David Gaughran's Blog, page 15

Don’t Wait For Permission: Why Authors Should Be Entrepreneurs

The self-publishing blogosphere usually focuses on making money from genre fiction, and tends to advise producing as much quality work as you can as quickly as possible, and then marketing it aggressively.

That’s not bad advice at all, but there are many other types of books, several different kinds of authors, and multiple ways you can approach making a living.

Joanna Penn (writing as JF Penn) has hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists with her fiction, but also has an extremely...

Publishing Is Rotten To The Core

“Rotten apple” by Kulmalukko. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

There is something seriously askew with the supposed values of the publishing business.

The most egregious behavior continually gets overlooked, ignored, and swept under the carpet, in favor of pursuing pet targets.

As always, I’m conscious of whose agenda this serves and why writers allow themselves to be used as pawns in this game.

Exhibit A: Harlequin

Amazon is regularly slated for the way it manages its tax affairs. I have writte...

Let’s Get Digital 2 Problems Fixed, New Kindles Launched & More

I’ve info below onsix new Kindle devices which launched today below, but first some welcomenews:

Amazon seems to have fixed things at its end.Thosewho purchased the old version ofLet’s Get Digital should be able to now download the new version with a few clicks via Manage My Content & Devices (formerly Manage My Kindle) in their Amazon account.

Note: none of these problems affected new purchasers.

More detailed instructions below, but for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I decided to...

Let’s Get Digital 2 Is Out!

I’m very excited to announce the release of the new updated and expanded 2nd edition of Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should.

If you purchased the old 1st edition of Digital, you can grab the 2nd edition for free (instructions below). You won’t actually be able to purchase the new edition from Amazon if you bought the old one, so please follow those instructions to get your free copy.

For everyone else, you can check it out at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Apple, Barnes & Noble, K...

This Might Be A Terrible Idea

I’m launching the 2nd edition of Let’s Get Digital next week and today I’m going to try and answer all your questions.

Most have surrounded something I’ve hinted at over the last few months. I’m doing something pretty cool and different with this launch. Or maybe crazy is a better word.

In short: I’m giving it away free to all purchasers of the old edition. More on that below…

When is the 2nd edition out?

It’s officially launching next Wednesday, September 17, and I’ll be posting again then. As a...

Starting From Zero

Success can seem unattainableto those starting out. It’s easy to forget that even the biggest sellers started from zero.

Amanda Hocking didn’t arrive on the scene as a fully formed sales machine. She didn’t have a platform which she had been diligently building up for years, nor did she come from trade publishing. She was unable to convince an agent to take her on and decided to self-publish instead, and then sold a million e-books in nine months!

Detractors tried to paint Hocking as an anomaly...

Self-Publishers Aren’t Killing The Industry, They’re Saving It

In light of current events, I thought it would begood to re-run Ed Robertson’s excellent guest post from November 2012 where he highlighted interesting parallels between historical paperback pricing (pre-industry consolidation) and self-published e-books.

It’s unlikely I’ll have time this weekend to respond to emails, or tweets, or jump in the comments, as I’ll be busy editing, but this should give you something to chew on.

I’m sending the 2nd edition of Let’s Get Digital to the editor tomorrow...

Building a Killer Email List

There is a lot of upheaval in publishing today and I think that’s likely to increase rather than decrease. The best insurance policy any writer can have against the future is a targeted mailing list.

I’ve written before about how the author with the biggest mailing list wins, and I’ve invited Nick Stephenson along today because he’s got somegreat ideas on how to boost your list.

Thecool thing about his approach is that it’s something anyone can do. And, as you will see, it really, really works....

Kindle Unlimited: The Key Questions

Amazon launched Kindle Unlimited on Friday, giving self-publishers a big decision to make.

The long-rumored subscription service will allow users to download unlimited books for $9.99 a month, and reader reaction has been, from what I can see, overwhelmingly positive – especially because they will be able to test the service with a month’s free trial. Writers have been a little more cautious, for all sorts of reasons I’ll try and tease out below.

The main stumbling block for self-publishers is...

Gatecrashing the Cosy Consensus on Amazon

A group of bestselling traditionally published authors – including James Patterson, Scott Turow, and Douglas Preston – engaged in an act of breathtaking hypocrisy on Thursday with an open letter calling on Amazon to end its dispute with Hachette.

The letter is incredibly disingenuous. It claims not to take sides, but only calls on Amazon to take action to end the dispute. It also makes a series of ridiculous claims, notably that Amazon has been “boycotting Hachette authors.”

Where do I start?

Th...