[sticky] free book -- Put June 1st into your Calendar NOW

Thank you, Katherine, for explaining that point.

For anyone not knowing what an ISBN is, here's the wiki answer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN

That is good to know about the "proof" state, and how a writer can still get a printed "proof" of the book without releasing it in any form (even on a searchable database). Thanks.

Steve

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It is not available to anyone until the author releases it. Although CreateSpace does give it an ISBN number, it is in the 'proof' state--and other people can't see it until/unless the author takes the next step (under the optimistic name of 'Start Selling'.)

So, people can find "Infinite Monkeys" because we released that for publication, but they can't find other books I have in a proof state from the site (about half a dozen.)

By the way, I'm not saying you have to edit your book before you get a copy. I'm saying, if you do plan on editing, so aren't getting your free copy right away, make sure you finish your edits in time to take advantage of the free copy. (But, yes, I am fond of editing, so do encourage people to edit.)

Katherine

Most published authors and websites/books regarding the publishing industry recommend only submitting or publishing writing that is well-honed and the writer's truly best work as it will live on in posterity, and may be requested by those in the publishing industry in the future, if its is published. This includes online, magazines, journals and books.

I’m curious. If someone submits to CreateSpace and has the book published, I understand it gets an ISBN number. Does that mean it’s officially recognized by the library of congress or other online sources?

If that is the case, then making sure it’s highly polished and looking presentable to anyone who looks it up, including future agents, publishers, etc., would be of utmost importance. That is, if they want to see an author’s past work, and an ISBN number is recognized (even if the book is not “for sale”), then they may want to see this body of work from the writer (I realize the work itself is not online). They could ask to see a copy of all previously published work.

Of course, if someone has no intentions of writing for future publication it's not an issue either way.

If it’s not categorized as such, and not locatable, then it’s no different that having an old manuscript in the bottom desk drawer, no harm.

Does anyone know if the CreateSpace book is in the database (e.g ISBN)? If so, Katherine's advice about making sure it's well-edited is vital.

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Yes, there are lots of things that come up--which is why I recommend putting June 1st into your calendar and start telling yourself that your goal is to have it done by then. (Shh, don't tell anyone but you actually have until the end of the month to use your free code.)

If you have the text ready to go--it doesn't have to take more than a few days to create the PDF, upload it, get it approved, create the cover, look it over for errors, decide to change something, recreate the PDF....you can fill in the details yourselves.

If June 1st comes and you haven't done anything with your novel, don't panic. Just create a PDF of it 'as is' and start working on getting your free copy.

--plus the whole dreadful "convert to pdf" process, which usually requires at least one reformatting run through before the manuscript looks correct.

Katherine,
Thanks for the post!

Just to add a note: don't wait till the day before the deadline to start the process; there is a manual review that CreateSpace does that can take a day or more for them to go through.

--Tim

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