Are Indie Authors Devaluing Books? By ALLi Community Builder, Melissa Foster
Are your books priced at 0.99c? Are you skipping out on editing or in too much of a hurry to…
50 Ways To Reach Your Reader #3: Websites for Indie Authors
Whether you sell books directly on your website or use it as a referral site to Amazon or another retailer,…
“Amazon Is Playing Indie Authors Like Pawns” says Mark Coker of Smashwords
MONDAY OPINION. Guest Post by Mark Coker. For more of Mark's thoughts on the dangers of exclusivity and importance of…
50 Ways To Reach Your Reader #1 Introduction
REMINDER: Don't forget our Shindig later today (3pm EST): How to Choose A Self-Publishing Partner. Your questions about self-publishing services answered…
Amazon Pen Name or Real Name?
What is an Amazon Pen Name? Your Amazon Pen Name is the public name associated with contributions to the Amazon…
How To Get Book Reviews
Trying to get readers to write a review is like getting your two-year-old child to take a horrible-tasting medicine, says ALLi member and regular contributor, Giacomo (Jim) Giammatteo. But it is possible and it is worth it. In the first of a three-part series on reviews, he explains how he gets more than twenty reviews a month.
The Process of Getting Reviews
I launched my book in mid April 2012. Since then I have managed to get seven editorial reviews, 77 reviews on Amazon, and another 44 reviews on Goodreads. No matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of reviews (more than 20 per month) so how do you get that many reviews?
I can tell you it’s not by having a big family. I didn't have my wife write one (mostly for fear of what she'd say) and I didn't have either of my sons write a review. A few family members did write reviews—the ones who read the kind of books I write. And guess what, one of those reviews was not a five star. (Yeah, I know. Tough family)
For what it’s worth, here’s the secret—work your
Indie Authors: How To Choose A Copyeditor
Sometimes an author needs a lot of hand holding …
How do you choose the right copyeditor for your book? And which kind of editor do you need anyway? ALLi member, indie author and ace copyeditor herself, CS Lakin, points the way.
Getting a personal recommendation of an editor from a trusted author friend is usually the best way to go. But even in those instances, you may find one author’s choice in an editor may not be your best choice.
Personality comes into play, and sometimes the fit just isn’t right. Sometimes an author needs a lot of communication and handholding, and some editors are all business, so see how the editor responds to your query and questions.
You should be able to tell by her personality and responsiveness to you if it feels like a good fit. An editor that doesn’t
Self-Publishing Survey
Help us to help you.
The Alliance of Independent Authors has teamed up with Dr Alison Baverstock of Kingston University to carry out a self-publishing survey this autumn.
To make it work, we need you to go to this link http://www.surveymonkey.
It won't take you more than ten minutes to complete and answers will be used to
Five Questions Indie Authors Should Always Ask An Agent
The great Max Perkins. But traditional publishing contracts won't suit indie authors.
As more and more self-publishing authors make a success of our endeavours, more agents and publishers come calling. But too often they come with a traditional publishing contract in hand. This fails to recognise that an indie author's situation is different to that of a tyro, unpublished author.
As self-publishers, we have built our readership and already have a following. Our e-rights are very valuable to us and we're not keen to bundle them with other rights. We expect publishers to understand that our situation is different — and to reflect this in their contractual terms and conditions.
Here are four questions that an indie should ask before signing any deal with an agent. (Please note, the first three questions pertain to signing with agents for English language rights; only the fourth to translation rights, which is a different proposition, requiring a different set of questions).
We'll have a blog post on that, and on questions to ask if you're considering signing directly with a publisher, soon.
1. Will my self-publishing income be
How Indie Authors Can Work With Trade Publishers
Jackie Collins now successfully combining self-publishing and trade-publishing
Today, in the fifth and final part of our ‘Which Distributor’ series, Orna Ross explains how independent authors can successfully work with trade publishers to distribute some of their books.
At a writers conference, an agent and writer are putting out tentative feelers towards each other. The agent is from a venerable company, with a long list of illustrious clients. The writer is an independent author, who has earned her indie spurs by successfully self-publishing two ebook thriller titles (with more on the way) and building a vibrant and growing fanbase, both for her books and her writing advice website.
The agent wants to sign this author, who is young, hardworking, full of ideas, with many books ahead of her. The author is actively seeking a trade publisher, because she wants a third party to handle print. For her, print takes too long and requires the sort of activities that don't interest her. It's the one thing trade publishing can do better than she can do for herself, she believes.
The two talk, they seem to understand each other. Back home, the agent sends over an Author Representation Agreement but before she's read too far, the writer is concerned. A clause states that the agent will
Is DIY Distribution Best For Self-Publishers?
Today, in the fourth part of our ‘Which Distributor’ series where Alliance members share the experiences, Elizabeth Lorraine, vampire lover, TwiMom, avid gardener, world traveler and author of the Royal Blood Chronicles explains why she prefers to go direct to retailers.
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For me, even though it takes a little time, I prefer to go to each site and upload my books myself, rather than use a middlman service. I have three main reasons for this:
- I like being able to track daily sales.
- It makes it easier for marketing, since I can tell if something is working right away and act accordingly.
- I get paid monthly.
I started out on Create Space, Amazon’s self publishing engine for print, in the fall of 2009. Those first years they didn’t make it easy for you to get the formatting right. I had to
An Indie Author Is Not An Island
Our decision here at The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) to hire a rights agent to represent our members' books in translation markets has raised the hackles of those who think an indie author is not allowed to make publishing partnerships.
Snarky comments emerging across the Internet, of the indies-admit-they-are-not-so-indie-after-all variety, show that there is still fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be an indie author or self-publisher.
Here at ALLi, our definition of an indie is one who recognises the writer as the primary driver of the book, not just in getting it written but also in