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Self Publishing Blog Table Of ContentsCopyright 2007 by Morris Rosenthal - All Rights Reserved The published version of Print-on-Demand Book Publishing can be purchased direct from the publisher, from online bookstores, or ordered through your local bookshop. |
Starting a Self Publishing Company
Copyright 2007 by Morris Rosenthal All Rights Reserved |
The first post I ever made gets right to the point. If you're publishing
your own books to make a living, you better be prepared to reject your own
work if it's not commercially viable.
Self-Publishing as a Business - You are the Acquisitions Editor Some new publishers get caught up in trying to do as much "business" as possible, without regard to the expense or the potential profit. There's no pot of gold in selling your rights overseas. Foreign Rights Deals - How American Books are Published Internationally For an author these days not to have a website is almost unheard of, but not all websites are created equal. Posting your work is the best way to get feedback and to sell books. How to Increase Book Sales with an Author Website I may be the only professional self publisher around who doesn't have it in for the subsidy presses. I think they are just the right thing for the majority of authors who can't get a trade contract and don't want to be in business. But it's important to understand what it is you are paying for, and why. Author Expectations and Subsidy Presses Print on Demand provides a low cost, low risk method for new publishers to set up a business. All you need is an ISBN block, the ability to produce books, and an agreement with Lightning Source, Replica, or Booksurge, to get some hands-off distribution, at least through Amazon. How to Start a Publishing Company with Print-on-Demand Why silly people used to buy their own books or bomb Amazon in an attempt to inflate their sales rank, and why it doesn't matter. Manipulating Amazon Bestsellers For Fun or Profit? One way to maximize the profits on your book sales without having a short discount distribution deal is to sell direct to customers. Selling Books Online by Mail OrderSelling Books Online by Mail Order Many people understand that Amazon is the world's biggest bookstore, but they don't realize that Amazon has higher sales than the entire Barnes and Noble or Borders chains. Amazon IS the world's biggest bookstore One of the few "perks" to being an author is you may be able to deduct some tax expenses for travel if you genuinely write about travel for a living. If you're a technical writer, I hope you like buying gadgets. Career as a Technical Writer or Travel Writer Barnes and Noble is one of the larger trade publishers in the U.S. already, and if I understand their conference calls, they'd like to get even bigger. Sterling Publishing and Barnes and Noble Books Amazon publishes books as an author services company through their Booksurge subsidiary, and they also publish ebooks under the Amazon imprint. Amazon Press and Out of Copyright Classics The business math of becoming a small publisher isn't controlled by printing costs, it's controlled by distribution discounts and other expenses. Small Publisher Economics Beyond the Manuscript Thanks to the way database search works, a funny book title (in the bad English sense) can actually increase book sales, but you don't want to get carried away. Funny Book Title Grammar Sells Books! Sometimes even self publishers have a book that they know would do better with the backing and economics of a big trade publisher. It takes a query to sell a manuscript. Sample Query Letter Example for Selling Out While Amazon has backed way off on ebook sales for the time being, I drew some interesting conclusions about cover design back in the days they were selling. Ebook Cover Design for Business or Erotic Ebooks Most self publishers will choose to use the Amazon Associates program to sell book through their own websites. The reason is the increased visibility these sales will create for the title on Amazon. Amazon Associates and Amazon Advantage Yes, copyright law does protect any work in fixed form whether or not you register, but there's protection and there's prevention. In the case of registering a copyright, it's the ounce of prevention that's worth a pound of litigation. Copyright Abuse and Filing Copyright Selling books requires marketing, but print advertising is usually a bad choice for the self publisher. It's expensive, difficult to track, and has never convinced me to buy a book! Why Print Advertising for Books Doesn't Work With all of the new author services companys popping up and claiming they'll help you self publish, it's important to understand the difference between being a subsidy published author and starting your own company. What is a Self Publishing Company? A blast from the past, this post tells the story of what Amazon ebook sales were before they dumped Lightning Source as an ebook supplier in 2006. In the eyes of the publishing world (including bookstores and distributors) the thing that makes a publisher is the ISBN block. It's the closest