I find this encouraging: Everyone knows mega-selling author Dean Koontz. He’s been producing work for so long that it’s hard to remember a time when he wasn’t on the bestseller lists, but many don’t realize the dues he paid to get there. Before he published Whispers, his big breakout hit, he wrote thirty-eight novels in twelve years. During that time … Read More
Rachel Thompson: 10 Things I Wish I Knew About Book Promotion
Rachel Thompson generously shares what she has learned.
Guy Kawasaki to Traditional Publishers: Your Days are Numbered – Forbes
via Forbes: The process takes twelve to eighteen months to publish a book—Apple introduces new models of iPhones faster than that,” Kawasaki explains. In my interview with him, Kawasaki acknowledged that traditional publishers are behind, even detrimental to authors in some circumstances: “The issue is that they <publishers> are limited to the traditional way of making money: selling books printed on … Read More
Pros and Cons of Launching a Book on Kickstarter
Seth Godin has put a lot of thought into this: The good news is that the enthusiasm and support that early adopters bring to the table is extraordinary. This is an untapped human need, and people (some people, anyway) really enjoy the role of patron and early supporter. Others, of course, magnify the impact of their investment and are hard … Read More
For Journalists: Selling Non-Fiction Articles on Kindle
A new way for journalists to publish: And if you’re wondering what being a top-10 Kindle Single gets you in terms of actual sales: In the first two weeks of its availability in the Singles Store, the piece sold more more than 1,900 copies, Tofel says.
This Author Self-Published and then Sold the Same Book to a Traditional Book Publisher
Judy Mandel describes her experience: It was Christmas when I noticed some weird deposits in my bank account online. Again, I absolutely forgot that I had arranged direct deposit for the e-book sales. It turned out I was selling around 4,000 e-books a month.
Huge Ebook Growth Continues
Via digitalbookworld.com: As ebooks become a bigger piece of the publishing pie, growth as a percentage of the previous year’s total will continue to slow. But a 25% increase on $2 billion (basically where ebooks across the trade are headed this year) is about the same in actual dollars as a roughly 100% increase on $450 million (2011 vs. 2010).
Latest Thing: Selling Books via Bittorrent
Innovated by the 4-Hour dude, Tim Ferris. Last week, BitTorrent released an exclusive first look at Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Chef to help the author fight the Barnes & Noble boycott. This helping hand came in the form of a BitTorrent Bundle, featuring Part 1 of the book, interviews, photos, and so on. By the end of the day, the … Read More
From Forbes – Hi-Tech Ways to Promote Your eBook
9 Ways Your Business Savvy Helps You Market Your Self-Published Book. Including: 5. Practice customer development with free content. Apply lean startup principles to your book through free excerpts. For example, why not use an A/B email campaign with two different opening scenes, or email bloggers with different excerpts and see which bloggers ask for interviews? Why not build a quick … Read More
Smashwords CEO’s Epic Putdown of Big 6 Self-Pub Efforts
Via DigitalBookWorld: Becoming yet another blood sucking parasite is not the path forward for publishers. It runs completely counter to what the best publishers have always represented. Great publishers invest in authors, not exploit them.