Self-Publishing with ALLi

Ep#42: Indie Author Fringe Highlight with Kathy Meis All too often, great books launch into silence. Why? There is no plan in place to give the book a fighting chance. Today's book marketplace is highly competitive. You need to bring you're A-game not only on the craft side, but on the business side. In our latest Indie Author Fringe podcast, Kathy Meis from Bublish delves into the six crucial steps that authors need to take before launching their book. Kathy starts off by talking about the foundations of a successful book launch and the kind of mindset you need to have going into this to be successful. Then she takes a deep dive into the six crucial steps you need to do before you launch. Stop thinking of your book as a baby, and start thinking about it as a product. Launching a book is a business, and by following these 6 crucial pre-launch steps you will increase your chances of success:

• Step 1: Research audience and genre.
• Step 2: Line up reviews and interviews.
• Step 3: Set up a system for capturing email addresses.
• Step 4: Create a professional product.
• Step 5: Form a marketing support team.
• Step 6: Create a content and campaign calendar.

It is a lot of work to be an indie author, but Kathy believes you will set yourself up for success if you implement these 6 crucial steps.

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advicebroadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Indie Author Fringe Highlight is one of four regular shows, which include an ALLi Member Q&A, a beginners' salon and an advanced self-publishing salon. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org. If you're not familiar with our Fringe event, it's three-times a year, online conference for self-publishing authors, brought to you by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and fringe to the major global publishing fairs; London Book Fair, BookExp, and Frankfurt Book Fair. ALLi brings together the most up-to-date self-publishing education and information available and broadcasts it to authors everywhere. Running 24 sessions over 24 continuous hours allows our members, and other authors round the globe, to attend sessions, no matter where they're located. For more information, visit our Conference Home Page. Now, go write and publish.

Ep#41: Indie Author Fringe Highlight with Mark Coker from Smashwords Authors are in the midst of rapid and dizzying change, and Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords, shares his insights about the "10 Trends Driving the Future of Publishing" in our latest ALLi podcast.

Mark kicks off the podcast talking about his epiphany moment that helped to get Smashwords off the ground in 2008. Mark's company was at the forefront of of the indie revolution, and for those of you who aren't familiar with Smashwords, they're an eBook publishing platform that makes it fast, free and easy to publish and distribute your books.

At the time of recording, Smashwords features 400,000 books from 115,000 authors and small independent presses. Mark's discusses 10 key elements that are driving the future of publishing, and and how indie authors can can maximize their potential for self-publishing.

• Trend 1: THE RISE OF EBOOKS.
• Trend 2: The Democratisation of Publishing.
• Trend 3: Ebooks are Going Global.
• Trend 4: The Rise of Indie Authorship.
• Trend 5: Indie Authors are hitting all the Best Seller Lists.
• Trend 6: Previous stigma of being self-published is disappearing.
• Trend 7: A glut of high-quality low-cost books means it's becoming more and more difficult to reach readers.
• Trend 8: Amazon is exploiting this product glut.
• Trend 9: Kindle Unlimited is undermining the market in single copy sales.
• Trend 10: Indie Authors will write the next chapter in this industry's evolution.

The power centre in publishing is shifting from publishers to writers. So as an indie authors you decide where, when, and how you're going to publish. It's the collective decisions of writers that will determine the course of the publishing industry, and really shape the industry for the next generation. It's a pivotal moment in publishing, and as an indie author you have the tools and the knowledge to publish with pride and professionalism. You also have the freedom to self-publish as an indie author, or go the traditional route. It's your choice. Mark is supportive of all the options available to writers, and only time will tell whether Amazon will strip indies of their independence. Are Amazon trying to control the supply of books?

Mark believes that's true, but at the end of the day, Indies control the supply if they decide to to wield their collective power. So imagine twenty years from now. Imagine the future that you want and then make the decisions today that enable the future to come to fruition. Do your best to support a thriving and dynamic ecosystem of multiple competing retailers, by supporting all of the retailers that distribute your books. As an Indie author, fight for your right to be the captain of your own destiny.

