Easy BookBinding, by Nathan DeStephano*, is the most current and complete resource I have found for learning how to print and bind your own trade paperback and case bound hardcover books.

However, this book is NOT for everyone. It is NOT written for the book arts enthusiast who wants to study the centuries old craft of hand made books. It is also NOT written for those wanting to make arts and crafts projects. If that is what you want, here are a few much better resources:

For many people who start dabbling with audio recordings or podcasting, there comes a point where you want more professional results. But, where to start and how much will it cost?

Upgrade number one: your recording environment

You may have started your recording career by grabbing that headset that came free with the computer, plugging into the sound card on your computer and firing up a free program like Audacity (or one that came with the computer) to start recording.

Podcasting and the steps needed to set up a podcast came up in a recent conversation.

I’ve been working with a friend/client on the promotion of a book he wrote. Recently I was advising him to start a weekly podcast that incorporates portions of his book and then directs people to his website (were he sells the book, of course!)

I’ve recently gotten a few questions about how/whether to include Adsense ads on a blog or website and how the whole process works. This is my response:

The Adsense system works in a pretty direct way. You first sign up for an Adsense account with Google (they won’t approve you unless you have an active website). Next, select and ad style from a variety of ad formats that they make available. Customize the ads by choosing colors for the text, background and borders. Finally, Google provides you with a block of Javascript code to paste into your web page where you want the advertising displayed.

For any first time non-fiction book author there are two enormous hurdles to overcome in order to succeed in publishing their book. You must face the blank page and get started and then you must get through the first draft.

These hurdles are not as high as they first appear and with the two strategies you are about to learn, they will shrink even further.

Associate Content approved my recent articles today and made me offers. That is the fastest turnaround I have had with them so far. Up until now it has always taken me at least a week to get offers for anything (but I was also submitting more articles. They might deal with them in batches and the ‘bulk’ submissions are slowing them down???)

In my last post on this project I mentioned that I had cranked out 11 article outlines on a cross-country airplane flight and just needed to flesh them out before uploading them to Associated Content to sell.

My hope was that I could spend a few hours one afternoon or evening to crank out the finished articles and submit them, but life hasn’t quite worked out like that. Living with a 15 week old daughter in a studio apartment is challenging and the ups and downs of her day have a huge impact on the time and energy I have to work on this project.