How Romance Authors Team Up to Publish a Spicy Anthology

We are a group of romance authors—Sierra Simone, Joanna Shupe, Eva Leigh, Nicola Davidson, and Adriana Herrera—who joined forces to write a spicy little anthology, which began as a title: Duke I’d Like to F… DILF, but make him historical! In this post, we’ll walk through how we planned and wrote our novellas, then published and marketed the anthology to become a bestselling title. We hope this helps other authors considering teaming up for an anthology of their own. Read more here.

Patrick McKenzie on How to Think Like a Business, for Writers

Newsletter publishing platform Substack invited Patrick McKenzie to talk about the business side of writing during the  2021 Substack On! conference. Below, you’ll find Patrick’s insights on business matters such as:

Which type of business to form (sole proprietorship, LLC, or corporation)

How to manage your business banking and bookkeeping

Calculating your revenue and expenses

Whether to get an insurance policy.

Patrick (@patio11 on Twitter) is a writer who’s run 4 software businesses over 15 years. He works at Stripe and helped grow Stripe Atlas, an online platform that helps you start a business. Transcript below.

A Dated Edition? How You Can Update Your Book

There are many reasons why you want to update or republish your book and if you own your rights, this guide is for you, writes Mark Mathes here.

Enterprise Self-Publishing Is the Next Wave Where Organizations Value Their Own Books

The book business is in the early stages of its third great disruption in the past quarter century, writes author and futurist Mike Shatzkin. The first two both changed the shape of the industry and created winners and losers across the entire value chain: touching every step from how authors got money to how readers got books. Significant institutional players were lost in both prior disruptions, and all the ones who remained had to change their models and practices significantly. The cause of the disruption on both prior occasions and now was the introduction of asymmetric competition. Before 1995, publishing and retailing were the province of entities that did it in a businesslike way, usually for profit but always within an organizational structure dedicated to their publishing or retailing activity.

Report: Amazon Directs Book Searchers Down Conspiracy Theory Rabbit Holes

On book pages, Amazon recommends other books to users in several ways, including "customers who bought this item also bought"; "customers who viewed this item also viewed"; and "what other items do customers view after viewing this item?" Paid ads sometimes appear as well to promote "products related to this item."

"For most users, these recommendations are at best a useful way of finding new content they are interested in, and at worst an irritation to be harmlessly ignored," the report said. "For conspiracy theorists, white nationalists and users perhaps only curiously dipping their toes in the murky waters of extremist or conspiratorial content, however, these recommendations could serve as a gateway into a broader universe of conspiracy theories and misinformation, or to increasingly radical far-right and white nationalist content."

For examples, people browsing a book claiming vaccines are unsafe are nudged toward other anti-vaccine titles and to COVID-19 conspiracy content, including a book by Judy Mikovits, maker of the widely debunked "Plandemic" video, who alleged that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, had manufactured the virus that causes COVID-19 and shipped it to China.

“A bookstore does not have to host content that it deems to be outside the interests of most of its customers. It is similarly within Amazon’s power to set clear guidelines on what kind of content it is and isn’t comfortable profiting from,” Colliver said. USA Today report here.

Kindle Vella, a Mobile-First Platform for Some Authors Who Write Serials, Episodes

Amazon continues to push its own boundaries in the reader market, this time spreading into a micro-industry that has been gaining traction elsewhere, resulting in an exciting leap forward for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and potentially for authors as well. The product is the newly announced Kindle Vella, a new Kindle platform created as a “mobile-first” approach to serialized storytelling. In it, authors will have the chance to engage with readers in a new way, “one short episode at a time.” A deep dive by Jason Hamilton on Kindlepreneur.

The Cover Is Your Make-or-Break Book Sales Tool

The average online book buyer will spend less than a second scanning a single cover image during the average browsing session. How will your book stand up to this near instant “yes” or “no” buying decision?

Book covers aren’t just important to authors in hopes of gaining sales. They’re important to readers, too! According to Deloitte’s research paper, Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2015, “A key value of print books appears to be their cover. Covers have been shown to drive sales; but they also send a message to those around you about what you are reading and what kind of person you are. As has been noted, ‘the act of reading a book in public conveys important information to other readers.'”

A great cover design can also speak to fans of a genre and tell a little (or a lot) about the style of writing and the genre your book fits into. More tips.

What Independent Authors Should Know about Wattpad

Launched in 2006, Wattpad is a free online publishing platform with over 70 million writers and readers. Authors of every possible genre have been flocking to Wattpad to discover, cultivate, and build a community of their own unique readers by instantly publishing work on this social media site. Most recently, Wattpad has caught the attention of HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Paramount Pictures, and NBC, among others.

Sounds great, right? But is it right for you? Self-Publishing Relief wants you to know the pros and cons so you can decide for yourself if Wattpad is the best way for you to build your fan base. Wattpad can be great for building community and finding readers—but take a look at the pros and cons before you publish on this platform.

Bye-Bye Book Deals: Why Self-Publishing Might Be a Better Choice for You

ProWritingAid hosts this free webinar July 29, 2 pm for indie authors.

Hustling to find an agent, working hard on a proposal, and then waiting six, twelve, or even twenty-four months to find out if you received a book deal is inefficient and, oftentimes, heartbreaking. Self-publishing is mainstream, highly profitable when done right, and can position you as an expert in any industry.

