Tag: self publishing news

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing!

• 2018: a mixed bag for the book industry

To start off 2019, our first article today is a retrospective of the happenings in 2018, a year Beniah Munengwa of NewsDay describes as something of a “mixed bag,” in that it contained both some good moments and some hardships for the publishing industry–including the self-publishing industry. What are those highlights and hardships? We recommend you read the article so that you don’t miss a thing, but when it comes to self-publishing specifically, Munengwa cites pricing difficulties, a drop in book fair attendance, and the persistence of stigma as some of the worst book news in 2018, with a burgeoning of dialectical forms, diversification of authors, and the high quality of new self-published content as some of the best. As a Zimbabwean paper that covers news from the diaspora, NewsDay‘s article serves as a good and powerful reminder that self-publishing is a growing global phenomenon–with the power to transform the world. Writes Munengwa, “Heading into 2019, new energy needs to be injected into the publishing industry such that it emerges rejuvenated and refreshed as before, in the process remoulding literature into manna that the yesteryears were reknowned for churning out.” We can’t help but agree.

• Why it’s hard to escape Amazon’s long reach

2018 was a year that cemented Amazon’s grip on the self-publishing industry, among many other markets. Last week, Paris Martineau and Louise Matsakis of WIRED put together a profile of this company, always and forever known for its sheer dominance of consumer-driven sales in the early Internet Age. If you were looking to understand how Amazon’s famous (or infamous?) self-publishing branch fits into its larger mission and into its larger process of acquiring subsidiaries and developing new services, this is definitely the article for you–just scroll down to the “Books” section and dig in. (Although we’d like to note that the entire article, even the non-bookish parts, is fascinating.) Amazon’s reach is, the article indicates, so extensive that it might easily seem that the company has gotten into the life business (after all, it’s now offering healthcare)–and one has to wonder where self-publishing ranks on the company’s list of priorities. Is it better to do all things well, or to do one thing brilliantly? Only time will tell; the jury’s still out on Amazon.

• Going Into 2019, The Publishing Industry Is Excited About Audio

In yet another fantastic article for Forbes, Adam Rowe provides us this week’s outtro with his predictions for 2019–namely, that is, that this will be the Year of Audio. Why’s that? Because all of the groundwork has been successfully laid, and the market has diversified. Writes Rowe, “Audiobooks have been a popular sector of the publishing industry for years now thanks to the ubiquity of the smartphone, but 2018 was the year that distribution channels caught up: Google, Walmart, and Instaread all started selling audiobooks within the last year, and Kobo wasn’t too far ahead of them.” He specifically makes note of the companies making room for self-publishing authors in the midst of this field of new possibilities, including Findaway Voices, a company “which ushers self-published authors’ audiobooks onto the Apple Books marketplace and its 45% royalties.” Rowe also notes that the synergy between podcasts and audiobooks is at an all-time high, with podcasts routinely being ported over or adapted for audiobook format. His final conclusions? Rowe argues that “The virtuous cycle of a growing audience and a growing field of content will undoubtedly continue in 2019. The only question is what interesting new directions publishers and authors will find for audio in the new year.” We hope you’re among those authors looking to experiment, and we hope you’ll share with us the products of your labors! And in the meanwhile, happy New Year!

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 each month to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing!

• Self-publishing grows and grows, despite the old stigma

“The other day at lunch, my friend — a writer and former journalist — raised a palm toward me to stop my monologue and said: ‘I don’t get it! Why would anyone self-publish a book?'” So opens the latest Press-Enterprise contribution from Marj Charlier, in which Charlier, a self-publishing expert who routinely hosts workshops and seminars on the subject, defends the choice to go indie. First she addresses the quality of self-published books: “The belief that all self-published books are poorly written, unedited and poorly designed is pervasive. And, yes, many of them are. Way too many. But some self-published books are great — as fine as those distributed by the big traditional New York publishers and better than some.” Then, she goes on to state that the reasons for going indie are as varied as the authors themselves, including, of course, the speed and responsiveness of self-publishing. Says Charlier, “One of the main reasons that authors self-publish good books is that they have too few years left in life or too little patience to go traditional.” Charlier goes on to describe the hurdles that face even authors who successfully make it through the traditional publishing path, and notes that with the proliferation of self-publishing the process has been democratized. With that proliferation, too, it can become difficult for readers to identify and locate the kind of reading material that they love best–and Charlier has tips and tricks for them to assist in doing exactly that.

• Self to Shelf: The King’s English turns to its community for an anthology celebrating the local bookseller.

