Category Archives: book

Your Audience, Your Responsibility, Your Advice

Any Writer Starts By Listening This comes up over and over again. People who listen can have conversations. People who “soapbox” often end up standing there alone. The key to successful books is writing for the audience. Sure, you may … Continue reading

Posted in audience, author, bestsellers, book, ebook, exchange, fiction, genre, popular, story, value, writing | Leave a comment

Smashwords overturning the self-publishing apple cart – what’s new?

This Smashwords Newsletter is an Intense Good News Download Just got this in from Mark Coker in my email and thought you should have a copy. It’s that good… Smashwords Author/Publisher Alert – August 29, 2013 Inside: 1. Smashwords introduces … Continue reading

Posted in apple, Barnes & Noble, book, Flipkart, India, kobo, Mark Coker, smashwords | Leave a comment

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 | Leave a comment

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

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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 | Leave a comment

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 | Leave a comment

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

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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 | Leave a comment

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 | Leave a comment

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

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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

Posted in Amazon Kindle, book, International Standard Book Number, iTunes, Kobo Inc., LibreOffice, lulu, public domain, publishing | Leave a comment

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 | Leave a comment

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 | Leave a comment

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

Posted in bestseller, book, book sales, E-book, Ebook Publishing, Free content, kindle, Lowest common denominator, Print on demand, publishing | Leave a comment

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 | Leave a comment

Getting Booksales on Amazon – and Everywhere Else

There are two distinct venues for selling books – Amazon and Everywhere Else. (photo: Nicholas Eckhart) This separation was made clear to me when I worked to publish a large handful of books to Amazon that I’d already published elsewhere. … Continue reading

Posted in Amazon Kindle, book, E-book, iTunes, Nook, public domain, publishing, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, self-publishing | Leave a comment

How to Really Profit from Self-Publishing – Follow the Disney Route to Success

Use public domain to inspire your own works – that’s their greatest, and most profitable use. The real reason for works returning to the public domain is to inspire the next generation. The long-dead authors no longer need to profit … Continue reading

Posted in Amazon.com, book, E-book, iTunes, LibreOffice, lulu, Private label rights, public domain, publishing | Leave a comment

When to Cave Over a Fake Copyright Claim

When they have a lawyer and you can’t afford one. (Jurisdictionary – lousy packaging, great course.) Hopefully, you don’t have a lot invested in that book. Might be a crying shame, but get over it. The two questions you have … Continue reading

Posted in Amazon Kindle, book, E-book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, iTunes, lulu, Private label rights, public domain, publishing | Leave a comment

The Great Amazon Suck – Why Other eBook Distributors Don’t

How to Blow-Off Any Chance at a Fan Base. (Cover: Seattle Weekly) [Rant Alert] For all the hype about Amazon, you will seldom see any fan clubs for Amazon or its execs. (Just lots of those “smiley” boxes.) That became … Continue reading

Posted in Amazon Kindle, book, E-book, iTunes, Kobo Inc., lulu, Nook, public domain, publishing, self-publishing | Leave a comment

“Edward’s First Book” – A Children’s Story About Self-Publishing.

(Just a first draft. Illustrations to follow.)  – – – – Edward would wake up at night because of the voices in his head. They weren’t unpleasant voices, but they did want something. They wanted to be heard. Not just … Continue reading

Posted in Amazon Kindle, book, Book cover, book launch, Goodreads, LeanPub, lulu, publishing, self-publishing | Leave a comment

Why Publishers Earn More Income than Self-Publishing Writers

(photo: Jeremy Brooks) Selling Books Online is What Publishers Do Best (Writers Write Best). I was looking over my “series of unfortunate events” post – which laid out how I got financially free once I started publishing books for a … Continue reading

Posted in Agatha Christie, Amanda Hocking, Arthur Conan Doyle, author, book, Golden Rule, iTunes, Jane Austen, publishing, Stephen King | Leave a comment

Getting Started on a Right Foot – with Online Book Selling: Case Study 07

(Photo:  Augustus Binu) Your site is the right first step to take in getting your book selling online. There I was, running through all these to-do spreadsheet list actions – and I realized I’d skipped over a huge piece of this … Continue reading

Posted in AWeber Communications, book, google, Google Analytics, Landing page, Market Samurai, RSS, Search engine optimization, WordPress | Leave a comment

What Begins Well, Goes Well – and You Can Always Start Over

So, I was all set to get back to publishing books – when I discovered I really should drop back and punt. (Not hand it over to someone else, but like you’re playing as a kid and doing both sides … Continue reading

Posted in Amazon Kindle, Blogger (service), book, Ebook Publishing, google, IPhone, iTunes, napoleon hill, publishing | Leave a comment

Is it Time for Authors to Speak Up and Sell More?

If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here The more authors get their content out to more people, the better chance they have of discovery.  The more discovery, the better the book sales. I’ve long said … Continue reading

Posted in Amazon.com, Audiobook, book, iTunes, publishing, RSS | 1 Comment

The Greatest Evil in Self-Publishing – and 4 Methods to Fight It

If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here The world’s greatest writers and composers have died because of it. It’s caused Wars to be lost and Nations defeated. It’s present in most people’s lives – and … Continue reading

Posted in book, ebook, napoleon hill, politics, self-publishing, success, think and grow rich | 1 Comment

The Curse of Printed Art Books – and How to Remove it (Case Study 09)

If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here I can hear my Art Teachers “tut-tutting” in my head now. They were all very good at being constructive in their criticism. You knew you hit the high-level … Continue reading

Posted in art books, art training, book, Print on demand, public domain, self-publishing, walter crane | Leave a comment

Reverse Book Marketing – Audience First, then Book

If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here The guide to reverse book marketing exists. I found this great talk between Robert Bruce and Brian Clark which has a reverse take on how authors should start … Continue reading

Posted in authorpreneur, book, Brian Clark, Copyblogger, DVD, Elvis Presley, Malcolm Gladwell, New Rainmaker, writing | Leave a comment

The Rainmaker Solution: An Expensive Date That Turns Out to Be a Priceless BFF

If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here The Rainmaker Solution – a BFF which starts as an expensive date. Have you ever been in this situation? Having a significant other who is costing you a … Continue reading

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The Hummingbird That Protects You From Amazon Going South

Because you never know when things will go to hell. Being prepared is a good option to keep open. You’ve probably heard this pharse or some version: “Plan your work, work your plan and always carry a spare.” Another one … Continue reading

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