Self-publishing courses

Early self-publishing course

Last night I gave my How to Publish Your Ebook on Amazon talk at the Sydney Writers' Centre. They weren't sure of the demand when I pitched them the idea earlier this year but, being a professional and forward-looking place, they were happy to take a chance. It's been running roughly monthly for a while now and it sells out every time — they've even moved me into the bigger room.

With a story about ebooks, bookstores or publishing in the newspapers almost every day, there are ever more writers aware of the possibilities e-publishing offers. That means things are hotting up when it comes to self-publishing courses.

Someone at the talk last night had flown up from Adelaide to hear it; and in the last few months I've been approached twice about turning my course into an online course. (I already have a version at the Kindle Publishing Roadmap.)

Next year I've already been asked to talk about social media for authors in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Canberra, as well as Sydney (no word from Brisbane, Perth or the rest of Queensland and Western Australia yet!).
Self-publishing comes to Faber & Faber (sort of)

Clearly there's a huge demand to learn about self-publishing and building an author profile online but there aren't enough courses on offer. That's starting to change. In London, for instance, the Faber Academy (part of Faber & Faber) has had the prescience to launch a three-day course combining both those topics. Friend of the Blog Catherine Ryan Howard is responsible for the first day (self-publishing) and Ben Johncock is taking on the book promotion angle for the next two days.

The course is called Bring Your Book to Market (17-19 February 2012) and, for this Aussie at least, one of its most remarkable features is its price. It's only £425.

I think it's bold and inspiring offer from the Faber Academy. These are important topics for writers to know about. As I often say, how long has it taken you to write your book? Long enough that spending a few days learning how to publish and promote it is hardly over the top as an investment or your time or money.

Australian self-publishing and book-promotion courses

I've updated my own speaking engagements so you can track me around this country.

If these are the sort of things you're interested in knowing more about, I'm interested in hearing from you. What sort of courses would you like me to be running and where?

If you want to leap right in of course, you should have a look at How to Format Perfect Kindle Books.