September
3
2010
When building an author’s platform, writers often fail to create a sizable subscriber list. They think their list of email addresses will suffice. However, this is not enough.The way to successfully promote a book, service or information product is through a subscriber list–a list of people who have actually asked to be notified about you books, services and products. A publisher will find a large subscriber list an impressive platform element, and it will prove a successful way to sell an independently published book, e-book or any other information product as well.
Producing an e-zine provides one of the best ways to create or increase a mailing list. Many writers balk at this idea, complaining that this job just involves more work–writing that takes them away from writing their book. However, it doesn’t have to do so; in fact, much of what goes into newsletter can be repurposed into a book or vice versa.
Today, Stephanie Chandler, author of LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business and From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products, offers some great tips on how to build a large e-zine subscriber list. Although some of this may sound like it relates more to someone building a business rather than writing and selling books, remember that you are in the book writing, publishing and selling business. You are a business person as well as an author. All these tips relate to you, so take them to heart.
22 Ways to Increase Your E-zine Subscriber List By Stephanie Chandler
Publishing an electronic newsletter (e-zine) is one of the most cost-effective ways to market your business. To achieve the best results, it’s important to continue growing your subscriber list. Here’s a round-up of methods you can use to increase your database and ultimately, your profits. 1. Put a “Subscribe Here” link on EVERY PAGE of your Web site. Your e-zine shouldn’t be a well-kept secret; make it easy to subscribe. 2. Offer a bonus for signing up. A special report, e-book, coupon, discount or other special offer provides great incentive. 3. List your privacy policy on your Web site and in your welcome message to subscribers. Ensure that you won’t share their contact information with anyone and then keep your promise. 4. Include a “Forward to a Friend” link in your e-zine message. Sometimes all you have to do is ask! 5. Cross-promote your e-zine with business alliance partners. Contact businesses that compliment yours and offer to swap ads in each other’s e-zines. 6. Publish articles related to your industry in other e-zines and Web sites. You can distribute articles through sites like www.ezinearticles.com and www.ideamarketers.com. Make sure you include your author bio and a link back to your site. 7. Send your articles directly to industry-related Web sites. Let them know they can reprint your article as long as your bio is included. Many sites are in search of quality content so you have a good chance of getting your articles published. 8. Update your e-mail signature with a call to action: “Sign up for our monthly e-zine to receive industry reports and special offers!” 9. Print your call to action on the front or back of your business card and those of your employees. 10. If you conduct speaking engagements, make it easy for the audience to sign up for your e-zine either by using a bowl to capture business cards or by passing a sign-up sheet around the room. 11. Notify your friends, family and business alliance partners about your e-zine. Ask them to sign up and to refer others who might be interested. 12. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to build your list. If you’re hosting a trade show booth, give away something great—like an iPod—to entice people to leave their business cards. 13. If you meet a potential prospect at a business event or networking function, ask if you can add them to your list. 14. Never add someone to your list without asking first. This will frustrate recipients and they could end up marking your message as spam. If you generate enough spam reports, your e-mail address could get black listed by e-mail hosts, preventing future messages to your true subscribers from being delivered.FOR RETAIL LOCATIONS
15. When your customers check-out or exit your business, make it a policy to ask every single person if they would like to receive your e-zine. Don’t forget to tell them WHY they should want it: “Would you like to receive our monthly e-zine? It contains industry articles along with a special subscribers-only discount!” 16. Host a promotion to capture e-mail addresses by placing a bowl in your lobby to collect business cards. Then conduct a monthly drawing and give away something of value such as a gift certificate or high-value product. 17. If you have a client application or intake form, include a line to capture the client’s e-mail address and a box the client can check to sign up for your e-zine.QUALITY COUNTS
18. Archive previous editions of your e-zine so that potential subscribers can preview your publication. 19. Follow the 60/40 rule. Your e-zine should contain at least 60% content and no more than 40% sales messaging. You will lose readers quickly if you aren’t providing interesting and valuable information. 20. Look at the e-zines you receive. What do you like about them? What do you dislike? How can your e-zine meet the needs of your readers? What incentive can you offer so that they open it each time it’s delivered (great content, special offers, information they can’t easily find elsewhere, etc.). 21. Be consistent with delivery. Your e-zine should go out on or around the same time each week, month or quarter. Whatever schedule you set, stick with it. 22. Make sure your e-zine aligns with the goals of your business. Your publication should have a clear purpose, consistent content, professional appearance, and ultimately become something your clients look forward to receiving.About the Author
Stephanie Chandler is an author of several business and marketing books including “LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business” and From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products. She is also founder and CEO of http://AuthorityPublishing.com, which specializes in custom publishing and internet marketing services, and http://BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of resources for entrepreneurs. For author and speaker details, visit http://StephanieChandler.com.
