This article, by Mathew Ingram, originally appeared on gigaom on 10/10/11.
Amazon isn’t happy just disrupting the book-publishing world by promoting self-publishing via the Kindle platform or launching a rumored “Netflix for books,” it seems. The giant online retailer — which recently unveiled its iPad competitor, the Kindle Fire, and also dropped the price of its lowest-priced Kindle, bringing it even closer to being free — is also busy signing up popular authors for its own Amazon publishing imprint. And those it’s signing up are becoming evangelists for the company as an alternative to the “legacy publishing” industry, including the latest addition: thriller writer Barry Eisler. Publishers are now in direct competition not just with the Kindle, but with Amazon itself.
Instead of doing that, however, Eisler has signed a deal with Amazon’s in-house Thomas and Mercer imprint. In an interview with National Public Radio, the author said that after he announced his intention to turn down the St. Martin’s deal and self-publish – a decision he discussed at the time in a conversation with fellow writer J.A. Konrath — Amazon approached him with an offer of what he calls a “hybrid deal, the best of both worlds.” The online giant agreed to publish an e-book version of the novel as soon as it was completed, and then follow that up with a paperback edition.
In the NPR interview, Eisler — several of whose books have become New York Times bestsellers after being marketed and published by traditional agencies — says he has come to the conclusion that mainstream publishers simply aren’t as efficient or as useful to authors as they used to be, now that there are other options:
To say that publishers really care passionately about books as though they are concerned about what’s better for the world … I’m sure when they look in the mirror they feel that way. But in fact, what they care about is preserving their own position, perks and profit — that’s just what establishment players come to do over time.
With Borders closing its doors after 40 years in business in addition to other major bookstore chains either downsizing locations and/or closing altogether, many can’t help but wonder if the era of brick-and-mortar bookstores are joining the Walkman, Windows 95 and vinyl records in becoming things of the past.
It was bound to happen once books – from classic to present-day titles – became available on devices such as Kindle, iPhones, and others made for downloading electronic reader versions of various books. Colleges are now offering online textbooks for their students; hence, there won’t be many physical textbooks being ‘bought back’ by college bookstores once the terms end as it was in my day.
Ereaders can’t take all the blame, though. Sites such as Amazon make book browsing and purchasing a lot more convenient, and many times, favorite books can be bought for a cheaper price than the neighborhood bookstore.
While Kindles and Nooks are wonderful gadgets, they don’t have the feel and smell that a good hardcover (or even paperback) offers. Ereaders are lightweight, but there’s something about turning pages of a chilling mystery novel while cuddled under a large down comforter by the fire on a stormy night. I also wouldn’t recommend using a Nook to read in the bathtub, and Kindles are hard to dog-ear pages.
There is some good news, however. Half Price Books continues to do well, as are some smaller, independent bookstores. For those who really enjoy nostalgia with their reading, nothing beats a weekend afternoon in the local vintage bookstore – the best place to find out-of-print favorites.
A fellow book aficionado told me about an independent book store in Houston that’s perfect for crime buffs: Murder by the Book.
Bookstores also offer a social aspect that all the web sites and ereaders in the world will never compensate. When was the last time you discussed a great new book with a total stranger standing side by side a Nook? Does an aroma of exotic house blend of coffee come from an iPad? There’s also nothing like chatting up the sales staff while they ring your purchases, especially if it’s something they too have read. Kind of difficult to do the latter making an Amazon purchase, isn’t it?
What would happen if every bookstore in the world closed and actual books stopped being printed? Not only would there be a lot of devastated printed book buffs, but also publishers taking a large hit (and some already have). Many say there’s nothing more delightful than sitting and getting lost in a book, and I have to agree. Ereaders just don’t offer the same effect, no matter what anyone says.
Kind of like video killed the radio star, ereaders and other technology may kill the traditional bookstore…
Many Publetarians may be familiar with Sean Platt as the Writer Dad, Ghostwriter Dad, or through the Collective Inkwell site. In addition to those endeavors, Sean is also an author. In this interview, I talk to Sean about his many irons in the fire and his latest experiment: a serialized novel entitled Yesterday’s Gone.
First off, April thanks for having me. It’s great to be here!
And that’s a great first question. In three years online, I don’t think anyone’s ever asked it before!
Writer dad was my original home on the web, the site I started before I had any clue what I was doing. It was an outlet, a conduit, a way for me to nurture my online voice and connect with an audience.
I’d only recently started writing when I bought the domain. But even three years ago it was clear to see what was happening with the publishing industry. I didn’t want a traditional contract, but that meant I had a lot of work to do as far as building a base. So Writer Dad was born from a desire to establish my own audience.
Attention was easy enough to get, but it was impossible to make any money with a site where I mostly talked about life and family. I had no advertising, and wasn’t willing to, despite my traffic. It seemed too incongruent with what I was trying to do. But I had to something since I was bleeding badly, having closed a successful business to follow my dream of becoming a writer.
Ghostwriter Dad was the solution to the problem, the site I started to capitalize on the name brand I had established for myself with Writer Dad, but with a built-in mechanism to make it easy to trade my time for money. I figured it would be simple enough to slip ghost in front of writer and trade a reasonable fee to keep my name off the byline, product, sales page, or whatever I was producing.
David Wright and I started Collective Inkwell around the same time as Ghostwriter Dad. Originally the site was designed to draw design and copy business, but we ended up mostly writing about creativity and the creative writing process. This was a BIG mistake, though we didn’t realize it at the time. Turns out you can’t really market your services as a writer when writers are your target audience. Seems super obvious when staring in the rearview, but it’s a common mistake a ton of writers make, ourselves included.
Collective Inkwell is now our publishing imprint, and home for all the work Dave and I do together. We’ll be re-launching the site soon as a a hub for self-publishing news and interviews, along with behind the scenes peeks at everything we’re going through ourselves during our own publishing process.
Should be a ton of fun. So far this year our teeny-tiny imprint has published six titles, including the full our horror novel, Available Darkness, and the full season of Yesterday’s Gone.
Your career in writing started out with copywriting and ghostwriting, but this year you’ve ventured into publishing your own full-length fiction and nonfiction as well. What prompted you to start publishing your own full-length works?
My intent was always to be an author and publisher, long before I ever registered my first domain. Copywriting and ghostwriting were a means to an end, a way to pay the bills until the sea change that would eliminate the gatekeepers and help authors like me and you get easily heard was complete.
I didn’t really see that happening until 2013 of the earliest, 2014 more likely, and was totally blown away last January when I saw numbers pouring in from writers like Konrath, Hocking, and Locke, doing exactly what I wanted to do (and was doing for others already!).
