Tag: Publishing Industry

International Kudos for Indies Unlimited

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Advice website for independent authors receives thumbs-up from publishing journal

Chewelah, WA – 8/2/2017 – Indies Unlimited, a website that celebrates and supports independent authors, received a recommendation from a respected authority this week. No Shelf Required, a highly-respected online journal on all aspects of eBooks and digital content, touted Indies Unlimited as “that single, reliable resource … needed to help novice indie authors.”

This is not the first time Indies Unlimited has won critical acclaim. In 2014, it was listed in Publishers Weekly magazine as one of Six Great Blogs for Indie Authors.

“This was completely unexpected,” said K.S. Brooks, who administers the site and who is an award-winning author of more than 30 titles in her own right. “No Shelf Required columnist Peyton Stafford and I were discussing eBooks in libraries, and the next thing I knew, this article was in my inbox. I’m thrilled to death.”

No Shelf Required features contributions from book and library professionals and thought leaders in the United States and around the world. The article advised librarians, “if your problem is where to refer your indie authors, then your solution is Indies Unlimited. Here, they will find the help and advice they need to write, edit, publish and market their books without being taken advantage of by the many author scams that prey on indies.” You can read the entire article here: http://www.noshelfrequired.com/indies-unlimited-a-one-stop-source-of-reliable-information-for-indie-authors/

You can learn more about Indies Unlimited at www.IndiesUnlimited.com, and more about K. S. Brooks at www.ksbrooks.com.

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Indie Publishing is Like Yoga

writing exercise stretching-498256_960_720Thank goodness we don’t have to do the Downward Facing Dog. No one wants to see me do that. What we do need, though, is flexibility. Flexibility in all things Indie: how we look at writing itself, how we market, what our covers look like, how long or short our blurbs are: everything.

Indie Publishing was easier four or five years ago. I published my first book in September of 2012. I sold 82 copies that first month, and was thrilled. As soon as I hit the 30-day cliff, though, that booked stopped selling. I sold two copies in a week. So, I did a free promo and gave away almost 25,000 copies. Total cost of that promo? Zero dollars. There was no Bookbub yet, and all the sites were just looking for free books to feature. I applied, they featured me, and the free downloads poured in. Continue reading “Indie Publishing is Like Yoga”

Indie News Beat: Which Perspective Would You Like with 2014?

As another New Year kicks off, it’s worth taking a look around at what’s being said about this crazy industry we call publishing. For many of us, it’s the data that matters: the most popular sites for readers, the titles they’re buying, which genres are ‘hot’ (and is there a snowball’s chance in hell we could bang out 50k words before that genre goes cold?). However much we may dislike marketing our books, we need to decide where they should be, what the ideal price point is, and many more variables which could see a few more copies downloaded.

So what might this year hold? If you can make it through the hyperbole, a good place to start is Ten Bold Predictions for 2014. Yes, last year was the best ever, except that now the price of eBooks is “plummeting”. Good news for readers, but if the mainstreams are finally bringing eBook prices down to what Independent Authors have been selling them at for a while, where does that leave the latter? Another telltale factoid is that “ebook revenue has tapered off”, which also supports the suggestion that mainstreams now understand they’ve milked the eBook market as much as they can. The problem for Independent Authors is that it removes a fundamental selling point: that our ebooks were cheaper.

An interesting perspective, and much useful information, is to be had in this article by Paul Jarvis. He describes his own experiences with using Indie sites to sell his books, and talks about publishing a book on Amazon as though it were a bit of a chore: “It took 12 hours [for his book to be on sale] which isn’t bad… Basically, there’s a lot of waiting for Amazon…” I found Jarvis’s use of Indie sites to sell his books to be a refreshing change, given that in my experience, Amazon is the number one place where a book has to be available. Continue reading “Indie News Beat: Which Perspective Would You Like with 2014?”

You Asked For It: Melody Stiles (part 2)

This is the second of two posts in response to the topic raised by Melody Stiles for discussion here at Indies Unlimited, to wit:

“Why is there still such a stigma, even among writers, about self-publishing?”

Last week I opined about the manner in which the self/vanity publishing scams of olden tymes (a few years ago) have left a legacy of sleaziness that is still applied today to “Indie” publishing, even by some writers. Continue reading “You Asked For It: Melody Stiles (part 2)”