ALLi is the Alliance of Independent Authors, the professional association for self-publishing writers. They host an EXCELLENT self-publishing advice blog HERE.
Joanne Phillips has posted an article about bettering your books with beta readers. From the article:
Joanne Phillips, author of two novels and nearing the completion of her third, explains how to recruit and use beta readers to fine-tune your work before it’s published – an invaluable service that won’t cost you a penny.
Michael Crichton, who passed away in 2008 at the age of 66, wrote a number of books under pen names while studying at Harvard Medical School back in the sixties. While a student, he wrote eight books as “John Lange,” one as “Jeffery Hudson,” and he co-wrote another with his brother Michael as “Michael Douglas.” The guy had the enviable ability to write 10,000 words a day, and because of that, he needed multiple pen names.
From the press release:
“These early Michael Crichton novels foreshadow the talent that made him one of the most successful novelists of his time,” said Jane Friedman, co-founder of Open Road, announcing the deal. “I was fortunate enough to work with him for more than 30 years. What a joy it is to bring the young Michael Crichton to life for his millions of fans and to introduce him to a generation that has not as yet discovered him.”
The eight Lange novels will hit the eShelves on July 23.
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).
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.
BBC News is reporting that 2012 was a record year for the UK publishing industry.
The Publishers Association Statistics Yearbook reported total revenues of £3.34B with digital sale hitting £411M, and sales of physical books coming in at £2.9B.
“Self-publishing has been a wonderful phenomenon,” said Richard Mollett, chief executive of The Publishers Association. “It has thrown up a great new interest in writing and reading.”
You can hear the whole bit from the Today programme HERE.
You can visit the Publishers Association HERE.
