Sunday Self-Publishing Round-up [26 June]

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It was a week you’ll remember for finding out JK Rowling was joining us as a self-publisher, bringing Harry Potter to an e-reader near you.

Harry Potter to be self-published on an e-reader near you

Kindle iconChildren’s book author JK Rowling announced she would at last be making the Harry Potter kids’ books available as ebooks - previously she’d worried about piracy (and also whether it was worth closing a stable door when you’ve not seen the horse for a few years).

Someone’s cast a spell on her in the meantime and she’s not only embracing ebooks, she’s embracing self-publishing them.

They’ll be available through her new site and, because they have no DRM, can be uploaded to any e-reader, so they’re good for the Kindle, the iPad, etc.

As Wired says:

Rowling is without a doubt the single most significant author to have turned their back on established publishing houses at a time when the industry is in limbo and the tools are available to create meaningful and innovative digital publications untethered from a small stranglehold of publishers whose businesses are built upon the printed page.

This is great news for self-publishers because it gives people another reason to buy an e-reader on which they can buy your work.

Incidentally, Rowling has a video on the Pottermore site. Watch it and tell me how often you think her face moves. I think it’s only about three times in the whole thing.

Booksellers refusing to stock Amazon books

Kindle iconAmazon is pushing into publishing with various imprints that it wants to sell through bricks and mortar stores.

This isn’t going over well with some of those stores, as seen in this exchange between Seattle Mystery Bookshop and an author who’d offered to come in to sign his books, published by Amazon’s mystery imprint.

Aside from the obvious, note this was a traditionally-published author organising his own marketing. Not so very different from us, are they :-)

Is salesmanship the future for traditional publishers?

Kindle iconTim Worstall suggests in Forbes that:

Authors in general, being shy retiring creatures happy in their darkened studies and playing with words, are not really the world’s greatest salesmen. But with hundreds of thousands of new titles each year (a number that self-publishing will only increase) there are good salespeople out there who could, with a decent contractual structure, provide that service.

Those salespeople are right now called publishers, he suggests.

A question about authoress headshots

Kindle iconThis week I gave the Kindle Publishing Roadmap seminar (under the title Sell Your Ebook on Amazon) at the Sydney Writers’ Centre (next one in August, see speaking engagements).

One of the attendees, Raidah Shah Idil, author of Finding Jamilah, wrote about it afterwards and asked in her blog about female author photographs, so if you have any advice…

In this corner of the world

HeadphonesI asked if self-publishing should be easier and interviewed Brian Lawrenson, travel writer and self-publishing success story. It was a great week for Taleist because both of those proved instantly to be hugely popular posts.

Steven Lewis and Brian McHenry

Interviewing Brian McHenry, the GM of Lilianfels

If you’ve been enjoying the podcasts, a review on iTunes would be hugely appreciated!

Speaking of audio productions, my wife and I spent the weekend at Lilianfels in the Blue Mountains making one of our Taleist travel features for V Australia’s infight entertainment. It was lovely and somewhat eccentric (if you’re interested, the feature is here).

Success story

Memograms coverReader Peter Hart used Kindle Formatting to prepare Memograms: The Fun Way to Remember Hard-to-Spell Words, which he has just self-published. It’s a collection of humorous mnemonics for 120 of the most difficult words to spell.

Of Kindle Formatting, Peter says:

You explain some things so much better than other so-called ‘experts’ that I have read (and paid for) that it’s almost a joke. With your help, assembling my Kindle book was a breeze.” – Peter Hart author of Memograms

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by in Blog, Self-publishing news, Success stories

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About Steven Lewis

Steven Lewis is a writer, ghostwriter, journalist and publisher. He also gives training in online marketing and social media.
  • http://profiles.google.com/odyssey9794 Peter Hart

    Thanks a bunch for the mention, Steven. Much appreciated.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/ted.skewes Ted Skewes

    Tim Worstall suggests in Forbes that: …..
    This is so obvious, so why aren’t there hundreds of sales-people out there offering to do all the sales and marketing for a percentage?

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    • http://www.taleist.com Steven Lewis

      Hi @facebook-1642779339:disqus ,

      One theory — mine — would be that there aren’t enough writers prepared to back themselves.

      In the traditional publishing model, the writer backs himself through the writing process but then hands the work over to the publisher who turns it into a book and handles distribution. The author might get nothing at this stage or an advance but the author certainly isn’t parting with any cash.

      I would say many writers don’t cost the time they’ve spent writing because it’s fun and they don’t have to pay any actual money to do it. They don’t count the opportunity cost — they could have been making money at a second job or spending more time with family, etc.

      As far as they’re concerned, therefore, the book has cost them nothing and will now make them some money.

      As a PR and marketing consultant I do cost my time, so for me to take on a sales role for a book I’ll expect to be paid for that time. The author would then, therefore, have to back themselves financially through the sales process.

      The writing part might have been “free” but now they’re going to have to part with money to make money. If I, the salesman, charged my time at as little as $100/hour, you’d have to sell 350 books at 99 cents to pay for a single hour.

      It takes real self-belief to start parting with money.

      This is where I think publishers have had a bum rap. We read so much about how little they give the writer in terms of royalty but it’s the publisher who is taking the risk. If the book doesn’t sell, the writer is no worse off but the publisher has lost all the money they’ve spent on people like me (and any royalty).

      If the writer won’t back himself, he needs the salesman to take the risk, as publishers have. The salesman won’t do so for less than a similar share of the royalty pot as previously went to the traditional publisher: the greater the risk, the more the reward.

      When authors know that pot is 70% of the sale price of the book, they’re going to expect the lion’s share because it is, after all, their fine words that are making the book fly off the shelves.

      It comes back to my favourite hobby horse that publishing — and self-publishing — is a business and you need a business attitude to the risks, rewards and costs.

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