From that moment forward, it was game over. David and I completely shifted our business, and I started to break free from the work-for-hire hamster wheel.
I love my experience ghostwriting and copywriting. I’ve written everything. Sales letters, auto responders, blog posts, wedding vows, speeches, fiction. You name it, I’ve written it. I love knowing my fluency is strong enough to write pretty much anything that lands on my desk, but the articulate strength born from copywriting and persuasion techniques have helped Dave and I to design Yesterday’s Gone more like scripted serialized television, filled with open loops and awesome cliffhangers that make the viewer, or in this case the reader, salivate over what may happen next, more than a traditional novel.
I enjoy writing copy, and ghostwriting for others, but it reached a saturation point where I was fatigued by seeing other people reap success for words that came from inside me. You only want to be Cyrano for so long.
Your most recent writing project is a serialized novel entitled Yesterday’s Gone. Why have you and your writing partner elected to release this work in installments?
Dave and I love serialized TV. LOST, Dexter, Walking Dead, etc. But beyond that, we were tired of the slog of writing a single title at a time, then surrendering to the “hope and pray model.”
When we looked to others in self-publishing who were moving the units we’re looking to move, they’ve all published multiple titles. Konrath has his entire back catalog, Hocking is cranking hers out, and Locke had 5 Donavan Creed books before he even started his marketing!
We wanted to establish a heavy presence on Kindle by Christmas, but knew there was no way we could publish multiple titles with the quality we expect from ourselves, and that our readers have come to expect from us. Serializing a large story by writing it all out at once, then breaking it apart, exactly like they do with television, was what made most sense to us.
Have you found any particular creative challenges in working with the serialized approach?
In many ways, this is much, much easier than writing a regular book. A regular book, begins and ends, and if done well has a “hero’s journey” and solid story structure sprinkled through the pages in between. Our fiction, like the television it’s modeled after, takes a “season” approach. That means every episode leads into the next, and the finale leads into the first episode of our followup season.
People love watching television this way, but we believe the market will love buying and enjoying their e-content this way, too.
How about in more practical terms: what kinds of business considerations have gone into this book?
The business of the book follows a simple, classic model. Dave and I want to give the first episode away for free, or as close to it as we can get. We’ll publish the “pilot” for $.99 on Amazon, then make it available for free on Smashwords and hope Amazon price matches. People will buy the first episode, or download it for free, then if they love it they’ll want the next in the series.
This should also help us get a more qualified buyer for the entire season, meaning our reviews will be better and our links are more likely to get spread around. Of course, this is all contingent on creating something of quality that people really, really love. You can’t expect to throw anything on Kindle and have it do well. That doesn’t work now and it never ever will.
Our model is simple: the pilot is free or $.99, episodes 2-6 are $1.99, and the full season is $4.99.
We’re happy with our work getting read regardless, but were happiest when people download the full season, not only because they’ll get to enjoy the complete work as it was written and intended to be read, but because it’s where all the profit is ($3.50 versus $.30) for us as writers and publishers.
You are co-authoring the book with another author, David Wright. How does your collaborative process work, in terms of the actual writing?
I can’t imagine doing creative writing with anyone else and having it turn out nearly as fluid as it is when writing with David. We’ve been writing partners for three years, and have exchanged countless pages between us. Just as I’ve been a ghostwriter for many people, Dave’s been a ghostwriter for me, making my copy cleaner, and always helping to me to sound smarter than I actually am!
Specifically, with Yesterday’s Gone, it’s been a tremendously fun process. We started with the premise, agreeing that there would be six different POV’s and that we would each start by writing three. I wrote mine for the first episode and he wrote his, then we blended them together in a single narrative. This worked extremely well, both creatively and for overall efficiency, so it was how we divided the writing duties for the remainder of the project as well.
Admittedly, I’ve had a much easier time. My job was to write my chapters, and go over his. But Dave had to go over mine, assemble everything so it had the best possible flow, edit everything together, insert dates and times, then make sure we don’t have any snafus, like the one we had in the pilot where a guy in handcuffs tries to take off his shirt!
Yesterday’s Gone is being published exclusively as an ebook at this point. Do you think the rising popularity of ebooks could lead more authors to explore the serialization option?
Absolutely. It just seems smart. Honestly, I’m surprised it’s not being done more already, but I’m also thankful we’re early, before the market is flooded. Having said that, I believe there is and always will be plenty of room. As long as you publish a quality product that puts your reader first, and you take the time required to do it right, rather than seeing Kindle as a gold rush, and you work furiously to develop an engaged audience, even if that means falling down 341 times and standing up 342, you will eventually succeed.
Do you have any plans to publish the book as a single volume after the last installment has been released?
The entire season will be available as a print book, but that’s more of a marketing decision than one motivated by profit. If readers want to enjoy a print version, we want them to have it, yet so few of our sales are coming from print, across all our titles, it’s not enough to justify a print run on single episodes.
How are you approaching marketing for the book?
I spent the last couple of years as a ghostwriter, helping others market their finished products, but it’s always been within established networks. This round I have no list to lean on, so we’re going grassroots, trying to hit around 100 or so blogs in the next three months, and hoping influencers notice us.
After a while, I’ll start my round of emails. But I’m trying to avoid any cold emailing. I’d like people to find Yesterday’s Gone on their own, because I feel as though the growth will be more organic. Beyond that, I wrestle around 300 emails a day myself, and understand the deluge. I don’t want to be a yappy puppy adding to anyone else’s inbox triage.
Most authors and writers are familiar with the challenge of finding the time, energy and quiet focus they need to write. With all you have going on, the sites, the books, and being a family man to boot, how do find enough hours in the day to get everything done?
I can’t take credit for that. I have an amazing support team, an absolutely wonderful and impossibly patient wife, who handles all the household heavy lifting so I can make all this happen, and a remarkable team. Not just my partner Dave, but my other partners Tracy O’Connor, Danny Cooper, and my wife, Cindy, who have helped me with everything I’ve needed to get this project off the ground. Of course, it helps that I write fast, but it’s definitely not enough!
But fair warning: if you don’t like serials like LOST and writers like Stephen King, you probably won’t like reading Yesterday’s Gone. But if you like stuff that starts awesome, and then is awesome on every page until the WTF? cliffhanger ending, you’ll totally dig Yesterday’s Gone!
We also have a special insider’s club where we’ll be sending readers exclusive content and behind the scenes stuff. It’s a great place to be if you’re a writer interested in the publishing process and would like to tag along and get free sneak peaks at how it’s all going.
Click here if you want to be a “goner” and get the exclusive episode with the shocking ending.
Thanks so much for having me, April. It’s been fun!