September
2
2010
I talk about building author platform a lot. I’ve even described and defined author platform. However, fellow author, blogger and speaker Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn, does a pretty good job of describing an author’s platform as well. So, today I thought I’d let her tell you what one is and why you need one.
Sometimes it helps to hear something from someone different or in different words. This can help you understand or assist in a concept sinking in and taking hold so you actually take action.
I’m harping on this subject of platform building again for the same reason I always do: All authors—established, aspiring, self-published or traditionally published—need a platform. Without one, you will have a difficult time selling books. If you don’t believe me, read what Joanna writes about this topic.
What’s an Author’s Platform Anyway?
By Joanna Penn
The phrase “author platform” has started to become a catchphrase in the publishing and book world, so I thought I would explain it if you are confused.
The author platform is how you are currently reaching an audience of book-buying people, or how you plan to do so. It is your influence, your ability to sell to your market. It is your multi-faceted book marketing machine!
If you want to get a publishing deal, you need a platform to prove your books will sell. Many agents/publishers will not even consider you if you don’t have a platform already. Mega publisher Simon & Schuster has even started encouraging authors to blog, use social networking and video to promote their books. (More in this article.)
If you don’t believe me, check out this quote from literary agent Rachelle Gardner, who says “you really need to show that you are willing and able to put the time and effort into marketing yourself and building a readership online.”
If you are a self-published author, you need a platform to sell your books.
If you haven’t written a book yet, you need to start building your platform so you have one when your book is ready.
Book-selling is a business for publisher and author alike. We all need to eat! Some of us would like to eat really excellent food at superb seafood restaurants, and not just mince and beans. So selling books is important to us all. There are thousands of books published every month. There are millions of blogs online. What makes you stand ahead of the pack? Why will people buy your book?
Here are some examples of facets of an author platform:
- Do you have a popular blog or website that reaches thousands of people? Think Gary Vaynerchuk and Christian Lander’s Stuff White People Like.
- Do you already have a speaking platform? Can you get audiences of several thousand to pay to come and see you?
- Do you already have an existing business with clients and customers who will buy your book?
- How big is your email list of people who subscribe to your newsletters or ezines?
- Do you have a huge podcasting audience who are raving fans and want to buy your books? Think Scott Sigler.
- Do you have thousands of followers on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace? Can you convert those into book buying fans?
- Have you already had a self-publishing hit book that you have successfully marketed yourself? Think Lisa Genova’s Still Alice and Christopher Paolini Eragon.
- Can you develop a massive following using web 2.0 technologies? Think Tim Ferriss who used the leverage of bloggers to promote The Four Hour Work Week into a huge hit.
If you don’t have any of these right now, don’t worry! Most of these people took time to build their platforms. We all start somewhere!
Do you have an author platform already? How can you build one or improve the one you have with the ideas you’ve learned so far?
About the Author
Joanna Penn is an author, speaker and international consultant. Her blog http://www.TheCreativePenn.com provides articles, audio and video on writing, publishing, internet sales and promotion…for your book. Visit the site for your free Author 2.0 Blueprint: Using Web 2.0 tools to write, publish, sell and promote your book. You can also read more about Joanna’s “Blogging for Authors and Writers” online course. You can also find Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn.
September
1
2010
Last week I published a guest post about getting media exposure by becoming an expert source for the media. In addition to pitching stories to the media, you also can make yourself available to the media in other ways. For example, I subscribe to an “expert site” called ExpertClick.com, which also publishes the printed Yearbook of Experts.
This service, for which I pay on a yearly basis, gives me a web page on their site where I can list myself as an expert in up to 39 categories (and you can make up your own categories if they don’t already have them). Journalists seeking experts go to this site and use search terms to find relevant experts.
Additionally, I can post news releases and press releases on its wire service. Most people pay by the release to publish information on sites like PRWeb.com. Just as PRWeb.com’s most expensive service exposes your press release to the media, Expertclick.com offers you the opportunity to post 52 news releases per year that are read primarily by the media for the price you pay per year for your membership; this works out much cheaper, although you do not get as many hits. That said, the service allows you specifically to help journalists find you, to show journalists the issues about which you are writing and speaking and to ensure that media professionals know you welcome their contact.
