National Library of Australia, Legal Deposit

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The information in Part 3 is tailored specifically for Australian Authors. In this section you will learn about the legal requirement to deposit a copy of your book with the National Library of Australia.

What is ‘Legal Deposit’?

It is a legal requirement that Australian authors deposit one copy of every book they publish with the National Library of Australia, within one month of publication.

For more details, please visit the National Library of Australia website: https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/how-to-deposit

The National Library of Australia accepts both print and digital formats – i.e. paperbacks, magazines, maps etc and ebooks. Given the cost of printing a book and posting it, self publishers with both a print and a digital version of their book may wish to deposit only the digital version. To do so, contact the library and ask for the deposit to be digital only.

How to deposit Print material

Send printed material to:

Books
Legal Deposit
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600

Journal, magazine and newsletter issues
Australian Serials
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600

Sheet music
Music Acquisitions and Cataloguing
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600

Maps
Maps Acquisitions and Cataloguing
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600

How to deposit Digital material

To deposit your ebook, go to the National Library of Australia home page: https://www.nla.gov.au and select ‘Legal deposit’ from the Using the Library/Services for Publishers sub-menu:

This will take you to the Legal Deposit screen:

Click the bright red ‘Deposit Now’ button. This will take you to the National eDeposit [NED] website: https://ned.gov.au/portal/

Here you can:

• Make an edeposit
• Manage your account
• Create an account

You do not have to create an account with the NED, but if you are likely to self-publish more than one book, it would make sense to have one.

Selecting the type of ePublication to deposit

Click the ‘Make an edeposit’ button.

You should now be looking at a screen that asks what type of ePublication you want to deposit. The two options are : Monograph and Serial.

Monograph is defined as a publication that usually has an ISBN. Examples given include books, series of books, maps etc. Serials have an ISSN and include magazines and newspapers etc.

Monograph

Select ‘Monograph’. A drop down list will display. Select ‘Book/books in series’ as shown:

After specifying the type of publication you wish to deposit, the screen changes to show the upload option:

The NED will only accept the following file types:

• .epub
• .pdf
• .mobi

Note: NED does not accept Word documents.

Find the digital version of the book you wish to deposit and wait until it uploads. Depending on the size of the file, this could take a few minutes:

Next, you will be asked to upload a digital copy of the cover of the book:

Note: the file format of the cover cannot be .pdf. It must be in either .jpg, .jpeg, .tif or .tiff file formats.

Once the cover has finished uploading, click the ‘Next: ePublication details’ button at the bottom of the screen:

ePublication details

The next screen requests information about the publication itself. You will have to enter the title of the book and, as owner of the intellectual content, you will have to enter your name:

‘Owner type’, ‘Given names’ and ‘Last name’ are mandatory. ‘Owner role’ and ‘Birth year’ are optional but it wouldn’t hurt to identify your role as the ‘Author’.

You can also add another owner by pressing the green ‘Add another owner’ button located under ‘Owner type’.

Other information

As with Thorpe-Bowker, you are asked for the publication date. Enter the year in which the book became available for sale or download [if free].

The only other tricky question regards the ‘Edition Statement’. Again, this only applies to books which have been published before. This is the explanation offered by NED:

Click ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as the case applies.

ISBN

Next, you are asked whether the book has an ISBN:

If your book has an ISBN, select the ‘Yes’ option and then type in the ISBN…but with no hyphens this time.

When you have finished adding information, click the ‘Next: Access Conditions’ button located at the bottom of the screen.

Access conditions

This section refers to how much of your book you allow the public to access, and under what conditions:

Confirm that you have the legal right to set conditions for your book and then decide how much access you will allow.

If your book is available for sale, the two options circled in orange probably strike the best balance between your commercial rights and the purpose of the legal deposit.

Publisher details

As a self-publisher, you will have to enter your own contact details, including name, address, phone and email.

At the bottom, you are asked if you want to create a user account. If you tick ‘Yes’ you will have to enter the standard registration details, but at least you will never have to enter them again.

If you don’t want to create an account, click the ‘Next: Review and submit’ button located at the bottom of the screen.

Review and submit

This screen details the information you have entered in all the previous screens. Right down the bottom is a checkbox:

Ticking the checkbox grants permission for ‘NED Member Libraries to use and manage deposited content as outlined in the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Notice’.

Tick the checkbox and then click the green ‘Submit your edeposit’ button to complete the process.

Legal Deposit in State Libraries

Legal Deposit also requires that you deposit a copy of your book with the library of your home state. https://www.nsla.org.au/legal-deposit-australasia

If you only have a print edition of your book, you will have to send a physical copy to the relevant state library.

If you also have an ebook version of your book, you may request to deposit it instead of a physical copy:

Depositing the ebook with NED ensures that it is available in all states.

