Writing: Why this Indie Author’s Going Back to the Book This Year
Indie author Ben Galley provides us all with a licence to spend more time writing and shares his four top…
Top Tips on Crowdfunding for Authors
Authorpreneur Ben Galley kicks off his role as ALLi's new Crowdfunding Advisor with an introduction to the concept of crowdfunding…
How to Choose the Best Self-Publishing Service
A profile of ALLi's Choosing A Self-Publishing Service Guide by its co-author, Ben Galley, one of ALLi's Watchdog team. As…
Ingram Spark Not Bright For Self-Publishers
Here’s some news straight from the buzzing stalls of Book Expo America. There are some big changes afoot at Ingram,…
Indie Authors ALLi Watchdog Warning: Archway Publishing
The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) is concerned about the email approach being made by Archway Publishing to a…
Lightning Source Best for Self-Publishers?
Ben Galley
Today, in the third part of our ‘Which Distributor' series where Alliance members share the experiences they've enjoyed with distributors, author Ben Galley gives us his take on Print on Demand (POD) company Lightning Source:
If your book were a delicious pie, distributors would be the ones who put it in the hands of the supermarkets.
It's a very simple analogy, but it rings true. Distribution is the supply link between our printers and the bookstores, and without it, our books would simply never reach our readers' hands. That's a painful vision. And to me, so is keeping a veritable mountain of books in your garage, shipping one at a time, staring at the big hole in your bank account.
No, thank you, I want a different road.
With the advent of the digital revolution came Print on Demand, and with it came distribution relationships. Now, POD companies have forged relationships with the wholesaler distributors to allow us indies access to
How to get your Self-Published Books into Bookstores
For a lot of self-publishing authors, getting their books into big-chain bookshops can seem as impossible as hitting a space station with a sling-shot.
There is something of a validation in walking into a bookshop, especially a big-chain branch, and spying your book on the shelf. It’s something we crave as indie authors. But as indies, with corporate structure and head office guidelines, that shelf can often seem a million miles away.
But is getting our books into big chains as impossible as we think?
HOW I DID IT
I’m a fantasy author of The Emaneska Series and my books The Written and Pale Kings are permanently stocked in some 20+ Waterstones stores across the UK. I hold regular signings and events at a large number of branches across the South and the Midlands – around twenty so far in the past year.
I’ve just finished one