If you are trying to build your author’s platform via media exposure, the news releases you posts with Expertclick.com build accomplish this:
- via daily and weekly headline feeds going to more than 11,000 journalists;
- via LexisNexis, the leading professional search resource;
- via Google News (if your releases are picked up);
- via instant posts at the News Release Wire website;
- via instant links to your ExpertClick.com profile and to your website;
- via the printed Yearbook of Experts; and
- at ReviewBook.com for book releases.
If this service interests you, you can save $100 on the yearly membership fee by signing up for ExpertClick.com using my discount link, , or call them at (202) 333-5000 and mention my name.
August
31
2010
Part of promoting a book or even becoming known as an expert in your subject area as a journalist or business person involves getting media exposure. Becoming a favorite (or even an occasional) guest on radio or television news or talk shows involves more than just knowing the tricks of the public relations trade. In fact, possibly the best thing you can do initially involves understanding how the media does its job. Then you can help journalists do their jobs better. In fact, as an expert that’s what you are doing: You are reaching out to help them provide the best possible or most unique story for their audience. Learning how to pitch that story, of course, is essential as well. (You can learn how to do that here or here.)
Today, my new guest blogger, Michelle Tennant Nicholson, a 20-year PR veteran and chief creative officer of Wasabi Publicity, offers a wonderful look into how journalists create stories and how writers, authors, businesspeople, and experts of all sorts support the media. By helping the media do its job better, you can boost your own exposure to the general public through the media. It’s a win-win situation.
Empowering the Media to Boost Your Exposure
By Michelle Tennant Nicholson
In all the major cities and smaller markets across the U.S., news reporters, editors and producers are planning their coverage for the day, the hour, or in the case of weeklies and magazines, weeks or months ahead. The old news cycle in which newspaper reporters filed their stories for the next day’s paper is history. Now those same reporters and editors are planning what Web updates they will make throughout the day to stories already underway, as well as which stories they will roll out online and which ones will wait for the next print edition.
The best reporters have a knack for pumping out major scoops and material suited for the front page. Since editors decide where stories appear in print and online editions, the reporter will try to meet and hopefully exceed her editor’s expectations. This little scenario is played out countless times each day in newsrooms across America. From newspapers to local TV stations to CNN and FOX, everyone is watching the Google headlines to see what other media have already covered. Editors and producers brainstorm to find new, unexplored and compelling story angles and reaction from their audience. The traditional media venues (hard copy, broadcast) feed traffic to their own websites, and the websites drive viewer/reader/listener traffic back to the print and broadcasts.
This sped-up 24-hour news cycle means that media of all kinds are looking for sources and experts every hour of every day on the breaking news they cover, from hard news about the economy, crime and war to features in entertainment, health, politics, religion, relationships…every topic!
That means there are more opportunities than ever for you to get your business or expertise covered by the media. Remember, in the media everyone is always watching what the others are doing. TV stations read newspapers. Newspapers watch TV and listen to radio. Everyone keeps their Web browsers and Google search terms constantly updated to see what’s new, what’s breaking and what are the gaps that provide opportunities for fresh coverage. While all media want to get the big scoop, they also all know the art of repackaging stories with new angles, such as local tie-ins or expert commentary, to give their audience something “newsy” even for stories that are being recycled through their 10th or 12th news cycle.
Good coverage in one venue begets more good coverage. Look for those reporter blogs, email addresses and other entry points, such as public feedback forums on media websites. Editors often monitor their forums to gauge reaction and look for new angles. Send the reporter an email or leave them a voice mail (chances a busy reporter will pick up the phone are increasingly rare) with a tempting hint of how you can add to their story. Remember they are running around like crazy trying to feed this 24-hour news cycle so don’t get upset if they don’t get back in touch with you on the first or even the second story. Be polite, be persistent and most of all, provide the reporter with valuable content. In doing so, you will build long-term relationships and lay the groundwork for future coverage, cooperation and empowerment.
About the Author
Twenty-year PR veteran and chief creative officer of Wasabi Publicity Michelle Tennant Nicholson’s seen PR transition from typewriters to Twitter. Called a five-star publicist by Good Morning America’s Mable Chan, Michelle specializes in international PR working regularly with the likes of Oprah, Larry King, BBC, The Today Show, and all major media. Recently she secured a Dr. Phil placement for a client within eight hours of signing the contract. Contact her at PR blog http://www.StorytellerToTheMedia.com where she teaches tips from the trade.
August
30
2010
Everyone knows traditionally published authors lose an enormous amount of money on each book sale to their publishers. That’s why so many authors chose to become independent publishers.