you can come to registering your publishing company somewhere:-) Some authors sell books to promote themselves, other authors promote themselves to sell books. The point is, you have to promote something if you're going to get anywhere. Book Promotion, Self Promotion and Reputation If your goal is to become an author for a trade publisher, there's a standard path to follow from your book idea to approaching a publisher. From Book Idea to Book Proposal - The Submission Process Whether you want to publish your own books or publish other authors, you have to start at the beginning. Starting Your Own Publishing House Some people will debate until they are blue in the face the differences between publishing online and e-publishing. Online Publishing and E-Publishing Amazon is the largest bookstore by volume, but Barnes and Noble has approaching 800 large bookstores spread all over North America Barnes and Noble Book Store vs Amazon Stocking There are a lot of good reasons to talk to an accountant and a lawyer about the structure of your publishing business and the risks you are assuming. Liability and Publisher Business Structure The promise of print on demand has always been the ability to print just one book at a time, but in reality, you'll hope that they are printing a lot more than that. How to Print Books One at a Time Any viable business becomes an asset in and of itself, and the publishing business is no exception. Publishing Business Valuation and Estate Planning Self publishers face different challenges than the large trades in marketing their books, and should never get caught up in acting larger than they are. How to Sell Books for Self Publishers If there's a controversial business model out there it's PublishAmerica. My thoughts about their intentions. Does PublishAmerica really Publish America? You can plan your business around dreams, but it makes more business sense to plan your business around reality. Bookstore Sales and Publisher Dreams I publish this blog with Blogger. I'm not always happy with the results, but it's the horse I rode in on. How To Publish Online with Blogger Software The fundemental question facing any new publisher today is whether to dive into the world of offset or to build a publishing house with Print on Demand. Printing Offset vs Print on Demand Publishing experts abound online, but only some of them are on the up-and-up and you can't be a smart information consumer until you study the industry on your own. Help from Publishing Experts Online Some publishers confuse the publishing world with a classroom, thinking all that matters is great ideas. How you conduct yourself in publishing will determine how seriously people take you. Presenting Yourself as a Professional Writer Perhaps the largest subsidy publisher, iUniverse offers a unique connection with the Barnes and Noble chain to a select few. IUniverse Star Program and Barnes and Noble Ebooks don't grow on trees, they live on servers. There's a lot of unique ebook platforms out there, but the retailers will determine which wins in the end. Ebook Server Software - Amazon Mobipocket, Adobe Content Server and Microsoft Graphic novels are the next big thing of the decade in publishing. They make a better match for POD than cookbooks:-) Graphic Novels and Self Publishing Comics There's no prize waiting when your book appears quickly and full of costly errors. Take your time and get it right. Publishing a Book isn't a Race - Printing a Book isn't the Finish Line The online retail world has opened new opportunities to musicians who want to self publish their own music. Music Self Publishing on CD and Amazon Audio Books Another look at taxes for the working travel author. Tax Deductions for Travel Book Author A bit of a rant about the way academics do studies about topics they haven't mastered. Book Sales Studies by Academics and Publishing Industry Groups Books sell year-round, but there are cycles you should be aware of. How many times can I revisit the tax subject for travel? The funny thing is I'm looking at a travel deduction for 2006 and I need to talk to a qualified CPA. Tax Write-Offs for Travel Writers An early look at estimates for Chris Anderson's Long Tail theory of online retailers. The Long Tail of Amazon Gets Shorter:-) What happens when a foreign publisher translates and publishes an American book without permission. Book Piracy, Translations and International Rights This was the first crack in the Amazon ebook scheme. They ended up dropping them from the UK altogether, and a year later, dropping most of the US ebooks as well, Your books are content, so it's no problem finding people willing to "publish" them online for you, but it's a bad idea. Free Online Book Publishing and Google Print Some trade publishers used to own their own stores, now Barnes and Noble comes the closest to that model. Vertically integrated businesses are probably best for small players, when available. Vertical Integration vs Printing and Distributing Books Writing a children's book is every other parent's dream, but writing children's books for POD requires careful consideration. Children's