David Gaughran's Blog, page 27
July 21, 2011
Let's Get Digital: First Day Results (Normal Service Resumed Tomorrow)
That was exciting, wasn't it?
First of all, an apology. Sorry to anyone who ran into yesterday's wall-to-wall promo for Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should. We made an almighty noise.
Normal service will resume tomorrow with a superb guest post from indie author Moses Siregar III author of the fantasy novella Black God's War (which you can grab for free).
I don't want to give too much away, but Moses is one of the authors I originally wanted to include in Let's Get...
July 19, 2011
Let's Get Digital Released Today!
It is with great pleasure, and no small amount of pride, that I can tell you that Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should has been officially launched.
It's been three hard months to get to this point, but it has all been worth it. I'm very proud of this book, and I think people will get a lot out of it.
As regular readers will know, I'm trying an experiment with this book. The PDF Version is free – here – for anyone to copy, download, share, print, or email.
You can also...
Let's Get Digital: Launches Tomorrow
Tomorrow sees the launch of Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should.
It will be priced at $2.99 on Amazon US, £1.71 on Amazon UK, EUR 2.99 on Amazon DE, and $2.99 on Smashwords for international customers who are affected by the Amazon Surcharge.
It will also be available as a free PDF download, right here. Tomorrow, the link to the free download will go live (if you want to be first to here when it does, please subscribe to the blog or my newsletter). You will see a PayPal D...
July 18, 2011
Borders Inches Closer to Liquidation. What Happens Next?
The deadline to save Borders passed yesterday, meaning that they will now proceed to a bankruptcy-court auction tomorrow.
It's not quite over for America's second-largest bookstore chain, and a bidder could still emerge in the next day-and-a-half to save the company – which employs nearly 11,000 people – from being liquidated.
In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported today that Books-A-Million were in talks late last night about a deal. However, it seems clear that even if this move comes...
July 16, 2011
Weekend Reading, Live Chat With J Carson Black & More
A quick round-up today, then it's back to getting Let's Get Digital: How To (And Why You Should) Self-Publish ready for upload. If I get it up on Sunday, it could be live on Tuesday. As soon as it goes live on Amazon, the free PDF version will go live, right here.
If you want to read a copy a few days ahead of anyone else, I still have 10 left to give away. All I ask in return is that you read it quickly and try and post a review on Amazon on release day (or as soon as possible after).
If you a...
July 15, 2011
Promo Tip: LibraryThing Giveaways
Readers can be a skittish bunch, bolting for cover at the first distant rumble of the author promo wagon.
I don't blame them. Nothing spoils a good conversation like a salesman with a megaphone.
What usually happens is this. Readers find a nice site where they can congregate and have good conversations about books. A writer discovers the site and thinks he has struck gold.
Word of this rich seam of "customers" spreads like wildfire, and writers descend en masse hauling wagonloads of blurbs...
July 14, 2011
The Anatomy of A Book Cover
I know very little about cover design in a technical sense, but I know what I like, what I don't, and that I should never attempt to do it myself.
Self-publishing, for me, is all about rolling up your sleeves and taking care of every little minute detail, but there are two areas where I would never attempt to go it alone: editing and cover design.
I have said many times on this blog that with a modicum of effort, a professional outlook, and a little bit of cash, self-publishers can match or...
July 13, 2011
Kobo Targets Europe While Amazon Sleeps At The Wheel
Amazon has been putting out fires all over the US, engaging in fierce firefights to retain its market share in e-books and e-readers, as well as branching out into newer territory such as publishing. But while all this has been going on, Kobo has been stealing a march in the international arena.
They already have localized stores in the Canada, UK, Hong Kong, and Australia, as well as a retail presence in New Zealand. After securing a fresh round of funding in April, Kobo announced plans for a...
July 12, 2011
Adult Fiction Print Sales Collapse: Down 25.7% In First Half of 2011
A cursory look at the Kindle Top 100 will tell you that all the action is in Adult fiction. This is especially true for self-published work, where a non-fiction or children's/YA hit is a rare beast.
This was borne out in a recently released Bowker survey covering the last quarter of 2010. That showed e-books as having captured a share of the adult fiction market that was three times larger than the respective share of the children's/YA market and more than twice as large as that of...
July 11, 2011
Amazon Hold Back The Growth Of E-Books Around The World
Writers often wonder why the growth of e-books is so much slower in the rest of the world.
There are a number of reasons for that, but one big factor is the $2 surcharge that Amazon levies on all e-books in most international countries.
This charge is levied by Amazon, and kept by Amazon, and has nothing to do with taxes.
This charge is applied whether the user downloads e-books through their Kindle or not, and whether the user even owns a Kindle or not.
I wrote about this issue back in May when ...
