Orna Ross, founding director of the Alliance of Independent Authors answers The Bookseller’s call for five-minute manifestos on the future of the book business.
The Martian: Matt Damon’s new space film started as a self-published e-book
The epic tale of survival had humble beginnings in 2009 as a self-published eBook written by San Francisco computer programmer, Andy Weir. He began posting the story on his website, chapter by chapter, when it gained a cult following. In 2012, he posted the novel on the Kindle site after receiving several requests from fans. Eighteen months later, Weir was negotiating both a publishing deal with Random House and film rights with Fox.
What are the reasonable costs of self-publishing?
Don’t get scammed. Don’t spend more than you have to on self-publishing (and you don’t have to spend a lot) and never give away your intellectual property rights.
How to self-publish an audiobook
A 10-hour audiobook could take about 60 hours or more to produce with recording, proofing, and mastering, meaning authors should expect to shell out a minimum of $3,000 to $4,000 for the completed product.
Self-Published Novelist Defamed In-Laws in €53k Payout Case
Just saying your characters are fictional and do not resemble any persons, living or dead, was not enough to save this Portuguese self-published author from prosecution.
Ignore self-publishing at your peril
Given the sheer volume of self-published books, it is clear that self-publishing is culturally significant. But which individual works themselves are important? How do reviewers, who have never used sales as a way to determine the value of a book, choose from among the literally tens of thousands of self-published titles made available each year? The answer to this question is not obvious.
The collapse of Bilbary illustrates how tough the ebook marketplace is
Philip Jones at The Bookseller argues that the collapse of ebook retailing and lending website Bilbary tells us as much about the developing ebook market as Simon & Schuster’s deal with Amazon (a version of agency) does.
A reader’s first look at Kindle Scout
Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader takes a look at the first set of submissions to Kindle Scout and finds the writing quality surprisingly high, especially when compared with the quality of some of the covers
Getting a unique illustration for your book cover
Joanna Penn used the 99designs community of designers to have multiple artists provide competing designs for her next book cover. She describes the process and illustrates some of the finalists’ designs, as well as that of the eventual winner, in this interesting post.
The Indie Author Power Pack
Incredible value. Three great eBooks on self-publishing plus an exclusive audio interview for less than the price of a cup of coffee. A must for all indie authors.