Showing category "Self-publishing" (Show all posts)

What does the Draft2Digital / Smashwords merger mean for authors?

Posted by Paul Samael on Sunday, February 13, 2022, In : Self-publishing

What are we to make of the recent announcement that Draft2Digital is acquiring competing self-publishing outfit Smashwords? Initially, I was a bit concerned because as an author, Smashwords has been the best performing platform for me over the years - and I wouldn't want to see it go the way of others which have closed down (like Feedbooks, BookieJar and Bibliotastic).

But as I understand it, Draft2Digital primarily competes with Smashwords when it comes to helping authors create ebooks and d...
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Book promo services: do they work?

Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, July 12, 2021, In : Self-publishing

Book promo services are outfits which offer to promote your self-published book to readers, mostly via mailing lists. Do they work? In brief - yes, some of them are pretty effective (in my view) but the downsides are: (i) you will have to part with a modest amount of cash; and (ii) you can waste a lot of time (and money) on sites which are not much good (although the good news is you can easily avoid that by just focussing on more effective ones - see below).

What’s the cost? Well, I hav...

Publishing a paperback with Amazon KDP

Posted by Paul Samael on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, In : Self-publishing

At long last I have got around to doing a paperback version of my novel using Amazon KDP (formerly CreateSpace). I’m not expecting to sell many copies, but if anyone prefers to read it in hard copy - well, now you can (and the price is reasonable - £5.30 in the UK, $6.40 in the US). I may also attempt to persuade some local bookshops to stock it and will probably release a few copies “into the wild” via some nearby street libraries. But the main point of this post is to provide a re...

Making your ebook free on Amazon

Posted by Paul Samael on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, In : Self-publishing

As I've mentioned in previous posts, downloads of my novel on Smashwords seem to be tailing off. I can hardly complain, because it's been up on there almost 9 years now and I've had a pretty good run - but it has made me look at various ways I can make it available to readers who don't frequent Smashwords or the other platforms it's on (e.g. see this post). I put it up on Amazon as an ebook in late 2018, since when it appears to have had very few downloads. No doubt this is due to being vi...
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The (as yet) Unfulfilled Promise of Web Fiction

Posted by Paul Samael on Saturday, November 28, 2020, In : Self-publishing

Why did ebooks become a thing? Why didn’t books migrate straight to websites that you could view on any web-enabled device (let’s call this “web fiction”)? After all, wouldn’t web fiction have been better for all concerned - avoiding the need for extra file formats like .epub or .mobi?

If you Google for “web fiction” you come across quite a few websites from around 2010, with lots of earnest discussion of its potential. For example there’s lots of talk about a renaissance of...

My self-publishing mid-life crisis

Posted by Paul Samael on Saturday, August 17, 2019, In : Self-publishing

Here's a guest post that I was asked to do for a blog run by an outfit called Imprint Digital, that specialises in short run book printing (including for self-published authors). They've run a number of guest posts by other self-published authors, which are also worth a look. A common theme from those posts seems to be a general disillusionment with traditional publishers (not that this should come as any great surprise...).

UPDATE 12.2019: As Imprint Digital seem to have removed my article...
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R.I.P. Feedbooks

Posted by Paul Samael on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, In : Self-publishing

A rather terse email from Feedbooks confirming that - as I had suspected for a while - it is dead as a self-publishing platform. Not very impressed that I had to contact them to ask what was going on - they didn't see fit to email any of the many hundreds of authors who have contributed to their platform, nor have they even bothered to put up a notice on their website about their decision. And they could at least have provided an explanation.

The site had been going downhill for a few years,...
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Self-publishing: a review of Amazon KDP

Posted by Paul Samael on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, In : Self-publishing

So, I have finally got around to putting my novel up on Amazon using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - having previously only made it available on sites that would let me offer it for free (such as Smashwords). I am hoping I can persuade Amazon to make it free for at least some of the time by pointing out that they are being undersold by numerous other sites, where it is free.

