Self-Publishing Blogs

I started this self-publishing blog without much forethought.  The idea just came to me one day recently, while in the midst of preparing 3 novels for publication (two were written in previous years).  At the same time I had been emailing with a few other writers, offering advice on self-publishing. 

I enjoyed sharing what I learned with these few people.  When I looked at other self-publishers’ blogs I thought, hey, I can do that – share what I am learning with a wider world.  So I started Larry’s Self-publishing Blog, to chart my progress getting these three novels published and, along the way, offer useful advice to other self-publishers. 

To be sure there are a lot of self-publishing blogs out there, some good and some not so good.  When you google “self-publishing blog” you’ll find at the top of the list “52 Great Blogs for Self-Publishers.”  However, that list dates from November 2010 and includes several defunct web sites.  Among the living, several “blogs” are nothing more than glorified ads, or offer generic claptrap.  However, there are a few good self-publishing blogs that I reviewed and can recommend.  (I’m sure there are many others as well; I just haven’t reviewed them). 

 

Joanna Penn

The Creative Penn

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/publishing/

Ms. Penn’s blog offers lots of useful information, including “How to publish a book 101.” http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/01/15/how-to-publish-a-book-101/

In “101” she doesn’t mess around, and gives a clear warning up front:

I also get emails from people who have paid $20,000+, have been utterly ripped off and are devastated with the results. This happened to me once, although with a lesser financial impact, and I am passionate about making sure authors don’t fall into these traps.

With big name publishers like Penguin/Random House and Simon & Schuster signing up with Author Solutions to further exploit this kind of vanity publishing, you guys need to know there is a better and cheaper way.

 

Self Publishing With Amazon, Kindle,
CreateSpace, and Lightning Source

by Aaron Shepard

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/

Shepard has his finger on the pulse of these publishing companies, which together attract a substantial share of self-published authors.  He offers a fair amount of detail about how they operate. His focus is on distribution, not print quality, and writes:

The proper question, then, is which company you should choose on the basis of distribution. And for some time, there has been no real contest. Amazon is where self publishers can sell the most books, and Amazon discriminates against books from Lightning—though at this point, I think it’s mostly due to system glitches that Amazon doesn’t care enough to fix.

So, almost any new publisher should start with CreateSpace. See how many books you sell. Then, if selling an additional 10% to 25% would be worth the effort—because that’s likely all you can expect—add Lightning Source—or rather, IngramSpark, its gateway for self publishers. Aside from the hassle of dealing with Lightning’s technical requirements, there’s no reason you can’t use both companies. (But see my blog post on ISBN requirements and my article on CreateSpace’s Expanded Distribution Channel.)

 

Regarding Shepard's assessment, I should clarify that there two companies controlling these self-publishers. 

Amazon – owns:

            Kindle for self-published e-books

            Kindle Scout, which is Amazon’s royalty-publishing arm (they pay the author!)
            CreateSpace, which is Amazon’s division to assist authors in self-publishing, both in
                        paperback and on Kindle

Ingram – owns:

          Ingram Spark – for the small self-publisher

              Lightning Source – for the larger self-publisher

 There is often some confusion about the difference between these two Ingram companies.  Part of the confusion is Ingram’s fault, because both serve the self-publisher and there is no rational basis (that I can see) for having two overlapping divisions. Furthermore, when you sign up for one division on their web site, all the information you have to give them (and it’s a lot) does not transfer over to the other division, though it’s the same company and both divisions are geared toward the self-publisher.  Another blogger, Joel Friedlander (see his blog below), offers this distinction between the two divisions (from a 2013 posting; http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/11/news-update-should-you-use-lightning-source-or-ingram-spark/)

• If you are a do-it-yourself author without experience in book publishing and you are unsure whether it’s something you intend to do for long, consider Ingram Spark for print on demand and wide distribution.
• If you are hiring professionals, have a real plan for publishing and marketing books to a definable audience, and plan to grow your business, consider Lightning Source as an invaluable strategic partner in your growing business

Writer Beware

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/

This blog lists three different authors:  Victoria Strauss, Michael Capobianco and Ann Crispin.  They point out scams bad deals that can hit any self-publisher.  She discusses the lawsuits against Author Solutions that I mentioned in an earlier blog. 

Two other very interesting posts deal with writing contests, how they are often nothing more than marketing ploys and don’t benefit the writer.  Read these before you enter any (more) writing contests (both accessed from above URL).

June 9, 2015

Awards Profiteers: How Writers Can Recognize and Avoid Them

June 24, 2015

Almond Press Short Story Competition:  Writing for “Exposure”

 

 

The Book Designer

Practical advice to help build better books

by Joel Friedlander

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

 Friedlander has been blogging for years, and along the way has offered lots of useful advice.  (His web site has an alphabetical list of past topics.)  He also offers, for free, an excellent pamphlet 10 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing. 

 

 

 Included in his list is a warning about subsidy publishers (which I have discussed earlier).  He writes:

Subsidy publishers make money from selling services to authors, not from selling books to book buyers.

 Given Friedlander’s intimate knowledge of writers’ blogs, I found the following comment interesting: 

But today anyone traveling the blogosphere will see that the writers of these [writers’] blogs have not made the leap to become published book authors. Maybe it’s a case of different skill sets. Writing a 500-word blog post takes a different kind of writing skill than trying to create a 200-page book from the wilds of your article archives.    (The Book Designer, June 29, 2015)

 

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So some blogs are good, some not so good.  Some bloggers are book writers, but most, apparently, are not.  My plan is to blog and write books.  And while my blog is based on what I have learned and continue to learn from my own self-publishing efforts, each entry will attempt to offer something useful to the newbie in self-publishing.