Kelly Speaks, Self-Publishing Week in Review

Self-Publishing Week in Review: 12/23/14

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 Tuesday to find out the hottest news.

Seven Books That Will Convince You to Read Self-Published Authors

Shelf Unbound recently revealed the winners of its annual indie writing competition. Checking out these books can provide a glimpse of what is successful in the industry and remind you that self-published authors are talented.

 Book Review Success for Indie Authors

Book reviews help ensure that your book gets loads of attention right from the start. This informative article discusses free reviews, paid reviews, customer reviews, and creating a review action plan. It is a must read.

Going Solo: Veteran Narrator Self-Publishes Audio Edition of Cult Classic

Award-winning narrator Robert Fass turned to self-publishing for the audio edition of one of his favorite novels.Fass has taken the unusual step of acquiring the audio rights to and self-publishing It Happened In Boston?, which he both performed and produced at his home studio in the Bronx.

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 at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Jodee Speaks

How to Get Your Self-Published Book into Big Retailers

When most people dream of becoming an author, they image their book displayed on the shelves of their favorite bookstores and picture readers picking it up, looking at the cover, flipping through the pages. They imagine the smell and feel of their book in print. Despite the popularity of ebooks, there is just something magical about a paper book.

Many people think self-publishing only means creating ebooks and selling books online, but choosing self-publishing doesn’t mean you have to give up your dream of seeing your book in print in big retail stores.

So how do you get your self-published book one of those highly coveted spots on the large retailer shelves? The short answer: one step at a time. These step-by-step strategies can get you closer to your bookstore goals:

  • Start with online and in-person sales. Sell at book fairs, on your social media sites, at local events and any place you can set up a table and take payment.
  • Market your book. Set up a clear plan for marketing and publicizing your book so you can gather interest and increase sales.
  • Establish that your book is desirable. Track every sale and look for patterns of growth. This information is appealing to book retailers.
  • Use those sales figures. Once you’ve established that you have, or are heading toward, positive sales trends, start talking to local bookstores, seeking a commitment to carry your book.
  • Tailor your product. Armed with your bookstore commitments, work with your self- publishing company to change your trade discount and retail price and add retail returns, so bookstores can carry your book.
  • Expand to larger markets. Put together a proposal to submit to bookstore contacts and approach larger markets about getting your self-published book on their shelves.

Getting into big retail stores can be a difficult process, but if you keep your eye on the big picture and work consistently toward your goal, it’s doable.

ABOUT JODEE THAYER: With over 25 years of experience in sales and management, Jodee Thayer works as the Director of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps and publishing consultants; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Jodee Thayer can put you on the right path.
Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Uncategorized

Friday Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer 12/19/14

CHARACTERS VI

Tis’ the Friday before Christmas, and I’m thinking of all the people I’ve shared Christmases with over the years.  What a marvelous group of people to know and remember…AND…what great examples for Character Sketches.

One of my Great-Great-Great Granddads was an Indian Scout and married a Native American woman from a traveling clan of the Cherokee Tribe.  It is also told that he was “small-town” Sherriff who “held no account” with those who might discriminate or treat others unfairly.

Another Great-Granddad was a livestock buyer and “knew his horses.”  I’ve heard that one day—around 1905 or so in the big city of Denver, Colorado—he saw a freight-hauler standing beside a pair of horses hitched to a heavy overloaded wagon and someone whipping them unmercifully.  Great-Granddad jumped from his own horse, grabbed the whip from the hauler’s hand and whipped him “a bit.”

My Great-Grandmother, and Grand-Aunt raised Doberman Pinchers, lived in a small mountain community and owned and operated “the best bar & grille in town.”  When we visited with them, my treat was to help open the bar for lunch by “tasting” a vanilla-malted-shake made in the blender that normally mixed “other” beverages.

My Mother has been gone almost 20 years now, and yet I clearly hear her voice and recall her year-‘round example of love and faithfulness toward family and friends.  She also held the belief of excellence in work, giving quality effort for her pay.  She was an accountant/office manager by profession and a mentor to business owners and coworkers alike.  I remember one of our conversations when she wondered “where” I got my inclination to be a writer.  “No one on either side of the family has ever been a writer!”  And yet, my Family Tree is ripe with intriguing characters and potential storylines.

SO…maybe it’s time for you too to pause and collect your Christmas memories.  What were (are) the personality traits that have remained most solidly etched in your remembrances?  Was there someone who seemed so carefree—talking about God’s love so much that you wondered if they ever experienced any hardship and later learned that they’d been abandoned at birth and grew up in awful foster homes?  Did you sit across the table from an ancient ancestor who looked like her face was etched in stone only to discover that she’d been runner-up in the Miss America Pageant?  Were you a little frightened by the homeless family your Dad met outside the bakery and invited to dinner—then saddened as they shared their “story” of a fortune won and lost overnight? christmas tree

What stories of humanity—of human nature—would the Christmas Trees tell?  Would they reminisce about that first St. Nick (circa 315) who dropped coins into the shoes of the needy?  Would they speak of the German woman—the mother of a son about to be conscripted into Hitler’s army who fled the city, then befriended three American soldiers and three German soldiers leading them to discover the true meaning of courage and the true spirit of Christmas? (True story: starring Linda Hamilton, 2005).

