Technologies Used: MS Office 2013, Sublime text editor, Gimp
Samples: (Coming soon)
Dates: 4/2013- 10/2013
References/Testimonials: Amy Valentine (author)
Although my primary interest is publishing ebooks, I have played an instrumental part in publishing paperback copies of 2 books with Createspace.com
The first book was a 250+ page technical book about open source software which was supported by a previous employer. I did all of the production work (except for cover design). I did all of the writing and most of the editing as well. I wrote one edition in 2010 (and described it thoroughly here). Between 4/2013 and 9/2013 I did a thorough rewrite of the same book, adding several chapters and providing more reference material. I used the same docbook xml to PDF production method I used for the first edition to produce a PDF suitable for printing by Createspace.
From 9/2013 to 10/2013, I did substantial editing of a personal memoir. I provided technical and marketing advice to the author. I also produced the book in two different book formats (Kindle and .epub) and in a PDF version suitable for printing by Createspace. For the paperback edition, I customized a commercial MS Word template and ensured that everything met the Createspace specifications. For the ebook edition, I produced a Kindle format and tested it for usability on the most popular Kindle platforms. I also produced a general epub for Barnes and Noble and the iPad.
(If you are looking to hire someone for editorial or ebook production, check out the rate sheet of services I offer.)
Technologies Used: XML Oxygen Editor 22, Docbook 5, MS Office, Docbook XSLT stylesheets, Gimp, Audacity, Sony Vegas Pro 19
Samples: Personville Press Website, Author Website,
Dates: 8/2010 to present
References/Testimonials: Jack Matthews (author) , Amy Valentine (author)
Since 2010 I have run a small ebook publishing company called Personville Press. So far, Personville Press has published 14 ebooks and (as of Summer 2024) commitments to publish 3 more. I do this during my breaks between jobs and contracts, but I also work on these projects to a lesser degree when I am working full time.
On the business side, I:
- Negotiated publishing terms with the author and wrote everything up in a legally enforceable contract.
- Set up a (rudimentary) accounting system for tracking royalties and transferring payments to the author.
- Created marketing strategy and identified potential audience for the product.
- Wrote press releases, product descriptions and announcements for online stores, blogs and social media.
- Hired talent as needed for illustrations, actors, studio engineers.
- Evaluated ebook distribution channels for reach and revenue potential.
- Set up a customer relationship management system using market data I have personally collected. (In progress)
On the technical side, I:
- Created a Docbook XML-based toolchain for producing ebooks.
- Researched ebook standards and implementations from the different devices and distribution channels.
- Wrote simple XSLT customizations to optimize the ebook file and a CSS template appropriate for the ebook and device.
- Produce book promotion sites based on WordPress.
- Tested ebook templates for the major devices and ebook platforms.
- Ran a promotional website for the author.
- Set up a turnkey shopping cart solution for customers to buy digital files directly.
On the editorial side, I:
- Selected and proposed material for the ebook.
- Wrote prefaces and relevant supporting material.
- Queried author for clarifications and offering editorial suggestions when appropriate.
- Set up a workflow for editing and producing an ebook (Basically, MS Word –> Filtered HTML –> Docbook XML –> Epub files).
- Proofed text thoroughly and submitted files and metadata to distribution channels.
On the multimedia side, I:
Tools Used: WordPress, Apache, mysql, ssh, Filezilla
Because of my background in literature and publishing, I’ve had a special interest in ebooks (books in digital form). Between 2006-8 I handled the system administration of a news blog about the publishing industry called TeleRead. The site used WordPress CMS software, and I handled most of its technical matters. That included:
- Software updates and security patches
- Troubleshooting connection problems and filing trouble tickets with the hosting service
- Handling user management issues and comment moderation
- Handling change management for plugins
- Handling simple problems with CSS and themes layout
- Performance tuning
- Editorial Brainstorming: new topics, monetizing, improving the user experience, future directions
- Handling the migration to 2 new hosting services
This work was done on a volunteer unpaid basis under the supervision of David Rothman (TeleRead founder).
In addition I’ve contributed articles on various topics related to ebook publishing. Topics include copyright, ebook conversion software, conference reports, reading culture and emerging business models.
