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Author Archives: Robert Worstell
How to Step by Step Publish on Google Play
GooglePlay just recently worked out a nice little sequence of steps – a checklist – you can follow to publish your books there. While this would have been nice to have at the outset, it’s nice to have now. (photo: … Continue reading
Posted in book, Canada, E-book, epub, Exchange rate, google, Google Account, GooglePlay, iTunes
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Focus on Value Instead of Delivery
Kobo’s recent piggy approach to public domain self-publishing has a lesson. And that is: Concern yourself with delivering value, not just book sales. Having to edit the meta-info on several dozen books didn’t exactly make my evening. Swallowing the fact … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon.com, E-book, feedbooks, iTunes, kobo, Microsoft, Scribd, smashwords
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How to Publish Public Domain Books and Profit Nearly Forever, Part 1
(photo: 401(k) 2012) I found sometime this year that it was more profitable to publish than it is to write. And publishing copyright-free material was faster than about anything.[Update: the list of How-To steps have just been posted.] I now have … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon Kindle, book, iTunes, kobo, lulu, public domain, publish
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Some copyright notes – where to check for public domain issues
Some places to check for copyright orphans before you give up on that great public domain book. The safest approach is to only use books printed before 1923. That limits what people want to read, though, since the language and … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon.com, createspace, Dorothea Brande, Internet Archive, kobo, lulu, public domain
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Lulu gets finicky about publishing ebooks – tsk, tsk.
Is the business plan for publishing public domain and PLR books dead? No, but the rumors would make you think so. (photo: seebrownflikr) Got this from Lulu today: Please note that we no longer accept public domain or other content … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon Kindle, google, iTunes, kobo, lulu, Nook, public domain
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Why Lulu Made Me Buy a MAC for Self-Publishing
iTunes, unlike Amazon, doesn’t seem to be a walled garden. But there are hurdles which they put in place to keep indie authors out. Here’s some solutions to the problem. (photocredit: Kyle MacDonald) This began for me when Lulu decided … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon Kindle, book, iTunes, kobo, lulu, public domain, smashwords
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How to Set Up a MAC for Self-Publishing to Itunes
Adventures in Apple-land: Using a MAC as a Self-Publishing Platform When we last left our hero, he had made the decision – and leapt into the mist. I ordered a MAC mini (hold the fries) and it arrived two days … Continue reading
Posted in apple, Best Buy, Calibre, Firefox, iTunes, LibreOffice, Linux, Sigil, Windows
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How to Build a Public Domain (Self) Publishing Assembly Line
Publishing public domain books means volume and repetitive tasks – an assembly line. (art credit:Tobias Mikkelson) A one-person publishing “empire” is possible these days. Regular passive income can be made from re-publishing public domain as long as you: 1) Add … Continue reading
Posted in book, Calibre, iTunes, LibreOffice, lulu, public domain, publishing, Sigil
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How to Make Higher Royalties From Your Books
Affiliate Book Sales can earn you even higher book royalties. Some tricks, though. The simple approach is to get your distributors to pay you affiliate sales fees on top of your royalties. None of them do it the same way, … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon.com, iTunes, kobo, lulu, Missouri, OverDrive, Rakuten
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How to Post Your eBook to Multiple Distributors – Ease and Profit
(photo: Blythe) Sequence and Feeding of eBook Distributors – How to take it easy and make extra passive income meanwhile. If you’ve been following this series of articles, you’ll know that we are now up to about eight major distributors … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Calibre, GooglePlay, iTunes, LibreOffice, lulu, Nook, OverDrive
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Leanpub Joins the Mix – Extending the Top Distributors List
Getting More Distributors Means More Eyeballs, More Income (photo: Jena Ardell) This post is to update the publishing sequence to improve your profits with your home publishing business. We’re going to get into Leanpub next, a logical step – and … Continue reading
Posted in book, iTunes, LeanPub, LibreOffice, lulu, Markdown, Nook, publish
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Budget Corks: How to Keep Your Money Instead of Watching it Drain Away
Financial Freedom and “Getting Rich” can be accomplished much cheaper than most people think possible. At this point, you’re well on your way to getting financially free by operating your own book-publishing home business. It’s time to discuss getting rich. … Continue reading
Book Marketing That Actually Works: Part 1
Books are only paid journey invitations. They are not the journey itself. “You buys your ticket and you takes your chances.” While they make income, they are not your bread-winners, despite any individual bestseller. Your income comes from the teamwork … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon.com, book, iTunes, kobo, lulu, Nook, public domain
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Book Marketing That Actually Works: Part 2
The soul of your marketing journey is Copywriting. Copywriting is communication, it’s actually telling the story of a product or service and inviting a potential customer along for the journey – or giving that individual a tool or weapon or … Continue reading
Posted in book, iAmplify, iTunes, Joseph Campbell, LeanPub, lulu, Portable Document Format, publish
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A Comparison of Distributors – Who’s on First?