As head of Digital atPepsiCo Beverages, Shiv Singh pointed out in his recent blog post, Seth Godin’s decision to never again use a traditional publisher means he figured out the economics of doing so lie in his favor. (Please see my last three posts for my thoughts on Singh’s post.) While this seems pretty obvious, I’d like to focus on this for a moment to stress one particular fact: Godin already has book sales. Many new independent authors do not.
Those who have taken Godin’s decision as the straw that has broken their camel’s back–they’ve decided they will now only self-publish or electronically publish their writing–need to take a good look at the difference between themselves and Godin. If they don’t have existing book sales like his, they may not achieve the same success he surely thinks he will have in the coming years. Let’s look closer at the reasons why I says this.
Singh wrote: “I’m guessing that for every book of his sold, Godin gets probably 15% in royalties. That’s not bad when you’re selling 50,000 books priced at $17.13. He’s made $2.5 per book sold or $128,475 in total. But imagine if he sold online only where he’d probably get something closer to 80% in royalties. He’d make a whopping $685,000. Imagine if he only sold half online versus through the book chains (the distribution channels that the publisher owns), he’d still make $342,600. Or if he sold just a quarter, that would be $171,300. I don’t think it is hard for him to sell 12,500 books directly. He doesn’t need a publisher to be better off.
Singh has done the math correctly. It would work the same way for any author. However, for those aspiring authors reading this and thinking they can make the same kind of money as Godin, they need to think about the fact that he has a huge platform. And he has a well-known brand. (Please see my previous posts this week to read about these points.) To achieve these kinds of sales—and this kind of income—an author must spend a lot of time building platform and creating a brand prior to publishing a book or switching over to electronic (or independent) publishing.
In my experience, most writers and aspiring authors do not want to do anything but write. Godin is a marketing expert. He knows how to market himself and his books. He is a business man. He sees himself and his books as a business. That’s why he has achieved the success he enjoys. That’s why his books will continue to sell without a publisher to help him sell them. He’s done the work. He’s worn the business hat…and he continues to do so. He plans on continuing to do so.
Aspiring authors planning to follow his lead and dreaming of big fat pay checks need to consider these facts—the reality of becoming a successful author. You must be a successful businessperson as well.
August
27
2010
Do publishers provide authors with enough value to justify traditionally publishing books? Seth Godin must not think so anymore—or at least that seems to be what he’s saying.
Yet, publishers do provide some services that independent publishers must then be sure to garner on their own or else produce a less-than-quality product. If they don’t, they can be sure their sales will not equal those reached through traditional publishing routes simply because they have not provided readers with the standards they expect. These services include book design, cover design and manuscript editing.
As mentioned in my previous posts this week, best selling author Seth Godin’s announced earlier this week that he would no longer use traditional publishing for his books. This was followed by a blog post by Shiv Singh, head of Digital for PepsiCo Beverages, which broke down what Godin’s action actually means—to Godin and to authors and aspiring authors. (Please see my last two posts for my thoughts on Singh’s post.)
Among other things, Singh wrote: “Seth Godin doesn’t believe his publishers provide him enough value. By saying that he’s going to sell his book online and directly to his readers, Godin is basically saying that his publishers aren’t providing him enough value. He appreciates the need to have a strong editor (and he’s going to hire one independently) but everything else is not valuable enough for him. Publishers should be worried, and so too should Barnes and Noble and Borders. If other leading authors adopted this model they’d all be in trouble.”
I’d like to simply focus on this part of Singh’s statement: “He appreciates the need to have a strong editor (and he’s going to hire one independently).” Over the years, many self-published authors have failed to hire an independent professional editor. As a result, their books have not achieved the same quality that would have been demanded by a traditional publisher. Thus, they did not achieve the same success (i.e. sales) as they might have with a traditionally published book.
I was just at a writer’s club meeting last week and a traditionally published author offered the group the same message: “If you choose to self-publish, be sure to hire a professional editor.”
There are lots of types of editing a book may need. I suggest you find an editor that does everything from line editing to developmental editing so you are sure that not only your grammar and punctuation are correct but that your book makes sense and has no gaps in content.
If you need information on types of editing or working with an editor, you’ll find this post and this post useful.
Yes, editing is expensive. It costs a lot more than electronically publishing your book. It costs more than publishing your book with a print on demand company.
A good editor costs more than a bad editor. (Duh.) A professional book editor will do a better job of editing your book than a college English major or a high school English teacher.
