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Anthony Puttee is a designer with a background in video games and television media. He entered the world of publishing after illustrating a young adult book series.
Through his experience he became a go-to-guy for dealing with all aspects publishing all kinds of books, from fiction, non-fiction, how-to, children’s book and more.
Anthony turned the obvious demand into a consulting business and has helped over 50 books get published.
I’ve just begun my own process to publish a book so it was natural to seek out Anthony for advice. As a result, during this interview I ask many questions that I am personally interested in as a budding author.
If you are interested publishing a book and how it can be used to make money, have a listen to this interview, you will learn a lot about the process.
What We Covered During The Interview
Here are some of the topics I asked Anthony to explain to us –
- What is the difference between the self publishing and traditional publishing paths, and why would you choose one over the other?
- How do you get the physical aspects of your book created, such as the book cover, typesetting and printing.
- How does print-on-demand work and why it is the preferred option for publishers.
- What printer and distributor Anthony recommends and why they are such a good solution for self publishing.
- How exactly do you get your book to appear in physical book shops around the world without doing a book tour.
- Where does Amazon and Kindle come into play and how important are they for your success.
- How exactly do people currently make money with books – is it from actual sales of the book or from other income streams.
- What would be the best path for someone like me, a blogger who teaches in a market, to get the most from releasing a book.
I’ve always had a somewhat romantic view of publishing your own book, probably because growing up I always thought books were a big deal and authors were really famous.
Of course there are some realities about what a book can do for you today that you need to be aware of before going down this path. Listen to this interview and you will be much better informed about your options.
I’d like to give a big thank you to Anthony for being so forthcoming with his knowledge. He really did share the tiny details that clarified a lot of my questions.
Enjoy the interview,
Yaro Starak
Relevant Links
Where to Find Anthony Online
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Very timely as I’m finishing-up my 7th book focused on CNC designing.
Jon
Great advice! I’ve started writing a book and I know I need to start looking at how I’m going to publish it. Perfect timing, Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome John, all the best with the book!
Ever since I was in grade 2 and wrote a story about a penguin killing my sister (!) I knew I wanted to become an author. I guess it is why I have been blogging for over half my life. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole interview (yet!) but I am very interested in continuing.
Anthony, I’m in Brisbane too, would love to meet you some day.
Hey Carlie, a fellow Brisbanite, very cool!
Pretty interesting interview. If you like it, I’d definitely recommend you check out Seth Godin’s writings on self publishing. They cover topics like…
– Funding with Kickstarter.
– Self promotion.
– How to test whether a launch was successful or not.
– Pros and cons of self publishing vs. working with a publisher.
I’ve read a lot on the subject of self-publishing and I really think that Godin’s thinking on the subject is the best out there. You can tell he’s put a ton of time and effort into really testing and figuring out what works.
Thanks Andrew,
Kickstarter works for Seth Godin, because he’s Seth Godin. The path is different for everyone and it all depends on an individual’s goals. I wouldn’t recommend a first-time fiction author attempt a Kickstarter campaign. Those few I’ve seen have failed. Crowdfunding needs a lot of promotion to find success, then do it all over again for the book release.
It’s very different for a marketing celebrity writing a nonfiction book that is in part addressing a “problem” for a defined target audience. If you decide to go that route Andrew, I hope you rock it!
Thanks for stopping by EJ.
Your advice on the type of printer to use is a great one. Book publishing is what I’m getting into in the next one month. I’m writing my first draft and let’s see how it goes. Thanks Yaro Starak.
All the best with your project Denzel.
This is a timely post Yaro. I’ve been procrastinating on publishing my book since 2009. This is a perfect podcast for me…
This was a very helpful guide, thank you for sharing!
The points discussed are excellent. Thanks alot for sharing this blog with your readers.
I loved this interview. Anything on book publishing is a must for me.
Please have more of these interviews.
Anthony,
you talked about the importance of the cover for your
book, but as someone who’s written a few E-books,
don’t discount the title.
And as a person who writes for a certain niche category,
I just recently learned about creating a title that
also has a high SEO. So when someone types in a certain
title on Google or Bing, the book title will be right there at the top.
The title is crucial James I agree. For nonfiction books, the subtitle is really important. I could easily spend an hour just covering cover design considerations and include aspects such as keywords. Not only keywords from Google, but also specific Amazon keywords too.
Great share! This is a very helpful discussion which you shared.
I couldn’t have asked for a better source and better timing as I am working on my book! Thanks so much for this!
You’re welcome Ali 🙂