OH SO MANY stories to write about!  Have you started planning your next writing project?  NOW is the time.  Write—Re-write—Publish!  And, may all your Christmases be BRIGHT!

Royalene ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene Doyle is a Ghostwriter with Outskirts Press, bringing more than 35 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their writing projects. She has worked with both experienced and fledgling writers helping complete projects in multiple genres. When a writer brings the passion they have for their work and combines it with Royalene’s passion to see the finished project in print, books are published and the writer’s legacy is passed forward.
Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Weekly Self-Published Book Review: 52 Weeks of Non-Stop Bliss

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 by Midwest Book Review:

52 weeks

 52 Weeks of Non-Stop Bliss

Terri L. Cunkle

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN:9781432776244

A bit of joy in life isn’t something to be missed just because you’re too busy. “52 Weeks of Non-Stop Bliss: Activities Sure to Bring Joy Back into the Lives of the Super Busy” is an inspirational read from Terri L. Cunkle as she presents a schedule of 52 two weeks invented to put the joy back into our lives on many levels, with ideas for even more. For those who want to make sure they smile everyday, “52 Weeks of Non-Stop Bliss” is a read to embrace.

Alternative Marketing Methods, Blogging Tips for Authors, Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Book Promotion Strategy, Holidays, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Self-Publishing

Christmas is Here Again | On Holidays and Happy Chaos (Part III)

I have good news and bad news, and it’s the same news.  Should I ever face a film-worth scenario in which I have to choose, I will always choose to hear the good news first, so here it is:  Today is the 17th of December, which means Christmas is fast closing in––and I mean fast.  Christmas brings plenty of delectable morsels into our lives, as well as gifts and gift-giving, and––if we’re lucky––a blissful trip up and down memory lane with the people we love most in this world.  But here’s the bad news: Christmas is fast closing in.  You read that correctly!  As I mentioned, the good and bad news end up bearing more than a close kinship to each other. 

But how can Christmas ever be bad news?  Perhaps I’m overstating the fact, but here’s the truth of the matter: Christmas is crunch time for self-published authors, especially those hoping to launch successful holiday specials.  The holiday season is when authors are, along with the majority of small business owners, most likely to recoup or finish recouping their operational expenses for the year.  Maybe an author turned to a hybrid self-publishing company to design, print, bind, or help market her book.  Maybe an author burned a couple of tanks full of petrol in order to host his book signings, readings, and luncheons.  Whatever the case may be, even self-publishing has its attendant costs, and Black Friday is a magic day for everyone.  But the precious commodity constituted by the time left between Thanksgiving and Christmas is shrinking rapidly––so what can we do to make the most of it?

Thought #3:  Breathe.  Write.  Publish.  But mostly, breathe.  (Rinse & Repeat)

Most often, you’ll get tip lists around Christmas from self-publishing gurus, somewhere along the lines of “50 tips to launch your book this Christmas,” or “3 unexpected ways to promote your book over the holidays,” or even “10 steps to self-publishing success.”  I’m not here to tell you these tidbits of advice don’t work––some of them certainly will, and some of them are probably destined for failure.  I am here to offer you something a little more offbeat than a rote list of hit-or-miss ideas.

I’m here to tell you it’s okay to step away from the phone, from the bookstore, the library, and your Amazon book listing.  I’m here to tell you it’s okay not to push your book with some wild and crazy Christmas party, or by setting up a quiet reading at a classy booklover’s club.  But hang on one second––I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t promote your book (at all).  I’m telling you that there’s more than one way to break a glass ceiling.

Think about it for a second.  What’s the most effective way to promote a book?  Writing a book people love.  That one’s a no-brainer.  But what’s the second-most effective way?  Writing another book people love.  No matter how many readers you earn with your first book, you are practically guaranteed to win more with each book that follows.  Name and brand recognition play their parts in authorial success, as does the pleasurable possibility of the serial read.  Whether you write self-help books or genre literature or poetry or something else that is wonderful and wild and perfectly unique to you, your sales will improve as you publish more books.  You know how we all like to marathon whole seasons of Doctor Who or How I Met Your Mother, or drop by a sick friend’s place with Tylenol and the entire extended edition boxed set of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings?  Readers treat your books the same way.  Once they find an author or a series or a genre they like, they’re likely to read all the books that author has written (so long as they’re easily accessible).  And I’ll admit, I’m one of those readers who will wait in line for a signed copy of a new book, then hurry to the bookstore register to purchase all of the prequels, sequels, and tangentially related volumes I can find. 

So, maybe you’ve written just the one book.  Maybe that’s all you have in you right now.  That’s okay.  Don’t ever let anyone try and push you to conform to their expectations of what a writer’s life or method looks like.  As I’ve mentioned in past Wednesday blogs, there’s no one right or wrong way to go about this writing thing, or even this self-publishing thing.  It’s tough enough being a writer without feeling like you’re out of joint with someone else’s expectations.  This holiday season, take time to breathe.  Return to those ways and means that rejuvinate you.  Cherish the stories you’ve written, and the stories you have left to write, and live.

For the first blog in this series, navigate here.  For the second, here.  Look for my final holiday-themed self-promotional blog for the year next wednesday!  If you have a question about any of these tools for self promotion, would like to hear from me about something specific, or 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.