By William C. Tracy Editorial note: This is the second in a two-part series from William C. Tracy. Part 1 focused on publishing and release costs, comparing traditional and indie publishing. Part 2 will present marketing resources, including a Google Sheets template, to help authors calculate their book costs.   Welcome back! If you read […]

by William C. Tracy Editorial note: This is the first in a two-part series from William C. Tracy. Part 1 will focus on publishing and release costs, comparing traditional and indie publishing. Part 2 will present marketing resources, including a Google Sheets template, to help authors calculate their book costs. How much do you make […]

by Marie Andreas New year, new you, new stories! And, as always, new ways to increase your productivity. Every January, writers look at ways to increase their output. Whether you’re a casual writer or one making a living at it—we always want to be more effective with what writing time we have. But how to […]

Is using direct sales the right new channel for your books? By Kelly McClymer Direct sales are a hot topic for indie authors right now and will only get hotter in 2024. The two main reasons are: Readers spoiled by the wide range of books available for purchase online are no longer hesitant to buy […]

By Steven Radecki During the more than a decade that I have been involved in indie publishing, I have worked with more than three hundred authors. One thing I have discovered is that, just as publishing is not a one-size-fits-all process, neither is how individual writers conceive of their success. Managing your own goals and […]

By John Wilker In my previous post on going Wide for the Win, I gave an overview of an author’s options when self-publishing wide, which means offering your books beyond Amazon. In this article, we’ll delve into how you can best leverage each of those outlets for promotions. Kobo Kobo offers a wide array of […]

By Anthony W. Eichenlaub Genre: A marketing construct. Its only purpose is to get books into the hands of people who will enjoy them. There are other definitions, of course. People debate endlessly about the essential nature of cyberpunk or whether certain stories qualify as science fiction or fantasy. These conversations are fascinating, fun, and […]

By Scott King Writing book descriptions sucks, but it doesn’t have to be hard. If you can write a whole dang novel, you have it in you to write a quick, simple description for a back cover, a pitch, or online stores. Book descriptions are a marketing tool to sell your books and establish reader […]

By William C. Tracy Congrats! You’re an indie author! You’ve written a book, (hopefully) had critiques and edited it, put it all together, and thrown it up on Amazon. Time to watch the money roll in, right? Well, not exactly. Amazon books don’t sell themselves. Especially in these waning years of the golden indie author […]

by Rachel A. Rosen It’s a good time to be Weird. There’s a plethora of new titles and an explosion of microgenres targeted to specific tastes. Looking for post-capitalist solarpunk utopias? Poetic meditations on fungi? They’re out there. And the traditional publishing industry is—agonizingly slowly—platforming BIPOC, queer, and trans creators with unique lenses on our […]