In this webinar with Julie Broad, author of Self-Publish & Succeed, you’ll learn why self-publishing might be the better choice, as well as five tips to set yourself up for success. Register here.

Why Do Writers Need Agents? They Take a Cut and Spin Bad News

Why do writers need agents? To track the rejections. Writers need agents more than agents need writers. They have needed them since the late 19th century, when an increasingly literate public fed by the magazines and single-volume prints made possible by the invention of Linotype printing created a lucrative industry. Until then, authors operated on a “half profits” system with publishers, in which they shared earnings 50/50 once the publishers had deducted their expenses (and when they got round to sending the cheque). The new breed of agents empowered authors by leasing their copyrights to publishers in return for royalties and an advance on those royalties. Nowadays, conversations with fellow writers at some point usually address the thorny question of sales: “Have you earned out?”

“No. You?”

“No.” I don’t know many writers who routinely “earn out”, ie clear their advance. I suspect few writers do.

More from The Guardian.

Own Your Words. Why Publishers Want to Pay You.

Many authors think that when they finish a manuscript, they have just one book to show for it. But it is much more than that. Once the penny drops on how rights licensing works, you will truly see the value in your writing — and understand why publishers want to pay you for it. Commentary from Joanna Penn at The Creative Penn. 

How Author Katie Kirby Turned Her Blog into a Book Deal. Webinar Nov 23.

Author Katie Kirby rose to fame with her funny, irreverent, and hugely popular blog, Hurrah for Gin. Since landing a book deal in 2016, she has published four books for adults and children.

“We'll chat to Katie about creating an author voice using a blog, converting blog content into book content, building your social media presence authentically, and how she combined these elements to secure a coveted publishing deal,” says a ProWritingAid spokesman.

Nov. 23 @ 2 pm EST. Free registration here.

IngramSpark Guide to Mastering Book Design for Indie Authors

Too many authors let their manuscripts sit and collect dust because they’re not sure where to start, but book design should never stand in the way of publishing your book. There are many resources and tools available online to help you design your book, and ultimately, share your story with the world. Whether you plan to design a book yourself or hire a professional, this expanded guide covers everything you need to know about the book design process here:

IngramSpark The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Your Book Design.

How An Amazon Author Earned $138,000/Year

An Amazon self-published author made $138,000 in revenue last year. Here are his 3 steps

Bryan Cohen's writing career began in 2008 with a blog called Build Creative Writing Ideas. There, he'd share writing prompts that were meant to help his readers beat writer's block. After realizing his blog was gaining traction, he compiled some of his most popular writing-prompt entries into a book and published it himself using Amazon's platform Kindle Direct Publishing. More tips here, via Business Insider. Since then, Cohen has self-published more than 40 titles, from nonfiction books about how to start a blog to ones on how to balance writing with a full-time job. His most popular is "How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good," which has a 4.6 rating from 511 reviews on Amazon.

He also wrote a young-adult-fiction series, makes educational TikToks on self-publishing, and cohosts a podcast called the "Sell More Books Show," which teaches aspiring authors how to make money from their books.

Why So Many Writers Fail to Make Money

If you want to make money as a writer, you are not in the writing game.

You are in the thinking game. And the amount of money you make from your words is directly correlated to the amount you can influence the reader’s thinking, writes Nicolas Cole for Medium. If your writing repeats the same ideas, thoughts, and conclusions the reader already knows, guess what? They aren’t going to pay you to tell them more of what they already know.

But if your writing instills radically new ideas, changes their existing thoughts and transforms them into powerful new conclusions (leading them to make fundamentally different decisions in their life), now you’re in business.

When Should an Author Quit Publishing? 5 Indicators.

Most advice that I give to authors focuses on techniques for success. You probably know that I’ve helped both fiction and nonfiction books hit the New York Times bestsellers list. But, let’s be honest. Not every author becomes a bestseller, writes marketing consultant Rob Eagar.

In fact, most authors fail at selling books. For example, the average nonfiction book sells less than 250 copies per year. Worse, I’ve lost track of how many authors have told me they invested over $10,000 into their books and never recouped a penny. The business of books can be brutal, which begs the question: When should an author quit? Writing books is not for everyone. It takes a ton of time. It demands a special drive. And, it requires a specific set of skills to succeed. If you’ve tried to publish and market a book but things didn’t work out, don’t be ashamed to quit. There are much better things to do with your life than to stay chained to a book that is losing money. Here are five ways to determine if the best course of action is to quit.

ALLi Members Debate Recent Report of Low Author Earnings in the UK

Of course, it is appalling that reported author income is so low for so many authors. And it is a good thing that groups, organizations, and author-representative bodies like the UK’s APWG are grappling with the issue, writes the Alliance of Independent Authors. There are elements in the report that make sense, such as the call for a reduction in the UK’s VAT (value-added tax) on ebooks, which is particularly hard on authors who rely on ebook sales in the UK market. But looking for solutions for low author earnings by asking governments to step in to “fix” this problem feels like intellectual energy misplaced. Is it government’s role to provide a solution for low author earnings?

FAQs for Amazon Self-Publishing: From Title and Keywords to Pricing

If you’re an author, it’s probably you considered the possibility of publishing your work on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), the world’s largest self-publishing platform, according to the Book Designer. Well, you’re in the right place. In this simple guide I’ll explain how to publish a book on Amazon in the fastest and easiest way. You’ll see that in a short period of time, which usually doesn’t exceed 72 hours, your book could be generating its first sales.