From The Independent Publishing Magazine: Apple Poised To Launch Self-Publishing Program This Month
Reporting on Good E-Reader this morning, Michael Kozlowski has revealed that Apple will host an event in New York later in January and speculates that it may herald the launch of a self-publishing program for iBooks that will rival Amazon’s DTP and the Barnes and Noble Pubit platform. As yet nothing formal has been stated by Apple.

From Accredited Online Colleges: 12 Marketing Skills Every Writer Now Needs
In a world of blogs, tweets, website comments, and Facebook status updates, everyone is a writer. That is, they are in the sense that they are communicating through the written word. But you’re a writer: you know what a gerund is, and you would never mistake “it’s” with “its.” Of course, the proliferation of social media has only served to flood the market with content producers. If you want to make it as a writer, you will have to separate yourself from the crowd so your work can be appreciated. Here are 12 marketing skills to help you become the next Hemingway.

From eBook Newser: Smashwords’ Mark Coker Responds To Apple Rumors
We’ve been hearing rumors that Apple is hosting a press conference this month to announce a new software. One report suggests that it will be a new self-publishing platform for iBooks, but Mark Coker, the CEO of self-publishing platform Smashwords, is not convinced.

From Salon.com: Indies battle Amazon — by becoming publishers
Of all the booksellers I’ve met over the years, no doubt the busiest is Mitchell Kaplan. In addition to overseeing Miami’s venerated Books & Books stores, Kaplan is a co-founder of the Miami Book Fair, a former president of the American Booksellers Association, and the most recent recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award. So it was pretty surprising to see Kaplan himself when I read at his flagship store in Coral Gables last month.

From FonerBooks: Kindle eBooks Outselling Paper Books Big Time
I originally titled this post, Amazon’s Free eBooks Outsell All Other Amazon Books Combined, but I think people will be more interested in the paid book comparison on the graph. The graph is from my page on Kindle eBook sales which I updated yesterday.  The main caveat is that January 2nd isn’t a typical day since many people must have received Kindles and iPads for Christmas and are still excited about buying eBooks. The graph shows paid Kindle eBook sales vs all paper book sales, and I’ll pick a few points off for people who don’t read log-log graphs.

From Paid Content: Which E-Books Are Most Borrowed From Libraries, And Why?
OverDrive released its lists of the most-downloaded e-books from libraries in December 2011. These lists look pretty different from the current New York Times e-book bestseller lists. Here’s why, plus a few interesting tidbits.

From The Book Designer:Video: Brian Felsen of BookBaby.com on the Future of e-Books
I’m pleased today to have an interview for you with Brian Felsen, CEO of BookBaby.com, the e-book distributor that started as an offshoot of CDbaby, the independent music distributor.

From the GalleyCat: Occupy Wall Street Library Adds Hundreds of Books
Today the Occupy Wall Street Library posted a photograph of the hundreds of books added to their collection. Even though the activists have been evicted from Zuccotti Park, the spirit continues as donations continue to pour into the library. A number of Twitter supporters banded together for the donations: Liz Danzico, Maria Popova, Akashic Books, Housing Works Bookstore and Nathan Larson.

Enjoy!

FirstWriter.com is a one-stop resource for new writers as they progress through their writing career.  On the resource list is copyright information, editorial services, writing tips, and much more.  Firstwriter’s mission is:  “quite simply, to help you get published. Whether you’re an aspiring writer or an established professional, we aim to provide you with the tools you need to find placements for your writing quickly, accurately, and with minimum cost.”  Firstwriter is maintained by a small group of dedicated professionals based around the world. The company exists only online, so they are not restricted by geography and can choose to work with the best people for the job—regardless of where they live. Their team includes people from the United Kingdom, the United States, and as far afield as China.

Finding your way through the conference maze. Romance writer Roni Loren (Crash Into You, available in January 2012) has both feet on the ground—usually at one writers’ conference or another. She attends three such events every year and has developed a working strategy, which she gladly shares in her Fiction Groupie post, “Top Five Mistakes Writers Make at Conferences.” Her nitty gritty advice is strong on seeking out sessions that will help you hone your craft, rather than leaping ahead to composing query letters and courting agents. Learning and networking are king and queen, according to Loren. If you’re interested in scouting out what’s happening from New York City to Grand Cayman, visit the Writers’ Conferences & Centers website, where you can also find out about scholarships and retreats.