Best of luck with your publishing, now and in the future.

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Getting Started with KDP

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KDP is the self-publishing arm of Amazon.com. On the KDP website, you can create both digital and print versions of your book. The print version is produced using the Print On Demand [POD] technology described in the section on ‘Frequently Asked Questions‘.

To get started with KDP, open your internet browser and go to: https://KDP.amazon.com/en_US/

You should now be looking at the KDP website:

‘Sign in’ or ‘Sign up’ with KDP

Click the Sign in button and enter your Amazon ID and password.

If you do not have an Amazon account, click the Sign up button.

You should now see the following popup:

Near the bottom of the popup is a button to create a KDP account [circled in orange].

Click Create your KDP account and follow the instructions to sign up with KDP.

Note: if your country has a Trade Treaty with the US, you may be eligible to have the 30% Withholding Tax reduced to 5%. Amazon will prompt you to fill in a tax exemption form. You can sign it electronically.

After your account has been created, sign in to KDP.

The KDP Bookshelf

Whenever you sign in to KDP, you will be taken to your Bookshelf first. This is where you will find all your books, both ebooks and paperbacks. The Bookshelf is also where you will ‘Create a New Title’ – i.e. start setting up your new paperback or ebook:

Other major areas include Reports, Community and KDP Select.

The Reports page allows you to view sales figures and royalty amounts. The Community option will take you to the KDP forums, and the KDP Select option provides marketing information for ebooks.

Create a new title

To begin setting up a new paperback, click +Paperback on your KDP Bookshelf.

You should now be looking at the setup screen which contains three tabs – Paperback Details, Paperback Content, and Paperback Rights & Pricing.

The Paperback Details tab is open and ready for you to add information about your book. In the next section we will look at those details one by one.

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Updated June 26, 2020 – self-publishing tips for absolute beginners

All the links now work, and a few tips have been taken out. They relate to Lulu specific info. that I can no longer check. Apologies for that but better no info. than out-of-date info.

1. Print-On-Demand [POD for short] is new tech that allows books to be printed one at a time instead of in the hundreds.
2. Print-On-Demand [POD] means authors don’t have to BUY 100’s of their own print books.
3. The 3 biggest Print-On-Demand printers are Lulu, IngramSpark, and Amazon KDP.
4. Lulu & IngramSpark have print facilities in Australia. Both are more expensive than KDP but Aussie authors save a lot in postage [and time].
5. Aussie authors wanting to print with IngramSpark must have an ABN and pay a $53 setup fee for each book [$49USD]. IngramSpark periodically has ‘free setup’ promotions.
6. Aussie authors wanting to get an ABN should read this how-to first: https://acflory.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/how-to-apply-for-an-abn-the-basics/
7. Print-On-Demand works with standard trim sizes only. For a table of trim sizes see : https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834180
8. Trim size = physical size of book after pages glued inside cover & trimmed.
9. Page size templates for all trim sizes can be found on the KDP website: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834230
10. Convert Word A4 pages to trim size pages via the Word Page Setup dialog box.
11. ISBN = 13 digit no. that identifies your book worldwide. Buy your own ISBN or accept the free one offered by KDP.
12. The downside of a free ISBN is that it can only be used with the company that issued it.
13. Aussie authors can buy ISBNs from Thorpe-Bowker: https://www.myidentifiers.com.au/
14. As a rule of thumb, print, ebook & audiobooks all need their own ISBN.
15. Books printed via KDP are listed on Amazon automatically.
16. To publish Kindle ebooks go to: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/
17. Amazon supplies ebooks with ASIN identifiers so ISBN not strictly necessary.
18. If you want to ‘go wide’ & sell with other retailers as well as Amazon, your own ISBN is a must.
19. Most POD printers prefer PDF files but will accept Word files.
20. Before converting from Word to PDF, ensure all Word fonts are embedded in the document. See:  https://acflory.wordpress.com/2020/02/10/exporting-your-document-to-pdf/
21. File/Export completed Word doc. to PDF [see 20 above]. Then upload that PDF to the POD printer of your choice.
22. With KDP print, royalty = List Price – Print costs.
23. With KDP, Print costs= Sales Channel % + Fixed Charges + Per Page Charge.
24. With KDP, Standard sales channel % = 40% of List Price, Expanded sales channel % = 60%.
25. Spine of [paperback] cover = trim size & no. of pages.
26. KDP cover template from:  https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/cover-templates  Select trim size from drop down list, enter page count & paper colour, then download template.
27. IngramSpark cover template from: https://myaccount.ingramspark.com/Portal/Tools/CoverTemplateGenerator
28. Barcodes for KDP – included at no cost.
29. Barcodes for IngramSpark – included at no cost.
30. When converting covers to PDF for KDP paperback, “Press Quality” and “PDF/X-1a” both work.
31. Total page no. of book = pages AFTER conversion to chosen trim size [not A4 Word pages].
32. Amazon deducts 30% withholding tax from each sale. Aussies can claim exemption to reduce tax to 5%.
33. Withholding tax exemption: US TIN = Australian Tax File No.
34. Aussie authors must deposit 1 copy of each published book with the National Library of Australia: https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit
35. Aussie authors must also deposit 1 copy of each published book with their state library: https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/australia-wide
36. Aussie authors – for Legal Deposit FAQ see:https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit-faq

#Pension age for Australian women

I never thought I’d be reliant on the pension when I got to be ancient but…there you go. Life is what it is. So when  can I go on the pension, exactly?

