Thanks to Nate over at The Digital Reader for alerting me to this great blog post by author Lindsay Buroker. Buroker runs through a number of Amazon 'tricks' which, for various reasons, are losing steam as powerhouse author tools. Some tools, such as tagging and keyword manipulation, never worked that well anyway because people don't tend to search for books using those methods. Others, such as freebie promotions, are less potent than they used to be because of Amazon's restrictions on these practices. So, what was Buroker's perhaps surprising conclusion? She points out that authors should not lose heart when these things...

Being able to trust a book review on popular sites such as Amazon and Goodreads is getting difficult. These sites have fake reviews—some good and some bad—designed to work the system by raising and droping books in the rankings. Amy Holman Edelman and those at IndieReader are looking to help readers with this problem. They recently created a Kickstarter campaing to raise funds for Rabble Reads, a website with aggregated book reviews for both traditionally published and self-published books. (Think Rotten Tomatoes for readers.) [caption id="attachment_80523" align="alignright" width="176"] Amy Holman Edelman[/caption] “This site will help people to zero in and what’s good and what’s not,” says Holman Edelman, of Montclair, N.J....

Allen Schatz published his first book two years ago. After things didn’t work out with an agent, he went the self-publishing route and knew he had to market on his own, which meant contacting reviewers. Some said yes, many said no. But Schatz noticed a change in the business around this time and self-publishing didn’t seem like a death sentence for his writing career. “By the time my former agent released me, things had changed enough for me to go the self-publishing route,” said Schatz, whose first book was Game 7: Dead Ball. “It really wasn’t hard finding reviewers. There are a number of...

We recently had our Family Day long weekend, and the Beloved and I spent some of it at the home of his sister. She's the mother of a toddler and a newborn, and while we were visiting, the subject of books came up. I enjoyed having the opportunity to pick the brain of a parent on this particular subject. (What did this mom think were the biggest mistakes children's book publishers are making? What does she look for when she shops for her kids?) Some of her comments surprised me. 1. Children's Book Advertising Why aren't they doing this? That was her biggest...

According to the Huffington Post, three independent bookstores are filing a class action suit against Amazon and the "Big Six" publishers. Alyson Decker of Blecher & Collins PC, lead counsel acting for the bookstores, described DRM as "a problem that affects many independent bookstores." She said the complaint is still in the process of being served to Amazon and the publishers, and declined to state how it came about, or whether other bookstores had been approached to be party to the suit. "We are seeking relief for independent brick-and-mortar bookstores so that they would be able to sell open-source and DRM-free books that...

The news, released today, that the San Francisco-based Inkling has decided to give away for free its "collaborative digital publishing environment" known as Inkling Habitat was probably the e-publishing community's most eyebrow-raising story of the week thus far. As Laura Hazard Owen wrote today for Paid Content, the company "has spent three years and $30 million to build Habitat, a cloud-based set of digital publishing tools that let users create and collaborate on high-quality, interactive ebooks." That sounds like fairly exciting stuff. Although if Inking Habitat actually manages to get itself off the proverbial ground over the next few months with any sort...

Self-publishing a book can come with pre-conceived notions from readers, other writers and even publishers. People used to think self-publishing a book meant it wasn’t good enough to get picked up by traditional houses. However, the stigma of self-publishing is changing. Success stories have become more and more abundant, and the shock those successes caused even five to 10 years ago is slowly beginning to dissipate. Those in the industry have watched the development closely. Smashwords founder Mark Coker began his site five years ago as an outlet for self-published authors. It started small and has grown into a site where nearly...

According to a press release distributed late last week by BookBaby, the self-described "one-stop self-publishing solution" and "the world's largest ebook distribution network for independent authors," the company has just announced a new partnership with the Malaysia-based eSentral. Perhaps not coincidentally, eSentral is itself the biggest e-book store in Southeast Asia. [caption id="attachment_77962" align="alignright" width="125"] BookBaby president Brian Felsen[/caption] "I’m thrilled to add eSentral to our growing list of partners,” says BookBaby president Brian Felsen. “Now our authors can sell their books on the big e-book retail sites in over 200 countries, and manage it all from one account." Along with eSentral, BookBaby’s e-book distribution network includes Amazon, Barnes &...

If the true definition of entrepreneurship is the process of finding a need and filling it, then it must also be true that C. Max Magee, founding editor of the online literary magazine The Millions (photo at right), is a publishing hustler of the highest order. Yesterday, the 10-year-old site, which primarily covers literary topics and book reviews, announced the launch of a new e-book publishing initiative known as The Millions Originals. According to Magee, the general idea behind The Millions Originals is to "give our talented writers a platform to publish as ebooks longer, magazine-quality pieces that will explore a variety...

By Eugene G. Schwartz Where is the book industry going; what will my workplace and career opportunities be like; what do I need to know to keep up with the times? Or, in a more cosmic vein, what does the future hold? In an effort to answer these questions, publishers have settled each year into a series of industry meetings of general interest. Each has a unique theme, as noted below. They make the effort to bring together a cross section of publishers, associations, service providers and media professionals to connect with audiences ranging from first-time aspirants to seasoned managers and executives...

Along with the Financial Times, The Telegraph, and The Guardian, just about every UK-based newspaper that covers the publishing industry ran the sort of 'E-Books Will Save Us!' story yesterday that seems forehead-slappingly obvious at first glance ... and yet is nevertheless rather comforting to read—especially considering that the good news has been officially confirmed with real figures. Here's the deal: Bloomsbury Publishing, it seems, has just reported "a [two percent] overall decline in [print] title sales" for the last four months of 2012. However, due to the fact that the company's e-book sales jumped 58 percent year-on-year in the same period, Bloomsbury's year-on-year operating...

By Gloria Quintanilla 2012 felt like a decisive year for print. E-Book sales surpassed print book sales on Amazon for the first time, and widely-read publications like Newsweek decided to give up on print media altogether, and instead to transition fully into digital publishing. All the while, pundits are still debating if there is a future for print in a world dominated by digital formats. Similar discussions are going on between book lovers and authors, who are worried about the publishing industry being ill equipped to respond to their demands. So here's the question: Is it possible to have the best of both worlds? Can...