Do right by your book. Do right by yourself. Hire a professional editor for your book. If you’ve already gone to the time and effort of writing a full manuscript, get it professionally edited so your book has a chance of succeeding.
Oh…and then hire a proofreader. That’s a service a traditional publisher would provide as well, although the proof would still be given to the author for a final read as well. Some careful authors I know then give the proof to friends for help proofing to ensure the final published book has no errors.
August
26
2010
Yesterday I wrote about the importance of knowing your readers. This post was inspired by best selling author Seth Godin’s announcement that he would no longer use traditional publishing for his books. Additionally, I wanted to comment on the great points made in a blog post written by Shiv Singh, head of digital at PepsiCo Beverages, in response to Godin’s announcement.
Today, I’d like to discuss the importance of author branding and continue comment in Singh’s blog post. Singh wrote: “Seth Godin believes in the power of his brand and is betting everything on it. At the most fundamental level, this is a brand play. You’ve got to believe in yourself and in your words if you want something to work, he’d say himself. And that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s putting his money where his mouth is.”
I have to admit that I am not an expert on branding and I am only now beginning to work on clarifying and strengthening my own brand as an author and as a businessperson. That said, I know the importance of branding for any author—and authors must look at themselves and their books as a business that, indeed, does need to be branded. The biggest mistake most writers and authors make is that they don’t see themselves as businesses. Thus, they see no need for branding.
Brands are easily recognizable by consumers. Readers are consumers. They buy brands.
Do you have a brand? Would anyone recognize it? Is it time for you to begin thinking of branding yourself and your work so you, like Godin, can bet on it when you decide to independently or electronically publish your work? If you are considering following in his footsteps, you better answer emphatically, “Yes!”
August
25
2010
Earlier this week I wrote about best selling author Seth Godin’s announcement that he would no longer use traditional publishing for his books. The next day I saw a phenomenal blog post breaking down what Godin’s action actually means—to him and to authors and aspiring authors as well as to publishing. Written by Shiv Singh, Head of Digital, PepsiCo Beverages, this blog post is well worth reading. In my next few posts, I’m going to cover a few of my own thoughts, which were generated by Singh’s post.
First, I’d like to discuss the importance of knowing your readers. Singh wrote: “Seth Godin knows his readers better than his publisher does. Godin has realized that he really knows his readers. He knows what they want, he knows how to reach them and he knows quite clearly what he wants to share. He has is own marketing platform via his blog and his twitter account, too. He doesn’t need a publisher to play that role for him. And with the Internet he can distribute his book to his readers electronically.”
Do you know your readers? Are you intimately in touch with them through face-to-face contact, such as coaching, speaking, and other personal situations? Do you read what they read, hear what they say, understand their needs, desires, questions, problems, etc.? Do you have a good understanding of their demographics? Do you know your market? You must answer “yes” to these questions if you are going to successfully sell books either on our own or through a publisher—but definitely if you are going to do so as an independent publisher.
Knowing your readers also allows you to figure out what to share with them. Successful authors provide readers with books that go beyond filling readers’ needs. They answer their questions, fulfill their desires, connect with them emotionally, solve their problems, and in some way add value to their lives. They offer them something they can’t do without—or at least think they can’t.
You also must know how to reach your readers. You must know where they “live” and how to get into their “homes.” Have you developed a platform from which you can reach your readers? Godin has done that, as Singh mentioned. Have you? If your answer is “no,” you are not ready to sell a book independently. You will need the help of a publisher to distribute that book and to promote it; however, even a publisher may not want you as a business partner without a platform.
So, get to know your readers. And let them get to know you. When you’ve done that, you can take the same step Godin has taken and decide to independently publish your books (primarily through electronic means) and know you will achieve success doing so.
August
24
2010
Do you find that sometimes you have little time to write? You want to make writing a priority, but other things “get in the way,” edging your writing time into an hour here, a half hour there.
Other times, you may simply find that you have 15 minutes of extra time on your hands, and you’d like to use it to write. However, you may have a hard time getting started; thus, you might lose five or 10 minutes of precious writing time just getting started. This could happen even during your normally scheduled writing period.
How do you break through and not only get started fast but write fast so you accomplish a lot in a short amount of time? Here are two tricks I use on a regular basis.