65.

Oh, my Mum was much younger than that when she went on the pension, but I guess there are a lot more of us Baby Boomers now, so I guess it’s fair that the government [both Libs and Labor] would want to draw out the pension age.

Last time I checked, pensioners receive at least $100 more per week than the unemployed. $100 per week is $5,200 per year and more than $50,000 over ten years…

But wait! News just in: starting from July next year [2017] the eligible age for the pension will go up by six months every two years until it hits 67.

67?

Bangs head on desk. I can’t bear it. What if ‘they’ move the goal posts again? I may never get the pension…

-reads the criteria again-

Hang on a minute. It doesn’t say the pension age will go up by six months every six months! It’ll only go up once every two years, so…

-uses her fingers and toes-

It’s okay! I’ll only be 65 and a half when I become eligible!

-faints with relief-

All jokes aside, I did completely misread the eligibility criteria, and I know I’m not the only one so here’s a much easier to understand table of how the increase in the pension age will work:

The arrows are mine, the info. is from the Department of Human Services.

As a woman of a certain age -cough- I’m safe. Unless something radical happens in the next couple of years, I won’t have to wait until I’m 67 to get the pension, which is a huge relief. Now if only I could win the lottery and not have to rely on the pension at all…

Anyone know where I put that Tatts ticket?

cheers

Meeks

FFXIV and the #Heavensward expansion – too much stick and not enough carrot?

Costa del Sol at dawn

When Final Fantasy 14 came out in version 1, it was vilified by the majority of players because it worked so badly. There was no auction house, no bank, no end-game content – all pretty much standard fare on MMOs. And the servers simply could not cope with the demands of the game. You could wait for seconds for a menu to open, and lag was endemic on all but the most powerful computers.

Nevertheless, as someone who played it from start to finish, I have to say that version 1 did at least try to be innovative. One of the good things it did was to break with its predecessor’s mold when it came to solo play. In FF11 [the first Final Fantasy MMO], even ordinary mobs were so hard, only a competent group could take them down, hence a group was needed for all progress beyond level 10.

By contrast, Final Fantasy 14 Version 1 allowed casual players to progress by themselves! It also allowed players to progress via battling, crafting or gathering – i.e. if you liked crafting better than fighting, you could do your crafts and level up your character without ever having to fight.

For those who did like to fight, anything was possible. You could customize your character’s skillset by taking cross-class skills from other melee and casting classes – i.e. your warrior could use a ranged skill or cast a spell if that was how you wanted to play it. The choice was yours.

And finally, although Version 1 did have a very interesting storyline, it was an added ‘extra’, meaning you could spend time on it or not. There were a few things you ‘had’ to do, but mostly the choice was yours. In this sense, it was more like what we now call a ‘sandbox’ than a standard MMO.

For those who don’t know, the term ‘sandbox‘ refers to:

‘… a style of game in which minimal character limitations are placed on the gamer, allowing the gamer to roam and change a virtual world at will.’

Too much choice? Too much freedom? Or simply a case of throwing the good out with the bad?

I don’t know, but a very vocal segment of the Version 1 players hated the game and felt ‘cheated’. As a result, the version 1 team was dumped and a different team took over. They rebuilt FF14 from the ground up, and when version 2.0 finally launched, it was as bright and shiny as a newly minted gold coin. Everything worked [except the payment system], and everything was beautiful.

The world was graphically stunning and did not require bleeding edge computer hardware to run. There was no lag. Everything ran like clockwork and crafting was once again an exciting mini-game where ‘luck’ was balanced with skill.

But to counter all these goodies, some of the most desirable early features – ‘carrots’ – could only be unlocked via the main storyline, and the main storyline required that you complete a number of low level dungeons [the ‘stick’].So, for example, you could not unlock retainers [a kind of ‘bank’ mechanism] without completing the first three dungeons. To unlock the ability to ride a mount, you had to complete a 4th dungeon.

Now I know that 98% of gamers will not find the running of dungeons a hardship. In fact, I know that most would be devastated to find that a game did not have dungeons, so these gamers would not even see the carrot-and-stick mechanism at play. They are the norm, not old ladies like me. But even young gamers can resent the lack of choice.

