Digital Pubbing

Exploring the ins and outs of the publishing industry

indie authors

Indie Author Marketing Guide: Goodreads

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Next up in the Indie Author Marketing Guide series is Goodreads. Goodreads is a social network for book lovers, now owned by Amazon. Users can join groups, follow authors, rate and review books, compile lists of read books, and promote books with giveaways. According to The Creative Penn, "Goodreads’ recommendation engine is an algorithm similar to Netflix" and "A book does … [Read more...] about Indie Author Marketing Guide: Goodreads

Marketing and Promoting Your Book

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The most successful indie authors have marketing plans for their books or series. Generally, when you are launching a book or promoting a book, you want to have a plan in place 4-6 weeks in advance. Part of the plan is figuring out which sites you can use to promote your book. Self Publishing Review has a list of free book marketing sites. Indies Unlimited also recommends … [Read more...] about Marketing and Promoting Your Book

Indie Authors: An Overview of Book Distribution Options

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When it comes to selling books, most people think of Amazon and Kindle. Although Amazon may be the biggest ebook distributo r, it's not the only option for indie authors. Ebook Retailers Ebay. An unconventional way to sell ebooks. Feedbooks. An ebook retailer designed for mobile reading. Google Play Books. Though the platform is currently not allowing new people … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: An Overview of Book Distribution Options

Indie Authors: Self-Editing Before Getting Your Manuscript Edited

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Editing is an important step to publishing, both indie and traditional. A book that is poorly edited can be a big turn off to readers. Bridget McKenna gives an example in her post, "Why I Didn't Keep Reading Your Book, Part 2": Your opening sentence demonstrated that you don’t know the difference between “number,” which is used to describe things that can be counted, such as … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Self-Editing Before Getting Your Manuscript Edited

Indie Authors: Book Promotion Tools and Tips

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Marketing is a crucial part of book publishing. If no one knows your book is out there, how can you expect people to read it? With that in mind, here's a compilation of tips and tools that can help you with your book promotion efforts. Book Promotional Tools BookPromotion.com stresses four components of a book marketing plan: promotional tools, groups, street teams, and … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Book Promotion Tools and Tips

Guest Post: 6 Savvy Business Lessons You Can Learn from a Car Salesperson

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By Zach Painter If you’ve ever worked in sales, then you’re all too familiar with the process of delivering a successful sales pitch. As a skill you cultivate and hone over time, creating a strategy that has a high rate of success is no easy feat. The fact is, pitching is a necessary skill set that professionals in every industry need to perfect — and the same goes for … [Read more...] about Guest Post: 6 Savvy Business Lessons You Can Learn from a Car Salesperson

Thinking About Book Covers

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Having a good book cover is an important aspect of indie publishing. The cover is the first thing your reader will see, and if the cover speaks to them, they'll be more likely to try out your book. Author M. J. Patrick has a great post that shows a cover, and asks you what you think of the book, based only on the cover (such as who's the audience for this book, and what's … [Read more...] about Thinking About Book Covers

Marketing Practices and Strategies for Indie Authors

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Marketing is a key component of any indie author's business strategy. This year, I've been at least loosely following BookWork's month by month marketing plan. The early months are more about research and figuring out who to connect with, and then building on that throughout the year. Some other marketing ideas and practices to consider include: "Best Marketing … [Read more...] about Marketing Practices and Strategies for Indie Authors

Resources for Indie Authorpreneurs

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As an indie author/authorpreneur, there are a lot of things to keep in mind in order to successfully run your business. Here are some resources that address various aspects of being an indiepreneur: "9 Inexpensive Revenue Streams for Broke or Struggling Authors" on The Book Designers: Includes selling special reports, templates, subscription newsletters, classes, private … [Read more...] about Resources for Indie Authorpreneurs

Ideas for Promoting Your Book

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Book promotion comes in all shapes and sizes. Here are a few things to keep in mind. Book Visuals and Pricing It starts with your book cover. The Book Designer talks about recent cover trends that may give you some ideas (what colors to use, how to use typography, types of images, and more). For print books especially, you'll also want to work on the spine and the back … [Read more...] about Ideas for Promoting Your Book

144 Tools and Resources for Building Your Author Website and/or Blog

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Author websites and blogs are important components to building an author platform. With that in mind, here is a list of resources that can help you set up and optimize your site. Setting Up Your Website NameBounce Find Available Domain Names on Namestation "+300 Awesome Free Things for Entrepreneurs & Startups" on Growth Supply "11 Essential Elements of an … [Read more...] about 144 Tools and Resources for Building Your Author Website and/or Blog

A List of Tools for Freelance and Indie Authors

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Having trouble staying motivated? Sometimes it helps to use some new tools to keep you organized and ready to work. Here are some new tools and resources I've found: Mattermost: An open-source chatting tool, so you can easily connect with clients, editors, publicists, or anyone on your author street team. Compatible with Slack. Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator: To help … [Read more...] about A List of Tools for Freelance and Indie Authors

Indie Authors: Organization and Writing Tips

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As an indie author treating writing as a business, it's important to stay on top of deadlines and to always work on improving your craft. Organizing Your Time To that end, Duolit has provided a helpful free monthly planner for authors. The idea is that to-do lists can be too daunting, and if you schedule activities in your calendar you will actually get more done. The planner … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Organization and Writing Tips

Authors and Publishing

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If you're serious about publishing, you'll treat it as a business. That holds true if you decide to go the traditional publishing route or they self-publishing route. Kristen Lamb has a great post about the odds of author success, where she talks about putting in the hard work to develop discipline, write and edit the book, network, and much more. Published to Death … [Read more...] about Authors and Publishing

Tips and Tricks for Promoting Your Book

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After writing (and editing), marketing and promotion is a key step in book publishing. It helps to keep this in mind throughout the whole process. For example, The Book Designer recommends authors take into account a couple key questions: Who are you writing for? Where does your reader hang out? With this information, you can make sure you craft a pitch that … [Read more...] about Tips and Tricks for Promoting Your Book