How Self-Published Authors can Help the Environment

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Ray Robinson

Earth Day is a good time to reflect on how we can all do more to help the environment. For self-published authors, that might mean taking a closer look at your options for publishing your manuscript. Print-On-Demand (POD) publishing and e-book publishing are both great alternatives to traditional offset printing.

POD publishing allows authors to print only the books they need, at any time they need them. Not only is this incredibly convenient, it is a great way to reduce the amount of wasted paper an author might accumulate with unused books. Some publishing companies have also taken steps to be environmentally friendly self-publishers by using only recycled paper and paper sourced from Sustainable Reforestation Programs.

E-books’ digital formats are a great way to save paper and trees. Consider all the paper sitting on your bookshelf right now—e-books eliminate the necessity for all of that. And e-books are starting to become desirable for reasons beyond just the fact that they help the environment:

First of all, it is easier than ever to access an e-book. Technology such as Amazon’s Kindle 2 and Sony’s Reader make reading an e-book just as portable as reading a printed book. These e-book readers can store dozens of books, and the Kindle 2 can actually read an e-book aloud to you.

E-books also offer readers advantages over printed books, as long as e-book producers put the effort into these endeavors. E-books are capable of having features like a clickable index that will take you right to the page number you are looking for. Linking books together that reference one another is another helpful attribute that could be added to e-books. Some industry leaders even think it is possible that e-books will be able to be sold chapter by chapter in the future, just like iTunes sells songs individually. Allowing readers to only pay for the information they need might be a great benefit of e-books.

Although e-books appear to be the logical progression of books in our digitized age, a few obstacles prevent e-books from catching on as quickly as other forms of digital media. Compare the speed of the e-book transition to the iTunes phenomenon or the DVD revolution. iTunes and DVDs caught on so quickly because listening to a digital song or watching a DVD are the same experiences digitally as they are on tape. But reading a book digitally is not the same experience as reading a printed book. We love the feel of a book in our hands, the pages on our fingertips, and being able to mark up pages with our own notes and comments. We’re going to have to ease into the transition of reading a book on a screen.

To make that transition easier, e-book reader devices are going to have to be tweaked a little more. As Joshua Topolsky writes on engadget.com, there are improvements in Amazon’s Kindle 2 that make it easier to use than it’s predecessor, but the changes might not be enough for the general population to give up their paperbacks.

And the improvements don’t stop with the Kindle 2. Japanese company Fujitsu just launched the first color e-book reader, which should be a big draw for people once hesitant to convert to digital books because of their gray-scale only text and images. However, Fujitsu’s reader, “The FLEPia,” is around $12,000, so it’s probably not a feasible option for most of the population.

As the experience of reading an e-book becomes more realistic and affordable, the popularity of the e-book will continue to grow; but e-books are not yet the most common book format for readers. What does this mean for environmentally concerned self-publishing authors? It means that for now, you should keep taking advantage of Print-On-Demand services that allow you to use only the amount of paper you need. Also, make sure your publishing company uses only recycled paper and paper from Sustainable Reforestation Programs. For some self-published authors, pioneering the e-book territory might be an exciting challenge. Ask your publishing company to submit your book content to Amazon for the creation of a Kindle version of the book.

If you are interested in the past, present, and future of e-books, I suggest you check out this article by e-book visionary John Siracusa. Another great blog on the state of the Kindle is the Kindleville blog produced by publishing veteran Joe Wikert.

Happy Earth Day! Celebrate by doing something good for the environment.

Filed under: Current events | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

What is Twitter and Can it Help Market Your Book?

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Ray Robinson

Here is the general idea of Twitter:

It’s a social networking site where a user answers the question “What are you doing?” to make a status update. Then, “followers” of this user (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) receive an update on their own Twitter pages informing them of the user’s status.

Twitter is similar to Facebook status updates or AIM Away Messages, if you are familiar with those. It is instant communication, and in this technological age, that’s important. For some people, even email has too long of a “send and response” period.

Twitter is a unique way to network because you can reach so many people—even some you don’t know. This is possible because your followers’ friends can see your updates if they follow your friend. Therefore, you are able to reach people that might be more interested in you because you have a mutual connection. And when you are marketing your book, it is very good to have a lot of friends who can help promote you by word of mouth (or “Tweets,” as the status updates are called on Twitter).

So how exactly can you promote your book on Twitter? Well, there are a plethora of websites devoted to tips and tricks of Twitter Marketing—just try typing “Twitter Marketing” into your favorite search engine. I’ll outline a few relevant tips, but I recommend taking a look at these websites as well:

1. Don’t worry about making every post a reference to your book. This will help you be more authentic and build networking relationships while you are marketing your book. For example, John Kremer only references his product in about 1 of every 10 posts.

2. Reach your target audience by finding users with similar interests. John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing recommends using a site called “Twellow.” Twellow acts as a directory to connect you with other Twitter users who have similar interests.