Give your chapters, books, and promotional materials unforgettable endings. In “Endings To Remember,” Peter P. Jacobi offers news story tips that any writer can employ for more effective prose. The former university professor and writing/editing consultant outlines the importance of crafting a persuasive, thoughtful, provocative conclusion to your literary piece that will cling to your reader’s consciousness like static electricity. So how is it done? Should you use a quote? What about a descriptive snapshot, some dialogue, or an anecdote? Only you, the writer, can tap inside to discover the best choice for your particular story, but if you put in the effort, it will cap your writing with meaning that can make a difference in the life of your readers, and maybe even move them to action.

From The Huffington Post: Are eBooks Too Cheap?: Indie Authors Question 99 Cent Price
There’s a lot of controversy circulating throughout the publishing industry about the pricing of ebooks, and it’s a significant topic that warrants discussion. Independent authors are rallying around the controversial 99-cent price point.

From Jane Friedman: My Best Advice for Writers From 2011
Last week I shared 12 Must-Read Articles From 2011. Now I’m going to share a list of the best advice I gave in 2011 as a handy reference.

From Author’s Echo: The Offer I Turned Down
If all the posts about getting an agent didn’t drive you off, then you know I got another offer before Tricia called. I turned it down because it felt sketchy, for a number of reasons I’ll go into here. Though I won’t name anybody; for all I know, the agency and the offer was totally legit and it was just the way it was handled that scared me off.

From The GalleyCat: The Best Gift You Can Give a Writer
Like most GalleyCat readers, you probably have a few writers on your holiday gift list. This GalleyCat editor has a foolproof, economical, practical and meaningful gift that you can give to the writer in your life: TIME.

From RT Book Reviews: Amazon’s Best Selling E-Books of 2011
Amazon has just announced its lists of the best-selling books of 2011 in print and e-book formats. Looking at the e-book list says a lot about the reading choices that booklovers made this year. The winning e-books fall into three major categories; there are the big name mystery authors we couldn’t get enough of, the non-fiction books that gave us a look inside the lives of others and then three inexpensive self-published e-reads.

From The GalleyCat: 7 Free eBooks Neil deGrasse Tyson Thinks Everybody Should Read
“Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet?” one literary Reddit user asked Neil deGrasse Tyson last week. The famous physicist and author responded with a concise list of classic books. If you are looking for books to fill your new eReader, we have collected links to free digital copies of all the books on his list. Follow the links below to download ePub, Kindle or text versions of the books.

From The Book Designer: Do Writers Really Need a Book Business Plan?
Seriously. I know no one likes to hear this, even my clients who are not of the author persuasion, but without a business plan you’re going nowhere.  It’s vital for a writer to have a Book Business Plan because your books and you are the products to be sold. It makes most writers queasy to even imagine selling themselves but without a plan, you can hardly figure out a way for your book to sell itself. Think of it as a GPS getting you from Starving Writer Street to Successful Author Square.

From GalleyCat: Farhad Manjoo: ‘You Should Thank [Amazon] for Crushing That Precious Indie on the Corner’
Farhad Manjoo infuriated booksellers around the country with a provocative essay at Slate, calling independent bookstores “some of the least efficient, least user-friendly, and most mistakenly mythologized local establishments you can find.”

From Writer’s Digest: 50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform in 5 Minutes a Day
Writing rules. Self-promotion drools. Isn’t this how most writers think? But as long as you view your writing as art and your self-promotion efforts as the furthest thing from art, your chances of ramping up a successful 21st-century writing career are going to remain slim to none.

From eBook Newser: Are eBooks Getting More Expensive?
eBook pricing ebbs and flows like the tide and we hear a lot of different pricing ideas from the publishers, authors and readers that we speak to. Some people think that $.99 is the right price to get a reader to try an unknown author and others think that such a low price point makes the book seem unworthy of a reader’s attention. The big publishers succumbed to Amazon’s $9.99 price point, but then adopted the agency model and set their own prices.

From The New York Times: As Kindle Fire Faces Critics, Remedies Are Promised
The Kindle Fire, Amazon’s heavily promoted tablet, is less than a blazing success with many of its early users. The most disgruntled are packing the device up and firing it back to the retailer.

From Publishers Weekly: Is Amazon Pushing Publishers to Brink On Terms, Co-op?
Last week Amazon caused a furor in the bookselling world, with its reveal of a price check app consumers could use in bricks-and-mortar stores to get discounts at the retailer. Although the app did not include books, its announcement offered many a chance to slam Amazon as a ruthless corporation out to destroy the community bookstore and, as Richard Russo claimed in the New York Times, literary culture along with it.

