Goodbye, 2019! Happy New Year’s Eve.
And now for the news.
Highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing:
This eye-opening article by Ron Charles in the Washington Post serves as a retrospective of the last decade in publishing, including insights into many encouraging trends as well as several ones that might serve as watchwords for the future. Charles covers the phoenix-from-the-ashes return of indie bookstores as well as the rise of audiobooks, graphic novels, and female authors. He also gives room to the politicization of both adult nonfiction AND children’s picture books–at the same time as a boom in the diversity of children’s book authors and characters, the popularization of erotic romance, and the surge in print-on-demand options and availability to readers and authors alike. The world of the gatekeepers (librarians and publishers among them) grew contentious, while television and film feasted on book adaptations for the big and small screens. Charles spends much more time on each of these points than our simple summary might imply, and we cannot recommend reading this article highly enough, as each and every one of those points has huge implications for self-publishing authors and their readers.
We are loving this article from Virtual Strategy Magazine‘s Allen Smith, which serves as a straightforward but delightful survey of all of the different steps one must go through before and after digging into self-publishing. The article is a relatively brief one, which makes it a good and quick browse for this holiday season.
Chandler Bolt contributed this excellent piece for Influencive, a website dedicated to “unconventional wisdom” and “influential minds.” He writes that “When we picture something as significant as writing and releasing a book, doubt starts to creep in. Our hardwired instinct to stay in our comfort zone and protect ourselves from failure is powerful and shouldn’t be underestimated.” But that protective instinct can often translate into a lack of confidence, and that lack of confidence can paralyze authors who are entirely deserving of being widely read. But there’s never been a better time to become an author, Bolt argues, in part because of the proliferation of possibilities and options and opportunities and services, including a number of self-publishing platforms that are easily available at the click of a button.
Self Publishing Advisor 