New from Stillpoint Digital Press
About Us — The Human Face of Digital Publishing
When I started Stillpoint Digital Press last year, all that I intended to do was to take my own varied experience as a writer, an editor, and an ebook designer and offer a service that was both more professional and more personal than that offered by the ebook self-publishing "services": digital publishing with a human face.From the beginning, that idea has resonated — and has brought me in directions that I never anticipated.
News from the Stillpoint
Get your Joseph Campbell here, and keep it coming!
As you may know, I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of serving as the managing editor of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell since 1999. It’s been hard work, but it’s also been very satisfying — in the years that I’ve been at the JCF, we’ve produced fifteen books (closing in on thirty if you include the ebooks), over forty audio recordings and a really wonderful fifteen-hour video series. Of those books I was talking about, seven were brand new, posthumous titles — on three of which I was the titular editor. (You know. The guy on the title with the author.)
Now, the JCF is a not-for-profit, but it hasn’t been run the most such groups are. We’ve tried to the best of our ability to have the work pay our way. We don’t have an office, nor are there any employees — all of the work is done by a handful of independent contractors (like me) and volunteers. We’ve always taken donations, and sometimes we’ve had to be a little more forceful in our appeals due to a cash crunch, but there haven’t been any major donor campaigns, no chasing after grants, no bake sales. The idea was not to let the tail wag the dog.
There comes a time, however, when a major capital expenditure is bound to come up. In the case of the JCF, we’ve been getting by on a jury-rigged website for about eight years. It’s never been perfect — but at this point, the plaster is falling off the walls. We’ve tried to find low- or no-cost ways to create the kind of vibrant, useful site that our associates need, but finally came to the realization that we needed to raise :gulp: $65,000 in order to make that happen.
So this is where I turn to you — I know that you’re shocked — and ask that you help us continue to fulfill our mission to “preserve, protect, and perpetuate the groundbreaking work of Joseph Campbell.”
Click here to go to our Fundrazr crowdfunding page.
And when you do, remember all of those books and audio and video I told you about?
Guess what! If you donate, you can choose some or all of those as our thank you!
Giveaway! Win a free advance copy of Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale
We’re holding a giveaway on Goodreads to win an advance copy of Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale by author/publisher David Kudler!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Enter to be one of the first to read this exciting young-adult historical adventure story. Continue reading Giveaway! Win a free advance copy of Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale →
All Things Amazon
Along with Ruth Schwartz, I’m going to be offering a presentation at the monthly meeting of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Assocation ambitiously titled All Things Amazon!
Come join us in lovely Novato — the meeting is from 9:00–4:00, but our presentation is from 11:00–12:15. (There are going to be break-out sessions in the afternoon.)
Here’s the blurb: Continue reading All Things Amazon →
Musings
Get your Joseph Campbell here, and keep it coming!
As you may know, I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of serving as the managing editor of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell since 1999. It’s been hard work, but it’s also been very satisfying — in the years that I’ve been at the JCF, we’ve produced fifteen books (closing in on thirty if you include the ebooks), over forty audio recordings and a really wonderful fifteen-hour video series. Of those books I was talking about, seven were brand new, posthumous titles — on three of which I was the titular editor. (You know. The guy on the title with the author.)
Now, the JCF is a not-for-profit, but it hasn’t been run the most such groups are. We’ve tried to the best of our ability to have the work pay our way. We don’t have an office, nor are there any employees — all of the work is done by a handful of independent contractors (like me) and volunteers. We’ve always taken donations, and sometimes we’ve had to be a little more forceful in our appeals due to a cash crunch, but there haven’t been any major donor campaigns, no chasing after grants, no bake sales. The idea was not to let the tail wag the dog.
There comes a time, however, when a major capital expenditure is bound to come up. In the case of the JCF, we’ve been getting by on a jury-rigged website for about eight years. It’s never been perfect — but at this point, the plaster is falling off the walls. We’ve tried to find low- or no-cost ways to create the kind of vibrant, useful site that our associates need, but finally came to the realization that we needed to raise :gulp: $65,000 in order to make that happen.
So this is where I turn to you — I know that you’re shocked — and ask that you help us continue to fulfill our mission to “preserve, protect, and perpetuate the groundbreaking work of Joseph Campbell.”
Click here to go to our Fundrazr crowdfunding page.
And when you do, remember all of those books and audio and video I told you about?
Guess what! If you donate, you can choose some or all of those as our thank you!
4 Ways to Create an Ebook
This is the second in my series of blog posts about ebook creation. It was originally posted on Joel Friedlander’s wonder resource site, TheBookDesigner.com.
Last time I talked about just what an ebook is — a website in a box. Ebooks come in a number of flavors, but for the purposes of this discussion I’m going to stick with the most common and most malleable format of ebook, the ePub file that is the basis of all of the major retailers’ ebook offerings.
There are four basic ways to create an ebook (that is, an ePub file):
- From scratch
- Saving from a word-processing or page-layout application into ePub format
- Using a conversion app or online service
- Hiring a designer
The trade-off among these methods involve quality, time, and price. As the old saying goes, you can generally pick two. In order to get all three, you’re going to need to become an ebook maven yourself, which will take a fair amount of time, but which will allow you to control all of the variables yourself. Let’s look at the options, and you can see whether that’s the road you want to take. Continue reading 4 Ways to Create an Ebook →
Which Ebook Format Should I Choose, ePub or PDF?
I was asked recently which file format was better, ePub or PDF. (Just as well that the Kindle-only mobi format was left out! It’s easy to convert from an ePub file anyway.)
Which is better depends on what purpose the file is going to serve. Continue reading Which Ebook Format Should I Choose, ePub or PDF? →
What Can Stillpoint Do for You?
Stillpoint Digital Press is a publisher and publishing services provider that creates fine ebook, audiobook, and print editions in genres from fiction to literary nonfiction, from memoir to poetry. It aims to provide digital publishing with a human face, offering a full range of editorial services, from editing, layout and ebook conversion to distribution and marketing.
Here's what we can do for you:
Publishing
- Design your book in print and/or ebook format
- Print formats from simple black-and-white to complex, illustrated four-color
- Ebook formats—Kindle (mobi/KF8) & ePub:
- Fixed layout, flowing text, read-aloud, video- or audio-enhanced, etc.
- Create a cover
- Arrange printing—offset, short-run, or print-on-demand
- Manage distribution
- Work with you to market your book
Ebook Design
- Quick and accurate ebook conversion from print or digital original
- Cover Design
- Smidget: Social Media Widget for Ebooks
- Distribution to all major outlets — if you'd like, we'll even set up accounts for you!
Audiobook Production
- Narration, recording, and editing
- Distribution to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes
Editorial Services
- Substantive and developmental editing
- Co-writing
- Copyediting and proofreading
- Indexing
- Image & quotes research and permissions
Contact us at editor@stillpointdigital.com