Authors Electric

I have spent a lot of time bemoaning the fate of self-published authors over the years, but sometimes, I admit, I often overlook the rose for the thorns. For example, I learned yesterday that Barnes & Noble will now stock self-published books on their shelves . However, as you can tell from the dateline on the linked article, this is not exactly breaking news. Apparently, I missed the original announcement of this development two years ago. Yay! A corporate bookseller that loves indie writers!-- Weeeeeeell, maybe. Still, this is a huge development benefiting indie authors as it lets them into the previously exclusive-to-traditionally-published-authors market of bookstore browsers and foot traffic. Sure some local B&Ns have allowed local self-published authors to hold book signings and special events at their stores, but even in these instances, any books sold were sold by commission. In other words, authors had to purchase their own stock and donate a cut of their proce...

One of the advantages of being an independent author or micro-publisher is you get to choose and control your sales channels. One of the disadvantages of being an independent author or micro-publisher is you get to choose and control your sales channels. If you have an e-book to sell then the obvious place to go and tout your wares is Amazon. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing has an easy upload platform, good opportunities for testing the product before finally clicking Publish, global storefronts and facilities for tweaking the book page via Amazon Author Central. Happy days. Amazon even offers a couple of promotional schemes if you give them 90 days exclusivity and join KDP Select. Up to 5 days of Free Book Promotion (would you want to do that? Debate is never-ending on the subject) or the Kindle Countdown which gives a time-based promotional discount for your title. Why does Amazon offer these benefits in return for exclusivity? Because other channels do sell e-books. If yo...