As self-publishing becomes more common, and increasing numbers of indie authors achieve both commercial and critical success, literary festivals urgently…
ALLi Newsletter Nov/Dec 2012 The big news in the Nov/Dec issue of The Alliance of Independent Authors' newsletter is that…
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Are your books priced at 0.99c? Are you skipping out on editing or in too much of a hurry to…
Whether you sell books directly on your website or use it as a referral site to Amazon or another retailer,…
MONDAY OPINION. Guest Post by Mark Coker. For more of Mark's thoughts on the dangers of exclusivity and importance of…
REMINDER: Don't forget our Shindig later today (3pm EST): How to Choose A Self-Publishing Partner. Your questions about self-publishing services answered…
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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
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
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
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
