As indie authors, so much of our work and efforts go into online marketing, and content on the web. With that in mind, here are some tools (both free and paid) that can help you build your platform and promote your books. Book Advertising "Changes to Amazon Advertising: What Authors Need to Know" on Jane Friedman: A breakdown of new advertising modes, the improved dashboard, … [Read more...] about Online Tools for Building Your Author Platform
reviews
Finding Your Next Read (or Review)
As an indie author, it's important to get book reviews. As a reader, it's helpful to get book recommendations. Below are some resources that combine the best of both worlds. Getting Book Recommendations 3-Panel Book Review: Reviewing books in comic strip format LitPick: "Through student book reviews, we promote reading and writing among preteens, teens, and young adults. … [Read more...] about Finding Your Next Read (or Review)
Guest Post: 5 Digital Marketing Tricks to Give Authors a Competitive Edge
By Mariah T. When you’re an author, exposure is everything. You can get the competitive edge that you need with a few digital marketing tricks. As you get your book in front of more people, you can potentially increase your sales. Social Media The popularity of social media is increasing exponentially. It’s important that you utilize all of the different social media … [Read more...] about Guest Post: 5 Digital Marketing Tricks to Give Authors a Competitive Edge
Indie Authors: Book Sales and Other Income Strategies
As an author, there's a lot of things to consider when it comes to earning money. Some indie authors are able to earn a full time income, according to The Guardian and Russell Blake. Print sales are not the most lucrative, according to LG O'Connor, and print and ebook bundling doesn't always work out, according to Copyright and Technology. It can also be hard to find the right … [Read more...] about Indie Authors: Book Sales and Other Income Strategies
An Interview with Richard Billings, Founder of Leafless
The publishing industry is full of opportunity. Today, publishing startup Leafless, a digital distribution platform and publisher, is launching (after rebranding). Leafless aims to solve the problem of authors paying for reviews and honest reviews disappearing from sites like Amazon. Through Leafless, authors can give copies of ebooks to readers for reviews, and popular books … [Read more...] about An Interview with Richard Billings, Founder of Leafless
What Indie Book Publishing and Indie Game Development Have In Common, Part 2
A while back, I watched Indie Game: The Movie and was struck by how much indie game development and indie book publishing had in common. I had the pleasure of interviewing the talented and inspiring indie game developer, Jonathan Blow. Below is the second in a three-part series that discusses the similarities between developing games and publishing books as an indie. Read Part … [Read more...] about What Indie Book Publishing and Indie Game Development Have In Common, Part 2
7 Strategies and 110+ Tools to Help Indie Authors Find Readers and Reviewers
Self-publishing is growing, and with it come new resources. One of the biggest hurdles of being an indie author is finding readers and getting reviews (which helps find more readers). Some people may still consider self-publishing a stigma, and some writers may think that promotion takes away too much time from writing. But many sites, including Outramp, Your Writer Platform, … [Read more...] about 7 Strategies and 110+ Tools to Help Indie Authors Find Readers and Reviewers
iDreamBooks, A Book Review Aggregator
iDreamBooks is a site that aggregates reviews of books. The goal of the site is right in the tagline: Never read a crappy book again! Founded in 2012 by Rahul Simha, Vish Chapalamadugu and Mohit Aggarwal, iDreamBooks moved to San Francisco as part of 500 Startups. Patrick Lee, co-founder of Rotten Tomatoes, was an early investor, which works out since the site is like the … [Read more...] about iDreamBooks, A Book Review Aggregator
Digital and Social Book Discovery
Digital Book World hosted an interesting webcast today, called Finding Books Without Borders: Discoverability in a Digital and Social World. Two fairly new companies, Jellybooks and Readmill, talked about how they tackle the issue in their own ways. … [Read more...] about Digital and Social Book Discovery
Dealing With Negative Reviews
It was for the first book of my publishing company, a collection of flash fiction, and I had given the book away for free on LibraryThing in hopes of getting more reviews. Now, even though this was not my book in the sense that I did not write it, I did spend a lot of time working with the authors, and I was proud of them and the work they did. I also made sure the book went … [Read more...] about Dealing With Negative Reviews
Self-publishing ebooks: An Overview
Fact: Self-publishing is growing. In 2011, according to BISG, over 200,000 books were self-published. Ebooks are also growing. By 2016, ebooks will account for 50% of book sales, and the book market will be worth $21 billion. … [Read more...] about Self-publishing ebooks: An Overview
Writers, Readers, Publishers: Present Tense, Future Bold
Tonight I went to a talk about ebook marketing. I'm part of a group, called Writers, Readers, Publishers: Present Tense, Future Bold that meets once a month to hear guest speakers talk about the state of the publishing industry. The first meeting was a talk with Robert Gleason, Executive Editor at Tor Books, a division of the Macmillan publishing group. Mr. Gleason acquires … [Read more...] about Writers, Readers, Publishers: Present Tense, Future Bold