Books and Writing for Print on Demand The unfortunate side of Christian book publishing is that many authors get taken in by companies they believe will have Christian values, but which are merely cashing in. Christian Book Publishing and Religious Books I try not to give step by step recipes for publishing, but there are some basic guidelines you want to keep in mind. A Book Publishing Guide for Authors Right after I did the book publishing guide, I figured an ebook publishing guide was in order. An Ebook Publishing Business Guide If every other parent wants to write a children's book, everybody want to write a cookbook, or at least, criticize one. Cookbook Publishing and Writing a Cook Book Online It's just stunning how large the college textbook market really is. My heart goes out to students who get stuck paying $700+ a year for filler. College Textbook Sales and an Internet Textbook Model Too many POD fiction books are published by subsidy presses for fees, but offer little chance of success. I never bothered publishing my own novel with POD even though I know what I'm doing:-) Fiction Print-on-Demand Published By Subsidy Presses As Amazon drifted in their e-book policy, they introduced "shorts" which are their main ebook stars these days. Amazon Shorts Sales and Yesterday's Sales Rank for E-books Amazon isn't just about books, they also give small-time producers a way to distribute movie DVD's. Make Your Own Movie DVD with Amazon CustomFlix Video on Demand Shorts will come and shorts will go, but rock and roll.. Amazon Shorts the Also Bought Book Shopping Links with E-Books The old Author's Guild fight over sale of used books on Amazon is largely forgotten by this point. Sale of Remainders, Review Copies and Deep Discount Books on Amazon Nonfiction books are always cloneable by technical writers, who can reword the whole thing. Most trades don't stoop QUITE that low, but any hot area gets crowded in a hurry. Competing Titles in Nonfiction and Market Saturation When you're writing that nonfiction book, you better take the audience and the technology into account. Writing a Book vs Writing Nonfiction for Journals The great limitation of early print-on-demand equipment was poor image reproduction. Everybody is slowly getting better at it. Book Illustration and Print-on-Demand Grayscale Photos There's no reason to go it alone in the Internet age, unless it's because the other publishers on the list irritate you. Yahoo Publishing Discussion Lists Another how to get started article. How to Start Your Own Publishing Company Revisited So many authors aspire to a big trade book contract, but if you sign the wrong contract, you can lose the right to carry on in your profession as you would choose. How A Book Publishing Contract Changes Everything Not subsidy publishing, not vanity publishing, just self publishing with print-on-demand printing rather than offset. Print on Demand Self Publishing There's almost no connection between getting books printed and publishing. One business is about adding value to paper with ink, the other is about selling books. Book Publisher vs Book Printer Self Publishers can't afford to outsource authoring or marketing as that's the whole business. Services Self Publishers Can Afford to Outsource I'm not the only person to notice that the bestselling nonfiction books of our times are diet books. I suppose many diet books should be reclassified as fiction. Diet Books and Fitness Guides for Healthy Profits? My favorite blog post of the 199 I've written to date, in essence, a love story:-) A Story of Alternate Publishing Universes If you write poetry or memoir, self publishing is probably the only way you will get the book printed, but I wouldn't count on many sales. Poetry and Memoir or Getting Published The key job at a self publishing company is that of the acquisitions editor, the facet of your personality that turns down your bad book ideas before it's too late. Acquisitions Editor and Publisher Sales numbers for the publishing industry were notoriously bad before Neilsen came along. Now publishers spend their time looking for excuses as to why their books aren't selling as well as the next guy's. Numbers for Book Sales and Nielsen Bookscan You can buy a single ISBN number to self publish the cheapest way possible, but I think it's penny wise and dollar foolish Buying Just One ISBN Number or Publishing Too Many Books How I didn't do lunch in New York, and why. New York Publishers and Doing Lunch They say a good working day starts with a good breakfast, which may be why I'm so grumpy all the time Cook Books and Nutrition for the Bachelor's Diet I return a few times to the theme of publishing a cookbook because it's something I have in the back of my mind to do one day, if I ever learn how to cook. This isn't a political post, it's about how everybody can get a book into print. Getting anybody to buy it, much less to sit down and read it, is another matter. The Democratization of Publishing While your choice of a printer isn't the most important part of the publishing process, it's not one of those deals where you take the one with three A's