When I wrote What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too?, I wanted to index the book . . . eventually. An index can make a paperback how-to book immeasurably more helpful. [Note: in my humble opinion, an index for an ebook makes no sense, as an ebook is fully […]
A nifty way to generate rankings for your books at its launch is by offering pre-orders. As an indie, you can do this for both ebooks (easy) and paperbacks on Amazon (complex). Pre-orders allow people to place orders as soon as they decide they want your book, when you begin pre-launch promotion. Without pre-orders, people […]
Have you ever considered crowdfunding to raise the money you need to publish and/or promote a book? I hadn’t, until author Matthew Arkin told me about his success with crowd funding for In the Country of the Blind. Even then, it was only a passing thought. I wasn’t even sure I understood completely what it […]
There is a raging debate in the world of independent authordom, (and sometimes even in our house), about the value of print books in an independent author’s marketing plan. While there is no clear winner in my opinion (and it depends heavily on your long term goals), I do believe that getting your books in […]
We are looking for tales of learning, success, and failure to share with our readers on Skip the Jack, and we are looking to cross-pollinate. If you think you fit the bill, email info @ skipjackpublishing . com to volunteer. We are seeking 300-800-word pieces or excerpts on publishing and promotion that address current topics […]
Last November I had a spectacular 99 cent promotion with BookBub for my novel Saving Grace, selling over 4300 of it in five days, plus a few hundred of my other books. It wasn’t all on Amazon either. Bookbub has incredible reach with Nook, iTunes, and Kobo, too. So great that I couldn’t wait to get my […]
In our continuing SkipJack experiment in indie publishing, we try to keep you up to date on what’s working and what’s not. Here’s what we learned in 2013: 1. BookBub Works Best, Some Others Work Well, and Most Don’t Work at All Want to read the skinny on BookBub? Check out the details here. In […]
This post is a follow-up to Holy Crapoly: You’re Going to Want to Hear This! Recently two Amazon bestselling authors set out to promote their second novels. A lot had changed in the world of ebook promotion since each of their debuts, however. When Rodney Walther first released Broken Laces, he had great success with […]
Well, give us 10 days to collect all the data and we’ll have quite an indie publishing story to share with you. What, you ask? What story? What happened? Well, I finally, after six applications and five rejections, got a BookBub day. I got it for the book I wanted, too: Saving Grace, the lead […]
I LOVE Amazon. Please understand, as an indie author, I make the bulk of my $$$$$ on Amazon. In many ways, they single-handedly caused the leveling of the traditional publishing playing field so that indies have a chance to publish on their terms. I don’t love EVERYTHING about Amazon, however, because I’m not a robot. […]