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10 Questions to Ask Before Committing to Any E-Publishing Service. Note from Jane: I updated this post on Nov. 14, 2014. With new services continually appearing on the market that promise to help writers self-publish or distribute their e-books, it’s imperative that you educate yourself about how these services typically operate and understand the fine print of any new service before deciding to commit. Note that when I discuss “services,” they typically fall into 2 categories: Single-channel, retailer-driven services (e.g., Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Press, Apple iBookstore)E-book distribution services that may include some kind of formatting and conversion service; sometimes these services also act as retailers.

BookBaby and Smashwords are two of the most well-known services.… and there are also other types of services offered by consultants, partnership-style publishers, and literary agents. Here are 10 questions you must ask of any new service you consider using. 1. There are two notable exceptions right now: 2. 3. 4. 5. Cheat sheet: how to make your own Amazon Kindle ebook in hours. Aspiring Authors Beware: Kindle Platform Under Construction (Online Pitfalls and Obstructions Abound) The creation process for Kindle ebooks has changed considerably over recent years-- and continues to do so today.

So at any given moment, 60 to 90 percent of the information you find online about it will be outdated, and just plain wrong. Even Google's mighty search engine appears unable circa mid-2013 to reliably separate the wheat from the chaff on the subject. I'd like to say that you can simply refer to Amazon's own official guidelines and online help for this instead, to save yourself a lot of trouble, but that's not necessarily true. And even where their information is accurate and up to date, it often isn't clearly stated, or easy to follow and implement (which is why many turn to other sources online, in the first place).

So if there's no date stamp on the information you're perusing, you may be wasting your time reading it. The How-To Synopsis The Caveat Your Book Cover Contents. First 50 Years. Full-Color Publishing Service - Freelance Services. The Directory offers a list of active freelance service providers to assist you in researching, writing, developing, designing and translating your manuscript Content Editing | Photography | Ghostwriting | Translation Content Editing Have a professional examine your manuscript and decide what needs to be added or changed to improve it Cliff Carle Cliff Carle has been called "a great Zen Master of words" for his ability to work wonders with rough text. Patricia Ross Dr. Jeanne Ainslie Jeanne Ainslie, MSc, BSc (Hons) is an experienced editor and best-selling author who specialises in working with first-time, self-published authors.

Photography Locate a professional photographer to address the visual needs of your book - from author head shots to full photo essay collaboration. Allen Schill Allen is an artist and art teacher by training. Nichole Gonzalez Nichole Gonzalez is an international photographer specialising in landscape and travel photography. Stefania Levi Toria Best Wonderful Machine, Inc. Google Snakes An Additional $5.5 Billion from Adwords Customers in 2010. What about 2011? Last month I read a news brief on Google’s projected numbers for 2011. It was no surprise the damn thing had a green arrow pointing north. With Larry Page at the helm of Planet GOOG (ticker), he has a major undertaking to GOOG shareholders. The idea of making money hasn’t changed. However, one could only question if the plan for making money has changed.

Frankly, it’s been the same plan all along. Google published its projected increase for CPC (cost per click) in 2011 as 5%, the same as last year. Youssef may not be so quick to overstate but I will. Above is a chart showing year over year differences in Google advertising revenues and advertiser performance metrics from 2005 to 2010. Google Ad Revenue (In Millions) The correlation between the average CPC and Google’s ad revenue isn’t exact year over year.

From what we’ve seen of both national and local markets, hiked CPCs are posing a huge barrier to entry. So what the heck is happening? What can you do about it? The Top 10 Industries that Contributed Most to Google Earnings in 2011. Google AdWords: A Brief History Of Online Advertising Innovation. All innovation looks inevitable, except while it’s happening. Google’s search advertising model didn’t spring forth fully formed. It was iterated, and many of the key concepts were borrowed — something many people don’t realize. But a few key market-defying decisions, and one stunning insight, made it all work. Here is a brief history to inspire, taken from John Battelle’s The Search (required reading for anyone who wants to innovate anything on the web): In late 1999, Google began testing a program to sell ads on a CMP basis, the dominant ad model of the time.