From Dallas News: Year in Review: Books trends that got our attention
Looking back, 2011 will be remembered as the year when publishing was turned on its head. Self-published authors, once the pariahs of the book business, gained credibility — outselling many established names and giving hope to would-be authors everywhere. Borders, the second-biggest bookstore chain in the country, went under, signaling a shift in priority from print books to e-books.

From Forbes: Integrate Everything: 10 Tech Predictions For 2012
Mark Anderson is the editor of the Strategic News Service, a newsletter about the technology business, which previously published this column. He also runs the the annual Future In Review conference.  Here are my top technology calls for next year. My theme for the year is “integrate everything.”

From The New York Times: Book Shopping in Stores, Then Buying Online
Bookstore owners everywhere have a lurking suspicion: that the customers who type into their smartphones while browsing in the store, and then leave, are planning to buy the books online later — probably at a steep discount from the bookstores’ archrival, Amazon.com.

From AllthingsD: Amazon Will Pay Shoppers $5 to Walk Out of Stores Empty-Handed
Amazon is offering consumers up to $5 off on purchases if they compare prices using the online giant’s mobile phone application in a store.

From The Book Designer: 30 Book Awards for Self-Published Authors
As self-publishing a book has become more accepted and far more popular than it has ever been, book awards for self-published books have also multiplied.

From The GeekWire: Retail association pissed about Amazon.com’s Price Check app
The Retail Industry Leaders Association isn’t too happy about Amazon.com’s Price Check app and a new promotion that the Seattle online retailer is unveiling this Saturday.

From The Savvy Book Marketer: Amazon KDP Select – Proceed with Caution
Amazon has just announced a new program for Kindle authors called KDP Select, apparently designed to encourage authors and publishers to enroll their ebooks in Amazon’s lending library and to limit competition.

From The Wall Street Journal: How I Became a Best-Selling Author
This summer, Darcie Chan’s debut novel became an unexpected hit. It has sold more than 400,000 copies and landed on the best-seller lists alongside brand-name authors like Michael Connelly, James Patterson and Kathryn Stockett.

From The Christian Science Monitor: Writer Beware: the watchdog of the publishing world
In an interview this week, Strauss talked about rip-offs, bad raps, and publishing pitfalls. Q: What scams should people be aware of in the publishing world? A: The rip-offs abound. There are dishonest agents and scam publishers.  You shouldn’t pay a reading fee to an agent. There are also agents who charge for editing and publishers who claim to be traditional but want you to buy 1,000 copies of your book.

From Publishers Weekly: PW Tip Sheet: Real Books Don’t Die
This week, the story in The Canadian Press, in The Independent, in The Guardian, and, of course, in The New York Times, is that, in order to survive, the printed book must distinguish itself as an attractive alternative to e-books through the dark arts of book design. The Times quotes Robert S. Miller, publisher of Workman Press, as saying “When people do beautiful books, they’re noticed more. It’s like sending a thank-you note written on nice paper when we’re in an era of e-mail correspondence.”

Here are some of the most common:

1. Setting unrealistic goals. In spite of recent success stories in the news, you probably won’t become rich from your publishing venture. And you probably won’t sell a million copies of your book. Keep in mind that a book that sells 10,000 copies—whether self- or traditionally published—is generally considered to be a “success.” Another thing is that too many authors also believe that just putting their work out there is somehow going to result in sales, so they neglect putting together a marketing and promotions plan—which leads to the next item on the list.

2. Failing to think about marketing before the book is published. This is a biggie. I know that writing a book is no easy task, and authors tend to get caught up in the process before thinking of the next step, which is ensuring your book reaches your audience. I frequently speak with authors who have had their books out for months and have generated few sales. When I ask what they’ve been doing in terms of marketing, I often get a vague response. Or I have authors call me in September, asking to help them plan a promotions plan for the upcoming holiday season (which they should have started long before fall). It’s never too early to think about promoting your book and building your author platform. You’ll definitely want to have a plan in place well before the book’s publication date.

3. Not knowing your audience. Perhaps your book does have wide appeal, but not “everyone” is going to read it—even if you think they should. Also, consider your competition: Does your book offer something new and unique to potential readers?