But if I can't, I guess there is still some benefit of having it up there for people who prefer the convenience of ...
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Obooko revamped

Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, May 28, 2018, In : Self-publishing

Free ebooks platform Obooko has just undergone a (much delayed) revamp, with a much cleaner look and some improvements to the way you can browse/filter titles. My experience with Obooko has been good in terms of the upload process etc, but less so in terms of downloads (click here for more details, including tips on how to create different types of ebook files for uploading to Obooko). I've been on there since 2013 but my downloads remain stuck in the low hundreds - although others have don...
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Copyright registration: is it worth it?

Posted by Paul Samael on Saturday, September 2, 2017, In : Self-publishing

On author sites like youwriteon.com (which I reviewed here), you sometimes see adverts for services like this one:
http://www.copyrightprotectionservice.com

These companies typically charge a fee for "registering" your copyright for a period of years. Some of the sites even look a bit like official agencies (they are not - they are businesses who are in it for a profit).

So is there any value in registering your copyright with them? I dare say some authors are tempted to part with their hard ...
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Facebook, pen names and "lack of integrity"

Posted by Paul Samael on Saturday, August 29, 2015, In : Self-publishing

Like many authors, I write under a pen name. But because it involves pretending to be someone other than I really am (in name at least), I did hesitate a little before I took the decision. After all, in some situations, using a false identity would be regarded as a bit of weird thing to do, if not downright creepy (e.g. middle aged men pretending to be teenage girls etc). But then I told myself to get a grip, because there’s nothing particularly weird about using a pen name – lots of a...

Read by robots

Posted by Paul Samael on Friday, August 22, 2014, In : Self-publishing

In common, I suspect, with many authors, I write at least partly in the hope that at least a few other people will read my stuff. So I was a little dismayed to discover that the overwhelming majority of my “readers” on Scribd appear not to have been people at all, but robots.

Until recently, Scribd was showing my total “reads” as being about 1.4K. I was somewhat sceptical of this (see this post) and thought the true figure was probably in the low three figures – but felt that even ...

The Free Indie Reader No.1

Posted by Paul Samael on Friday, December 20, 2013, In : Self-publishing

Just wanted to draw attention to this interesting project from Tom Lichtenberg - it's a collection of short stories he has put together from self-published authors, intended to act as a "free sampler." As Tom explains here, it's an attempt to reach a wider audience than he has so far managed by reviewing other people's work on his blog and elsewhere - so I hope it succeeds.

I say that with a certain amount of self-interest, because it includes one of my stories. But even if that were not t...
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Interview with James Crawshaw

Posted by Paul Samael on Friday, November 22, 2013, In : Self-publishing

UPDATE 8.2016: Sadly, Bibliotastic is no longer operating - apparently the software supporting the site wasn't being updated and as it was all being done for free, the owners couldn't afford to update it. This is a shame because I liked the idea of the site, particularly its focus on getting readers to submit reviews. However, through the wonders of YouTube, you can still watch this tongue-in-cheek promotional video (and this one).

Here’s an email interview with James Cra...

Obooko and ebook conversion

Posted by Paul Samael on Friday, September 27, 2013, In : Self-publishing

Just published a copy of my novel on Obooko, which is a free ebooks platform based in the UK. The upload process itself was pretty straightforward - and you get a nice email back from a human being (yes, a real person !). The download page is here. I will post an update once the novel has been on there a bit longer. Judging from how other people's work is doing, I am not expecting vast numbers of downloads.

That said, the figures for some of the books which have been there for some time ...
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Smashwords interview

Posted by Paul Samael on Wednesday, September 4, 2013, In : Self-publishing

Smashwords have introduced a new interview function where you can do a sort of Q&A about yourself - they have a series of questions that you can choose to answer (or not) or alternatively, it will let you do your own questions. I decided to answer some of their questions, otherwise it felt a bit too much like talking to myself - although why I should be so sensitive about that, I can't really say, since I've been doing it on this blog for about 2 years now....

Anyway, I think it's a worthwhil...
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Copyright - is it a bad thing?

