If you are an author, artist, arts student, aspiring self-publisher or social entrepreneur this book is for you!  There is a digital revolution taking place and people all over the world have not yet realised that there is no reason why there should be middle men in publishing any more.     I had been trying to convince my niece to go right on ahead and publish her own books, when an email came from Guy Kawasaki asking that I would review his next book.     Straight away, I seized on the opportunity to send my niece a copy of this succinct, straight forward, to the point, nuts and bolts book as a Christmas gift.

Guy and Shawn make their point about self-publishing and provide structured help to do this a lot better than I ever could.     To be able send her a book in kindle format, I also had to convince her to actually download and start using kindle, ePublishing formats such as Kindle, ePub and the like are now the best tip for reaching book lovers and students of the future.

eBooks an Affordable Alternative

In the book APE How to Publish a Book   Guy claims that eBooks don’t make a good Christmas presents. I guess this is because they are so cheap now.
That’s all right! My niece already knows I live close to the bone. She has come to accept that I don’t make much from publishing and that is quite off putting. This is because I have been publishing through middle men and coming up the loser – always!     Not so any more …with this book I can hone my publishing skills and fine tune the marketing process leaving a little more salt on the bread for Jo.   Hopefully there will be a little more salt on the bread for Karen too. She writes children’s books.

Christmas Present ..New Years Resolution.. Easter ..Resurrection Present..Congratulations Present

I am pleased to recommend this book as a gift that can be given to any kind of writer at any time of the year. It is also so well priced that it can be given even when there is no occasion except that you want to help a friend or a student by

• providing a standard guide to this new publishing universe
• making the social networking thing more user friendly
• showing why having a writers platform is essential
• helping the fledgling writer get organised

 Text Book for Self Publishing Students

At Getting a Grip on Rapid eLearning students have potential to earn a little money, while they write their assignments. As Certificate IV and Diploma of Visual Arts students they will be given the opportunity to write and publish articles, upload videos, podcasts and other multimedia as part of their commitment to creating an artist’s platform and portfolio. I have a passion for studying ways to ensure that assessment is empowering. I believe students shouldn’t need to starve while they learn their craft.    If they have gifts and talents to share, this capacity should be valued. They should have a place to shine! It is expected that if students are asked to write an essay about a topic such as OHS they will upload it to the OHS channel here at Suite101.com If they investigate performance Art there essays, videos podcasts and the like can be clustered in the Performance Art Channel and so on. This process Project Based Inquiry is part of the development of what we are calling eCLISP – Community of eLearning Inquiry and Studio Practice.     By providing opportunities to publish we know we will ensure and students will be motivated to polish and hone until their work is well edited and of the finest quality. In this way students can begin the process of developing a writer’s and artists platform.

It has occurred to me that I should set this book APE as one of the main texts of this eLearning community venture because it is a no nonsense straight to the point text, which has the capacity to guide any student who would aspire to have a publishers platform ready and launched by the time they graduate from a Certificate IV in Visual Arts.     I shamelessly admit to putting my own spin on this book review!  I sincerely want authors I work with and fledgling artists I partner in learning to read and act on the material presented in this book. I would also like to thank Guy, not only for the opportunity to review this book but for the wealth of material he has presented both in APE and in his last book called Enchantment.

 Resources:

• Kawasaki,G & Welch,S (2012) APE.  How to Publish a Book.  Kindle Edition.
• Kawasaki,G.  (2011)  Enchantment The Art of Changing Hearts minds and Actions.  Kindle Edition.
• Kawasaki,G.   (2012) What the Plus!  Learn how to master Google+—the world’s fastest-growing social-media service

Copyright Jo Murphy

Author of Global Citizens Art and Avid Fan of eTwist!