There is so much to learn for authors who want to make the jump into the indie publishing world, to decide to self-publish their book, be it fiction or non-fiction. I have read well over 100 books on self-publishing and an untold number of self-publishing blogs.
To be honest, I have wasted a lot of money and time along the way and still have so much to learn. Some of the books and websites I have come across though are well worth the money and time I have spent and have helped me in my efforts to make this self-publishing venture worthwhile.
Anytime you create a list of anything, someone will disagree with your selections. Still, in an effort to share what I have found helpful to the authors who visit this blog and save them time and money, here is my list of sites, blogs and books I have found to be helpful, worth reading and worth spending money on.
Blogs to visit:
Aaron Shepard's Publishing Blog: Aaron is one of the most helpful experts in the field of self-publishing. His blog often deals with the actual nuts and bolts of using the tools available to create physically create a book for either POD or Kindle. Aaron also understands the business model an author needs to adopt to make self-publishing viable financially. Always worth a visit.
Newbie's Guide to Self-Publishing: This is J.A. Konrath's blog. I often disagree with his worldview and political philosophy. Often. But Mr. Konrath has a passion for encouraging authors to self-publish. He shares actual sales data, encourages authors, explains what is good and bad about traditional publishing and while a huge advocate of self-publishing, will offer caveats about that approach as well. Guest posts are a frequent feature and always interesting and educational. You don't have to agree with Mr. Konrath about everything he writes, but you will always learn valuable information about self-publishing/publishing and often leave his blog feeling encouraged to press on in your efforts. Some topics of practical importance frequently covered: pricing, marketing and insider news.
Morris Rosenthal's Self-Publishing 2.0: Morris has a lot to say about publishing and self-publishing. He was one of the early adopters of print-on-demand and has written extensively about this business model as well as the inner workings of Amazon. Morris by education is an engineer and loves data and math. Morris often posts about trends in self-publishing based on data he collects. He writes about a wide range of topics, some of which may seem a little out there, but are always interesting.
The Book Designer: Joel Friedlander is the author of this blog. Topics range from guest posts to the nuts and bolts of book design and production with all kinds of topics related to self-publishing in between. Joel has a huge collection of information available on his website, you just have to take the time to work through it all. Joel is a professional book designer and the creator of Book Design Templates.
Book Promotion Sites:
I have visited a large number of these. Here is the one post I have found the most helpful. It's worth visiting and reading. Helping readers find your books is critical.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to
It's not exactly an official book promotion site, but you will find an enormous amount of information about promoting books, self-publishing, copyright issues and just about anything else you can image related self-publishing. Check out the Yahoo Group pod_publishers.
Books:
Being an avid book reader and with the advent of Kindle and lower priced books, I have read lots of books on self-publishing and related topics. A large number of these I wish I passed on. As the industry changes, the information you need to know changes.
Aaron Shepard's Aiming at Amazon was, and still is, the first book any author considering self-publishing should read. It outlines the basic business model most of us need to consider as well as the basic starting marketing plan to work from.
Authors who plan to incorporate print-on-demand into their business model should read two books that not only describe this technology but the business model based on this printing/publishing technology. Aaron Shepard is the author of POD for Profit, which details using Lightning Source to print books using POD and the business model involved. Morris Rosenthal, of Self-Publishing 2.0, is the author of Print-on-Demand Book Publishing, another must read if you intend to use POD as part of your self-publishing model.
For authors who want to take a do-it-yourself approach to getting books published on Amazon's KDP, Aaron Shepard has two books worth reading, particularly if you publish works of non-fiction. The first in this series is From Word to Kindle. This short Kindle book describes how to convert a book manuscript in a Word document to a Kindle ready file for upload to KDP for publication.
The second book in this series is Pictures on Kindle. If your book is going to include photographs, graphics or any other visual images, and you plan to do the interior yourself, this book is helpful. The prices is right as well as it sells for .99.
Finally, I recently stumbled across David Gaughran's Let's Get Visible: How to Get Noticed and Sell More Books. Let's face it, we all need for readers to find our books in order to get the reader to buy it! This book was interesting and helpful and I learned things I was previously unaware of. It was well worth the .99 cents I paid for the Kindle version.
Authors who plan to incorporate print-on-demand into their business model should read two books that not only describe this technology but the business model based on this printing/publishing technology. Aaron Shepard is the author of POD for Profit, which details using Lightning Source to print books using POD and the business model involved. Morris Rosenthal, of Self-Publishing 2.0, is the author of Print-on-Demand Book Publishing, another must read if you intend to use POD as part of your self-publishing model.
For authors who want to take a do-it-yourself approach to getting books published on Amazon's KDP, Aaron Shepard has two books worth reading, particularly if you publish works of non-fiction. The first in this series is From Word to Kindle. This short Kindle book describes how to convert a book manuscript in a Word document to a Kindle ready file for upload to KDP for publication.
The second book in this series is Pictures on Kindle. If your book is going to include photographs, graphics or any other visual images, and you plan to do the interior yourself, this book is helpful. The prices is right as well as it sells for .99.
Finally, I recently stumbled across David Gaughran's Let's Get Visible: How to Get Noticed and Sell More Books. Let's face it, we all need for readers to find our books in order to get the reader to buy it! This book was interesting and helpful and I learned things I was previously unaware of. It was well worth the .99 cents I paid for the Kindle version.
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