Here’s a common question that came up in a Facebook group earlier this week. It is more profound than it might seem: “Why should people buy your book and not your competitor’s?” My longer answer: This question completely misunderstands the nature of 95% of the book industry. This kind of competition is real and intense […]
Kickstarter: Mighty Ally of Indie Authors
Brandon Sanderson’s surprise Kickstarter book launch raises $41 million! It passed $4m in the first week… because Brandon did it right. (And he’s already a superstar author, but still, he did it right) Not just indie authors, but everyone in the author community is talking about how to sell directly to readers. After the mind-boggling […]
Print-On-Demand Hardcover Books are Easier Than Ever
As of September 21st, we can now offer our KDP self-published books in hardcover, not just softcover! This is the first major tangible improvement to KDP since they acquired CreateSpace’s best-in-class print-on-demand capabilities, expanding “Kindle Publishing” from ebooks alone to both ebooks and paperbacks… and now, finally, hardcover! Of course, this is still POD, so […]
Selling Your Book In Person: Keep It Simple and Friendly
As vaccination rates are rising and folks are preparing again for in-person large-scale festivals, conventions, conferences, and symposia, I am starting to hear questions about how to sell books at a book table at one of these events. There are several important things to consider, but here’s one question from a person who just discovered […]
“Where do I find the formatting conventions for a manuscript, or a source file for publishing?”
This question came up recently—again!—so I thought I’d answer it here for posterity. TFor manuscript formatting (suitable when you’re preparing the document to be submitted to contests, to agents, to acquisitions agents and publishers) use standard manuscript format. William Shunn is a bit of a codger: no one uses Courier anymore (Classic Format). Use Times […]
LinkedIn deserves a fresh appraisal
After Sheri Kent’s advice at the GLAWS panel discussion this past Saturday, I definitely want to get up to speed with LinkedIn, “the platform I’m on, but mostly ignore.” This morning, I got an email from LInkedIn inviting me to this live-stream event! It begins at 10:00am Pacific, this Friday, it’s free, and I’ll be […]