The Top 5 Reasons Traditional Authors Are Going Indie

March 1, 2013 by 16 Comments
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      NDIE!     It’s probably not a surprise–we’re always hearing about authors who have previously published traditionally choosing to go indie.  But what is making them? When they’ve been accepted by the literary elites, and they’ve been given advances and have received the support of a publisher, what motivation could make them switch to publishing independently? The top 5 reasons we see authors going indie:   1. The “support” traditional publishers offer is no longer as relevant or valuable. Traditionally, publishers would give authors a nice, fat advance. Then they’d take the brand-spankin’-new author’s book, publish it, deliver it to the exclusive sales channels (the traditional bookstores, unreachable to anyone but publishers and the ONLY place anyone… [read more]

Filed Under: Indie Publishing, Literary Trends, Pub. Industry, Publishers Weekly, Royalty Publishing, Self-publishing, Traditional Publishing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

More E-book Drama! Amazon and the Big 6 (3?) Sued by Indie Bookstores over E-book Sales

February 22, 2013 by 1 Comment
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                      Yesterday, it was announced that three independent bookstores–Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Fiction Addiction, and Posman Books–filed a suit against Amazon and the “Big 6” (3?) publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, and Simon & Schuster) over Amazon’s monopoly over e-book sales due to DRM. These publishers have made agreements with Amazon to allow Amazon the advantage in selling their e-books. DRM, or “digital rights management,” prevents the transfer of e-book files from one device to another. For example, if you purchase an e-book on Amazon, that file can’t be transferred to a non-Amazon-friendly device (nook, for example) if you choose to change devices. Last year, J.K. Rowling historically… [read more]

Filed Under: Bookstores, eBooks, Pub. Industry, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

E-books: Why Self-Publishing Will Be Preferred by Readers

January 11, 2013 by 9 Comments
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If you are an avid reader of Wise Ink, you know that we live and breathe  indie publishing. We couldn’t be more in awe of the self-sufficient, self-starting, inspirational, educational, entertaining, thought-leading, movement-making indie authors we work with. You make us strive to be as awesome as you! Indie love! We’re also realists; we realize there are STILL (still? Yep.) plenty of nay-sayers out there trying to keep self-publishing authors down. Certain booksellers and reviewers refuse to even look at self-published books because “it’s their policy.” Indies move around them–directly to their audiences. Tons of other experts (Wise Ink included) believe that indie publishing is THE BIGGEST thing happening in publishing right now. Nothing in publishing has affected the industry… [read more]

Filed Under: eBooks, Indie Publishing, Pub. Industry, Royalty Publishing, Self-publishing, Technology, Traditional Publishing Tagged With: , , , ,

Interview with Book Designer Ryan Scheife of Mayfly Design!

October 19, 2012 by 1 Comment
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This week, we got the chance to hang out with a designer we know and love, Ryan Scheife from Mayfly Design! Ryan, you’ve worked with authors to design their books for over five years now, what’s the number one mistake newbie authors make about design?   I would advise you to let your designer utilize their skills and experience, and let them show you some cover concepts that represent their visions for your book. Coming into the process with your vision for the book’s cover is great, and can only help get things off on the right track. But I would let the designer work through a couple of their concepts as well. More often than not, you will see… [read more]

Filed Under: Author Interview, Design, Pub. Industry, Self-publishing Tagged With: , , , ,

Viva La Indie! ‘The Indie Author Revolution’ by Dara M. Beevas

September 28, 2012 by 5 Comments
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      It’s not a trend.   It’s not a fad.   It’s not deniable.   It’s the age of the indie author. Above: Dara M. Beevas. Photo by Bridget Marchesi I (Amy) live in a career (yes, that verb choice was intentional—I brainstorm about my authors in my sleep!) where I am constantly surrounded and inspired by creative, innovative, driven people who write books for hundreds of reasons and for innumerable audiences. One of the most inspiring authors I’ve come across? One particular author motivated to write for the audience described above—the audience of creative, innovative, driven people who just need to know how to navigate the crooked, difficult, and infinitely rewarding path of independent authorship. Last night, I… [read more]

Filed Under: Authorpreneur, Book Launch, Indie Publishing, Literary Trends, Motivational, Pub. Industry, Self-publishing, Traditional Publishing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Interview with Indie Author Matthew J. Beier, “The Breeders”

