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Self-Publishing Resources and Websites

Lex DeVille

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Gymjunkie

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Gymjunkie

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Ebook Publishing Gets More Difficult - Smashword blog post about slowing of the market, what to expect and what to do to grow your career in future!

http://blog.smashwords.com/2014/11/ebook-publishing-gets-more-difficult.html

NOT a sky-falling-down post, but a great realistic look at market!


Good read. I am leaning towards optimism here, and I think, and perhaps @ChickenHawk can chime in, that the odds of a new "pretty good" writers are maybe 85% as good as a year ago? Would you guys put that number higher or lower?

Great thread GJ, keep up the good work!
 

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@goodjunkie thanks for sharing these sites, appreciate it! :)
 

Gymjunkie

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Good read. I am leaning towards optimism here, and I think, and perhaps @ChickenHawk can chime in, that the odds of a new "pretty good" writers are maybe 85% as good as a year ago? Would you guys put that number higher or lower?

Great thread GJ, keep up the good work!

Cheers. Good to see people enjoying these.

I do think it's lower than 85%, it was way easier 3 years ago, it was a gold rush. Not meaning it in any negative way, just supply/demand thing for ebook changed(new devices, need more ebooks) and now it changed again (so many writers, growth for devices stopped for now, so content overload). I don't think it's even 70% as easy. Depends on which year we compare it too.

That's for now until we see more from Kindle Unlimited and can it make some noise..
 
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ChickenHawk

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Good read. I am leaning towards optimism here, and I think, and perhaps @ChickenHawk can chime in, that the odds of a new "pretty good" writers are maybe 85% as good as a year ago? Would you guys put that number higher or lower?
Hmmm...I think I'd put it lower, maybe not a lot lower, but still, maybe somewhere in the 70% range. Here are some things that happened within the last year.
  • More Price Competition from Traditional Publishers: In the early stages, indies had a huge advantage because traditionally published ebooks were still priced quite high, often $9.99 per book or higher. Today, I'm seeing more traditionally published books priced in the $2.99 to $4.29 range. That means that Indies can no longer compete primarily on price.
  • More Competiton from Other Indies: With the "goldrush" mentality, more and more authors are jumping into the self-pubbing game. Even look here on this forum. A lot of people who don't have a natural love or interest in fiction are jumping in, some with lots of success, and some with less success. Either way, that means more titles competing for all those dollars and eyeballs.
  • KDP Select: IMO, KDP Select has made it harder to earn lots and lots of money. Basically, what seems to have happened is those fanatical readers who reads TONS of books have migrated to the subscription model.In the past, maybe they would've spent $30 a month on books. Now, they're spending $9.99. The money they're saving represents a loss of author earnings.
A final thought...Even with my opinion that it's harder than a year ago (and probably a whole lot harder than it was THREE years ago), it will likely be even harder a year from now, which means there's no better time to start than today. But be prepared to work really hard and dig in to produce lots of quality titles at a speed higher than you're probably comfortable with. If you're a good, strong writer, and have a great cover and blurb, you can still make good money. But you'll probably have to work harder for it.
 
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Mattie

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Really I think the key is just writing more an more books as famous authors I've seen usually have a selection of them and of course always improving skills and strengthen your writing skills. Really you have to look at is anything in life. Everything will constantly change. You just have keep up to date, and upgrade with the times. Adjust and find new ways to be creative. There's competition in everything in life. So, you just have to be doing what everyone else isn't doing or trying.

Anne Rice seems to be sticking up for authors and I've been following her and listening to what she's been saying for over a year. I think I've already noticed you have to find the authors that are standing up for the community and speaking their voice. I like how she's asking writers to get involved and how to change things. You really have to stand together as a community. I learned this in Hubpages as well. Writers that stand together get a lot further together.
 

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Lex DeVille

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Mattie

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Thought I'd share some useful sites for self-pubbing folks!

Kristine Kathryn Rusch - hands down, BEST blog for writers about writing and writing business from bestselling author, read The Business Rush section. Amazing insight because she writes, has run a Publishing company, Distribution company and has most understanding about these thing as a writer. No one comes close probably..

A Blog Pertaining to Health | My Health Blog - great site for marketing advice, podcast and video interviews too.

KBoards - Index - very good forum for writers. Ton of pretty successful authors hang out there.

Rocking Self Publishing | Weekly interviews with self-published authors - audio interviews with successful indie authors with tips and advice (all authors make over $1k a month from books alone). Disclaimer: I'm working on it behind the scenes and am interviewed there.

Bestseller Labs - very good resource for book marketing

Jane Friedman: Writing, Reading, and Publishing in the Digital Age - probably 2nd best site here. Jane Friedman is a big name in publishing industry and has a lot of insight.

Hope this is helpful, share your favorites!
Thanks!!!
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Free online course via Stanford

ADVENTURES IN WRITING


http://online.stanford.edu/course/adventures-writing?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Stanford%20Online&utm_content=Feb Final

Date:
Monday, January 12, 2015
Go to Course
Platform:
Stanford OpenEdX
Course topic:
Humanities
ADVENTURES IN WRITING
Video of "Adventures in Writing"
Welcome to Adventures in Writing, a series of graphic-novel style learning modules designed to help you learn more about and practice a range of effective written communication skills. You’ll immerse yourself in the adventures of Maya and Chris, using each module’s interactive exercises to apply what you’ve learned. Writing instructors in Stanford’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) designed the modules to reflect PWR’s philosophy that the best academic and real world communication practices require us to think about more than “correctness” or just getting things right—we must actively consider what we’re trying to achieve with a specific audience for a specific purpose. Through joining Maya and Chris on their adventures, you’ll develop your abilities to communicate in writing—from punctuation and style to argument—increasing the power of your language in the classroom and beyond.
 

Gymjunkie

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Gymjunkie

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Thought I'd share some useful sites for self-pubbing folks!

Kristine Kathryn Rusch - hands down, BEST blog for writers about writing and writing business from bestselling author, read The Business Rush section. Amazing insight because she writes, has run a Publishing company, Distribution company and has most understanding about these thing as a writer. No one comes close probably..

A Blog Pertaining to Health | My Health Blog - great site for marketing advice, podcast and video interviews too.

KBoards - Index - very good forum for writers. Ton of pretty successful authors hang out there.

Rocking Self Publishing | Weekly interviews with self-published authors - audio interviews with successful indie authors with tips and advice (all authors make over $1k a month from books alone). Disclaimer: I'm working on it behind the scenes and am interviewed there.

Bestseller Labs - very good resource for book marketing

Jane Friedman: Writing, Reading, and Publishing in the Digital Age - probably 2nd best site here. Jane Friedman is a big name in publishing industry and has a lot of insight.

Hope this is helpful, share your favorites!

Can someone edit the original post and fix the link of the 2nd one? It's supposed to be www.thecreativepenn.com.. Shows wrong link now.
 

Gymjunkie

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Reviews of Longer-Term Book Promotion websites. Haven't been even aware of them before.. most know BookBub and similar sites that do one-off promotions but these spread out the promotion over longer term of multiple months. Seem to work well according to review (not as great as BB but enough to invest seemingly).

http://readindies.blogspot.ie/2015/03/best-book-promotion-services.html

Hope this helps. If anyone was on these, share your experience! ;)
 
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