When an author publishes a book in the traditional way, the publishing house assumes the risk - the costs of publishing - in the hopes that the book sales will recoup that investment and begin generating a profit. The publishing house is, in effect, taking a bet on the book that it will do well and warrant that investment.
But when authors self-publish, they are assuming that investment themselves. And there are some costs that new-to-publishing authors may not know to take into account as they begin investing in services to bring their books to market.
In a webinar sponsored by Digital Conversion Labs, Bowker’s Laura Dawson will explain how you can make your best possible eBook, ensuring a professional level product more likely to turn readers’ heads.
Publishers Weekly just ran a piece surveying the self-publishing landscape for 2014, in which they note that authors are seeing that writing is only the beginning of the publishing process.
"It’s almost been a giddy feeling about all the new opportunities, but I think we’ve reached a slightly more mature period,” says Beat Barblan, director of identifier services for Bowker. “We are seeing more authors who say they want to be an author beyond just a hobby, and recognize that they have to be much more entrepreneurial.”
Do you want to produce better books and sell more of them in 2014? Here are the Top Ten Things You Can Do To Be More Successful In Your Book Marketing.
People make a lot of books with Lulu. In fact, thousands upon thousands of titles are published to Lulu.com every week. While that’s a few too many books for us to read, we do know there are three things a writer needs to keep in mind to ensure their book is one readers will want to buy. If you’re among the writers preparing to publish a book this year, these three tips will be key factors in your success.
1. Know who your ideal reader is before you even start writing.
Porter Anderson has a great post on Writing on the Ether today about surveys, bias, and what can be counted (and what can't), based on a Twitter conversation with Hugh Howey.
Howey and I differ, to some degree, on the question of ISBNs, by the way. In his tweet exchange Wednesday with Greenfield, he pointed out something we’ve gone over many times here and at Publishing Perspectives: we’re dependent on the ISBN as the standard identifier sold and tracked in the United States by Bowker.
