John T. Reed’s self-publishing blog

Every day, I hear people say stupid things. Often, they find their way into print as well. Here are many of them. If you know of one, please pass it on to me and I may add it. I’ll give you credit for it if I do. Dumb word or phrase Correct version Why administrate administer There is a word “taxation,” but we do not call the verb “taxate.” It’s “tax.” The fact that there is a noun “orientation” does not mean the verb is “orientate.” It’s “orient.” Please ceasate doing this. adverse averse Adverse is a good word. It...

In my book How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Own How-To Book, I denounced the so-called “real” publishers up one side and down the other. I urged readers to self-publish, as I do, instead. In an article at my Web site about best-selling financial books, (www.johntreed.com/bestseller.html) I also denounced them for not caring one whit about whether the “nonfiction” books they publish are accurate or give valid advice. Some readers may have thought I was overstating my case. I refer them to the brouhaha over James Frey’s mega best seller A Million Little Pieces. Frey, we now know, originally...

How to Write, Publish, & Sell Your Own How-To Book is back in print Sep 09, 2017 Amazon is a bridge troll, a rent seeker Jun 30, 2017 Be smart and save on shipping Aug 19, 2016 Grammar is not mandatory, it’s positioning May 18, 2016 Amazon will compete against you using your own proprietary data if you are a successful Amazon merchant Anonymous sources are not anonymous to us reporters Author says Amazon and book publishers won’t give sales figures Best-selling real estate authors HarperCollins’ new policies Keys to success self-publishing how-to books Nov 10, 2015 My former book store...

Here is a list of all the best-selling real-estate authors I can think of and their financial lowlights. Best-selling Author Book Title Financial Lowlights William Nickerson How I Turned $1,000 into $5 Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time Got richer until death in 2000 Albert Lowry How to Become Financially Independent by Investing in Real Estate Declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June of 1987 Bill “Tycoon” Greene Two Years for Freedom Indicted on 1/13/81 for federal income-tax evasion. In 8/81, he was convicted, sentenced to prison and fined. He later escaped from the minimum security prison and is...

On 4/3/08, HarperCollins announced a new subsidiary that will have three new policies heretofore essentially not allowed:• no advances to authors• no returns from book stores allowed• no payments to book stores for shelf spaceThe new subsidiary will focus on Internet marketing. I guess. the book stores probably will refuse to buy their books.What do I think about this? As I said in my book i, the HarperCollinses of the world are toast. The world will always have authors and readers. The people who have been getting in between—publishers, book stores, distributors—will be eliminated by the Internet. What HarperCollins is...