Category: Kelly Speaks

Advocacy in Self-Publishing, Alternative Marketing Methods, Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Self-Publishing, Uncategorized

Spending Money to Save Money!

Ever find yourself lured into buying something simply because it’s cheaper, only to find that it doesn’t work and then you have to spend more than twice as much money trying to replace it with what you actually need? We’ve all been there. We’ve chosen the cheap mechanic or car salesmen only to have our car break down just a few miles up the road.

As self-publishing authors, the temptation to choose the cheapest route is a dangerous one. A cheaper illustrator for your cover may save you a few bucks in production, but it could cost you exponentially more in sales. Spending money to make money always hurts initially. It’s a risk-based investment that you can’t guarantee will pay off. However, you can almost always guarantee that going a cheap route to save money will  never pay off.

Here are some things that cost money and are worth every penny:

  • Proofreading!!!!!
  • Developmental Editing and Copyediting
  • Interior Designer
  • Cover Designer/Illustrator
  • An up-to-date, visually appealing website
  • A book trailer or other social media marketing tools
  • Education — attend conferences, classes, writing retreats, etc. These things make you a better writer and will improve your sales, your networking and reputation as a writer.

Look at these investments as what they are: things that will pay off in the future. You invested so much time into creating a manuscript that you felt proud of, so don’t sell it short. Invest the money in it that you would like to get back and you will be amazed at the returns. If you just want a book to give to friends and families, feel free to skimp, but if you’re trying to market yourself, spend your money on quality investments.

money dollar bill

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com.  And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠

Kelly

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
Alternative Marketing Methods, Book Marketing, from the archives, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

From the Archives: “Book Marketing: Magazine Reviews”

Welcome back to our Tuesday segment, where we’ll be revisiting some of our most popular posts from the last few years.  What’s stayed the same?  And what’s changed?  We’ll be updating you on the facts, and taking a new (and hopefully refreshing) angle on a few timeless classics of Self Publishing Advisor.

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[ Originally posted: April 2nd, 2010 ]

The following list comes compliments of ForeWord magazine in the interest of helping you secure reviews with not only their magazine, but all magazines you pursue.

1. Become familiar with the magazine
2. Read the submission guidelines for each magazine before submitting your book for review
3. Create a good cover letter
4. Include a sales sheet (ask your self-publisher or publishing rep).
5. Follow-up

The best way to familiarize yourself with a magazine you want to review your book is to read the magazine first.

You can usually find submission guidelines for magazines on the magazine’s website.

When sending your book out for review, always include your contact information so the reviewer can get in touch with you if necessary. This should be a part of your cover letter. You can also politely request that a reviewer notify you when/if they review your book (but realize that many may choose not to do this).

 

Is the day of the magazine editorial dead?

What about magazine reviews?

magazine magazines rack

No. No they’re not.

At least, so say the print magazines themselves–and yes, they have  a vested interest in trying to impress their shareholders as much as possible, but when everyone from CNN Money to the New York Post to Wired Magazine lines up to say it’s not so, ti’s time to listen to what they have to say. (It’s worth noting that these periodicals are often at odds over ethics disputes and general worldview, so for them to agree is something magical. And also, it’s far more in their interest to say they’re doing well despite industry trends than to state that everyone’s doing well. They want people to defect to be their subscribers, after all. That’s just marketing.)

And we’re here about marketing, too.

So how does knowing print’s not dead help you market your book?

First of all, it opens up untold numbers of possibilities that the average author might not think of for ad placement and reviews. Facebook, sure. A local radio station, sure. But a print magazine or journal? “I thought those were dead,” you might as well have said. But they’re not. They’re not dead. In fact, they’re thriving–so long as they reach a dedicated niche audience.

Secondly, print magazines and journals have a vested interest, too, in upholding the work of talented authors in a way that a local newspaper may not. Newspapers are looking for news, while magazines and journals are looking for talent. If you have it, and you reach out to the right ones, you might very well find yourself being scouted for additional pieces, or find yourself pushing against an open door as far as promoting your book goes.

So don’t give up on magazines. Well, maybe give up on some. Do your research, and dig around a little bit to see what your ideal reader is picking up at Barnes & Noble or their local indie bookstore or subscribing to digitally. Instead of firing scattershot into a great void and hoping to land some hits, you should spend your time and energy firing precise, surgical volleys at market niches which will both welcome you and connect you with more of those ideal readers.

Long live paper!

Thanks for reading.  If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

Kelly

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.
Kelly Speaks, news from the self publishing world, self publishing news, Uncategorized

Self-Publishing News: 1.30.2017

And now for the news!

This week in the world of self-publishing:

 

This week, Publisher’s Weekly gave some predictions for self-publishing in 2017. According to this article, a 21% increase in ISBN registrations between 2014-2015 alone will definitely make some alterations to the self-publishing market. “New services have made it easier than ever to launch self-publishing projects,”  says Alex Daniel, author of this piece, “and as the landscape gets more crowded, it becomes more difficult for authors to stand out and make a profit.”

However, this isn’t just a problem for self-published authors, but authors in general. The rise of the Kindle and other ebook readers has lead to an increase in supply of ebooks, and not necessarily an increase in demand. Daniel says that Amazon “requires participating authors to publish e-books exclusively with Amazon and allows titles to be eligible for Kindle Unlimited—a program that provides unlimited books for readers who pay a monthly subscription fee.” This means that authors are not compensated for how many books they sell online, but rather how many pages of their books are read by online subscribers.

As you can imagine, author’s reaction to the struggle in the online book marketplace has been to retreat from a sole focus on ebook business–to try and get their paperback or hardcover books back into bookstores and libraries, and to expand into other sectors such as audio books and television. Further, Daniel predicts that self-published authors will begin to beef up their business cards by “adding such words as consultant, publisher, and marketer[…], passing on lessons for success to other authors.” This is huge because it means that authors can make some money on the side helping others fulfill their dream of publishing just by sharing their first-hand experiences with self-publishing.

Where the internet seems to be helping authors in 2017, is of course, with marketing. Tapping into exactly who your audience is and what they are looking for has become immensely easier thanks to data from online readers. Not only that, but through social media, authors can directly sell their books to the readers that follow them. This serves a dual-purpose: ease of sales, and the establishment of a more personal connection with you reader base.

We will all have personal, political and business related challenges arise in 2017, however it is not the challenges that will define this year, but how we overcome them. Self-publishing authors are known to utilize their creativity and perseverance in the face of adversity. When a publishing company says “No,” we do not sit quietly and toss our manuscripts aside. If ebook sales are not satisfying our goals, we will find other means to get our work out there. The internet may have its share of flaws, but we can use it as a tool for our success, and this year I challenge you to do just that.

spa-news

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.

Kelly

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.
Kelly Speaks, news from the self publishing world, self publishing news, Uncategorized

Self-Publishing News: 1.23.2017

And now for the news!

This week in the world of self-publishing:

Due to the ease of publishing anything from documents to novels on Amazon, some authors are finding that their work is being appropriated without their permission, or even without their knowledge. This kind of plagiarism can be straight copy-and-paste, word for word plagiarism, or it can be slight alterations to the story or wording.

Rachel Ann Nunes, a writer of Mormon fiction, found that one of her stories had been hijacked by a plagiarist who added sex scenes to remarket her stories as more mainstream romance novels. Luckily, a reader of Nune’s picked up on this copyright infringement and asked the plagiarist about the similarities and was told that the authors had collaborated on the piece. When Nune confronted the other author, Mullens, she received a vast amount of backlash on social media from whoever this troll was on the other end of the keyboard. One-star reviews of her book began springing up, hostile Facebook messages from strangers and the like. With this, Nunes was faced with a decision: drop it and let the theft slide, or take legal action. Nunes decided to sue who she believed to be Mullens for damages of $150,000, the trial taking place after the time of this article.

Without astute readers out there to catch this, there is a lot of this word theft that can fly under the radar for vast amounts of time. If it is discovered, you can imagine as an author how absolutely violating that must feel. People pour their heart and souls into their work when creating any piece of writing. To have someone else come along and throw their name on it and take credit for your creative outpouring is not just insulting, it’s a downright slap in the face.

The plagiarism trend seems to hit hardest in romance novels, as they are the biggest sellers in the ebook world, but any genre can fall prey to this. More surprisingly, the culprits aren’t always who you’d imagine they’d be either. Take Laura Harner, for example, a plagiarist who had put out 75 books in just two years. Due to Amazon’s rewards system, which puts authors who publish more often higher in the rankings. Unfortunately, Amazon gets to keep 30% of the profits from all books published on its site, stolen or not, as long as it removes the stolen work if it is discovered to be as such. This means the safeguards for authors who publish through Amazon will never be as good as those when publishing through a traditional publisher, who would be personally liable for violating copyright laws.

In short, the internet makes it quite easy for plagiarists to keep stealing work and making money under new names and new accounts. If signing up is as easy as having an email, and the company your publishing with is more focused on creating lots of content, i.e. lots of money, then it becomes relatively easy to work the system and pass off other people’s work as your own. This is the ugly side of a beautiful technological advance. Anyone can sit behind a keyboard and create a convincing online profile of themselves that does not match their true identity, which makes catching and prosecuting this type of offense extremely difficult.

I highly recommend reading this article for more examples of authors who dealt with this issue. I will also say, that as it is most often readers who catch these perpetrators in the act, remember that your role as a reader is equally as important as it is as a writer. Reading our fellow author’s works is one of the best safeguards we have in this digital age. I found myself profoundly impressed and inspired by the vigilance and support of readers who helped the victims mentioned in this article. It just goes to show how much showing appreciation for your fans can go.

spa-news

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.

Kelly

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.
Advocacy in Self-Publishing, Jodee Speaks, Kelly Speaks, Self-Publishing, Uncategorized

From the Archives: “Self Publish a Book in 2013”

Welcome back to our Tuesday segment, where we’ll be revisiting some of our most popular posts from the last few years.  What’s stayed the same?  And what’s changed?  We’ll be updating you on the facts, and taking a new (and hopefully refreshing) angle on a few timeless classics of Self Publishing Advisor.

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[ Originally posted: December 31st, 2012 ]

It is hard to believe another year is already behind us. As 2013 approaches, many of you will set New Year’s resolutions for yourself. One of the most popular resolutions is writing and publishing a book. Whether you write fiction, non-fiction, adult or children’s books, the Self Publishing Advisor blog is here to help. Every week we share tips, advice and news about self-publishing to help you achieve your goals, and I’m dedicating my January posts to authors whose 2013 resolution is to write and self-publish a book before the year ends.

Whatever your writing obstacles have been in the past (a busy schedule or a fear of failure), I am here to help! Enjoy the last night of 2012 and get ready for the best year of your life — the year you become a self-published author.

Happy New Year’s!

– by Jodee Thayer

Okay, so one last “resolutions-related” blog post for 2017 and I’ll be done. Probably. I suppose it has been on my mind a great deal in the last few months–what with my participation in NaNoWriMo this year and an encroaching sense that if I don’t finish my book now, I will never ever finish it–and I’ve been simply unable to let go of the hope that 2017 can somehow be different … that it has to be different, for my sanity’s sake and the sake of peace and equilibrium at home. And my back. My back would really appreciate it if I could stop internalizing all of my existentialist anxiety and self-recriminations over my lack of progress.

So, how to kick things into gear? Plan. Plan, and then turn plans into the kinds of good habits which lead to a finished book, and ultimately, a published book.

But enough about my story. What about yours? Is 2017 the year–or a year, for those of you who have already self-published–when you publish your next book? Oh, yes. Yes it is. I firmly believe it can be done–even if you haven’t started writing it yet. A dash of fierce dedication and a plethora of hot coffees and maybe a couple of kale smoothies every week, and you can get there. I firmly believe this, not just because I need to for my own reasons, but because 2017 is shaping up to be a fantastic year for self-publishing.

There are countless book expos and fairs making space for self-publishing authors and companies; there are dozens of new technologies and applications in the pipeline to smooth all of the ancillary experiences circling around publication, like marketing and scheduling and getting books into libraries; there are new products and services available pretty much everywhere you look when it comes to choosing your self-publishing company itself (you all already know which one I recommend!); and last but not least, readers are hungry, oh-so-hungry, just positively ravenous for new self-published material to read.

Let 2017 be the year you publish your book. It’s time. Conditions have never been better. And you’re ready. I know you are, because you were born for this.

antique old typewriter dandelion puff

Thanks for reading.  If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

Kelly

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.