This post, by Kimberly Hitchens, founder of Booknook.biz, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective site on 10/4/11, and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.
For those of you who’ve missed the latest, Amazon initially yanked and wirelessly replaced, and then removed entirely from sale, a book (Neal Stephenson’s Reamde) after a reader posted a scathing, virulent review of the errors she found in the book. Her review, calling for a 75% price refund, said in part:
“This level of carelessness is inexcusable on economic grounds. I’d expect to find format errors and mangled content in a pirated ebook, not in a $17 Kindle edition. When I purchase an ebook at a price point so close to the print version, the publisher rakes in far more profit than from a print title. To then turn around and offer shoddy, incomplete text in that pricey Kindle title shows an arrogant disregard for economics, the reader, and the distribution channel.”
Click here to read the entire review, which is worth reading, in my opinion. The Awl reports that Amazon had, as of Thursday morning, gone so far as to remove the title, which was #36 in books overall, #6 in SciFi on Kindle and #4 in print/audio. Clearly, a significant financial decision by HarperCollins.
Now, normally, I’d just report this as an odd bit of news, and not dwell on it; but two other things have happened this month that are related to this. Which makes me think that this shan’t be an isolated incident, and we in the biz need to pay closer attention to what we write, publish and produce. The two events are:
First, one of our top authors received a letter from Amazon, informing him/her that "During a quality assurance review of your title, we have found the following issue(s): Typo/formatting issues exist that may have been caused by an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) problem. An example is mentioned below:
"Don’t forger that" should be "Don’t forget that"
Whereupon Amazon then advised him or her to: "Please look for the same kind of errors throughout and make the necessary corrections to the title before republishing it." (Italic emphasis added). The interesting part is that this book wasn’t scanned, nor OCR’d; and it was professionally edited more than once. Amazon only provided the one instance of an “error.”
Another client, having crafted some rather unique content, had deliberately written scenes that were incoherent, to represent a protagonist in a comatose state. Amazon flatly yanked the title after customer complaints about the unreadability of the text.
What this tells me is that Amazon, having purged innumerable over-represented PD (Public Domain) titles, and every PLR (so-called, "Private Label Rights") book they could find, have decided that they are going to tackle the issue that everyone’s been talking about:
Curation
Which means one thing: Real Editing. Not Word’s built-in spellchecker; not your Mom; real editors with real experience. Here at Booknook, we like the Twin Lizzies; Elisabeth Hallett and Elizabeth Lyon. Elisabeth Hallett, (Email here) specializes in line editing, as well as proofing and copyediting; Elizabeth Lyon (website here) is a freelance editor with more than 60 books under her belt, and can assist you with revisions and developmental editing, in addition to line editing services.
I know that this has been a long (and NOT funny!) first column for me (originally appearing on September 30th, 2011, in our Booknook.biz newsletter), but the import of these events should not be overlooked. Lastly: learn to use Track Changes (if you use Word), or its equivalent in WordPerfect or Open Office. I am really surprised at how many authors don’t know how to use it, or mistake tracked changes for Word’s built-in spellchecker, but it’s a simple tool, and one that can help you work competently with an Editor. A good editor can work faster in track changes than without it; if you know how to use it, it will save you money, not only in editing hours and in the number of revisions you’ll end up paying for, post-production, in ebooks that you create, but also in keeping your book from being nuked by Amazon and badly reviewed, which will cost you sales.
This post, by Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on his The Shatzkin Files blog on The Idea Logical Company site on 10/2/11.
Almost two years ago, I wrote a post which continues to be one of the most-read in the history of this blog, the point of which was that the business model disruption (called “agency”) prompted by the iPad would have more impact on the ebook ecosystem than the device itself. I’m happy to repeat that statement today because I think events have proven that hunch to be correct.
This week Amazon announced their new tablet, the Kindle Fire. (Mine’s on order. I gave the original Kindle I had to my wife, who still uses it. I also own an iPad but never read books on it. As everybody who reads this blog regularly knows, my ebook consumption is all iPhone, largely purchased through the Kindle store, sometimes through Nook, Kobo, or Google, but never through iBookstore.)
The Kindle Fire announcement has unleashed a spate of stories in the tech press about the battle between Apple and Amazon. Who knows what Apple’s rejoinder will be, but it would seem that Fire offers much more than half of what an iPad delivers to a media consumer for much less than half the price and about two-thirds the weight. It appears it will fit in the hip pocket of a man’s suit jacket. That sounds like a competitive formula. It already was for Nook Color, and Amazon seems, at least for the moment, to have done them one better.
Books are not the central focus of this Amazon-Apple battle even from Amazon’s point of view and they are certainly are not from Apple’s. Apple is a device company and their content offerings, and their control of their content offerings, are intended to reinforce the unique experience their devices deliver. Amazon certainly knows from their Kindle experience that offering the right device can propel content sales and secure the content customers’ business (a lesson B&N has both learned and demonstrated quite successfully with Nook as well). The Fire is as much about video content as it is about books.
Amazon wants to acquire its book content with the ability to control the selling price so they can continue to burnish their reputation as the lowest-cost provider and exploit other advantages that their huge customer base and extraordinarily deep pockets provide them. Apple wants a margin-guaranteed commercial model that also assures them that they won’t be embarrassed by having their customers see the same content for a lower price elsewhere.
Apple assumed they’d be able to move the most devices and, with price neutrality, create enough advantages to their device owners to shop in the device’s “home” store to satisfy their competitive requirements. That is, Apple’s content-selling strategy was to maximize their market share among their own device owners. They do nothing to move the content onto other companies’ devices.
But in the book business, we look at these two titans in a different way because they force publishing into managing two completely different commercial models simultaneously. That’s not something most of the tech community has paid any attention to in the prolific “Amazon versus Apple” commentary following the Kindle Fire announcement. But it reinforces the point made in the post from two years ago: the fact that Amazon and Apple have different approaches to acquiring and pricing content offerngs is the most important aspect of the battle between them to the book publishing community. Who “wins”, as in “who sells the most devices?” (or even “who sells the most ebooks?”), is really quite secondary since both are significant and neither is going away.
This post, by Michael D. Britton, originally appeared on his site on 10/3/11.
DRIVE – you won’t get far without it
There are lots of essential ingredients to achieving success in a fiction writing career.
Talent (or skill) is certainly key – but a gift for writing, alone, will not get you there.
Some may say “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” Sure, connections are important – and part of building your career involves doing the work to build those connections and personal networks. But again, knowing the right people is not enough.
Others say you just need to have luck. Leaving your career up to chance is not a plan for success. I know of one successful writer who has been known to say, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
In other words, you need to have determination. Persistence. Patience. Faith.
