Author: Big Al

Big Al (who insists he only has one name, like Cher, Sting, and Madonna) spends his days writing computer programs that are full of typos, homonym errors, and incorrect verb usage. During his evenings, he writes reviews of indie books for BigAl’s Books and Pals and has recently taken over The IndieView, a website founded by indie author Simon Royle as a resource for indie authors, indie reviewers, and those who read either.

And the Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 2

Book Production Process SurveyEarlier this month, I wrote about overall publishing costs among respondents to our Book Production Process Survey. I included an extensive disclaimer which you should read first if you haven’t already. (It wouldn’t be a bad idea to read it again, even if you did the first time.) Also, for this or any of the posts in this series, it could be worthwhile to review the definitions given for the different roles and functions on the original post if there is some question about the terminology used.

In this installment, I’m going to look at the overall process used by survey respondents in moving their books from the first draft through publication, with a focus on which of the potential steps are used most often. In future posts I’ll drill down, going into more detail on some of the steps, as well as how and when they are used. Continue reading “And the Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 2”

And the Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 1

Big Al Fouled finalThis week I’m supposed to reveal the results of the survey we ran last month on the book production processes used by our readers. It was a lot of work, so I’m going to milk the survey for as many posts as I can. But we also have a theme for this month, focusing on “publishing fouls.” Guests and minions alike have been providing stories and hints on how to recognize and avoid being victimized by those in the publishing world who prey on eager neophyte authors.

I could tell the story of the book my mother self-published more than twenty years ago. At the time I was vaguely aware of vanity publishers, although I have no idea how. I was concerned someone would take advantage of her, but she’d done her research, knew the pitfalls, what her goals were, and made all the right decisions. Of course, the fact that my dad is so cheap (he’d claim the word is thrifty) and she was dependent on him to bankroll this, would mean any vanity publisher was going to be wasting their time with her. Continue reading “And the Publishing Process Survey Says: Part 1”

Doing a Survey Using Google Forms

GoogleDrive create formIn a previous post I discussed various methods of conducting a survey on your website and a different post even conducted an extensive survey. Finally, here is the promised tutorial on how to do your own survey using Google Forms, the same method as was used in the survey we conducted.

While you can do this by the seat of your pants, if the survey you’re planning is going to have a lot of questions, especially if the answer to some questions is going to determine whether or not to ask follow up questions, it might make sense to rough out the survey, either on paper (maybe index cards) or in a word processor where you can easily rearrange. However, we’re going to fly by the seat of our pants today. Continue reading “Doing a Survey Using Google Forms”

Using Surveys and Forms on Your Website or Blog

Taking SurveysI first used Google forms to set up the Indies Unlimited 2015 Self-Published Production  Process Survey. If you’ve self-published at least one book and haven’t taken that survey yet, it’s not too late. You have until February 23, 2015. Go do that now. We’ll wait.

Welcome back. Thanks for doing that.

If you have a website, chances are at some point you have or will want to conduct a survey of some kind. (I’ve used one to get opinions from my readers on what they like and dislike about one of my sites.) Or maybe you want to set up a form to collect data of some kind. (Don’t forget, survey results are a favorite of the news media.)There are several alternatives for accomplishing this task, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Continue reading “Using Surveys and Forms on Your Website or Blog”