Sue Collier | November 3, 2011
There is a lot of information available on self-publishing today—there are blogs, books, and groups galore where authors can learn the ropes. Unfortunately, I still run in to authors who have made costly mistakes with their projects—blunders that could have been avoided. Here are some of the most common: 1. Setting unrealistic goals. In spite [...]
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 18, 2011
I speak with many authors who are writing children’s books, and questions around the illustrations—who? what? and how?—are usually the most common. This is part one of a series of articles professional illustrator and designer Lisa M. Griffin will be writing for us to try to help clear up some of the confusion. Lisa’s illustrations have been [...]
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 | 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 | 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 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 [...]
