Sue Collier | August 19, 2011
I get asked this question a lot by authors who are looking for a simple, cut-and-dried answer. But deciding which might be the right option for a particular author depends on a number of things. Here are some questions to ask yourself: How long are you willing to wait to see your book in print? [...]
Sue Collier | June 14, 2011
As self-publishing continues to go mainstream and lose its stigma, more and more authors are taking the plunge and going indie. Success, however, is certainly not guaranteed. By following the tips below, you’ll avoid many of the pitfalls and enhance your chances of flourishing. 1. Educate yourself. Publishing is a business and needs to be [...]
Sue Collier | June 6, 2011
I recently read a great list from LLReader by Shannon Yarborough, “My Own 10 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing.” Shannon brings up a lot of good points, and I have some things to add to some of what she says that go a bit beyond just leaving comments at the blog site, so I [...]
Sue Collier | April 14, 2011
I’m fond of telling authors that after they’ve written their book, the hard work begins—and by that I am referring to marketing and promoting. In reality, though, your book promotion plans should begin well before you start writing the book. In this post, I’ve listed those things you can do before you start writing, before [...]
Sue Collier | March 31, 2011
I was inspired to write today’s blog post after reading a recent post from The Book Designer, Joel Friedlander. His post, When Self-Published Book Design Goes Bad, resonated with a lot of people, including me. In a nutshell, the post talks about what to do when an enthusiastic self-publishing author decides to excessively tweak a [...]
Sue Collier | March 25, 2011
I was thrilled when I first read that indie author Amanda Hocking was looking at a traditional house book deal, possibly worth millions. I don’t read her genre of fiction (paranormal), but I’ve admired her success and her level-headedness (she’s just 26 years old). Maybe I’m naïve, but I seriously expected everyone to be just as [...]
Sue Collier | August 16, 2010
I was reading a blog post yesterday on “Why Self-Publishing Hurts Real Writers” — I know, “real writers”? It was asterisked, but basically the post author’s explanation is that because he is Argentine he doesn’t need to be politically correct — and I had a long, incensed comment all typed out and ready to go. [...]
Sue Collier | June 30, 2010
So I read a post on self-publishing over a Kidlit today. I’ve commented there, but I couldn’t resist more pontificating. I’ll start by saying that I am not the average person who has no idea what lurks in slush. I spent many years in the trade, going through those very awful slush piles that blogger [...]
Sue Collier | June 21, 2010
Even as nontraditional publishing continues to grow—Bowker reports a whopping increase of 181 percent in 2009 over the previous year—there is still a stigma attached to self-publishing. I’ve read the articles, I’ve seen the tweets. There is still a pervasive belief that self-publishing is somehow “settling”—and probably your only option because you were rejected by [...]
Sue Collier | May 5, 2010
I read a blog post today about why authors should pursue traditional publishing rather than try self-publishing from the start. For authors of fiction, I would probably agree that traditional publishing is definitely the more ideal model; but for authors of nonfiction, self-publishing is often the best, most profitable way for authors to see their [...]
