Learn Book Publishing from Book Publishers

The best way to learn something is from someone who is already doing what you want to do.

If you want to learn book publishing, it only makes sense to learn from people who are actually involved in the publishing business. Yet many writing and publishing courses are taught by people who may or may not have much experience.

At SelfPubU, you receive instruction from people who are selling books right now. Not 20 years ago, but now.

About Your Instructors

Our names are James Byrd and Susan Daffron. We have written and published 10 books since 2006. We also put on the Self-Publishers Online Conference, which brings together self-publishing experts for an information-packed three days in May, so we remain current on the many changes going on in the book publishing world.

We always say that if we can publish books, anyone can. You see, we live pretty much in the middle of nowhere with sometimes problematic Internet connections and limited shipping options. (For a while, a certain delivery company kept telling us our road didn't exist -- Emerson would have been proud; it got kind of existential.)

But we like it this way. As "Techno-Homesteaders" we started our business in 1995 so we could move away from the city and live a simpler life amidst the forests of rural Northern Idaho. (You can read our "story" on the Logical Expressions Web site or in this article in Redbook Magazine.) Since 1996, we have lived our dream of doing work we enjoy from a place we love.

James has a programming background and I (Susan) have a design background. We always say James is the "logical half" and I'm is the "expressive half" of Logical Expressions, Inc. (Some days I am more expressive than others.)

We understand the entire book publishing process because we have gone through it ourselves. As the old saying goes, we aren't afraid to "eat our own dog food." We know what works because we've done it. (And like I said, if we can run a successful publishing business from a log cabin in the middle of a forest, anyone can do it!)

If you're curious about who we are and what we do, you can learn more on our Logical Expressions company web site:

Teaching Experience

Both James and I have a lot of experience writing training courses and teaching complex and technical topics. Over the years, we have gotten a lot of nice comments about our down-to-earth style and insightful approach to explaining difficult concepts.

We both taught in-person classes for computer companies in the Sandpoint, Idaho area, and for several years, James taught training classes for Application Developers Training Company (AppDev) and PDSA, Inc. on various software applications.

He traveled around the United States teaching programmers week-long classes on the Visual Basic programming language and SQL Server database development.

For four years, I also taught two online classes about Quark XPress (one of the layout applications that's often used for books) for Education to Go, a company that is affiliated with many colleges. I wrote the 50,000-word courseware and helped the hundreds of students who took the course.

Here are comments I received on my student evaluations:

This class greatly exceeded all of my expectations! It was well-organized, comprehensive, challenging, and fun giving me just the right tools I need to use Quark and continue learning from books and experience. I am particularly impressed with how well the discussion area worked for me! The instructor was amazingly prompt and thorough in replying to the questions I posted. I fully recommend this class to anyone (from rank beginner to users of previous versions of Quark) who want to create documents. You couldn't find a class or instructor better than this!
I always wanted a course that talks to you - Susie does just that. Her clear and concise lessons coupled by a very frank and humorous writing style made me feel so at home with this course. And boy does she know it all - she's is some graphic genius! I never had to wait long for replies to my long questions and her answers were always very helpful. This was the best course I could have imagined and highly recommend it for others interested in knowledge of Quark. Thanks again!
Any discussion questions I had were answered the same day I posted them, which was great!
This course gave me more working knowledge of Quark than expected. Thank you for an excellent experience.
I loved it. I learned things about desktop publishing that I could not learn in a text book. Thank You.
Great course - excellent material. I have been wanting to take a course of Quark for many years, and the only way I could manage the course was online. Thanks.
This course was awesome!
This class was outstanding. I can't say enough good things about it or the instructor. Susan is so obviously very well versed and has extensive experience in all aspects of desktop publishing, graphics, word processing, and printing. The class shows a lot of forethought and preparation. It has an abundance of information that I have saved and printed out. Thank you, Susan, for all the great time-saving tips!
Thank you! This course was a God-send to make it possible to do a large project in Quark. I had no prior experience at all in Quark or other Desk-top publishing programs, though I have used Word for a long time. It is the first time taking an online course for me. I think it is great, and was able to fit it into a very busy schedule. The instructor was very helpful when I asked questions.
I have been using QuarkXPressÂ for over a year. This class really allowed me to more completely understand how Quark works and a great many nuances regarding using Quark. This class deserves a WOW! And HUGE thanks for letting me enjoy using the power of Quark even more!
I was especially grateful for Susan Daffron's writing style and sense of humor. She successfully explained a lot of technical information in an easy-to-understand manner.
Great course, Great instructor.
This was EXCELLENT! I am a marketing manager for a hotel. I am not an artist, but I often times need to work with graphic files created by our ad agency and other outside artists. I was very intimidated by Quark. I now have the confidence to get in there and edit...maybe even create. The section on printing was also INVALUABLE. It answered many questions I've had over the past two years. Great information! Thanks for another great experience.
Really enjoyed this course. Instructor had great knowledge and a great sense of humor. Would highly recommend this class.
A very well done course. I really enjoyed the instructor's writing style and felt confident about her knowledge of the subject. Well done!
The way in which Susan presented this material was both informative and interesting. Her writing style made it easy to understand and follow and she also offered real-life experiences to help in explaining certain items. She responded to my questions quickly and was very helpful. I especially liked that I was able to take this class at my own pace, at my own time. This was a good experience and I would recommend this class to anyone who wants to learn about this subject and has a busy schedule!
Thank you! The lessons were so easy to follow and I learned a lot -- I can't get over how much you can actually do in Quark! Now I just have to practice, practice, practice!!
Suz was great! I have a solid foundation upon which to build the ideas I learned from this class and look forward to creating newsletters, brochures, etc. -- and I completed a prereq for my job! :) My next Christmas newsletter will be using Quark!!!!
The instructor did a good job of explaining and guiding readers through basic principles that are key to understanding this software (QuarkXpress). I feel like I learned more taking this online course than I did when I was in undergraduate--I took both Photoshop and Lightwave in college. The chapters were laid out in logical sense and the assignments were well tailored to helping me understand the concepts that were being conveyed. Moreover, the chapters and lessons course are great reference tools that are easy to navigate. I give the instructor massive big ups for making a thoughtful online course. I would definitely take another course with her! Thanks Suz!