Features

Articles, how-to’s, opinion and tips and tricks in the self-publishing arena

A New Way to Promote: Pay With A Tweet

There are good arguments for both sides of the issue on eBook pricing. A lower price may devalue your work, but it may also drive sales. There’s also the option of giving it away for free.

Henry’s recent experiment with giving his novel away for free got me thinking about doing the same with mine. I have a sequel due out later next year, and giving the first book away for free might be a good way to drive sales of the next one. Still, there’s that sticking point of giving it away without anything in return. I’ve been gun-shy […]

2020-02-21T07:44:39+02:00October 26th, 2011|Categories: Features, Resources|Tags: |

An Experiment in Serial Fiction and Self-Publication

At the start of the year, I had an idea for a project. I wanted to write a serialized fiction story in pieces small enough to fit inside a single Tweet. One tiny chunk of narrative prose every day, slowly building an ongoing, real-time story for the audience to piece together.

Then every so often, I’d do something a bit more, something to enrich the story and experience — a full short story perhaps, or an in-character piece of music, or an audio play.

I had several goals in creating a project like this. One was to have a story […]

2014-05-06T10:00:57+02:00October 26th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: |

Indie Publishing’s Impact on Independent Publishing

First off, let me just say that I was a holdout for a long time for not calling self-publishing “indie publishing.”  But that was back when self-publishing was desperate to be taken seriously.  Now it is.  And it’s become as vital a force in the publishing as “true” independent publishing.  So indie publishing works now because all of independent publishing is changing.

JA Konrath talks about the “Publishing Death Spiral” in which traditional publishing is going to be assaulted by writers who can get much better terms on their own if they publish themselves. I’ll gladly dance on the grave […]

2011-10-26T18:40:18+02:00October 26th, 2011|Categories: Features|

The eBook Revolution: Readers Changing Habits

Thanks to Teleread, here’s an interesting infographic about changing reading habits (via Live Science).

It’s encouraging news for the e-revolution, as people with an ereader read more books – and more people are getting an ereader, so do the math – but what the infographic doesn’t cover is how people’s reading habits might change once the majority of reading is being done via ebooks. Even intellectuals like Sam Harris say that his personal reading habits are changing:

I love physical books as much as anyone. And when I really want to get a book into my brain,

[…]
2011-10-25T11:09:45+02:00October 25th, 2011|Categories: Features, Lead Story|

Because You’re Not Worth It (Or, Why Friends Don’t Ask Friends To Work For Free)

I used to find this quote inspirational, but now it just seems puzzling…

“One man writes a novel. One man writes a symphony. It is essential that one man make a film.”

– Stanley Kubrick

Not to pick an undebatable point with one of the greatest creative minds in recent history, but having produced a novel (yes, produced – more on that later) it’s fairly clear that all the author traditionally does is put the words together pretty. Write the manuscript. What usually follows in the process is turning it over to proofers and editors, lawyers who vet the prose […]

2020-02-21T07:18:07+02:00October 19th, 2011|Categories: Features, Member Blog|

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 […]

2020-02-21T07:53:35+02:00October 10th, 2011|Categories: Features, Lead Story|Tags: |

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 […]

2019-02-18T12:18:35+02:00October 10th, 2011|Categories: Features, Lead Story|Tags: , |

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 […]

2020-02-21T03:57:14+02:00October 9th, 2011|Categories: Features|
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