In a word – DRIVE.
That drive is what motivates you to write every day. To finish every short story or novel you start. To submit every work for sale to a publisher who can buy it. To keep it submitted until it sells. (If that list looks familiar, see my previous post on Heinlein’s Rules).
Or, you can opt for the non-traditional route, and take the leap to publishing it yourself using tools like Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords. All of these things require drive. (More on becoming a publisher in a future post.)
Drive also pushes a writer to improve his craft through learning and practice, and through accepting valid constructive criticism from trusted sources (your First Readers, and mentors who are further along in their careers than you are).
That takes humility.
How is my DRIVE translated to the written page? By setting goals and meeting them.
For example, two years ago, my goals involved maintaining a writing “streak.” It consisted of the following:
Protecting your computer’s data files is something every self-publisher must know about and deal with before it is too late. It is not a complicated or expensive process. It can be as simple as having an external hard drive and using cloud storage. No special knowledge or fancy equipment is needed. And, the process is very easy to automate. It is essential that you keep the back-up process simple and automatic. It is also essential to create multiple copies, on-site, and off-site. Here is a run-down of how we do this in our office.
Using An External Drive For Data Backup
We started out using one external hard drive in our office. This is the most basic and easiest way to protect your data that is located on your internal hard drive. A brand-name 3TB hard drive is now $120. Make sure that you purchase a hard drive larger than you currently need. But don’t overbuy. Right now this 3TB has a good price. As time goes on, the larger hard drives will drop in price too. Another reason not to over-buy is that hard drives don’t last forever. Purchase only what you need now, and then upgrade with a newer and larger unit when you need it. We purchased an external USB hard drive that is only 5 inches x 7 inches x 1.5 inches. This small size gives you an easy way to put the hard drive into your safe, or safety deposit box, or take it with you on your working vacation.
Using Multiple External Drives For Data Backup
We now use multiple external hard drives. They are installed together and they work as one unit within a storage array box. This way we can store a large amount of data on multiple drives that are all stored within one small, desk-top box. Even if one or two drives fail, we would still have several more still working. Again, only purchase a big-name storage array box and big-name external hard drive to put into it.
Using Cloud Storage For Data Backup
Storing your data online is called "cloud storage". You should consider using cloud storage because it is a safe and simple way to store your files away from your office – where they can’t be stolen from your office, lost, or burned up in a fire. There are many cloud storage companies, and all are easy to find on the internet. Many offer 2GB or 5GB of free storage. There are also many reviews and comparisons of the different services on the internet. Some companies will even automatically backup your data to an external hard drive and, at the same time, also to the cloud. Play it safe and pick one of the big-name cloud storage companies to deal with for your business.
How Do I Find A Cloud Storage Company?
There are many cloud storage companies, and all are easy to find on the internet. There are many reviews and comparisons of the different services on the internet. Some will even automatically backup your data to an external hard drive and also to the cloud. Play it safe and pick one of the big-name companies to deal with.
Isn’t Backing Up To The Cloud Risky?
Your data will be stored in an encrypted format when it is backed up to the cloud at the storage company, which should prevent a hacker from easily accessing your information. If you require a greater level of security, you can use your own private encryption key to further reduce possible exposure to data intrusion. The likelihood of a server like Apple’s, or Amazon’s, or Google’s going down is far less than the possibility that your own hard drive or local backup will fail.
Working Away From Home/Office
If you are away from your home/business computer, and using your laptop, email yourself the document that you are working on. Also save it to your laptop’s internal hard drive, and to your flash drive. A good general rule is that you should never keep extremely sensitive data on your laptop. Keep it on your flash drive and on the cloud. We keep several flash drives with us when on vacation – and keep them in our pockets for safe-keeping. Flash drives are very inexpensive – so buy and use several. We purchased 3 brand-name 8GB flash dives for under $20.
Should I Encrypt My Hard Drives?
For most purposes, encryption of your computer or hard drive is not necessary. Encryption is only necessary for extremely sensitive data – like your patients’ medical records. If you encrypt a backup, you will add unneeded complexity to a process that is designed to simplify and preserve fast access to your information. With this added complexity comes the increased probability of a problem. Therefore, the chance that you lose access to your backed-up data goes up. Do yourself a favor and make sure that you understand when and why you might need to encrypt your backups and think about how you’ll guarantee that will you have access to your encryption password when it counts. Data encryption will cost you too much time, money, and aggravation.
What Computer Data Should I Backup?
At the very least, you need to back up everything except software applications. Any data that is necessary for the operation of your business must be copied. Most software is easy to replace, and generally not too expensive.
What About Our Websites, Blogs, Mailing Lists, and Online Publications?
All of these are absolutely essential to keep your self-publishing business going and thriving. Fortunately, every one of them already has a built-in backup. We keep multiple backup copies on multiple hard drives here in our office, and also on the cloud. All of our websites and blogs are also backed-up by the hosting company. Our hosting company also sends us a backup copy by email. Our mailing lists are kept at an online mailing list company. The list can easily be downloaded from the mailing list company. We also keep a copy of it on our computers and hard drives. All of our online publications (ebooks and edocuments) also have full copies with the companies that sell our publications.
Conclusion
By having a simple backup plan that utilizes both online data backup and multiple external hard drives, you’re providing yourself with foolproof security for when your computer’s hard drive crashes, or your system is ruined in a fire or flood. Don’t risk losing your important files forever when you can quickly and inexpensively avoid that mess with a tripled-up data backup plan. And never forget: do not put all of your trust in one method over the other. Internal hard drives, external hard drives, and flash drives can fail. Even your cloud storage company can fail – go out of business, be hacked, or their software on your computer can fail.
This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com
This post, by Mark Williams, originally appeared on The Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing on 10/2/11.
D.D. was here yesterday talking about the new Kindle Fire and the other e-reader devices Amazon have coincidentally brought out just in time for Christmas and the launch of Pottermore. Those guys at Amazon are just so lucky with their timing!
Come to that, they’ve been pretty lucky all round. What an incredible coincidence Amazon launched their Kindle just when ebooks started to take off.
What an incredible coincidence Amazon opened a Kindle store just to sell ebooks.
What an incredible coincidence Amazon invested in the digital future and took a risk on letting indies sell their own work.
What an incredible coincidence Amazon is now a publisher as well as a distributor of books and ebooks.
Of course, none of it is coincidental. Amazon have a clear strategy. That’s not to say Amazon planned in advance every last nut and bolt. What they do is respond proactively to changing conditions. That’s why they are a huge successful business.
As writers we can learn a lot from Amazon. Because in the new publishing world successful writers are also successful business men and women. Like it or not, it’s a fact. We produce goods, package them, and go out and sell them.
Some of us do better than others, obviously. In part that’s down to product. The writers with best-sellers on their hands obviously have something people want to buy. But the most successful writers are those that sell outside their personal blogosphere.
That is, they reach a readership that doesn’t just consist of friends, family, fellow writers and the odd passerby.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. These are your core supporters that get you through the bad times. But the good times only come when you reach the wider market – complete strangers.
Whether you are about to self-publish your first book, or start a micro-niche publishing company, you need to have business plan in place. A business plan will give you a basic road map for your new business. An easy and quick way to do this is to create a one-page business plan. This will let you quickly clarify your own thinking about your new business. This short, one-page plan can also be used as an outline for a longer more in-depth plan. With some research, you should be able to complete this one-page plan in under one week. Here is a list of five questions that you must include in your simplified, one-page business plan.
1. WHY do you want to self-publish?
Your answer cannot be only about the money. It needs something more than that. It also needs to be short, very specific, and very personal.
Examples: a. “I want to write a book that will help new nurses be more productive, more effective, and more marketable in today’s tight job market.”
b. “I want to write small-business management books so that I can share my knowledge and expertise with others that would like to start their own small-business. I gained this knowledge and experience over the last 35 years while starting and managing my own successful small-business.”
c. “I want to write and self-publish a book to give myself more credibility in the eyes of my peers.”
2. WHAT will you write about?
Explain it in one sentence, in very specific detail. You must understand what you writing niche, or specialty, will be.
Examples:
a. “I will write and publish books about all aspects of self-publishing for people who have not written a book before.”
b. “I will write a how-to book for experienced nurses who want to advance to become part of nursing management in a hospital.”
c. “I will write a how-to guide for new parents who are raising a deaf child.”
3. WHO is your market?
You must narrow this down to a very specific group of people. Your answer cannot be “everybody and anybody”. You must know exactly who buys your type of book. You only have a limited amount of time and money for marketing and promotion. You must target your best efforts at those who are most likely to buy your book. Keep your answer down to a few tight sentences.
a. “The market for my book is American nursing students that are in nursing school, or have just graduated as RN’s with an AS or BS degree in nursing and are searching for their first job. They are generally females between 20 and 26 years of age. Half of them like to read a hard-copy of a book; the other half like to read the ebook version. They are very worried about getting a job after graduation, because the nursing shortage has ended.”
4. HOW do you define success?
You might spend the next twelve months writing your first book. And then a year later you are selling less than 8 copies a month on Amazon. Therefore, you must come to terms with what success means to you. Does success mean seeing your name on the cover of a book? Does it mean being able to give each of your customers a copy of your book so that they will have more admiration and respect for you? Does success mean getting letters and emails from people who read your book – telling you that your book has helped them in some positive way? We all can agree that making a lot of money is great – and is possible as a self-publisher – but it cannot be your only motivation for writing a book. Therefore, you should write a paragraph here about how you define success for your book.
5. HOW hard are you willing to work at it?
How much time and hard work are you willing to put into your self-publishing venture? This is probably the step that you must put the most honest thinking and most thought into. Are you willing to spend most of your time marketing and selling your book? Your book might take 6 to 12 months to write. But you will spend the next several years marketing and promoting it. Are you willing to put yourself out there and market and promote yourself, your name, and your book, the for next several years? Are you willing to keep writing and building your next book? The more time and effort that you put into your self-publishing venture, the more success you will have. It will be much easier to go the distance if you love your subject matter. And the more you love your subject matter, the more successful you will be at self-publishing. It is as simple as that.
This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com
It took me a while to fall in love with Google Chrome. I was a die hard Firefox user for many years, and felt I owed FF my loyalty for saving me from the wretched Internet Explorer. But now I can’t live without Google Chrome. It’s minimal design paired with its ease-of-use makes it a worthy browser.
But what I love most about Google Chrome are the apps/extensions. They make browsing the internet a much more satisfying activity. But Google Chrome apps and extensions don’t just enhance browsing, they also help improve productivity, make certain tasks easier to perform, and can even help curb procrastination when you need it.
As a writer, I need all the help I can get being more productive and limiting procrastination. Google Chrome doesn’t just help me surf the web, it also makes me a better writer. By utilizing Google Chrome apps and extensions, you can also become more productive as a writer (and hopefully less distracted). Some of my favorite Google Chrome apps and extensions are below.
Ten Google Chrome apps or extensions that will make you a better writer:
Send to Kindle – The description on the app page says: “Send to Kindle is a Browser extension for Kindle owners who prefer reading web content on their devices. It’s designed to offer a quick way for pushing web content to Kindle, so you can read articles or news on your device.” It’s also available for Safari, Firefox, Opera, and IE9.
ScribeFire – If you’re a blogger, or have a website hosted on one of the well-known blogging platforms, then ScribeFire will be a very useful tool. “You can post to blogs from WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Windows Live Spaces, Tumblr, Posterous, Xanga, LiveJournal, or any other blog that supports the MetaWeblog or MovableType APIs.” Also available for Firefox.
Lazarus: Form Recovery – I’ve been using Lazarus for several years now and I can honestly say it has saved my butt quite a few times. Lazarus autosaves everything you type so you can easily recover from form-killing timeouts, crashes and network errors. All those blog posts that disappear when your computer crashes, or when you try to post and get an error can now be saved. If only I had known about this during the Myspace blogging days. Also available for Firefox.
StayFocused – One of my favorite apps, and one of the best. This is a godsend during NaNoWriMo. “StayFocusd is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day.” Definitely helps cut out the distractions and curbs the procrastination.
White Noise – This one isn’t for everyone. “Some people find that a white noise source improves their ability to concentrate by covering over irritating or distracting sounds like an annoying neighbor’s stereo or the loud traffic outside.” If you aren’t one of those people who finds white noise soothing, go ahead and skip to the next app, but if you’re like me, you’ll love this app!
Vyew – This one also isn’t for everyone. This is best utilized between two or more people collaborating on a project. (Great for writers working on projects such as anthologies or for illustrators and writers working on graphic novels). “Vyew is a tool that allows you to meet and share information both in real-time and continuously. Upload images, files, videos and more into Vyew, and Vyew will store the information in one room that anyone can access and contribute to at anytime.”
Write Space – I just recently started using this one. I like it. It’s not extravagant, but that’s part of its appeal. I do have other apps and software similar to this that I use often, but I find this also does the trick in a pinch. According to the webstore page, “Write Space is a customizable full-screen text-editor that lives in your web-browser. It is designed to minimize the distractions that come between you and your writing.”
