Features | Self-Publishing Review

eBook Authors: Self-Publishing is Like Playing Baseball

Recently I read a great article by Patricia Fry called ‘50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book’. It is a FREE 24-page Booklet filled with great ideas and information for self-publishing authors.

I was struck by the similarity between the problems eBook authors have when they get started and baseball players starting off on their journey to the big leagues. The question is how do authors and players keep from failing?

Less than 1% of all players drafted make it the big leagues. There are 750 choice positions in the majors. Of the thousands of players that have that […]

James Moushon2020-02-21T03:36:54+02:00July 13th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Promotion Articles|

Everyone Should Make Their Books Free

I’m in the middle of an experiment with Amazon pricing. Around 6 weeks ago I set my novel to free on Smashwords (instead of pay what you like), sort of hitting myself for not doing this sooner. My plan was for the book to be distributed free to Barnes and Noble. Amazon would then price match B&N and also make the book free. This is what happened. Last Thursday afternoon my book was made free and this is what my downloads look like since then:

For a couple days I was listed on the first page of Kindle bestsellers[…]

Henry Baum2011-07-11T12:26:47+02:00July 11th, 2011|Categories: Features|

Author Carole Maso on Digital Publishing

I’ve never actually read Carole Maso, but I love this answer from an interview in the Barcelona Review (2000) – referenced in a fairly scathing review of the new phenom A Visit from the Goon Squad.

You take on the literary mainstream in your book of essays, Break Every Rule, making a plea to the literary establishment “not to discard the canon, but enlarge it . . . . to acknowledge, for starters, the thousand refracted, disparate beauties out there.” But—and this is the fault of big-house publishers as much as Harold Bloom et fils,

[…]

Henry Baum2011-07-07T21:29:16+02:00July 7th, 2011|Categories: Features|

The Mystery of the Missing Amazon Public Notes

Prime Suspect: The New Amazon Upgrade Program

Amazon Public Notes look like they are taking a turn that only a detective can figure out.
I blogged in February about the Great News of Amazon adding a new feature to their eBooks called Public Notes in which readers could share highlights and notes with other readers. In that blog, I detailed some areas I thought were potential high benefit areas.

Public Notes have caught on with Kindle 3 users as more and more readers add their ideas and thoughts. If I follow the instructions, I can add my own notes as […]

James Moushon2017-03-24T09:34:11+02:00June 30th, 2011|Categories: Features, Member Blog|Tags: Amazon News and Tips|

The Duality of “New” Media for Writers

For nine years I worked for an online publicity firm for authors. The company was one of the first, if not the first, dedicated solely to online publicity. When I joined them, in 2000, none of the major publishing houses had online publicity departments. Some of them didn’t yet have company email or Web sites. It sounds archaic, by today’s standards. Publishing, as an industry, had not yet seen the potential for online book marketing, or the migration that media was making to the Internet.

What a difference a decade makes. By the time I resigned in 2009, we were […]

Jeffery Anderson2020-02-21T03:57:39+02:00June 30th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Marketing Advice and Tips|

Reaching 1,000 Ebook Sales a Month: What I’ve Learned

When I e-published my first ebook last December, I, like many, harbored secret hopes for overnight success. I think I sold about 25 copies that first month, and half of those were pity buys from friends and relatives. I know some of you can relate!

After realizing I wouldn’t be a NYT bestseller by the end of my first month, I gave myself a more modest goal: get to the point where I’m selling 1,000 ebooks a month by this time next year.

As it happens, that point came in May, my fifth full month as an indie author. I […]

Lindsay2011-06-22T12:33:46+02:00June 22nd, 2011|Categories: Features|

Ebook Publishing: Are Traditional Publishers Sitting on a Pot of Gold?

The prospects for an explosion in the ebook market are growing every day. Once traditional publishers realize the ebook-only market is a huge opportunity, they will embrace it and they will realize that they had a pot of gold right in front of them all the time.

Current Publishing – Are things panning out with ebooks?
Traditional book publishing is built on speculation and profit predictions. They control the system and the popular authors. They have been sitting at the end of the rainbow for a very long time.

Then along comes this ebook thing with a slick delivery system […]

James Moushon2019-02-18T12:19:54+02:00June 22nd, 2011|Categories: Features|

I Take Thee … Making That Commitment to Your Book

“Congratulations on your book.”

People are impressed with anyone who has completed the task of writing a whole book. There are thousands, if not millions, of people who have sat down to a keyboard to start writing a book but never finished it.

The first hurdle that most encounter is what I call the Forty-Page Block. It’s not always page forty. Sometimes it’s page twenty-five or page one hundred and twenty-five. Whichever page number it is, at some point there’s a block that separates the authors from the wannabes.

At this hurdle, many writers will simply throw in the towel […]

Lauren Carr2020-02-21T06:46:19+02:00June 16th, 2011|Categories: Features|Tags: Book Editing Tips, Writing Tips|