If you attend one of my workshops, you will learn that self-publishing is a popular and successful method for authors to achieve their dream of getting into print. Whatever your goals, you need to know about the publishing methods available today, including e-books, and potential choices of agents and distributors.
It's also important to know how to develop a marketing plan that addresses the audience for your book and the best methods to reach them. Knowledge of marketing methods or tools like PR, advertising, direct mail, events, and social media—Google, Facebook, websites, and blogs, Twitter, Pinterest—is critical. You need to price your book correctly, and obtain book reviews to use in the marketing process.
Here are some quick tips:
1. Hire a good editor
2. Hire a professional designer for your book cover
3. Understand who the audience is for your book
4. Develop an effective marketing plan
5. Begin promoting your book before it is in print
IN COVID TIMES YOU MUST PUBLISH AN EBOOK IN 2021
Ebooks dominated the book publishing market for many years, but sales began slowly decreasing in 1998-1999, surprising the industry. Of course, those of us who love to hold a book in our hands were the first to say “I told you so, readers would come to their senses and return to print.” And then the pandemic came.
By May 2020 ebook sales increased almost 40 per cent. They are predicted to set a new record by the end of this fiscal year. As an author about to publish a print book or if you have one out in the market already, it has never been more important to produce and market an ebook as well.
Authors are usually wedded to using Amazon’s Kindle KDP to produce an ebook. Amazon probably sells 60-80% of all ebooks so you do want to be selling on their site. (Apple ibookstore is considered #2). Kindle KDP will convert your print files to Amazon’s exclusive Mobi format. It’s free. I can’t vouch for ease of conversion, but there are plenty of instructions on the Kindle site. You might be able to also produce a paperback of your book at the same time.
You can also enroll in KDP Select to earn higher royalties. Beware, you will sacrifice sales to other retailers/distributors for at least 90 days. With a new book you want to be able to hit the ground running and reach all audiences. Amazon is a good choice, but not the only one.
Since I just went through this process for my latest book, “Dear Hubby of Mine: Home Front Wives in World War II,” I evaluated the potential vendors for their skill in converting my Word PDF text and cover into Amazon’s Mobi and also the more popular EPUB platform used by most retailers/distributors. Don’t burden yourself with doing the epub conversions, you need the time to write. Here’s a few suggestions:
There are many more, but be sure you are getting the company you need.
I chose eBookPartnership so I could take advantage of their large distribution channel. Converting the book to epub version cost $300, distribution fee was $50. I thought this was an excellent deal as it saved me from having to upload to each distributor myself. Here is where your book will be up-loaded if you choose this vender:
Most of these vendors will take a cut of your sales at the back end. Check the contract carefully. In addition, distribution to vendors who serve the all-important library market include:
The Covid-19 pandemic is creating changes in the publishing world that will require authors to keep up-to-date on the best publishing and marketing avenues to take. Stay tuned.
BOOK REVIEWS ARE CRITICAL!
You might be surprized to learn that while you are finishing up your book, but before it is in print, you need to be out
finding book reviews for your new book. Why?
•Book reviews from independent sources provide invaluable 3rd party credibility for marketing/sales of your book
•Your agent and/or publisher should obtain also
•Builds name recognition
•Might be noticed by other agents, publishers
•Use quotes on the back cover of your book
•On your website and Amazon site
•Posts for social media/FB
The challenging question is—Where? We'll get into that shortly, but you can attend a workshop to learn more—monitor the dates of my workshops on my Facebook page.
IN POST-COVID TIMES, FIND AN AGENT
I have always advised authors to make a choice between agent representation or a publisher. Following the effects of Covid on the book publishing industry, I suggest you try to find an agent. Why? Many publishers are no longer accepting submissions for unagented authors. They have become even more risk averse than before the pandemic. They are selling from their backlist of books andt their stable of authors are most often writing the books they publish in 2021 and 2022.
It's not easy to locate an agent, but the process is the same as for approaching a publisher. Search for appropriate agents to target, make sure they are open to submissions, write a killer query letter, (my workshops cover this process—chewck my FB page), mail out letters and sit tight. It's definitely a waiting game.
