Brainy Beginner's Guide to Self-Publishing: Learn How to Make the Right Decisions and Publish a Superior Book

by Michael N. Marcus

There are books about self-publishing for "dummies" and "complete idiots." Dummies and idiots can't publish books, and probably shouldn't write them. The book shown below is for smart writers-but not necessarily geniuses-who want to learn about self-publishing. It's also for people who like funny pictures of dogs wearing oversize eyeglasses. Bookstores are closing. Book publishers are firing employees and cutting back on new books. But the self-publishing business is doing extremely well, for four main (1) Advances in technology and falling costs have helped to remove middlemen between creative people and their audiences, and to equalize distribution. Tiny companies-even one-person companies-can have the image and impact of giant corporations (2) Specialization and "micro-ization" have revolutionized many areas of commerce, ranging from breweries to broadcasters. (3) Online booksellers, particularly Amazon.com, make millions of books easily and economically available to millions of readers, worldwide. (4) Electronic "eBooks" are much less expensive to produce and distribute than books printed on paper. If you combine the four factors, the early 21st century is a great time to be a self-publishing author. Never before have authors been able to publish books and reach the public so quickly and inexpensively. However, because of the wide range of service providers and the huge number of decisions to be made, it can be hard to get started. The book will help you decide whether to set up your own publishing company or use the services of a self-publishing company. If you decide to use one of those companies, It'll help you choose the right one, and choose which services to buy from the company, which to get elsewhere, and what to do yourself.

427 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 2011

About the author

Michael N. Marcus is the author of more than 40 books—including many bestsellers. He has been an editor at Rolling Stone magazine and has written for many science, music, business, electronics, automotive and general interest magazines, as well as newspapers.

​He's also an award-winning advertising copywriter who has worked on such brands as Pioneer, Acoustic Research, Columbia Records, Maxell, Volvo, Castrol, and Perdue chicken. Active on Facebook, Michael founded and administers over a dozen popular groups, and a few unpopular ones.

Michael has long been a successful and popular explainer. Before the Internet, he was an online adviser on CompuServe, and later on MSN. He is a contributor to many online groups and publications. He has provided the words for more than 50 websites and blogs.

At the urging of a misguided guidance counselor, he went to Lehigh University to become an electrical engineer, and was disappointed to learn that engineering was mostly math—and slide rules were not as much fun as soldering irons. He quickly switched to journalism.

Michael has written professionally for over 40 years. He was one of the first writers to humanize electronic hardware, describing equipment with emotion, not math. At Rolling Stone, his popular reviews of hi-fi equipment departed from the traditional laboratory tedium, and used humor and slices-of-life to describe the components. His novel approach came from necessity—because he didn't have a testing laboratory.
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Michael lives in Connecticut with his wife Marilyn, the ghost of Hunter the Golden Retriever, indoor and outdoor telephone booths, a "Lily Tomlin" switchboard, lots of books, CDs and DVDs, and many black boxes with flashing lights. Marilyn is very tolerant.









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Michael N. Marcus.