If you’re looking for a creative application of self-publishing tools, you can’t look past this project by The King’s English, a beloved bookseller in Salt Lake City, Utah that has survived the rough waters of Amazon’s debut as a major market force in bookselling and is now, in putting together this anthology of community stories, celebrating the people who have kept its doors open and its shelves stocked. As Salt Lake City Weekly contributor Scott Renshaw records, store marketing manager Rob Eckman described the origins of the projects as being rooted in that community-consciousness: “As we approached our 40th birthday, we discussed different things we could do to involve the community, to really be able to celebrate that community aspect of what bookstores are. Finally, we decided to publish a book.” The book in question, which was published under their own imprint using self-publishing tools, invited submissions from the community of 500 words or fewer from both youths and adults. The result has been such a success that The King’s English has decided to make Turning Pages an annual tradition and series, so you can look for more from them in the coming years.

• Michalis Pichler’s Publishing Manifestos

Speaking of creative applications of publishing, consider the work of editor Michalis Pichler, whose latest art book anthology sets out, in the words of Brooklyn Rail Art Books Editor Megan N. Liberty, to “celebrate and archive ten years of the Berlin-based art book fair Miss Read, asks two central questions: what is the function of art fair catalogues and what can they be?” The answers are many and varied, as Liberty describes:

Publishing Manifestos takes this challenge head on, including not just documentation about the past decade of fairs (which have included over 200 exhibitors and a day of programming called “Conceptual Poetics Day”), but also over forty essays and excerpts of texts related to self-publishing, publishing as performance, and other artist’s book practices, making it an invaluable anthology that charts the complex history or artistic bookmaking. As Pichler puts it, “Another way to deal with the habit of printing a catalogue is to produce a discursive publication.”

We’re glad Pichler did exactly that; Publishing Manifestos is not just an important book for those of us whose creative journey included a stop at the intersection of art and self-publishing, but it’s a beautiful publication to hold in the hand. Authors excerpted include everyone from Gertrude Stein to “more contemporary practitioners of experimental publishing, like Pichler, Paul Chan, Alessandro Ludovico, and Paul Soulellis.” Well worth a look, this project is available for pre-order and will be released in hardcover in March 2019.

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 each month to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing!

• How to pitch your publishing startup

One of our favorite sources for international news regarding digital publications, The Bookseller has come through for self-publishing authors again this week. Contributor Emmanuel Nataf digs into the nitty-gritty of how to reconcile publishing with the nascent entrepreneurial start-up model popularized in recent years, and this article breaks down his findings into three critical tips. At the risk of spoiling what they are, we recommend you check out his full article at the link!

• Self-publishing grows and grows, despite the old stigma

One of the great and ongoing overarching stories of self-publishing has been its emergence from the dawn of the Internet age and its evolution into a market force worth respecting–and yes, admiring–and yes, perhaps even pursuing if you’re an author. The word “stigma” is bandied around a lot, but the good news is that today’s self-publishing author has so much less of it to contend with than authors who chose to go indie in the 1990s. This article, courtesy of the Press-Enterprise contributor Marj Charlier, chronicles this emergence as well as the implications for current authors of its absence–or abolition, as the case may be. Authors today can build upon the shoulders of greats, of those who have gone before to pave the way and who worked tirelessly to improve the playing field and services offered. Charlier’s article is well worth a second reading, especially if you’re looking for suggestions in getting started searching for the right self-publishing home for your next book.

• Self Publication: Things That Every Aspirant Needs to Know

On that note, Entrepreneur‘s Chandan Sen Gupta has arrived on our radar this week with this fabulous list of tips and tricks for authors looking to set out on their self-publishing journeys. Writes Gupta, “There is no doubt that self-publishing has arrived and is here to stay, but setting one’s book up for sale is only half the job done. Marketing, to reach out to the readers, is equally important and with its success, an author’s battle is won.” To that end, he dives into ways in which you can take advantage of self-publishing tools as well as your skills in marketing your book to build a successful sales strategy.

• Here’s How Digital Self-Publishing Has Changed Over The Last 3 Years

Looking for a little bit more of the history behind self-publishing and its evolution? We return to one of our longstanding favorite pairings: Adam Rowe’s commentary and Forbes magazine. In this week’s valued addition to this delightful tech team-up, Rowe writes–like Charlier–on the legacy of self-publishing, its origins, and current trends within the digital self-publishing industry. Rowe investigates several case studies, including that of maven David Gaughran, whose work has long been respected as an exemplar of the form, and whose self-publishing guide Let’s Get Digital has now officially reached its third edition. Rowe investigates just what it is that Amazon has done to and for the industry, and the ever-evolving ways in which it treats its authors. Always a byline to watch, Rowe’s article provides useful insights into just where we might be headed as we prepare to exit 2018.

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 each month to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.