It's also important to know how to develop a marketing plan that addresses the audience for your book and the best methods to reach them. Knowledge of marketing methods or tools like PR, advertising, direct mail, events, and social media—Google, Facebook, websites, and blogs, Twitter, Pinterest—is critical. You need to price your book correctly, and obtain book reviews to use in the marketing process.
Here are some quick tips:
1. Hire a good editor
2. Hire a professional designer for your book cover
3. Understand who the audience is for your book
4. Develop an effective marketing plan
5. Begin promoting your book before it is in print
IN COVID TIMES YOU MUST PUBLISH AN EBOOK IN 2021
Ebooks dominated the book publishing market for many years, but sales began slowly decreasing in 1998-1999, surprising the industry. Of course, those of us who love to hold a book in our hands were the first to say “I told you so, readers would come to their senses and return to print.” And then the pandemic came.
By May 2020 ebook sales increased almost 40 per cent. They are predicted to set a new record by the end of this fiscal year. As an author about to publish a print book or if you have one out in the market already, it has never been more important to produce and market an ebook as well.
Authors are usually wedded to using Amazon’s Kindle KDP to produce an ebook. Amazon probably sells 60-80% of all ebooks so you do want to be selling on their site. (Apple ibookstore is considered #2). Kindle KDP will convert your print files to Amazon’s exclusive Mobi format. It’s free. I can’t vouch for ease of conversion, but there are plenty of instructions on the Kindle site. You might be able to also produce a paperback of your book at the same time.
You can also enroll in KDP Select to earn higher royalties. Beware, you will sacrifice sales to other retailers/distributors for at least 90 days. With a new book you want to be able to hit the ground running and reach all audiences. Amazon is a good choice, but not the only one.
Since I just went through this process for my latest book, “Dear Hubby of Mine: Home Front Wives in World War II,” I evaluated the potential vendors for their skill in converting my Word PDF text and cover into Amazon’s Mobi and also the more popular EPUB platform used by most retailers/distributors. Don’t burden yourself with doing the epub conversions, you need the time to write. Here’s a few suggestions:
- eBookPartnership
- Draft2Digital
- PressBooks (for Wordpress users)
- Apple Pages software
- Reedsy
- Barnes & Noble (for nook and other platforms)
There are many more, but be sure you are getting the company you need.
I chose eBookPartnership so I could take advantage of their large distribution channel. Converting the book to epub version cost $300, distribution fee was $50. I thought this was an excellent deal as it saved me from having to upload to each distributor myself. Here is where your book will be up-loaded if you choose this vender:
- Amazon Kindle
- Barnes & Noble
- Apple
- Kobo
- BAM (Books-A-Million)
- Smashwords (largest distributor of self-published ebooks)
Most of these vendors will take a cut of your sales at the back end. Check the contract carefully. In addition, distribution to vendors who serve the all-important library market include:
- Baker & Taylor
- Overdrive
- Hoopla
The Covid-19 pandemic is creating changes in the publishing world that will require authors to keep up-to-date on the best publishing and marketing avenues to take. Stay tuned.
BOOK REVIEWS ARE CRITICAL!
You might be surprized to learn that while you are finishing up your book, but before it is in print, you need to be out
finding book reviews for your new book. Why?
•Book reviews from independent sources provide invaluable 3rd party credibility for marketing/sales of your book
•Your agent and/or publisher should obtain also
•Builds name recognition
•Might be noticed by other agents, publishers
•Use quotes on the back cover of your book
•On your website and Amazon site
•Posts for social media/FB
The challenging question is—Where? We'll get into that shortly, but you can attend a workshop to learn more—monitor the dates of my workshops on my Facebook page.
IN POST-COVID TIMES, FIND AN AGENT
I have always advised authors to make a choice between agent representation or a publisher. Following the effects of Covid on the book publishing industry, I suggest you try to find an agent. Why? Many publishers are no longer accepting submissions for unagented authors. They have become even more risk averse than before the pandemic. They are selling from their backlist of books andt their stable of authors are most often writing the books they publish in 2021 and 2022.
It's not easy to locate an agent, but the process is the same as for approaching a publisher. Search for appropriate agents to target, make sure they are open to submissions, write a killer query letter, (my workshops cover this process—chewck my FB page), mail out letters and sit tight. It's definitely a waiting game.