4. Going the vanity press route and thinking you’ve self-published. If you pay a publisher to publish your book, and that publisher uses its own ISBN on your book, you have not self-published. And chances are, if you’ve got a vanity (or subsidy) publisher imprint on your book, reviewers won’t give it the time of day. Although the stigma is diminishing for true self-publishing (you purchase your own ISBN prefix under your own publishing company name and assign a number to your book), it still exists for vanity and subsidy publishing because editing is often nonexistent and interior and exterior designs are usually templates that look substandard. So if you hire a “self-publishing service,” make sure the end result is a well-done book that is truly self-published—by you.

5. Thinking you can do it all yourself. You can—but the end result will likely be an amateurish book that is riddled with errors. Even the best writers need good editors. And unless you are a book design professional, you want a pro to design your interior and exterior so they don’t scream “self-published.” Too many times I see authors in writers groups who post a book cover designed by themselves or a family member—and they almost always look it. Surround yourself with professionals who can help ensure your book reads well and looks good. (Get recommendations for professionals from other self-published authors whose books you like.)

6. Being stingy with review copies. Reviews are an essential part of any book promotions plan, so budget the cost of review copies in your original promo plan. I have worked with authors who were opposed to sending out “free” copies of their book—and the number of reviews they received suffered for it. It’s not unusual to hear some successful authors reveal they sent out a hundred or more review copies.  

7. Not looking at self-publishing as a business. Once you’ve decided to self-publish, you are no longer just an author; you are also a business owner. And just as a commercial publisher looks upon any new book as an investment of its resources, so too do you.

Your name: D’vorah Lansky

Your website: http://BookMarketingMadeEasy.com

Your bibliography: Connect, Communicate, and Profit: Build Successful Business Relationships Online Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online Promote Your Book with Teleseminars: Simple and Affordable Ways to Turn Your Message Into Money

1. What is your background? I have a Master’s Degree in education and have taught in various places around the globe.  When my son was born I began marketing online, that was 1994. This led to many speaking opportunities and the publication of my books.

2. What led you to self-publishing? I like the control I have over to project so I can set the pace. With so many options available an author can accomplish a great deal while retaining the rights to their book.

3. What have you found to be the biggest challenge in self-publishing? Sifting through all the offerings and finding the best book cover designer, editor, etc. Some of the programs where you pay someone to do it all sound appealing. Since I am quite proficient in online marketing I don’t need the support with building sites and social media, so still looking for the right match.

4. What has been the biggest surprise about self-publishing? That an author can write a book and publish it. I thought publishing a book was a huge mystery and rare occurrence. I was delighted to find out that this is not the case.

5. What inspires you? Being around kind, positive, giving, successful people.

6. Describe your writing process. I use the “gatherer” style of writing. I like to outline my project in word or as a mindmap. I then plug in subtopics, idea, resources, etc. Next, I open up word and pop each page/idea onto it’s own page. I format the text so that everything is uniform and then I dig in and begin writing. I like to set a goal for number of sections I’ll work on during each writing session. Sometimes I’ll print off these pages and attach them to a clipboard as I often enjoy sitting in bed and writing first thing in the morning.

7. How do you stay disciplined? I actually am quite disciplined and have to force myself to go to sleep or go have fun, away from the office! To me,work, writing, marketing, meeting people, networking, IS fun!

8. What is your favorite self-marketing idea? Setting up and participating in an online Virtual Book Tour. I was inspired by the book tours of Dana Lynn Smith and Joanna Penn and set up what ended up being a very successful 21-day virtual book tour. If anyone is interested in gathering ideas for their own tour there are lots of tips and ideas right on my tour page and on my blog at http://BookMarketingMadeEasy.com

9. What advice do you have for burgeoning self-publishers? Set up a WordPress blog the foundation of your online platform. Begin promoting your book and developing your author platform when your book is just a glimmer in your eye. In this way you’ll have a strong foundation and solid relationships with people who will support you when it comes time to promote your book as well as a place for people to come to to find out more about you and your book.

10. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun? I enjoy going to the bookstore, playing cribbage, hiking, quilting, dancing, and reading.

11. What project are you currently working on? I actually am working on two projects.

1) The Third Annual Book Marketing Conference Online. Fifteen sessions with top book marketing experts.
http://BookMarketingConference.com

2) A course on Relationship Marketing for Authors that Shelley Hitz and I are teaching together.

http://www.greetingcardsforauthors.com/ecourse/

I’m pleased to welcome today’s guest post by author and former CBS News journalist Hardy Jones. He wanted to share with my readers the lessons he learned in promoting his book through advertising.  I generally don’t recommend that authors advertise their books – reviews and other forms of publicity are weighted far more heavily – and this post underscores that.

