Self-publishing is a source of innovative thinking

Presentation: Self-publishing – a source of innovative thinking and how to benefit from it.

The presentation the link to which you see above was prepared for Ebook Lab Italia conference. I wanted to highlight a prevailing characteristic of self-publishers, yet not discovered and fully utilized by publishers and readers. It’s the innovative thinking.

In digital times, times of over-content, the front line is the attention of a reader. Technology leads to equal chances. Both big publishers and self-publishers use the same on-line tools and services to find the reader and convince him to buy the book. But obviously there is a difference: it’s the money at disposal.

Self-publishers usually don’t have money, so they use all their energy to be creative and innovative. In a presentation there are several examples of innovation in both a self-promotion run by single authors and joint actions taken by self-publishing community:

– 3D1D project (3 days, 1 dispatch) – a draft of a novel written live in under 72 hours,
– Bathrobe Guru – a short story written using Google Wave,
– Indie Call to Action – authors cross-reviewed and promoted their books using social media,
– Friday Flash – a large group of writers share their new flash-fiction stories on Twitter with a tag #FridayFlash.

Truth is that not every self-publisher is as successful as Joanna Penn. She made her debut novel, Pentecost, a bestseller within 24 hours from launch.

What can self-publishers do if royalties are just not enough? Again, they are innovative enough to find other ideas for earning money. You’ll also find the examples in a presentation.

This year self-publishing is on the rise. In January there were as much as 18 self-published books among top 50 bestsellers in Kindle Store. There are big chances that self-publishers will be noticed and get the attention they deserve.