One of the best ways to learn as a writer is to study the work of other writers. And one of the best ways to learn as an entrepreneur is to study other entrepreneurs. So who should you learn from if you are an author who wants to not just write, but sell? Here are three authors whose blogs should be must-reads for you. These authors blog in an engaging, realistic way about not just the craft of writing, but the business side of it too. In no particular order... 1. J.A. Konrath (http://jakonrath.blogspot.ca/) Konrath's blog, affably titled 'A Newbie's Guide to Publishing,'...

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 seems this is happening before my eyes. To the right is a screenshot of my Hootsuite Twitter feed for the hashtag #pubtip, which as many self-publishers know, is a well-regarded search term for advice and tips for authors, originally started by literary agent Rachelle Gardner in...

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 companies were racing to build their public profile prior to going public. I used to do a lot of this stuff in Hong Kong, back in the day when page views rather than "friends" or retweets were the key metric; and with the prospect of high-rolling...

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, if you self-publish. It just won’t happen for most. Ted Heller recently wrote an article for Salon complaining about his own self-publishing experience. Heller had three previous books published the traditional way. When his latest book West of Babylon, didn’t get a bite, he decided to go the self-publishing...

This book had me diving into my current e-book projects within the first few minutes of opening the review copy, looking at how to improve the preview, feedback hooks, tagging, category choice, etc. And by the end, I had a whole checklist of sites to visit, tweaks to make, programs to sign up for. That's how useful it is. Irish author and self-publishing proselyte David Gaughran has turned himself into quite an advocate for the e-publishing revolution. Advocate is putting it mildly; I wouldn't like to be the publisher or vanity press on the receiving end of a diatribe like this....

A couple of weeks ago I read about Draft2Digital, an e-book distributor still in beta mode. They got my attention with their claim to be able to turn a Word doc into a functional EPUB or Mobi (Kindle) file. Naturally I had to check them out, so I asked for a beta code, and I've been playing around with their conversions ever since, to see if they're any good. The results so far have been fair. I threw them a Word doc of my nonfiction book, which had previously given Barnes & Noble fits. Amazon had handled it well, but the...

Adult Hardcover Revenues Down Nearly 7% in 2012 (GalleyCat) Next Time, I'll Self-Publish (The Indie Reader) Add Content From Other Services to your Kobo Library (Kobo Books) 3M Cloud Library Unveils Better Tools, More Titles (Digital Book World) Kindle Daily Deals: The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau (and 3 others)    ...

As a PubIt! author, I received a lovely invitation email today to check out Nook Press, Nook's new publishing platform. So what was the first thing I did when I had a moment to look at the email? I clicked on the link to check it out. And got a "Page Not Found" error. Not a good sign. I finally got to the site by a work around. I went PubIt, and it redirected me to Nook Press. Lucky for them I was willing to take a few extra steps. I was greeted by a screen that invited me to start by syncing...

Podcast: No Such Thing as Used E-Book (Publishers Weekly) Why do we keep making e-books like paper books? (Gizmodo) To save indies, publishers need to reconsider DRM (Dear Author) 10 Delicious Literary Beers to Drink While Reading (Flavorwire) Hugh Howey: Self-publishing is the future (Salon) Kindle Daily Deals: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (and 3 others)    ...

When I wrote last week about the implications of the Goodreads/Amazon merger, I missed one particularly important reason Amazon may have decided to purchase the social reading site. But before I mention it, let me step back for a moment. I've been seeing some good quality books coming out of Amazon's publishing imprints, Thomas & Mercer and AmazonCrossing. I'm finding them from the ads on my Kindle Touch because, not surprisingly, Amazon is heavily promoting their own books through Kindle ads. So far this year, I've borrowed and read Alan Russell's Burning Man, Rachel Abbott's Only the Innocent, and Rosa Montero's Tears in Rain (which...

Self-publishing means anyone can put out a book—from first-time authors trying to make a name for themselves, to celebrities who have the star power necessary to move units. The next big name to jump into the self-publishing fray? Actor Jim Carrey. According to a video interview Carrey conducted with the website, Hit Fix he's publishing a children’s book titled How Roland Rolls. “It's a story about a wave named Roland," Carrey told Hit Fix, who's afraid when one day he hits the beach [that] his life is going to be over. It’s deep. He’s struck by the notion that he’s not just the wave—that he’s the...

Ebooks: Newspapers should capitalize on their archives (The Guardian) Bookstore browsing vital for publishing, research finds (The Bookseller) Are African writers and readers ready for the e-book revolution? (The Creative Penn) Short Books + Fast Books (and Diet) = Indie Success (Publishing Perspectives) Kindle Daily Deals: Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut (and 3 others)...