New book completed

[Rustymeister]

HI all,

I finished my newest book "Opening Day" which is tagged to be the first what I have called the "Stealing First" series.  It is the story of a fictional Major League Baseball franchise.  In their fourth season, a few days before opening day, their two top stars get suspended for steroid use.  With the owner under heat after shelling out a mint for the two players and promising the fans a division title run, she collaborates with her GM and Manager and call up to AA minor league prospects as well as sign an aging former all-star outfielder who has just returned from Japan, hoping to catch "Lightning in a bottle" as it is often called in baseball.  This first book begins a few days before the start of the season and concludes with the first game on Opening Day (hence the title).

The link is http://www.lulu.com/shop/rusty-trimble/stealing-first/paperback/product-20054273.html and in honor of the new baseball season, I have added a 10% discount to the purchase price along with a pledge to donate 50% of all profits to causes which research and seek treatment for children with Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders.  The book is written in a light-hearted and unprofane manner and should be age appropriate for young and old baseball fans alike. 

Thanks,

R

[Rustymeister]

Thanks for the inappropriate post on my thread.  I wish I could delete it.

[Maggie]

Congratulations, Rusty!

 Your book looks really sharp. Might I suggest justification? That way text is not jagged on right side.

[Rustymeister]

Hi Maggie,

What is Justification?  I'm lost.  I used MS Word and it was supposed to have made it fit correctly on the page, but I didn't check the PDF for it.

[kevinlomas]

The spam has been notified.

Rusty, the bottom text is a bit lost on your front cover and all of the back cover. Try changing it to white, and there is possibly far too much text on the back cover.
The Title page should be before a Copyright page.
Personally I put Other Books By at the back.
Should be no page numbers untill you get to the story.
Apart from what Maggie says, you have your line spacing too large, and your margins seem too large also.
Have you not got a free Lulu ISBN?

Baseball? Sorry, I haven't a clue!

[Rustymeister]

I will look at them.  I still do not understand the benefit of an ISBN.  I mean I can get one, but not sure how it helps me better market my book.  Oddly the preview does make the text look bad, but when I click on the cover it comes out fine for some reason.  I may have to review and redo it though.

R

[kevinlomas]

http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/isbnqa.asp

The benefit of a Lulu ISBN is that it includes being put on to Amazon, but also onto wholesale lists where retailers can find it and order it from.
But you do still have to tell people it is on places like Amazon, or they will not know. Ditto when trying to get bookshops to stock it, but you can just tell them the ISBN.

[Rustymeister]

See that is where I am confused.  I do not know how to get my books listed on Amazon.  I can get the ISBN, but then do not know what to do from there.  I mean can I just give independent bookstores the ISBN and tell them to go to lulu.com and they order it that way?  Sorry to be dense, I am just not getting it.

R

[kevinlomas]

ExtendedReach - Free - Lulu’s ExtendedReach service lists your title and ISBN in major bibliographic databases and makes your work available on Amazon.com. Your book will appear as a regular listing on Amazon and will be eligible for Amazon's discounts and shipping rates. Go to your Project List to add distribution to an eligible book (What Products are Eligible for Retail Distribution?). If you bring your own ISBN you will not be eligible for ExtendedReach Distribution.

You get one via the Wizard.

http://connect.lulu.com/t5/ISBN-Distribution/How-to-get-an-ISBN-for-your-Book/ta-p/33617

[Ron Miller]

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Rustymeister wrote:

Hi Maggie,

What is Justification?  I'm lost.  I used MS Word and it was supposed to have made it fit correctly on the page, but I didn't check the PDF for it.

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Justification is when the right and left edges of your text are even.

The very best thing first-time author-publishers can do is look at a commercially published book and use it for a model.