Become a Real
Self-Publisher
Don't be a Victim of a Vanity Press
Publish a better book. Publish it faster.
Make more money. Have more fun.
NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0981661742
ISBN: 978-0-9816617-4-2, 432 pages, $19.95 list price
Why does this book exist?
To help writers decide if they can and should publish their own books
To fully explain the choices and processes
To help writers avoid becoming victims of vanity presses
To help writers move through the misstatements and misunderstandings, and help them make a quick and relatively painless transition from frustrated writer to less-frustrated writer and publisher.
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Stories I’d Tell My Children
(but maybe not until they’re adults)
ISBN 978-0-9816617-5-9
Now available at Amazon.com.
http://silversandsbooks.com/storiesbook.html
This is mostly hysterically funny, sometimes poignant and profound, often bawdy, and always delightful.
Although Michael N. Marcus writes about growing up in the 1960s, this book is for everyone who wants to roll on the floor, laughing until the tears come. It’s a hilarious look at life, with inspiration from Woody Allen, John Belushi, Jean Shepherd, Aristophanes, Jack Douglas, and Dave Barry.
There are more than 100 stories that span 55 years: pre-school, in school, and after the author had enough school. There’s lots of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, and even the sex and drug stories are funny. Some stories were written to expose bad teachers, evil bosses, and weird relatives. The book has stories about women the author considered marrying, and readers will learn what his wife had to do to beat the competition. There are four murders in the book. If Marcus gets killed for writing this, there will be five, and someone else will write the sequel.
(This book is an expansion and update of I Only Flunk My Brightest Students: stories from school and real life.)
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Stupid, Sloppy, Sleazy
The Strange Story of Vanity Publisher Outskirts Press.
How do they stay in business?
Print version due in second half of March, 2010
eBook version is available now at Lulu.com
ISBN: 978-0-9816617-2-8
138 pages, $10.95 cover price for print version, $5 for eBook.
Outskirts Press calls itself "the fastest-growing full-service publishing provider." It published seven books in 2002, its first year, and over 5,000 books in 2009. Some of those books, and the press releases that promote them, are filled with silly errors that should have been avoided. When authors are disappointed and enraged., service reps hide behind the fine print of a contract that does not warrant that books will be error-free.
Outskirts is also inept (and dishonest) when it promotes itself. Its website, emails, press releases, blogs and promotional literature have factual errors, mistakes in grammar, spelling and arithmetic — and deliberate distortion.
Although Outskirts uses such buzzwords as "self-publishing" and "print-on-demand," it's really a vanity publisher. Vanity publishers make most of their money by selling services and overpriced trinkets to naïve authors — not by selling books to readers. The books are often ugly, unedited and overpriced. They sell poorly, and are seldom reviewed.
This book was written to make potential customers of Outskirts Press and other vanity publishers aware of the trouble that likely awaits them, and to let vanity publishers know that their lies and failures will be noticed and publicized.
It's also a very funny book.
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Phone Systems & Phones
for Small Business & Home
NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM: www.amazon.com/dp/0981661718
ISBN # 978-0-9816617-1-1, 396 pages, $19.95 list price.
Why does this book exist?
· To provide the information people need to select phone equipment and services for professional offices, small businesses and homes.
· To help people use the equipment properly, to get the most out of it, and to keep it working.
· To help people diagnose and fix simple problems
· To help phone people understand and talk to computer people.
· It can even help people who sell phone equipment.
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The AbleComm Guide to Phone Systems:
How to choose. How to use.
NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM:
www.amazon.com/dp/0981661734
ISBN # 978-0-9816617-3-5, 216 pages, $15.95 list price
This is an abridged version of the book shown above.
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Telecom Reference eBook
the words and numbers you need to know
Now available from Lulu
Download for $5
This is an 181-page abridged version of the 396-page "Phone Systems & Phones for Small Business & Home." It’s a convenient reference for sellers, installers, and users of business and residential phone equipment and systems. It covers phone systems, voicemail, auto-attendant, headsets, back-up power, cordless phones, and more. There are extensive sections on telecom terminology, phone system features, phone company services, wire and cable, installation, and troubleshooting. The extensive acronym section covers such terms as LECs, CLECs, ILECS and BLECs plus LANs, MANs and WANs, and even POTS. Readers will learn how to locate their octothorpe and how Stephen Baldwin and Paul Teutul waste time on the phone.
