Crowd-funding—give work away and let people pay you what they wish
Need to know your market
Should experiment to see what sticks, but that’s not a good business model
How much time are you willing to invest?
Depending on the publisher, you may have to do some of what you’d expect the publisher would do anyway (such as marketing)
Every author is an entrepreneur, no matter what publishing method you choose
Bookstores do carry a lot of power
Publisher decides on a lead title and neglects the other books
YA authors get a lot of support
Only the top authors get support; everyone else gets diddly
Anthologies have tanked, even when the participating authors are best-selling
Beware of marketing packages offered by self-publishers
Can go straight to Lightning Source for POD (they’re a printer, not an e-commerce site) you can also buy your own ISBM and they distribute through B&N, Borders, etc.
Or Smashwords/CreateSpace
Try Et Libre
Go straight to
One Bookshelf
Should I go through my website or Amazon (or both)
Need different ISBMs for print and e-book editions
Don’t buy the bar code
Whoever is the biggest, the first, or the longest wins online
If you’re going to self-publish, need to put out a lot of stories (the more the better)
Need to make it as easy as possible to convert readers into customers (need as few clicks as possible)
You can set up your own affiliate store on Amazon
Being a retailer is different from being an author
Have to ask yourself what you really want and what your optimal balance is
The less time you spend running the business, the more time there is for writing
Bloggers are a great way to get word-of-mouth out
Do you want a print edition or an e-book?
Amazon is selling the most e-books now
Still have to do marketing
Can network with BroadUniverse, Indie Book Collective
What do you do with physical copies?
Overdrive—get digital books into libraries
Istockphoto.com for images
Deviantart.com—good place to find an artist to do your own cover if you want something unique
Need a contract with the artist ahead of time
Need to read license before you buy/tweak art
Kickstart and indiegogo can help you with pre-orders
Editors freelance association
Look at other self-pub books in acknowledgements
Can just go with beta readers for edits
Don’t lose any rights
Convert the file with mobipocket
Market is becoming oversaturated
Arrange for reviews and book tours
Blurbs from well-known authors may help recognition
Samantha Robi (chicklitplus on Twitter)
Kindleboards.com
Majority of self-published books don’t sell lots of copies
You may sell fewer copies but get more money
Some people do get contacted by producers, translators, etc.
Self-publishing allows you to reach your target audience
Can write the kind of book you want to write
Want to have multiple streams of income
Listen to the people in the middle who have explored both options
Publishing industry will take 5-10 years to shake itself out
You are entitled to 100% of your earnings
You pay publishers in perpetuity for a one-time service
You give away everything to get an editor to like you
(bold is my own emphasis)
Self-publishing is a lot of work. But it is true from everything I've heard that publishers don't do much to support smaller books so you still wind up doing most of the work yourself! The main advantage still is that the publisher can get your book on the shelves at a real bookstore whereas with self-publishing you have to haggle and beg to maybe get it on the shelf at your local indie bookstore. Of course with Borders about to die and Amazon taking over and eBooks becoming more popular that advantage may soon be a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine self publishing would be hard. I don't think it would be a job for lazy people like me. ;)
ReplyDeleteRogue--I don't think bookstores are as doomed as some people think, but they may decline over time.
ReplyDeleteMadeline--You could always outsource some of the tasks, like copyediting, cover design, even text formatting.