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Forbes (@Forbes) senior editor Deborah L. Jacobs (@djworking) offers insights she learned in successfully self-publishing her non-fiction book.

Digital technology has made it possible for anyone to publish a book….But turning that book into a successful commercial venture is far more challenging. For more than one year after self-publishing my book, Estate Planning Smarts, promoting it was practically my full-time job.

I didn’t take the decision to self-publish lightly. In fact, I turned down offers from two big publishers because I wasn’t happy with the money they offered. McGraw-Hill’s offer was missing a zero—and I told them so.

...The reason for publishers’ low offers was that statistics show estate planning books don’t sell well. I had a vision for a book that would prove them wrong, but the big companies would never have allocated the resources to produce it.

My business model involved going against the grain by spending money where big publishers are cutting corners: high-quality paper, two-color graphics, printing on a Web press, rather than print-on-demand. And while big publishers were cutting experienced staff, I retained top talent for editing and graphics, on a freelance basis. The goal was to produce a high-quality product that advisers would give to their clients and friends and family would share with each other.

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Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your content in this fast-changing digital age.

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Somersault’s editorial director Dave Lambert says this New York Times commentary talks about the effects of one author's novels, Sir Walter Scott, on the attitudes that created the Civil War. “Who says books don't affect society?,” he asks.

In the commentary Cynthia Wachtell says

Sir Walter Scott not only dominated gift book lists on the eve of the Civil War but also dominated Southern literary taste throughout the conflict. His highly idealized depiction of the age of chivalry allowed Southern readers and writers to find positive meaning in war’s horrors, hardships, and innumerable deaths. And his works inspired countless wartime imitators, who drew upon his romantic conception of combat.

...[According to Mark Twain], “Sir Walter Scott had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war.”

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Writing in Salon (@Salon), Corinne Purtill (@corinnepurtill) describes her ordeal of writing a book; something most authors can probably identify with.

Four and a half years ago I quit my job and moved continents so that I could write a book. This book was to be a serious yet eminently readable work of narrative nonfiction. It was going to be the kind of book that earned stellar reviews in respected publications and landed me a segment on “The Daily Show,” where you could tell Jon Stewart thought I was funny....

...I set about writing, a thing I believed I loved to do. I was wrong. I liked having written things. Writing them was the worst. I wrote and wrote, and could not believe there was so much still to write. I read and reread drafts until I was no longer sure they were in English. I cut pages of useless and boring exposition that amounted to days of work....

I agonized over every sentence, and I have yet to hear any great writer advise that the best work comes when you ignore your instincts and focus intently on fear and self-doubt....

As the years passed with no sign of a finished book, I took odd jobs to stay afloat....

Finally I finished it and sent it to my agent. Over the next 24 hours I refreshed my email every 10 minutes in the hopes that her breathless, joyful reply would surface. After a few weeks of silence I no longer believed that the book was so good she just needed time to compose herself before writing back. The email mercifully euthanizing our contract eventually came. But by that time I had had a baby, was about to move to London for my husband’s job and had already mourned the end of this little dream....

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As the saying goes: ‘There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open your vein.’

If you’re a book lover like we (@smrsault) are, bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Michigan Radio’s (@MichiganRadio) feature “That’s What They Say” says the words “funner” and “funnest” seem to be more accepted among younger people. Younger speakers are trying to make the word “fun” behave the same way as any other regular one syllable adjective. And, one syllable adjectives usually take -er -est; so tall, taller, tallest, therefore, fun, funner, funnest.

Anne Curzan, professor of English specializing in linguistics at the University of Michigan (@umich) says the word “fun” is a relatively new adjective.

“It’s been a noun since the 1700s, but it has only become an adjective in the second-half of the 20th century.”

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Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you perfect your writing craft.

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The above film, EPILOGUE: the future of print (@EPILOGUEdoc) (vimeo channel) by Hanah Ryu Chung, is a documentary that explores the world of print books, scratching the surface of its future. Chung says:

The act of reading a “tangible tome” has evolved, devolved, and changed many times over, especially in recent years. I hope for the film to stir thought and elicit discussion about the immersive reading experience and the lost craft of the book arts, from the people who are still passionate about reading on paper as well as those who are not.

Also see our previous blogposts:

• "Paper is Stronger than Tech and Now its Aroma Comes Bottled"
• "Home Libraries Despite the Ebook Era"
• "Birth of a Book: The Handmade Bookbinding Process"
• "Book Seller Believes in Video's Marketing Power"
• "A Video About a Poster Masks a Bookstore's Promotion"
• "Video: What Books Do After Hours"
• "The Technology of Storytelling"
• "Photos: The 20 Coolest Bookstores in the World"
• "Introducing the New Book"
• "Even E-reader Owners Still Like Printed Books, Survey Finds"
• "In a Flood Tide of Digital Data, an Ark Full of Books"
• "The 'End' of Print and TV."

If you love books like we (@smrsault) do, we invite you to make our SomersaultNOW online dashboard your personal computer homepage (see instructions).

Perfect insight on today’s fast-changing publishing scene! :)

(Cartoon copyright © Harry Bliss. Used by permission of Pippin Properties, Inc..)

If you’ve ever pondered the cryptic acronyms and abstruse language found in the arcane world of publishing, VP of sales at Weldon Owen (@WeldonOwen), Amy Kaneko (@amykaneko), strips away the conspiratorial subterfuge to enlighten the uninitiated. She does so by parsing an innocuous email message she innocently sent to a colleague one day:

Hi ________,

I heard from the account. They saw the ARC and think it could be part of a coop opportunity for an endcap or MOD. Not for POG or WIGIG. Or we could put in a dump. They still want to see the dummy though. Of course we have to watch out, these guys might screw up the laydown and of course there is always the chance that they'll come back in a gaylord, then we'll have to remainder. I checked the stock and found we're OS! I can't sell what I don't have!

What!?

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(Above image is Kryptos, the coded sculpture in the CIA’s Langley, VA courtyard.)

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you decipher the intricacies of publishing.

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The above Infographic is by Weldon Owen (@WeldonOwen).

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you publish a book the right way. J

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The late Edward Rondthaler was a typographist, a simplified spelling champion, and chairman of the American Literacy Council. When he was 102 years old, he recorded this video showing the challenge of properly spelling English. Enjoy.

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With the objective to promote reading, publishing, and the protection of intellectual property through copyright, UNESCO (@unescoNOW) has declared today World Book and Copyright Day.

23 April is a symbolic date for world literature, since 23 April 1616 was the date of death of Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 23 April is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla, and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.

This is why UNESCO chose this date to pay a worldwide tribute to books and their authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and to gain a renewed respect for the extraordinary contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia (Spain) where it has become a tradition to give a rose as a gift for each book purchased.

The year 2012 also marks the 80th anniversary of the Index Translationum, an international bibliography of translations. Search the online database.

Also see the World Digital Library (@WDLorg), the International Children’s Digital Library, the Internet Public Library (@theipl), the Library of Congress (@librarycongress), and the United States Copyright Office (@CopyrightOffice).

And be sure to bookmark and use daily SomersaultNOW, the online dashboard for publishing and marketing professionals.