3. Make sure your profile is up-to-date. After all, Twitter is a social-networking site: users are interested in you! Shoestring Branding sees Twitter as a great way to market your “personal brand.” As a self-published author, you certainly have something interesting to say about why you wrote your book, who you are, and what makes you different.

Now, here’s the real question to ask yourself: is Twitter right for your book marketing strategy? I recommend that you don’t make a Twitter marketing campaign the main aspect of your marketing plan. After all, you can take advantage of many other different strategies—which might better suit your personality or your target audience’s tech-savvyness—while also participating in Twitter. Consider checking out the post I’ve written about blog-writing to market your book, because linking your Twitter updates in your blog can be affective cross-media marketing.

I’ve written about book marketing plans and book marketing ideas on the Dog Ear site. Check those out to find a good starting place for your marketing strategy. And remember, whatever you choose to do, the key is commitment: Create a plan and follow through!

Filed under: book marketing, Current events, self publishing | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Self publishing & the e-book: B&N buys an e-book retailer

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Ray Robinson

I’ll step in to what might be controversy here, but what the heck.

Typically, e-books have not been a large source of revenue for self-published authors. At Dog Ear Publishing, our self published authors have almost never seen sales from an e-book amount to even 1% of their print product.

So, it was with interest that I read the release from Barnes & Noble about their acquisition of Fictionwise.com and eReader.com, (both owned by the e-book retailer Fictionwise Inc.) for $15.7 million in cash.

The Barnes & Noble release states that it “plans to use Fictionwise as part of its overall digital strategy, which includes the launch of an e-bookstore later this year.” No word was mentioned if this is a response to the Amazon Kindle product – from what I could tell, most of the books on the Fictionwise “Bestsellers” list don’t support the Kindle MOBI format…

Could this perhaps initiate some sort of growth in the e-book market? I’m not sure – at least for conventional titles such as fiction – but it is an interesting market strategy for B&N.

A bit of a left-turn in this conversation: Take a look at the Fictionwise “Bestsellers” list- and check out the incredible disparity in price for the e-books… along with the fact that the number one bestseller isn’t from one of the traditionally large houses and they are only charging $7.00 for the e-book. A bunch of the bestsellers are only $1.00. Could these publishers be using the e-book as a book marketing tool?

Is it time to reconsider the e-book?

Filed under: book marketing, Current events, self publishing | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

New York Times article ‘Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab’

Posted on January 29, 2009 by Ray Robinson

A great article on the state of the self-publishing industry appeared in the New York Times on Wednesday that described the growth and health of the industry in comparison to the more traditional world of publishing. This article is of interest for a number of reasons – not the least of which is the open discussion of the self publishing world by a paper located in the bastion of the traditional publishing world – New York.

The article makes a number of points – but primarily discusses the huge growth in title count that self publishing has created. It goes on to note that most books that are self-published sell very few copies. But… it’s got some other interesting nuggets that bear commentary:

“As traditional publishers look to prune their booklists and rely increasingly on blockbuster best sellers, self-publishing companies are ramping up their title counts…”

- this truly is the raison d’etre for self publishing and any sort of success that it may generate. Self published books are typically most successful when the target market is NOT ‘everyone’. Focused, quality, niche-oriented titles are the products most likely to have success. How’s your book marketing plan coming along?

“The trend is also driven by professionals who want to use a book as an enhanced business card (the link jumps to an article on the Dog Ear Publishing site that talks about books as business cards) as well as by people who are creating books as gifts for family and friends.”

- in many industries, the trend seems to be ‘if you aren’t the guy who wrote the book… well, then you aren’t they guy…‘ (or gal for that matter). Professionals who stand out in their industry often write books – and in days past, they were the experts that the traditional academic or professional publishers chose to write lengthy tomes on specific topics. With professional book sales in the dumpster, very few professional publishing groups are adding much in the way of content. In comes self-publishing – the upside being that professionals can now publish their own books, in their own way, and receive all the credit and profit. The downside is still the one ‘downside’ of self publishing – anyone  can publish a book and call themselves a ‘professional’ or ‘expert’.

“Still, many self-publishing companies allow authors to take more than the traditional royalty of 15 percent of the cover price on hardcovers and 10 percent or less on paperbacks.”

- the profit / royalty question – how much should an author make from their self-published book? How does the self publishing company make a profit? Who should get what? This is a tough question – and one often overlooked by authors interested in self publishing. My position is this: a self published author should get ALL the profit from sales – the company publishing (or printing -in the case of Lulu, Blurb, Createspace; all of whom are printers, not really publishers) should charge a single flat fee for each sale. Usually it’s ties into or part of a ‘print charge’ for each book. Royalties, in the traditional world, are a percentage of the sale -mostly this is done because the publisher has a higher risk in a book with a higher retail. In theory, a book that has a retail of $90 (like a textbook or professional reference) had a much higher cost to produce (design, editing, development, production, etc) than a $7.99 paperback. So – the royalty ‘rewarded’ the publisher for that risk as the retail price grew. No self publishing company has ANY risk in a self published title – they’ve all been paid for their services upfront. The only cost to a self publisher is the printing – and it’s the exact same for 150 page (or fill-in-your-page-count-here) paperback whether the retail price is $7.99 or $79.99.

