About this website

​(important and trivial comments from founder/webmaster Michael N. Marcus)​

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This website is based on my personal library. Although it's provided for the public, it's very much a personal website, and not a corporate website. Amazon.com would not show a picture of young Jeff Bezos reading a book while sitting on the toilet, but this website shows a picture of me reading a book while sitting on the toilet.

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1. Jeff Bezos sells my books. I use some of the money I get from Jeff to buy books and other items from Jeff. I buy every week -- but Jeff doesn't even send me a birthday card or a calendar. I'm hurt.
2. I operate this website for three reasons: [a] I'd like to improve the quality of books being published (not kidding). [b] I'd like to sell some books I wrote. [c] I like doing websites.
3. I make a few bucks on books I've written. I don't make any money on books written by others because the Amazon Associates program does not operate here in Connecticut due to a disagreement with our state over sales tax. 
4. The vast majority of books shown on this website were actually paid for by me. Just two were freebies. Giving me a free book does NOT guaranty a good review, but buying me a nice lunch might help. The best way to get a good review is to publish a good book.
5. If you'd like a book included in this site, please send email.
6. I sometimes include books that I own but I have not read yet, but assume to be good.
7. I include a few books that I am unlikely to read because I have no interest or expertise in the subject (e.g., fiction, children's books and poetry), but the books have received good reviews from others and are appropriate for this site.
8. ​I've been experimenting with various systems for rating books (stars, numbers, symbols, words, etc.) I'm not sure how much difference there should be between four stars and five. For now, books worth reading get either a "Yes!" or "Maybe?" badge, and bad books go on the Bad Book page.
9. I think it's OK for authors to review books that compete with their own books as long as the reviews are accurate and honest. I try to be both. In late 2009, when I published my first book about self-publishing, I initially decided that I would no longer review other books about self-publishing. A good review for a competing book could help the competition and hurt my book. A bad review might be considered “bad sportsmanship,” trying to hurt the competition. I remembered an incident during the election for class officers in third grade. The teacher told us not to vote for ourselves. The ballots were secret so the rule could not be enforced, but I challenged the teacher. I said, “If we don’t think we are the best for the job, we shouldn’t be running for office.” Mrs. Solomon recognized my logic, and changed her policy. I changed my policy about reviewing competitive books, too. I felt that I would be doing a disservice by not telling people about good books, or by not warning them about bad books. I also feel that if I pay for a book, I have the right to criticize it. Additionally, my expertise may help me to analyze books about publishing better than others can.
10. This site shows small ads for Wix, the company that hosts the site. By allowing the ads, the cost of hosting is lower. I like Wix.
11. A book descriptions labeled as "from the publisher" may have been written by the author of the book, especially if the author is the publisher.
12. Books are available from a great many sellers. This site provides links to only Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. I mean no disrespect to other booksellers, but it seems more important to devote effort and space to showing as many books as possible, not as many booksellers as possible.
13. Although there are a great many books about publishing, particularly self-publishing -- and I've bought about a hundred of them -- there is not much point in trying to include all of them on this website. Many books had nothing new to say when they were published, or have gone stale, or are similar to others, or just stink. I don't want to debate the merits of similar "Dummies" versus "Idiots" books (I own both books shown at the left), and I may choose to ignore them both here. Besides, dummies and idiots shouldn't try to publish books.
14. I'd much rather recommend good books than criticize bad books. However, some books are dangerously inaccurate or misleading rather than being merely inept, dull, ugly or obsolete -- and it's important to point them out. Also, reviews of bad books can be funny. Funny is good.
15.  Some books have useful content, but their design work is horrible. There is danger that novices might think that the aesthetics are acceptable and the novices will emulate the ugliness. There is no excuse for ugly books. 
16.  There are lots of books on the site about typography. I like typography and read lots of books about typography (they're not all on the site). Most self-publishers don't know enough about typography. Even if they don't design their own books, every author should read at least one good book about typography. (I'm writing a book about typography.)
17.  There are no books here that try to teach people how to write. I've never had a problem writing, so I've never needed a book to teach me how to write. Actually, I'm not sure that people can be taught how to write. Maybe I'll check out some writing books in the future. Maybe not.
18.  Strangely, although e-books are very important to writers, readers and publishers, there are few books here about producing e-books. I've read a bunch of books about e-books and disliked most of them. A few years ago I announced my own book about e-books, but I've never written it, and I'm not sure I will. Producing and distributing an e-book (except as a PDF) is a lot of work, and a lot of amateur e-books are awful; so I leave it to the pros at eBookIt.com.  I don't want to deal with processes like this: "​It's better to make your own Mobi/PRC. That's easily done by making the ePub with Jutoh and then using Calibre to go from ePub to your other formats. If you embed in PDF properly, it's a larger file than ePub and Mobi/PRC. The only thing you have to do is hand embed the pictures in the ePub you make the Mobi/PRC from in the Jutoh stage. Resizing and reducing resolution on pictures to work better in the ePub and PRC/Mobi isn't difficult at all, and there are a lot of programs that can do it (including a few free ones). I use one that costs $50, but you don't have to use that one." No thanks.
19.  This site looks best on W-I-D-E computer screens, which are both inexpensive and common today. If you have a narrow screen, you are probably long overdue to get a wide one. My main PC has a 27-inch monitor. That size screen once would have been used for a TV in a living room, but is nice to have on a desktop -- especially for designing books.
20.  Apart from limericks, I don't read poetry, write poetry, write about writing poetry, or read what others have written about writing poetry. In seventh grade I had to write a poem. I needed my father's help. He taught me the word "kowtow" -- which we needed to rhyme with a long-forgotten word. 
21. I've written over 20 books and own over 4,000 books. I buy one, two or three books each week and expect to die before I read all of my books. Maybe I should be buried with my iPad or Kindle Fire.
22. This website was started on 3 December 2012.
23. I'd like to include at least 75 books. As of 15 December, I was almost there. I could 'cheat' and include some ho-hum books I've read, but I'd rather discover new good ones.

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