Posted by Paul Samael on Tuesday, August 20, 2013, In : Self-publishing

This article (highlighted on Tom Lichtenberg’s blog) made me wonder whether copyright is a “good thing.” It discusses some research suggesting that copyright acts as an obstacle to books remaining in print. This conclusion is based on the somewhat startling finding that more books are available on Amazon from the early part of the 20th century than is the case with books published in the last 20 years or so. The author of the research suggests that this is because the older books are...

Interview with publisher and author Frank Burton

Posted by Paul Samael on Friday, June 28, 2013, In : Self-publishing

Here's an email interview with publisher and author Frank Burton, who's behind non-profit publisher Philistine Press. I recently reviewed Stephanie Newell's "The Third Person" which is published by Philistine Press. This got me interested in non-profit publishers as a possible alternative route for authors who can't get taken on by a mainstream publisher but aren't overly keen on self-publishing either. Frank also maintains an extensive list of non-profit publishers on his own personal web...
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Scribd stats mystery

Posted by Paul Samael on Friday, May 3, 2013, In : Self-publishing

UPDATE 8.2014: I have now discovered that Scribd's "read" stats are even less reliable than suggested here and the figures quoted below significantly overstate the number of "readers" - so ignore this post and take a look at this one.

I have tended to focus my attention on Smashwords and Feedbooks as publishing platforms - since other sites I have tried, like BookieJar and especially Wattpad (click here for my curmudgeonly musings on the latter), don't seem to have generated very many downloa...
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Amazon + Goodreads = end of world?

Posted by Paul Samael on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, In : Self-publishing

So, Goodreads is being acquired by Amazon - what does this mean for indie authors? Well, if I put my ear to the floor, I do believe that I can hear the sound of the four horsemen of the publishing apocalypse galloping towards me at top speed, mercilessly crushing indie authors to a pulp beneath their pounding hooves. Or maybe that’s just the kids leaping around again upstairs.

I feel a bit the same way about the Goodreads/Amazon tie-up. At first, I was inclined to think that it was very l...

Free Book Beast

Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, January 28, 2013, In : Self-publishing

Although there are quite a few sites devoted to indie authors, I haven't come across that many which focus on free fiction. Free Book Beast aims to do just that - and whereas some sites seem to feature free (or low priced) books purely as a way of generating ad revenue, this one appears to be trying to provide some useful content alongside them, so I hope it succeeds.

I've just contributed a guest post on where to find free fiction (other than on Amazon) and where to find recommendations/rev...
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Taking stock

Posted by Paul Samael on Sunday, January 6, 2013, In : Self-publishing

It’s now more than 18 months since I set up this website and over a year since my first attempt at self-publishing. So I thought now might be a good point to consider whether it’s been a worthwhile exercise so far.

Downloads are a fairly crude measure of success/failure – but for what it’s worth, here are my numbers as at 6 January 2013:

UPDATE 8.2014: I have now discovered that the stats from Scribd are pretty unreliable, so in the interests of accuracy, you should ignore the totals...
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The Pirates! In an Adventure with Self-Published Authors!

Posted by Paul Samael on Thursday, November 8, 2012, In : Self-publishing

Ahoy there, readers. Yesterday I discovered that my novel had been put up on Amazon by a scurvy bilge rat claiming to me - and demanding that the reading public pay the princely sum of £1.92 for the privilege of reading it (even though it is available for free on Smashwords and Feedbooks). So I wrote to Amazon and to their credit, they replied within hours and promised to remove it (although to my great disappointment, they refused to undertake to give the culprit forty lashes with the cat...
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Feedbooks - better than Smashwords?

Posted by Paul Samael on Thursday, May 17, 2012, In : Self-publishing

UPDATE 5.2019: Sadly, Feedbooks has recently closed down its self-publishing platform - see this post. Which is a shame because, in its heyday, Feedbooks performed quite well in terms of downloads (see below). If you are looking at this because you are interested in self-publishing platforms generally, I would still recommend Smashwords - and for some other suggestions, take a look at my guide to self-publishing.