What Not to Do to Sell Your Indie Book

By Hardy Jones

In May of this year, I self-published my book, The Voice of the Dolphins (VOTD), through CreateSpace, an Amazon subsidiary. The book has been released in print, Kindle, and in enhanced eBook format with embedded video clips through iTunes and via the eBookStore app.

After having a horrific experience with a mainstream publisher I got the rights back and eventually wrote the book I wanted. But my sales have been paltry, roughly 300 units, virtually all from my FaceBook and Twitter reach and enewsletters of BlueVoice.org and other ocean environmental organizations.

VOTD received a very nice review from Kirkus and is five-stars on Amazon. I’ve had enough professional feedback to be confident it’s a good piece of work. So as sales dwindled from initial 60 per month to 30 to fewer, I became frustrated. The book is not only the story of nearly 35 years filming dolphins and whales in the wild, it contains important information on toxics in the ocean environment that affect the health of both dolphins and humans.

Then I saw an ad in the New York Times Book Review offering half price off ads for first time authors. I’ve made more than seventy films for television but VOTD is my first book. I thought I’d try to achieve a breakout for the book through an ad in the NYT Book Review. The sales agent said they reach 4-million readers. Even the half-off price was $5,100, a lot of money for me. But fortune favors the bold, I told myself.

I wasn’t trying to generate enough sales to cover the cost of the ad but I thought I might make a couple of hundred sales and get some media attention. I had a professional do the graphics, we had endorsements from Ted Danson, the Kirkus Review, and a nice blurb from Paul Watson. I anxiously awaited the publication date: September 18, 2011.

The results were pathetic. Sales ran less than 20 on the Amazon and Kindle sites combined. There were a few more on the eBookStore and probably some on iTunes (won’t know for a month or more). So the ad was a complete and total waste of money.

But hope springs eternal. VOTD is up for a literary award, I’ll be speaking to the Society of Environmental Journalists, there are two library appearances on my docket, a booth at a marine mammal conference and a whale festival. That may generate a few sales.

In the end the greatest value may be in sending signed copies of the book to donors to our nonprofit (www.bluevoice.org). One copy went to a donor who promptly sent a gift of $3,000. We’re sending copies to donors all over the world now – Japan, Qatar, Brazil, Colombia, and of course, the USA and Canada.

The bottom line is I love the book and will keep fighting to get recognition for it; but not through the NYT Book Review.

Hardy Jones has spent more than thirty years investigating and working to save dolphins. He began unique research on dolphins in the Bahamas in 1978 that has led to four internationally broadcast films and many awards. In 1979 He broke the story of the slaughter of dolphins at Iki Island, Japan which led to international outrage and helped shut down the killing of dolphins in several villages in Japan.  Since then Hardy has worked at Futo and Taiji to stop the last vestiges of slaughter on Japan’s main island. Hardy has covered the increasing levels of toxic chemicals in the oceans and their connection to disease in dolphins and human beings. Hardy is a former journalist with CBS News. He attended Tulane University and studied law at Columbia University under a CBS Foundation Fellowship. Visit his website at http://hardyjonesdolphins.com.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

How long are you willing to wait to see your book in print?  Let’s skip right over the months and possibly years it might take you to find representation and assume you already have a finished manuscript and an agent. It may take some time for the agent to shop around and find the right place for your book. Let’s further assume the agent finds a publisher who is interested and offers a reasonable contract. You still might have to wait another 12 to 18 months to see your book in print.  Self-publishing can be done in a much shorter amount of time—usually just a couple of months if your manuscript is professionally edited and the book is professionally designed.

What are your reasons for wanting to be traditionally published?  A lot of authors today make the choice to self-publish rather than pursue a traditional deal. They believe they can better produce and market their books—and potentially make a lot more money. But in some circles there is still a certain amount of “prestige” in landing that trad contract. If it’s the so-called status of a traditional deal you crave, then self-publishing may not be right for you. If you simply want to get your work out there, then collecting rejection letters may just postpone the inevitable.

How much control are you willing to let go of? In general, when you sign a contract with a traditional publisher, you give up a certain amount of control over your project both editorially and creatively. The publisher will likely have final say over the content, the title, and the cover design. Most of the time, authors are satisfied with the results. However, having worked on the traditional side of publishing for a number of years as managing editor of a small press, I can think of a couple of different instances when authors were not happy with decisions we made regarding their books. They had no choice but to live with it. With self-publishing, you maintain full control over every aspect of the production process.