“Louise Burke, publisher of Pocket Books, said publishers now trawl for new material by looking at reader comments about self-published books sold online. Self-publishing, she said, is “no longer a dirty word.””

- Well, now… what do you know. This does raise the importance of getting your readers to add reviews to your Amazon.com page.

Self publishing may no longer be a dirty word – but it’s also beginning to become a significant (albeit small yet) part of the bookselling world.

Filed under: book marketing, Current events, self publishing, Self Publishing Companies | Leave a Comment »

Is publishing ‘recession-proof’? How about self publishing?

Posted on January 21, 2009 by Ray Robinson

“American Adults Reading More Literature” is the heading of a recent article in Book Business (a web site dedicated to the business of, well, books…) about a report produced by the National Endowment for the Arts that shows readership among American adults grew significantly since 2002. The time frame (6 years) seems to be rather broad – and ‘literary reading’ as defined by the NEA is “the reading of any novels, short stories, poems, or plays in print or online.”

In the past, the publishing industry has been very counter-cyclical… when times got tough, Americans got reading (and not spending money on other pursuits). I don’t know if we can see that same trend these days – and I wonder what self-publishing might have to do with the increase in readership (if anything?) It’s hard to imagine that someone interested in publishing a book wouldn’t be a reader. Surprisingly it was ‘younger readers’ (18 to 24) that showed the greatest growth in reading – just what are these kids reading?

The stats and report (called Reading On The Rise) are available for no charge as a download from the NEA site.

Here’s a brief outline from the Book Business site of the most salient points, with my commentary:

• The absolute number of literary readers has grown significantly. There were 16.6 million more adult readers of literature in 2008. The growth in new readers reflects higher adult reading rates combined with overall population growth.

– this growth puts the total number of ‘reading adults’ now at nearly 113 million – an amazing number if you think about it…

• Young adults show the most rapid increases in literary reading. Since 2002, 18- to 24-year-olds have seen the biggest increase (nine percent) in literary reading, and the most rapid rate of increase (21 percent). This jump reversed a 20-percent rate of decline in the 2002 survey, the steepest rate of decline since the NEA survey began.

– stunning considering the incredible prevalence of ‘digital’ media that is in no way ‘literary’ – things like blogs, news, and other items were excluded from the survey.

• For the first time in the survey’s history, literary reading has increased among both men and women. Literary reading rates have grown or held steady for adults of all education levels.

– women still made up the bulk of readers (58% to 42%)

• Fiction (novels and short stories) accounts for the new growth in adult literary readers; reading poetry and drama continues to decline, especially poetry-reading among women.

– poetry and plays saw a 31% and 28% decline respectively. Poetry has always been a tough market…

• Online readers also report reading books. Eighty-four percent of adults who read literature (fiction, poetry or drama) on or downloaded from the Internet also read books, whether print or online.

– this is the good news for those of us who utilize the more ‘traditional’ method of print to deliver our content. It should also encourage authors who are NOT utilizing e-book / Kindle / Mobi / whatever to deliver content to jump in and experiment.

• Nearly 15 percent of all U.S. adults read literature online in 2008.

– see comment above – the report doesn’t identify what sort of literature – but that number represents almost 34 MILLION adults…

Check out the report – it’s some much-needed good news for all of us interested in all forms of book publishing.

Filed under: Current events, self publishing | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

John McCain or Barack Obama? Just go vote…

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Ray Robinson
Get out and VOTE

Get out and VOTE

Today’s post has pretty nothing to do with self-publishing. It’s pretty much all about our responsibility as citizens of the United States to go and vote tomorrow. I’m not going to advocate any candidate over another; I’m not supporting the Democrats or Republicans in this post.

I am encouraging  everyone to make their voice heard and vote tomorrow.

Every pundit is professing this to be an election of change for America – after tomorrow nothing will be the same…

I hope so – but in a different way than most:

I hope the civic engagement Americans have shown over the last year will continue to be reflected for many years to come. I hope that each and every American takes the emotional investment they’ve made in this election – no matter who wins – and holds on to it and continues to keep themselves involved in the governance of this country.

“I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.” – Thomas Jefferson

Still undecided? Here’s a non-partisan (really – I’m not kidding, it may be the only one) site that allows you to research the facts of each candidate – without spin, media-bias, or commentary.

Project Vote Smart

Filed under: Current events | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

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