Author: selfpublishingadvisor
And now for the news!
This week in the world of self-publishing:
“When former Farrar, Straus and Giroux editor Jesse Coleman was looking to get back into publishing after spending years building a freelance editorial business,” writes Rachel Deahl in this August 26th article for Publishers Weekly, “he found himself weighing opportunities at Big Five houses against a job at a software company.” Ultimately, it seems, he was able to create his own third way between the two and launched a publishing branch to the Los Angeles-based software company, NationBuilder. “That a software company would be interested in a book division seems, as Coleman acknowledged, a bit odd,” writes Deahl. But neither Coleman nor NationBuilder were new to the notion of publishing–or self-publishing. NationBuilder’s cofounder and CEO, Jim Gilliam, gave a viral speech to the Personal Democracy Forum in 2011, a speech he and his fellow cofounder Lea Endres later transformed into a manuscript that Coleman edited and they together self-published. The book’s success, according to Deahl, whetted their appetite and they noticed a distinct synergy between nontraditional publishing models and their own company’s mission. It seemed natural, then, to develop a publishing arm to their own company with the goal of creating “the kind of nonfiction books that have consumer appeal, and extend the company’s brand.” NationBuilder Books, says Deahl, launch this fall when The Internet Is My Religion is officially rereleased on September 13. Says Deahl, “NationBuilder’s titles will be available in both print and online, and Gilliam said he’s currently in negotiations with a major distributor. Veering from the traditional royalty model, Coleman is instead commissioning books as works for hire. In lieu of royalties, authors will be offered flat advances of $20,000 each.” This places NationBuilder somewhere in the grey zone just off center of the traditional publishing houses–albeit a grey zone that has its roots deep in the self-publishing movement. For the full story, follow the link!
A quick update on a story we first brought you news on back at the beginning of the month: FlipHTML5 is officially live and seeing its first users according to this press release published to Digital Journal on August 26th. The Hong-Kong based developer, FlipHTML5 Software Co. Ltd, promotes this software as “significantly useful for self publishers as it allows them to distribute their magazines everywhere in order to reach more people,” but the proof will remain in the pudding until more users have reported back their experiences with the software over time. The demos provided on the FlipHTML5 website, including one for “Dumb Starbucks,” demonstrate the interactivity and potential for the medium–albeit, for very corporate ends. (There are also demos for H&M, WeddingWire, Miss Dior, Apple, Hard Graft, Outside Magazine, Top Gear, GoToMeeting, and a number of others under the website’s “Case Studies” tab.) One could foresee this becoming a new and beautiful way to publish zines, for one. To read the rest of the press release, click here.
Here’s some good news to start your week off on a happy note: the Independent Publishing Resource Center, given notice of its upcoming ousting earlier this summer, is close to finding its next home according to Portland Business Journal staff reporter Ron Bell in this August 24th article. “The nonprofit, which has offered publishing tools, workshops and other resources to writers and self-publishers for nearly 20 years, got word of the increase in July and needs to find a new home to replace its Southeast Division Street location by April 2017,” says Bell, making it one of “handful of recent real estate transactions that have triggered the ousting of Portland artists — including the Towne Storage Building, the Troy Laundry Building and the impending sale of Imago Theatre’s home.” The rent hike of 300 percent may not be feasible for the Independent Publishing Resource Center, but its recent successes in providing support to the self-publishing industry … is. Writes Bell, the organization turned to its friends to help out with the costs associated with leaving its 20-year home and “launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $20,000. As of this past Friday, the nonprofit had cleared that and then some. This morning, the total had hit $20,754, and the campaign still had another 10 days to go.” This is good news for everyone that the IPRC has helped over the years and will help in the years to come! For the rest of Bell’s coverage of the situation, read the original article here.
As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry. This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com
Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.
When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review, courtesy of Charles Ashbacher Reviews:
A Dog Named Cat
by Anne Toole
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 978-1478773450
Synopsis*:
A little dog named Cat decides he doesn’t want to be named that. What does he do to change his name to something new? A little dog named Cat Wondered how he got a name like that! From other animals, he had found That cats weren’t very nice to be around. Another name he wished he had, Because being named Cat made him mad! What did the little dog do To change his name to something new?
Critique:
Five out of five stars
It began as a joke, when a family went to a shelter in order to acquire a dog, the boy Tad picked out one with a brown, gray and white coat. When the time came for a name to be given, the baby pointed at the dog and said, “Cat.” The human members of the family though this was cute and non-traditional and decided to use that name.
However, over time when Cat was repeatedly told by other animals that he was not a cat, he began feeling bad. Cat tried barking a lot and other things in an attempt to show his displeasure, but nothing ever worked. Finally, when he steps in and “saves” Tad from a snake, Tad refers to Cat as “Lucky.” The new name sticks and the source of unhappiness in the life of the family dog is removed.
The structure of the story is in the form of two or four line sections where the alternate lines rhyme and the level of difficulty is approximately that of the second grade. The illustrations are very well-colored with a great deal of detail. Light shadows and even reflections off the tiled floor can be seen.
This is a book that children will find fun to read, for they like stories that are formed from simple rhymes as well as about animals that communicate. I would have read this book to my daughter when she was young and she would have loved it.
[ reviewed by Charles at Charles Ashbacher Reviews ]
Here’s what other reviewers are saying:
This is an excellent story with rhyming verses about a dog named Cat. Upon meeting several creatures (mouse, bird, goldfish), the little dog is confused as to why he was named Cat since he does not look like a cat or acts like a cat. He takes steps to try to get his name changed that prove unsuccessful. He is finally successful in getting his name changed following an event involving a snake.
The illustrations are very good and the rhyming is excellent. Children from kindergarten to 2nd grade would find this book enjoyable.
I also enjoyed Ms. Toole’s other books that include rhyming verses and that also teach valuable lessons (Mean Mike, The Bird That Didn’t Want to be a Bird, and The Frog that Lost His Croak.)
– Amazon Reviewer BL
In A Dog Named Cat, a little dog with an unfortunate name learns that 1) he is not a cat, and 2) some cats are not very nice, so why would he want to be named after one? Cat is determined to change his name. But how?
A little dog named Cat
Wondered how he got a name like that!
From other animals he had found
That cats weren’t very nice to be around.
Another name he wished he had,
Because being named Cat made him mad!
What did the little dog do
To change his name to something new?
Author Anne Toole was a first grade teacher and ESOL instructor before she began writing children’s books, and understands the issues children deal with on a daily basis—making friends, what makes them special, fitting in, etc.
“When I became a teacher, I used nursery rhymes and simple poems to enhance the regular Language Arts curriculum. As a child, I loved to listen to nursery rhymes, and so most of my stories are written in verse.”
– Yahgottareadthis blogger Chelsea
* = courtesy of the book’s Amazon book page.
Thanks for reading! Keep up with the latest in the world of indie and self-published books by watching this space every Saturday!
Self Publishing Advisor
It has been a long month without Royalene here to anchor the blog on Fridays–she’ll be back next week!–and it turns out her absence has given me a lot to think about in terms of the importance of personal witness and testimony within the modern self-publishing tradition.
It’s vital.
I think it’s more vital than, say, something similar within the traditional publishing industry. Authors who pursue a traditional publication route face many challenges, there’s no denying it, but their challenges take place within the protective sphere of a guaranteed team of editors, designers, publishers, marketers, and other experts who happen to have a stake in making sure any given author they publish sells a lot of books. Their challenges also take place within a massive literary tradition that has been defended–and eloquently, at that–by other authors for centuries, and will continue to be defended by other authors for as long as the institution lasts.
Self-publishers don’t have this tradition at their backs, and they certainly don’t have teams of assistants on hand to make sure they’re striking the right tone at this or that interview or that they’re appearing at the right venues for maximum impact. Self-publishers may opt to pay for some of these services, now that the market has diversified, but their default experience takes place in a vacuum. If they’re very lucky, they’ll have access to other indie authors who have gone before or are coming up alongside them, but they don’t have centuries and centuries of precedents to follow. When it comes to modern self-publishing, they may have a couple of decades’ worth of a pattern to analyze, but few enough of those who went before had voices that resonate the same way that, say, traditionally published authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald or John Krakauer (to name two random names in a million) have.
This is why conversations with other self-publishing authors, like Royalene, are so important. Each conversation serves to chip away at the wall between an indie author and the comforts of community and tradition. Conversations are what set us apart from traditionally published authors–we have the option to speak for ourselves, unfiltered and in perfect honesty, about whatever we please without repercussions or sanctions–and what unite us.
I, for one, can’t wait for September and Royalene’s return. She and other voices like her make our lives–and our work–better.♠
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com
Or, How to Find Others Who Care As Much As You Do
And therein lies the rub. There will never be another person out there to whom your book will mean the same thing that it means to you, the self-publishing author–but as our current president is wont to say on tour in Australia, “we have faced our share of sticky wickets!” (Don’t worry if you haven’t watched a game of cricket in your life … this is where I end my allusions to that game.) There will be other people out there–readers and other authors and self-publishing aficionados alike–to whom your book means a great deal. Just, you know, in different ways.
And some of them will run blogs.
No, wait, that’s a very important detail! Blogs sell books. More specifically, blogs have collectively served as the underground advertising board (and yes, market) for self-published books since the dawn of the internet. It has proven to be a mutually beneficial relationship, borne out of the early years of both blogging as a digital platform; think how LiveJournal and MySpace and, yes, WordPress were all coming into being around the same time as the modern incarnation of the self-published book–and the ebook. Blogging was a celebration of the freedom of expression of the highest order, and self-publishing was a reaction against excessive control and gatekeeping by the traditional publishing institution. Many bloggers became self-publishing authors, and vise versa. They were made for each other.
The mutually beneficial relationship continues today, as lists like “52 Great Blogs for Self-Publishers” by Joel Friedlander of The Book Designer illustrate. “Book bloggers love to read books and to recommend them to their own followers,” writes Alan Rinzler, a consulting editor with former entanglements at Harvard and The New York Times. He takes an in-depth look at the story of self-publishing megastar Amanda Hocking, whose books sold in the millions, reminding his followers–in, yes, a blog post–that they “collectively build markets that can reach millions of potential readers and can turn books into bestsellers. As serious and discerning critics and social networkers, these book lovers have formed regional and national organizations and established huge databases, including this searchable list of more than 1,400 bloggers.” It’s not ironic that Rinzler uses his own blog to discuss this; really, it’s incredibly easy to find bloggers who care about self-publishing enough to use their personal blogs to discuss it.
What’s hard is finding the right blog to help you sell your books. And by “sell,” I mean the word in both a transactive and a persuasive sense. You want someone who believes in your book–not just a passing mention or two. To find your blogsoulmate, I recommend following a few simple steps.
- Dig a little. If you’ve found us here at Self-Publishing Advisor, I’m going to go out on a limb and venture a guess that you’ve done your research. At the very least, you’re handy with Google and WordPress. That’s all you need to get started. Dig around a bit and increase your exposure to the types of blogs out there. We feature reviews of self-published books once a week, but we do a lot of other things, too, and many of our bloggers have close ties to one specific self-publishing company. Other blogs might feature only one blogger with no ties to the industry itself, but who maybe posts multiple reviews a week. Write yourself up a list of blog names that catch your interest, either in tone or reach.
- Take part in the conversation. Every blog has a comments section, unless someone ran wild and posted something offensive in the past and thereby forced the blogrunner to disable this feature. Whether the blog is on WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, or somewhere else, the whole point of its existance is to engender conversation. Sign yourself up for a profile if you need to, or use the handy “Google Sign-In” or “Facebook Sign-In” options to comment. As a blogger, I can tell you that replies are always awesome, and they are indicators of where real interest lies. I guarantee a blogger will take note if you interact with their posts on a regular basis, unless they have something on the order of a trillion commenters already. But that, too, is useful information. You want to engage withy communities where you’ll be noticed–so if you feel overwhelmed or lost, that might be a sign to pick a different blog with a slightly more manageable following.
- Ask for things. You know, once you’ve established a toe-hold in the community, don’t be afraid to ask for those things you really want–book reviews, interviews, the blog equivalent of a public service announcement. Everything helps. Don’t be afraid of rejection; the worst that can happen is the blogger says “no,” and there are plenty of bloggers out there, so it’s not the end of the road. In fact, since you’re looking for a believer and not just any blogger, nos are simply the most efficient way to whittle down your options to the best ones. Once you’ve got a couple of blogs interested in your work, step it up and ask for a blog tour.
- Don’t be afraid of the money question. Sometimes, you might really need the boost that a paid service provides. It’s a question of weighing the benefits against the expenditure, and determining whether A) you can afford it, and B) it fills a need. In my personal experience, most indie authors don’t like to consider this option until they’ve run out of other options–and understandably. I get it, I really do. Self-publishing is one high-wire act after another, and money is always tight. But I’ve seen a lot of authors who really could or even would have benefited from a promotional campaign like the one my company and many other companies offer–all of which come with promotion on the company’s official blog, with an extensive reach indeed–but who waited until they’d exhausted all other options. Like a lot of other components to your marketing campaign, paid promotion should be on the table early and woven organically into the rest of your strategies.
That’s it! Four steps! Each of them relies on you to take initiative, which may or may not prove exhausting, but I hope you know one simple thing:
You are not alone. ♣︎
Self Publishing Advisor 