Thousands of authors every year get in touch with me and ask me how they should go about getting their books published. I tell every single one that they should not take the easy way and self-publish, but instead try and get a book deal by a major publisher. I understand that many authors who write their first book do not do it as quickly as James Patterson or Stephen King. … [Read more...] about Self-Publishing is Completely Corrupt
self publishing
Indie Authors Will Soon Be Using AI to Edit their eBooks
One of the drawbacks of self-publishing is that you have to pay editors out of your pocket in order to get your e-book ready for distribution. Many of them forgo hiring one altogether and readers often find themselves wading through a ton of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. There is now an alternative to a human editor, a robot one. IBM has unveiled the Watson Tone … [Read more...] about Indie Authors Will Soon Be Using AI to Edit their eBooks
Who Needs a Publishing Slush Pile When There’s YouTube?
Once upon a time, the process of landing a book deal started with mailing sample pages of your manuscript to literary agents, hoping one of them liked your writing enough to be willing to represent you. When everything shifted to computers, that process didn't change much (except now you email those pages). For clarification, perhaps it should be said that for most authors that … [Read more...] about Who Needs a Publishing Slush Pile When There’s YouTube?
Why Are There Still Issues Facing Self-Published Authors?
It's literally been years since self-publishing took off in a major way and brought some measure of credibility with it. The days of keeping the publishing method a secret and having to purchase hundreds of copies of your book to sell from the trunk of your car are long behind us, but with every new milestone, achievement, or tool that comes along for indie authors, other … [Read more...] about Why Are There Still Issues Facing Self-Published Authors?
The Challenges of Self-Publishing an Audiobook
Indie authors who want to distribute and sell an e-book have hundreds of viable options. Every major online bookseller such as Amazon, B&N  and Kobo all have their own portals to submit content and sell it worldwide. Things are very different with digital audiobooks, which has quickly become a billion dollar industry. There are few options for indie authors to create an … [Read more...] about The Challenges of Self-Publishing an Audiobook
IndieReader, Melissa Foster Announce 2015 IRDA Winners at BEA
IndieReader, the ultimate consumer guide to discovering and sharing the latest and greatest in independently published works--which includes titles that are published both by the authors and by smaller publishing houses--has held its IndieReader Discovery Awards for several years now as a mechanism to take the top tier of these worthy books to the next level. The IRDAs have a … [Read more...] about IndieReader, Melissa Foster Announce 2015 IRDA Winners at BEA
The New Self-Publishing: Amazon Takes on Etsy
What Amazon has done to reshape the publishing industry as a whole is nothing short of miraculous. The launch of the Kindle line of e-readers sparked a revolution in reading, just as the launch of KDP self-publishing completely revamped how books even come into being. Of course, Amazon has branched out in countless ways, offering everything from toilet paper to original content … [Read more...] about The New Self-Publishing: Amazon Takes on Etsy
Is Digital Publishing Broken?
It's been eight long years since Amazon rocked the reading world with the introduction of the Kindle. It was certainly not the first e-reader device on the market, but it was the first one with the power of Amazon's PR team to put it in consumers' hands in a big way, and it was the first one that came with the world's largest online bookseller to feed it. And the industry … [Read more...] about Is Digital Publishing Broken?
Digital Publishing Brings Censorship Woes to Iran
To industry insiders and readers alike, there are a few mainstay events that serve as household names. Events like BookExpo America, the London Book Fair, and the Frankfurt Book Fair are widely known, but it's easy to overlook the various other international events and book fairs where book publication rights are sold, debut authors exhibited, and other business conducted that … [Read more...] about Digital Publishing Brings Censorship Woes to Iran
How Agency Pricing Has Affected the Bestseller Lists
Hugh Howey and Friends (that really should be a trademarked superhero team name, as you'll see in a moment) has launched the sixth quarterly Author Earnings report, a seemingly flawless look at how ebooks are actually selling on Amazon. The reports have always served to try to get a better picture of how self-published authors are actually faring in the bookselling landscape, … [Read more...] about How Agency Pricing Has Affected the Bestseller Lists