1. Leave your Inner Critic at the door.
I used to be a Voice Dialogue facilitator. As Hal Stone and Sidra Winkelman, the originators of this psychological process explain, we all have inner “selves” that at different times run our lives. When we are writing, we do not want our Inner Critic involved; this particular self slows down the writing process by constantly stopping us mid sentence to correct a word, change a phrase or delete a whole sentence or paragraph. Later, when we get down to editing what we have written, our Inner Critic proves enormously helpful. We want this self close at hand to help, if not to actually take over. the editing process.
When you sit down to write, tell your Inner Critic to remain outside the room, the coffee shop, wherever you might be working. (Instead, invite in your Inner Writer.) Each time you find yourself starting to correct your writing, stop yourself from doing so. Tell yourself that right now you are simply writing, not editing. You are creating a draft, not a finished piece. Don’t worry about misspelled words, incorrect grammar, passive sentences. (Tell your Inner English Teacher to go back to the school.) All of these things can be corrected later. Correct only what must be corrected now so your writing makes sense.
2. Don’t let your fingers (or hand) stop moving.
The best way to get a lot of writing done involves not allowing yourself to stop writing for any reason. Once you begin writing, you don’t ever allow your fingers to hover over the keys or you pen to rest motionless over the paper. You must always be writing something, even if it you only write the words, “I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what to write,” over and over again until something different comes into your mind. (Ask your Inner Writer or your Inner Muse to join you!)
This forces you to not get stuck mulling over your word choices or your train of thought. It allows you to have a stream of consciousness that you follow. Later, you’ll call in your Inner Editor/Critic and your more conscious self, if necessary, to clean up what you’ve written and make sense of it. Right now, in the little bit of time you have, you simply want to get words on paper. You want to use the time you have to actually write something–not to think about writing something.
If necessary, get an egg timer and set it for 10 or 15 minute increments and use these for continuous writing periods.
Try these two tips on a regular basis, and you surely will learn to write fast and get a lot of writing done in shorter time periods. Then when you more time to write, you can use the same methods and you’ll discover that you have the ability to produce twice the amount of written pages in the time it used to take you to do so.
August
23
2010
Today best-selling author and long-time marketing and publishing industry expert Seth Godin announced he will never again traditionally publish a book. That’s a bold statement coming from a man who created 120 books as a book packager and who has published 12 best sellers. To the publishing industry, this may be a scary message for such a powerful man to send out to his blog readers, who listen and take note.
His words made me more seriously consider a question I’ve been considering for some time already: Is it time to throw in the traditional publishing towel?How many other aspiring authors and traditionally published authors asked themselves the same question?
While I have played around with the idea of self-publishing for years, and I have produced a few e-books (simply as PDFs but not in a format that makes them available for e-readers) and a few short booklets, I have not gone the full independent publishing route. I call myself a traditional publishing hold out. I have an agent; she continues to peddle my books for me in the form of nonfiction book proposals.
However, over the years I have accumulated more partial manuscripts– books I’ve started and not finished–as I’ve waited for agents to peddle them. And in the meantime I’ve lost my passion to write them. It makes me wonder if I’ve missed the boat with some of these books as I’ve waited for my ship to come in.
Let me say, I have not just waited on the dock in the meantime. I have been building platform, and that is necessary no matter how you publish your book. Any writer, whether self-published or traditionally published, needs to take time to build an author’s platform to sell books.
That said, these days you can publish a book have it available for every e-reader as well as for print on demand and it costs just a few hundred dollars–or less. I was reading in Newsweek recently about how the stigma on self-publishing has vanished. In particular this has become true now that e-books have increased the demand for more books. Even well-know authors–like Godin–are choosing to take control of the publishing process.
The authors I work with often choose to self-publish, especially since traditional publishing has become so difficult and self-publishing has become so much easier and inexpensive.
Seth Godin’s blog post convinces me that all writers–new and established–should be considering independent publishing of some sort. Plus, if we, as writers and authors, don’t jump on the independent publishing and e-reader ship as it leaves port, we may be left behind and later be found buried on shore in our unpublished (or partially written) manuscripts. I, for one, don’t want that to happen.
No. Instead, I want to get up each morning feeling the need and desire–and passion–to write the books I’ve conceived and which I believe have a chance of success. I don’t want to wait for permission to write and publish them so others can read them–especially when I know my readers want these books. I want to write them. I want to make them available.
How about you?
Now, if a traditional publisher wants to help me, fine. I don’t know that I’d go as far as Seth at this point; I’m not a bestselling author (yet). I won’t turn away a contract. If no one offers me one, I’m okay with going it alone at this point. I would counsel my clients to consider both options as well. I have always done so in the past, but I do so with more enthusiasm for self-publishing now than ever before.