from the yellow pages. Choosing A Book Printing Company Twenty plus year after I got out of college it still gets my goat how much they charge the poor kids for books. Courses ought to be run on packets, cheap packets produced with POD Collected Papers and Chapters in Course Packet Publishing It's no fun to second guess yourself every time you buy or sell something, particularly if you're in business. So, I speak from experience. Seller's Regret and Buyer's Remorse in the Publishing Business Nothing up my sleaves, nothing under my hat. Just a production schedule and a little irsk management, forcasting the failure points. How Books Get Published and Production Schedules Nonfiction publishing covers a broad spectrum of genres, some of which at the most basic level ressemble information packaging. If you're going to package information for a living, you better watch out for the end game. Information Entrepreneurs and Publishing Overlapping Titles Getting your title to show up in database searches is one thing. There's a big difference between when people laugh with you and at you. Don't Title Your Book "Slef Publishing" Let's see. It's January, so I must have been predicting how the year would go. I'm afraid to read it now. I still run into people from time to time who are making a living selling copyshop books. Copyshop Binding and Book Publishing Without an ISBN I don't know why I wrote about alternative medicine when I don't even believe in traditional medicine. I'm more of a "leave me on the snow pack" type. Folk Remedies And Alternative Medicine Books Issues is an understatement. Problems would be a better description of what faces the memoir self publisher. Memoir Publisher Marketing Issues Publishers who don't plan for the whole life cycle of a book will throw good money after bad, again and again. Shelf Life vs Book Returns and Sales I've never written a movie script but when I saw Google Video come out, I though they'd be taking over. Instead they bought U-Tube. Google Video and Writing a Script I don't care what publishers say about relativity on publishing lists. There are books that should never have gotten through the publishing process because they consist of nothing but poorly disguised rip-offs from other books. Quality Books and How to Detect Plagiarism When Editing A bit of a play on words, book pricing has to meet customer perceptions of what a book is worth if you want to make them happy. How To Price A Book Judged By It's Cover Price Could have titled the post starting a publishing business at home, since there's no differnence. There is, however, adifference between publishing books out of your kitchen and the big NY trades. Starting A Home Publishing Business And the difference between self publishing and the big NY trades is that the self publisher has to write the book to fit the available business model. Writing Children's Books for Self Publication There's still a big library market for books, but it's a slim fraction of what it was in the great days of collection building. I suppose I'll repeat it again. You can't blindly run the same promotions for a POD book that you would for a large trade book with a big offset run and sell-in. How to Promote Books Published with Print on Demand If I knew the secret of writing a book that sells would I share it? Absolutely, because I'm too lazy to spend my days cranking out books. I've got too much blogging to do. How to Write a Book that Sells I thought it would be interesting to look at the differences between the iUniverse subsidy model and the academic press subsidy model. I'm still looking. Supported Publishing with iUniverse and Academic Presses Lightning SOurce and Amazon put their heads together before the 2005 Holiday season and big sales were had by all. Lightning SOurce 2005 Holiday Season You can reduce both your costs and your risks but publishing with POD, but you may also reduce the potential payout, which can play back into the risk equation. Costs, Profits and Risks in the Book Publishing Business It looks like nine cents a page is it for the time being with color POD. Color Print on Demand (POD) Economics Doctor Suess would turn over in his grave if he read my tribute. Of course, I read his biography, and as the English royalty might say, I was not amused. Green Poets and Self-Publishing Hams How many books would a book buyer buy if a book buyer did buy books? Well, I only made two posts in February, one on how to publish a book and the other on how to start a company. That's where I got the creative title for this archive page. Not to get lost in semantics, but some publishers just like the sound of "imprint" and use it when they mean "publisher" or "publishing company". Starting A Publishing Company (Not Imprint) The publishing business is changing, especially for small publishers, and one day the Internet is going to blow most of the big publishers away. The Future of the Publishing Business Getting poetry published can be difficult if you follow the crowd, but if you strike out on your own, you can repurpose poems into nonfiction books. Look, up in the sky. It's a career, no it's