Mark Coker has posted another Smashwords “Year in Review” article over at the Smashwords blog. From the article:
Welcome to my annual Smashwords year in review.
It was another amazing year.
On behalf of all employees at Smashwords, I want to start by thanking every Smashwords author, publisher and agent that publishes and distributes with Smashwords. We serve at your pleasure and we appreciate your trust, partnership and support.
Orna Ross recently posted a wonderful blog entry about creative intention over at the ALLi Self Publishing Advice website. From the article:
Planning to write 1000 words a day through 2014? Resolving to definitely get that title that’s been hanging around forever up and out there?
Oh yes, it’s that time of year when indie authors make our resolutions about the books we are going to write (and sell and publish) over the coming months.
AuthorReading.com will start offering expedited reviews to better serve the literary community. This year, small press and self-publishing has blossomed as never before, with self-publishing now very much a legitimate publishing option for authors. Today much of the literary community has shed its bias against those who have chosen to self-publish. Authors Reading welcomes this change and hopes it can be instrumental in helping those Indie authors in their uphill battle to promote and sell their books. As authors quickly learn, once a book is finished, tapping into a receptive audience is a formidable task. In the book publishing world, that is known as “discoverability.”
Amazon has announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime. From the Amazon Media Room:
Amazon today announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime, the annual membership program offering unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items. More than one million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December. On Amazon’s peak shipping day, more Prime items were shipped worldwide than ever before. The entire 2013 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon, with more than 36.8 million items ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second, and millions of customers unwrapped Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets this holiday season. Continue reading
Alex Palmer has posted an article over at Publishers Weekly about the success Maya Cross is having reaching her readers.
From the article:
Among self-published authors’ major advantages over published big-names is often a more personal connection with readers. Whether exchanging comments on Twitter, posting updates to their blog, or taking other steps, these writers tend to ingratiate themselves with readers in a more direct way than a formal marketing blitz it likely to accomplish.
That has been part of the reason that Australian author Maya Cross has seen each installment of her three-part erotic romance Alpha Series become a bestseller. But while an unimpeded connection with readers has been key to Cross’s success, also important has been maintaining a certain privacy.
