• Thumbnail I first met Jane Friedman sometime around June, 2001, when she called to tell me that my novel Acts of the Apostles had won the Writer’s Digest National Self-Published Book Award for that year (in the “genre” category: a juried competition with 324 entrants, ahem; I digress). That call took place pretty early in Jane’s 12 year [...]

  • ThumbnailSmashwords is a service for helping small and self-publishers format ebooks in diverse formats (for example: kindle, epub, PDF, Palm) and distribute them through diverse retail channels (for example Amazon, Apple, BN, Kobo, and Smashwords itself). A few weeks ago I sent Smashwords founder Mark Coker a note asking if I could interview him for my…[Read more]

  • Scott: Well said. Now that the publishing (indie/pod/ebooks) revolution is here, it seems to be progressing even faster than forecast. People have been saying for a long time that indie & electronic publishing would shake up the established order (and diminish the importance of gatekeepers). For a while it seemed that the promised changes would [...]

  • ThumbnailBelow, a review of Samuel Babbitt’s Limited Engagement , a self-published history of the short but glorious life of Kirkland College, of which Babbitt was the founding and only president. Limited Engagement shows how self-publishing makes it possible to create great books that have a fundamentally limited audience. This review was originally…[Read more]

  • I don’t know if “people in general” will ever be comfortable with torrents, but my books are about, mostly, hackers, precisely the people who are comfortable with torrents — and my books, under Creative Commons — have been downloaded thousands of times (PDF). I don’t know if this has done me any good or not. [...]

  • Peter, Thanks. When I signed up with Smashwords, they indicated that my book would be available in “all channels” within a few weeks. That was a few months ago, and it’s not on Amazon yet, for “technical reasons” — although it is on BN.com, the Apple store, etc. I haven’t decided whether or not to [...]

  • Thumbnail (click for complete version) I’ve been self-publishing novels for a little more than ten years. I’ve had some successes–for example, I’ve won the Writer’s Digest National Self-Published Book competition and I’ve sold more than 6,000 copies of my books. But I’m not a self-publishing rock star and I still dream of doing much better. Here’s [...]

  • John Sundman wrote a new blog post: Adventures in Self-Publishing


    (click for complete version)
    I’ve been self-publishing novels for a little more than ten years. I’ve had some successes–for example, I’ve won the Writer’s Digest National Self-Published Book competition and I’ve sold more than 6,000 copies of my books. But I’m not a self-publishing…

    [Read more]

  • John Sundman wrote on their own wire:

    ”hand” == ”hang”

    2 years, 2 months ago

  • John Sundman wrote on their own wire:

    A blog post about a cheesy hand-drawn flyer I made ten years ago that still helps me sell books today: http://www.wetmachine.com/item/1958
    P.S. Apologies if this has shown up on my ”status” already — still trying to get the hand of this place. . .

    2 years, 2 months ago

  • John Sundman posted a new status update:

    A blog entryabout a crackpot flyer I put together ten years ago that remains a useful marketing tool when I hand-sell my books:

    2 years, 2 months ago

  • John Sundman became a registered member 2 years, 2 months ago