Just uploaded couple of short stories to F eedbooks, to see how they do - and w...
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Alienated by social media: Facebook and Wattpad

Posted by Paul Samael on Sunday, April 22, 2012, In : Self-publishing

I've just created a Paul Samael Facebook page - here it is in all its (non)-glory:

http://www.facebook.com/paulsamael

I'm setting up the Facebook page mainly because all the stuff I have read about marketing oneself as a self-published author says you should "do social media". I find the way that it forces you into a chronological approach quite frustrating - I'd much prefer to have more freedom to set out the page so as to emphasise things I think people might be most interested in, some of...
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BookieJar.com - worth a shot?

Posted by Paul Samael on Saturday, December 17, 2011, In : Self-publishing

UPDATE 8.2016: Bookiejar no longer seems to be operating, so you might not want to bother reading what follows.

Just published "The Hardest Word" on another platform, BookieJar.com, which seems to be offering itself as a rival to Smashwords (although there's nothing to stop you publishing on both, which is exactly what I've done). Click here to view.

The publishing process was very straightforward - I was able to take the version I'd used for uploading to Smashwords, change the front materi...
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Do you need permission to quote from reviews?

Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, November 21, 2011, In : Self-publishing

In my last post, I discussed using peer review sites as a way of trying to get positive reviews in order to promote my work. But is it really OK to use these reviews (or snippets from them) as part of your own publicity material? Well, this post from the management of You Write On.com (YWO) suggests that it is OK so far as they are concerned:

http://www.youwriteon.com/forum/quoting-crits-on-blurb-Topic-11796-1.aspx

But there is a lot of online commentary suggesting that you need permis...

My self-publishing "masterplan" (hmmm...we'll see)

Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, October 3, 2011, In : Self-publishing

So, how do I propose to self-publish my work and avoid sinking without a trace beneath the mind-bogglingly vast number of other books which are published every year? Well, here - for what it’s worth - is my masterplan (or, if you prefer, the pitifully deluded ravings of a sociopath determined to inflict his mindless drivel on the rest of us):

1. Get some reviews: if you’re an unknown author, I don’t think you can expect people to read your stuff unless you have some decent reviews fro...

Why self-publish?

Posted by Paul Samael on Monday, September 26, 2011, In : Self-publishing

This blog is supposed to be about my attempts to self-publish my novel and so far, I’ve been a little coy about how exactly I plan to tackle this Herculean task (I do have a plan, honest – more on this in later posts). But I suppose the first question is why self-publish – why not try to get a “proper”, professional publisher to take me on?

Well, my experience of publishers is not good – admittedly, it relates to non-fiction rather than fiction, but in both cases the publishe...

My secret life as an undercover agent

Posted by Paul Samael on Tuesday, August 2, 2011, In : Self-publishing

The first few chapters of my novel have been on the peer review site, youwriteon.com, for a few weeks now and I have so far had 6 reviews - mostly quite encouraging but with a couple of not so good ones. It was a not so good one which prompted me to post the following in the biographical details section of the site (which I had left blank up until then):

"After a spell in the SAS, I worked undercover for the CIA on a mission to infiltrate a vicious gang of Colombian drug smugglers and drive...

PAUL SAMAEL

Showing category "Self-publishing" (Show all posts)

What does the Draft2Digital / Smashwords merger mean for authors?

Book promo services: do they work?

Publishing a paperback with Amazon KDP

Making your ebook free on Amazon

The (as yet) Unfulfilled Promise of Web Fiction

My self-publishing mid-life crisis

R.I.P. Feedbooks

Self-publishing: a review of Amazon KDP

Obooko revamped

Copyright registration: is it worth it?

Facebook, pen names and "lack of integrity"

Read by robots

The Free Indie Reader No.1

Interview with James Crawshaw

Obooko and ebook conversion

Smashwords interview

Copyright - is it a bad thing?

Interview with publisher and author Frank Burton

Scribd stats mystery

Amazon + Goodreads = end of world?

Free Book Beast

Taking stock

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Self-Published Authors!

Feedbooks - better than Smashwords?

Alienated by social media: Facebook and Wattpad

BookieJar.com - worth a shot?

Do you need permission to quote from reviews?

My self-publishing "masterplan" (hmmm...we'll see)

Why self-publish?

My secret life as an undercover agent

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