Digital Pubbing

Exploring the ins and outs of the publishing industry

Self-Publishing

Book Country’s Public Launch

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I've blogged about Book Country before, when they first launched and were in beta. But recently the site got a make-over, and now it looks slicker and has a few more features. First, the website now has better navigation. Once you log in, all the main features of the site are easy to find: read and review (books on the site), connect (with other writers), learn (blog posts … [Read more...] about Book Country’s Public Launch

The Shifting Landscape of Book Reviews

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Originally published on HuffingtonPost and IndieReader. Read the full article here. With few exceptions, major news publications do not review indie books, even though more than 235,000 titles were self-published as of 2011. This lack of coverage in traditional media outlets, however, has not stopped indies from their rise. To the contrary, according to a recent New York … [Read more...] about The Shifting Landscape of Book Reviews

Romance Goes Mainstream

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Originally published on IndieReader. Read the full article here. Romance has always been a popular genre. But recently, it seems that more and more romance novels written by women have been gaining mainstream recognition. Between four and six romance novels written by women have made it to the top 10 New York Timesbestseller lists for e-book fiction and combined print and … [Read more...] about Romance Goes Mainstream

Self-publishing, the Slush Pile, and Print Books

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Self-publishing may be the new slush pile. In the past, the slush pile has been the pile of unsolicited manuscripts sent by aspiring authors in hopes of being picked up by a publisher. Now, some publishers are looking to pick up books that have already proven to be successful. They offer authors bigger advances and they take on less risk in doing so. One example is … [Read more...] about Self-publishing, the Slush Pile, and Print Books

Marketing Indie Books

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Marketing can be a tricky aspect of self-publishing. On the one hand, there's really no limit to the amount of money you can spend doing it, but there are a lot of ways to be ineffective. Below are a few guidelines I've learned from experience and heard about from other writers on creating effective marketing campaigns. Create Videos. Videos give people excuses to send … [Read more...] about Marketing Indie Books

6 Tips to Successfully Crowdfund a Project

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Crowdfunding is hard. To do it successfully, and to be like the high profile projects on Kickstarter, Indie Go Go and other platforms and raise thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars means treating the crowdfunding process like a full-time job. Here are some tips I've learned the last couple years, both from experimenting with crowdfunding myself and … [Read more...] about 6 Tips to Successfully Crowdfund a Project

What Self-Publishing and Internet Marketing Have in Common

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For those of you who don't know, ClickBank is an affiliate marketing website. People can sign up to either sell their information products, or to promote products and receive a cut of the sale. Recently I was looking through ClickBank's site, and I stumbled across their tips for Internet marketers. Many of their tips can also be directly applied to self-published authors, or … [Read more...] about What Self-Publishing and Internet Marketing Have in Common

What Do Authors Want?

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Digital Book World hosted a webinar a while back, called "What Authors Want." The webinar was meant to promote DBW's survey of 5,000 authors. The survey was submitted to the Writer's Digest community (whose writers tend to be female and over 35, and write fiction), as well as SFWA (mostly male fiction writers), Romance Writers of America (mostly female writers), and perhaps a … [Read more...] about What Do Authors Want?

Book Discoveries and Recommendations

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For self-publishers, after writing a book, the next biggest step is making people aware that it exists and is worth reading. But in such a saturated market, it can be hard to get your book discovered. Here are three book recommendation tools. Word of mouth is still the most effective way to make a book go viral, and many people recommend books via email (this may be because … [Read more...] about Book Discoveries and Recommendations

KYS Realm and Transmedia, the Future of Storytelling

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Technology lends itself to new creative forms of storytelling. One example is transmedia, a new technique of storytelling that involves enhancing the experience through multiple platforms, such as books, videos, and even live events. The Elements Club is one such transmedia series, where every few months a new segment telling the tales of a quirky, yet loveable, cast living … [Read more...] about KYS Realm and Transmedia, the Future of Storytelling

More Resources for Digital Publishing

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I've extended my blog to include a large, hopefully helpful, list of resources that cover all aspects of digital publishing: agents, analytics, apps, associations, blogging, coding, contests/awards, design, distribution, ebooks, editing, entrepreneurial, funding, internships, jobs, legal, magazines, marketing, metadata, news, reading, reviews, self-publishing, startups, trends, … [Read more...] about More Resources for Digital Publishing

Polishing a Self-Published Book

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I read a couple really helpful articles on Digital Book World that can help indie authors. The first gives some tips on how to design a cover optimized for Amazon, and all the other retailers where readers only see a thumbnail image. The second article gives a list of front matter and other tips on how to make a book look more like a traditional publisher made it.  … [Read more...] about Polishing a Self-Published Book

Promoting a Self-Published Novel

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I recently decided to be more active on Quora, and today I stumbled across a really great question by a self-published author. The question was, "What are some ways I can promote my self-published novel?" There were some really great responses. One answerer recommended YouTube book trailers, Facebook pages, and Twitter handles. The Facebook page could be used to run contests … [Read more...] about Promoting a Self-Published Novel