Each month Orna Ross and Joanna Penn join forces to bring you The Self-Publishing Salon, a live online broadcast where they discuss what’s going on in the publishing industry, and provide an update on the latest tools and techniques that are helping them achieve their writing and publishing goals.
If you’re committed to being a successful indie author, this conversation between The Bookseller’s “100 top people in publishing” and one of the Guardian UKs “Top creative Professionals” shouldn’t be missed.
The Self Publishing Salon June 2017
Here are the YouTube video and Soundcloud podcast, and below I’ve summarized the Salon topics that resonated with me. Listen or watch the broadcast for the full conversation.
Self Publishing Salon Video
Self Publishing Salon Podcast
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Self-Publishing Salon in brief
Each month I listen to this Salon and pick out the comments, information, and nuggets of information the pique my interest, but my recap does this Salon a disservice. These notes are merely the tip of the informational whirlwind that is the Ross-Penn broadcast! So, do yourselves a favor and listen to the podcast or watch the video in full.
Money and Creativity
Are you struggling with the balance between making Money and retaining your Creativity? This topic has been front and center for both Orna and Joanna, so it's no surprise if you've been struggling with this balancing act as well.
Orna has been delving into the topic as part of her research for the creation of her new How Authors Create Money and Meaning work-rest-play book.
Where Readers Convene
Where Readers ConveneThe Opening Up to Indie Authors book is being split up into shorter volumes, and the first volume is being rebranded and rereleased as “How to Get Your Books into Bookstores”.
Amazon Buy Button
Orna and Joanna wade through the mis-information about the Amazon Buy Button topic that has caused the ire of publishers and authors.
How to Market a Book – 3rd Edition
The 2nd Edition of Joanna's book was published in 2014, and with this 3rd edition there's some major rewrites needed to incorporate the major changes in the industry. Some of the biggest changes are around category hacking, analytics and paid advertising.
Joanna has included a chapter focused on print marketing. There's lots of reasons to be doing print marketing nowadays (e.g. it makes your ebooks seem like a good deal), and print marketing is different than ebook marketing.
This edition will also be available in audio, and Joanna is approaching how she's writing the content with this format in mind.
Choosing a Self-Publishing Service
This popular ALLi guide. How to Choose a Self-Publishing Service is currently also getting an update, and there have been so many changes in the last year that the updates couldn't be done with a minor overlay. Instead a major rewrites has been required and if you're an ALLi member you will be able to get an copy of all of our author guidebook for free as part of your membership.
KDP Categories
Listen to Joanna explain how you can add up to 10 categories to your book through Author Central. If you're still only using 2 – you're missing an opportunity to reach readers.
Dublin Writer's Conference
Orna is attending the Dublin Writer's Conference on the 25th June. It's a true hybrid conference. It's bringing craft and business together, and also trade and Indies together.
What Penn pages are selling?
It's that time of year when Joanna shares her end of year books sales. You can read her latest summary here:
My Breakdown Of Book Sales By Format, Vendor, Genre, And Country. May 2016 – April 2017
New Amazon Charts
New on the Book Charts scene is Amazon Charts that are featuring books based on Most Read and Most Sold. How long will it be before this list becomes THE list for the book industry?
Attention Economy
You're not entitled to your reader's attention, it's something you have to earn, and authors need to think about all the different ways their readers consume content. Do they still have time to read books or your website? Or should you be branching out into podcasts, audio books, or pitching your content TV?
Indie Author Fringe
On the topic of attention .. how do you get your readers to find out that your book exists, and then entice them to buy it? Our latest Indie Author Fringe event (June 3rd), which was Fringe to BookExpo focused on Book Marketing and Book Promotion. Click on the link to view the full agenda and see which sessions could help you sell more books.
Our next Self-Publishing Salon is on Tuesday June 27th
Where can I watch or listen to more Ask ALLi?
- You can catch up on all of our videos on ALLi’s YouTube Channel
- You can listen to all of our podcast recordings at ALLi’s SoundCloud Channel
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Meet the Ask ALLi Hosts
Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013.
She spent 13 years as a business IT consultant in large corporations across the globe before becoming a full-time author-entrepreneur in September 2011.
Connect with Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn
Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller’s “100 top people in publishing”.
She also publishes poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and is greatly excited by the democratising, empowering potential of author-publishing.
Connect with Orna on Twitter @OrnaRoss
