Posted on 2013-May-08
Updated Preamble
Owing to the long establishment of publishing industry, perhaps it is undeniable that the print industry has written the preamble to the new chapter of digital publication as it is now. Somehow, the preamble like any writing needs to be updated every once in a while—especially when the writing deals with an ever-changing landscape.
False Promises
The news-making Author Solutions’ lawsuit emerges here and there and gets some attention from authors who pledge to defend their allegiance of emerging colleagues. If you are a new writer in town and pursuant of external help, you must be extra careful not to get sucked into the whirlwind of false promises offered by these vanity publishing presses. David Gaughran is vocal to dig up the nasty details behind the operational direction under the mentioned publisher as he gave his comments in Good E Reader blog.
Free Promotion Tools
Thankfully, Sarah Woodbury offers useful advice how to start your writing career and bring your books to public attention. To be able to achieve such goals requires you to strategically experiment with sales and promotion. Lindsay Buroker actively advocates the free promotion websites that will help boost your book to the limelight. Although the lack of exposure to KDP Select program is clearly recorded in the first paragraph on her blog, Joseph Turkot fills in the blanks with tidbits of details giving his book as an example. Joe describes that the exclusive program has helped him enter a Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) that has a growing number of Amazon Prime Members. Apart from the usual sales statistics, he was also entitled to additional royalties per borrow.
Less Expensive Alternatives for Promotion
Although some might argue that the exclusivity period is not the main interest to be locked in for 90 days, perhaps you can use the free book tool to your advantage. If these are not enough to promote your discoverability, you can turn to Kindle Nation Daily’s Facebook page for a reasonable price to start. With alluring giveaway campaigns, chances are your books will attract a wider circulation of readers outside the mainstream category. Pixel of Ink is another great contender considering their free submission and less expensive featured spots. Apart from the websites mentioned above, you can also take Joe Konrath’s ebooksbuster.com among several other promoting methods into consideration.
Transitional Period before Going Fully Digital
That should bring us to the finale of the grand revelation about the changing scenario in the publishing world. Barry Eisler, on behalf of The Guardian, describes how Kindle has changed the industry since 2007. This particular change revolutionizes the way paper was seen as the only medium for books and publishers were the only distributional channel authors could rely on. 85% of revenues refer to the amount of money author has to pay their publisher to successfully get a book published. Although J. K. Rowling appears to be the perfect model for such a deal, digital distribution has brought in an alternative that authors can choose to bypass traditional publishers and earn higher royalties on “push-button à la carte service” from online retailers.
No-Obligation Choices
Authors have more choices to make a decision whether they want the “hybrid” or “self-published” professional status. Somehow, based on Barry’s personal experience, the reception was quite negative during his keynote speech at 21st annual Pike’s Peak Writers Conference. Barry points out that the legacy publishing will only be something a writer might only want instead of something they need. In his final sentence, he concludes that publishing is evolving. This statement is significant for all authors and publishers to quell their fear that this is not the end of the world. Publishers can learn to coexist with self-published authors if they know how to be useful in the wake of new emerging choices.
Label: Marketing
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