It’s back to work, with an interruption here in the U.S. on Monday when we celebrate Veteran’s Day. But there’s no rest in store for people trying to keep up with the publishing business and the needs of today’s entrepreneurial authors. Today you’ve got a lot of thoughtful input on author platform, a great collection of tools for ebooks, another warning about vanity publishing, and some great things to avoid while you’re marketing your books. Have fun.
Dan Blank (@DanBlank) on We Grow Media
What We Leave Behind—The Real Meaning of Your Platform as a Writer
“People talk about an author platform in funny ways. They talk about blogs. And Twitter. And marketing funnels. And email lists. They talk about 99 cent ebooks. And Goodreads. And while these things are elements that support the platform, they are not the platform itself.”
Anne Hill, (@annehill) Suzanna Stinnet (@brainmaker) and Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) on Jane Friedman
A Framework for Thinking About Author Platform
“The conversation focused primarily on author platform. We discussed its evolution, its purpose in your career, and how you can decide what efforts are worth your time—plus the value of collaborating with other authors.”
Hugh (@pressbooks) on Press Books Blog
Tools for Testing Your Ebooks—aka What Will Your EPUB Look Like in the Wild
“If you want to know what your epubs will look like in the wild, I recommend the following tips and (free!) tools.”
Mick Rooney (@mickrooney7777) on The Independent Publishing Magazine
How To Avoid The Vanity Publishing Trap
“While there is nothing wrong with using the Internet to resource information about a prospective publisher for your manuscript, I’d never advise any author to use the Internet alone.”
Jon Gibbs (@jongibbs) on Nathan Brandsford
10 Marketing Techniques That Annoy Potential Readers
“‘What a terrible tragedy in the news today. I had a similar situation take place in the book what I wrote. Here’s a link to the purchase page, in case anyone’s interested.’”
Is the subscription thing free or does it cost
How does this whole self publishing thing work because I would really like to try it
Chloe,
Download the free book here: 10 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing. That will give you a head start.
I especially loved the articles by Rooney and Gibbs–thanks for posting! For Rooney, it’s amazing how many ways there are for innocent authors to get scammed–and more coming up all the time. I had to laugh at Gibbs’ article–I’ve seen so many of those annoying marketing tactics before. He was right on the money!
Hi Ilana,
I really liked Jon Gibbs’ piece also. Sometimes a little humor can get a point across a lot better than a whole lot of moralizing.