Self-publishing News: A New Home

Excuse me while I just settle down and get comfortable in my new home here on a Tuesday. I look forward to welcoming you here. OK, now I've popped next door to Monday's opinion column and borrowed a pint of milk, here we go.

Kobo

In case it sometimes seems that when it comes to ebook platforms we only talk about Kindle, it's good this week to be able to bring not one but two stories about Kobo, who have agreed two exciting new partnerships. They have expanded their cooperation with European retail giant FNAC to sell their ereaders in Spain. And in South America, they have teamed with Brazilian bricks and mortar chain Blooks to sell their ebooks in store.

Mailchimp Alert

We indies are very fond of building our mailing lists. We have become increasingly aware of their usefulness for organic marketing. And many of us rely for our mailing list and newsletter building upon Mailchimp. So the news of an alert over potential malware being distributed via mailchimp list hacking is very worrying. So keep an eye on your mailchimp security.

What Amazon are not doing now

You seemed to like last week's picture of Duke Humfrey's Library, so here is another picture of a wonderful literary venue, Oxford's Ashmoelan Museum – last week I was lucky enough to tell stories in the midst of a collection of Stradivarii.

We told you a little while ago that Amazon's clamp down on reviews for giveaways did not apply to books. Now Amazon's vice has been turned even tighter, and a limit of 5 non-verified reviews per customer per week has been introduced. Before writers rush to panic about what that means for them, we can reassure you that this doesn't apply to books either.

Ebook sales are not decreasing everywhere

We are always reading about the decline of ebook sales (and this week is no exception), so it is interesting to read that whilst there might be a decrease in revenues (marking the ubiquitous fall in ebook pricing), there has been a 1.7% increase in ebook sales numbers in Germany.

Wattpad

It's been a while since we brought you anything from super-platform Wattpad, but this week saw two significant pieces of news. St Martins (who started the whole indie breakthrough thing going when they signed Amanda Hocking) has just signed the site's fantasy sensation, Kara Barbieri's White Stag. And a new partnership with Universal Cable Productions will use the site’s incredibly high levels of readership and reader feedback to help spot emerging trends for the television market, with a view to potentially picking up stories for development.

New from ALLi's Watchdog

It's been a big week for our Watchdog. You can find ratings on the services page for the following new entries:

Inkwater
WriteIndia / Times of India
Bookbub
Freebooksy
Bargain Booksy
Fussy Librarian
ProofProfessor
Inkshares

But even more exciting is a new remit for our Watchdog, who will now be looking at prizes and awards, weighing them up in the light of several key criteria for indies. There will be a big and detailed unveiling soon, so I won't steal too much thunder, but if you head over to the prizes and awards page, you can start getting yourself informed about where you should and where you maybe should think twice about submitting your books.

And finally…

For many indies, a spot on BookBub is the holy grail of marketing opportunities. The latest post on their author-facing blog is a must read, offering a real insight into how their editors go about selecting books for inclusion.

Upcoming Conferences and Events

DECEMBER 2016

Futurebook, Dec 2 [London]

JANUARY 2017

Digital Book World, Jan 17-19 [New York]

FEBRUARY 2017

San Francisco Writers Conference, Feb 16-19 [San Francisco] Association of Writers and Writing Programs, Feb 8 [Washington]

MARCH 2017

London Book Fair, Mar 14-16 [London] Indie Author Fringe, Mar 18

APRIL 2017

Resonate, Apr 19-22 [Belgrade] The Self-publishing Conference, Apr 22 [Leicester]

MAY 2017

99U Conference, May 5 [New York] Book Expo America, May 31 – Jun 2[New York]

JUNE 2017

Indie Author Fringe, Jun 3

OCTOBER 2017

Frankfurt Book Fair, Oct 11-15 [Frankfurt] Indie Author Fringe, Oct 14