TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics » self-publishing

A War Against the Indie Author?

Joanna Cabot — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:44:17 +0000

First came this one, at one of my favorite e-book blogs, Good e-Reader: ‘Self-Published Authors are Destroying Literature.’ Then, a day later, this one from the same writer: ‘The Vast Majority of Indie Authors Will Never be Taken Seriously‘. So … what’s going on? Did somebody kick Michael Kozlowski’s puppy, or does he have a point? [...]

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Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing: The religious debate

Chris Meadows — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:09:48 +0000

Seriously, that’s what it’s become at this point. We’ve seen traditional publishers attack self-publishing with all the fervor of a Catholic denouncing Calvinism, and it’s not surprising to see self-publishing advocates respond in kind. In particular, my attention was drawn by this counter-rant by Libbie Hawker on The Seattle Vine. Hawker’s rant, of course, has [...]

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Self-publishing saves a home

Chris Meadows — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:54:22 +0000

You won’t see this kind of success story out of just any self-publishing writer, but it’s great when you come across it. CBS News reports on a couple going by the pseudonym “Jack and Jasinda Wilder” who have five children, and who hit a financial crisis when one of the kids’ illnesses and cuts at [...]

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From the KBoards, feedback on Profile Books’ managing director Andrew Franklin

Paul St John Mackintosh — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:31:35 +0000

After my coverage of the remarks by Profile Books’ Andrew Franklin, also picked up by others, I linked the original Guardian article to the KBoards Writer’s Cafe, the Kindle platform community’s author forum, inviting comment. Within a day, the thread attracted 134 responses. Here, as confirmed with the authors, are one or two of them. “What [...]

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Hey, Andrew Franklin: Self-published books enhance my world

Susan Lulgjuraj — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:15:22 +0000

I went through a phase where I wanted to become a book reviewer. Not just the books everyone else was reading, but indie books as well. My plan was to read a self-published book one week and a traditionally published book the next. I intended to go back and forth that way for quite some [...]

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Shaun Hutson’s backlist to keep readers awake through Caffeine Nights

Paul St John Mackintosh — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:20:21 +0000

Earlier this month, independent UK house Caffeine Nights Publishing announced that they would be publishing the upcoming novel “Monolith” from veteran and highly prolific UK horror writer Shaun Hutson—sometimes know as the Godfather of Gore—and releasing over 30 of his backlist titles as e-books. “We live in darker times and real horror writing should reflect [...]

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Profile Books founder Andrew Franklin lays into self-publishing

Paul St John Mackintosh — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 23:01:20 +0000

UK independent publisher Andrew Franklin, founder and managing director of Profile Books, delivered a virulent assault on the current self-publishing environment at the Literary Consultancy conference Writing in a Digital Age in London, as reported in The Guardian. “The overwhelming majority [of self-published books] are terrible—unutterable rubbish,” Franklin said. “They don’t enhance anything in the [...]

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A Conundrum for an Aspiring Self-Publisher

Joanna Cabot — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 21:58:20 +0000

I had a fascinating conversation today with an aspiring self-publisher. I accompanied my kindergarten classes on a field trip to a conservation area, and during the lunch break I was chatting with our tour guide, who happens to be an aspiring author. He took the guide job because he loves working with kids, and the [...]

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Attention Self-Publishers: Beware the Superego!

Paul St John Mackintosh — Thu, 30 May 2013 15:53:36 +0000

This post comes out of a tendency I’ve noticed in myself, as well as in very many self-published authors across the Kindle Boards, on Facebook, on Twitter and elsewhere. It’s a tendency that does reflect the early maturity of the self-publishing sector, as well as the lonesome cowboy mentality of many self-published authors. Because that [...]

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A Conversation With Author Tobias Buckell About Self-Publishing Hype

Paul St John Mackintosh — Tue, 28 May 2013 21:00:58 +0000

Well-regarded Tor and self-published author Tobias Buckell just posted a wide-ranging analysis of the hype and letdown attached to much current self-publishing that has been getting considerable airtime on Facebook and elsewhere: “Survivorship bias: why 90% of the advice about writing is bullshit right now.” He followed up with me by answering some questions at length. [...]

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Self-Publishing Social Media Saturation: Is it already here?

Paul St John Mackintosh — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:15:56 +0000

Earlier I wrote about the possibility that the new channels of e-book marketing might soon be saturated by the efforts of a new generation of publicists, agents and book promoters—once these had mastered social media and other techniques for getting their message in front of readers—to the detriment of indies or individual self-publishers. Now it [...]

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Diminishing returns dawn for self-publishing?

Paul St John Mackintosh — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:36:17 +0000

This is as much a thought piece and a kickoff for discussion as a fully fleshed-out article, but it goes like this: Is the end of the golden age of self-publishing already in sight? Part of the reasoning behind this comes from the dawn of the dot-com era just over a decade ago, when Internet [...]

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Self-publishing author Ted Heller doesn’t like the process. That may be because he’s doing it wrong.

Susan Lulgjuraj — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:23:16 +0000

Self-publishing is not for everyone. It’s not for the impatient. It’s not for those dreaming of great successes. Self-publishing is one of the hardest gigs to get into—that has been proven by hundreds (if not thousands) of authors who have self-published books. That’s not to say you cannot have great success, or even quick success, [...]

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David Gaughran on traditional media exposure for self-publishers

Paul St John Mackintosh — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:00:18 +0000

After reading my review of David Gaughran’s self-help guide to visibility-raising for self-publishers, Let’s Get Visible: How to Get Noticed and Sell More Books, Gaughran himself got in touch with me and outlined some of his views on traditional media exposure and self-publishing. As I noted in the review, traditional publicity venues didn’t feature much in [...]

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Canadian Writers’ Union to Consider Self-Published Authors

Susan Lulgjuraj — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:01:35 +0000

As self-publishers gain legitimacy, the Writers’ Union of Canada is considering membership for the indie authors. The story was first reported on CBC (and linked to on The Passive Voice). The union represents more than 1,900 authors in Canada. The voting will take place at the end of the month in Ottawa. “I think it’s [...]

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