Category Archives: Book Marketing

You’re writing a book – should you self-publish? While in the past going the ebook or Print on Demand (POD) route was seen as vanity publishing, that’s no longer the case. The big benefit of the DIY approach is that you get to keep all the profits.

The Web has changed the way authors think. A decade a go, every book I wrote was for a major publisher. Although I didn’t make much money, the books did boost my brand – any my ego.

The Web has changed everything. Nowadays I – and many other established authors – self-publish. It’s sensible.

When speaking with established authors, I’m hearing that nine times out of ten they prefer to self-publish their books as ebooks, first.

Here are some comments I’ve received when I asked why authors did this:

* I can publish my ebook with a few clicks of my mouse in days, rather than years. Since I’ve got a mortgage, it makes sense…

* Eight or 15 per cent looks silly next to the 100 per cent profit I make from self-publishing…

* I love it – when I publish online, I have direct contact with readers…

Should You Self-Publish?

When you sell a book to a publisher, it’s a long process. First you write a book proposal, and send it to your agent. By the time the agent has read the proposal and sent it around to publishers, a year has passed before you get a contract.

Another year passes before the book hits the bookstore shelves, and depending on the size of your advance payment (which is always against royalties) yet another year may pass before you get royalties.

So traditional publishing takes around two or more years from when you get an idea for a book, to the day the book is for sale.

Contrast that with self-publishing. When I get an idea for an ebook, the average time it takes for me to write the book and get it online and selling is around two months, sometimes less.

Other benefits of self-publishing include:

* You can see the results of marketing your ebook or POD book at once – in increased profits. You’ll still need to market your bookstore-book, but you won’t see the profits (if indeed there are any) for years:

* You can write six books in the time it previously took you to write one, simply because there’s no waiting around for others to read your work;

* No rejections. You write it, you sell it, and you get the money, instantly;

* Your ebook acts as a book proposal. An editor at a publishing house may see it and make you an offer, which you can accept… or not, if you’re making good money with the ebook.

Is self-publishing for you? That depends on your business model, and why you’re writing your book. However, more and more, authors are seeing that DIY is the way to go.

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Author: Angela Booth
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Since the birth of publishing, authors have been forced to deal with the middlemen of this industry; the publishing houses. Often some of the best authors are turned away at the door because they are not “recognized” enough. Sometimes the best talent is rejected because big publishing houses just do not have time to look over all of the manuscripts. Well the times have changed. Now authors can self publish their material for next to nothing in the form of an ebook. While many traditionalist stubbornly claim that “customers won’t buy ebooks”, nothing could be further from the truth. Some ebook authors make exorbitant amounts of money. What’s better is they get to keep most of their profits. If you are thinking about writing a book, consider publishing it in ebook format. Here are some of the benefits of ebooks…

Lower costs than self publishing

Larger returns than many traditional publishing offers

Work on your own terms

Constant and growing profits

Here are some of the downfalls of self publishing ebooks:

You must learn online promotion strategies

Effectively you are the author, distributor, webmaster and many more positions

May require some knowledge of web design, book design etc etc

As you can see, digital publishing is not all fun and games. If you are serious about promoting your book online you should understand that you will no longer be just an author. You also take over the publisher’s role and become your own distribution agent. If you’re willing to sit down and do a little learning than transforming your book into digital format may be the right thing for you to do.

To learn more about digital publishing visit http://www.zizzoo.com. Alternatively if you are ready to start writing and designing you ebook check out http://www.zizzoo.com/guides/ebook

Author: John Sweeney
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Unless you’re Stephen King or one of the other best-selling authors, you’re not going to make the same income by being traditionally published as you would if you self publish your book as a Kindle ebook. Don’t believe? Let’s do the math.

Author A is a mid-list Author with XYZ Publishing House (names have been changed to protect the guilty).

Author B on the other hand, is a non-conformist. She self-publishes on her own site and puts her books in Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.

Now for the math:

XYX publishes Author A’s book and prints 25,000 copies (their normal run for her genre). The paperback book sells for $6.95.

For this scenario, Author A will get 7% of the gross. So 25,000 X 6.95 = $173,750 X.07 = $12,162.50. The book was not reprinted as more than 2,000 books were sent back to the publisher so the royalty Author A actually received was reduced by $973.

Now Author B publishes her book on the Kindle so there is no print run. But she does sell the same number of books as Author A in the first year because her book is being sold worldwide.

Because Amazon pays a royalty of 70% for buyers in the United States and other Countries – 35% royalty, Author B’s royalty will be measured at an average of 52.5%. To be even more fair, Author B sells her book for $4.95 on Amazon. So 25,000 X 4.95 = $123,750 X.525 = $64,968.75.

Money isn’t the only difference between the two authors. Author A is locked into a contract and since her publishing company won’t reprint, the only money she’ll receive is 7% of the 70% her publishing company makes selling it as an ebook on Amazon.

Which means Author A is dead in the water. She’s locked into a contract and it will be years before she can get her book back to self-publish.

