The Self-Publisher's Notebook

Using Twitter as a Social Media Promotional Platform - Suggestions From an Expert

2012-02-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

One of the current trends is the use of social media to promote books and build an author platform. To say the advice "out there" is a bit overwhelming and confusing is a bit of an understatement. I have far too much to do to spend hours and hours on Twitter, Facebook, etc, unless it is going to be a productive use of my time.

I stumbled on a source of information on this topic that was helpful and can be found on Joel Friedlander's blog for self-publishers. The article is a guest post by Steven Lewis and is titled The Five Best Tools for Promoting Your Book on Twitter.

Does POD Still Have a Place in Self-Publishing?

2012-02-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

In just a few short years the publishing industry has changed dramatically. So has self-publishing. The eBook is radically changed both industries. Technology, history has shown, simply has no feelings when it comes to people and the inevitable march forward shows no mercy it would seem.

I am fairly certain when Gutenberg began printing books with his press, particularly the Bible, some people decried the certain loss of the beautiful books painstakingly produced by skilled and artistic scribes. Technology won that battle fairly quickly as evidenced by the quick spread through Europe of the printing press.

With Kindle sales in the millions this past Christmas and the Nook generating some much needed revenue for the struggling BandN, eBooks have been a boon to the industry, the reading public and the self-publishing author. So much so, some self-publishing authors are beginning to question if print versions of books, even using print-on-demand, still has a place in self-publishing.

For many self-published authors, print-on-demand was what allowed us to publish our books and at least have a chance of recouping the money invested, and if nothing else the joy of holding a copy of the finished book in hand.

But has POD print publishing become a form of vanity publishing? Joanna Penn takes an interesting look at the role POD and print books have in the life of self-published authors in a guest blog on Joel Friedlander's blog The Book Designer.

Ms. Penn argues print books are now vanity publications, but in a good sort of way. While I understand the point she is making, which primarily are for authors of fiction, I am not so sure POD paper books no longer have a role in the business of self-publishing for non-fiction authors.

The term "vanity publishing" used to refer to an author's work that was so poor the only way it would be published is if the author paid to have the book printed. These books were indeed often horrible and did little to help the reputation of any author who self-published. When legitimate author services companies began to crop up, most of whom used POD to print their clients books, these companies were often labeled as vanity publishers.

With the advent of Amazon allowing self-published authors to have access to customers, the POD business model, made popular by Aaron Shepard and Morris Rosenthal, helped many self-published authors be able to not only market and sell their books successfully, but to make money in the process.

Times change and so does business. The advent of the eReader has made a huge impact in the self-publishing industry. In my case, my Kindle sales outnumber my POD sales by a ratio of 200 to 1 as of last month! On the surface it would seem Ms. Penn is correct in her thinking the day of POD and print editions are over for self-published authors.

It is true I have not purchased a single print edition of a fiction book since receiving my Kindle. The same is not true for non-fiction books. While I do purchase non-fiction to read on my Kindle, I still purchase print books for research (I still want to be able to write in the book the old fashioned way and dog ear pages to find easily) or when I know the content will be image and graphic intensive.

In the case of my own non-fiction books, I will continue to publish my large, meaning 8.5 x 11 and 200+ page books in a POD print edition as well as a Kindle and Nook edition (even though my Nook sales have been laughable) precisely because my books are both image and graphic intensive. I also know my reader population and many of my potential readers will be slow to adapt to the new eReader technology. If I want to sell books to that segment of my potential market, I must continue to offer a print edition.

I should mention that while my Kindle sales went through the roof last month, I also had the best month ever in selling print editions. While the percentage of total sales was low, it was still lucrative and worth the time, effort and cost to have those titles available in POD print editions.

Will I change my approach to how I produce my new books in the future? Yes. I plan to offer a series of short, informative books, designed to introduce a topic and then promote my full length book at the end of the short version. These books will be text only and sell for .99 cents as Kindle shorts. These books will be targeted at potential readers who are just entering the market and are already technology oriented, not the older, more experienced potential readers.

Does POD still have a place in a self-publishing author's business plan? I think the real answer is "it depends." The author must know his or her potential readers and the quality of book the technology can support and still have the reading experience be enjoyable or informative in an easy to understand and use fashion. If I were in the fiction writing business, I would always release a Kindle version first and depending on sales and target audience follow up with a print version.

The real issue is not whether or not POD still has a place in the self-publisher's business model. It is being market savvy enough to know what the author's readers want and need from their reading experience and matching the book production to meet those wants and needs.

Adding or Updating Product Browse Categories on Amazon Product Detail Listings

2012-02-01T20:50:00.000-08:00

As self-publishing authors it is to our advantage to drive our sales to Amazon where the long tail effect of all the many search tools of Amazon can help us sell our books. One of the techniques Amazon uses to help customers find books is the Amazon Browse Category.

By requesting the appropriate Browse Categories are included as part of the book's product listing, the odds of interested customers finding the book through an Amazon search increases. To make sure your book is listed in all the appropriate Browse Categories, request categories to be added to your book's Product Details. In addition to showing the categories your book is listed in, once added to the product page the ranking of the book on the specific category list will automatically be included and updated.

Amazon will allow you to request two Browse Categories to be added to a book at a time. Be patient with the process as sometimes it takes a little bit of time for Amazon to approve the additions and actually update the book's Product Details.

The first step in the process is to create an Amazon Author Central account if you have not done so already. Log-in to your account and scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on the Contact Us redirect button.

The box below will appear on your screen.

Click on the first drop box and work down the options as shown below until you reach the final option. A choice will be provided between I want Browse Categories in the Product Details section and I want to update the my book's Browse Categories.

If you book has no Browse Categories, select the I want Browse Categories in the Product Details option. If you want to add additional Browse Categories select the second option.

To find the Browse Categories I simply look at competing books that sell well and check to see what the Browse Categories for those books are.

To send the request you may e-mail or make contact by phone. I e-mail as it allows me to have a record via my sent e-mail box of my communication with Amazon.

Be sure to include the title of your book, the book's ISBN if it is a paper book and the title. If the book is a Kindle book be sure to include the ASIN. Then list the two Browse Categories you want to have added to the books Product Details. If your book has no Browse Categories listed at all, when making your first request be sure to list the two categories most likely to be helpful in aiding potential customers finding the book. Additional categories can be requested to be added later.

Looking to the Future of Publishing - Amazon Hires Larry Kirshbaum to Heads its New Publishing Division

2012-01-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

I watch anything that happens with Amazon with interest. Amazon recently hired Larry Kirshbaum it is new publishing division. While Kirshbaum has not signed any big name fiction authors, he has signed some deals with authors whose books will sell on name recognition alone. For example, every basketball coach in the country will at least read the product description for coaching legend Bob Knight's forthcoming book with Amazon.

Amazon has found itself in an interesting position of competing with its product providers, the Big Six legacy houses, and is working to find a way to sell the paper versions of its books. Needless to say, the Big Six are getting a kick out of this.

What they don't understand is Bezos has long demonstrated a long view process of his business model. Losing money today is fine with Bezos if it means he controls the product for the e-book market five to seven years from now. One has to wonder if over time Bezos plans to sign enough big name fiction authors to allow him to effectively corner the market on e-book fiction, providing a way to either eliminate competition from the Big Six for dictate to them the terms of their survival.

Bloomberg Businessweek has run an interesting and thoughtful story about Kirshbaum's hiring and the ramifications it has for the industry in general and Amazon in particular. The link is below. It is an interesting read.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/amazons-hit-man-01252012.html

Inside the Great Machine: Confessions of a Former Amazon.com Technologist - a Book Review

2012-01-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

Since the overwhelming majority of my source of sales comes from Amazon, I feel it is important to learn as much as possible about my "business partner." When Amazon "suggested" I read this book, I agreed with the company's computer.

Kalpankis S. is an immigrant from India who has made a home here as an American. He makes no bones about his sense of humor being a bit different, yet he manages to inject subtle humor Americans can understand and get a laugh from.

The author is a skilled computer software designer who worked in Silicon Valley before being lured to Seattle, Washington, to join the book selling giant Amazon. Kalpankis shares his experiences in an easy to read and identify with manner and traces his excitement upon joining Amazon through his departure to another company.

Without being a spoiler, my suggestion is to read the book. I enjoyed it and was able to develop a little insight into why Amazon is successful, how it makes mistakes and how hard it works to be a dominant force in the publishing and book/media selling industries.

Selecting a POD Service Revisited - CreateSpace or Lightning Source

2012-01-25T12:26:00.000-08:00

The publishing industry seems to be changing at breathtaking speed. Just a few years ago print-on-demand was the business model combined with access to Amazon was the business model most self-publishing authors used.

Know eReaders, particularly Amazon's Kindle, have changed the industry again, giving authors who self-publish more control of their ability to market and sell their work. In addition, the Kindle Direct Publishing allows authors to make a larger percentage of each sale if Amazon's guidelines pricing guidelines are followed.

Where does this leave print-on-demand? I would not neglect producing a print version of any book. Concentrating on getting the ebook version to market first seems to be the best strategy but follow-up with a POD edition as well.

Why? Research seems to indicate the market for ebook reading devices may begin to level off soon. Does this means the dramatic increase in sales of ebooks will level off soon as well? Only the God knows the answer to that question.

What I have noticed when looking at my own sales trends is while my Kindle sales have taken off and earn about 70% of my revenue now, my POD sales are also at the highest volume they have ever been. Failure to introduce paperback versions of my new books would mean a still significant portion of income and revenue would be lost due to lack of a print version.

For authors who view self-publishing as a business as well as first time authors trying to work their way through the maze of information required to learn to self-publish, selecting between CreateSpace and Lightning Source as a POD printer is still a major issue.

CreateSpace seems to be working to gain an edge over Lightning Source, at least with self-publishing authors. CreateSpace just recently dropped its requirement for the $39 Pro Plan fee and now has only a $25 fee for authors who wish to take advantage of Expanded Distribution services, meaning selling books through more book retailers and wholesalers than just Amazon.

There has also been the issue with changes in how the relationship between Amazon and LSI seems to work. Aaron Shepard has addressed this at great length and has posted what he refers to as "Plan B" on his self-publishing website. Mr. Shepard addresses questions generated by his Plan B proposal with a second informative post.

Given what can seem like a complex decision in selecting a POD provider, a side-by-side comparison is helpful. I have published a short and inexpensive Kindle book that does just that, Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for Print-on-Demand Self-Publishing, available for just .99. Also available as a paperback is Self-Publishing With Amazon's CreateSpace.

Understanding Amazon Sales Information - Let Amazon Explain

2012-01-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

As a self-published author Amazon has been my best source of income. POD sales using LSI and CreateSpace generate income but the real moneymaker has been the Kindle editions of my books.

Aaron Shepard's book Aiming at Amazon is mandatory reading for any author who is considering self-publishing and selling books on Amazon. While Kindle and ebooks are getting the lion share of attention in the self-publishing and publishing world at the moment, print sales still matter.

The past four months have been the most lucrative since I started this venture. The over 65% of the profit has been from Kindle edition sales. Upon examination though, my print sales were also at record highs, both in profit and in total number of copies of titles sold. While the percent of print books may have declined a great deal in the last 18 months, the total number of print books I have sold has increased.

With this in mind, don't forsake a print edition using Print-on-Demand (POD) as your print method of getting your book published in paperback. Morris Rosenthal's Print-on-Demand Book Publishing is an essential read to learn about using this approach to getting your book into print.

Understanding the ever changing mysteries of Amazon can be challenging with everything a self-publishing author has to do. Yet to be successful financially it is essential to have a good understanding of how Amazon and the book industry work.

Finding accurate information can be daunting. So, when it comes to learning about sales information on Amazon, go to Amazon. Below is a link which will provide Amazon's own explanation for sales information available and how to understand this information as it relates to your own book.

https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help?topicID=200580390

Using Kindle Shorts and Articles to Promote Books

2012-01-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

I am sure I read this strategy somewhere else and I am equally certain I am not the first to think of it if I have not read it elsewhere. I have three books that will be released in the next nine months. Each will be preceded by a .99 Kindle Short or Article as part of my promotional efforts for these books.

The first of the soon to be released Kindle Shorts will be free for five days and the subscribers of my free e-newsletter will be informed of this and I will post the fact on the blog on my website. Beyond that, I do not plan to promote the five free days. It is sort of a reward for the individuals who buy my books, subscribe to my newsletter and visit my website.

After the five days of free copies, the price will be raised to .99 and remain there. The short Kindle Book is based on an excerpt from the much larger book which will be released two months later. The excerpt was expanded in much greater detail than the full length book (non-fiction) and includes promotional information at the end of the book with what I hope will be a successful call to action to visit Amazon and purchase the full length book.

These short Kindle books hopefully will sell copies on their right as specific source of information about very specific topics and create a small additional stream of revenue. Their main purpose is to convince readers who are searching for specific information of my ability to provide valuable and useful information to meet their needs and prod the reader into purchasing the related full length book.

I plan to keep as detailed records as possible about this tactic and will share the information in the future.

CreateSpace Drops $39 ProPlan - Standard Distribution is now FREE!

2012-01-19T13:56:00.000-08:00

CreateSpace has dropped the $39 fee it charged for its ProPlan. All of the features and services included in the ProPlan are now apparently standard and free with a CreateSpace membership, which is also free. As far as I can tell, the pricing for printing on a per copy basis has not changed.

Expanded Distribution is still available but costs $25 for authors who wish to sell their POD books at other distributors and retailers such as Barnes and Noble.

From the CreateSpace website: Expanded Distribution offers you the opportunity to access a larger audience through more online retailers, bookstores, libraries, academic institutions, and distributors within the United States. Expanded Distribution will also improve discoverability of your book across all the channels. Regardless of whether or not you include your title in Expanded Distribution, all CreateSpace titles can be distributed through both the Amazon.com and eStore channels.

What features does Standard Distribution offer under the new program? Again, from the CreateSpace website:

Amazon.com
Make your book available to millions of customers on Amazon.com. Customers ordering from Amazon.com can take advantage of FREE Super Saver Shipping, One-Day Shipping, 1-Click^®^® on eligible orders. ordering, and Amazon Prime

CreateSpace eStore
Sell your book directly from your eStore. You can customize your eStore to match your own website. We'll handle the cart, credit card processing, and fulfillment of your customer's orders.

Self-publishing is becoming less and less expensive. What a great time to be an author!

It Has Happened! An Amazon Kindle Best Seller! Even If Just for Two Days!

2012-01-18T12:57:00.000-08:00

I am pretty excited and have to tell someone other than my wife and kids! Below you will see a screen shot proving one of my books actually, even if just for two days, climbed to Number 1 on an Amazon Best Seller List! Actually, The Game of Basketball, was Number 1 on two lists and Number 2 on a third.

If I could tell you just how this happened, I would gladly share the information. I for one would like to know how this happened so if it was anything other than luck, in other words, something I had done in terms of marketing or promotions, I could replicate it for my other Kindle books.

My best guess is Amazon ran some kind of promotion on its own accord. The Kindle version of the book sells about 100 copies a month and the POD version sells about 35 or so a month. With basketball season entering the conference part of the schedule for college basketball and district play for high school basketball, Amazon might have sent out an e-mail listing basketball related books that sell well to customers who have purchased such books in the past. The book's past sales might have qualified it for inclusion in such a promotion.

At any rate, it has sold over 700 Kindle downloads in the last 24 hours. Talk about motivating! I really want to sit down and finish the next project as soon as possible so it can be published as a Kindle book.

Even more encouraging is the fact this book is self-published. I feel pretty confident this would not have happened 10 years ago. Amazon, POD and the Kindle have made a wonderful platform for authors who self-publish.

I hope every author who visits this blog will feel encouraged by my success, albeit however temporary, fleeting or insignificant. If I can sell some books on Amazon, anyone can!

Guide on Fighting Internet Copyright Infringement Available

2012-01-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

Morris Rosenthal, one of the original experts on self-publishing using print-on-demand and marketing books using the internet, has published a Kindle book, An Author's Guide to Fighting Internet Copyright Infringements.

Morris is making the book available for free for several days. My guess is it will be available for a fee after the FREE purchase period is over. Update: The guide is now available for .99.

Copyright violations are bad for all authors, particularly non-fiction authors. Google now seems to penalize authors of original content in internet searches whose material has been pirated, giving the pirates higher rankings in search results. For those of us who rely on our websites and content to drive book sales, this is not just theft of our work, it is further punishment for making our work available to the public.

Morris has written about this problem on his blog several times and has spent considerable effort fighting internet copyright infringement of his own material. He shares what he has learned about the process in this short book.

Book Marketing, Cover Design and SEO - A Different View of Cover Design

2012-01-15T11:28:00.000-08:00

The idea of crafting your book's title for effective search rankings for Amazon was first introduced, to me at least, by Aaron Shepard in his book Aiming for Amazon. When I first read Aiming for Amazon, print-on-demand was the way to go for self-publishing authors and is still an important part of the financial equation and overall marketing scheme.

Things have changed quite a bit since I first read Aiming for Amazon. The Kindle and other ebook reading devices have forever altered the landscape in the world of publishing and self-publishing. There are days where I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of what I need to learn just to keep pace with what the world of self-publishing looks like.

For me, the Kindle has been a blessing, both financially and in terms of ability to market my books to a larger audience. It also means things like cover design, the internet and marketing have to be viewed in a different way.

With this in mind, I stumbled across an article suggesting authors need to rethink how they design their covers, particularly the rear cover design. In this instance the emphasis is on using the cover design and back cover copy to improve search engine optimization, SEO, to improve the potential marketability of the book on the internet. Rather than rehash the ideas, simply click on the link below to read the article.

http://dogearpublishing.net/wordpress/index.php/2011/12/optimizing-book-cover-copy-for-seo/

Amazon KDP Lending Program Pays Authors $1.70 Per Title for Month of December!

2012-01-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

Watching the number of copies of several of my titles being borrowed and not purchased, combined with a corresponding decline in the sales of those titles, made me wish I had not made those books available for loan in Amazon's new book lending program, particularly Amazon Prime. Then I read the press release from Amazon, I will receive $1.70 per copy loaned for the month of December.

While still not the same rate of net profit per sale that I would have earned had those copies of my books been purchased and not loaned, it did ease the sting quite a bit. I will wait out the 90 period involved and re-evaluate at that time my continued participation in the program. The following is an excerpt from the Amazon press release concerning the program and its results for the past month of December 2011.

The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is off to a strong start: customers borrowed 295,000 KDP Select titles in December alone, and KDP Select has helped grow total library selection to over 75,000 books. With the $500,000 December fund, KDP authors have earned $1.70 per borrow. In response to strong customer adoption of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (as well as seasonal, post-holiday use of new Kindles), Amazon.com, Inc. has added a $200,000 bonus to the January KDP Select fund, raising the total pool from $500,000 to $700,000.

Paid KDP sales grew rapidly in December — and results show that paid sales of titles participating in KDP Select are growing even faster than other KDP titles. On top of this growth in paid sales, KDP Select authors and publishers on average are receiving an incremental 26% in December as a result of their participation in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

“KDP Select appears to be earning authors more money in two ways. We knew customers would love having KDP Select titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. But we’ve been surprised by how much paid sales of those same titles increased, even relative to the rest of KDP,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “Due to this early success and a seasonally strong January, we’re adding a $200,000 bonus to January’s KDP Select fund, growing this month’s total pool to $700,000.”

Amzon's Kindle Direct Publishing Book Loan Program - Is it Better for Fiction than Non-Fiction?

2012-01-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

I signed up several of my books to be part of this program. For a book to be eligible it must be exclusive to Amazon Kindle in its ebook version. Amazon has set aside $500K for the month of December to compensate authors for books loaned as part of this program. I sincerely doubt I will get rich participating in this program and after the initial three month participation period required, I am undecided if I will continue to participate.

For one book, Kindle sales have plummeted due to its availability to be borrowed. I have no doubt of this being the case as I have loaned more copies of this title in just the one month the book has been part of the program than I had sold in its Kindle version in any given month since it has been available. Since the book has been available for loan I have sold a grand total of 3 copies in the Kindle version.

The other titles I have made available have continued to sell at their average monthly levels while only a few copies being loaned. The availability of the option to "borrow" the book from Amazon does not seem to have impacted these books one way or the other.

It remains to be seen what the impact, other than costing me sales right now, of this program will be in the long term. I will have to wait and see.

Since I do not write fiction books, I have to wonder if this program is a good one to participate in for non-fiction authors. I have little doubt the program is an excellent marketing tool for an author launching a book, particularly if it is the first in a series. Later titles in the series do not have to be made available in this program.

In a few months I will have a better idea of how this will impact sales for the titles currently listed in the program. As I have more information available I will share it on this blog.

Amazon's New KDP Direct Program - New Opportunities for Self-Publishing Authors!

2011-12-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

Amazon keeps moving forward in new ways to compete in the publishing market. While undoubtedly some of these new ideas will need re-working or will vanish, they do present interesting opportunities for authors who choose to self-publish their work.

Today I enrolled several of my books that are available in Kindle Editions in the newly announced KDP Select program. This opportunity means I have a chance to share in the $500,000 Amazon has set aside for this program (not that I expect to rake in huge royalty payments) and starting in January my books will be eligible to continue in the program and earn additional royalties.

What exactly does the program entail for authors who self-publish and the readers who choose to participate? Here is some of the information direct from the Amazon site promoting the new program to authors:

Reach a new audience - Distribute books through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library and reach the growing number of US Amazon Prime members.
Earn a whole new source of royalties - Earn your share of $500,000 in December and at least $6 million throughout 2012 when readers borrow your books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
Promote your book for free to readers worldwide - The newly launched Promotions Manager tool will allow you to directly control the promotion of free books.
Instant feedback - Check real-time performance of your books in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

I am particularly interested in the promotional aspect of this program for authors. Being able to launch a new Kindle book and make it available for FREE for five days is a great way promote a book and generate some sales rank positioning early in its life on Amazon.

Enrolling your titles in the program is easy and done from your Bookshelf in your KDP Member Dashboard page. It took me less than one minute to enroll the books I decided to make available in this program. You can just as easily cancel the enrollment of the book from the Bookshelf as you entered the title.

Just what is the Lending Program? Again, directly from the Amazon website describing the program, here is some basic information:

What is the Kindle Owners' Lending Library?

The Kindle Owners' Lending Library is a collection of books that Amazon Prime members who own a kindle can borrow once a month, with no due dates. For more information, click here.

How is my share of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library fund calculated?

Your share of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library Fund is calculated based on a share of the total number of qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles. For example, if the monthly fund amount is $500,000 and the total qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles is 100,000 in December and if your book was borrowed 1,500 times, you will earn 1.5% (1,500/100,000 = 1.5%), or $7,500 in December.

If my books are distributed in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, can customer still buy it?

Yes, your books will still be available for anyone to buy in the Kindle Store, like they've always been, and you will continue to earn royalties from those sales like you do today.

What does it mean to publish exclusively on Kindle?

When you choose KDP Select for a book, you're committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital. See the KDP Select Terms and Conditions for more information.

To learn more about this new opportunity, click here!

Aaron Shepard's Sales Rank Express for Amazon is now functioning again!

2011-11-26T18:18:00.000-08:00

I can't say it any better than Aaron himself. So, here is what he had to say about the return of his Sales Rank Express:

"Sales Rank Express, my own Amazon sales rank checker, is officially back in operation, after months offline due to changes at Amazon. And it now offers more than ever, including

Quick sales rank checking of multiple print books on Amazon in nine countries, including Spain, Italy, and China.
Sales rank checking for Kindle Books in four countries. (Just select “Kindle” in the Format menu for the country you want—U.S., U.K., Germany, or France.)
More detailed stats on Customer Reviews, with a breakdown by number of stars.
Charts of the last week’s sales ranks, with visible peaks that let you make quick sales estimates and spot trends. (To see charts, turn on “Tracking” for each title.)

Enjoy! And please spread the word to all your author and publisher friends!"

www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#SRErelaunch

Can You Afford NOT to Self-Publish?

2011-11-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I was examining a wide range of figures concerning my tiny publishing empire. I was mainly interested in comparing total sales, both print and ebook, of the current year with previous years. In the process I also looked at total revenue from sales.

One figure that jumped out at me was the monthly check I get from my first book. The amount has become very small. I was smart enough (my wife was smart enough) to retain the ebook rights. The book is still my number one seller, but the sales are almost all now Kindle sales with a couple of Nook sales per month thrown in.

What did I get from the first book's publisher? A nice cover, good formatting and editing and ever decreasing royalty check once the book peaked after its first 18 months of sales.

This all leads to the question I should have asked myself, "can I afford not to self-publish?" For the fun of it, I calculated all the costs of getting the first book to market if I had self-published it. Next, I calculated the difference between what I have been paid in royalties and what I would have been paid had I used CreateSpace.

Working on the premise sales would have been identical, I did not serve myself well by NOT self-publishing, to the tune of a loss of roughly 22% net profit. Granted, we are not talking millions of dollars. Still, when you are doing this as a second source of income, 22% is still a chunk of change.

So, if you have a book to publish, consider the financial pros and cons of having your book accepted for traditional publishing as opposed to self-publishing. You will have to do all the promotional work regardless of the approach you take.

Compare the advance and royalties you will be paid versus the income you believe you can generate if you self-publish. Be sure to include in your calculations the cost of editing, cover design, interior design and marketing and promotion. Know exactly how many copies you must sell to break even. After all, self-publishing is a business.

Amazon Kindle to Receive Major Overhaul

2011-10-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

The soon to be released Amazon Kindle Fire is generating lots of interest at the moment and rightly so. What should be generating lots of interest is Amazon's announcement that Kindle Format 8 will feature HTML5 Support.

According to Amazon, this new supported format will allow for the creation of better books and allow authors of comics, graphic novels and picture books to produce these works in the Kindle format. Amazon has announced over 150 new formatting tools will be available including the long desired fixed layouts, nested tables and Scalable Vector Graphics.

Alas, Amazon claims the KF 8 will only be supported for the new Kindle Fire but over time plans include making KF8 available on previously released Kindle readers. The good news is the new KF8 format is compatable with existing Kindle PC desktop and mobile applications including the Kindle app for iTunes, iPhone and iPad.

Amazon claims the new Kindle Fire and other upcoming apps and devices will still be able to read the old Mobi 7 format.

This is good news for authors who self-publish ebooks. I am sure there will be the inevitable kinks and quirks to work out, but it seems e-books will become more and more like "real books."

The next evolution will probably be to include sound and video in e-books.

Is Self-Publishing Still Self-Publishing?

2011-10-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

Morris Rosenthal, one of the "godfathers" of the self-publishing industry has a really thought provoking blog post this week. He makes an interesting argument that many self-publishers are really Amazon publishers or write for Amazon Publishing.

It is well worth reading and thinking about what Morris has to say. Click here to go to his blog post.

Analysis of Panda and Its Impact on Websites

2011-10-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

Morris Rosenthal wrote an interesting and insightful post on the impact of Google's Panda on traffic to websites. Since many self-publishing authors utilize a blog or a website to promote their work, this is a worthwhile article to read.

To get to the article click here.

Recent Trends in Self-publishing Sales Based on my Own Sales Data

2011-09-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

The third quarter ends today, and even though I might sell some more books today via the magic of Amazon and Barnes and Noble, I have been wanting to sit down and look at these totals for about six weeks.

A quick run down for the past 2.75 years:

2009 POD Sales: 100% of total sales

2010 POD Sales: 96% of total sales Kindle/Nook: 4% of total sales

2011 POD Sales: 48% of total sales Kindle/Nook: 52% of total sales (Through the 3rd quarter)

For the first two quarters of 2011 I sold more POD books than ebooks.

2011 3rd Quarter POD Sales: 36% of total sales Kindle/Nook: 64% of total sales

Total ebook sales: Kindle sales: 98.4% of total sales Nook Sales: 1.6% of total sales

Some more information concerning sales.

Total POD titles available: 23

Total Kindle titles available: 7

Total Nook titles available: 1

I will tackle the issue of the Nook right off the bat. The lone Nook title I have is also my single best selling POD title and Kindle title and it has sold a grand total of 24 copies. Needless to say I am not in a big hurry to convert all of my POD titles that sell well into ePubit for sale at Barnes and Noble.

If I had any doubts that ebooks were the wave of the future, those doubts are not only gone, but the future is now. My next non-fiction book is small and very much a niche book but it has the advantage of being one of those timeless topics. It will be my first experiment as a Kindle only book.

In the last three months, despite the economy and summer vacation (my target audience does not read during the summer) I have had the best three months ever. Not in terms of total revenue but rather in total copies of books sold. Almost exactly two-thirds of my sales were Kindle books, and therein lies the problem of sorts.

As POD sales declined, Kindle sales rose sharply in the last three months and my lone Nook book even started to sell a few copies each month. POD sales declined by 10% total from the 3rd quarter of 2010 and the 3rd quarter of 2011.

Excluding the 4th quarter figures for POD sales for 2010 and future 4th quarter POD sales for 2011, I am happy to say POD sales are up by 33% when comparing the first three quarters of 2010 and 2011, despite the decline is POD sales the past quarter.

Total sales for 2011, without the last quarter of 2011 included, are up by 37% over all of 2010. The last quarter of the year has historically by far been my best quarter for sales so I am encouraged.

In general, it has been a really good year for the fledgling self-publishing empire! But there are some issues that require thought and planning from a financial perspective given what look like irreversible trends, mainly the rise of the ebook.

Hands down I make more money per sale for each POD book I sell. Simply raising the price of the Kindle edition does not make up for the net loss in revenue. I have found Kindle readers to be much more price sensitive than readers who purchase paperback editions. Experimental price increases in Kindle editions resulted in a significant drop in sales for the month the experiment was conducted. Restoring the original price restored and improved sales numbers.

The issue is I have to sell nearly 2.5 Kindle books for each POD version of the same book to make the same amount of net profit. I write non-fiction for a niche market with a finite number of possible readers.

It is my hope that over time the market will sort this out and allow authors of non-fiction books with valuable content to charge an appropriate price for the information and not simply look at price alone. There has to be a happy medium in the mix somewhere.

In the mean time, I will inch up the prices of some of my Kindle books and work harder at the marketing and promotion end of things to convince readers to pay the higher price.

I would be interested to have any authors who read this blog and who would be willing to share information with others to post what their experience is changes in sales by book type have been.

Review of Catherine Parker's 301 Ways To Use Social Media to Boost Your Marketing

2011-09-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

After cranking out four books this summer and in the midst of a fifth, I plan to take a bit of a break when the current book is done. Even though all of these books are non-fiction and the content is information I am extremely familiar with, it has been tiring.

The new books contain what I believe is valuable information for the niche market I write for. The sales for all but one of the new books have been dismal. I have nobody to blame but myself. I simply did not give the books the launch they needed.

These books can be "salvaged" as the information is not dated and won't be for many years. I just need to roll up my sleeves and get busy marketing the books. Being a one-man publishing empire can be taxing, especially since I have a "day job" as well.

Reading Joel Friedlander's posts about marketing books helped confirm it is time to take a break from writing and start marketing! I also spent an hour re-reading Catherine Parker's book 301 Ways To Use Social Media To Boost Your Marketing. I had already read the book, in Kindle format, earlier in the past summer and like any good reference book, it is a source I will refer to constantly in the coming months as I work on marketing all of my books.

Unlike many of the Kindle books I purchased that discuss using social media, blogging and the internet to market a business, I have the distinct feeling Ms. Parker's book is not a rehash, with very little editing, of blog posts turned into a Kindle book. She may very well have published all of this information earlier in blog form, but this book has the feel and read of a book specifically written to convey the information contained in its electronic pages.

There is no doubt in my mind Ms. Parker knows her stuff. She not only covers the popular Twitter, Facebook and admonition to have a blog, she covers less popular forms of social media in detail. Each chapter of the book has specific ideas and instructions on how to implement these concepts using the form of social media the chapter relates to.

Unlike many similar books that feature only one form of social media and championing its virtues while providing only a few tips, Ms. Parker delivers the full 301 ideas the title promises and many of the tips and ideas require several pages on a Kindle to convey everything she has to say.

The book covers developing a big picture strategy to using social media for marketing. The specific types of social media discussed include: blogging, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Orkut,

Plaxo, Ning, MySpace, Meetup, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, Google Reader, Reddit, Flickr, SmugMug, YouTube, various video sharing sites, Slideshare, Podcasting, Yelp, Epinions, RateItAll, Yahoo!Answers, eHow, Wikis and Wikipedia.

Details of how to set-up accounts or pages on each is provided. Suggestions on how to build a following and maintain it are part of the content Ms. Parker provides.

This book was worth every penny I paid for it. It is much better than the other Kindle books of a similar nature I have read, and alas, I have read quite a few and learned little until I purchased this book.

Basic Book Marketing for Self-Publishers - Joel Frielander's New Program

2011-09-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Writing the book, overseeing the design and getting it into production, either via traditional off-set press, print-on-demand or ebook, is just the start of the hard work. The book has to be marketed and sold. With the changes in the publishing industry this can be a bewildering process for experienced and novice author alike.

Joel Friedlander has done the self-publishing author a great service with his new series on book marketing for self-publishers. To read the three parts Joel has made available thus far, visit his blog at:

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

Amazon and LSI - End of the Short Discount POD Business Model?

2011-09-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

Joel Friedlander has written a great post about what could be an end of the business model many self-publishers have been using, the short discount model using LSI as the POD printer. There are quite a few good comments to go with the informative article which does a good job of summarizing this confusing and troubling situation.

In the case of my best selling title, the move by Amazon has destroyed sales and it has yet to really recover. Here is the link to the blog post - be sure to read it. Everyone who sells POD titles needs to be aware of this situation.

Kindle Price Increases? POD Sales versus Kindle Sales - Something to Think About

2011-08-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

Things change and with technology they seem to change faster and faster. When I published my first book print-on-demand (POD) was the way to go as a self-publishing author. POD using either Lightning Source or CreateSpace, combined with Amazon allowed an author to enter the world of self-publishing and not have to break the family bank to do so.

eBooks has produced more change and the ebook revolution is picking up more steam. Amazon's Kindle leads the way with B and N's Nook trailing along. If you are going to self-publish, you need to get on the ebook express or get left behind.

Amazon's Kindle is changing the publishing world quickly and to a lesser extent so is the B and N Nook. Kindle sales are climbing, already surpassing hardback sales at Amazon and if Kindle sales have not already done so, they will soon surpass paperback sales as well.

Amazon's fantastic 70% royalty for authors is great (if you follow the required Amazon pricing guidelines). Where else can you find that kind of a deal for a self-published author?

But what happens when your individual Kindle sales surpass your POD sales? This is a problem few have addressed in terms of profitability for the self-publishing author. Some have argued Kindle sales are sales an author would not have made otherwise. In my case that was certainly true a few months ago. It isn't now.

My total sales in terms of copies sold for Kindle this past month was nearly three times that of my more profitable POD sales, yet I made only 2/3s as much money on the Kindle sales.

Clearly, I need to change my pricing structure for my Kindle titles. But how much do I raise the price? One of the most attractive considerations for purchasing a Kindle book is the price. It is significantly less than the cost of purchasing a paperback. Yet, if I raise the price too high, might Kindle users balk at the price increase, even though the Kindle version is still much cheaper than its print counterpart?

I write non-fiction and am hardly a household name who can command higher prices. Raising my prices might result in lower sales in terms of volume which will have a negative impact on the Amazon long tail effect.

Or will higher Kindle prices impact my total sales volume negatively? Why worry at all? My total combined sales is vastly higher than one year ago and so are my profits. The issue is as more and more customers purchase Kindle books and fewer and fewer purchase paper, over time my profits could decrease.

Fighting the ebook trend is pointless. All of my future books will appear sooner or later in both versions. The question is how do I make up the shortfall of anywhere from 2 to 6 dollars a copy difference between a Kindle edition and a POD edition?

It is one thing to deliberately price a Kindle version at a super low introductory price once both the POD and Kindle version are linked to drive the title up the Amazon search results quicker. It is another to leave the price too low and lose money over time. It is also an issue of "losing money" as more and more customers purchase the Kindle edition and POD sales decline.

Greater volume might well be the answer for a fiction author, but a niche market non-fiction author only has so many potential readers. This is an issue I believe many authors will face in the hurriedly approaching future. How do your optimally price a non-fiction ebook in the face of declining POD sales as your ebook sales increase?

Experiment in Self-Producing eBook Files for Kindle and ePub

2011-08-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

One of the recurring bits of advice I have picked up time after time from successful fiction authors who have made the decision to self-publish is the importance of having more than one book in print. If readers buy one of your books and like it, they will want to buy another. Having multiple titles available fills the reader's desire to purchase more of your work. It is an important step in the path to profitability for an author.

I write non-fiction and while I have many ideas for full length books of over 150 pages, it takes a good bit of effort mentally to crank one of those out. I have even more ideas for short books. Many of these ideas for "books" will contain information of value to the readers who buy my books but will not contain enough content to create a book worth printing due to the short length.

These "books" are good candidates for short ebooks though. Inexpensive, short but with information of value. Of course, even paying the $39 for the CreateSpace Pro Plan and the $69 Kindle conversion fee, it takes quite a few sales at .99 a copy to break even. Then there is the fact the conversion is for a Kindle version only and not ePub, limiting sales to just the Amazon Kindle and not including sales for the Barnes and Noble Nook.

While my Kindle sales have been good, I have sold a grand total of 8 Nook books at the time of the writing of this post. Still, every little bit counts and it all adds up over time.

Some of my Kindle books have sold hundreds of copies and long ago paid back the cost of the conversion of the files. Other titles are still slowly working towards earning back the limited investment in the conversion process.

So, once again I am reconsidering converting these short titles myself. I plunked down a grand $2.99 for a Kindle book titled Stand Out! How to Create Professional ePub and Kindle Files...in 30 minutes or less! by e.e. pub.

At times I am probably one of the people P.T. Barnum referred to when he said "there's a sucker born every minute." Still, I read the short book in about 30 minutes. For once, I actually understood what the author was talking about. If this process actually works, I will have not one, but two files. One for the Nook and one for the Kindle. Even better, the only investment I will have in each book is my time.

If the little short ebook sells well, great! If it doesn't sell well, the only investment lost is my time. Hopefully the few dollars I spent on yet another do-it-yourself ebook conversion book was worth the money.

I have a short book I can probably finish in a week or so. It has no photographs or diagrams like many of my longer books. Just text.

If the finished product looks fine on my Kindle, I will be happy to let the readers of this blog know the procedures described in Stand Out! How to Create Professional ePub and Kindle Files...in 30 minutes or less! are as easy to follow as the author claims.

Amazon Kindle Busy - New Kindle Indie Bookstore and Other Features Launched

2011-08-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

Amazon has been busy. If you don't receive the Kindle Newsletter you should sign up for it. Amazon has announced several new features for Kindle books as well as the Amazon Indie Kindle bookstore. The software guys at Amazon have worked overtime it would seem and enabled the search inside feature for Kindle books.

From the actual newsletter, "KDP titles are automatically enrolled in the Search Inside program for the Amazon.com Kindle Store. You should find the Search Inside feature enabled one week after your book is made available to readers for purchase. Search Inside the Book is a program that lets you search and browse millions of books across Amazon.com. With Search Inside, Amazon search results include matches based on every word inside a book, not just results that match the title or author of the book. It's like browsing a gigantic bookstore with millions of searchable pages at your fingertips."

Amazon has also announced its new Kindle Cloud Reader. The new reader "enables customers to read Kindle books instantly using only their web browser - online or offline - with no downloading or installation required. As with all Kindle apps, Kindle Cloud Reader automatically synchronizes your Kindle library, as well as your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights for all of your Kindle books, no matter how you choose to read them."

Amazon has launched a bookstore dedicated to Indie titles published for the Amazon Kindle. For a quick visit to the new Kindle Indie bookstore click on www.amazon.com/kindleindiebooks

Aiming at Barnes & Noble? Making Money Selling Self-Published Books at B&N

2011-08-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

Anyone new to self-publishing who has not already purchased a copy of Aaron Shepard's Aiming at Amazon needs to do so immediately and read it several times. While some of the concepts have changed slightly as a result of the current apparent dust-up between Amazon/CreateSpace and Lightning Source, the basic business model is still the best way for a self-publishing author to make money.

To sum up the book's idea in as few words as possible, Shepard presents a business model based on the idea of pointing all sales to Amazon and allowing the long tail effect of Amazon's computers do the work of marketing and selling the book. The more the book sells on Amazon, the more the long tail of Amazon works to sell the book.

It is a business model that works well for self-published authors and I have watched my own sale grow as a result of this approach. In fact, even with a dismal month of June 2011, I have already sold more books and earned more revenue during 2011 than in all of 2010. It is neat to watch this effect help your own self-publishing business grow.

But what about customers who simply prefer to shop at Barnes and Noble? If you use Lightning Source as your POD provider, the book will be available on B and N due to LSI's relationship with Ingram. If you use Amazon's CreateSpace as your POD provider, if you select the Expanded Distribution Channel your book will be made available on B and N, albeit at a lower profit margin than on Amazon.

Why make the book available on B and N if the business model employed is to aim as many sales as possible at Amazon? Because no matter what you do, there will be customers who are only going to shop and buy at B and N. By not making your book available at B and N, you have lost sales you would have made. You have also lost some word of mouth advertising as well.

It is a good business move to make your book available at B and N as well as Amazon. You don't have to steer your sales to B and N, simply make the book available.

B and N is working harder to attract self-published authors than in the past. You may now join the B and N Author's Affiliate Program and earn 6% of the sale of each of your books. To do so you must open an account with LinkShare and then apply for your website to be approved by B and N. It takes a bit of time for the approval process to take place.

In working my way through the process B and N has posted several notices if you look for them stating the program is just getting up and running and they are working hard to get websites approved and features operating for customers.

As soon as my website is approved I will briefly describe the process of getting links, etc. to sell your book through B and N on this blog.

Competition is good for Amazon. Anything B and N can do to help authors who self-publish make more money by selling books via B and N should, in time, get Amazon's attention.

For those of us who want to offer our readers choices where they purchase our books, this is a nice development and a way for us to earn a little more for our work.

CreateSpace versus Lightning Source - Title Comparison

2011-07-29T13:01:00.000-07:00

With the current pressure from Amazon, or at least that is what it seems like, for self-published authors and Indie publishers to switch from Lightning Source to CreateSpace for POD services, I was curious just how many titles CreateSpace prints.

An advanced search on Amazon showed there are some 85,115 paperback titles, 18 hardcover books, 1,801 Kindle books and 4 audio CDs that are "published" by CreateSpace. I am sure this number is low and includes only items which have CreateSpace provided ISBNs or a similar method of indicating CreateSpace is the publisher.

I had to talk to Customer Service today about a new title I just made available on Amazon as well as some issues with switching an title from Lightning Source to CreateSpace for distribution via Amazon. I asked if she knew how many titles CreateSpace published and she just laughed and said she had no idea where to even begin to look to find out that information.

Is the answer to this question a closely guarded secret? Who knows. I do know the change in policy on the part of Amazon has wreaked absolute havoc on my Amazon sales for my book at Lightning Source. I sold a grand total of THREE copies this month and on a bad month this book sells over 50 copies.

The slide in Amazon search results has started as well. The book has dropped from 3rd in its primary category to 6th. Kindle sales for the book have remained strong and July has been Game Strategy's best month so far in the Kindle store. Hopefully the change over to CreateSpace has taken place quick enough to prevent further erosion of sales rank in the search results. The book has not been ranked this low since it was introduced in 2009.

For those who are curious as to what I am referring to concerning Amazon and Lightning Source, you will want to read Amazon expert Aaron Shepard's most recent post (July 6, 2011 and updated July 21, 2011) about Amazon's apparent change of policy.

Why was I curious about how many titles CreateSpace is the print-on-demand service for? I just wanted to see if Amazon's change in policy is to push authors to CreateSpace. The numbers were lower than I expected but certainly do not include all the titles with ISBNs owned by the authors or the small publishers who use CreateSpace for print-on-demand.

I will continue to look into this if for no reason other than to satisfy my own curiosity. A comparison of titles printed by CreateSpace and the total number of titles printed by Lightning Source might be interesting if I can obtain the numbers.

The Law of Supply and Demand and the Increase in Popularity of the Kindle

2011-07-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

I began offering Kindle versions of some of my books when CreateSpace initially offered their Kindle Conversion service for the low price of $69. This service is for books already published using CreateSpace so my lone book with Lightning Source had to be converted by another service. I choose to use eBook Architects for that project and while it cost more, the results were excellent and I received a file for the Nook as part of the purchase.

Kindle sales have grown to the point that I sell more Kindle books per month than POD and the revenue is starting to add up. Despite my fears, and the fears of some authors, offering both POD and Kindle versions does not seem to have hurt sales of the more profitable print versions.

So, as I prepare for the three peak months of the year for sales, I have been considering which of my unconverted back list titles are worth the investment of converting to Kindle. Since I have sold a grand total of one book for the BN Nook, the cost of having a title converted to a Nook friendly format is just not worth the investment at the moment.

Why not just have all of the titles done by CreateSpace? Well, it would seem there is a catch now. The conversion is just $69 IF you don't have charts, photographs, graphics, etc. Most of my books do and this dramatically increases the cost.

I have been shopping around looking for a balance between quality, cost and time required to do the conversion. CreateSpace is still the best bet for me. I have been happy with the results thus far and the price is still the best. Working with the customer service people and the actual teams that do the conversion work has become easier now that phone service is readily available.

What I have noticed in prices and waiting periods for work to be done seems to indicate the future in self-publishing is in ebooks if not the Kindle. The law of supply and demand says if demand outstrips supply, price goes up. This certainly seems to be the case with Kindle conversion services. The reputable companies that have positive references have all increased their prices and the time required to perform the conversions.

This would indicate more and more books are being converted to Kindle editions and the demands placed on the reputable companies for their services are driving prices and conversion times upward. If this trend continues there are some important implications for self-publishing authors.

First, as more books are offered in the Kindle format, the competition for Kindle sales will increase. For me, this means I need to convert my books to Kindle as soon as possible so I can promote my books and build their sales rankings at Amazon. As new books entire the market, the new books have to compete with mine for sales ranking position, not the other way around.

Print-on-demand will become the second option in printing, although it will remain to be more profitable until the Kindle pricing structure offered by Amazon changes. I doubt off-set printing will be used by self-publishing authors in the future.

Last, the low entry costs of publishing books in the Kindle format will increase as the demand for conversion services increases. The only way around this cost increase is to learn to do the conversion yourself. After several attempts, I have given up and will simply pay for the service. My time is too valuable to me.

Who knows what self-publishing ebooks will be like in just one calendar year from now. As much as I love paper books, I have not purchased one in nearly a year. I carry around about 100+ Kindle books in my small Kindle device.

Now if I can just figure out how to project material from my Kindle in my classroom for my students, that will be something.

What's Going on With Amazon and Lightning Source? I'll Be Moving My Book to CreateSpace

2011-07-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

I really don't like being treated like I am irrelevant, even if I am. I don't like being told what to do. Does anyone? For the most part, I like Amazon. As an Amazon customer I have no complaints. Amazon deserves its reputation as a customer centric business.

As a CreateSpace customer I have no complaints. There have been problems at times, but CreateSpace has always resolved the problem to my satisfaction. Today, in a day and age where talking to a human on the phone to resolve a customer problem is rare, I talked to not one, but three, CreateSpace employees! Questions answered and issue resolved in less than 7 minutes!

Right now I am not very happy with Amazon as a tiny self-publisher. My best selling book, Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball, is my lone book with Lightning Source. June is a terrible month for books sales for me, yet this title sold briskly. In fact, Amazon sold out its entire stock of the book.

At the time, I watched with interest as the number of books listed as remaining in stock dwindled, and in the month of June no less! Then it happened. The dreaded notice of ships in 2 to 3 weeks appeared. Amazon did not order copies to replace those it had just sold.

To make matters worse, August is when coaches go back to school and sales for this title begin to pick up with a peak for the year in the months of October, when practice starts, November and December. Now is not the time for this book to not be available.

Thank goodness for the Kindle version as it is selling well, but I still sell about 4 POD copies to each Kindle copy. At least I did until Amazon seemingly pulled the plug on Lightning Source.

It would seem I am not the only author experiencing this change with books printed and distributed through Lightning Source. Amazon has quietly been allowing its stock of books from LSI to sell out and then list as shipping in two or three weeks. Amazon is not talking about this current business tactic and there are quite a few self-published authors who use LSI and rely on Amazon for the bulk of their sales. LSI, when asked, is not more forthcoming with details either.

After following the ongoing discussion at the POD Publishers group on Yahoo, I have decided to utilize what Aaron Shepard refers to on his blog post on this important subject as Plan B. I am moving my book to CreateSpace for Amazon sales and leaving the title at LSI for Barnes and Nobles sales. I won't make as much per copy, but I will be selling copies.

Barnes and Noble does not generate very many sales for any of my titles and I doubt, after spending 2.5 years of "Aiming at Amazon" I can drive my sales to B and N in time to take advantage of the annual peak buying season for this title. I think my time and efforts are better spent writing more books and doing other things.

I have worked to hard to let this book die before it is ready. As of this morning it held the number four spot in the search rankings for books on the topic of coaching basketball. With no sales in the last three weeks, it won't be long before the title begins to decline in its sales ranking.

One consolation is I will be able to obtain copies directly from CreateSpace at a lower cost per copy than LSI. I sell copies when I speak at coaching clinics so this is an advantage of sorts. At least that is what I am telling myself.

More than the slightly lower profit per copy, I don't like being forced to go to "Plan B." I don't like being not informed by Amazon what is going on and I like even less like my tiny publishing firm are unimportant (though in the grand scheme of things it is and I know it). This is my business. I have worked hard and invested many hours and money that could have been spent elsewhere.

I am certain I am not the only self-published author who has watched in horror the events of the past four to six weeks as Amazon has put this plan into effect. Our efforts matter to us and Amazon could at least communicate in some form what is happening and if this is a permanent change or not.

In the mean time, I don't feel like I have a choice. This book is too valuable to me to let it die because of a change in Amazon stocking policy. So, I will do what must be done and make the change.

Amazon, love it and hate it. What's a self-publisher to do? Even if CreateSpace is owned by Amazon, at least I like them and you can talk to someone at CreateSpace.

Quick Review of BookCoverPro Cover Design Software

2011-07-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of the 4th of July sale by BookCoverPro and purchased the Deluxe version of the company's book cover design software. So far I have successfully created two book covers using the company's templates that come as standard items in the software package.

Any time you obtain a new software package it takes quite some time, at least for me, to learn how to use all of the bells and whistles. Once I decided to try using the templates I had five roughed up covers within an hour. I selected one of the five rough attempts and honed into a nice looking cover even my wife thought looked good.

I did try to make a cover completely from scratch and after spending several hours gave up and went back to the templates for the second cover I created, a redesign of a cover for a book already in print. This is not a condemnation of the software, just a comment on the fact that to create something from scratch will take quite a bit more effort to master the learning curve.

Some authors may object to using templates out of the fear of creating a cookie cutter book cover. BookCoverPro provides a wide range of backgrounds, the ability to change colors and other items to create a unique cover. Even with the permanent, fixed features of the templates, BookCoverPro allows for the creation of additional text boxes and the introduction of photographs and images from outside the selection made available by BookCoverPro.

The software can be purchased as a download or a CD. A 20+ page manual is available for download and provides basic instructions on the features of the software and is quite helpful. Yes, I read the directions!

For the money I spent this was a great deal. I can create a unique cover in a short period of time for less than half of what I would spend to have one professionally created, and that is on the low end of the cost spectrum for custom covers.

As with any investment in a business, the owner should look carefully at the benefits of the money invested. If you only have one or two books and do not plan to publish multiple books, you might be well served to pay a professional to create a unique cover for you.

If you plan to publish multiple books, even at the full price of $187 for the downloadable version and $202 for the CD version, this software is well worth the price. The basic BookCoverPro Standard version is available for $97 but comes with only one template, as opposed to 49 in the Deluxe version, and additional templates may be purchased for $14 each. For $212 a CD and downloadable package can be obtained. Additional licenses for the Deluxe version may be purchased for $99 each and additional licenses for the Standard package may be purchased for $59.

While I have not tried this feature yet, the software has tools to convert the cover designed for print to an e-book cover.

Perhaps the best feature of the software is every cover created by the software using the templates provided are designed to be used and accepted by the two main print-on-demand companies, CreateSpace and Lightning Source.

Lightning Source and Amazon - Do You Need To Move Your Books To CreateSpace?

2011-07-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

Evidently the glitch I mentioned in an earlier post is not the issue causing my best selling title to show as being available in 2 to 3 weeks but rather is due to new tactics by Amazon. This particular book is printed by Lightning Source Inc.

Aaron Shepard seems to have a good understanding of what is going on and can explain the situation and how to resolve it much better than I can. With that said, I would like to steer you to his post about the issue of using LSI for your print-on-demand printer and dealing with Amazon.

A Glitch at Lightning Source? CreateSpace Chugging Along! Thank Goodness for Kindle!

2011-07-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

My best selling book, Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball, has hit the skids at Amazon. The glitch appears to be with Lightning Source and no one can seem to give me an answer as to what is going on. Normally, you will see in red letters an encouragement from Amazon to buy the book as only so many copies are left in stock! Nice push from Amazon.

In the past, as soon as the number of copies Amazon had sitting in a warehouse got down to two or three Amazon would stock up again, especially in the months of October, November and December. Now, sales have come to a screeching halt and an examination of the product listing shows the book will ship in 2 or 3 weeks.

The issue seems to be with Lightning Source and not Amazon. July is a slow month for books sales to begin with but when the book is your best selling title, you never like to see anything stand in the way of sales any time of the year.

All of my titles at CreateSpace are listed as available, in stock or with so many copies remaining in stock. A quick check of my Member Dashboard shows the books that usually sell this time of year are doing so and are selling through Amazon for the most part.

While I make less per sale, at least my Kindle edition of Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball is still selling. Note to self, finish converting your remaining titles to Kindle editions as well.

CreateSpace is so much easier to use than Lightning Source that if it were not for the ability to set a short discount I would not use Lightning Source at all. I also had a support question for CreateSpace that was answered with in 12 hours. I still do not know what the issue at LSI is and it has been over a week since the issue cropped up.

Will keep you informed when this is resolved.

Job Loyalty and the Publishing Industry - I Wasn't Fast Enough

2011-07-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

With the recession still lingering, Americans are not changing jobs as frequently these days. At least those of us who are fortunate enough to have jobs. I was checking my e-mail and found one of those news stories e-mail services often post when you sign-in to check your e-mail. It did not occur to me to bookmark the story and when I went back to do so, the story had been rotated off the page.

The story in question was about the ten jobs in the United States with the least turnover. Number six or seven on the list of ten was jobs in the legacy publishing industry. The average term of employment at the time of the study was 5.7 years with their current employer. The national average is 3.4 years.

I don't want to see anyone lose their job, unless they have done something to deserve it. You have to wonder though what is going on through the minds of many of the people currently employed by the legacy publishers.

J.A. Konrath wrote a post yesterday about the bulk of the negative talk about self-publishing trends being a danger to the quality of books published. Konrath states most of the negative talk comes from legacy authors who feel threatened by current trends as well as the legacy publishers themselves.

With the number of authors simply opening up shop on their own, declining sales for the traditional publishers, and the stories that have to be floating around the offices of editors, designers and proofreaders who have gone freelance to serve the rising numbers of self-publishing authors, it has to be a source of concern for those who remain behind in the traditional publishing industry.

For many it must be a fearful time. They possess skills that have value in the self-publishing world but value the security of steady employment with benefits, not to mention the "respect" of working for a "real" publishing company. At what point in time does an individual decide to abandon security and go out on their own?

Another question that must be going through the minds of many of these skilled employees is what if I stay too long? When do I go out on my own? If I leave too soon and the self-publishing "craze" passes, how will I get my foot back in the door of a traditional publisher? What if I wait too long and when the number of self-publishing authors levels out and the editors, etc, who are established have locked up the industry?

We live in interesting times.

BookCoverPro Offering July 4th Sale on Deluxe Version of its Software!

2011-07-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

For those who are interested in moving towards creating your own book covers, BookCoverPro is offering a sale for its BookCoverPro Deluxe version (download only) for the price of $99. The sale ends on July 4th.

I have no connection to the company nor do I own or use the software. However, I have been considering purchasing it and using it to create my own book covers.

California verus Amazon - Who Will Win? Technology and Changes in Self-Publishing

2011-07-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

The state of California has gone after Amazon, and other on-line affiliate businesses, in an effort to generate tax revenue. Amazon has responded by thumbing its nose at California and canceling its relationship with the on-line vendors involved. For an excellent post complete with excerpts of statements by parties involved, visit The Publishing Maven's blog.

Over and over I have read if you want to draw readers to your blog, state something controversial. At the risk of offending any readers (they say never discuss politics and religion) here goes.

Governments, all of them, need to learn to live within their means. That means spend less or no more than what you take in. The rest of us have to live in this manner or face the consequences and our governments, local, state and national, all need to do the same. If you want to spend more money on one item, you have to spend less somewhere else. Living on a budget requires you operate in this manner.

The politicians in California, and everywhere else, I am fairly sure are surprised by Amazon's reaction. They shouldn't be. If someone poked me with a sharp object I would move quickly to remove myself from the general area of the person poking me. Businesses react the same way when it comes to costs the business operator can avoid or feels are cumbersome.

As to the brick and mortar stores who have trouble competing with Amazon, I say this, create your own on-line presence and develop a niche market that you serve best. Create loyal customers through fantastic service and make sure your products are quality. Work to create more customers through word-of-mouth advertising. In the case of book sellers, use Amazon to help sell your books or other products. The man in the brown truck is your friend! UPS is in the business of helping small businesses deliver their products quickly and efficiently.

Technology changes things in big ways. It is a historical fact. The arrival of first the railroad and then the automobile spelled the end of the horse and buggy as a common means of transportation. Machine guns and barbed wire changed how Europeans engaged in land warfare, resulting in the horrible slaughter of trench warfare in World War I. The personal computer and the internet has changed the world in profound ways and will continue to do so. The only real certainty is change will happen.

Technology has made self-publishing a viable business model today. While some of the stigma of self-publishing still remains, the powerful combination of Amazon, B&N, the print-on-demand technology and business model, excellent and relatively easy to learn to use software and the recent development, acceptance and surge in e-book readers has made the world of self-publishing one in flux.

Within five to ten years, the world of publishing as it is now known will not exist. Those publishers who do not adapt to the new reality will go the way of the buggy maker. Those who do, will prosper.

Government needs to learn to adapt as well. Regardless of the political party in control of the government entity, governments must learn to spend less than the amount of revenue taken in. Tax increases are not the answer. Learning to operate like a business and being financially efficient are. If a government entity offers a service, it should be of a quality as high, or higher, than what private enterprise can or would offer. Why higher? Because the taxpayer has no say in whether or not to purchase the service. The private consumer does. Therefore, the service must be of a high quality since it is being imposed on the "consumer."

Writing Effective Book Descriptions for Book Covers

2011-06-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

The is a short but interesting post on creating effective book descriptions for book covers by Chris Robley on the BookBaby publishing blog. Covers do sell books so this is worth reading if you design your own book covers. It is certainly worth reading if you write the book description for your cover even if someone else is creating the design.

Be Sure To Link Editions On Amazon!

2011-06-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

Several of my books are available both as paperback and Kindle editions. My latest book, Selecting A Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for POD Self-Publishing is available in both a paperback and a Kindle edition.

With my real job taking up more time and my second child graduating from Texas A&M and obtaining her first job as a Civil Engineer (proud father moment!), I simply forgot to ask Amazon to link the two editions. The Publishing Maven gently reminded me I needed to do so.

Evidently the linking of the two helps the books come up higher in the Amazon search algorithm. Every author wants his or her book coming up as high as possible in the search results! Shame on me for not taking care of this.

As per The Publishing Maven's directions, if you have both a print and a Kindle edition and want them linked, send an e-mail to the Kindle Direct support team requesting the editions to be linked on Amazon. Use the Contact Us link on the bottom of your Kindle Direct page. Be sure to include the ISBN of the print editon and the ASIN of the Kindle edition. It will take a few days to link the two editions and for the reviews to match-up as well.

Be sure to list the books in your bibliography on your Author Central page as well. It takes less than a minute to do so.

Taking these steps are ethical ways to work the Amazon system to insure your book's best possible listing in Amazon's search results.

The Importance and Value of a Back List for Self-publishing Authors

2011-06-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

When I wrote my first book it never occurred to me I would write more. I am glad I did. While my first book sells well and has sold more copies than any other book I have written, it is a good thing it is not the only title in my list.

Last year the book in question sold more copies in print and Kindle versions combined than any other title I have. Yet in terms of total dollars, it only accounted for 30% of my sales in the last 18 months. The last 12 months have been the best in terms of sales and revenue generated since I began self-publishing.

70% of my sales come from all of my other titles. Some titles sell very well, either as paperbacks or Kindle books. Other titles only sell a few single copies a month or a single copy every so often. It all adds up though.

Because of the low cost entry into self-publishing made possible by CreateSpace I have been able to keep my cost per title to produce as low as possible. Every book I have self-published except two have at least recouped the money invested to get the book into print. That is probably a better record than traditional publishing houses.

Print-on-demand and Kindle books allow authors to get their book to market with the lowest possible investment. Having more than one title allows an author to have multiple revenue streams from books sales.

Another advantage of having multiple titles is readers who purchase and read one book and enjoy it or find the information contained of value will purchase other titles by the same author.

Books mature over time, saturating the target audience. Non-fiction books become out-of-date as time passes, making the content of little value. While this is not true for all books, it is true for many. Having a well developed back list lessons the impact of a star seller falling in the sales totals.

All too often authors forget publishing is a business. For self-publishing authors who desire for their publishing venture to be profitable, developing a back list is an essential step towards profitability over the long term.

Amazon Sells More Kindle Books Than Print for First Time!

2011-06-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

Amazon announces it now sells more Kindle books than print books. The following is from the June issue of the Kindle Direct Newsletter.

Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.

"Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly - we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com. Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.

Indie Author Joins The Million Kindle Seller Club!

2011-06-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Self-publishing authors should take note! John Locke has become the first "Indie author" to sell a million Kindle books! This is an encouraging event for every author who toils outside of the establishment publishing world! The following excerpt is from the Amazon Kindle Direct Newsletter for the month of June.

John Locke is the newest member of the “Kindle Million Club,” and the first independently published author to receive this distinction. As of June 19th, John Locke has sold 1,010,370 Kindle books using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). The Kindle Million Club recognizes authors whose books have sold over 1 million paid copies in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Locke joins Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins and Michael Connelly in the Kindle Million Club.

“Kindle Direct Publishing has provided an opportunity for independent authors to compete on a level playing field with the giants of the book selling industry,” said John Locke. “Not only did KDP give me a chance, they helped at every turn. Quite simply, KDP is the greatest friend an author can have.”

“It’s so exciting that self-publishing has allowed John Locke to achieve a milestone like this,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “We’re excited to see Kindle Direct Publishing succeeding for both authors and customers and are proud to welcome him to the Kindle Million Club.”

John Locke, of Louisville, KY., is the internationally bestselling author of nine novels including "Vegas Moon,” "Wish List,” "A Girl Like You,” "Follow the Stone,” "Don't Poke the Bear!" and the New York Times bestselling eBook, "Saving Rachel." Locke's latest book, "How I sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months," is a how-to marketing guide for self-published authors.

CreateSpace Hosting June Seminar - Landing on TV and Radio Shows to Promote Your Book

2011-06-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

CreateSpace is offering a June web seminar for authors interested in learning how to be booked as guests on television and radio shows to promote their book. The link below will take you directly to the sign-up page for the web seminar.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/936779305

Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for Print-on-Demand Self-Publishing now available as a Kindle Book!

2011-06-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for Print-on-Demand Self-Publishing is now available as a .99 Kindle book! For authors considering self-publishing using print-on-demand the two main suppliers of this service are Lightning Source and CreateSpace.

Both companies have their strong points and selecting a company to choose can be confusing for many individuals. Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for Print-on-Demand Self-Publishing offers authors side-by-side comparisons, guiding questions to make a informed choice and expert commentary based on the experience of self-publishing authorities Joel Friedlander and Christy Pinheiro.

Data on Projected Kindle Sales for Amazon

2011-06-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

The link below will take you to an article with data on the trends in Kindle sales on Amazon and the projected earnings for Amazon based on Kindle reader sales and Kindle book sales.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/kindle-10-percent-sales-amazon/

The Truth About Creating Brands People Love - A Book Review

2011-06-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

The Truth About Creating Brands People Love, by Brian Till and Donna Heckler, is available from Amazon as a Kindle book, retailing for $9.99, and as a trade paperback selling for about $14. I purchased the Kindle version of this book, not thinking of it as a book for authors, but rather for the other parts of my fledgling business.

I was wrong to think creating a brand was not something important for a writer to consider. For fiction and non-fiction writers, brand creation is an important issue for one simple reason, we all want repeat customers! Readers who purchase books written by a single author have identified with the brand created by the author. How many of us have waited with anticipation for the next novel by our favorite fiction writer or have purchased everything written by a non-fiction author who is an expert on a topic of concern or interest to us? These authors have successfully created a strong brand readers identify with.

Brand management, and brand creation, is not a common sense topic though it seems like it should be. Successful brands have behind them a great deal of planning, research and hard work. Companies, and authors, with successful brands work hard to maintain and protect the carefully crafted brand. A successful brand is worth more than its weight in gold!

The authors share a total of 51 truths about creating successful brands. Each of these truths is essentially a stand alone chapter in its own right yet the authors have sequenced the chapters in a logical order.

Each chapter is well written, easy to understand and provides useful information for the reader, regardless of the whether the reader has a background in business and marketing or not.

Without being a spoiler, I will say the material in this book makes very good sense, yet it is not "common sense" information for the most part. I am reading the book for a third time and have nearly filled up a legal pad with notes on things I need to do or change with my business and approach to self-publishing. It has been money well spent.

Will Kindle and other eBook Prices Eventually Have to Rise?

2011-06-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to be jumping on the ebook train right now. I certainly have. May, June and July are the slowest three months for me in terms of print book sales. The same is not true for Kindle sales so far. May of 2011 was good and this June is looking like it will be the best month ever for Kindle sales since I ventured into the Kindle market.

While introducing Kindle editions does not seem to have hurt my print sales, and in fact I believe it helped boost the sales of one print edition, it remains to be seen if the trend will continue. I plan to pay close attention to print and Kindle sales trends for the next year or so.

One of the reasons for this is the fear I have that my Kindle sales WILL negatively impact my print sales at some point in the future. Why is this a concern? I make considerably more money per sale for a print book than I do a Kindle book, even with Amazon's generous royalty system. The price of Kindle books is so much lower than the price of the print edition, there is no possible way to make up the difference in net profit per sale and still take advantage of Amazon's pricing/royalty structure.

My books are non-fiction niche market books. Selling my books for the lowest possible price to drive sales is not a long term strategy for me. I think this strategy works well for fiction, new fiction authors and general market non-fiction.

As ebook readers and reading books digitally becomes more common, this is going to become more and more of an issue. More so if authors bypass the publishing houses and deal directly with Amazon for Kindle sales. The math will drive the issue.

For example, if an author is going to sell a print edition of a book that nets $6 per copy and the Kindle edition only nets $2 per copy, it will take three Kindle book sales to match the profit of one print copy being sold.

If the book is going to only sell 5,000 copies total for the author, Kindle and print combined, the ratio of print to Kindle sales is a significant one. 5,000 print copies at $6 net is a $30K net profit. 5,000 Kindle copies is only $10K net. The difference of $20K is nothing to sneeze at.

As the market trends towards digital books, will authors need to drive the prices upwards so they can make a living selling their books in a digital format?

Right now, I suspect many of my Kindle sales are impulse, price driven purchases I would not have made otherwise. In the future this might not be the case when people by digital books as the dominant format of consuming books.

Print-on-Demand and Kindle Sales - A Comparison Revisited: Opportunity for Authors Who Self-Publish

2011-05-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

Forbes magazine recently ran an article discussing the publishing industry's current attitude and misunderstanding of the ebook revolution in the publishing industry. The Publishing Maven posted a short blog post about this article.

Forbes states Amazon has for the first time sold more Kindle books than print books. Publisher's attitudes range from dismay to denial, claiming Amazon is simply making up the numbers. Perhaps buggy makers reacted the same way when automobiles first began to appear on the roads.

I think publishers are missing the point, and the opportunity, ebooks offer. One publisher complains there is less profit to be made in ebooks. For the publisher perhaps, but not for authors who self-publish directly and bypass the traditional publisher. Yes, the industry is changing but it does not mean publishing will no longer be profitable. It simply means the source of revenue is going to come from a different type of book, in this case digital instead of print.

Editors, designers and cover artists will still be necessary and might make a better living working as freelancers contracting directly with authors. Some of the big publishing houses will survive because they will adapt in time. Others will not. Self-publishing, I predict, will become more common and accepted in the publishing world.

In my opinion, it is the move to self-publish and not the print-on-demand print model or ebooks driving the change in the publishing world. POD and ebooks are allowing authors to self-publish and make more money doing so. This, and not changes in technology, is what will lead to the demise of many of the traditional publishing houses.

In an earlier post I shared sales figures for the past few months of my print-on-demand paper books and Kindle sales. Today, even with a few hours left for books to sell, I totaled up my sales for the month of May. My books are seasonal to some extent in sales. Summer months are significantly slower. This May sales for print books dropped significantly from previous months but were still nearly double from a year ago in May of 2010 (note to self - you have got to find a way to get your customers to buy books year round!).

Kindle sales dropped this month as well but I still sold 63 Kindle books, only 4 fewer books than print books sold.

The one trend I have noticed since I introduced Kindle editions of several of my books is sales for ALL of my books have increased significantly, particularly the books available in both POD and Kindle editions. My best guess concerning this jump is Amazon must be combing the sales results for both versions, boosting each version higher in the search results.

My best selling Kindle book, The Game of Basketball, shows up first for an Amazon search for "basketball" and second for "coaching basketball." Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball shows up third on Amazon for a search of coaching basketball. The Game of Basketball today was listed 7th in books and Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball was listed 4th.

Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball is my best selling book in paperback and has sold well for two years. The introduction of the Kindle edition has not hurt sales of the print-on-demand edition and the past basketball season was the best yet for sales of this book. The Game of Basketball languished as a paperback with disappointing sales on Amazon. The introduction of the Kindle edition not only took off as a Kindle book, but seems to be driving sales of the paperback version as well. The Game of Basketball has steadily climbed in Amazon paper book rankings and sales.

Perhaps what publishers resent is the opportunity for authors to self-publish and simply bypass the publishing houses. Publishers also seem to resent Amazon's role in all of this as well as the technology driving the changes.

People are still reading, and buying books, and this is a good thing. Technology and online retailers like Amazon are making it possible for authors to have direct access to distribution and customers, bypassing the old publishing gatekeepers. Books, editors, designers and authors are not going anywhere. Publishers might be going the way of buggy makers.

Paperback Sales versus E-book Sales in the Past Seven Months

2011-05-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

With the end of May almost here, I sat down and took a quick look at my sales figures in the past few months, not in terms of income, but in terms of total books sold, both POD paperbacks and e-books (Kindle Books). The totals startled me a little bit and are indicative of the current trends in the publishing industry.

Starting with the month of November, 2010, and finishing with the month of May, 2011, I have sold 623 paperback books on Amazon (these numbers do not include Expanded Distribution Channel sales or specialty retailers). During the same time period I have sold 291 Kindle books. Please note as well, my first Kindle title went on sale in November and only sold 3 copies. The two totals combined indicate I have sold 914 total books during the past seven months. The 291 Kindle books account for roughly one third of my total sales.

The reason I compared sales from November of 2010 through May of 2011 is because I did not start selling Kindle books until November of 2010.

The Publishing Maven posted about ebooks making up such a large portion of the book market currently, basing her post on a recent article in Forbes Magazine. Joel Friedlander has been writing and commenting a great deal about ebooks lately at his blog, The Book Designer.

The lesson to be drawn from these sales figures, at least for me, is in the future, every edition of a new book I release will have at a minimum a POD paperback version and a Kindle edition of the title. Ebooks are here to stay but so, it would appear, are paperback books, at least for a few years longer.

Book Covers Do Make A Difference For On-line Sales

2011-05-29T18:21:00.000-07:00

Aaron Shepard stubbornly claims simple book covers work best for internet sales, particularly on Amazon. I agree with him to a point. Aaron's covers are super simple and he takes a bit of grief for his covers. His books on self-publishing sell well because he is an expert and the content is valuable and worth the money spent by the customer. Aaron is not going to win any awards for cover design.

I do believe simple covers work best with the small size of the cover photos Amazon provides in the product listings. Complex artwork and design simply does not show up well.

Even with Search Inside, customers will still judge a book by its cover. Detailed product description information, reviews, and tags all play a part in the customer's decision to buy a book. But it seems the cover still plays a role in encouraging the customer to click on the book's product page to examine all of the above items.

I have learned the hard way covers do play a role in this process. My book, Better Basketball Practices, is for individuals who want to plan, organized and conduct more efficient basketball practice sessions. This is actually an important topic for basketball coaches and very few coaches are able to conduct quality practices on a consistent basis. Sales for the book have been poor despite considerable positive feedback via e-mail from the coaches who have purchased the book.

The cover was ultra basic and while I thought the design was fine, The Publishing Maven hated it. In fact, she hated it so much she created a new cover design for me without asking. I simply received an e-mail with two design options attached. My feelings were not hurt in the slightest - male ego can cause you to do funny things - and I promptly uploaded the new cover file with CreateSpace.

The results have led me to believe covers do make a big difference, even for on-line sales. Sales for the month of May for all of my titles are annually either the lowest or second lowest for the year. Sales for this single title this month alone are equal to the total combined sales for this title since October when it was introduced. Anecdotal evidence, yes, but it has gotten my attention. Future releases will require high quality covers and over time and as I can afford it, some of my older titles will get new covers.

And no, Christie does not design and produce covers professionally. She simply created this one cover for me as a favor. Joel Friedlander, the The Book Designer does though.

Should You Write Your Non-fiction Book?

2011-05-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

I recently had an individual contact me to ask questions about the content of one of my non-fiction books (I only write non-fiction). In the course of corresponding the individual asked if I was considering writing a book about a topic within the broad scope of my field of expertise. Unfortunately, the topic is not one I consider myself to be an expert in. For example, I might be a doctor who practices internal medicine. I would not be the specialist you would see for knee replacement surgery.

The individual asserted correctly this topic was one that would have broad appeal to the market I write for. This made me stop and think about the possibility of writing the requested book. I thought about books I had written and had not sold well. I also thought about the titles I have written that have sold well and are continuing to do so. In the process I came up with a set of guidelines to use in determining future titles I will invest the time and energy to write, publish and market.

First, is there a market for the book? Not do I want to write the book, is there a demand, need or market for the book? My two biggest duds in terms of sales have no demand. There was not a market for the book. The time, effort, energy and money invested were wasted. My successful titles sell because there is a need for the information. Some of my books are not big sellers but they sell a few copies each month. Over time, those small monthly sales add up. Those books were worth writing as well.

The second question I arrived at is am I an expert in the topic? If I were to write a book on a topic in my field that I was not qualified to be considered an expert, would this impact the sales of the books I am a legitimate expert in. The risk to my credibility is not worth risk to me.

Do I have the time and skill to effectively market the new book? Can I develop an effective plan? As I publish more books, I find I spend more time on marketing efforts and less time on producing new books. More books that sell means more income for the business. Selling books requires time and effort. Time and effort are required to write more books. You can see the situation develops into a bit of a catch-22.

Some other questions include:

Do I have the ability to reach my target audience?

If I am not an expert, am I willing to invest the time to develop the expertise?

Will the book be profitable?

How will I sell my book?

Just as I have developed my own checklist, authors should develop their own list to determine if a books should be written.

The only common item each list should have is does the book NEED to be written? Not from the author's perspective, but from the perspective of a reader? Will some one buy and read the book?

The Real Kindle Killer!

2011-05-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

This is a fascinating article and thought provoking. Technology is changing the printing and self-publishing industry, there is not doubt. But is new always better? For those considering including ebooks as part of your offerings, this is a good read.

The Real Kindle Killer!

Amazon to Allow ePub on Kindle Reader?

2011-05-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

Rumors are always interesting and often untrue. If this rumor is true, it will further change both the ebook industry and the self-publishing industry.

The new rumor floating about is Amazon is planning to allow the sale and reading of ePub books on its Kindle reader. It will take me a few days to absorb this if true and begin to ponder the ramifications of what this means for the industry at large and for my tiny self-publishing empire specifically.

No, this is not an April's Fools joke and I am not making this up. For more information, check the link posted below:

http://goodereader.com/blog/tablet-slates/amazon-to-allow-epub-ebooks-on-the-kindle-e-reader/

Shortening the Learning Curve for New Self-Publishers - BookStarter

2011-05-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

Self-publishing is a business. There is a lot to learn. You can try to teach it all to yourself and this approach will lead to a lot of hit and miss learning. As my Dad calls this approach, its a "scattershot" approach to doing something. You hit some of what you want and miss a lot of what you want.

Education can be expensive, but it is also an investment in yourself and the future of your business. For those who might consider some formal education in self-publishing, try BookStarter. You can also visit the Facebook page of BookStarter.

Am I affiliated with BookStarter in anyway? No. But the cover of my best selling Kindle Book was done by none other than Deanna Riddle, the owner and founder of BookStarter. This company is her dream and her passion - check it out.

CreateSpace Launches New Website Interface - Easier to Use Than Before!

2011-05-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

I have spent quite a bit of time recently examining the differences between the two giants of print-on-demand, CreateSpace and Lightning Source. One of the key contrasting features of the two companies is the emphasis CreateSpace places on being easy to use.

CreateSpace has taken their easy to use website and upgraded it with a new site design making the new site even more user friendly. Hats off to CreateSpace! Time is precious and there is all too little of it. Time spent working your way around a website looking for a specific piece of information or trying to determine how to use a specific feature is time wasted.

Launching a new book for a first time author who is testing the waters of self-publishing is challenging enough. It shouldn't be difficult to use the services of the print-on-demand service the author has selected to print his or her book.

Lightning Source definitely has some advantages over CreateSpace, largely the ability to use the short discount model, making a book more profitable for the owner. Sadly, it is not easier to interface with over the internet, giving CreateSpace a big edge in attracting first time authors as well as authors who struggle with using Lightning Sources website, uploading procedures and file requirements.

If you have not done so already, take a look at the new CreateSpace website.

Ethics, Copy Writing, Distribution, Smashwords and Self-Publishing

2011-05-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

In my seemingly never ending quest to learn how to make this venture in self-publishing a financial success, I purchased several books on copy writing. Since I am responsible for promoting, marketing and ultimately selling my books, I figured I needed to learn something about sales writing or copy writing.

Without naming the titles or authors of the books I have been reading, it has been a bit of an eye opener. Both of the authors have provided a good deal of valuable information about the tricks of the trade and how to catch and hold a potential book buyer's attention.

I have no issue with the "tricks" used per se to make the sale as suggested by the authors so far. What I do have an issue with is the statement, or concept, that you can peddle absolute garbage and get away with it so long as your sales copy is brilliant.

Two issues immediately come to mind. The first is selling a bad book is not good for your self-publishing business. Amazon reviewers can be downright vindictive with their reviews if they don't like your book or feel they were cheated out of their money. This alone can kill sales if you garner enough bad reviews. You won't earn repeat customers who purchase your other books nor will you experience any long tail effect on Amazon.

The second issue is an ethical one. Have written my share of books I fully understand most authors think there is nothing wrong with their book and it is the best one out there on the subject or in the genre. Haven been on the receiving end of a few of those nasty reviews, once I calmed down enough to read the review and compare it to the book in question, a couple of the reviewers I have to admit had a point. Thankfully, with print-on-demand I was able to make the needed changes but alas the bad reviews remain.

What's my point? I did not intentionally sell the customer a bad book. Fortunately, most of my books that have received reviews have received the wonderful 5-star variety!

But to knowingly sell a customer a bad book is not just bad business, I have to believe it is unethical as well. Shame on the authors of the copy writing books for even suggesting it is OK to sell a poor product to an unsuspecting customer.

This brings me to the issue of expanded ebook distribution via Smashwords. I have been reading a lot of rave comments about the distribution of ebooks for indie and self-publishing authors available through Smashwords. I think Smashwords offers authors some great advantages ranging from the 85% royalty rate to the ability to offer coupons to discount books or give books away for FREE!

Sitting in my stack of Kindle books to read is the guide on formatting an ebook for Smashwords. It is going to wait for awhile though. As much as I think building my ebook division is an important investment for future financial success, I am going to wait before I distribute any of my books through Smashwords.

Why? I have read too many stories about the quality of the books that emerge from the Smashwords "meatgrinder" conversion process. I am not willing to work as hard as I do to promote, market and write what I believe are good books and then knowingly sell a poor product. I do think Smashwords is headed in the right direction and have adopted a wait and see approach. When the company works out the bugs in its conversion process, I will jump on the bandwagon and distribute ebooks through Smashwords.

In the meantime, The Publishing Maven wants me to do something about some of my earlier book covers. It seems if I want to keep my integrity after publishing this blog post, I am going to have to start working on improving the covers of my first few books.

For readers interested in reading past comments I have posted about ethics and self-publishing, just click here to be taken to a previous post.

Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for Print-on-Demand Self-Publishing

2011-05-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

The print-on-demand version of Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for POD Self-Publishing is now available from Amazon for just $6.95. Authors have so much to learn once the decision to self-publish has been made. The decision making process can be even more confusing when trying to select a print-on-demand service to print books and aid with the process of book distribution.

The industry of self-publishing has seen enormous change in the past decade. The internet and online retailing via Amazon and Barnes & Noble has given self-published authors access to readers they were previously denied under the old model of publishing. Print-on-demand via companies such as CreateSpace and Lightning Source not only makes self-publishing as a business venture financially possible, it also provides authors with access to distribution to book retailers.

CreateSpace and Lightning Source are the two biggest names in the print-on-demand industry and choosing which of the two companies to use can be a difficult decision, especially for a first time author. Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for POD Self-Publishing is meant to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of using either company in a clear and easy to understand manner.

By gathering all of the information in one place and organizing it, this book is a valuable tool in the decision making process of selecting a POD service to self-publish and distribute a book.

In addition to the information gathered in the book, noted self-publishing authorities Christy Pinheiro (The Publishing Maven) and Joel Friedlander (The Book Designer) are contributors to the book as well, sharing their experiences with the two companies.

For Authors who would like to wait for the Kindle version, it will be available in several weeks and will be on sale for .99.

Review of The Self-Publisher's Quick & Easy Guide to Copyright by the Book Designer, Joel Friedlander

2011-05-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

I have spent hours and hours learning as much as possible about the self-publishing industry. A lot of those hours could have been saved if books like The Self-Publisher's Quick & Easy Guide to Copyright by Joel Friedlander. I obtained the Kindle edition of the book and found it to be an easy read.

Joel explains the concept of copyright in clear language and provides examples of copyright pages, copyright disclaimers and how to give credit. Also exposed are myths and information about copyright as well as several urban legends about copyright.

The procedure to obtain a copyright and the two different methods available are covered in detail, and having gone through the nightmare of dealing with the copyright office several times, I wish I had been in possession of this book before I attempted to file for my copyrights.

I learned quite a bit of new information, at least new to me, from this book. While I had previously learned most of the information in the book, the final chapter on the Library of Congress' Cataloging in Publication program cleared up the CIP data block and the issues it involves for self-publishers, mainly being denied access to the program without the use of the Congress' Preassigned Control Number program.

For new authors, and some old hands, this book is an excellent reference to the important matter of copyright.

Self-publishing and Distribution

2011-05-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

When I started my adventure in self-publishing the entire concept of distribution was a foreign one to me. I had a vague idea of selling my books to a couple of specialty retailers and had learned Amazon would allow self-published books to be sold through it's site. Needless to say I have learned a great deal since I got started.

I have yet, as far as I know, to sell a book to a book store. If I never do, that's fine with me. Since all of my print books are printed using print-on-demand via CreateSpace of Lightning Source, I have access to Amazon, Ingram, Baker and Taylor and through CreateSpace's Expanded Distribution Channel, Barnes and Noble.

Ebook sales have been improving each month so far thanks to Amazon's Kindle Book Store. I have yet to sell a single copy of an ebook for the Barnes and Noble Nook which is disappointing. I have to blame myself I suppose as I have done nothing to promote the fact the book in question is available for the Nook.

I have been investigating Smashwords as a means to further expand distribution but the thought of dealing with another conversion process is a bit daunting at the moment. Still, it would make my books available to more customers.

Distribution, or at least access to distribution, is an important aspect of publishing oft overlooked by self-publishing authors. I also wonder if I am hurting my overall sales by making my books available to through so many different channels. The overwhelming bulk of my sales come from Amazon. For each sale that does not take place on Amazon, that is one sale not driving the long tail effect for me on Amazon. The other side of the coin is the idea I would not have made that individual sale unless it was available through the distribution mode and retailer who made the sale for me.

If I only had one or two books, this really would not be that big an issue for me. As the number of books I have in print grows, it becomes an issue of time keeping track of distribution and working to make my books available to more avenues of distribution. As a result, less time for writing.

I am not complaining, really, as self-publishers have more access to distribution to readers and customers than ever before. This is just one more example of how self-publishing is a business, not just the simple matter of writing a book and getting it into print.

Self-Publishing With Amazon's CreateSpace available with new interior design!

2011-05-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Self-Publishing With Amazon's CreateSpace has received a new interior design and some information updates! It is once again available for sale on Amazon. The book gives an overview of the print-on-demand business model and the technology and take the reader through the process of using CreateSpace to self-publish a book.

The update of the book comes in advance of a new effort on my part that will be available on Amazon soon, Selecting a Print-on-Demand Company: Comparing CreateSpace and Lightning Source for POD Self-Publishing. It will be available in both paperback and Kindle versions.

More information about the book and its launch will be forthcoming in the next few weeks!

Barnes & Noble Nook is Keeping Me Waiting

2011-05-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

I have several Kindle editions of my books and one of them is selling very well, at least by my measure of success. All of them sell at least a few copies each month, some months more than others. So far, I have only one of my print books available for sale for the Barnes and Noble Nook. It might be my one and only.

It has yet to sell a single copy.

I usually use the Kindle conversion service offered by CreateSpace because of the low price, $69. I did have one book converted by eBookArchitects and was very pleased with the results. The service from eBookArchitects does cost more but you receive converted files for both the Kindle and the Nook.

Since I had planned to use eBookArchitects anyhow, it made no sense not to set up an account with Barnes and Noble and offer the book as a Nook title. The Kindle version of the book has sold enough to pay for the conversion so I am happy.

I am still waiting to sell a copy for the Nook. I guess I will have to break down and buy a copy myself for my wife's Nook.

Cost is always a concern for me in my "business decisions" and I am certain it is for other authors who self-publish. If I am not going to be able to sell my books via the Nook, is it really worth the extra money to have eBookArchitects do the conversion? Please note, there is nothing wrong with their work, the customer service and I have only good things to say about eBookArchitects.

CreateSpace is simply less expensive. Kindle conversions done by CreateSpace have their own issues. CreateSpace will not do the conversion unless the book has already been added as a print-on-demand print book. Nor will CreateSpace do conversions for the ePub format since it competes with the parent company Amazon's proprietary Kindle format.

Self-Publishing via POD versus Off-set Press Run - The Issue of Distribution

2011-05-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Every book I have self-published has been either print-on-demand or a Kindle or Nook ebook. I have no experience with off-set printing and the challenges of distribution using that approach to having a book printed.

A question e-mailed to me by an author who plans to self-publish made me think about the requirements of self-publishing using an off-set press run. Part of the argument for using print-on-demand is the pluses of not having to pay for a press run, store the books, ship the books and all of the assorted costs involved in that approach. Yes, the cost per copy is higher, but you have none of the other costs associated with the traditional approach to printing, both in terms of actual cost and time and labor.

So much is made of this part of the business model of print-on-demand that I think many authors have overlooked a key element of the model, distribution. I know I take for granted my books will magically appear on Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble and Barnes & Noble Nook. Were it not for the distribution systems and networks of CreateSpace and Lightning Source, this would not be possible.

The author whose question triggered this thought process wanted to take advantage of the lower cost per copy of an off-set press run and wanted to learn how to gain access to distribution networks other than Amazon Advantage. I realized I have no idea of how to do this without the aid of CreateSpace or Lightning Source who simply provide this service as part of the overall package. I don't intend to learn how either. There are plenty of other things I have to master to be a success as a self-publisher.

Self-publishers have it good right now. Yes, there are big hurdles to overcome still to be financially successful but the availability of print-on-demand WITH distribution provides access to readers never before available.

It's Nice To Know Your Book Helped

2011-05-10T06:27:00.000-07:00

I received an e-mail yesterday from a college basketball coach I have been fortunate to get to know over the years. He is one of the most innovative offensive minds in the country and his teams lead the nation in scoring in the NAIA. What does this have to do with self-publishing?

This Friday his book, all 400 pages of it, will be available on Amazon! Coach Porter is pretty excited about it and wanted to thank me for all of my help, such that it was, in helping him get his book published. I was/am pretty excited about the release of the book because of the information it contains. Then I read the portion of the e-mail thanking me for the copy of my book Self-Publishing With Amazon's CreateSpace I had given him.

He said it was right on the money and helped him get through the process smoothly and with ease. Coach Porter also indicated much of the information about self-publishing in general was helpful in making business decisions about design, editing, etc. Wow! That e-mail certainly made my day!

Self-publishing can be a lonely experience and when you are having one of those months where sales are slow, it can be discouraging as well. To receive an e-mail thanking you for the help your book provided it great!

Non-fiction authors might see more of a direct connection between the books they write and helping people. Fiction authors provide help that is just as important. To be able to escape the drudgery of life or your problems for a few hours is helpful as well and can provide the relief needed to move forward and attack the challenges facing you.

A Review of Joel Friedlander's Kindle Book: The Self-Publisher's Quick & Easy Guide to ISBNs and Barcodes

2011-05-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Publishing Maven herself, Christy Pinheiro, told me in a discussion some time back it was her opinion many Kindle purchases are impulse purchases due to the often low price. As of late, I have been guilty of making some impulse purchases from the Amazon Kindle Store. One of those impulse purchases was obtaining a $2.99 copy of another Joel Friedlander Kindle book, The Self-Publisher's Quick & Easy Guide to ISBNs and Barcodes.

It was money well spent. The concept of the ISBN is a simple one. In practice though it can cause quite a bit of confusion for a new author is just getting started in self-publishing and going through the enormous learning curve all new authors experience.

Obtaining an ISBN can be expensive or one can be obtained for free. What is the difference between the two? It can be quite confusing.

The author does an outstanding job of making a simple, but potentially confusing topic, easy to understand. The seven chapters are ISBN 101 for Self-Publishers, How to Read an ISBN, How to Buy ISBNs, Answers to 20 of your ISBN Questions, Deciphering the Bookland EAN Bar Code, How to Buy & Use Barcodes and ISBN and Barcode Resources. The information is presented in a logical order and the writing is clear, factual and easy to understand. This book eliminates any confusion about the important topic of ISBNs.

An Experiment With .99 Cent Kindle Book As a Launch Strategy

2011-05-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

My latest Kindle book, Goal Setting for Sport: A Concise Guide for Coaches and Athletes was uploaded this morning. It is my hope it will appear on Amazon tomorrow. A post will appear on my website announcing the availability of the .99 version until June 1, 2011, at which time the price will go up to either $1.99 or $2.99. On Tuesday an e-mail will go out to the 1,700+ coaches on my e-mail list.

The POD version has sold some copies and has already garnered three 5-star reviews. Hopefully Amazon will link the two versions as soon as the Kindle version is posted by Amazon.

I realize most authors who use the .99 price point are selling fiction but I am interested to see if this pricing strategy works for non-fiction as a launch so the book, both Kindle and POD versions, sell quickly enough to drive the title up in the Amazon Search Listings, causing the long tail effect to kick in much sooner.

I will compare my sales of this title against those of my best selling Kindle book in its first month and see if there was a noticeable difference in sales volume (not net profits) using this strategy as a launch for the Kindle book. In early June I will update the readers of this blog on this marketing strategy and report the results, good or bad, and what I have learned.

Joel Friedlander's A Self-Publisher's Companion - A Review

2011-05-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

I recently obtained a Kindle copy of Joel Friedlander's new book A Self-Publisher's Companion. It is not your typical how-to self-publishing book. It offers a very different view of the industry and encourages authors who self-publish to think about what I will call philosophical issues. Mr. Friedlander encourages authors to define what success is for their book, why does the author want to self-publish or what is motivating the author? These are all valuable questions few authors think about.

The content of the book is based on 450 blog posts written over an extended period of time. Going through the blog archives, Joel found many articles of value about the nuts and bolts of self-publishing, how-to articles if you like. Instead of writing a how-to book, Joel sifted through his material and created as he calls it, a "why-to" book. Also covered in the book are topics such as book design, social media for authors, Ebooks, marketing and branding.

The book is well organized and easy to use. This is a valuable reference manual I will use over and over, particularly the section on design. I also found Joel's questions about why an author publishes are thought provoking and important. The answers to these questions will differ for each author but provide insights on ways to market and promote your book and ideas for design.

Joel's website and blog, The Book Designer, are great sources of information. You can access the site via the link on the right side of this blog in the listing for self-publishing blogs of interest.

Software for Do-it-yourself Self-publishers

2011-05-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Even with an entry cost as low as $39 at CreateSpace, some authors may struggle to get their first book self-published due to financial considerations. This is particularly true if the author hires an editor to give the book an all important edit. Other authors may have the desire to create both the cover and the interior of their books.

As with everything else in self-publishing, there always seems to be one more hill to climb in the learning process. In an effort to shorten the learning curve for other authors, I would like to suggest some software to learn how to use so time is not wasted in determining what software to attempt to master.

If you only want to learn one, I suggest learning Adobe InDesign. I spent two days at a training seminar and plan to repeat the course. There is a lot to learn and I need to go through the basic course again before I know enough to feel comfortable poking around and really learn how to use InDesign. I am determined to master this software as it can be used to create covers and the interior files for POD books. It is a professional grade design program and can import items from other Adobe programs such as Photoshop.

Word can be used to create interior files and covers but it will take a lot of creative effort and care to produce files that look professional. If you feel up to this or have already mastered Word, I suggest obtaining a copy of Aaron Shepard's Perfect Pages and read it cover to cover. Aaron creates the files for his books using Word for Mac and shares his technical know how and experiences with creating LSI files in Perfect Pages.

The Publishing Maven, Christie Pinheiro, uses BookCoverPro to create the covers for her books. She assures me the software is relatively easy to learn and creates professional looking covers.

If any of the readers of this blog have other software to suggest, please post a comment to share with the other visitors.

Books for the Author Considering Self-Publishing Part I

2011-04-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Self-publishing is more than just writing a manuscript and getting the book into print. It is an entire business and a growing industry. Technology plays a huge role in today's self-publishing industry, allowing a single author to build a successful small business.

Self-publishing is also a jack-of-all trades industry. Not only does the author have to write a good book for the book to succeed, the book has to be designed, both the interior and the cover, a method of printing selected, a business model devised, accounting procedures set-up, a marketing and distribution plan created and put in place, book reviews obtained and entire host of other skills learned, mastered or at least aware of.

I have read dozens of books, some really good, some really bad and some in between. For my next few posts I am going to post the books I strongly suggest authors considering self-publishing obtain and read as part of their self-taught learning curve.

The first suggested books are essentially mandatory reading if you are going to self-publish. Aiming at Amazon, Perfect Pages and POD for Profit are all written and self-published by Aaron Shepard, one of the foremost authorities on today's self-publishing industry. Aiming at Amazon focuses on selling books through Amazon.com and provides an entire business and marketing model for self-published authors using this approach.

Perfect Pages describes how to use Microsoft Word to design and create the interior file of a book for use with a print-on-demand printing and distribution service.

POD for Profit focuses on using Lightning Source as a print-on-demand printer and distributor. The book also discusses all the ins and outs of this business model and using LSI effectively and dealing with the quirks of this POD printer and distributor. Even if CreateSpace is to be used as the POD printing service, this book is mandatory reading.

Morris Rosenthal's Print-on-Demand Book Publishing: A New Approach to Printing and Marketing Books for Publishers and Self-publishing Authors is the best overview of the print-on-demand business model. This book is essential reading in order to understand the business side of self-publishing using print-on-demand.

For those authors who are considering using CreateSpace for POD service and distribution I suggest two books. My own Self-publishing With CreateSpace: A Resource Guide for Authors Considering Self-Publishing and Christie Pinheiro's Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit!:Start Your Own Home-Based Publishing Company and Publish Your Non-Fiction Book with CreateSpace and Amazon.

Review of Writing As a Small Business by Nash Black

2011-04-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

Being a self-published author is a business. This means the author must run his or her affairs like a business in order to be successful as a self-publisher. When starting down the path to learn all that is necessary to successfully self-publish, most authors focus on writing and marketing their book. Writing as a Small Business, Kindle Edition looks at the tax side of being a working author.

I was amazed at the shear amount of information in the book and while I did not understand much of it - I don't do our taxes and don't understand accounting, I quickly realized after about 45 minutes of reading this was a book I was going to have read several times and there was much to learn.

Christie Pinheiro, who hosts the blog The Publishing Maven, is a tax accountant and may have more to contribute on this matter.

I do not feel comfortable commenting about the content as I quickly realized how much I do not know about this topic. I do want to say for $2.99 this book has lots of information. Black does an excellent job of writing in a clear and easy to understand fashion, making the topic much less intimidating to me.

While the focus is on taxes and record keeping, the information covers a wide range of topics about running a small business from a publishing point of view. What records must be kept, what do all those accounting terms mean, dealing with audits, types of small businesses, methods and types of publishing, legal issues, estate planning and more.

This is a valuable resource and has joined books on my list of must reads for any author planning to venture into the realm of self-publishing.

The Self-publishing Revolution: POD Paperbooks and eBooks - How Big Is The Change?

2011-04-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

I write non-fiction books for a niche specialty market. Initially, all of my books were available as trade paperbacks only and were printed utilizing print-on-demand technology. Three of those titles are now available as Kindle books with two more titles in the process of being converted. Five years ago, for me to have published my books would have required a contract with a traditional publisher or an expensive outlay of capital on my part to have a off-set press run of books printed if I chose to self-publish.

Technology has changed everything and Amazon and Barnes and Noble have given me access to customers I could not have obtained any other way. eBooks are further changing the publishing industry and self-publishing does not bear the stigma it once did. In fact, I expect in the future to see larger and larger numbers of authors self-publishing, either via Amazon's Kindle or another format or with POD services such as Amazon's CreateSpace.

Amanda Hocking and J.A. Konrad have made names for themselves as self-publishers who are experiencing success writing genre fiction and selling their work themselves via outlets such as Amazon's Kindle. A quick read of Konrad's blog for authors will let you see just how big an advocate Konrad has become of self-publishing. Mr. Konrad is making a living as a self-published author and not looking back and encourages others to consider self-publishing as well.

How big of an impact has self-publishing and eBooks made on the publishing industry? It is hard to tell. In fact, the big players in the industry do not know the answer to that question themselves. One thing is for certain, self-publishing using either print-on-demand technology or eBooks is here to stay. The publishing houses who make peace with this fact and adapt will survive. Those publishing houses who do not, will go the way of the dinosaur.

What does this mean for the average self-published author? Who knows. We all dream of our book becoming a bestseller, or at least making a reasonable sum of money, but for most of us, the truth is we will be lucky if we sell a few hundred copies of our book. The public, and not the large publishing houses, are the "gate keepers" of quality in books, a fact the large publishing houses seem to not understand.

Some things in the industry will not change. If the book is not a good one, it won't sell. The author must have a sound marketing plan and execute the plan with vigor and aggression. Technology is making this easier than ever before for self-published authors, but the fact remains, there is no substitute for a good book, a good marketing and promotional plan and hard work. As authors we live in interesting times.

The Indie Book Reviewer Yellow Pages - New Edition!

2011-04-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

The Publishing Maven, Christie Pinheiro, has just released her latest book, The Indie Book Reviewer Yellow Pages: A Reference Guide for Self-Publisher Authors and Small Publishers.

Pasted below is Christie's short blog posting announcing the release of the 2nd Edition of this excellent resource. I have already forked over my 99 cents for my copy!

Here's the links to the Indie Book Reviewer Yellow Pages. The Kindle edition is only 99 cents right now. I'll keep it at that price for about a month, so all the people who bought the first edition can get the updated version cheaply.

I did a paperback, Kindle, and Nook version this time, so everyone can use this valuable resource, no matter what type of reading format you prefer. I would appreciate it if everyone could leave a review if they find this reference useful.

I'll be doing a spotlight feature on the reviewers in the book, about one every other day.

CreateSpace Experimenting With Eliminating Proof Copies

2011-04-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

The following is a direct copy of an e-mail from CreateSpace. CS is offering a trial service to authors with multiple titles with CS. If I publish a new title between now and May 27th, I can skip the proof copy stage. This saves me a few dollars in the process of getting my book in print, but I always manage to find flaws requiring change in the proof copy. For the brave though, it will save some money.

Hello Kevin,

As an experienced CreateSpace author, we need your help. In our continual effort to improve the book setup process, we want you to try a new option in your account. When you upload files from now through May 27, you can choose to order a book proof or skip the proofing process altogether.

As part of this limited trial we'll ask you to complete a survey about your experience. Your feedback is important, and it will help us decide if we should keep this option and invite more authors to try it out.

We look forward to hearing what you think!

Warm Regards,

CreateSpace

CreateSpace Kindle Conversion Round Three Update!

2011-04-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

With the release of my latest title, Goal Setting for Sport: A Concise Guide for Coaches and Athletes, I have once again secured the services of CreateSpace, the POD printer for Goal Setting for Sport, to prepare the Kindle files so I can offer a Kindle version of the book. Since I plan to convert some of my back titles to Kindle books, I decided to go ahead and spring for Better Basketball Practices to be converted as well.

Some things have changed since my last Kindle conversion using CreateSpace as the service provider. The price of the basic conversion service is still $69. However, I found out including diagrams can drive up the cost quite a bit. Goal Setting for Sport is all text but alas, Better Basketball Practices is filled with diagrams, to the tune of a total price tag of $175. Still, this is not a bad price for the amount of work involved and below the average price of many companies performing quality conversion work.

The turnaround time has increased by two weeks. When I had The Game of Basketball converted to a Kindle edition it took 5-7 business days. Now the turn around time is 3-4 business weeks. This indicates to me the level of business in converting books to Kindle format has increased significantly. CreateSpace still only converts titles already available in its POD catalog.

The increased turnaround time might seem unduly in this day and age of instant gratification but is not unreasonable nor is it much different from other services. What has changed, and I think for the better, is the level of communication between CreateSpace and the author. When I first started using CreateSpace, I essentially dealt with their computers and was never able to talk to a human. Since CreateSpace requires the author to upload POD print ready interior and cover files, this set-up is fine if you can navigate the computer set-up CreateSpace uses.

When you purchase services you get much better service. CreateSpace calls you! Imagine that, a company calling you to ask you how they can serve you! If they cannot reach you by phone on the first attempt, CreateSpace then contacts you through your Member Dashboard's Message Center. If that still does not work, they e-mail you. I learned this because our phone temporarily went out of service due to our dogs chewing the phone line into. When talking with CreateSpace personnel on the phone, they were polite, paid attention, seemed to know what they were talking about, made suggestions on how to use the CreateSpace system to obtain exactly what I wanted and actually followed up on what we talked about on the phone and e-mailed to let me know they had followed up. Wow! What a concept - customer service!

None of this happened with my first conversion. I was contacted only through my Member Dashboard Message Center. I like talking to a living person much better.

I currently have two books undergoing the conversion process. One will be finished two weeks before the other. I hope the quality of the conversion is as good as the first two I had performed by CreateSpace.

Tracking Sales With CreateSpace versus Amazon Sales Rankings

2011-04-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

Amazon Sales Rankings of importance to self-published authors, well, any author really. This mysterious number indicates where a particular book title ranks in sales among all Amazon titles for sale at that given hour. The information provided must mean something to the employees and programmers at Amazon, but to the average person checking sales rank, the number means very little.

Why is there so much interest in Amazon Sales Rankings? First of all, the higher the sales ranking, the higher the book comes up in Amazon's search results, making a high sales ranking desirable. Why? The higher a book appears in the search results, the more likely it will be purchased.

Is there any other information to be gleaned from an Amazon Sales Ranking? What about actual sales totals? Alas, this information is hard to determine accurately from Amazon's Sales Ranking. Morris Rosenthal, the acknowledged expert on Amazon Sales Rankings, provides a chart which can be used to estimate sales based on sales rankings. You can subscribe to a service like RankTracer who has done the math and written software to translate the mysterious sales rankings into reasonably accurate sales figures.

If you publish through Lightning Source, which I do not, I am not sure how you check your sales totals (anyone who publishes with Lightning Source it would be great if you would comment on how to check sales totals using this company).

With CreateSpace, you can log in on your Member Dashboard and every hour your sales totals are updated. By viewing the details for that month's sales the day the book was sold can be seen, where the sale took place - Amazon or via Expanded Distribution, and the share of the sale you, the author or publisher, will receive.

This is so much easier than trying to estimate sales based on a nebulous sales ranking. Amazon Sales Rankings are still important, but not in determining sales numbers.

Amazon Announces Kindle Direct Publishing in Germany!

2011-04-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Rather than rehash the press release from Amazon, here is announcement in Amazon's own words direct from the press release.

We are excited to announce Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.de!

To learn more about publishing your book on Amazon.de, including royalty and payment options, click here:

http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help

Any books you’ve published through Kindle Direct Publishing which have rights in Germany are already available in the new Kindle store on Amazon.de, based on the list prices and royalty plans you've provided for the Amazon.com store.

In addition to the launch of Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.de, we're also thrilled to offer royalty payments for our European publishers via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). To learn more about this option, including how to sign up to receive payments via EFT, click here:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=200641050

Taking Notes On a Kindle

2011-04-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post this month, I listed a few features I would like to see for the Amazon Kindle. While these all involved being able to mark-up Kindle books like one can with a traditional paper book, I managed to fail to mention I would like to be able to use my Kindle as a notebook and write down ideas as I read to refer to later.

I managed to stumble across an inexpensive software to download on my Kindle called Notepad. This of course means one more supposedly simple app to learn to use. Notepad is currently for sale at the low price of .99 and is a product designed and marketed by a company named 7 Dragons.

For .99 I figured I had very little to loose and the ability to make my Kindle a little more functional. It would be nice to be able to take notes when I travel, which is frequently, and not have to carry a notepad and pen or pencil with me. The reviews for the app were all good so I took the plunge.

As with other items I mention on this blog I will let you know what I think of it once I have been able to use the software and learn my way around it.

Aaron Shepard Announces Change to CreateSpace For His Color Books!

2011-04-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

Aaron Shepard, one of the leading figures in the world of self-publishing and a strong advocate for using Lightning Source Inc. (LSI), announced on his self-publishing blog he will be changing POD services for several of his books with color interior books. Mr. Shepard will continue to use LSI for his all black and white interior books.

The decision to make the change came about due to CreateSpace's ability to handle interior color printing on a more consistent basis and with greater ease than using the LSI system. The information concerning the technical differences between color printing is explained in a bog post by Mr. Shepard.

Paperback or E-book, Which is More Popular? The Results of a Survey and the role of Pricing

2011-04-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

On the blog Selling Books there is a post today about a recent CNN survey examining which version of a book is more popular, paperback or an e-book. The survey, an on-line and unscientific study, found people prefer paperbacks to e-books by a margin of 80% to 20%. Yet an earlier report by CNN contained information indicating e-book sales had surpassed paperback sales are were still rising.

Neither the blog posting or the CNN articles referenced had an explanation for either result, the preference for paperbacks over e-books and the fact e-book sales are out pacing paperback sales. I have an idea of how both results are factual and easily understandable.

I like my Kindle reader. My wife loves her Nook. Yet both of us prefer traditional paper books. I write in mine, make notes, highlight and otherwise mark-up my paper books. I use them as references constantly. I mainly read non-fiction. My wife just likes to hold books while she reads them. She reads fiction.

Why do we both like our e-book readers? Two simple reasons. As a history teacher I can carry hundreds of books around in a small device that weights at most one pound while my wife likes the lack of clutter produced by books laying around the house. Both of us really like the fact e-books stretches our limited budget for new books much further than if we continued to purchase mainly paperback books.

Of the two reasons, price is the overriding factor for both of us. Given the state of the nation's economy and the need to either be entertained for a period of time or the need to find information, the lower cost of an e-book is a major factor, I think, in the rapid rise in e-book sales. I am sure there are other factors, but cost has to be the driving issues.

What does this mean for self-publishing authors? Quite simply, don't abandon your POD service, in my case CreateSpace, and you better be offering e-book versions of your titles as well as paperback. It also means as the publisher and author, careful consideration must be given in how you price both versions of your book.

Planning a Book Launch - Give Your Book The Best Chance to Succeed!

2011-04-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

I am working madly on my next big, in terms of pages, non-fiction book. It fits my primary field of professional expertise, athletics, but unlike most of my books is broader in scope and is applicable to any team sport. My expressed plan in writing the book was to help basketball coaches, the sport I have expertise in, and widen my potential sales base by writing the book in such a way the contents were applicable to more sports, increasing the number of coaches who might want to purchase the book.

Time and time again I have read comments by successful non-fiction authors and book marketing gurus stating a successful book launch and marketing strategy was planned before and while writing the book. And so it is with four months left to my target launch date I am not only working furiously to finish the manuscript but to also have everything in place for the book's launch.

The book will be printed using POD by CreateSpace and I plan to take advantage of the Expanded Distribution offered by CreateSpace. The book will be available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and a Sysko's books, a coaching product retailer specializing in direct sales of DVDs and books to coaches. The book will also be available in a Kindle and Nook version as well.

I plan to take maximum advantage of the long tail effect of Amazon in driving sales. While sales from Syskos are steady, they are wholesale and not nearly as large in number as sales of my other titles from Amazon. The store on my website will have been converted to an Amazon store. I will no longer sell books directly but steer all sales to Amazon. Using Amazon Affiliate status I can drive sales from my website to Amazon and benefit from both the long tail effect and the commission from books purchased on Amazon through my website.

For this book, I plan to seek out reviews on a scale I have never engaged in before. If time permits, I hope to have a review by Midwest Book Review. I plan to send out a generous number of review copies to coaches in a wide range of sports in hope of collecting blurbs, positive reviews and if possible, positive Amazon Reviews.

Currently I am working to amass a list of bloggers who might be interested in the content of this book and who blog about sports other than basketball. I have a good list of bloggers who cover coaching and basketball now. All of these individuals will receive review copies and a request to consider being part of a virtual book tour in mid to late August.

Excerpts from the book will be prepared as magazine articles and provided to a range of coaching related magazines in hopes of generating interest from a broad range of coaches at different levels of coaching and in as wide a range of sports as possible.

My own e-newsletter will be used to announce the POD and e-book versions. The book will also be included in the direct mail and e-mail promotion for the annual fall coaching clinic I organize and administer.

Some of the chapters will make for nice spin-offs as short Kindle books I plan to sell for .99. These books will promote the larger print and Kindle version of the book as well. I also plan to offer the Kindle version at a much lower introductory price initially in an effort to drive early sales and boost the book's Amazon sales ranking.

Finally, a traditional press release will be sent out to as wide a range of media as I can generate in the time available between now and the day the book appears on Amazon for sale.

This will be the most comprehensive effort on my part to launch a book. I am sure I will make mistakes but it is also my hope the effort will pay off and this book will be my most successful title yet in terms of sales. I will keep those of you who are interested informed.

Are Self-Publisher's Kidding Themselves - The Financial Reality of Self-Publishing

2011-04-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

A quick check of the website of any author services company's website will find examples of highly successful self-published authors who used the company's services. The mainstream media has stories touting indie authors who bucked the establishment and self-published. Other success stories can be found involving sales with e-books and the fact some mid-list authors are now able to earn a living self-publishing on the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook. I enjoy reading J.A. Konrath's blog for new authors. Amanda Hocking's success has been covered in USA Today and the story focuses on her use of e-books as her medium to publish. Based on the story it looks like Ms. Hocking will be able to earn a living as a genre writer and a self-published author.

But what does the typical self-published author experience in REAL sales? The real numbers appear to be a bit grim as this story indicates: http://howpublishingreallyworks.blogspot.com/2009/03/sales-statistics.html . I recall reading in a post by Morris Rosenthal, one of the founding fathers of modern self-publishing, stating if a self-published title sells 200 copies, the author has done well. I e-mailed Mr. Rosenthal and asked him where he got this figure and he politely e-mailed back and replied he did not recall but stated based on his years of experience and communicating with self-publishing authors, the number is probably a bit high. In the linked article some grim figures are provided. It appears for many authors the actual number is about 150 sales for a title.

How have my own self-published titles fared? I haven't quit my day job. But, I have recouped the money invested in my website (I probably spent too much), covered my monthly e-newsletter cost, web hosting, bank charges and production costs for my books. The wife and CFO of our tiny publishing empire said we were a few dollars short of breaking even on our enterprise after three years.

I can honestly say some titles in terms of sales are total duds (but have served their purpose well as give-a-ways at coaching clinics). Some sell OK seasonally. Some sell well by my standards as paperbacks and one sells really well as a Kindle book. I have two titles that have sold over one thousand copies in just under two years and I am pretty happy about those titles. I am not getting rich, but at least I have reached the break even point and new titles are paid for out of revenue from earlier titles.

I fully realize as a non-fiction author who writes to a potential audience with a fixed total number of potential readers I will never be a "best-selling author." Nor will I make millions. I do not think it is unrealistic to expect my efforts to result in a decent extra source of income.

In the mean time, I have learned a great deal. I have more to learn, and as it has been said so many times, hope springs eternal.

E-book Sales Continue to Rise While Hardback and Trade Paperback Sales Decline

2011-04-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

It was reported Amazon Kindle book sales had passed up Amazon's hardcover sales recently. A story in Publishers Weekly reports e-book sales the past two months have equaled that of trade paperbacks. The comments posted seem to indicate these numbers may only reflect sales from publishing houses and not include sales from indie authors or self-published authors. Still it is a trend those of us who self-publish must pay attention to.

To see the specific numbers click on the link and you will go directly to article in question.

Kindle Features I Would Like To See!

2011-04-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

I really like paper books. You can hold them, smell them and write in them. You can even use them to cover your eyes to take a nap. When my children gave me a Kindle for Christmas I was very appreciative and promised to use it.

My Kindle reader has grown on me.

In my other lives I am a history teacher, basketball coach, train enthusiast and a reader of theology and science fiction with some political works thrown in as well. At an early age I developed the habit of carrying a book with me to read during any spare moment, a habit that persists till this day. Given my varied interests and profession, I often carried a backpack full of books around with me. Now, I just carry my Kindle reader. Not only are many of the books I obtain now less expensive as a Kindle book, I don't have to carry them around.

Unfortunately, the ease with which I could markup a physical book is not the same with the Kindle. Yes, I could invest in one of those Apple devices and it would have more functions. Yet, since I have already adapted to the Kindle and its size, I hope Amazon will add some of the following suggested features.

The ability to insert media into a Kindle book. For example, a history of the Great Depression will mention FDR's famous fireside chats. Why not insert a video, or at least an audio file, of the very first fireside chat, the Bank Holiday speech. Books on coaching basketball would be well served by this feature, allowing the author to insert video clips demonstrating what is being described in the book.

Also, rather than using the current set-up to highlight books, I would rather Amazon develop a stylus where you can write in the Kindle book by writing on the screen of the Kindle. Ditto with highlighting. Develop a stylus that allows you to highlight by touching the screen.

My high school students would flip if they could have a Kindle with these features. They are also the youtube generation and because I teach at a "laptop" school, they expect to see things as well as read about them. As soon as I bring up FDR's first fireside chat concerning the Bank Holiday, within 30 seconds a hand will go up saying they have found it on YouTube, can they show it to the class. I think this is great but what if the kids could have a Kindle reader and the text book already had the desired media embedded in the book? Now you have something teachers and students alike will really want to use.

The second feature would allow me to have the best of both kinds of books in the Kindle version. I could write, take notes and sketch ideas on my Kindle book just like I do a paper book. I would be able to carry 100+ history books in a two pound device instead of lugging them around and having them clutter up my car and classroom. It would help me further overcome my resistance to the Kindle reader as my primary source of reading books.

Now, if Amazon can just figure out a way to make a Kindle reader smell like a good book!

Bashing Amazon

2011-04-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

I enjoy reading the Yahoo POD Publishers Message Board. I have learned a great deal of helpful information from the other authors, small publishers and self-publishing authors who visit and post on this message board. The board is well moderated with an even hand on allowing authors communicate to preventing flame wars from starting.

Periodically a string of posts will start with the purpose of bashing Amazon. The stream of thought ranges from Amazon is an evil corporate giant whose only goal is monopolistic control and domination of the publishing industry or to loot the reading public and authors of every dime possible. Other threads include how Amazon cheats small publishers and/or self-publishers and when Amazon is done destroying the legacy publishers their next target will be to crush the little guys.

When I read this sort of stuff I have to wonder what these authors/publishers are thinking. Yes, Amazon takes a chunk of the sale. Why shouldn't they? If it had not been for Amazon, the sale would not have taken place! How many self-published authors are able to sell their books in a traditional brick and mortar bookstore?

How can a self-published author make the existence of his or her book known and available to literally millions of customers? How much money does Amazon save self-publishers with its shipping and distribution system?

I use CreateSpace, owned by Amazon, as my POD service and most of my sales come from Amazon, which means Amazon makes money off me printing the book and gets a cut of the sale. Once a month Amazon electronically deposits my profits in my bank account. Once the book is in print, I don't do anything except promote the book, which I would have to do if the book were sold in traditional bookstores. Then there are the sales of my Amazon Kindle books as well and the income generated from this revenue stream is growing slowly but steadily each month.

Amazon also provides us with tools to market our books and through Associate sales to make a little bit extra as well. Why do some people have a hard time understanding Amazon is entitled to its share of the take? Amazon's investors have a lot of money tied up in the infrastructure that makes all of this possible. Amazon does its share of the work in the process of selling and delivering our books to readers. Amazon has earned the right to get paid.

If it were not for Amazon, I would not be able to make money writing and selling books. It is that simple. Why do some authors and publishers want to bite the hand that feeds when Amazon provides the little guy with something the old publishing system never allowed, access to customers on a level playing field? Human nature is a strange thing at times.

Writer's Block for Non-fiction Authors, POD and Kindle Books

2011-04-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

Writer's block seems to be the baine of fiction author's existence. As a non-fiction author I have experienced it is as well. Truth be told, I simply got tired of working on a project and just stopped, making what I experienced more of writer's fatigue than actual writer's block. When finished, my next "big" book will be around 250 pages in a 6x9 trim size book. For a non-fiction book aimed at my particular market, that is a good sized book.

The chapters are short and meant to be read in any order. The reader can pick up the book, open to any chapter, read it in 10-15 minutes and have information that can be used immediately. The more I work on the book, the more chapters come to mind and I add a new "chapter" to my working list. The result in the end will be a much more useful book for the readers who purchase it. Unfortunately, the more I work on the book, the longer the book appears it will be. My resulting attitude towards the book is it will never get finished (that won't happen, God willing, because the wife says I have to finish the book and I know what is good for me). The more I work on it, the more work, it seems, I have to do.

Fortunately, self-publishing allows escape from the tedium and with the technology available today, it also allows for quick publishing, at low cost, of short books that are really chapters of a much longer book. Like most authors who self-publish, I always get a kick out of seeing the proof copy arrive and it provides me with a burst of energy and enthusiasm to get the next project rolling.

It ocurred to me one of the chapters I had completed would make a good stand alone book that is short and would make a good Kindle book with a matching low price of $2.99 and will sell some copies as a low priced POD paperback. With the low entry price offered by CreateSpace to get both versions of the short book, it is 56 pages long, it makes perfect sense to take a break from the larger, energy consuming book, and publish this one excerpt as a stand alone volume.

For about $150 I will be able to launch this short book on Amazon in both a POD paperback and a Kindle version no later than June 1. I am confident within a few months, perhaps longer, I will earn back the money invested and this small side venture will earn a few dollars a month for my tiny publishing empire. It will also give me a needed boost to finish the larger, and hopefully more lucrative book.

The technology of POD and ebooks today makes this practice not only feasible but affordable for self-publishing authors who write non-fiction. With traditional off-set printing and the costs involved, I would never take this approach unless I was certain the chapter used as the basis of the spin-off book was certain to sell and sell quickly.

If fiction authors can sell short stories to get a feel for the viability of fleshing out the story into a novel, why can't non-fiction authors sell chapters of a larger, but incomplete work, to generate some income, test the waters for the larger book and get a break from the drudgery of working on the larger manuscript?

If this venture pans out and earns back the money invested in it and sells reasonably well, this might be a practice I engage in on a regular basis. Once the little book is in print I will keep the readers of this blog informed on its progress and if this experiment is a success or failure along with what I learn in the process.

Facebook Page for CreateSpace Authors

2011-04-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

This social networking thing is not going away. My daughters communicate through Facebook almost as much as they do by texting their friends. The retail store my wife is the business manager for is showing signs of increased sales as a result of the store's Facebook page. So, it would seem Facebook is one more thing I have to learn to deal with in a positive way so I can better promote my books and increase sales.

On the plus side, CreateSpace has created a Facebook page for its authors, providing a place for CreateSpace authors to "meet" and communicate. I have only visited a few times but have learned a few interesting items. While there are days I feel like the proverbial old dog resisting learning new tricks, I do enjoy learning new skills and ideas. It just takes a little longer than it used to for the new information to stick.

For those who are interested, here is the link to the CreateSpace Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105335899527549

Graphics on the Kindle by Manuel Burgos - A Review

2011-04-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Like many self-publishing authors, I entered the industry when print-on-demand made it possible for us to make decent money by self-publishing. Amazon gave us accesss to readers and the ability to market and promote our books. The Amazon Kindle has given us another profitable means to access readers and sell our work.

In the seemingly endless learning curve self-publishers face, I have been spending time learning as much as I can about the new technology of the Amazon Kindle, how to create books for Kindle, pricing and marketing strategies.

My three books now available as Kindle books had very little in the way of graphics. The fourth book in my list of books I plan to convert has nearly 80 diagrams. In order for readers to readily understand the content, the diagrams need to be clear and easy to understand. I plan to pay to have this book converted to a Kindle ready file.

With an eye towards understanding how to better prepare graphics for future books, both Kindle and print-on-demand versions, I obtained a copy of Manuel Burgos Kindle book, Graphics on the Kindle, now in its 2nd edition. Like most short Kindle books, the price is low, a reasonable $3.99.

The book contains and introduction and four chapters. These segments include a basic overview of how e-ink in the Kindle works, the shades that can be reproduced and the needed technology. Also covered how to prepare images, using clip-art, special effects and file preparation. Burgos provides a section that includes sample images and the book itself has graphics interspersed throughout.

What the book does not provide is ideas about the creative use of the technology to produce the best possible graphics. How does an author determine the best way to present the graphic? I realize this is the artistic part of graphic design, but it is certainly the area I struggle with the most.

Did I get my money's worth? I feel like I did. Is this book the final answer to everything you will need to know about creating and using graphics for your Kindle book file. I don't think so.

If I decide to tackle creating my own files for Kindle, I feel like this short book is a good start to learn how to produce the diagrams my books require. For anything beyond placing the graphics in the file, I will probably have to resort to a source of information dealing with the creative use of graphics to obtain the best possible means to convey information.

Goal Setting and Self-Publishing - Ten Goal Setting Guidelines

2011-04-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Simply deciding to self-publish a book is a necessary first step in becoming an author. Moving in the direction of actually getting the manuscript written, book production accomplished, developing a distribution and marketing plan and finally getting the book sold and making money is another issue all together. Each of these stages requires a great deal of work and at any point in the process the author may despair and give up. Using a well defined set of goals aides greatly in the process of motivating an author to finish these tasks AND doing a good job in a timely manner.

Years of experience as a coach have taught me the great value of appropriate use of goals. While setting goals is not rocket science, it is not as simple as saying I have a goal to self-publish a book. There is more to it. What follows are ten simple guidelines for authors to use in setting goals to aid in the goal setting process.

Ten Goal Setting Guidelines for Self-publishing Authors

1) Set Challenging but Realistic Goals

Goals that too easy are not motivating and will cause the individual to lose interest. Goals that are unrealistic will have the same effect. Find the balance between the two types and the goals will be powerful motivators to achieve the desired outcome or performance.

2) Goals Must be Specific and Focused

Broad general goals have little to no impact. Set very specific goals that are focused on a single objective, skill or task.

3) Goals Must be Measurable

Goals that cannot be measured are goals that cannot motivate. How can you tell if you have achieved the goal or are making progress towards the goal unless it is measurable?

4) Goals Must be Written

Write your goals down. Post the goals somewhere prominent where they can be seen. Review the written goals. There is something about the act of writing goals down and seeing the goals that makes them more real and important.

5) Effective Goals Have a Deadline

Set a realistic deadline. This provides a sense of urgency to accomplish the tasks necessary to achieve the goal.

6) Effective Goals are Flexible

Things happen. Sometimes goals, deadlines or the focus of a goal need to be changed. It is not the end of the world. Be willing to be adaptable and flexible.

7) Effective Goal Setting Utilizes a Series of Smaller, Sequential Goals Progressing Towards the Ultimate Goal

Finishing a book and getting it to market is a big goal. It is so big and so distant it can seem unachievable. To prevent becoming discouraged, and to truly use goals effectively, set intermediate goals that lead to the achievement of the ultimate goal. Set a goal of a specific number of pages a day to be written, a goal to have the marketing plan finished by a specific date or to set up your Kindle publishing account or POD service account. All of these are steps in the process of ultimately seeing your book in print and in the hands of your readers.

8) Effective Goals are Performance Oriented

Outcome goals are important. But failure to achieve an outcome goal can crush the dream. Performance goals are more helpful and provide guidance in the process of performing the tasks required to achieve the ultimate outcome goal.

9) You Must Determine Your Own Goals

You have to set your own goals. Goals established for you by someone else do not have the same meaning or motivation.

10) Effective Use of Goals Requires Evaluation and Follow-up

Once you have succeeded, or sadly failed, in achieving your goal, effective goal setting requires evaluation and follow-up. Which goals worked and which failed? Why? Follow-up on everything you learn in this stage of the process. The information obtained will be valuable for the next project.

How to Price eBooks for the Kindle by Stephen Windwalker - a Review

2011-03-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

My professional education was geared to prepare me for a career other than entering the business world. My venture into self-publishing has been an eye-opening experience in so many ways due to the never ending need to learn new ideas and skills. The entire concept and "science" for lack of a better word concerning appropriate pricing and the many roles pricing plays has been an eye opener for me as well.

Even though one of my motivations for publishing my books is to be able to share information, it is a business and not only do I want to, I need to, make my enterprise as profitable as possible over the long run. Like many self-publishing authors, the business end of my enterprise is often not my strong suit. And so it was I invested the $2.99 in a Kindle copy of How to Price eBooks for the Kindle by Stephen Windwalker.

After reading the book twice, I still don't have a complete grasp on pricing strategies, but I do have a much better idea of the entire concept and what kind of considerations must be evaluated in the pricing process. My lack of understanding is NOT the fault of the author but rather a result of my lack of education in the realm of business.

The author not only covers the basics of pricing in the publishing world, but provides data from actual sales to illustrate the pricing concepts presented. Mr. Windwalker provides a good overview of the entire pricing process, the impact of pricing on sales from a long term perspective and offers a variety of strategies based on the author's past record of sales. In addition to the short book, included is a good number of blog posts the author wrote concerning a variety of topics related to the Kindle and the world of publishing eBooks.

The author writes with authority and clarity about the subject. A strong advocate of the Kindle and Kindle books, with a total of 32 books published for the Kindle, Mr. Windwalker is able to base his content on the experience and data gained through his own Kindle sales. The writing style is easy to understand allowing the reader to focus on the information presented and not deciphering the prose prior to attempting to understand the concepts in the book.

Is this book the sum total of knowledge an author must possess in order to effectively price Kindle books? Probably not, but it is an excellent starting point and reference for self-publishing authors who are entering the brave new world of eBook publishing. For the price of $2.99 the book is a virtual steal for the reader who purchases it.

How to Organize a Virtual Book Tour - a Review

2011-03-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

Self-published authors are responsible for their books marketing and promotion. If the book is to succeed the author must do everything reasonable to promote the book and give it the best chance possible to be discovered by its target audience. Readers of this blog will be familiar with the name Morris Rosenthal who is one of the recognized leaders of the self-publishing industry. Mr. Rosenthal urges authors to establish an author platform by creating an internet presence. His model mainly impacts non-fiction authors but is a good idea for authors of fiction as well as he advocates creating a content based site providing free and valuable content to readers who are interested in what the author writes or writes about.

Book tours by authors has long been a favored promotional tactic to market books. The cost and time involved today would prevent many self-publishing authors from engaging in this type of promotional activity. As with many things in our lives, the internet has changed how book tours can take place. It is no longer necessary to physically travel and do book signings or interviews to engage in a book tour. A virtual book tour done on the internet is a new and low cost method to "tour" and promote a book.

How to Organize a Virtual Book Tour, by Carol Denbow, is a step-by-step guide complete with short to-do check lists at the end of each segment. The book is available from Amazon as both a Kindle edition and a traditional paperback.

This short book consist of seven chapters and allows the reader to follow the process of organizing a virtual book tour in a logical, sequential process from start to finish. Just a few of the chapters include descriptions of both a virtual and a physical book tour, how each of these works, how to prepare for a virtual tour, scheduling virtual tour stops, how to write the blog posts or interviews for each stop and the follow-up process.

Ms. Denbow writes in a clear, concise and easy to follow manner. It seems evident to me her ideas are based on experience (Ms. Denbow has other books in print) and while some of the information seems fairly common sense, much of it is not and appears, to me, based on the experiences of someone who has done several tours, made mistakes and learned from them.

I hope to have a new book out in late August or early September and the information in this book has me including in my list of promotional activities a virtual book tour.

At $0.99 for a Kindle edition, I don't see how any author planning to promote a self-published book can pass on this title. Even if you don't have a dedicated Kindle device, simply download the FREE Kindle app to your Mac, PC or other electronic device and spend the $0.99 with Amazon.

Amazon and the Self-Publishing Author

2011-03-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Why is Amazon the friend of the self-publisher?

Amazon allows self-publishing authors the same access to customers as the major publishing houses. Unlike bookstores who often shun self-published books, Amazon not only allows self-published books to be sold from its site, it allows self-published books to be sold on an equal footing as traditionally published books from established publishing houses.

Why should I target all of my sales at Amazon?

Self-publishing authors are treated as equals by Amazon; there is no discrimination or bias against self-published books. Access to Amazon customers is equal for every book listed. Another major reason for directing sales to Amazon is the more a book sells, the more Amazon will promote the book. The more Amazon promotes the book, the higher the book shows up in searches increasing the number of sales of the book. It is called a virtuous cycle, a sales multiplier. Combined with POD printing and distribution through either Lightning Source or Amazon’s own CreateSpace, self-publishing authors do not have to maintain inventory, handle order fulfillment or other tasks that can tie up capital, time and create overhead expenses.

This is just a very limited answer to this important question. To fully understand the answer to this question three books are suggested: Aiming at Amazon and POD for Profit by Aaron Shepard and Print-on-Demand Book Publishing by Morris Rosenthal.

What is Author Central?

It is the access point for authors to communicate with Amazon. It is the site where authors may make corrections to information concerning their books, list their books and set up their Author Page for interested readers to visit.

The above information was excerpted from 301 Frequently Asked Questions About Self-Publishing

New Resource and Guide for Self-Publishing Authors!

2011-03-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

Christy Pinheiro is the author of the blog about self-publishing titled the The Publishing Maven and the book The Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit. Christy has taken the time to assemble a valuable resource for self-publishing authors titled the The Indie Book Reviewer Yellow Pages: A Low Cost Marketing Resource for Independent and Self-Published Books.

Rather than describe this useful resource, it is much simpler for me to direct you to Christy's blog where you can read her announcement of the upcoming release of the second edition of this resource.

eBook Architects Kindle Conversion Review

2011-03-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

eBook Architects just finished converting the files for my book Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball. The results were outstanding! Not only did eBook Architects create files for a Kindle conversion but for ePub as well. All of this was done for one price.

eBook Architects does have a bit of a backlog and my title was placed in line to be converted. I was provided with a date by which the title would be converted and ready. To the company's credit, they delivered the files on the exact date promised.

The price for the conversion service is $200. For the quality of work done for not one but two conversions, this is, I believe, an excellent price.

I have used CreateSpace's Kindle conversion service and while I was happy with the work CreateSpace did, CreateSpace will only convert titles that have already been published as a POD title by CreateSpace. eBook Architects will convert any files the author owns the publishing rights to. This means titles published by Lightning Source or other POD printers.

Sales Tactics in Promoting a New Amazon Kindle Title Release

2011-03-11T10:52:00.000-08:00

I receive the news today from eBookArcheticts that my latest title to be converted to Kindle has been finished and the files are ready for review and uploading to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform. I plan to launch the title in its new Kindle format later next week. This self-imposed deadline has forced me to make a final decision concerning my tactics for launching and promoting this title.

Despite my experiences with my first Kindle title, I am nervous about the impact this Kindle title will have on my POD sales. This book, Game Strategy and Tactics is by far my best seller and like a nervous parent, I don't want anything bad to happen to sales.

My first Kindle title not only sells well for a non-fiction Kindle title, the POD sales for the title have increased, I believe, as a result of the exposure to more buyers due to the release of the Kindle version. I sincerely hope it will have the same impact on Game Strategy and Tactics. It would be wonderful if the book generates good Kindle sales AND boosts my POD sales!

What approach have I decided on? With my first Kindle title, The Game of Basketball, I launched the Kindle version with a very low introductory price of $2.99. The POD sales for this title were terrible so I felt I had nothing to lose. I promoted the release on my eNewsletter to just over 2,000 coaches promoting both the release of the Kindle version and how to obtain a FREE app to read Kindle books on devices other than a Kindle reader. I also stated after a month the price would go up.

Sales were great for the one month period before the price increase. I raised the price to $4.99 and while sales did drop some, it was by a total of only 10 Kindle versions sold in the second month the title was available. The plus side to this entire process was the increase in POD sales. The title went from not appearing in the first three pages of search results to being the first title on the second page of results and sales actually increasing to a respectable number. The Kindle version is shows up as the second title listed for the same search in the Kindle Store.

My approach this time will be similar but not identical. Game Strategy and Tactics is an established seller and fluctuates from the 6th to 8th position on the first page of the search results on Amazon. I plan to use my website and eNewsletter to announce its launch with an introductory price that will last for two weeks only before being raised to the final price. The price for this Kindle edition will be much higher than $2.99. I have yet to decide whether or not the final Kindle version price will be $8.99 or $9.99 and will base my final decision on how initial sales go.

With Amazon's 70% royalty option, I see no reason to make less money for a Kindle sale than I do for the sale of a POD copy. In fact, if Kindle sales rob me of POD sales, I want the issue to be a moot point. I will be making the same regardless of the version of the title is sold.

Once the dust has settled early this summer, I should be able to see which approach was more productive in launching a new Kindle title that already exists as a POD title. My next book will be a launch of a POD and Kindle title at the same time. My head already aches a bit thinking about planning for the release of the newest title.

I will be sure to share what I learn with any interested readers of this blog.

Morris Rosenthal's Kindle Formatting in Word: Illustrated Kindle Tag Tips to Accompany a Blog Post - A Review

2011-03-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

As promised, I have read, several times, Morris Rosenthal's short Kindle title, Kindle Formatting in Word: Illustrated Kindle Tag Tips to Accompany a Blog Post. For $.99 you simply cannot beat this little guide on converting Word to Kindle.

I must readily admit I don't learn new tricks on computers easily. Having said that, if (read when) I work up the courage to publish a short title as a Kindle book, I will use Rosenthal's book to work through the process in a step-by-step manner.

I have read several of Rosenthal's books and this one is written in the same style, short and to the point. Morris seems to avoid being wordy and does not use excess and unnecessary wordage. I find this helpful in making a subject, or skill if you choose to look at it as such, that intimidates me seem much less daunting to learn and execute.

In addition to providing clear and concise guidelines that are easy to understand, Rosenthal includes diagrams, charts and other illustrations to show the reader what you will see on your computer screen during the conversion process.

This is a can't lose purchase and at 99 cents Morris is basically giving away the information for authors who want to venture into the Kindle market.

Pricing and Marketing a New Kindle Title

2011-03-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

Since posting about my efforts at marketing my two Kindle titles and the next title seemingly to be ready by mid-March, I have spent even more time considering approaches to launching a new Kindle, but old POD title.

The idea of selling a book at a greatly reduced price to launch it is not one I embrace for print titles. Please note, when I discuss pricing strategy to launch a new title, I am referring to sales on Amazon. I have adopted the sales strategy advocated by Aaron Shepard in his excellent book Aiming at Amazon. Simply summarized, this strategy advocates driving all sales to Amazon. The more the book sells on Amazon, the more Amazon's computers promote the book. It has the added benefits of Amazon collecting the funds and handling fulfillment of the order as well, reducing costs on my end.

For some reason, changing a price of a POD book does not result in a quick price change on Amazon and it can have a negative impact on the amount of the discount Amazon provides for the title. On the other hand, when I changed the price of my Kindle titles the price change went into effect quickly and since neither of the two titles was discounted it had no impact on the level of discount offered by Amazon.

This leads me to believe introductory offers of a new Kindle title with an announced short life span might be an effective strategy to drive early sales of a new Kindle title. Readers who are interested in the topic or genre of the book are encouraged to make the impulse purchase knowing the low introductory price is only available for a short period of time. A good amount of early sales will help to drive the search results in the Amazon computer's in a positive direction, resulting in better long term sales results.

My quandary is should this approach be used for the introduction of a Kindle title that is my best seller in POD format and already has an excellent ranking in search results? Why is this an issue when this marketing tactic worked effectively for my other titles? The answer is those two titles were not selling in the POD format. Kindle sales are what has driven the improvement in POD sales. This title already sells well and in the back of my mind I have concerns the Kindle version might rob the POD sales.

The linking of the Kindle version with the POD version will take place fairly shortly and should help drive early Kindle sales as well.

When I reach my final conclusion, I will share it with the readers of this blog and I will also share the results of my initial marketing efforts in terms of sales.

Marketing Kindle and POD Books When Releasing a New Title

2011-03-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

Since introducing Kindle versions of two of my POD titles, I have been pleasantly surprised by two results, an increase in sales of the POD versions and the fact the Kindle versions have far outsold the print version. Late this month or early in April a Kindle version of my best selling POD title will make its debut on Amazon as well.

I have been thinking about what approach I should take in marketing the launch of my third Kindle title. I am concerned still about the possibility of Kindle sales hurting the print sales, especially since this is my best selling title. I hope the opposite is true and like the other two titles the sales numbers for the POD version improve AND the Kindle sales do well.

The first title I offered as a Kindle version I used my e-newsletter and an introductory price as an effort to spur sales initially. I also indicated in my newsletter that the introductory price would only be good until mid-January of this year and then there would be a price increase. I was stunned at the number of copies of the Kindle version I sold in December and early January. The numbers did drop after the price increase, but not dramatically. The title in question, The Game of Basketball, is ranked second if a search for coaching basketball is done. The first six weeks of sales drove the Amazon Sales Ranking up high enough that the long tail of Amazon did the rest. The decrease in sales numbers has not resulted in a loss of profit as the price increase combined with the minimal drop in total sales numbers means the Kindle version is earning more profit on the slightly lower volume.

The e-newsletter was a definite plus in marketing the release of The Game of Basketball and will be used for the next Kindle title. My price point will be higher for Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball, my best selling title. I am also debating if I will use a lower initial price to drive early sales of the Kindle version as well.

One of the marketing issues for my target audience is how many of the potential readers of my books have Kindle reading devices? I worked to circumvent this issue by noting in each weekly issue of my in season e-newsletter that Kindle books could be read on a lap top and other electronic devices. I included a direct link to the page on the Amazon site where FREE software to read Kindle books could be downloaded to the device in question. If you have a means of providing this information with a link to potential customers I would encourage you to do so. Yes, you might sound like a shill for Amazon, but if it increases your Kindle sales, so be it.

I have a blog on my business website and I did use it to promote the Kindle titles but spent most of my promotional effort on the e-newsletter.

There are several message boards where coaches visit to exchange information and often mention new books or DVDs they have obtained and offer reviews for other coaches to read. I am toying with the idea of giving away a few print copies to coaches to review with the request the review be honest, but mention that both a print and a Kindle version are available.

The only really different step I have taken in promoting my Kindle titles when compared to promoting my print titles is the effort to let potential readers know about the FREE Kindle software for devices other than the Kindle reader.

I would love for other authors to share any effective ideas they have successfully used to promote and drive sales numbers up for their Kindle titles.

Formatting Your POD Book for Amazon’s Kindle – Obtaining the Needed Skills

2011-02-24T18:49:00.000-08:00

There are costs in self-publishing. An author can pay large sums of money to have a book typeset, edited, marketed, a unique cover and interior designed, cover scribing created among a few services available for a fee in the self-publishing world. Now the cost of converting the interior file from a print version to a Kindle ready version can be added to the list of cost considerations for authors.

As with nearly everything in the self-publishing world, an author can learn how to do almost any task involved in preparing a book for publication, if the author is willing to invest the time, and in some cases money, to acquire the skills necessary to do the job. I do believe editing one’s own manuscript is not the best approach to creating the best possible book, so plan to have someone else edit the manuscript.

Self-publishing is a business and costs are important. Saving money in the production of a book can cost money in the long run if the quality of the book’s design is poor, resulting in fewer sales than possible. Kindle readers can be quite harsh in their reviews on Amazon if they don’t like the quality of the interior of the book. Poor reviews can kill sales of an otherwise good book for sale on Amazon.

I currently have two titles available in Kindle versions. The first title I converted myself and loaded it on the Amazon Kindle Direct Platform. To my horror, when I opened the file to examine how the book would look on a Kindle, the results were disastrous. I quickly shelled out the money to pay CreateSpace to do the conversion work and the results were professional. My original effort is now where ever it is electrons go when they have been deleted on the internet.

As a matter of adapting to the ever changing world of self-publishing, my business model has been modified to plan for the costs of paying for professional conversions of my print files into Kindle ready files for all new titles I self-publish.

In looking at my backlist of nearly fourteen titles, some of which have not sold well in POD format, I am wondering which are worthy of the investment of limited funds to have a professional conversion done. I believe the content contained in each is worth what I charge for the book, but as anyone in the publishing industry will tell you if they are honest, some books will simply be duds in terms of sales.

It is my hope low priced Kindle versions will create sales where there have been few and some positive reviews will increase both Kindle and POD sales. Or course this is a gamble. The money invested in creating the Kindle version does not mean the title will sell, in any version.

My decision as the CEO of my little empire is I will invest money in my backlist titles that have sold enough POD copies to earn a profit. The rest, I will attempt to convert the files myself to create Kindle versions.

All things technical cause me some stress. I readily admit to not being a techie and it takes this old dog a bit of time to learn new tricks on the computer. My youngest daughter could probably learn how to complete the conversion in a few hours (perhaps I should get her to learn how to do it!). So, I have set out to learn as much as I can about the conversion process in hopes of acquiring the needed skills.

Fortunately, there are several inexpensive books available in Kindle format on exactly how to do the needed conversion! I plan to read, review and share my thoughts on the three books on creating Kindle ready files I have obtained in the coming weeks and hope the readers of this blog find the reviews helpful.

The first book I plan to review is Morris Rosenthal’s Kindle Formatting in Word: Illustrated Kindle Tag Tips to Accompany a Blog Post.

The Changing Business Model of Self-publishing - eBooks and POD

2011-02-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

Quite a bit has changed since I published my first book several years ago. I had no real business model planned for my fledgling publishing empire and that was a mistake. Now I find myself rethinking how my limited capital will be spent in the upcoming future for the two new titles I have in the works.

Upon realization self-publishing was an actual business and had to be treated as such, I quickly developed a business plan centered around the POD model as advocated by Morris Rosenthal and Aaron Shepards. Essentially this plan is to use either LSI or CreateSpace as my POD printer, drive all sales to Amazon who handles all the sales and collections and having my profits deposited in my account at the end of the month. I will readily admit I do sell books directly and to retailers in my niche market, but the bulk of my sales come from Amazon.

This model has worked well for my tiny empire and while I still have more to learn, I do not plan to eliminate this successful model from my business plan. I have found however that the plan must be modified to include the production of ebooks, both as Kindle versions and ePub for the Nook.

There are additional costs involved for producing a book in both a POD and ebook version and while these combined costs are still significantly lower than a press run using off-set printing, they begin to add up for a tiny enterprise such as mine.

Why would I change my model and incur the additional capital expenses? Simple profit motive. I have converted to of my POD titles to ebook titles as well. For one book the Kindle sales are essentially out numbering the POD sales by 10 to 1. The second title has seen a huge increase in the POD sales, in part I believe, due to the large number of Kindle sales. The Kindle sales are out numbering the POD sales at a 5 to 1 rate for this title.

In the case of one title, the creation of the Kindle version led to sales when none were taking place. The second title, which was selling slowly as a POD version saw an explosion in sales when the Kindle version became available and the Kindle version is selling briskly by my standards.

Given the increase in sales due to making both versions available, it makes sense to offer most, if not all, of my titles in both versions. It also makes sense to slowly, as funds become available, convert all of my back list into ebook versions as well. I will pick the ones I think have the best chance to sell as ebooks and invest the money in those versions initially.

Authors who are considering making the leap into self-publishing need to plan for both POD and ebook versions of their titles. Some might even consider launching just an ebook version first depending on the type of book and its genre.

The times they are a changing.

CreateSpace to Hold Webinar on Creative Sales Ideas for Authors

2011-02-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

On February 17, 2011, at 6:00 PM ET/ 3:00 PM PT, CreateSpace will be hosting a webinar promoting create sales ideas. The following information was included in the release from CreateSpace about the webinar.

If you use the same promotional techniques, in the same way that everybody else does, you will not stand out and your sales will suffer. But if you can find new ways to reach people with a meaningful and creative message you will get positive attention, media buzz and more revenue. Discover how to break through the media clutter and reach more people with a persuasive message. This is not a webinar about new ways to write a press release, but new ways to build and hold a leadership position in your target markets through innovative, professional and effective promotion.

To register for the webinar go to: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/407142488