Figured I owed you a no-holds-barred, warts-and-all review of the main distributors – from my experiences with them. The aggregators all charge something to post your ebook to the various distributors. Lulu is the cheapest, at 10%, Smashwords at around … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, google, GooglePlay, iTunes, lulu, Nook, public domain, Smashword
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Summary of Getting Started: Lists and Sequences
Tying it all together in a neat package means giving you a shopping list of stuff to do in what order. I. What distributors? Leanpub Lulu Google Play/Books iTunes Nook Amazon Kobo (OverDrive) This sequence is to get all possible … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, HTML, iTunes, LibreOffice, lulu, OverDrive, public domain, publish
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Postcript: Tracking ebook links for fun and profit
Putting your ebook envoys to work in earning you income. (I got this surprisingly logical idea recently – which I’ve not heard anywhere else – of how you figure out how your ebook is performing in bringing you additional traffic, … Continue reading
Posted in book, E-book, google, Hootsuite, HTML, iTunes, Landing page, publish
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Update: How Lulu Distributes Your eBook – on a Lag
Something funny with Lulu – why the delay in distribution? (Photo: RainbowCave) Lulu has now started e-mailing when they actually ship your book to the main distributors (iTunes, Nook, Amazon, Kobo.) Nice. But why does it take so long? “Congratulations! … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, E-book, GooglePlay, iTunes, lulu, Nook, publish, Smashword
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Falling in Love with Leanpub for Self-Publishing Ease
It’s now so easy to self-publish via Leanpub that I’ve fallen in love all over again. Half tongue-in-cheek and half in earnest – when I moved to publishing my latest set of books on copywriting to Leanpub, the ease of … Continue reading
Posted in Dropbox, GooglePlay, iTunes, LeanPub, LibreOffice, Nook, publish, YouTube
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Leanpub Shows Their TImidity – Accepts Original Works Only.
(Logo property of Leanpub as trademark.) Just got suspended for “copyright violations” from Leanpub (on one account, anyway.) Means they don’t like public domain books. Scratch them from anything except original books. Which means they’re in the same category as … Continue reading
Posted in iTunes, kobo, LibreOffice, lulu, Nook, OverDrive, public domain, Smashword
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Choosing Your eBook Package Distributor – A Review
Distribly vs. JVZoo vs. BlueSnap vs. DigiResults vs. MyCommerce, etc. (Your choice of dancing affiliates…) When Leanpub showed me they weren’t publishing anything but original works, I was left finding other options for creating binders and packages – as well … Continue reading
How to Publish Your eBook Bundle on BitTorrent
(photo: blog.bittorrent.com) You can publish your own BitTorrent eBook bundles and here’s how… There are numerous benefits to getting bundles up and online. In most cases, authors are only seeing bundles as additional profit-makers. Tim Ferris was one of the … Continue reading
Posted in bittorrrent, ebook, marketing, promotion, publishing
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The “News” in Self-Publishing is all DIY, not “done-for-you”.
