Being In Charge

When you decide to independently publish your own work, you discover that there are many more things to think about than the simple ‘hey kids, let’s make a book’ model. You are in charge of everything...even things you never knew you needed to do....

Authors in charge of their own publishing efforts have been finding creative ways to get together and help each other cross promote or to think outside the box to find ways to publish new work.

Here are two examples which caught my eye in the last two days.

This group of writers are all self publishing their back list...so they have got together and branded themselves and put a logo on all their books...check out how they put the concept together.

Children’s writer Kate Milford is doing something different involving a bookshop, an espresso print machine, a tied in novella to her children’s book being launched soon by a big trad publisher...and kickstarter funding...very interesting idea!

Nathan Bransford takes a look at what the bookworld might look like after the big court case on publishers possible pricing collusion.

It has been said that it takes years to become an overnight success.... Amanda Hocking tells the story about making it onto THE LIST. The list is the New York Times Best Seller list. For some authors it completely changes their lives...and for others, like Amanda, it has another effect.

Joel has some good things to say and do to help authors  use Goodreads effectively in a guest interview with Publicity Hound Joan Stewart. Joel has plenty of good things to say about Joan and her webinars on publicity as well.

Liz Castro is one of those rare US based writers who understand that there is a whole world outside the US and actively seeks ways to connect and sell to countries that don’t have Amazon....yes there are quite a few...Check out her blog post on how to sell worldwide easily....

In the craft section

There are some great links for you this week. The editing blues have been hitting different friends lately so here are some great tips. 

Rachelle Gardner has a great post on how to eliminate thousands of words relatively painlessly.

Mary Kole talks about how to spot a lack of emotional punch when a character has a change of heart.

The wonderful K M Weiland asks, do you really need that subplot? Answers vary...but don’t be so quick to junk them, there are reasons why you should have a well crafted subplot.

Film director, Billy Wilder’s, ten tips for screenwriters...wraps up stories pretty well too.

Jane Friedman has three exercises you can do to sharpen your first page.

Bob Mayer has an interesting article for Digital Book World where he looks at Amazon and how they are bringing efficiencies (and military professionals) into the publishing model....before you choke on your coffee just stop and think... what are Amazon good at...What are military people good at...why is Amazon putting the two together...now choke and read the article.

I am flying to Auckland to speak about my independent publishing journey with eBooks...at a workshop this weekend. If you want learn a bit more about publishing eBooks and you are around Auckland this Saturday check out the programme. There are some great speakers!

Checkout this delicious twist on an idea.

maureen