Do you have a sizeable author platform in place? You may not have a chance with a traditional publisher if you don’t have a large list of connections and potential buyers. The fact of the matter is that regardless of how good your book is, most trads expect you to have a large following before they will sign you on.  (Plus, you’ll still have to shoulder much of the marketing and promotions burden yourself.) Of course, author platform—and marketing and promotions— is equally important in terms of sales if you decide to self-publish.

Would you be self-publishing strictly out of frustration? Self-publishing is not as easy as simply uploading your Word document to CreateSpace. At least, it shouldn’t be. Care should be taken to ensure your content is top-notch (hire a good editor) and its presentation matches that of the trads (hire a book designer). There’s the also the little fact that you are now taking on the role of publisher in addition to author, which leads me to the next question.

Are you interested in becoming a publisher in addition to an author? This is a biggie because as a self-publisher, you are forced to take on that role. Even if you hire professionals to help put your project together, you’ll still have to make final editorial and design decisions. You’ll need to decide on a name for your publishing company and open up a bank account. You’ll have to obtain the appropriate numbers for your book. You’ll need to handle accounting and budgeting for the project. You’ll have to figure out distribution and fulfillment. Of course, there are companies that can help you with all that, but it’s definitely more involved than “just” being an author. It’s not for everyone. 

Do you have the budget to do it “right”? Sure, there are places where you can get your book published for “free,” but chances are your book will be immediately identifiable as “self-published” and disregarded by reviewers—or worse, trashed by them. I simply don’t believe there is any way around having your book professionally edited and designed. You don’t need to pay thousands for each, but you’ll probably have to pay something. And please make sure you have enough money to purchase your own ISBN. Never use one of the so-called “POD self-publishing” company’s ISBNS. Never. Make sure you are the publisher of record.

Do you truly have a quality manuscript with a unique message? Have you tried but failed to get a traditional deal because your manuscript is a piece of crap? Has no unique message? Is poorly written? Then self-publishing is not for you either; you’ll probably waste a lot of money and time on something that will not sell—and worse, could harm your reputation. If, however, you truly believe you’ve been rejected by the trads through no fault of your manuscript (it’s tough to land an agent, let alone a contract these days), self-publishing is probably your best bet. With a good book and a solid marketing plan, you will probably even be successful.

From The Domino Project: Are you feeling lucky?
One of the biggest distinctions between old publishing and new is the nature of luck.

From The Savvy Book Marketer: The Media is Paying Attention to Self-Published Authors
I came to self-publishing by accident. I wrote a novel, A Great Place for a Seizure, with the plan to find a literary agent and a publisher. Several rejection letters later I decided to be strategic and attempt to win an endorsement for my manuscript from organizations that could attest to the value of a novel that gives a well-rounded account of life with epilepsy.

From Publishers Weekly: Amazon Launches The Kindle Cloud Reader
As expected in the wake of Apple’s new restrictions on buying content outside the Apple in-app purchasing system,  Amazon.com has launched the Kindle Cloud Reader, an HTML5 reader that will allow consumers to buy and read Amazon titles through the web browsers found on almost any PC or mobile device.

From Authority Publishing: 12 Tasks Every Author Should Tackle Before Publishing a Book
1. Start a Blog – Do not wait until the book is in print to start building your audience. Write about topics of interest to your target audience and update your blog at least twice each week.

From TeleRead: Google adds book sharing feature to Google+
Google has added a feature to let people share links to Google Books e-books on their Google+ social network circles. The feature can be used either by clicking a link on the e-book’s “About the Book” page, or by pasting the Google Books URL into the Google+ Share box.

From Pod People: Indiereader
Indiereader started out as a site for readers of self-published material to mingle and discover new books. What they discovered, and most people already knew, is that dedicated self-published books readers are a demographic that barely exists outside of the authors themselves (and sometimes not even them).

From the Idea Logical Company: If you like irony, you must love the publishing world of today
Anybody who doesn’t find the publishing business interesting in its time of digital change is simply not paying close enough attention. No matter what story we’re focused on, scratch the surface (or scratch your head) and you find you are pondering something else.

From Mashable: How Blurb Tapped Into the Burgeoning Self-Publishing Industry
For the last six years, Eileen Gittins has made it her mission to help anyone and everyone become an author via Blurb. What started as a self-publishing startup for do-it-yourself bookmakers has become a multi-platform storytelling service, adding an app for iPhone and iPod Touch in April, and most recently, an iPad iteration. Mashable spoke with Gittins about the conception and evolution of the company, her inspirations and, of course, cowboy boots.