a hobby, no, it's Self Publishingman. The Vocational Calling of Self Publishing Print on demand is finally getting ready for prime time with color printing, but I'm not sure it's that great a match for children's books. Books for Children with Color Illustrations When you sell a book, you own it until they forget where they bought it. Well, that's true for ebooks if not paper. Selling Books Direct and Customer Service Whenever you see a scary word like "reality" in the title of an article you know some clown is going to preach at you. Reality of Starting a New Publishing Company Cookbooks are perhaps America's favorite books. Therefore, if you become a cookbook publisher, everybody will love you - right? It's the old question of start fast or start slow, but you have to star somewhere. A Book Publishing Company Start-up Checklist John Caples book Tested Advertising Methods impressed me greatly. I haven't really adopted any of his techniques, but you should. At least now I know that I'm doing everything wrong. Testing Your Book Promotion Campaigns If you have money to spend in pursuit of being a writer, there are plenty of orgainizers out there willing to make a living off you. Writer's Resources and Seminars I don't believe in using humor in writing because it's no laughing matter. Everything I write is serious, oh so serious. Humor in Writing and Book Promotion I try not to buy remainders, though I'm a big used book nut. A genuine "sold before at retail" used book means at least the author got paid once. Remainders are bad business for everybody. Bargain Books and Remainders Bad Deal For Authors I'm a self publsher by choice. Like the addict says, I can quit at any time. But it's true, I have turned down offers from larger trades on all of my titles, some multiple times. Trade Publishers Buy Self Published POD Titles Small publishers aren't in competition with large publishers anymore than ants are in competition with elephants. A biologist or zoologist might claim ants and elephants are in competion, but what do educated people know about anything? Small Publishers Should Think Small Print advertising for books is the last refuge of a cast-off from the major trade publishers posing as a marketing expert. Wasting Money on Print Exposure:-) If you're going to publish online as a business, what you're doing is starting a publishing company. Starting an Online Book Publishing Company Ebooks were the next big think back in 1999. Remember the show Space 1999? Remember Ebooks? The Christian segment has risen again from the ashes, thanks to Born Again Christians and a certain fiction series about the End Of Days. Starting a Christian Book Publishing Company It's a cat eat cat world in romance novels, and the prizes, while big, aren't quite as big as they are made out to be. Romance Novel Genre Sales and Printing If you have a lap, you can work for the publishing industry at home, or on the road for that matter. All you need is a skinny computer and you're ready to beg for work. Home Based Business Opportunities in Publishing At some point or another, all publishing "experts" have to put in their two cents worth about book pricing. I got change back with mine. The most important thing you can do before you start writing your first book is decide if you're doing it for fun or because you want to make a living. Before You Write Your First Book I've never been good at reading tea leaves, you should see my portfolio, but I give it a shot with reading between the electrons of the ebook industry. Reading Between Lines in the Ebook Industry There are two ways to get your book stocked in bookstores. Convince them to order before it's published, or let the market convince them to order afterwards. Chris Anderson's soon to be bestseller about the Long Tail effect on Internet merchandising. Authors who sign up with subsidy publishers and self publishers using print on demand have less than nothing in common. POD vs Print on Demand Publishers You've got to be careful about giving away the farm (and duplicate content penalties) if your main marketing technique is writing articles for other websites. Writing Articles to Promote Books I've never been to a book launch party yet, but at least I got a couple invites:-) Don't let somebody help themsleves to your bank account in the guise of helping you self publish your book. Must have been July 4th Authors and Writers Independence Day Compromise Way back in the reaches of time, I thought it would be a neat idea to publish excerpts from my Self Publishing blog as a book, turning my usual model on its head. Hell hath no fury like a publishing metropolis scorned. The Publisher New York Loves To Hate I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a home magazine selling leather bound European books as decorations, you know, for the shelves. In America We Publish Books For Readers The hard hat for the self publisher to wear is that of the cold hearted businessman. The Self Publisher as a Businessman I grew up with a children's books author, and if she didn't get rich, at least she had fun. Mom's Children's Books and Cartoons This was the