Dark Scroll – Similar to Write Space. “Dark Scroll is a distraction-free writing environment for Google Chrome. This application is similar to WriteRoom, Write Monkey and Pyroom.” I’m looking forward to the features that will be introduced in the future, especially more font options and the ability to sync with Google Docs.
Dictionary.com – I don’t know what I would do without my dictionary and thesaurus. I use them more in a day than I can imagine. “Dictionary Instant instantly returns word definition as you type, plus a quick link to Dictionary.com if you ever need further detail.” Functional and necessary.
Kindle Cloud Reader – I think it’s safe to say that a good many people now have a Kindle (or other e-reader) and that this isn’t a gadget that will fizzle out and die anytime soon. It took me a long time to want a Kindle, and even longer to finally get one. Now that I have it, I don’t think I can live without it. Or this extension. “Kindle Cloud Reader is a web app from Amazon that lets you read your Kindle books, instantly.” So even if you don’t have a Kindle, you should certainly have a Kindle app. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
There you have it, ten Google Chrome apps and extensions to make your writing life easier and more productive. You can find all of these Google Chrome apps and more at the Google Chrome Web Store. Just search for an app by category, or if you know it, by the name of the app.
Q: Do you use Google Chrome? If not, what’s your favorite browser? And of course, what are your favorite apps and extensions for your browser?
Kemari Howell is a freelance book editor and Literary Seamstress. She is a thirty-something mother of twins, whom she calls Thing 1 and Thing 2, and currently lives in Florida. A self-proclaimed belletrist, Kemari has been writing since she learned the fine art of cursive writing. She’s had several short pieces published, including a poem when she was fifteen, and is currently working on an as-yet-titled YA novel. She has been editing informally for well over seven years, only recently making the migration to full-time freelancer. She is the founder and managing content editor of Easily Mused, a concept borne from a desire to support and inspire the creative community.
This article, by Julianne Pepitone, originally appeared on CNNMoney on 9/27/11.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Amazon’s low-priced bestsellers and Kindle e-reader are famous for changing the book industry. What’s not so well known is how deeply Amazon’s tentacles reach into all parts of the industry, including its growing interest in inking deals with authors to publish some of the hit books Amazon sells.
Booksellers and publishers are crying foul, saying they’re being cut out of the chain by an aggressive Goliath. But some authors who have recently signed with Amazon Publishing say the company simply offered them a better, fairer deal than traditional publishers.
And those Amazon deals are a boon for consumers, the authors say, because they bring earlier book releases and cheaper prices.
Amazon quietly launched its own book imprint in 2009. The effort expanded the next year into a line of foreign translations and another of "manifestos" from thought leaders, but it stayed fairly under-the-radar until this May, when Amazon brought in famed New York editor Larry Kirshbaum to head up its Amazon Publishing unit.
Kirshbaum quickly dumped gasoline on Amazon’s publishing sparks: Last month, he signed uber-popular self-help author Timothy Ferriss, whose book The 4-Hour Workweek (published by Crown, a division of Random House) remains a perennial bestseller. Amazon plans to publish Ferriss’s next book, The 4-Hour Chef, in April 2012, in all formats: digital, audio, and old-fashioned ink on paper.
Ferriss is the highest-profile author yet to jump ship from the traditional publishing houses, and his defection has rivals spooked.
"Amazon is holding the entire book industry hostage," says Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association. "First they disintermediated retailers, and now it’s publishers and authors."
This post, from Dani Amore, originally appeared on her Goodreads blog on 9/21/11 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.
If you read the headline above, you may think I’m going to launch into a rousing defense of indie authors everywhere.
I’m not. Frankly, I think there are a lot of bad indie books, but I also feel there are a lot of bad books put out by the established publishing industry. I also think there are a lot of fabulous indie books, as well as amazing traditionally published books.
[Publetariat Editor’s note: strong language after the jump]
So why write this post?
Well, I recently read a thread on which indie authors giving their books away for free, or pricing them cheaply, were compared to street corner prostitutes with syphilis, metaphorically willing to service clients orally for pocket change.
Being a person with a sarcastic and often caustic sense of humor, I laughed initially. But then I thought about it. And I thought of some of the bestselling novelists who are giving away, or have given away, their books away for free.
Lisa Gardner, for instance, offered her novel ALONE for free. Andrew Gross offered one of his novels for free. Currently, Ted Dekker has a short story/prequel for free on Kindle.
I don’t hear anyone referring to Ms. Gardner, Mr. Gross or Mr. Dekker as cheap whores.
So what do I make of this?
Well, I work in advertising. So I’ve experienced firsthand the meeting of brands with the marketplace. I’ve sat through many, many focus groups. The result?
I believe good products survive. There are always critics. Some with sound, astute comments. Others, sheer nutjobs. Like the lady in a focus group who raved with great eloquence about my television commercial, then proceeded to talk about having sex with aliens in the Everglades. (True story.)
So what do I think of the glee and vitriol that seems to accompany the skewering of indie authors?
Couple things.
No fear of retribution.
I think it’s a lot easier for someone, let’s call him Wannabe Writer William, to bash an indie author than it is for him to trash a bestselling novelist.
Why?
Well, the bestselling novelist, let’s call her Bestselling Betty, has clout within the industry. She’s with a big publishing house and probably a big literary agency.
(Who knows, maybe Wannabe William has submitted his unpublished novel to both and is hoping to hear some good news – he wouldn’t want to jeopardize anything.) Bestselling Betty also writes dynamite blurbs and the occasional book review. If William ever sells his book, he might be asking Betty for a blurb.
Does he want to piss her off?
Hell no.
But what about bashing Two Jobs Ted? Ted’s a grocery store manager and a part-time reporter for his local paper. He’s married, with three kids. He’s also an indie author who just published his first book. It’s good. He didn’t have money to hire an editor, but he had friends he respects read the book, as well as proofread it. It’s a little rough around the edges, a few typos slipped by, but overall, it’s a good story.
Wannabe William reads it. He catches the typos. Maybe there’s a small plot twist that doesn’t make sense. Wannabe William decides to bash Two Jobs Ted. This is just the kind of thing these indie authors are putting out while his book sits in the corner, garnering no interest. So William tees off on Ted. He’s not afraid of Mr. Two Jobs – what’s he going to do, send William some day old bread from the grocery store? Write an unflattering story about William in his paper, the East Bumfuck Bugle?
The Power of the Asterisk
You all know the guy or gal. If they ever lose a game, or their favorite team gets knocked out of the playoffs, they have a knack for creating what I call the Asterisk Excuse. It usually goes something like this: “Well of course my team lost, three of our starters were out with Indonesian Malaria, and the waterboy spilled Ecstasy into the team Gatorade.”
