Category Archives: Self Publishing

Dead Tree Books, eBook, Writing

Stephen King Not Releasing New Work As eBook

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Stephen King’s new novel won’t be released as an ebook.

“Maybe at some point [there’ll be an ebook]” King told the WSJ, “but in the meantime, let people stir their sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one.”

While this is interesting … I’m not buying the reasoning.  Supposedly, he’s doing this to help out bookstores.  Yet he’s releasing the book through the Most Hated Enemy Of Bookstores: Amazon and other e-retailers.

So the take-away for me is that Stephen King came up with a new way to market: make an announcement that people will chew through without thinking about it.  Welcome to the wonderful world of press releases.

eBook, Self Publishing, Writing

Screwpulp – a self-publishing platform that engages authors and readers

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

I’ve read a press release for a new Memphis, TN based self-publishing service with a unique ‘crowd-driven’ pricing model, and read through all of the information on their website.  I have not, as yet, used this service.  It sounds interesting, and it is a sales model that could be beneficial to both authors AND readers.

For authors, this may be something to look into. You initially put your book up on Screwpulp as a free book. As your books gains traction (‘as you promote your book’ and you get ‘good reviews’ is what the site says) the value of your book increases. The more popular the book becomes, the more money you’ll make.

For readers, you’ll have to give a review before you can download free books, and you can only download one free book at a time (you’re free, of course, to purchase as many books as you want at any time).

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eBook, Self Publishing, Writing

Ebooks Responsible for Nearly $1 Billion Growth in Trade

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

According to Digital Book World, eBooks pushed the total net book sales over $27.1 billion for 2012. eBooks were 20% of trade publishing net sales for 2012, beating the 2011 eBooks sales figure (15%) handsomely.

From the DBW article:

The BookStat report shows prices are fairly stable for trade, ebook growth has slowed but contributes significantly to book sales overall, and that both romance and YA are growth genres, according to Ned May, VP and practice leader at Outsell Inc., who presented the stats at today’s MIP event.

The complete BookStat report will be released in June, and it will show a net new dollars figure for eBooks of $995 million.

You can read the original article HERE.

Self Publishing, Writing

Writers Union of Canada to vote on admitting self-published authors

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

The CBC is reporting that the Writers’ Union of Canada is expected to vote on a measure to accept self-published authors as members at the end of May. From the article:

“…The Writers Union of Canada represents over 1,900 authors from across the country. For the past year, an ad hoc membership committee has been gathering feedback from chapters across the country on whether the organization should revoke its long-standing policy of not admitting self-published authors. Members will vote on the issue at TWUC’s AGM in Ottawa at the end of May…”

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eBook, Self Publishing, Writing

FINALLY! A Publisher Figures Out That DRM Is Useless!

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

c|net Australia has just put up an article “Tor Books: piracy not an issue despite lacking ebook DRM” that state what I and others have been preaching for years.

From the article:

“One year after Tor launched its DRM-free store, the publisher has said that there has been “no discernible increase” in piracy.”

On April 25, 2012, Tor Books UK removed DRM from all of their ebooks.  According to a blog post by Julie Crisp on the Tor Books site, “We made this decision in conjunction with our sister company in the US, for our shared brand imprint. It was something that we’d been exploring for quite a while and a move that we felt committed to for our particular area.”

DRM is copy protection added to ebooks and other media by publishers and retailers supposedly to prevent piracy.  It assumes that the person legitimately buying the media from the retailer is a thief.  As a purchaser, I find this kinda insulting; if I was a thief, I wouldn’t be buying the work in the first place.  Duh!

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