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advicebroadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Indie Author Fringe Highlight is one of four regular shows, which include an ALLi Member Q&A, a beginners' salon and an advanced self-publishing salon. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org. If you're not familiar with our Fringe event, it's three-times a year, online conference for self-publishing authors, brought to you by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and fringe to the major global publishing fairs; London Book Fair, BookExp, and Frankfurt Book Fair. ALLi brings together the most up-to-date self-publishing education and information available and broadcasts it to authors everywhere. Running 24 sessions over 24 continuous hours allows our members, and other authors round the globe, to attend sessions, no matter where they're located. For more information, visit our Conference Home Page. Now, go write and publish.

Ep#40: Self-Publishing Advice Podcast: Indie Author Fringe Highlight with Sean Platt and Johnny B Truant of Sterling & Stone believe the key to writing better is to write faster. Here they talk about their creative process, how planning helps authors to write a better story in less time, even if they're "pantsers", and their new story-planning app. A lot of indie publishing is frontier thinking. Sean and Johnny have been figuring the best way to approach their writing process, and in this podcast they share some lessons and techniques they've learned along the way.

Here are three elements from this podcast that really resonated with me:

• Understanding your genre foundations.
• Know your characters.
• The importance of cover design for your readers, and you.
• Want to know why some books sell more than others?

This information is out there and accessible to anyone who wants to take the time to understand their genre better. At the end of the day, if you want to sell more books, you have to write books that appeal to the genre's core audience. When Johnny and Sean first started writing together it was as simple Sean coming out with a very simple outline and then Johnny turning it into a book. Along the way, David Wright joined the writing team, and they developed a systematic way of writing together that allows them to establish core relationships with the characters.

At the end of this process, there's enough information for each of the writing team to be able to picture the locations and know the characters. They have a connection with all of them, and this is one of the elements that allow them to write their stories faster. The Cover Design topic never gets old! But what was interesting was hearing about Sean and Johnny's writing process.

For Book 1 in the Invasion series, they commissioned the book cover before they started writing, and it provided some creative inspiration for their story details. During their cover design discussion, Johnny and Sean also discussed the importance of genre conventions in the cover process. Yes we all want our book to stand out in our genre, but if you design against the established conventions, especially in the major genres, you may end up getting passed over rather than stand out.

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advicebroadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Indie Author Fringe Highlight is one of four regular shows, which include an ALLi Member Q&A, a beginners' salon and an advanced self-publishing salon. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org. If you're not familiar with our Fringe event, it's three-times a year, online conference for self-publishing authors, brought to you by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and fringe to the major global publishing fairs; London Book Fair, BookExp, and Frankfurt Book Fair. ALLi brings together the most up-to-date self-publishing education and information available and broadcasts it to authors everywhere. Running 24 sessions over 24 continuous hours allows our members, and other authors round the globe, to attend sessions, no matter where they're located. For more information, visit our Conference Home Page. Now, go write and publish.

Ep#39: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books. See allianceindependendentauthors.org for more details. Here's a summary of the questions and a brief synopsis of the answers in this month's Ask ALLi with Orna and Joanna (for more in-depth answers – you should watch the video or listen to the podcast):

• Q: What exactly makes a piece of fiction, Literary Fiction?
• Q: Should you use Scrivener to get your books accepted by distributors?
• Q: How can you generate an ebook review copy?
• Q: What's the difference between pre-orders and a soft launch?
• Q: What are the advantages of using both CreateSpace and IngramSpark for creating your POD print book?
• Q: Why does Joanna only use CreateSpace for her POD books, and not IngramSpark?
• Q: When you get really burned, how do you stay motivated enough to keep writing?
• Q: What is the best way to promote a novel that doesn't fit into a specific genre?
• Q: How useful is it to participate in KBoards?

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fringe, ALLi's free online author conference.

Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org.

Now, go write and publish.

About your hosts

Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013. She spent 13 years as a business IT consultant in large corporations across the globe before becoming a full-time author-entrepreneur in September 2011. Connect with Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn

Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller's "100 top people in publishing". She also publishes poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and is greatly excited by the democratising, empowering potential of author-publishing. Connect with Orna on Twitter @OrnaRoss

Ep#38: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books.

Here's the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month:

• Q: How did you find your beta readers and how many do you have?
• Q: What should I instruct an editor or line editor to look out for in my manuscript?
• Q: Past, Present or Future - which tense is most appropriate?
• Q: Is it ok to self-publish before you go to school?
• Q: I'm designing my own book covers. If I download photos from the internet, am I breaking copyright?
• Q: Is there funding to help an independent publishers?
• Q: Are Bookbub Ads and Goodreads Deals worth the effort?
• Q: Are review bloggers and guest blogging still a powerful marketing strategy?

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fringe, ALLi's free online author conference.

Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org.

Now, go write and publish.

About your hosts

Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013. She spent 13 years as a business IT consultant in large corporations across the globe before becoming a full-time author-entrepreneur in September 2011. Connect with Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn

Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller's "100 top people in publishing". She also publishes poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and is greatly excited by the democratising, empowering potential of author-publishing. Connect with Orna on Twitter @OrnaRoss

Ep#37: Orna Ross and Joanna Penn answer members' questions on writing, publishing and promoting books.

Here's the questions posed to Orna and Joanna this month:

• Q: How would you define the difference between a non-fiction writers and a journalist?
• Q: In a previous Ask ALLi Joanna mentioned that she was moving from direct with Nook to Draft2Digital distribution, I thought the advice was that it was best to go direct?
• Q: When a book is finally finished… what is the right order for all of the follow up activities to get it to market?
• Q: Do you need to send hard copies to the British Library?
• Q: I have a new book I'm working on, Should it be completed before I decide on a company to do the ebook formatting?
• Q: What is the current best practice on formatting?
• Q: What's your input on Amazon Affiliate accounts?
• Q: My book is written and produced, what is the best way to market it? I've been approach local books stores and TV stations, as well as local historic societies.
• Q: My illustrator is having problems uploading my book to Amazon, who can I contact for uploading to Amazon?
• Q: I'm on my first book. My first publishers when out of business and I accepted their replacement publisher. How do I take my published book to a new printer and create an ebook?
• Q: As a new authors about to engage an editor and proofreader, I have concerns about sending copies to people I haven't met. Can I protect against this piracy and copyright infringement?
• Q: I'm considering engaging a book publicist, what advice do you have?

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advice broadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Member Self-Publishing Q&A is one of four regular shows, which include a more advanced salon, a beginners' salon and a special guest highlight presentation from the Indie Author Fringe, ALLi's free online author conference.

Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org.

Now, go write and publish.

About your hosts

Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, as well as writing non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013. She spent 13 years as a business IT consultant in large corporations across the globe before becoming a full-time author-entrepreneur in September 2011. Connect with Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn

Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller's "100 top people in publishing". She also publishes poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and is greatly excited by the democratising, empowering potential of author-publishing. Connect with Orna on Twitter @OrnaRoss

Ep#36: Self-Publishing Advice Podcast: Indie Author Fringe Highlight with Penny Sansevieri & Orna Ross The secret to sustaining a successful author career is the connection you make to your fans. Join Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts and Orna Ross, Director, Alliance of Independent Authors — both bestselling authors and publishing experts, learn how to identify and reach your ideal readers, turn them into superfans and how to ignite those fans so they are ones promoting your work.

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advicebroadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Indie Author Fringe Highlight is one of four regular shows, which include an ALLi Member Q&A, a beginners' salon and an advanced self-publishing salon. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org. If you're not familiar with our Fringe event, it's three-times a year, online conference for self-publishing authors, brought to you by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and fringe to the major global publishing fairs; London Book Fair, BookExp, and Frankfurt Book Fair. ALLi brings together the most up-to-date self-publishing education and information available and broadcasts it to authors everywhere. Running 24 sessions over 24 continuous hours allows our members, and other authors round the globe, to attend sessions, no matter where they're located. For more information, visit our Conference Home Page. Now, go write and publish. Host Bio: Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller's "100 top people in publishing". She also publishes poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and is greatly excited by the democratising, empowering potential of author-publishing. Connect with Orna on Twitter @OrnaRoss

Ep#35: Self-Publishing Advice Podcast: Indie Author Fringe Highlight with Kinga Jentetics & Orna Ross In this live 20 minute presentation from BEA, Orna Ross and talks with Kinga Jentetics of PublishDrive about book distribution world wide.

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advicebroadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Indie Author Fringe Highlight is one of four regular shows, which include an ALLi Member Q&A, a beginners' salon and an advanced self-publishing salon. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org. If you're not familiar with our Fringe event, it's three-times a year, online conference for self-publishing authors, brought to you by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and fringe to the major global publishing fairs; London Book Fair, BookExp, and Frankfurt Book Fair. ALLi brings together the most up-to-date self-publishing education and information available and broadcasts it to authors everywhere. Running 24 sessions over 24 continuous hours allows our members, and other authors round the globe, to attend sessions, no matter where they're located. For more information, visit our Conference Home Page. Now, go write and publish. Host Bio: Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller's "100 top people in publishing". She also publishes poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and is greatly excited by the democratising, empowering potential of author-publishing. Connect with Orna on Twitter @OrnaRoss

Ep#34: Self-Publishing Advice Podcast: Indie Author Fringe Highlight with Bryan Cohen & Orna Ross In this live 20 minute presentation from BEA, author and copywriter Bryan Cohen explains how you can optimize your sales pages to get more readers to buy your book.

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advicebroadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Indie Author Fringe Highlight is one of four regular shows, which include an ALLi Member Q&A, a beginners' salon and an advanced self-publishing salon. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org. If you're not familiar with our Fringe event, it's three-times a year, online conference for self-publishing authors, brought to you by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and fringe to the major global publishing fairs; London Book Fair, BookExp, and Frankfurt Book Fair. ALLi brings together the most up-to-date self-publishing education and information available and broadcasts it to authors everywhere. Running 24 sessions over 24 continuous hours allows our members, and other authors round the globe, to attend sessions, no matter where they're located. For more information, visit our Conference Home Page. Now, go write and publish.

Ep#33: Self-Publishing Advice Podcast: Indie Author Fringe Highlight with Kim Bookless & Orna Ross In this live 20 minute presentation from BEA, Orna Ross and Kim Bookless talk about how their respective organisations serve the needs of indie authors and can help you write and sell more books.

Our weekly Self-Publishing Advicebroadcast is brought to you by ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. This Indie Author Fringe Highlight is one of four regular shows, which include an ALLi Member Q&A, a beginners' salon and an advanced self-publishing salon. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our self-publishing advice center, www.selfpublishingadvice.org. And, if you haven't already, we invite you to join our organization and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at www.allianceindependentauthors.org. If you're not familiar with our Fringe event, it's three-times a year, online conference for self-publishing authors, brought to you by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and fringe to the major global publishing fairs; London Book Fair, BookExp, and Frankfurt Book Fair. ALLi brings together the most up-to-date self-publishing education and information available and broadcasts it to authors everywhere. Running 24 sessions over 24 continuous hours allows our members, and other authors round the globe, to attend sessions, no matter where they're located. For more information, visit our Conference Home Page. Now, go write and publish. Host Bio: Orna Ross launched the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair in 2012. Her work for ALLi has seen her named as one of The Bookseller's "100 top people in publishing". She also publishes poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and is greatly excited by the democratising, empowering potential of author-publishing. Connect with Orna on Twitter @OrnaRoss