The linear straitjacket of the main storyline came into sharp focus with the advent of version 3, Heavensward. Not only would gamers have to be at level cap – i.e. at level 50 – to play the new content, they would also have to complete every last bit of the main storyline from the previous version.

I am not exaggerating when I say that the main storyline comprises scores and scores of quests, dungeons and trials. Skip any part of the storyline and you can’t even see what the new Heavensward areas look like.

So let me recap. To play the Heavensward expansion, players need to:

• buy the expansion
• reach level 50
• AND complete the entire version 2.xx storyline

As someone who hates dungeons, it literally took me months to complete the storyline requirement, but even a ‘normal’ player would need at least a week. That is a lot of delayed gratification for someone who’s already at level cap.

Like me, a lot of returning players did slog through the storyline to get to the carrot, but I wonder whether they thought the effort was worth it?

I’m about half way through the expansion, and I have to say, I am disappointed. Heavensward was promoted as this new, shiny thing with lots of yummy toys, but the reality falls short of the hype, at least for me.

One of the pretties we all looked forward to was flying mounts, and sure enough, once I slogged through yet more of the storyline, I was given a rather elegant black choco – the first of the flying mounts on offer. But, of course, the damn chocobo wouldn’t fly, would it?

In Heavensward, you may get a flying mount, but the ability to make it actually fly requires that you unlock all the aether currents in an ‘area’ [or zone]. You are given a kind of aether current compass and told to go exploring…on foot. No problem. But then you discover that there are two kinds of aether currents:

• those you can discover via exploration and
• those you can only unlock by doing quests

I should point out that these are sidequests, not part of the main storyline. Yet, lo and behold, one of the aether current quests in the very first area sends you to…a dungeon. And you have to unlock ALL the currents before you can fly.

Did I mention I hate dungeons? Not only do they stress me out, they also eat into my life because on my server, the only time I can realistically expect to get a group is in the morning [timezone disparity between Australia and the rest of the world]. But I work. I have a life. Bah…

Suffice it to say that it’s taken me weeks to get around to running that stupid dungeon. I can now fly, but only in one area. This means that all the gathering I need to do in the next [higher level area] is on foot, again, because of course flying in that area is not yet unlocked.

And this brings me to more of the Heavensward straitjacket. The new map is huge, yet I can only access three areas of it:

• Cloud Top
• Western Coerthas
• Dravanian Forelands

Why? Because the higher areas can only be unlocked via the main storyline. And you guessed it, the next part of the main storyline requires that I do a dungeon, one that even experienced dungeon runners describe as ‘tricky’.

I can understand how connecting up all the content would make sense, from a game developer’s point of view. If you force gamers to complete the majority of the content in order to progress, you are getting the most bang for your buck from that content. But that does not necessarily make for a great gaming experience…for the gamer.

To me, a great gaming experience is one in which there are independent content streams that allow me to control how and when I play. If I want to do nothing but crafting, I should be able to do that. If I want to play solo, I should be able to do that. If I want to chat to people and develop in-game friendships, I should be allowed to do that without being forced into some artificial model of ‘community’.

In other words, I should be treated like an adult and given the right to choose. It can be done. In fact it has been done, very successfully, by MMOs like Guild Wars 2 [GW2].

I played GW2 for quite some time in between Final Fantasy 14 versions 1 and 2, and I really enjoyed it. Fun and innovative are two things that immediately spring to mind. It was also a free-to-play MMO. But there were things it lacked – like player housing, and mounts. And although much more attractive graphically than say, World of Warcraft, GW2 has never been as beautiful as Final Fantasy 14.

It may sound a bit twee to talk about beauty in an MMO, but there are times in Final Fantasy 14 when I literally catch my breath in wonder at how lovely a scene is. The game has weather, and a day/night cycle, and lighting that shifts subtly with the time of day and the weather pattern. It feels as real as a 2 dimensional world can get, and I love it…

But as an adult, I feel as if Final Fantasy 14 is squeezing me through one of those sausage making machines, and I don’t like it.

Will I leave? I don’t know. I’ve been subscribed to FF14 for over 720 days. That’s a long time, and I have a lot invested in the game, including my house. If I unsubscribe, my characters will probably remain in storage on some server somewhere, but I know that my house will be ‘repossessed’ to allow other gamers the privilege of owning a house. Because, of course, there is not enough housing to go around.

So there are consequences with leaving, even just for a few months.

For now I’m going to trudge my way through Heavensward, but with Christmas approaching, I may start hinting to the Daughter that I wouldn’t mind being given the new Guild Wars 2 expansion. She has been playing it and loves it. And many of the things she tells me about the game sound innovative and fresh and new…

cheers

Meeks