But instead of using banner ads, the dominant ad format of the time, Google decided to sell only unobtrusive text ads. Advertising first appeared on Google.com in January 2000 — text ads were sold by a sales rep on a CPM basis. “It didn’t generate much money.” – Sergey Brin But then the bubble burst in Spring 2000, and the online ad banner market crashed. Instead, Google introduced a breathtaking innovation. As Battelle put it: Www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/100331-cea-economics-workplace-flexibility.pdf. Www.grahamlowe.ca/documents/182/Under Pressure 10-06.pdf. Web.mit.edu/ariely/www/MIT/Chapters/happy1.pdf. Recognition and Rewards – The zappos Way Part II of III « I2I – Incentive Intelligence.

By paul hebert Continuing my thoughts on the conversation I had with Jamie Naughton – “Cruise Ship Captain” at zappos… See intro post here. Doing it Different – Almost Wrong? The net-net for me after listening to Jamie talk about the engagement initiatives at zappos is this… A strong culture, recognized regularly, decreases the need for specific performance-based incentives. Again – I’ll caution all who read this site – zappos is an outlier – a positive deviant. We should learn from them but don’t get up next Monday and implement everything they do without the proper foundation. First of all – they do have incentives…and they have recognition… and they have merchandise awards. Incentives, Recognition, Zollars and Swag (Oh My) At zappos they have created a reward currency called “zollars” (not sure the exchange rate with Shrutebucks) that is redeemable for logo-identified merchandise from their company store.

Zollars are distributed by Managers and employees. Except when it’s not. Specifically… Synonyms, Antonyms. Drive. * New York Times bestseller * Wall Street Journal bestseller * Boston Globe bestseller * Los Angeles Times bestseller * Washington Post bestseller * San Francisco Chronicle bestseller * Publishers Weekly bestseller * Indie Bound bestseller * Amazon.com top 50 bestseller for all of 2010 * Amazon.com top 100 bestseller for all of 2011 From Daniel H.

Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. Drive is bursting with big ideas—the rare book that will change how you think and transform how you live. International editions. Adjusting My Fit… Courtesy of a Conversation with zappos – Part I of III « I2I – Incentive Intelligence. By paul hebert This is post 1 of a 3 post discussion with Jamie Naughton – Cruise Ship Captain at zappos. Parts II and III will be forthcoming. Part I is the setup and big picture, Part II is the specifics of some of the engagement programs conducted at zappos and Part III is where I “adjust my fit.”

Every once in a while you need to adjust the fit of your thinking. Think of the show “What Not To Wear.” But advice is only half the equation – change is also dependent on the target’s willingness to “adjust their thinking” and consider the input they are given. That’s what I needed the other day. Zappos… For those just coming back from your walk through Tibet – zappos is the darling of the employee engagement world. I connected to zappos through a friend (@femelmed) who had a connection at zappos and I asked if she could introduce me to someone at zappos to talk about the way the reward and recognize their employees. I’ll say this right now – BUY from zappos.

My Goal… And I was mostly wrong. Why I Sold Zappos, Page 2. The first time Amazon.com tried to buy Zappos, we said no without even thinking. It was the summer of 2005, and Zappos, the start-up into which I'd poured the past five years of my life (and almost all of my money), finally seemed to be on the right track. Zappos sells shoes and apparel online, but what distinguished us from our competitors was that we'd put our company culture above all else. We'd bet that by being good to our employees -- for instance, by paying for 100 percent of health care premiums, spending heavily on personal development, and giving customer service reps more freedom than at a typical call center -- we would be able to offer better service than our competitors.

