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,...

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 reasons: (1) Advances in technology and falling costs have helped to remove middlemen...

There is great satisfaction in seeing your name on the cover of a book, and it has become relatively easy to self-publish. It's also easy to make serious mistakes in writing, design and marketing that can limit the acceptability and sales of a self-published book. It's both sad and funny that some of the worst self-published books (and the majority of the books reviewed in this book) are books that try to provide advice to writers. Many "experts" give terrible advice and present it poorly. Some even ignore their own advice. Some self-publishing authors don't know-or choose to ignore-the...

LAUGH & LEARN "This book is more useful and more fun than a bookshelf with every book written by Martha Stewart and Suze Orman plus the Bible and the Boy Scout Manual." This book is the sad-and also humorous and helpful-story of what the author did wrong over a lifetime and what he learned from the mistakes. In the beginning of the 21st century Michael N. Marcus and his wife didn't think they were rich, but they were "comfortable." They spent money carefully, gave to charities, helped less-fortunate relatives and saved for the future. They had a very nice house and a perfect credit rating....

This is the story of the extraordinary Hunter J. Marcus (my -four-legged son-) Hunter lived for fifteen years and three months. He was a golden retriever and the typical lifespan for a -golden- is ten to twelve years, so he definitely had high mileage. His death was not sudden, violent nor unexpected-but was nonetheless tragic. I could not be more miserable because of the loss of a human child. I never thought of Hunter as a pet, and certainly not as a possession. He was a housemate, child, co-conspirator, fellow traveler, playmate and, most of all, my best buddy. He soared like an eagle,...