Tag Archives: indie publishing

Dead Tree Books, eBook

The Guardian and L.A. Times continue crusade against self-publishing

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

The L.A. Times is parroting an article first reported in The Guardian:

“98 British publishers folded last year due to e-books, discounts”

The original article published November 4th in the Guardian has a headline screaming “Ebooks and discounts drive 98 publishers out of business” with a subhead of “Number of closures is 42% up on last year, as digital books and huge pressure on margins push companies over the brink” … and it’s all nonsense.  Bollocks.

The quote by Anthony Cork of the accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy included is “the rise of Amazon and other discount sellers with massive buying power means the pressure on publishers’ margins is now immense. While publishers might be able to sustain relatively small margins on a bestseller, it is much harder for niche publishers.”

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Dead Tree Books, eBook, Success Stories

Kindle Direct Publishing Announces Kindle MatchBook

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Amazon is officially launching Kindle MatchBook in October.  The announcement on their website can be seen HERE.

According to the announcement, “For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases will soon allow you to buy the Kindle edition for $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, or free.”

The program is making ebook versions of print books purchased new from Amazon, going all the way back to 1995 when Amazon first opened its online bookstore.  This is great news for customers … and it can be great news for indie publishers as well.

Amazon’s official notice to us authors and publishers:

Kindle MatchBook is an innovative new program which enables you to offer your Kindle book at a discount when readers purchase your print book, so you can sell more books.

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Dead Tree Books, eBook, Success Stories

Is Self-Publishing here to stay?

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

This question was recently asked, and some mighty strange answers were provided:

“…Is self publishing here to stay? Hogwash. Self publishing will be here to stay when self published authors start showing up on Good Morning America or The View or the front page of the Huffington Post or Salon or the New York Times Book Review, and I don’t mean well known marketable authors who’ve jettisoned the mainstream publishers without which they’d still be a bunch of nobodies tweeting their asses off about their latest novel. Sure, once in a blue moon an “indie” author will break through into one of those venues, but the major publishers are still dictating what America reads. Go ahead, shoot the messenger…”

And:

“…Excuse me, I forgot this is an ebook group, so let’s add the ebook phenomenon to the print on demand phenomenon! You can publish an ebook for nothing too. Of course, with both ebooks and POD, you could pay a couple of hundred dollars for a professionally designed cover, and a few hundred dollars on up to an editor, and then you could pay I don’t know how much to a blog tour broker, and you could pay to have your book displayed on a web site promoting great reads to people looking for something to read…”

And:

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Dead Tree Books, eBook, Success Stories

Wait, WHAT? A self-published author turns down a publisher?

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

Author Aubrey Rose recently wrote a blog post explaining why she decided to turn down an offer from Amazon Publishing’s Montlake Romance imprint.

Why would a self-published author turn down an overture from a publisher?  An offer that included royalties, even?

From her post:

“…Naturally, I was thrilled. A real publisher wanted my work! I chatted with her briefly on the phone and asked her a ton of questions: What kind of cover would they create for me? What promotions would they do? What control would I have over everything? Although I was excited to work with Amazon, I wanted to know that they would treat my book right. She told me my novel was a great read and very clean writing, and that she would love to “partner” with me in relaunching my book through Amazon’s imprint.

However, she couldn’t guarantee anything – from cover image to pricing to marketing…”

Ah, ha!  Well, that’s par for the publisher course.  But wait, there’s more:

“…The advance they offered was less than I had made in my first month of sales. As I looked through the Montlake catalogue, I saw a mix of breakout hits and complete flops, with some recent books that just had the worst covers imaginable for romance. And I would have to pull my book from every publisher except Amazon…”

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Dead Tree Books, eBook, Screenwriting, Self Publishing, Writing

Camp NaNoWriMo 2 Officially Starts Today!

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

If you are a writer – especially one who can’t seem to find the time, set goals, or who suffers from writer’s block – you should head over to campnanowrimo.org and sign up to write during the month of April.  if you’re REALLY serious, make sure you sign up for NaNoWriMo in November!

From the website:

Based on November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Camp NaNoWriMo provides the online support, tracking tools, and hard deadline to help you write the rough draft of your novel in a month.

Camp NaNoWriMo was established in 2011 as a project of the Office of Letters and Light, the parent 501(c)(3) nonprofit to National Novel Writing Month and the Young Writers Program. 2013 Camp sessions will take place in April and July.

To find out more, head over to Camp NaNoWriMo‘s “What is Camp NaNoWriMo?” page and get started!