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The 100 Worst Self-Publishing Misteaks:
How amateurs can publish books like professionals
Due in July, 2010
Technological advances and new marketing opportunities have made it relatively easy and inexpensive to self-publish. It’s also easy to make serious mistakes in writing, design and marketing that can seriously limit the acceptability and sales of a self-published book.
This book will help you avoid the worst mistakes, so you can publish a book that you can be justifiably proud of, and perhaps enlighten, entertain and inform others, and even make some money.
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| DUE IN 2010 or 2011:
Blue-Collar Basketball
Blue-Collar Basketball is the exciting and inspiring story of “Class C” athletes at Baruch College of the City University of New York. They have the same (or even superior) intellectual ability as students at Ivy League and other big-name schools, similar athletic ability, and maybe even more dedication and drive to succeed on the court and in the classroom.
What they don’t have is the money for the Ivy League.
Some of these athlete-scholars were born outside the United States. In many cases, they are in the first generation of their families to be educated after high school. Many of them were accepted by colleges and universities that charge 10 times as much as Baruch, but they could not afford to accept the acceptance.
The blue-collar style of basketball goes beyond the financial assets of the athletes’ parents. Life in school and on the basketball court is more hands-on, paycheck-to-paycheck, rustic. White-collar basketball is more pampered, consistent and cushy.
Bigger and richer schools have more resources for athletics, including several generations of wealthy alumni, TV contracts, and support from equipment and uniform suppliers.
Most of the blue-collar scholars work while at college. Financial aid is minimal. Many will have loans to pay back after graduation, and it often takes six years or longer to graduate.
Yet despite the limited resources, delays and distractions, most of them do graduate. They join the white-collar class, empowered in part by their competing in blue-collar basketball.
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DUE IN 2011:
Do-It-Yourself Home Theater
& Whole-House Audio/Video
Why will this book exist?
· To help people decide if they are capable of installing the wiring and components for a home theater and/or whole-house audio/video system.
· To provide the information people need to install the equipment, program it, use it, and keep it working.
· To help people choose, connect and set up the components.
· To help people choose and use the necessary tools and test equipment.
DUE IN 2010:
Do-It-Yourself
Phone Wiring & Phone Systems
Why will this book exist?
· To help people decide if they are capable of installing simple phone wiring and jacks, and more complex phone systems for homes and small businesses.
· To provide the information people need to to install the equipment, program it, use it, and keep it working.
· To help people choose and use telecommunications tools and test equipment.
· To provide detailed instructions for the Panasonic KX-TA824 phone system and KX-TVA50 voicemail systems, two of the most popular and easiest to install systems.
DUE SOONER OR LATER:
How an Amateur
Can Win in Court
Like a Real Lawyer
Obviously a professional attorney is needed for life-and-death situations, divorces, custody battles, arrests, will disputes and the really important problems in life.
But there are many times when people would like to sue someone, or may have to go to court, when the money involved just can't justify the cost of an attorney. And some people just like to "play lawyer" for the intellectual stimulation it provides.
This book provides important real-life guidance for dealing with small claims court and traffic court, including everything from clothing and language to strategy and tactics. Examples are offered from actual cases. The author has been "practicing law without a license" for over 30 years and has won 10 cases, lost none, and had one compromise verdict.
The book includes tips from judges and attorneys, and a dictionary of legal terms that are often encountered on court documents.
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Book covers shown may be preliminary designs, not final designs. When books are published, ordering information will be on this page. Printed books will be available from Amazon.com, traditional bookstores, and sometimes directly from us. eBooks are available from Lulu, and maybe others, as noted i nthe book descriptions. If you'd like to be notified when books are published, pleased send email to books@ablecomm.com
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