Author: Martin Crosbie

Martin Crosbie is the administrator of BookDoggy.com and writer of seven published novels. His self-publishing journey has been mentioned in Publisher’s Weekly, Forbes Online Magazine, and Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. You can learn more about Martin on his Amazon author page.

There is no recipe for a secret sauce. Maybe.

Have you ever been in the middle of telling a story, just about to reach the climax, and everybody turned away and you weren’t able to finish. That happened to me a couple of weeks ago, except I was conducting a workshop via Skype and the power, literally went out.

One of the very cool things that happens when you achieve a little bit of success from self-publishing is that people think you have something to say. They think you have the ingredients to the secret sauce. In fact, after I passed along some advice to a fellow author a few months back, that’s exactly what she told me. She said, “You just gave me the ingredients to the secret sauce.” It reminds me of the book/movie “Fight Club”. “The first rule of Fight Club is-there is no Fight Club. That’s incorrect of course, because there was a Fight Club. Well, the first rule of self-publishing is that there is no recipe for the secret sauce. Maybe. Continue reading “There is no recipe for a secret sauce. Maybe.”

The Blog Nobody Wanted to Publish (Except Indies Unlimited)

I’ve written a couple of articles for a local newspaper over the past few months. They have a large circulation, and they’re a cutting-edge newspaper, so it’s been very cool to see my name on their site. After attending a self-publishing fair recently I submitted an article to them. They passed, and so did one of their competitors. It might be the quality of the content or it might be the content itself. I’ll let you be the judge. Indies Unlimited stepped up and published it and I’m very thankful to them. Here it is in its entirety. Continue reading “The Blog Nobody Wanted to Publish (Except Indies Unlimited)”

BUY/LIKE MY BOOK/PAGE/WEBSITE

I will, right after you kiss my A**

I’m sorry but I’ve hit the wall. I’m tired of it. I don’t want to be asked to “like” your product page or check out your website or buy your book. The fact that we follow each other on Twitter or are brand new Facebook friends just isn’t enough. We might get to the point where we talk about each other’s work and I may be interested in buying your book at some point but it can’t be the first thing you ask me to do. It absolutely has to stop. Continue reading “BUY/LIKE MY BOOK/PAGE/WEBSITE”

Createspace’s Expanded Distribution – Yes or No?

[For an update on Createspace’s Expanded Distribution program, please read Lynne Cantwell’s article here. – the admins]

Createspace is Amazon’s print-on-demand company. They’re the same guys but they’re run as a separate company. Amazon is in Seattle and Createspace is in Las Vegas. I self-published two ebooks through Amazon (KDP), and the same two books in print form through Createspace. Unfortunately, when I had to contact them to deal with different issues that sometimes come up when you publish your own book, I had to speak to each company individually. So, that means emailing Amazon for your ebook queries or contacting Createspace by email or talking to them on the phone. Yep, they’ll talk to you. You instant message them from their website and ask them to phone you. I’ve done the phone deal five or six times and each time my phone has rang within five minutes of messaging them. It’s a great system and they’ve been very good in helping me.

I was asked recently whether I utilized Createspace’s Expanded Distribution feature and paid the $25 fee. I did-both times. This is the blurb from Createspace’s website detailing what Expanded Distribution means and how it expands the reach of your book to their additional outlets and distributors: Continue reading “Createspace’s Expanded Distribution – Yes or No?”