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Because today is the Feast Day of St. Nicholas, we’re featuring the Santa papers: an unauthorized autobiography (Softcover edition, Kindle edition) by Wallis C. Metts Jr, (@wmetts) PhD, director of Graduate Studies in Communication at Spring Arbor University (@springarboru).

This "unauthorized autobiography" of Nicholas of Myra is a first person account of how a 4th century bishop became Santa Claus. Written, or translated if you prefer, by a college professor who raises barn cats and Christmas trees on a farm in south Michigan, this book sets the record straight about how this ancient saint became both a religious as well as a commercial icon. Brief, easily read by the fireside in an evening — even out loud — this book is fun and informative.

The St. Nicholas Center (@StNicholasCente), one of the largest Web-based resources on Nicholas, says this “breezy look introduces St. Nicholas, especially for evangelicals who may not know very much, if anything, about him. Told in contemporary vernacular in the saint's first-person voice.”

The book begins:

They got it wrong, mostly.

I realize nobody wrote it down until 400 years later. And, well, my own diaries and sermons were burned during the persecution under Diocletian. But I’d like to set the record straight, after so many centuries of distortion and exaggeration.

Buy it in time to share with your family for Christmas.

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Public Service Announcements can be boring and people often ignore them. Yet, despite its 3-minute length, a video PSA (produced by McCann @McCann_Melb), reminding people to have common sense around the high-powered trains of the Melbourne Metro in Australia, has reached 31 million views since only Nov. 14. Why?

Titled “Dumb Ways to Die,” it’s a simple animated spot that’s heavy on the macabre  — but in a whimsical way  — with a song you’ll be humming all day. Adweek calls it an “adorably grim viral megahit.”

The many examples of dumb ways to die (eat medicine that’s out of date, use a clothes dryer as a hiding place, get your toast out with a fork) have nothing to do with train safety until the last 3, leaving the viewer to remember the focus of the spot even after it’s ended.

Simple video + catchy music + whimsy (even on a serious topic) = success.

See our previous blogpost, “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your books.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android.

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Somersault was given early review access to Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki) and Shawn Welch’s (@shawnwelch) forthcoming 324-page book APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur — How to Publish a Book (Nononina Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9885231-1-1, Kindle edition).

In describing their work, Kawasaki and Welch have coined the term “artisanal publishing,” which they say consists of “writers who love their craft and who control every aspect of the process from beginning to end. In this new approach, writers are no longer at the mercy of large, traditional publishers, and readers will have more books to read.” Kawaski says,

In 2011 the publisher of one of my books, Enchantment, could not fill an order for 500 ebook copies of the book. Because of this experience, I self-published my next book, What the Plus!, and learned first-hand that self-publishing is a complex, confusing, and idiosyncratic process. As Steve Jobs said, “There must be a better way.”

With Shawn Welch, a tech wizard, I wrote APE to help people take control of their writing careers.

Among the chapter titles are:

·         Tools for Writers

·         How to Write Your Book

·         How to Finance Your Book

·         How to Avoid the Self-Published Look

·         Understanding Book Distribution

·         How to Convert Your File

·         How to Price Your Book

·         How to Guerrilla-Market Your Book

Kawasaki and Welch have done a huge service for hesitant or nervous authors who want to self-publish (they've also lobbed a huge salvo into the ramparts of traditional publishers already agitated over the revolutionary changes occurring in the industry). The book is packed with helpful, practical advice and direct links to important online sources (the only thing missing is a link to the wealth of publishing and marketing information at SomersaultNOW ☺). Also check out the Kindle/iBookstore/Nook/Google Play/Kobo Royalty Calculator on the book's website.

If you want to become an expert at self-publishing, buy APE.

If you want experts to help you publish and market your book, contact us (@smrsault). ☺

Also see our blogposts, "Self-Publishing a Book: 25 Things You Need to Know" and "Free iBook Targets New Writers, Missionaries, Christian Journalists," and others tagged "Self-Publishing."

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Legal and media reporter for paidContent (@paidContent), Jeff John Roberts (@jeffjohnroberts), writes, “The book publishing industry, already facing disruption from Amazon and ebooks, will confront a new form of turbulence in 2013. Starting in January, publishers face the loss of their backlists as authors begin using the Copyright Act to reclaim works they assigned years ago.”

These so-called “termination rights”...let authors break contracts after 35 years....

The law in question is Section 203 of the 1978 Copyright Act which allows authors to cut away any contract after 35 years. Congress put it in place to protect young artists who signed away future best sellers for a pittance.

...[W]hat has been a drip-drip of old copyright cases could turn into a flood as nearly every book published after 1978 becomes eligible for termination.

The 1978 law also means a threat to the backlist of titles that are a cash cow for many publishers. The threat is amplified as a result of new digital distribution options for authors that were never conceived when the law was passed — these new options mean authors have more leverage to walk away from their publishers altogether.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your books.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Dutch design company Atelier 010 offers the Bookworm, a structural bookcase that curves around and allows space for various kinds of media storage and a place to sit.

Read this in full and see more photos.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Innovative Bookshelves & Buildings Made Out of Books.”

For all book lovers (print and ebook alike), we (@smrsault) invite you to make our SomersaultNOW online dashboard your personal computer homepage (see instructions).

NPR radio program On the Media (@onthemedia) spends an hour explaining the current status of the publishing industry. The titles of the individual segments are:

·         How Publishing and Reading are Changing (segment 1)

·         No Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (segment 2)

·         Is Amazon a New Monopoly? (segment 3)

·         Are Publishers Stuck in the Past? (segment 4)

·         The Story of Pottermore (segment 5)

·         Taking On Amazon (segment 6)

·         The Problem of Knock-Off Books (segment 7)

·         Steal My Book, Please (segment 8)

·         Life After Publishers (segment 9)

Read and listen in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your books.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your books. Our international office is in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Lynn Garrett (@LynniGarrett), editor of Publishers Weekly Religion Bookline (@PublishersWkly), reports that “Random House’s (@randomhouse) Crown Publishing Group (@CrownPublishing) is launching a new religion imprint, Convergent Books (@ConvergentBooks).”

According to a Crown statement, “Convergent will explore the contemporary faith experience for a broad range of Christians who are drawn to an open, inclusive, and culturally engaged exploration of faith.” The imprint will be based in Colorado Springs, Colo., and headed by Stephen W. Cobb, who has been president and publisher of the WaterBrook (@WaterBrookPress) imprint since 2001.

...Stated Cobb, “The audience for Convergent Books represents a growing movement of consumers. These readers typically don’t see themselves as either liberal or conservative, evangelical or mainline. Yet they frame their spiritual journey in Christian terms, and they’re absolutely passionate about what theologian Brian McLaren has called, ‘the sacred endeavor of loving God and neighbor, stranger, alien, outsider, outcast and enemy.’"

Convergent’s debut title list will appear in fall 2013.

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogposts, “Random House, Penguin Agree to Merge” and “HarperCollins in Early Merger Talks with Simon & Schuster.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you navigate the fast-changing world of book publishing.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Publishers tab.

Zig Ziglar (website) (@TomZiglar), known worldwide for his folksy and often anecdotal motivational talks on success through serving others, died today at a Plano, Texas, hospital of complications from pneumonia. He was 86. Baptist Press (@baptistpress) reports:

Ziglar's deep, soothing Mississippi drawl, and speeches and books often sprinkled with mentions of his Christian faith, endeared him to millions. Ziglar was arguably the best-known motivational speaker of his day, having conducted hundreds of corporate seminars and given motivational speeches to hundreds of thousands of people over a 42-year speaking career.

Ziglar was the author of more than 30 books, including best-sellers See You at The Top! and Confessions of a Happy Christian. Another book, Confessions of a Grieving Christian, followed the death in 1995 of daughter Suzan Ziglar Witmeyer from pulmonary fibrosis.

Read this in full.

Also see coverage by USA TODAY and the Los Angeles Times.

The above Infographic (click to enlarge) is by MastersInEducation.org; created by oBizMedia (@oBizMedia).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you with your publishing and marketing needs.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.