August 31, 2012 by 2 Comments
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With self-publishing, you either pay for quality control, or you do it yourself. This week, Matthew J. Beier, indie author of The Breeders, joined me for some Earl Grey tea and some conversation. Beier has several other books in the works, including a seven-book series that begins with The Confessions of Jonathan Flite, coming  fall of 2013. His July 9, 2012 article in Publishers Weekly titled “Of Decisions and Dream Chasing” explores his decision to self-publish, even though he was getting enough attention from agents to trust that a deal was likely to come through at some point. As it turns out, the self-publishing route allowed The Breeders—which subtly and not-so-subtly deals with many high-profile social justice issues—to come out right at the perfect… [read more]

Filed Under: Agents, Audience, Editing, Indie Publishing, Literary Trends, Pub. Industry, Publishers Weekly, Quotes, Self-publishing, Traditional Publishing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

A Deadline to Publish: Amanda Hocking Doesn’t Let Hundreds of Rejections Stand In Her Way!

August 29, 2012 by 6 Comments
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We love Amanda Hocking. She’s that fabulous success story author who really did know better than the hundreds of agents who rejected her seven novels. But, she had the goal of being a published author by the time she was 26, just like Stephen King, and used it as a “deadline” for herself: If she didn’t get a publishing deal by the age of 26, she’d do it herself. As we know now, she DID do it herself, and it ended up leading to that big publishing deal she had been pushing for for so many years. We know that the biggest (and safest) slush pile out there right now for traditional publishers is self-published authors who are making waves…. [read more]

Filed Under: Agents, Audience, Authorpreneur, eBooks, Indie Publishing, Literary Trends, Pub. Industry, Royalty Publishing, Self-publishing, Traditional Publishing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Well-Rounded Authorpreneur: Make Your Content an Experience (Part 2 of 2)

August 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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In being a well-rounded authorpreneur (an author who recognizes what it takes to be successful as an author in today’s world), we know that authors have to think of themselves as thought leaders. With that mindset supporting your book marketing endeavors, the horizon is much more expansive. An author’s goal is to sell books; a thought leader’s goal is to sell an experience. This brings us to the second piece of being a well-rounded authorpreneur:   Make your CONTENT an EXPERIENCE.   So what does that mean, exactly? Of course, we all put out content whether we know it or not. A text message is “content,” even though it’s probably only seen by one person. A book is made of content. A… [read more]

Filed Under: Audience, Authorpreneur, Content, Pub. Industry, Self-publishing, Thought Leader

The Well-Rounded Authorpreneur: Be a Thought Leader (Part 1 of 2)

August 15, 2012 by 4 Comments
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In today’s world, there are about as many ways to publish (self-publishing, scholarly publishing, nonprofit publishing, digital publishing, etc.) as there are reasons (fame, passion, creating a movement, legacy, preservation, etc). In any publishing realm not solely for personal/family reasons, every author should be an authorpreneur. An authorpreneur (author + entrepreneur) is an author who recognizes what it takes to be successful as an author in today’s world–not twenty years ago. An authorpreneur takes habits from highly successful entrepreneurs and implements them into selling their book. An authorpreneur isn’t just a writer; an authorpreneur is a speaker, social media strategist, networker, etc. The  authorpreneur recognizes that the book is just a piece of the puzzle, a product that supports and is… [read more]

Filed Under: Audience, Authorpreneur, Book Marketing, Branding, Literary Trends, Motivational, Pub. Industry, Speaking, Storytelling, Thought Leader Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Two BIGGEST Mistakes Publishers Make that Screw Over Authors

August 3, 2012 by 2 Comments
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The truth about publishing is this: THE AUTHOR WILL PAY FOR IT…NO MATTER WHAT. If you self-publish, you pay up front  to have control in your process. If you publish traditionally, you pay for it through the royalties on the sales of your book. There’s no way around this investment. And sadly, publishers on both sides of the publishing world make mistakes that waste this huge investment by the author. As you all know, Dara and I (Amy) work for a self publisher in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We work with 70+ authors per year, and our job is to help them avoid making mistakes in the publishing process. Unfortunately, we sometimes get authors who have already published the wrong way–and NOT… [read more]

Filed Under: Design, Editing, Indie Publishing, Pub. Industry, Royalty Publishing, Self-publishing, Traditional Publishing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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