Self-Publishing is the new model which is far more profitable than traditional-publishing lock-step hobbles. (photo: eXtensionHorses) Hobbles are used on animals to keep them from wandering. They’re usually put on the (front) feet and are uncomfortable. The model for traditional … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon.com, GooglePlay, iTunes, kobo, lulu, OverDrive, paperback, publish, publishing, writers
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The Copywriting Classics Publishing Post-Mortem
(photo: School of Veterinary Medicine) Racking up a queue of public domain classics for publishing, does seem like an hygienic assembly line at times. This post-mortem is a critique of what went well and could be improved on this latest … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Calibre, Dale Carnegie, google, iTunes, lulu, public domain, publish
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New release: How to Earn Extra Income Through Your SOHO Publishing Business
Publish. Profit. Independence. Find independence and financial freedom from one of the simplest home businesses you can start from scratch – or less… Learn Tips and Tricks to make self-publishing pay well. I fell into this by accident. There I … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon.com, iTunes, LibreOffice, lulu, Nook, public domain, publish, SOHO
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How to Game Amazon at Their Public Domain Publishing.
(photo: aktivioslo) Winning the self-publishing race can mean gaming the Publishing Godzilla. (Meaning: you can get around Amazon’s Public Domain policies and still be legal in your agreements with them.) You might have peculiar books which Amazon will query, but … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon.com, iTunes, kobo, lulu, public domain, publish, Smashword
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Making Sense of Amazon’s Public Domain Policies
When the same policies get different results – it makes you wonder… (Two McCoy’s… photo: JD Hancock) We start with very simple Amazon policies regarding Public Domain (PD) books: In order to provide a better customer buying experience, our policy … Continue reading
Adding a New Distributor for Book Discovery
More multiple eyeballs to add to your list of book-buying promotional outlets. (photo credit: Jackie) Which means more discovery and more sales = more income. Found it when I was chasing down a new series of books which had fallen … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Amazon.com, Goodreads, google, Internet Archive, LibraryThing, lulu, Shelfari
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Are there Professional versus Amateur publishers?
(photo: BiggerPictureImages.com) Is there a difference between “professional” and “amateur” publishers? Technically, no. There seems to be a quality point, however. Even if that quality point is arbitrarily inflated. Some people are just getting started in publishing, and others have … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, book, BookBaby, iTunes, kobo, OverDrive, Private label rights, publish
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How to Publish a Dozen Books in an Afternoon.
An afternoon’s work can get your next dozen books available to millions within 3 days. This came home to me today as I (finally) started publishing another batch of books I’d been polishing. Of course, it didn’t go smoothly – … Continue reading
Posted in amazon, Calibre, google, ISBN, iTunes, LibreOffice, lulu, Nook
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Even Orphans Can Get Published and Find Success
Orphans have rights too – but they’d rather be well-known than forgotten. (photo: opensource.com) The story is too common. Some author comes out with a book, then dies – but no one cares. Or an author publishes under a corporate … Continue reading
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Huna – Max Freedom Long – Recovering the Ancient Magic
Discovering / Recovering the Ancient Magic (Photo Credit: Palash Biswas) AFTER an eighteen-year study of Magic in its various forms—not the spurious magic of the stage, but the genuine magic that works miracles—I come as a layman to report my … Continue reading
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Update: The Distributors Discriminate (against your profits.)
In any book sales, it’s bulk vs. originality. There’s room for both. (Photo Credit: Phil Roeder) Viable book sales depend on volume of books first, quality second, originality third. But this isn’t how the distributors see it. No reason for … Continue reading
The new and streamlined assembly line for book publishing online.
Anything can be automated, even book self-publishing. (Photo credit: Pascal) We aren’t’ talking about how you publish books by machine, but we are talking a pretty set procedural system to make your publishing life continue easier. Publishers publish many books. … Continue reading
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The genius reason behind the madness of publishing as a home business
Genius publishers can get financial freedom if they want to work hard. My job is to make it easier by leaving a back-trail anyone can follow. The idea is to create a self-publishing home-business which earns you financial freedom. I … Continue reading
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Your Next Challenge in Publishing – Finish What You Started
Editing Great Books Doesn’t Get Them Selling or Sold – Publishing Does. (Photo credit: Kev) It’s an easy trap to get into. Many niches have lots of books hanging around which beg you to bring them back to life. And … Continue reading
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Why Aren’t Authors Happy Publishing Their Book?
Most authors don’t make a lot of money from publishing… (Photo: Diana Brown) …and what they don’t know is killing them. I’ve done my own study of DBW’s author survey. In addition to their earlier year’s surveys, this also adds … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, E-book, Ebook Publishing, iTunes, Kobo Inc., lulu, OverDrive, public domain, publishing
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A Review of Overdrive – Underdriven?
