David Gaughran's Blog, page 13

Authors Guild Dumps Author Solutions (And Pretends It Was All A Bad Dream)

The Authors Guild – which bills itself as America’s leading writers’ organization – has terminated its partnership with Author Solutions.

The Authors Guild joins companies like Bowker, Writers’ Digest, and Crossbooks in cutting links to Author Solutions – a company which has faced a sustained campaign from writers targeting its deceptive and exploitative practices, as well as multiple class actions which are still working their way through the courts.

Burying the Lede

The announcement was mad...

Digging Deeper Into Author Earnings

The Author Earnings team are attempting to do something which hasn’t been done before, and their work can’t be refined and improved unless there is some intelligent criticism of their approach and findings.

Today I’ve invited Phoenix Sullivan to blog on the topic. I’ve known Phoenix for a few years now, and if there’s a smarter person in publishing, I haven’t heard of them.

KBoards regulars will already know that Phoenix understands the inner workings of the Kindle Store better than anyone o...

Author Solutions and Friends: The Inside Story

Author Solutions has forged partnerships with a long list of famous names in publishing from Simon & Schuster and Hay House to Barnes & Noble and Readers Digest.

Recent disclosures in various lawsuits, along with information sent to me by a Penguin Random House source, detail for the very first time exactly how these partnerships work and the damage they are causing.

Since a second suit was filed at the end of March, Author Solutions is now facing two class actions, with the new complaint al...

Fighting With Both Hands

This blog has been quieter than usual lately and I thought I should let you know what Ive been doing.

Im going to prattle on for quite a while; you might want to get comfortable (or head off to Tumblr).

So…

Its good to do a bit of soul searching now and then, to look at what you have achieved, where your career is headed, and to decide if you are on the right track.

My goals and dreams have changed a lot since I started self-publishing in 2011. I havent been a big success, but Ive been able t...

Bay Area Book Festival Defends Author Solutions Sponsorship

I discovered yesterday that Author Solutions was sponsoring the inaugural Bay Area Book Festival something at odds with the breathless verbiage on the event’s site:

A new kind of book fair… the largest, most innovative, and most inclusive… [we will] create the nations leading book festival.

The event doesn’t take place until June, so I thought it was a good timeto try and stage an intervention.

Shame on @BayBookFest for accepting sponsorship from known scammers like Author Solutions. What...

Barnes & Noble’s Dirty Little Secret: Author Solutions and Nook Press

Nook Press – Barnes & Noble’s self-publishing platform – launched a selection of author services last October including editing, cover design, and (limited) print-on-demand.

Immediate speculation surrounded who exactly was providing these services, with many – including Nate Hoffelder, Passive Guy, and myself – speculating it could be Author Solutions. However, there was no proof.

Until now.

A source at Penguin Random House has provided me with a document which shows that Author Solutions is...

Barnes & Noble���s Dirty Little Secret: Author Solutions and Nook Press

Nook Press ��� Barnes & Noble’s self-publishing platform ��� launched a selection of author services last October including editing, cover design, and (limited) print-on-demand.

Immediate speculation surrounded who exactly was providing these services, with many ��� including Nate Hoffelder, Passive Guy, and myself ��� speculating it could be Author Solutions. However, there was no proof.

Until now.

A source at Penguin Random House has provided me with a document which shows that Author Solution...

How To Win Sales And Influence Algorithms

Matt Iden & Nick Stephenson two crime/thriller writers who have been working together to increase their promotion and marketing range since June 2014

I’m hosting a discussion today between two authors who are using��creative ways to share audiences, something��which has the happy side-effect of increasing their respective sales.

As I said on Thursday, I think creative forms of collaboration – especially in terms of marketing strategies – are��going to be big this year.

Traditionally published au...

Round Up: Audiobook Release, BookBub in Canada & Amazon Launches Ad Service

I have finally returned to work after an extended period��back in Ireland over Christmas ��� which was wonderful ��� and then a spell with a virus which was considerably less so. I was mostly unplugged from the internet over the last while, but I hope it���s not too late to wish you all the best for 2015.

This is a quick catch-up post on some recent bits and bobs. Normal blogging service will resume tomorrow with a very useful guest post from two authors exploring some alternative marketing st...

How Jessica Mitford Exposed A $48m Scam From America’s Literary Establishment

Jessica Mitford took on the American funeral industry, the California Department of Corrections, and the Ku Klux Klan, but it was her 1970 exposé of The Famous Writers School which led to Time calling her “The Queen of the Muckrakers.” And if a courageous editor hadn’t reversed his decision to kill her story, it might never have happened.

Mitford had been aware of The Famous Writers School’s existence for some time. Anyone who was a frequent reader of newspapers, books or magazines would have...