You get the idea.
Wannabe Writer William has yet to sell his novel. And it pisses him off to see indie authors selling books, getting reviews, maybe even making it on to a few bestseller lists. But what really chaps his ass is when they refer to themselves as “authors.” It infuriates William!
Each rejection letter from an agent, editor or publisher makes William feel worse, and fuels his anger.
What would make him feel better?
To point out that books from indie authors all have asterisks. They’re not “real” books or authors. Want proof? Look at Two Jobs Ted? He sucks! In fact, ALL indie authors blow!
There, now William feels better.
My response…So what?
Sorry, that’s my take on everything I just said. So fucking what.
The marketplace is cold and cruel. Yes, there are hidden agendas. Yes, there are mean spirited people who love to rip others to shreds.
Again, so what?
Raymond Chandler, when asked about the dead body in the trunk of a car in his timeless classic THE BIG SLEEP, replied “Oh, I guess I forgot about that.”
In Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe has his hero take off all of his clothes, swim out to the wreck, then immediately begin stuffing food into his pockets.
Oops.
I was just reading a new thriller by a New York Times bestseller. The hero of the book, who is supposed to be incredibly intelligent and street-smart, was obviously being duped. I had a basketball coach who if he felt you telegraphed a pass would scream at you, “I saw that one coming from Cincinnati!” Well, I’m guessing every reader saw that plot twist coming from Cincinnati. I stopped reading the book.
Again. So what?
If you want to write a book, write it. Tell your story. If you’ve got the money, hire a reputable editor, proofreader, and ebook designer.
If you don’t have the money, do the best you can.
Just know that when you go out with your book, the headhunters will show up sooner or later, looking to crack your skull.
Do what I do. Read their reviews. Hear them out. Honestly ask yourself if they have a point. Use the good feedback to make yourself a better writer. Do a better job with each book.
If their take on your book is as bloody as all 120 minutes of The Passion of the Christ, that’s okay, too.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
As both a person.
And a writer.
Hey, if you get kicked in the crotch seven times, say “fuck you” eight times.
This is going to be one of those posts where I ramble on without any real direction and hope I discover a point along the way. “How is that different to any of your other posts?” you ask. Well, screw you. You’re the one reading. In truth it’s because I have a lot of thoughts on this subject, and I’m keen to discuss it, but no really firm opinion yet. And I’m not the kind of person who would usually be described as lacking in opinion. Let’s start with a description of the concept.
Crowdfunding is something that’s not really new, but something that’s gained massive traction in the internet age. Essentially it works like this: Someone comes up with an idea that needs funding. They ask “the people” if they would support said idea by pledging cash. If enough cash is pledged to pay for the idea, the people are charged and the idea goes ahead. If not enough moolah is pledged, no one is charged and the idea sinks like a lead turd, never to be spoken of again.
It’s not unlike general arts funding, except everyday folk are approached for the cash. And the internet makes it especially easy with sites like Kickstarter and Pozible streamlining the whole process. People pledging money tend to get something out of it too. They can chip in a small amount just for the warm feelings of contributing to something worthwhile, or they can pledge more and get something tangible if the idea goes ahead. For example, if it’s an event being crowdfunded a pledge of a certain amount could include a ticket to the event. A higher pledge might include a VIP pass. Higher still and you get a VIP pass and a t-shirt. And so on. There are all kinds of incentives. And it’s becoming de rigeur for arts funding. Which is, on the one hand, great – it helps to get arts things funded. On the other hand, it’s fucked – arts things should be government funded anyway, but the sad reality is that they’re not. And they get funded less and less all the time. But I’m going to avoid a political tirade here and just talk about the concept of crowdfunding.
My first direct experience of it was with a Kickstarter project where film-maker Christopher Salmon was asking for funds to make a short film of Neil Gaiman’s short story, The Price. For a fully-realised animated feature he needed $150,000 of funding. Neil Gaiman himself endorsed the idea (which is how I heard about it via Twitter) and the thing went viral. The funding has hit $161,774 and the short film is being made. I kicked in and my contribution will result in me receiving a DVD of the film when it’s made. The Price is one of my favourite Gaiman shorts, so I’m dead chuffed about that.
I’m now directly involved in another crowdfunded project. The Emerging Writers Festival wants to run a digital publishing event up in Brisbane and they asked me to be involved with one of the panels. I was happy to oblige, but the whole thing can only go ahead if it gets funding from the people, as the government are so tight they eat coal and shit diamonds. The project has hit its goal. Sweet – I’m going to Brisbane. Here it is.
These are examples of great ideas becoming real because the people behind the ideas asked the public if they would be interested, and the public responded by making it happen. Kinda awesome, no?
But it’s gone beyond that. I’ve noticed several “name” authors using Kickstarter or something similar to finance a new novel. They’re completely skipping the publisher and using ebook and Print On Demand technology, essentially self-publishing so they don’t need a publisher. But, and this is important, they’re recognising the need for professionals in editing, proofing, layout, cover design and so on. All of which costs money. Plus, they want to be paid for their efforts. I know! Authors expecting to be paid! Are they mad? Yes – mad as a hessian sack full of Hatters in Wonderland. But then again, we all know writers are mad. We wouldn’t be writers if we weren’t stark raving bonkers. So these authors have asked the fans to kick in if they want to see the book.
This is truly the most democratic path to publishing you can imagine, as only those people who want to read the book will contribute. Therefore, if the total requested is raised, the book will happen. (If only trad publishers had anything like that assurance when putting out a new book.)
However, and here’s the real rub, those authors need a fan base in the first place. I’m quite okay with self-publishing and indie publishing, as regular readers here well know. I’ve had a varied path to publication myself and have dabbled like a mischievous sorcerer in a variety of methods. Any path that leads where you’re going is the right path.
Yet I know that some newbies in the writing game – and other areas of the arts for that matter – see crowdfunding as a way to get a start without having to work so hard. The trouble is, someone with no real following, without any proven track record or an existing fan base, will have a hell of a job getting any cash at all through a crowdfunded project. Like those self-publishers really nailing the market, especially with ebooks, who are actually trading on their past publishing success, only established artists are likely to get any crowdfunded money. The Amanda Hockings of this world are most certainly the exceptions not the rules, as I discussed at length here. People trying to start out will still be struggling along like tiny minnows against the flooding tide of existing artists.
