David Gaughran's Blog, page 20

Have You Read A Good Book Lately?

Like many readers, I get my book recommendations from multiple sources: friends, peers, genre bestseller lists, Amazon algorithms, and deal sites.

The latter two are sources new to me since I switched to a Kindle in Christmas 2011. Prior to that, two big sources of recommendations would have been the front tables in bookstores, and review pages of newspapers. Neither really fulfill that function anymore.

I don’t know if it’s because of the source of the recommendations, or because of the abilit...

15 Ways Amazon Can Improve Kindle Direct Publishing

At the London Book Fair in April, I had the opportunity to meet representatives from Amazon and present a list of feature requests and complaints (from the comments ofthis post with an assist from KBoards).

I spent quite a bit of time going through the list and felt that everything got a fair hearing.

Amazon said that a lot of this stuff is in the pipeline in one form or another (although judgement will have to be reserved until we see how it’s implemented) and the rest of the issues and featur...

Let’s Get Visible: How To Get Noticed And Sell More Books

As you might have guessed by the new lick of paint, Let’s Get Visibleis out!Grab your copy at:

Amazon | Apple | Barnes & Noble |

Kobo | Smashwords| $4.99

Here’s the blurb:

Take your sales to the next level! The author of the award-winning, bestsellingLet’s Get Digitalis back with an advanced guide for more experienced self-publishers.

There are over 1.5 million books in the Kindle Store, with thousands more added every day. How do you getyoursnoticed? Visibility isn’t a challenge that can be best...

The Author Exploitation Business

Writing is a glamorous occupation – at least from the outside. Popular depictions of our profession tend to leave out all the other stuff that comes with the territory: carpal tunnel syndrome, liver failure, penury, and madness.

Okay, okay, I jest. I love being a writer. Sharing stories with the world and getting paid for it is bloody brilliant. It’s a dream job, and like any profession with a horde of neophytes seeking to break in, there are plenty of sharks waiting to chew them to bits.

Publi...

Lazy Literary Agents In Self-Publishing Money Grab via Argo Navis

I was at the London Book Fair last week – and I’ll be blogging about that soon – when the news broke thatDavid Mamet is to self-publish his next book.

His reasons?”Publishing is like Hollywood—nobody ever does the marketing they promise.”

While I think it’s great that someone as high-profile as David Mamet is self-publishing, I was very disappointed to find out theway he’s doing it.

Self-publishing is big business. By my estimates, self-publishers have captured 25% of the US ebook market. It can...

Self-Publishing Grabs Huge Market Share From Traditional Publishers

Barnes & Noble re-launched PubIt! this week as Nook Press, a largely superficial makeover which failed to address some fundamental problems, like restricting access to US self-publishers only, and introduced new howler: updating existing titles causes the loss of all ranking, reviews, and momentum.

There were only two noteworthy things, to me, about this launch.First, the PubIt! brand had been closely associated with Barnes & Noble. This re-launch seems like an attempt to tie the Nook Press br...

A List of Things Scott Turow Doesn’t Care About

Scott Turow woke up from his slumber recently to bark nonsense about Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads on the Authors Guild blog, before being thoroughly eviscerated in the comments.

Undeterred, Turow sought out the considerably larger platform of the New York Times’ Op-Ed pages on Monday to decry The Slow Death of the American Writer.

On reading the latter, my first thought was: if Scott Turow didn’t spend so much time hating Amazon and pretending self-publishing didn’t exist, maybe he wouldn’...

Why Amazon’s Purchase of Goodreads Is A Good Thing

The doom-mongers have been running wild on Twitter with the news that Amazon is to acquire Goodreads. Much of that nonsense is typical (hysterical) Amazon bashing, or reflexive defense of the status quo.

I’m not going to deal with the Chicken Little stuff. I have less and less patience with people who claim that Amazon has or is striving for some kind of evil monopoly that will subjugate authors and readers when all the evidence to date is that they will treat authors better than any publisher...

Publishers Behaving Badly, Part… I’ve Lost Count

There seems to be a view in certain self-congratulatory circles that publishers have finally got to grips with the digital revolution, that they have weathered the fiercest part of the storm, and that they are well-placed now not just to survive, but to thrive.

There are innumerable problems with that view, of course, but today I’d like to focus on one core truth of this brave new world that publishers have failed to grasp.

Namely, there are only two essential components to publishing in the di...

When Visibility Doesn’t Lead To Book Sales

Writers are pretty creative about getting exposure for themselves and their books. Self-publishers especially are always experimenting with innovative ways to move the sales needle.

Like many of you, I’ve tried a little of everything at this point, and the list of stuff that works is far, far shorter than the list of stuff that doesn’t.

But what if I told you that you had a chance for someserious exposure? Imagine appearing on a reality TV show with millions of viewers, week after week. That le...