Where Overdrive as an ebook distributor might have some gears loose. (Photo: Drew Brayshaw) I’ve had not the best experience with Overdrive and wanted to let you know what I found. Overdrive, per their website: “Generate revenue from our worldwide … Continue reading
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How to Throw Away Perfectly Good Marketing and Make No Sales
What to Do When You Have Legacy Brand Mojo (Artwork: Wacky stuff) Public Domain publishing is profitable if 1) you take advantage of the brand awareness that already exists, and 2) you don’t do something stupid to make it undiscoverable. … Continue reading
Your Life Career: How to Find and Follow Your Bliss
How to Find and Follow Your Bliss In Your Life Career An Excerpt from The Power of Myth, by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers. Of all mythologist Joseph Campbell’s work, the easiest I’ve found to follow was a several-hour interview … Continue reading
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Cracking the Lulu ebook Reject Problem
A faster way to clear up those cryptic Lulu ebook rejects. Just a note in passing… I was working away converting and uploading when I stumbled on a faster and surer way to get your book through that meatgrinder that … Continue reading
Tips to Increase Direct Sales From Google Play/Books
An Idea Came Up to Increase Your Sales and Commissions from Lulu I had last told you that I didn’t get much sales from Lulu, but they had the highest commissions. That’s if you use them to distribute your books … Continue reading
Posted in book sales, google, iTunes, links, Nook, self-publishing, Web search engine
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Market Research Starts With Amazon?!?
Indie SOHO Publishing needs market research to succeed. Start with Amazon. (graphic: Chris Piascik) Why? Because they will tell you if your book as even a fighting change of breaking into the big time. While Amazon has been consistently shrinking … Continue reading
How to Publish Public Domain Books and Profit Nearly Forever – Part 2
(continued from Part 1) The How-To Tips of Publishing PD and PLR to Profit From Here On Out (Photo: Simon Cunningham) Sorry I didn’t give you exact steps last time. (Of course, you can get this from my books, “Just … Continue reading
Posted in Amanda Hocking, Amazon.com, Google Play, iTunes, LibreOffice, lulu, public domain, publishing, Stephen King
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Staring an Indie SOHO Publishing Career and Making Income Immediately
You Can Publish Your Friend’s, Neighbor’s, and Strangers’ Books From Your SOHO Publishing Business… (photo:epSos .de) …with no more than the tools you already use to publish your own books. It’s long been said that there is more money selling … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, book, iTunes, lulu, Print on demand, public domain, publishing, SOHO
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How to Keep the IRS From Nickel and Diming Your Book Income
A Little-Known Way to Get the IRS Off your Self-Publishing Back (Graphic: DonkeyHotkey) Just a (hopefully) short note about author earnings on Lulu. Stumbled on this while researching my recent posts and thought you’d want to know. Disclaimer: this isn’t … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon Kindle, author, book, E-book, Ebook Publishing, hardcopy, lulu, print version, publishing, self-publishing
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You connect with your readers via their story.
It’s a point of how well do you fit in as a symbol, or an archetype for their journey. This is a point of how well your marketing is able to be absorbed. Thought you might be interested in this … Continue reading
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Publishing 30 books in 5 hours on Amazon
It is possible to publish over 2 dozen ebooks to Amazon in an afternoon. (photo: Alan Hudson) Of course, there’s a great deal of work to get to that point. Over 2 months of preps. And you should see how … Continue reading
The Numbers Racket and Amazon’s Public Domain Problems.
Amazon’s problem with public domain books are overcome by sheer numbers. (Photo: Conor Lawless) You beat Amazon at public domain publishing by having a lot of dogs hunting for you. Recently was in the middle of a test which had … Continue reading
Posted in Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, book, E-book, Ebook Publishing, epub, Goodreads, ibookstore, iTunes, lulu, publishing, smashwords
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Solving Competition and Making Profits by Indie Publishing
Competition Can Be Both Good and Bad For Indie Publishing – Particularly With Public Domain Books (photo: Ronel Reyes) Some ebook distributors don’t want you competing with other titles, others encourage it. Amazon and Google seem to be at different … Continue reading