Self-publishing
Pricing of Self-published Books to International Readers
Self-publishing is changing. I think that in 2012 indie authors should go global. One of the important topics to raise is how to price books for international customers. My advice is simple: keep them low. The report on top self-published Kindle books of 2011, which I’ve recently released, shows a downward trend in both the [...]
How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application
Phoster is a fantastic application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, perfect to create posters, cards, invitations and, yes, ebook covers. I’ve used the word “create” instead of “design” because it better describes what you’ll be doing. You don’t need to design a layout, it’s already done by the developers of the application, folks from [...]
Best Self-published Books in Kindle Store in June, John Locke Out of Top 100
A couple of days ago I’ve prepared for Ebook Friendly a June edition of Top Self-published Books in Kindle Store. Below I’d like to share a major outcome, and in my opinion the biggest surprise – John Locke didn’t make it to Kindle Store’s Top 100. The author of the Donovan Creed series recently joined [...]
Pirating $.99 E-books – Is It Worth the Effort?
Two e-books, priced $9.99 and $0.99, start two completely different purchase processes. The price level is affecting how eager we are to get a pirated copy. In case of e-books it’s combined with, in my opinion, the biggest solution to piracy – convenience. Digital goods (especially the ones under a magical level of 1 dollar) [...]
How to Effectively Publish and Promote Books to iPad and iPhone Users
Users of devices with Apple’s iOS mobile operating system (iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch) are a very attractive group of potential readers. There are two major reasons: 1. iOS is a very versatile system, allowing the author to distribute books via different sets of tools and channels. 2. iOS users are more willing to buy [...]
Thoughts on Sharing Free Content at Paid Piracy Websites
Piracy is about sharing for free a content for which you have to pay money elsewhere. But what if you find at a file-sharing site a content which is free anywhere else? And what if you actually have to pay for it? One of my books, Hasło niepoprawne, is available at Chomikuj.pl, Poland’s most popular [...]
Self-Publishing: How You Can Learn and Improve
Check all articles from Technology for self-publishers series. Those who say that self-publishing is a vast world of bad quality writing, are right… still right. They do not take into account the fact that self-publishers learn and improve. Self-published authors, those who think seriously about their writing, are highly motivated to find answers to their [...]
Tech Quotes – What Would Technology Say About Humans
Sophisticated things smart people say about other people – everybody loves it. But what if such things were said from a totally different perspective? Nowadays technology is able to analyze, think, judge, choose and response. What was a part of science fiction world now starts to leak into reality. It’s high time to realize that [...]
Self-Publishing: How You Can Sell Globally
Check all articles from Technology for self-publishers series. On a surface it sounds obvious. Sure, if I publish a book at Amazon and Amazon delivers Kindle devices and content to more than 100 countries, that means I have a worldwide distribution. It’s obvious for English speaking authors, but it opens lots of possibilities for non-English [...]
Self-Publishing: How You Can Innovate
Check all articles from Technology for self-publishers series. Times when writers were the last people on earth to embrace technology are over. Internet with all the advanced tools and solutions is a chance to be at the forefront. Pioneering can draw unexpectedly huge attention, also from the potential readers of your book. There are two [...]
Kindle for the Web – How It Can Be Used by Authors
In September last year Amazon introduced a new tool, Kindle for the Web, which allows users to read and share first chapters of books without leaving a web browser. In addition to a good-looking preview interface, there are two useful features: sharing and embedding. The latter one is a very good, yet underestimated tool which [...]
Self-Publishing: How You Can Build Better Relations
Check all articles from Technology for self-publishers series. Digital environment is leading to an essential change of a relationship’s direction. In a traditional model the major flow was vertical, one way, from publisher to readers. Now the relationship becomes horizontal, two way, between the author and reader – at the level of the reader. Before [...]
Self-Publishing: How You Can Reduce Costs
Check all articles from Technology for self-publishers series. The price of a book is what really matters to readers. It’s where self-published authors can compete with traditional publishers, as the examples of Amanda Hocking or J.A. Konrath show. Many Kindle Store writers choose $0.99 price tag. They can afford it, as the cost of publishing [...]
28 Out of 100 Top Kindle E-books Are Self-Published
After a February excitement about Amanda Hocking earning millions of dollars from Kindle Store, I wanted to check how self-published authors are doing a couple of weeks later. From a Kindle Store list of top 100 e-books I’ve selected those ones, which were published by the authors themselves. It was not an easy task, as [...]