur sales of your book. When it comes to marketing small press books, he literally "wrote the book" and continues to give valuable pointers.

The Library of Congress, the repository of book information for the United States, maintains a catalog of titles brought to its attention. The Library sells or makes available its listings to libraries all over the world. If it is important for your book to find its way into the marketplace not only here but abroad, then you want to be sure it is entered into the system. In organizing this mammoth collection, the Library assigns a Library of Congress Catalog number (LCCN) which simply indicates when a title entered its system. Usually a publisher requests a catalog number prior to production, and that number is listed in the Cataloging In Publication block. A Preassigned Catalog Number may be obtained electronically through the Electronic Preassigned Number Program.
Phone: 202-707-6372
E-mail lcweb@loc.gov

Go to Cataloging In Publication for more information on cataloging.

Numerous directories are on the Web. Here are a few very useful ones:

ZIP code sources: U S Postal Services

The National Address and ZIP+4 Browser will enable to get the ZIP +4 address for whomever you are seeking.

For navigating the Capital (Washington, DC) sources, including e-mail addresses for members of Congress, the Jefferson Project, and even more important, the Library of Congress, check out the CapWeb -- The Citizen's Guide to Congress.

Online white Pages (Phone numbers, ZIP codes)
National Yellow Pages
Canadian Yellow Pages

E-mail address sources:

Business Media E-mail Directory has e-mail addresses of U.S. newspaper business editors and business magazine news editors; includes web links to more than 150 major U.S. newspapers and more than 120 national and regional business magazines and trade journals.

More e-mail addresses are in the Internet White Pages. On this Yahoo-connected site, you can search for phone numbers as well as e-mail addresses. This is frequently referred as a valuable source.

WhoWhere? Provides still more e-mail addresses.

Infoseek lives up to its name; this site leads to searches for maps, businesses, people, Yellow Pages, United Parcel Service tracking and reference. Infoseek.com is generally a very good search engine.

Parrot Media lists media resources, including newpapers; the newspaper directory even includes all the editor's names, etc...

Gebbies is a favorite list of newspapers on the web. Mark Gebbie, the site owner, says "Our TV and Weekly newspaper databases are free! There are over 10,000 links to print and electronic media on the internet. 3,284 e-mail addresses for Radio and TV stations. 200 links to internet/computer related magazines." Check there also for magazines on the Web.

N-Net, the newspaper network on the world wide web, lists the mailing addresses and phone numbers of all the newspapers, as well as quite a bit about them, in the US

US All Media E-Mail Directory provides some updates to the US All Media E-Mail Directory as well as a contest for the best e-mail news release and The Ten Commandments for Sending E-Mail to the Media.

Don't overlook The US All Media Jumpstation with its more than 3,000 links to magazines, journals, trade press and consumer publications organized by subject for easy reading.

Two other very rich lodes of e-mail addresses for the various media can be found at WebOvision and the Mega Media-Links index@Omnibus:Eye

The Internet Electronic Newsstand links you to 2000 on-line magazines.

You can create your own list to check out on a regular basis

For radio contacts, Radio Guide USA is an excellent directory containing DJ Profiles, local station directories, links for the toP 100 markets, format guides, news and message boards.

Eric Anderson posted the following to a publishers' list and kindly gave permission to include it here in the Tool Shed. He's pointing out a valuable resource (the Federal Census Bureau) and offers cogent advice on techniques and tools to find it. [No, I'm not going to give the Census Bureau URL here -- that's part of the fun! PB]

Yesterday, I posted a hint about getting the Census Bureau's press releases, and received a couple of questions about finding the Census Bureau's web site. Something that shows up regularly on this list and others is the "where do I find..." type of question.

This tutorial will HELP you. Paste it to your forehead, tatoo it on your arm, but most importantly, DO NOT IGNORE THIS ADVICE.

Back when I was in grade school, we used to have contests to see who could look things up in the dictionary the fastest. If you wanted to win, you learned how to use the well-worn tabs in the dictionary, and the helpful headers at the top of the page. You developed an innate sense of where things would be and how to look it up. If your teacher was good, you even learned strategies for how to look up a word when you did not know how to spell it.

I still have a well-worn dictionary setting next to my computer. While I rely more on a spelling checker, I use the dictionary to determine if the word means what I think it does.

Today, my toolkit consists of considerable experience using several search engines.

If you are going to succeed at publishing -- née marketing -- it is ABSOLUTELY imperative that you master search engine search skills. Nearly EVERYTHING you need to know is out there. It's up to you to learn how to find it.
Search engine expertise is absolutely VITAL to your success.

I use Yahoo, Alta Vista and Dejanews in that order, as well as some specialized ones. You can select any that feel comfortable to you, but you MUST know how to use them to get results.