beginning of the great Amazon Also Bought catastrophe that stretched for six months:-) A/B Testing for Publishers and Amazon Also Bought There's something to be said for trial by a jury of your peers, especially if you want to beat the rap. Author and Publisher Networking Online Forensic accountants might tell you that the big publishers all cheat on their sales, but I think it's got more to do with incompetence than criminality. Publisher Cheating on Sales and Royalty I gave myself this strange challenge to write a series of posts with one word titles. Being the stubborn sort, I stuck it out. Of course, the problem with one word titles is they don't decribe much to man or to algo. Like ISBN, now what the heck is that supposed to mean? Why not Self Publishing ISBN or something similar. Anad Help, sounds like I'm trying to rip-off a Beatles tune. And the winner is, Amazon! A Bookstore Growing by 4000 Titles a Day Many of the questions I get have much more to do with writing than publishing. The same general principles of commercial writing apply wether you are self publishing or working as a trade author. I'm not talking about copyright, per se, but about not losing the book to a laptop thief or a hard drive failure. Both of these scenarios are far more common that publishers stealing manuscripts. Protecting Your Work Before And After Printing Authors who have goals but lack experience often don't know how many books they need to sell to reach their sales goals. How Many Books Does An Author Need To Sell ... The title which suggests that both publishers and authors are aliens is somewhat misleading. Publishers are clearly earthlings. Publishers are from Mars, Authors are from Pluto Blogger has given me off-and-on ulcers, or would have if I wasn't pretty relaxed these days. I considered dumping the blog format altogether. De-blogging a Publishing Industry Blog There are plenty of publishers specializing in public domain content and republishing old books. But they take a shotgun approach where a laser gun might be better suited. Republishing an Old Cookbook with Expired Copyright The rise of the major book chains has happened a lot faster than, say, the rise of Walmart. It's amazing how they've figured out the market and the economics of scale. Barnes n Noble is Practically Publishing Bookstores Self employment doesn't mean sleeping late and living without deadlines. If you don't sell books, you don't eat. By this point you've figured out that I never learned to type and my spelling isn't much better. But hey, it's a blog. If you're super confident in your marketing paltform you can get away with selling a book that looks like a generic label, but it's not the easiest approach. Different distribution methods suit different business models and budgets. You don't HAVE to do anything, but if you are going to have a distributor, it pays to understand the trade-offs. POD Distribution vs Full Service Book Distributor It's funny how much I sweat the small stuff when I published my first book, only to figure out later how small most of it really is. Book Description, Annotation and Publisher Marketing Cheerful people hand out happy advice, grumpy people tell you that time is running out and you're going to be living in an abandoned car if you don't shape up. The Grumpy Publishing Consultant Steve Weber of "The Home Based Bookstore" fame has written a great book about marketing your book on the Internet through community activities. Community Based Internet Book Publicity There's a difference between getting a leg up and stepping on people, or at least, I like to think there is. Knowing Somebody vs Nepotism in Publishing I'm a case study for a publisher who started putting off the next book, and putting it off a little more, and cancelling it at the proof stage when it finally arrived. Procrastination In Book Production Memoir is a tough, tough sell. One way to market and sell a memoir is to disguise it as something that does sell, like self help. How to Publish a Memoir as Self Help Most people don't associate Micorosoft Word with high end publishing, but the Index generation function is golden. Creating An Index With Word In Microsoft Office I never approached Barnes and Noble to stock any of my books, yet they stock one of my short discount POD books in a number of superstores. Barnes and Noble Had My POD Book On The Shelf! Ingram has a bunch of different programs for books that aren't in the full bore offset category. It gets confusing. Unsold books are like unsold anything else. They sit there in boxes and stare at you until you go crazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. Books In Boxes Or Digital Libraries What makes perfect sense to the unknown author doesn't make sense at all the the known publisher, namely, that the latter should be thrilled to be contacted by the former Finding New Authors and Publishing Unknowns Most self publishers who are successful reach the point when they want to expand and apply their skills to other authors books. One way to do that is to buy another publishing company. Who hasn't published a book about self publishing. There's