While Author B will be selling her ebooks year after year. Even babies being born today will end up paying for and enjoying her books.

So tell me again, why you prefer to be print published rather than selling your own books as Kindle ebooks?

And with your books on Kindle, it’s entirely possible your name could be right up there with Stephen King but without the baggage of a go nowhere contract. Just Google Amanda Hocking if you don’t think this could happen.

Judith Tramayne’s passion for the last 13 years is helping Authors self-publish ebooks. Her “Kindle eBook Course” has 18 videos and 7 image-filled PDFs shows how to EZ-ily make a Kindle ebook. Visit www.agoodread.com

Author: Judith Tramayne
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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My first bit of advice is to write a novel because you want to. If you are writing to make money then that’s a far bigger hurdle. Self publishing is not for the faint hearted. You will need to gain expertise across a broad range of skills, such as book cover design/artwork, editing, proof reading, publishing, marketing, web design, etc etc.

Of course you can pay others to do some of this for you, but for each pound/dollar you spend you may have to sell two books to cover your costs. This is also where you will meet the first of many Internet sharks. Authors are outnumbered by people making money on the back of self-published book sales. There are a plethora of these selling the skills I described above. Most are trustworthy and offer a good service, but many more exist to simply rip you off.

My first experience with sharks was a lady literary agent in the US. Her costs were reasonable and her letters sounded sincere. There was no rush to trap me which made it feel all the more genuine. The first letter said that my novel had to go in front of the board before a decision could be made. The next letter was the successful acceptance of my work. I paid, fortunately a small sum of money, then had my doubts. I should have done the next step first, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Upon conducting an Internet search of her name, there were lots of hits warning me about her. Indeed, almost immediately there were messages that the FBI had caught up with this individual and were investigating her. She was shortly found guilty and some of my money was repaid to me. No doubt she is now back on the Internet, offering the same service, but under a pseudonym.

A point to make is – if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. My advice is to check and double check everything that you do on the Internet. Seek advice from others. There are loads of useful websites offering sound advice. Find Author Forums and chat with others to find out who is trustworthy, and who is not.

It is strange that in writing an article about my experiences, as a self-published author, I have immediately launched into experiences other than writing! The writing part is relatively easy. In effect I am assuming that you can do this. But, not everyone can write successfully. Can I? I think this is the next stage of testing the waters, so to speak. It’s easier to dip a toe in the water of authorship than immersing oneself fully. It would also help you to establish your credentials early on and build up a following. I think this is the soundest advice I can offer.

Start by writing short stories or articles for magazines. This will help to establish you and will also earmark whether you have sufficient quality to make it as an author. Short stories are quite difficult to write as they need to have an impact in only a few pages. Joining a creative writing class can help you to develop skills in short story writing. It also helps to get your early endeavours peer reviewed. As a warning, be very careful in getting family and friends to review your work.

I had a very strange conversation with a literary agent (LA) that went like this:
Me: Hello, I have a manuscript that you might be interested in.
LA: Hello dear. Are you an established author?
Me: No.
LA: Then it will be rubbish, dear.
Me: My friends and family enjoyed it.
LA: They would say that. Wouldn’t they dear?

I felt that her comments were grossly unfair. But upon reflection, she had a point. I then went on the works Internet and asked for 10 volunteers. People I did not know, who might give me an unbiased view on my books. The response was overall good, with one or two who did not give an opinion. Since then I have found that getting reviews is very, very hard work. Look at your own experiences. How many times have you reviewed other people’s work? We have all read outstanding books, but we rarely bother giving a review, so why should we expect that of others?

Last year I sold one-thousand ebooks and from that number I had just one review, which was negative. That’s the other side of the coin, poor reviews. I have had enough reviews from independent readers to know that my book will appeal to some people. One of my favourite reviews said, “I slowed down reading the book towards the end because I didn’t want it to finish.” That was so heart-felt that it really made me feel that my work was genuinely appreciated. You need a review like that once in a while to counter the negative reviews.

The most negative reviews I have ever received were all from one website. I gave away free books and I suspect that these people entered the give away, regardless of the genre. This was the first time that I got a one-star review with the comment twaddle. You cannot easily dismiss a comment like that and nor should you. Not everyone is going to like your books. Even the best authors get negative reviews. You also need to face the truth that your work may simply not be up to standard. The writing has to be very good with no errors. This is very difficult to achieve; especially on a budget. I paid for two people to edit my recent book and one of the first readers spotted two quite glaring errors where I had used the wrong names in the wrong place.

This again comes back to sharks. I count myself lucky that I have encountered few and the people I have used have been very genuine. Remember though that this is a business. People reviewing your work will want to turn a profit and will want to be reviewing the next book as soon as possible. Also, if your work is full of errors, even the best editor will lose heart. You need to get the manuscript up to a very good standard before submitting it for review.

Good luck in your writing

David Burrows
http://davidburrows.org.uk/
Author of Drachar’s Demons and The Prophecy of the Kings, a fantasy trilogy

Author: David J Burrows
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger