This Week in the Blogs, October 27 – November 2, 2013

You can really tell that fall has arrived here in northern California, and there’s no denying that we’ve started the long slide through the holiday season toward the end of the year. But there’s still time to catch up with some of the great writing that bloggers produced this week, so dive right in.

And don’t forget to check out the big promotion, amazing giveaways, and deep discounts going on this month to celebrate writers during November. To find out more, click the banner ad at the bottom of this post.

Mark Coker on Smashwords
Examining the Business Model of Ebook Subscription Services (Part I)
“The ebook subscription services face an interesting business challenge. For any new ebook purveyor to succeed, it must satisfy three primary stakeholders: 1. Customers (readers). 2. Suppliers of the product they sell (authors and publishers). 3. Itself (it must earn a profit so it can keep the lights on and reinvest in its business).”

Suw Charman-Anderson on Forbes.com
Self-Publishing And Direct Sales: Pros, Cons And Problems
“At this point in time I’m actually happy to trade new newsletter sign-ups, data and the ability to control discounts for those lost sales. I have to work harder for every sale, but every each one pays more both monetarily and in terms of building my communities.”

David Gaughran on Let’s Get Visible
Publishing Is Easy
“When a newbie has been convinced that self-publishing is hard or expensive the chances of them falling into the clutches of a third party which will result in a poor outcome increase exponentially. Because they’ll take any kind of deal, or sign up with any fly-by-night outfit, or engage one of the vanity presses masquerading as a self-publishing company.”

Michael Hyatt on Michael Hyatt
Are You Making These 8 Twitter Mistakes?
“Twitter is not without its challenges. I have made just about every mistake you can make. But assuming you want to grow your influence and increase your follower count (and I realize not everyone does), here are eight mistakes to avoid.”

Meg Baatz on Indies Unlimited
5 Steps to Building Your Most Successful Marketing Campaign Yet
“Creating an in-crowd lets you acquire invested followers who will do the advertising for you. Why? It affirms their uniqueness and value, something they’ll want everyone to know about — along with your novel.”

Photo: bigstockphoto.com