the Dummies Guide, Self Publishing for Complete Idiot's, and all the classics and newcomers to boot. Every once and a while I get one of those questions that makes me say wonder why I publish my e-mail address, but this one was honestly meant. Is Self Publishing a scam? A New Self Publisher Asks an Honest Question Small publishers are a modest part of the publishing industry, not too big and not too small. Many small trades and self publishers like to think that they are swimming in a different sea, but the tears of authors make sure that all that saltwater connects somewhere. When writing is your business, you can't just crack open the laptop when you feel like it, you have to treat writing a a job. It's demanding. Everbody knows that shrinks are all crazy, so I figure, why shouldn' I offer therapy to self publishers? A 2007 publishing business plan that won't break the bank. Unfortunately, making your writing hobby into a publishing business may break your spirit A Business Plan for New Publishers in 2007 I just signed the contracts (three copies) for a Chinese translation of my publishing book to be put out by Tsinhgua University Press, thanks to the Copyright Agency of China Tranlations and International Relations Some publishing consultants make the discount game seem like a no-brainer, but if the discounts you offer don't match your distribution strategy, you're throwing money away The Bottom Line on Publisher Dicounts off the Cover Price Every author on the planet must have two websites by now, but they're often dead-end advertisments that only line the pockets of the site designer The title of this next post pretty much says it all Stupid Publisher Cancelled My Book This is one of those modesty posts where I don't take credit for anything, but you get the feeling I'm trying to:-) After two years of blogging about Self Publishing, I find I haven't published a new book in two years! Is it coincidence, or am I spending all my time and efforts on the blog? Many authors new to self publishing concede defeat and give up when they are actually doing better than they have any right to expect. How Authors Should Measure Success Fiction has always been the greatest challenge for the self publisher who wants to make a living. Well, maybe poetry or memoir is tougher, but it's a close call. A Novel Approach to Publishing Fiction I've been in the Google Print program since they started taking applications, and I've been waiting a year for them to start selling ebooks. Google E-Books Getting Ready to Launch? I'm hoping to get into the bookselling business, other peoples books. Not new books, old classics and forgotten 19th century how-to titles. As a self publisher, I don't see reviews as an important marketing tool, and not part of my business plan at all. Reviews Matter for Author! Author! Where do I get the strange ideas for all these posts? Music and Scotch! The EU is an important market for small American publisher, especially given the way the dollar is sinking. UK Lightning SOurce and EU Publishing While this blog is full of typos and written off the top of my head, I use a secret weapon in my books. Ingnore the Editor Behind the Curtain If I could write a Children's Book, I have an idea at the ready. Unfortunately, nobody seems to like it. There's something to be said for going it alone, sort of. Independent Writers and Authors Blogging has lately become the bane of my existence. Maybe I'll shut down the feeds and see if that solves any problems. Technorati and Better Blogging Would you close your business and leave an old box full of money behind for whoever comes along? That's what many publishers and authors do with their inetellectual property. Publisher Assets and Intellectual Property Authors and publishers don't have all that much in common, besides books. The Transition from Author to Publisher If you're in the publishing business to change the world, it's best to rein in your insanity and sneak up on people:-) How to Make Books and Influence People The short, unhappy life of the New Deal Press. The 50/50 Publisher That Never Launched The future of publishing is already here Defamation is serous business, it's just not the publishing business Libel and Slander and Bears, Oh My! My taste in books runs towards the dead authors society The Best Books Are Already Written Self Publishing is a hard way to make a living, but it's not uniquely so. Instructor Of Dead Publishing Languages There's good tired and bad tired. Sometimes publishing on the Internet gives me that bad tired feeling... There's a whole world out there of people who spend a lot of time and money collecting first editions of books, especially modern books. Who knew? Books About Collecting First Editions I'm not going to open up a school or hold a conference because I'm not a people person. If I could hold a conference for dogs only, I'd be comfortable doing that, but dogs rarely publish books. If I Held a Publishing Conference One of those posts where I came up with the idea for the title and then struggled to get off the floor writing it. |
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