Search engine basics:

1) There are two types of search engines. Yahoo is like a library card catalog in which entries are made by real human beings. Most of the others are like fishing nets which scoop up web sites and attempt to categorize them. My first search is always at Yahoo, because the keywords are more likely to be appropriate.

2) Unfortunately, Yahoo doesn't know about everything. And sometimes, I don't even know precisely what I should be calling what I'm looking for. That's where Alta Vista comes it. I prefer Alta Vista for a simple fact: It seems to hit our web site more often than the other search engines do, which leads me to believe it's more likely to be current. But it doesn't matter which one you use, just so long as you're familiar with how it operates.
3) Skills you need to master:

A. Can you force a require one term in a multi-term search?

B. Do you know how to do compound word searches as opposed to individual words?

C. Can you construct and/or searches?

D. Can you figure out how to do synonym-searches. Alta Vista is nice in that it suggests other word possibilities that you might want to search on.

E. Do you know how to narrow a search after you get intial results returned? It's worthwhile to spend a couple of hours just practicing being able to do these things.

4) Dejanews is oftentimes useful in that it's a search engine of Usenet postings. This more often helps you find answers to particular problems, especially of a technical nature. With usenet, you won't find as many "facts" as you will helpful advice. Usenet is also a good way of keeping track of what your competitors are doing.

5) Specialized search engines. While they aren't really search engines in their own right, you should bookmark and keep useful reference sites. Two excellent examples of this are Pat Bell's Tool Shed and Jim Cox's Midwest Book Review. [These sites have been referred to elsewhere.] Both have extremely useful links to publishing-related sites and information. While they may not always have the answer you're looking for, you can often get started going through one of these reference sites. I also find the Mining Company site to be incredibly useful as it has a wealth of information about various topics. The urban legends section is first rate. (In keeping with the spirit of this article, I am NOT going to tell you how to find these sites, you'll have to figure that out for yourself.)

Part of the problem we have today is that we all want instant answers. Ask a question, let someone else answer. While that's all well and good, and is a vital function of this list or many others, in doing so you LIMIT the quality of the information to the random knowledge of the person who chose to respond. If it's something that you really need to know, you'll be much better served, in the long run, but at least attempting to do the search yourself initially. That way you'll have an idea of the range of information available. Then, if you're still stumped, ask for advice. You'll have a basis for judging how good that advice truly is.

Here's a test, see if you can find the answers to the following:

1) What is RFC 822 and why does it matter? Where can you find a copy of RFC 822?
2) What the driving directions from your house to the White House?

Eric Anderson
eric@blainesoft.com
Blaine Software
Custom programming, application integration and web development

The forthrightly-named Search Engines page has a wonderful list of search engines, ranging from the basic and standard biggies to ZIP codes databases--specialty engines, Search Engines/Metasearches, People Locators--all over and beyond the basic engines. This is a real keeper.

The Midwest Book Review site has an extensive list of search engines and other connections; likewise John Audette's Page lists the top 100 engines; the eight listed here are the choice 95% of the time. Keep in mind that search engines work differently; if you don't find what you are seeking with one, try another.

The Cat's favorite search engine is Google. The funky name, Google, is a twist on "googol" -- a mathematical term for 10 to the power 100, and a reference to the huge number of Web sites.

Dogpile, a useful one as it searches several of the major search engines. Dogpile makes a very rapid search of more than a dozen search engines.

Yahoo, often described now as a directory rather than a true search engine, and is now essentially a portal.

Alta Vistaused to be a favorite of the Cat's, but now it's more of a portal; the Cat's become partial to others.

Go.Com.

Hotbot

Excite will find a lot of things, but is not as discriminating in its search.

Open Text

Other commonly-used hunters include:

Webcrawler

Internet JumpStation is a tremendous jumping-off place for all sorts of trails into information seeking

Two great research sites include http://www.itools.com/research-it/research-it.html

and the New York Times library. The latter requires a subscription to the NY Times site (still "free" to U.S. residents)

Publicly Accessible Mailing List is a directory or list of the other lists available. This is a site to keep in mind for seeking out mailing lists related to your book or for starting one of your own.

Great> Listing of Search Engines (sic) is not a new site; while it lists some useful sites, some are out of date and gone. Be careful.

Want to find other Mailing Lists or Newsgroups? To start with, check the Newsletter Access Directory; this is a great site to know about if you are thinking of creating a newsletter to augment your Web offerings. If not, you can still use mailing lists to promote your book(s).

Google will help you find newsgroups.

Write to The Cat; we'd love to hear from you. Thanks for dropping by, and come again--we'll be adding new "shelves" and "rooms " in the Tool Shed from time to time, and there's always new material to put in the Tool Shed!

You can also take a publishing class: Pat Bell is a faculty member of the Writers College, where she teaches an on-line class on publishing. Check out When is The Next Publishing Class? for her current schedule.

Don't have time to take a class? You can also arrange for consultations with her. Help is close at hand!