For most of you embarking on indie publishing, the biggest return on investment for you in ebook sales will be to upload your book onto Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. While their market share is shrinking, they still hold over 60% of it. And be sure you do the uploading yourself, not through a “service.” It’s super easy, […]
Tag: indie publishing
To print or not to print, that is an indie’s question.
Back in the “olden” days, the choices for authors were limited, and you weren’t the one who got to make them. Now, the world is an indie’s oyster, and the number of choices are daunting. I want to focus on just one choice today: print books, or not? To me, print books were a no […]
Fickle is the muse.
Sometimes my fingers fly and still can’t keep up with the words pouring out of my head across the screen. Literally, the characters dance ahead of me across the lines, turning, stopping, taunting, tongue out and thumbs in ears with fingers waggling, the little scoundrels. Other times, my fingers hover uneasily, waiting for divine […]
Achieving Indie Book Visibility
Let’s start with the assumption that your goal is to sell books to the general public, if not you can skip this entry. It’s important to understand that there is no one thing that guarantees an avalanche of sales. It is our belief that it takes simultaneous effort in multiple arenas to get traction and […]
Socializing for Success in Indie Publishing
Love it or hate it, collectively all of the various forms of social media are a critical part of marketing. They are a way of connecting, not only with potential readers, but also with people who can be resources to help you meet your goals, as long as you remember that it is a two […]
Selling books: what doesn’t work.
Writing a great book with wonderful cover art and getting it on the “shelf,” virtual or pine, is not enough to make it sell. This reminds me of the boom in home-based internet businesses when the thought was that all you needed to do was create a website with a “buy” button and have some […]
Echoes of a Past Life, in Indie Publishing Promotions
Once upon a time in another life, I had a real job. Not that I don’t work now, but it’s pretty hard to convince people I have a real job when most days I sport PJ’s until I hear the dogs barking at the side door, alerting me to my husband Eric’s arrival home from […]
Indie Author Book Signing Success
This ain’t no “build it and they will come” scenario, folks. Books signings are a hard sell, even for the traditionally published writer. Book sales are a hard sell, and, at a signing, you’re asking people to come buy your books at a specific time, in return for your smiling face and John Hancock. Your mama thinks […]
Indie Publishing Your First Book
If you are indie-publishing your first book, one of the most important early decisions you will make is about your ultimate goal for your book and writing career. Don’t take this lightly. I mean really think about it, stay up all night, go to your special soul-searching-deciding-place, or whatever you do to make the important […]
You climb a mountain one step at a time.
A few years ago, my wife Pamela and I were faced with a whole lot of personal adversity. The list of problems was very long and included jobs, finances, and family issues. We also had a goal. A goal of getting to a place that to us represented peace, stability, and safety. We knew where we wanted […]