Member Blog | Self-Publishing Review

Words of Advice for Dorchester Authors from an Indie Author

I went on line late yesterday afternoon and was bombarded by the swirl of news and commentary about Dorchester Publishing’s decision to switch to an e-book/POD approach to publishing. At first I simply felt a wave of sympathy for those authors who found their familiar world swept away, particularly those authors who had books that were supposed to come out this fall and were in the middle of marketing campaigns designed around traditional trade paperbacks and brick and mortar stores. See for example the discussion on the Smart Bitches website.

Next I thought about what advice I would […]

Mary Lou Locke2020-02-21T03:59:15+02:00August 11th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: Author Branding|

Wylie Agency Walking on the Wild Side

This morning, NPR reported that the Wylie Agency, a top literary agency, has teamed with Amazon on a joint venture to electronically publish what’s known as ‘back-list titles,’ best-sellers written long before the age of e-books. The publishing industry wasn’t happy, particularly Random House. In a quintessential display of the kind of pig-headed mentality that has alienated authors (like myself) from traditional publishing, RH essentially blacklisted the Wiley Agency, refusing to enter into any future (English language) agreements with any of its clients. This act on their behalf has left some bloggers, that is Café Lopez, extremely […]

Mark2011-10-08T18:03:26+02:00July 27th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: Amazon News and Tips|

Establishing a Brand

I have been working my way through the Platform/Promo Lessons in Publetariat’s Vault University curriculum by April Hamilton and Zoe Winters (I was fortunate enough to win access to Vault University as a winner of Publetariat’s First Anniversary Contest.) While I don’t plan on revealing any detail on the excellent material presented in this curriculum (if you are interested, the fee is just $5 a month for monthly lessons, and I would highly recommend signing up and/or purchasing a copy of April Hamilton’s Indie Author Guide), I am using the subject headings of the sixteen “lessons” in the curriculum […]

Mary Lou Locke2020-02-21T03:34:35+02:00July 23rd, 2010|Categories: Features, Member Blog|Tags: Author Branding|

The Long Road to Publishing Success… Begins Now

I recently self-published a new children’s book, “Ug Goes Out,” which you can read more about at http://uggoesout.blogspot.com.

So far I’ve spent $129 and have made a net profit of $11, mostly after selling books to friends, family, and coworkers. In this post I will explain my early marketing strategy, its successes and shortcomings so far, and my visions for its future.

1. Bookmarks

I am a middle school English teacher, and the neat thing about my job is that I have a captive focus group who can critique my work and maybe learn something in the process. After […]

Eric Brinker2020-02-21T03:59:41+02:00July 7th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog|Tags: Book Marketing Advice and Tips|

It is All Right to Make a Profit with your Writing

The “starving artist” cliché has been used to describe those in the creative fields for quite a while. It has been part of history that artists of the past were never appreciated until they were dead, crazy, and usually some combination of both. Pieces of art that are worth millions now didn’t make their artists rich while they lived. History doesn’t bode well for what I’m about to talk about. Now, we come to authors.

Writing a novel, painting, sculpting, music, designing, are all creative works, subject to other individuals appreciation of them. They don’t serve the same kind of […]

James Ashman2020-02-21T03:59:50+02:00June 30th, 2010|Categories: Features, Member Blog|Tags: Book Marketing Advice and Tips|

Are You a Vanity Author or an Enterprise Author?

“Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the above quote, it’s the last line to a film I remember enjoying very much, The Devil’s Advocate. Al Pacino plays John Milton, a physical manifestation of Satan, and the line refers specifically to vanity’s inherent potential for exploitation. Unfortunately, this applies not just to lawyers (as was the case in the film), but to writers alike, or more to the point, vanity authors. Er, wait, I meant enterprise authors. OK, which one is it?

Vanity Author

Let’s face it, the term vanity, or the “V” word, […]

Mark2011-10-08T18:24:55+02:00June 18th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog|

Free Book = Free Amazon Marketing Tips

In March 2009, I began writing an article for LLBR about how to market your book on Amazon. The result of that article turned into a longer project that I decided to publish as a book. Taking advantage of Lulu’s free ISBN at the time, I released it as a 93 page guide that included my POD Diary which I wrote throughout the first year of marketing my book, Stealing Wishes.

It took several months for the book to become available on Amazon. Six months in fact. Having emailed Lulu support several times during that wait period and after […]

shannonyarbrough2011-10-08T18:25:27+02:00June 18th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog|

Plot Development…Key to success

There is nothing in a caterpillar that lets you know it will someday become a butterfly…

When you think about plot, story, many things may come to mind: compelling characters, twists, unique situations and emotional ties to the reader…. at least in good plots, right? But the question most writers want the answer to is “how?” How did Tsugumi Ohba create such a compelling story, how did C.S. Lewis write multiple stories that were fresh and unique?

These are the C’s in Success… in school “C” meant average, when you have the following C’s you are an average writer, so […]

Andrew T.2011-10-08T18:07:44+02:00June 11th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog|