Category: self publishing news

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

Self-Publishing News: 6.12.2017

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing, specifically newly released self-published books!

  • Mrs. Bonnie Bunny Blueberry Pies

mrs bonnie bunny's blueberry pies delilah jackson hall

This week, I’d like to highlight some exciting titles coming hot off the Outskirts Press, starting with Mrs. Bonnie Bunny Blueberry Pies–a book which has made it to the Amazon Featured Book of the week list! In this thrilling children’s book, Outskirts Press author Delilah Jackson Hall tells the tale of Mrs. Bonnie Bunny and her famous blueberry pies (for which she wins yearly awards at the Fall Festival). These famous pies get Mrs. Bonnie Bunny some negative attention, however, when the Bunny clan and a few other mischievous friends of theirs decide to sabotage Bonnie and snatch her pies from the window sill before she can enter them in this year’s Fall Festival! Watch the scandal unfold amongst these critters and see the truth behind it all “in the most unlikely of places.”

  • Stan, the Little Turtle

stan the little turtle anne toole

Outskirts Press author Anne Toole is up next with another children’s book, Stan the Turtle. A true introvert, Stan the Turtle upset his mother by never wanting to meet the other critters that lived near his family. Instead, Stan insists on swimming on day long, all by his lonesome. This tale of an introvert takes an unexpected turn with Stan’s mom disappears, nowhere to be found, and Stan has no critter friends to help him find her! Will he be able to gain their favor and get help in his search for mother turtle? Read this amazing story to find out and “discover what important lesson little Stand learns.”

  • Good Morning, How Are You?

good morning how are you dr papijazz

Next up is Dr. Papijazz’s children’s title, Good Morning, How Are You?, a story which features Richard the Rooster. Richard discovers that being different can be a great thing, and that each and every one of us has some unique talent that we may need some help discovering. Downtrodden Richard had yet to tap into his unique talent and was feeling sad and lonely, going to bed in the dumps. However, one morning, a beautiful sunrise greets Richard and he is overcome with joy and simultaneously overcomes his depression. In that moment, Richard discovers his unique talent, and lets out a loud crow, teaching other birds around the globe that they can do the same!

  • Old Dog New Tricks

old dog new tricks marie-yolaine williams

In Old Dog New Tricks, Marie-Yolaine Williams paints a heartfelt story of a shelter dog who got a second chance. Hoping to encourage people to adopt shelter dogs, dog lover Marie-Yolaine wrote the tale of Boscoe, an 11-year-old dog who winds up at a shelter, competing with cute puppies for a potential new home. While most families come in and swoon over puppies, Boscoe’s ears perk up when a family finally comes in looking for an older dog. Read this wonderful, EVVY Award winning story to find out if Boscoe finds a forever home.

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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.

KellyABOUT 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: 5.29.2017

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this week in the world of self-publishing:

This week’s Publisher’s Weekly features a piece by Calvin Reid which highlights Jason Pinter, the man who founded the indie publishing house, Polis Books. Pinter found himself inspired by the 2016 election and has decided to return to his passion–writing books. The Castle, Pinter’s political thriller, will be a self-published title and be kept separate from the Polis Books list.

Pinter’s reason for self-publishing? The feeling of the books immanent importance in the wake of our current political situation. Publishing a book by traditional means can take over a year, and this was a book he felt should be published now, and right now. According to Pinter, “several editors liked the book, but said it needed to be out now. I agreed with them.” Another reason for self-publishing was that Pinter didn’t want to cut in front of other authors trying to publish through Polis Books, nor did he want to overshadow the other titles currently being publishing by his press.

Once Polis books got up and running–it will be publishing 27 books in 2017!–Pinter decided that he would make time to return to his passion for writing, which is why he’s devoted himself to publishing The Castle. Don’t expect Pinter to quit working on his publishing company though, he is instead hoping to have the best of both worlds working as an author and a publisher.

In this touching piece by Fiona Ashe, we see the story of a daughter helping her father’s dream come true. When Fiona’s father wrote 31 Years of Hell, documenting the history of the two world wars, she decided that she would edit, produce and self-publish the book herself. While an extremely rewarding process, Fiona wanted to share how it was that she also was able to make this an extremely successful process.

First Fiona reminds us of the importance of having a good editor whom you can trust and whose opinion your trust. Calling the editor “your book’s bouncer,” Fiona says, “It’s completely reasonable to be emotionally attached to your favourite paragraph in which you injected clever humour, shared a personal anecdote and created a slick metaphor. But if it doesn’t serve the story, it has to be consigned to the literary cutting room floor.”

After explaining the im portance of editing, she goes on to elaborate on the stylistic and interior formatting components of self-publishing. She says,“One thing to consider when designing the interior pages of your book is whether you understand your target market’s reading habits. Do they binge-read the way people binge-watch TV drama on Netflix? Or do they dip in and out of books periodically?” It was decided that the audience of a WWI/II book would most likely dip in and out of it, “In order to facilitate this episodic reading behaviour, we chose to break up the text with subheadings and add timelines at the end of each chapter.” Further, Fiona says she “also illustrated the book with maps and emotionally evocative photographs to enhance the storytelling.”

Read more from the article above for some more stellar advice from Fiona, the daughter of the year!

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.

KellyABOUT 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.

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

Self-Publishing News: 5.15.2017

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this week in the world of self-publishing:

Beginning in March, Amazon began a policy which allowed third-party sellers the right to purchase the “Buy Box” for new books being sold on Amazon. Why is this such a big deal? Traditionally, by default, the “Buy Box” has always been something that belonged to the original publisher of the book. That way, when you purchase a book, 45% of the profits go back to the publisher, and in turn, help pay authors. “This contributes to authors’ royalties,” says Brook Warner, “and also means that your purchase is supporting the entity that published the book, namely the publisher.” Warner suggests that this policy not only favors the largest third-seller parties, but it drastically affects publishers and authors.

Warner is affiliated with the publishing industry, so she has seen first hand the negative impacts of this change. One of the authors published under Warner’s press called her to inform her that her book was no longer being offered at all on Amazon from her publisher. If someone were to search for the title of her book, the only available purchase options were from third-party publishing companies. “Amazon’s policy states that ‘eligible sellers will be able to compete for the buy box,’” says Warner, “but in this case, we had been completely wiped off of Amazon as an eligible seller in any capacity, without being notified.” After more investigation, Warner found that some books published by a company she used to work at, Seal Press, were only offering copies from third-party sellers.

The problem with this new policy, according to Warner, is that it affects publishers’ backlist for books “(typically meaning any book that’s six months or older).” To someone buying the book, it appears as though the third-party seller is the only available purchase option, and if they did click the “more buying options” button, it would only alert them to cheaper versions of the book, not the one for sale by the publishing company which is listed as “sold by Amazon.com,” with no nod to the publishing company at all. Because small publishing companies are especially dependent on backlist sales, and because Amazon is the main source for backlist sales, Amazon is making it look as though a lot of these books are out of print with their publishing companies when in fact, they are not.

What are the biggest takeaways from this new policy by Amazon? For Warner, it is that they are trying to further drive down the value and cost of books, something they’ve already done with their ebooks by encouraging authors to sell their books for under $10 by giving the incentive of better royalties if they do so. Further, this makes it so that authors can’t earn royalties for the sale of their books. Amazon has suggested to people who are upset about the “buy box” competition that they should keep their books in stock which is problematic for self-published authors or backlist authors whose books are only available by print-on-demand, which are only printed to order, i.e. out of stock. “This new third-party seller policy is potentially terrorizing,” says Warner, “in that it can and will literally result in publishers selling fewer copies and ultimately being forced to declare backlist books out of print.”

In order to counter this effort by Amazon Warner suggests supporting indie bookstores, avoiding third-party sellers and always considering how your purchase will affect the authors, especially if you yourself are an author. Driving down the cost of books means driving down the value of your creative and intellectual property, which as authors we should all value very highly.

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.

KellyABOUT 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: 5.8.2017

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this week in the world of self-publishing:

Dr. Alison Baverstock of Kingston University in London was already a writer, publisher, consultant and teacher when she decided to explore the world of non-traditional publishing. Allison ended up with comprehensive enought research on the self-publishing industry that she was able to write How to Market Books, a title that has been called the “bible of book marketing” and which has been translated into 15 different languages.

More than half a million self-published books entered the market last year alone, and that number is sure to keep growing, as it continues to be a more popular option for authors of all types–from the first timer to the seasoned vet.

Baverstock noticed that though self-publishing was originally met with hostility and was highly stigmatized at its onset, it has a growing popularity and acceptance as more and more authors seem to be taking this route for a myriad of different reasons.

Allison is not the only one to have noticed this. Neil White, creative director and publisher at Nautilus Publishing Company in Oxford, said self-publishing was a “huge waste of money 10-plus years ago. In order to make each book affordable, a press needed to publish 1,000-5,000 copies of the book. Most of those are still in someone’s garage.” However, White and Baverstock have both admitted that self-published has transformed a huge amount in just a decade.

The ease of digitization has made self-publishing very popular. You can download programs to edit and format your book from your own computer. You can upload your book directly to Amazon and other ebook platforms, making publishing literally a click away.

Rather than delegitimizing self-publishing, its rising prevalence has made it more respected, with serious authors who have already been through the traditional publishing houses choosing this route because it simply pays better for them in the long run.

Baverstock says, “If you look at the “New York Best Seller” list, there are usually two or three titles in the top ten that started off as self-published books.” Two or three out of ten isn’t too shabby for an industry previously dominated and controlled by the traditional publishing market.

These facts have shown that traditional publishing companies aren’t always as in tune with reader’s tastes and preferences as they thought they were. “There have been several areas of self-publishing that the industry was quite confident that nobody wanted books on, and actually they’ve been proven wrong,” says Baverstock.

This is not to say that all self-published books will do well. White cautions that there are a lot of self-publishing books that will sell less than 1,000, or less than 100 copies of their books. He also cautioned against simply one-click publishing something on Amazon that you haven’t seriously edited or put time and care into formatting. He has four pieces of advice for authors considering the self-publishing route, and they are as follows: “Hire a great story editor. Hire a great copy editor. Hire a talented book designer. Hire a great book publicist.”

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.

KellyABOUT 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: 5.1.2017

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this week in the world of self-publishing:

Yesterday, in his article for the UK’s Express, author John Marrs dishes on what it took for him to survive all of those rejection letters–and still rise to the top, albeit through different means. Self-published means! Writes Marrs, “I assumed that with more than 20 years as a journalist behind me, writing for national magazines and newspapers, I might have had a slight advantage over other new writers on the hunt for an agent. How naive I was.” And how common an experience this is, for authors today. Becoming published, it seems, has less to do with skill and experience than with some nebulous formula for blockbuster success which the traditional Big Five publishing houses then fail to make good on in most cases. (We’ve talked about midlist authors here on the blog before, and how difficult it is to succeed in publishing even with a publishing house at your back.)

Luckily for Marrs (and everyone else), he found another way. He self-published through Amazon, and his book began to sell. The secret? Family. “I was fortunate that enough family and friends of friends bought The Wronged Sons for it to make an impact on Amazon’s charts,” writes Marrs. “Then, once visible, people I didn’t know began downloading it, too. Recommendations also came from members of online book clubs.” And he didn’t stop there–he released two more books, both of which became big sellers. He has since signed on with a traditional publishing house, but that, he says, is not the greatest reward he’s experienced as a result of self-publishing. Instead, it’s the fans: “One of my favourite things to have come from this ride is being able to interact with readers. They often tweet me to chat about characters or storylines they enjoyed and send me pictures on Instagram of my books in countries as far and wide as Canada, the Maldives and New Zealand,” he writes. If you’re a reader of self-published books, we hope you take a moment to tweet or comment on your favorite authors’ social media accounts today. It makes a big difference!

In this April 26th piece for the Entrepreneur, Samita Sarkar explains why running a kickstarter to launch your book is hard–and maybe not advisable. And in an age when launching a book is already hard, this may seem like a harsh judgement but in fact Sarkar’s thoughts are tempered by compassion and a great deal of wisdom. “Self-published authors know that you can spend months — or years — honing your writing craft,” she writes, “but as soon as your book goes to print, you’re no longer just a writer; you’re also an entrepreneur. Your publishing imprint is your company, and your book is your product.” This is not a bad thing, but it can lead to some interesting consequences when Kickstarter is involved.

“Statistics from Kickstarter show that most of that platform’s campaigns fail,” writes Sarkar, “And that’s not good, because your Kickstarter page is never deleted. So, for years to come, anyone who Googles your name may stumble upon that failed campaign. Out of 349,504 total campaigns,Kickstarter reports, just 123,447 succeeded –a 35 percent success rate. Some 14 percent of projects finished without receiving a single pledge.” You will want to weigh this possible (or statistically probable) result against your need for money. But Sarkar also has some points on how to make Kickstarter work, and these points are worth paying attention to. Read the rest of her article to find out more!

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.

KellyABOUT 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.