We have been taught as shoppers and consumers that packages and bundles save us money. There is a certain economic logic that says that the more you buy, the more you save. Value is equated with long lists of benefits, features, services—the longer the list, the greater the value. But not necessarily with modern self-publishing. Before Amazon, before eBooks, before POD, before online self-service book marketing, publishing was indeed a more complicated endeavor. Securing an ISBN, … [Read more...]
Book Publishing Files and Formats: How to Protect Your Writing Investment
In the past two years, I’ve had to deliver some expensive and painful news to self-publishers who did not have publishing files, or “standard” file formats: Tom could no longer use his original book designer and needed to make corrections to his book. He had an InDesign file, but not all the images and fonts. Consequently, the book would have to be redesigned. He gave up due to the expense. Mark’s publisher reverted his rights to two books, but wanted to charge him for the PDFs, the only … [Read more...]
Is Your Book Ready To Self-Publish?
There is no step in the self-publishing process more important than writing a book worthy of reading. It’s the “product”, of course, and all other steps in the publishing journey begin with your words. In traditional publishing the author has a team, or at least an editor, to shape the book into the masterpiece you hope it can become. But what happens when you self-publish? In this guest post, Leslie Lehr shares a 12-step checklist every author should follow. Leslie is an award-winning … [Read more...]
How to Research a Name for Your Self-Publishing Imprint
One of the most important and earliest decisions you will make as a self-publisher is to choose the name of your self-publishing imprint, or publishing company. In this article I’ll explain why you want to make this decision early, why a name other than your own is advisable, and the resources for researching the availability of a name. What is a self-publishing imprint? A publishing imprint is the name of your publishing company—the name displayed to the public wherever you sell your book and … [Read more...]
Re-Publishing an Out-of-Print Book After a Rights Reversion
If the publishing rights to your book recently reverted back to you, you might be considering the indie publishing route for your title rather than trying to find a new publisher, or simply allowing your book to be out-of-print. Without trying to interpret contract clauses or how to negotiate the “reversion rights” of your publishing agreement, I thought it would be helpful to talk about the key considerations should you choose to self-publish. Generally we can divide the issues into two … [Read more...]
Stop Promoting Google and Promote Yourself Instead
As someone committed to protecting and building brands for authors and publishers it pains me to see so many using email addresses from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Hotmail, Me, iCloud, etc. When you use these email addresses you are promoting that company, not yours. This makes no sense! Authors need to use email addresses that match the domain name of their website. No website? Buy a domain name (~$15/year) and use it for your custom email address. Here is how to stop promoting these other … [Read more...]
How Many Websites Does a Hybrid Author Need?
Answer: 2 + the number of books they have written. One for their imprint, one main website and a one-page website for each book. Okay, this is in a perfect world and without regard to budgets or time. But if you are a hybrid author—an author who self-publishes and is traditionally published—chances are that you are a cut above most of the authors out there, certainly new authors. You are making money from writing, people clearly buy your books, and you sense that the more you write, the more … [Read more...]
Think Like a Publisher: Would You Publish Your Book?
Publishers are a little like venture capitalists. A VC places many speculative bets—investments—with the hope that one pays off big enough to offset the majority that fail. Of course a publisher doesn’t want most of its books to fail, or even breakeven. While the overwhelming objective is to make money, they might also want to build a reputation in a particular genre, or be trying to build up a portfolio that they hope gives them leverage (in distribution, manufacturing, retailing, etc.). But … [Read more...]
Short vs. Long: Reasons and Resources for Writing and Selling Short Form Fiction and Nonfiction as eBooks
A couple years ago there was great hope and expectation for an explosion in short form eBooks. It was a natural extension for eBook publishing and new marketplaces sprang up to sell (generally) 5,000 to 30,000 word “eBooks.” Small reading screens were becoming ubiquitous and writers, publishers and investors were rushing to fill them*. Fast forward to today and we see the realities of marketing shorter-than-book-length content. Byliner has sold itself to Vook, The Atavist announced the … [Read more...]
Optimize Your WordPress Site: Reviewing a New Book by Yoast
Is your website integral to your business or publishing venture? If so, and you are using WordPress, this might be the best $19 you could spend to improve it. Optimize Your WordPress Site by Yoast is jam packed with explanations, resource links and specific actionable advice on 7 key topics. Before continuing (or you decide to click away), read these 3 notes: Non-technical folks or non-WordPress users: I suggest you read the 7 key topics and make an effort to understand each one in the … [Read more...]