Better service would translate into lots of repeat customers, which would mean low marketing expenses, long-term profits, and fast growth. Amazingly, it all seemed to be working. These ideas about the power of our company culture had yet to be proved. But our board of directors had other ideas. Are Wall Street Suicide Epidemics Real? Last week, German investor Adolf Merckle, a multibillionaire who lost a fortune on shorted Volkswagen stock, threw himself under a train.

Two weeks earlier, Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, an heir to French aristocracy and the co-founder of an investment fund whose money vanished in Bernie Madoff’s alleged pyramid scheme, told the cleaning crew at his Madison Avenue office to clear out, sat behind his desk, and slashed his wrists with a box cutter. Five days before that, in London, a hotel worker entered a $750-a-night suite at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower to find the body of Christen Schnor, HSBC’s head of insurance, hanging by a belt in a closet. This spate of financier suicides is already the second such wave in a year: The first commenced with Bear Stearns research supervisor Barry Fox’s 29-story plunge in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on May 22, and was quickly followed by at least two more cases in June and July. Not sufficiently depressed? Let’s go back to bankers. Have good intel? The Perks of Working at Google, Facebook, Twitter and More [INFOGRAPHIC] Are you a techie looking for work?

We recently offered some tips on landing jobs at Google, Apple and Facebook, but there are more companies in the Valley than those three. And you might be wondering what the culture is like at each of these companies, as well as at LinkedIn, Twitter, Eventbrite, Gaia and Tagged. Back in August, we brought you word of awesome perks at various startups; now, we bring you perks at a number of Silicon Valley's largest and finest. From yoga to catered lunches, 401(k)s to dry cleaning, sports teams to vacation days, these tech companies seem to understand that quality of life affects productivity — and that having to run fewer errands after work means you're more likely to stay at the office. Check out the infographic below from ResumeBear for a breakdown of who offers what perks. Do you work at any of these companies and take advantage of any of these perks?

Let us know in the comments below. Infographic courtesy of ResumeBear. Zappos.com - Best Companies to Work For 2012 - Fortune. Mmunsoed27.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/41330806.pdf. Www.lni.wa.gov/Safety/Research/Files/Bullying.pdf. Bureau of Justice Statistics Workplace Violence, 1993-2009. Law enforcement officers, security guards and bartenders had highest rates of workplace violence WASHINGTON – More than 572,000 nonfatal violent crimes—rape, robbery, or assault—occurred against persons age 16 or older while they were at work or on duty in 2009, according to a Justice Department Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) newly released publication, Workplace Violence, 1993-2009.

This is a level of nonfatal violent crime that is about a quarter of the 2.1 million nonfatal violent crimes that occurred at the workplace in 1993. Along with the decline in nonfatal workplace violence, the number of homicides in the workplace decreased by 51 percent from a high of 1,068 homicides in 1993 to 521 homicides in 2009. Employed persons age 16 or older experienced nonfatal violence outside of work at a rate that was three times higher than the rate of nonfatal violence while at work or on duty from 2005 to 2009. Four out of five victims of workplace homicide were male. The Recognition and Performance Link - Featured Article.

Many people in HR dismiss awards and incentives programs as "feel good"activities. But evidence suggests there is a strong link between non-cash awardsand incentives and improved job performance, says employee-recognition expertand best-selling author Bob Nelson. Nelson’s study, conducted from September of 1999 to June of 2000, is basedon responses from managers and their employees in 34 organizations ranging from Universal Studios to the U.S. Postal Service. He says that several performance-related variables were found to have broad support from managers in the study, the majority of whom agreed or stronglyagreed with the following items (listed with percentage of agreement): Nelson also found that 72.9 percent of managers reported that they receivedthe results they expected when they used non-monetary recognition eitherimmediately or soon thereafter, and 98.8 percent said they thought theyeventually would obtain the desired results. Nelson’s mantra: "You get what you reward.

" (14) Office Space - Full Dialogue Transcript | Digg Topnews. Charts from the American Time Use Survey. Emilyblock.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/southwest-culture-shows-strain.pdf.