October, 2011 | Self-Publishing Review

Sued for Self-Publishing

Interesting tidbit in this recent New York Times article about how Amazon is ripping apart the publishing industry.

For a sense of how rattled publishers are by Amazon’s foray into their business, consider the case of Kiana Davenport, a Hawaiian writer whose career abruptly derailed last month.

In 2010 Ms. Davenport signed with Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin, for “The Chinese Soldier’s Daughter,” a Civil War love story. She received a $20,000 advance for the book, which was supposed to come out next summer.

If writers have one message drilled into them these days, it is this: hustle

[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-17T09:37:47+02:00October 17th, 2011|Categories: News|

Lulu Automatically Distributing Ebooks to the iPad & Nook (Updated)

Lulu has seen the writing on the wall and is going full bore with ebooks, moving away from its print on demand model. They recently came out with an ePub converter (good), but are now automatically distributing books to the iBookstore and Nook (not as good). I just received this email:

Lulu wants to make sure that your title is available to every potential customer on the planet, starting with the 120 million+ readers who own an iPhone®, iPad®, or iPod touch® or Barnes & Noble’s NOOK™ brand of e-reading products and shop at our eBook distribution partners.

You can

[…]

Henry Baum2011-11-10T21:42:38+02:00October 13th, 2011|Categories: News|

First Ever USB Multimedia Book: comrade calculator Quits Smoking

Part of self-publishing a book is learning, first hand, the trials and tribulations of self promotion. It is a fine line between working hard to make your dream come true, and being the guy at the party who wont stop trying to sell his product.

That being said I would like to promote what I am doing. Not necessarily to sell my book, though clearly that is my end goal, but instead to spread the word to fellow authors that there is another new and interesting way to self-publish YOUR book.

I’m releasing the first edition of my novel on […]

Mark Kowgier2020-02-21T07:53:35+02:00October 10th, 2011|Categories: Features, Lead Story|Tags: Social Media|

Let Your Readers Guide You – They Whisper, So Listen Closely

When I published my first book, “Chasing the Runner’s High”, Amazon had two royalty plans for ebooks published through their Kindle Direct Publishing program. One paid 35% and one paid 70%. It looked like a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t prefer to get 70% of the price of each book sold instead of 35%? The main restriction was that I had to set the list price of my ebook between $2.99 and $9.99 to qualify for the 70% program.

Amazon controls about 70% of the ebook market. They set the rules and everyone else follows. So there are a lot of […]

Ray Charbonneau2011-10-10T12:40:42+02:00October 10th, 2011|Categories: Member Blog|

eBook Authors: Is the Kindle Library Lending Program a New Opportunity for Self-Publishers?

As new ebook authors and self-publishers continue to try to get exposure in the digital world, several new events could present an expanded opportunity to reach the ebook reader.

1. Amazon’s new generation of Kindles plus the IPad rival ‘Kindle Fire’ will definitely expand the reading audience.
2. Amazon allowing Kindle ebooks to be included in the public library lending process will also expand the audience.

The problem is the same old players and the same old obstacles seem to be in the way.

Process Controlled by the Usual Suspects +

With the first review, it appears that the library […]

James Moushon2019-02-18T12:18:35+02:00October 10th, 2011|Categories: Features, Lead Story|Tags: Amanda Hocking, Amazon|

eBookit Review

Ebookit charges a flat fee of $149:

What WE Do:

1. We Prepare Your File for Conversion
2. We Assign You an ISBN
3. We Convert Your File To Many Required eBook Types
4. We Check Your Converted eBook for Quality
5. We Distribute Your eBook to the World
6. We Promote Your eBook! (optional)
7. We Pay You!

Fine print on #7: they take 15% of royalties. However, that’s the same as Smashwords – but at Smashwords you have to meatgrind your book yourself. This is also 15% on top of what you’d get from the 30-70% at Kindle, […]

Henry Baum2020-02-21T03:48:32+02:00October 10th, 2011|Categories: Publisher Reviews|Tags: Book Formatting|

Debut novel, ‘Where’s Unimportant’ by Daniel Shortell

Where’s Unimportant by Daniel Shortell:

“Jack Addington is stuck. A carefree life wandering the globe has morphed into a monotonous existence working for an oppressive Manhattan-based software company peddling products which destroy the lives of decent people. Jack struggles through soul-sucking affairs with despotic executives and eccentric scientists by mentally projecting himself out of the present and into past adventures. Avoidance, however, is temporary, and it does not take long for his overly medicated mind to lose perspective, causing him to act increasingly irrational in a brutally rational world. Jack attempts to reconnect to reality through the guidance of a

[…]

Daniel Shortell2014-05-11T22:14:46+02:00October 9th, 2011|Categories: Interviews|Tags: Satire|

Book Trailers Don’t Have To Raise Your Cholesterol

“It’s too long”, the message began. “There’s too many words.”

“I love the parts where people are talking to each other,” another explained. “The other description stuff not as much.”

“Book trailers shouldn’t be like movie trailers,” one friend offered. “It should have actors reading the parts out.” (Don’t read that again, it’ll make even less sense the second, third and just don’t think about it.)

And this is where all your problems start…

Authors and marketing firms have been producing book trailers for the last few years, without the benefit of any consensus of what a “book trailer” is […]

Kian Kaul2020-02-21T03:57:14+02:00October 9th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Trailers|