Yep, that’s a real mix. Aliens, the cutting edge of publishing, and as we do every week, free books– always off to the right. Over there >>>>>
On the 26th of this month we’re publishing The ShelfLess Book: The Complete Digital Author and we’re very excited about it. It chronicles all we’ve learned building a seven-figure indie publishing company in just two years. It’s been a wild ride.
I think we’re seeing a morph in the overall digital world. I see less and less indie authors who are having great success and staying purely indie. The workload is overwhelming. The biggest issue a lot of writers and agents are facing, though, is how to outsource a lot of that work? I took the route of doing it in house, joining forces with Jen Talty to form Who Dares Wins Publishing back when people in traditional publishing were scoffing at eBooks (“only 3% of our income”). Even with two people, our to do list always seems to be going in the wrong direction. Just yesterday we were checking two of our Excel spreadsheets against each other, trying to make sure we were on the right sheet of music regarding what days which titles go free via Kindle Select.
Others have signed with traditional houses or with Amazon and I think those are great choices. Once more, many roads to Oz, and Oz means different things for different people.
Many are choosing one time fee outsourcing for services. I think that can work for covers, formatting (to an extant) and uploading and editing. However, even there, as the platforms change their formatting, such as KF8 and Kobo will have a new portal soon, you have to keep outsourcing the same work. It’s sort of like in the old days when you hired a web designer, but then every time you wanted to change your web site, you had to contact the designed and get back in their work queue. Frustrating to say the least.
A key lesson we make in The ShelfLess Book is that digital publishing is an organic and dynamic process. Because an eBook can be produced so much more quickly than a print book, the horse and buggy days of traditional publishing where it took a year to 18 months from manuscript delivery to the book finally for sale in the bookstore are over. As a side note, I just received royalty statements for some books that are published by St. Martins and am aghast at how few eBooks have been sold of these books. Just a reminder that traditional publishing still hasn’t gotten with it on eBooks.
And it’s not just production. Marketing has to be fast, pro-active and reactive to customers. We also have to adapt to promotional opportunities from the various sales platforms quickly, whether it be Kindle Select or Nook First or various book clubs.
For example, besides The Shelfless Book coming out, starting today, for the next three days (Tues-Thur), you can download Area 51 Legend for free from Amazon. While technically it is the last book in my nine book Area 51 series, it’s actually a prequel to the entire series and stands on its own. We start before the dawn of time and move forward to Stonehenge, the time of King Arthur, Excalibur and much more history.
Also, our top selling author, Mary Reed McCall’s title Templar’s Seduction is also free today and tomorrow.
We will update the sidebar as we rotate many of our titles through the KDP Select program giving readers the opportunity to download our books for free.
Write It Forward!
As long as my to do list is, its a very exciting time. The whole process can be overwhelming at times, but the reward is great. Wild ride indeed.
Great tips, as always, Bob.
Check that Area 51 Amazon link. I think it’s broken.
Did you ever decide what to do with the Readers Rule thing? Just curious.
Thanks! I fixed the link.
Great post.
I came to the conclusion that I’d self-publish my ebooks after dealing with a long, long list of agents looking for someone who would at least read my manuscript. After all the hours chugging along submitting to various agencies, many of which have the “I’ll reply if I like it” policy nailed to their door, I finally turned my ear to the possibility of epublishing. I found the process inefficient, especially given that I have some real creds under my belt. If my work always does well in front of readers, then why go through unnecessary boundaries to get it in front of readers?
I’m in the initial prep phase before launching two titles — trying to build up my infrastructure, getting my LLC set up, etc., including revamping my web presence — and it is a lot of work, but I think one also has to factor in the cost savings verses not having to continually jump through traditional publishing’s hoops. I’m open to having an agent at some point if traditional publishing eventually decides they want some of my fiction, but I’m not going to sit on the sidelines waiting to earn their approval.
Correction on the above: “I found the AGENCY SUBMISSION process inefficient, especially given that I have some real creds under my belt.” Whoops!
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Great post , as always.
Thanks, Bob, Jen and Mary, for the downloads. Will remember to post reviews when I read them, thanks.
Writing…….
Take care,
Lizzi
I haven’t dipped my toes into the self-pubbed waters yet, but I’ve got my eye on it. Thanks, Bob and Jen, for all the work you’ve done – I’m looking forward to the Shelfless Book!
I browsed Amazon for Area 51 Legend and noticed a price of nearly $50.00 for the mass-market paperback edition of the book. What gives with that? I’ve seen this before on Amazon. Are they trying to price the paper version out of reach? Sometimes their pricing methods leave me wondering if they’ve lost their minds. For example, a Kindle version priced higher than the hard-back and a hard-back version of a classic Sci-Fi novel that costs nearly $125.00. Crazy!
Those high prices of physical books are not “Amazon”, but other dealers that sell through Amazon. These are out of print books.
Well Random House reserves the right to sell the mass market paperback until they run out– I assume they ran out and now you can only get it used. Which means we should probably bring it back into print in trade paperback at a much lower price.
It was listed as ‘new’ for $47 and some change. But what about Kindle versions that are priced higher than hard-backs? Are the majors trying to promote the paper at the expense of the ebook?
Hey Bob, excellent blog, as per usual! Not quite sure how you fit all you do in the day, I can only hope to one day equate the same prodigious output as you.
Yes, as a writer, I’m standing on the sidelines thinking ‘let the games begin’ between all the potential producers of books these days, wondering who’ll win! However, by ducking under the cover you (and others) provide, and monitoring developments, I hope to be able to utilise progress and not get burned by it!
Yvette Carol
Looking forward to the Shelfless Book. Thanks for the free reads.
Assuming $2 income per sale, it would take a pace of 137 sales/day to bring in $100,000 a year. Doable by an individual? I’d like to think so.