Of course, you’re always going to get those who buck the trends and emerge out of obscurity like a lucky butterfly made of cash, but they’re going to be very rare. I guess it’s fair in some ways – we all need to work hard to get successful. I think there’s something fundamentally damaging about success that comes too easily. Then again, I work like a son-of-a-bitch and success is a slow burn for me. So maybe I’m just bitter. But people expecting a handout without proving themselves are unlikely to get one, and that’s where this is different from panhandling. After all, it’s far easier to ignore a beggar on the internet who wants you to fund their desire to write than it is to ignore someone on the street who’s really doing it tough and simply trying to eat. The truly destitute in society need our compassion and assistance. Would-be writers crying out online, pleading with people to pay their rent and grocery bills while they try to make a go of writing, do not. They need to do something to earn our attention, then maybe we’d be more inclined to throw a few shekels their way and see if they can climb a rung or two of the ladder.
It sounds harsh and I don’t want to be accused of ignoring the struggle of emerging talent, or stepping on people trying to get a start in this game. Thor knows, I’ve struggled hard enough myself, and still do. But I’ve mentioned it before, determination and hard bloody work are as important as talent in this game. If you can wrangle a few bucks out of people without proving yourself first, more power to you. I wish anyone trying it the best of luck. But don’t get shitty when you post a Kickstarter saying you want five grand to try to finish your first novel and get pretty much sweet fuck all. We’d all have loved five grand to finish our first novels, but none of us got it and we went ahead and did the work anyway. Of course, a few people do get actual arts grants for this stuff but, like the established writers making a go of crowdfunding their next books, those arts grant recipients had some history to prove themselves worthy of receiving said grant.
So I guess my opinion really is this – I see the whole new trend in crowdfunding to be an extremely exciting thing. Let the voice of the people be heard. It’s a great way to finance things which might otherwise slip under the radar and never happen. But I don’t think it’s a way for unknown names – in any field of endeavour – to suddenly circumvent that harsh crucible of slaving away at their art like a motherfucker while also scraping a living, engaging personal relationships and generally being a human person. Which is a shame, but I guess these things aren’t easy for a reason. I compare it often to my life as a martial artist, and like I often tell my students, “Kung Fu is seriously hard work. After all, if it was easy, everyone would do it.”
This week we are pleased to promote Publetariat member Joseph C. Kunz Jr.‘s blog post from his member blog to the front page.
These ten steps will help you painlessly jump-start your new adventure. Although most of these steps are very easy to accomplish, I believe that they will help you quickly lay the foundation for a successful self-published book. Now is your chance to go for it. Have fun.
1. Realize that this is a business: Self-publishing is a business. It can be your side-business, main business, or even be your hobby. But you must still run it like a business. That means you will need to learn the basics of management, marketing, sales, public relations, accounting, negotiation, etc.
2. Start your due-diligence: You must research what will be involved in self-publishing. Buy several of the most popular books about self-publishing, such as those by Dan Pointer and Robert Bly. Visit the popular self-publishing blogs, such as TheBookDesigner.com and Publetariat.com. Visit the biggest websites that can sell your book, such as SmashWords and Scribd.
3. Keep your current job: This will ensure that you will have a regular paycheck. It is also very important to keep building your resume. A good resume will help build your credentials and be your proof of your accomplishments. This will give you more credibility with your readers.
4. Discover your niche: In today’s terms, this means “micro-niche”. As a self-publisher you will most likely find the biggest success by narrowly defining your market niche. It is much easier to become an expert in a very specific market where it is much less crowded with big well-established writers and publishers.
5. Start with an ebook: This is the smartest way to get started. It is fast and inexpensive. It is the perfect way to dip your toes into the water and see how comfortable it is. Starting with an ebook allows you to feel out your market. It also allows you to make any changes or corrections well before sending your book to a print-on-demand printer and distributor.
6. Set-up your blog: Once you figure out what your niche is, start your free WordPress blog right away. This will get your creative juices flowing. It will also establish an internet home for you where you will show the world your expertise in your niche.
7. Get your spouse/partner on board: It is important to keep your family involved with a decision like this. Keeping your family informed and involved will help keep all of you happy.
8. Join professional groups: This will help keep you informed of what is going on inside your market niche. These same people might also become the market for your book. Professional affiliations also give you more credibility with your readers.
9. Advocate for your target market/audience: Nowadays, especially because of the internet, you can immediately start to show the world that you are an expert. Start writing for industry publications and websites.
10. Start your next book: Now that you have accomplished the previous steps, keep the momentum that you have built-up going. Keep improving your business model. Never stop learning about marketing and promotion. Keep enhancing your blog. Keep improving your first book. Start your next book.
This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com.
These ten steps will help you painlessly jump-start your new adventure. Although most of these steps are very easy to accomplish, I believe that they will help you quickly lay the foundation for a successful self-published book. Now is your chance to go for it. Have fun.
1. Realize that this is a business: Self-publishing is a business. It can be your side-business, main business, or even be your hobby. But you must still run it like a business. That means you will need to learn the basics of management, marketing, sales, public relations, accounting, negotiation, etc.
2. Start your due-diligence: You must research what will be involved in self-publishing. Buy several of the most popular books about self-publishing, such as those by Dan Pointer and Robert Bly. Visit the popular self-publishing blogs, such as TheBookDesigner.com and Publetariat.com. Visit the biggest websites that can sell your book, such as SmashWords and Scribd.
3. Keep your current job: This will ensure that you will have a regular paycheck. It is also very important to keep building your resume. A good resume will help build your credentials and be your proof of your accomplishments. This will give you more credibility with your readers.
4. Discover your niche: In today’s terms, this means “micro-niche”. As a self-publisher you will most likely find the biggest success by narrowly defining your market niche. It is much easier to become an expert in a very specific market where it is much less crowded with big well-established writers and publishers.
5. Start with an ebook: This is the smartest way to get started. It is fast and inexpensive. It is the perfect way to dip your toes into the water and see how comfortable it is. Starting with an ebook allows you to feel out your market. It also allows you to make any changes or corrections well before sending your book to a print-on-demand printer and distributor.
6. Set-up your blog: Once you figure out what your niche is, start your free WordPress blog right away. This will get your creative juices flowing. It will also establish an internet home for you where you will show the world your expertise in your niche.
7. Get your spouse/partner on board: It is important to keep your family involved with a decision like this. Keeping your family informed and involved will help keep all of you happy.
8. Join professional groups: This will help keep you informed of what is going on inside your market niche. These same people might also become the market for your book. Professional affiliations also give you more credibility with your readers.
9. Advocate for your target market/audience: Nowadays, especially because of the internet, you can immediately start to show the world that you are an expert. Start writing for industry publications and websites.
10. Start your next book: Now that you have accomplished the previous steps, keep the momentum that you have built-up going. Keep improving your business model. Never stop learning about marketing and promotion. Keep enhancing your blog. Keep improving your first book. Start your next book.
This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com.
