Seth Godin is a marketing genius.

I love these words of wisdom in his blog post, Seth’s Blog: The last hardcover:

“If you’re an author, pick yourself. Don’t wait for a publisher to pick you. And if you work for a big publishing house, think really hard about the economics of starting your own permission-based ebook publisher. Now’s the time.”

Pick Yourself

I hope you’re hard at work writing your book. I also hope that you have books #2, #3 and #4 in the planning stages.

You now have opportunities NO ONE has ever had before, if you want to write a book.

I’m majorly aggravated that I was born too soon. I wish I’d been born around 1990… Ho hum, since I wasn’t, I have to believe in reincarnation, because I LOVE being an author in 2012 with so many opportunities.

So, pick yourself, get published on the Kindle. See where it takes you. Your potential is glorious, but only if you believe in you.

FWIW — I believe in you.

If you’ve considered blogging for buzz, then decided that it’s not for novelists, think again. You can and should be blogging to build a platform while you’re writing.

This article gives you some great ideas, 13 Blog Post Ideas for Novelists | Michael Hyatt. Consider blogging:

“Excerpts from Your Novel. This is probably the easiest. It has the added advantage of allowing us, your potential readers, to “sample the brew.” Just write a paragraph to set up the excerpt. Oh, and be sure to link to your book, so we can buy it (duh).”

This is a great idea. Remember to blog regularly. It will inspire your writing. You always write more when you know that you have readers.

Nervous about self-publishing? Many writers aren’t and that’s ideal. Kindle publishing is laughably simple.

That said, many writers would rather do their own dentistry than format and upload their self-published books. If you feel this way, respected publisher Penguin can help.

Publishers Lunch (subscription required), Book Country Launches Self-Publishing Platform reports:

“Book Country is offering three publishing packages to authors who wish to self-publish within the genres of romance, mystery/thriller, and science fiction & fantasy: a digital book with user-formatting based on a Microsoft Word file for $99…”

I’m not familiar with Book Country at all, but it looks like a great community. I’ll be joining myself.

You’ll need to decide whether their packages work for you. Be aware that you’re giving up some control, and money, too. Before you sign up with any packager, make sure you read and understand the fine print.

Kindle Publishing Is Hot: Want to generate cash from your kitchen table and quit your day job?

Others are making money from Kindle publishing. The lucky few are making millions. Some are making great money — and that money increases each month.

What about you?

Imagine generating cash from your kitchen table. You can let Amazon do all the heavy lifting. Amazon’s got a proven publishing system, after all — discover Fast and Easy Kindle Publisher: Turn Free Stuff Into Kindle Cash, and discover four different ways to turn free stuff into Kindle cash.

You’re writing ebooks, but you have an agenda. You don’t just want to sell copies, you also want to build your platform. Your hope is that a major publisher will see your sales, and will take you on board.

The major publishers, the “Big Six”, are all about the numbers and whether they can make money publishing you. This makes the price of the ebooks you’re selling all-important.

Therefore, you may want to forget offering your ebooks for free, or charging 99 cants. You’re going to have to charge more.

If you’ve been keeping your eye on ebook prices at the Kindle store, for example, you’ll see that Big Six ebooks are often between $8 and $10, sometimes much more. Publishers are experimenting with prices, and I’ve seen backlist titles set at an eye-watering $17 and over.

You have to wonder what these people are smoking. I won’t say who the publisher was, but one test ran the $17 price point for at least a four weeks that I’m aware of, before the price of the ebooks (we’re talking books first published in the 1980s), dropped to $7.50 on average.

To reiterate, big publishing is all about the numbers, so a 99 price, even if you’re selling lots of copies, is too low.

This article, How Low is Too Low? | AARdvark, reports:

“Anecdotally, I’ve heard that $3.99 is the breaking point; that if a book can sell a solid number of copies or become a bestseller while priced at $3.99 or higher, mainstream publishers become interested.  Below that point, they don’t care too much. ”

So there’s your challenge, if you want big-publisher attention, your price point needs to be tasty enough to interest them, and of course, you need to have the numbers.

Kindle Publishing Is Hot: Want to generate cash from your kitchen table and quit your day job?

Others are making money from Kindle publishing. The lucky few are making millions. Some are making great money — and that money increases each month.

What about you?

Imagine generating cash from your kitchen table. You can let Amazon do all the heavy lifting. Amazon’s got a proven publishing system, after all — discover Fast and Easy Kindle Publisher: Turn Free Stuff Into Kindle Cash, and discover four different ways to turn free stuff into Kindle cash.

This post, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Guest Post by David Gaughran, makes the valid point (emphasis mine):

“Of the many memes being parroted by writers, one of the most destructive is “Most self-pubbed ebooks don’t sell.”

When you are arguing a point involving a new technology, such as ebooks, it is essential to make sure your argument also encompasses the older technology. The fact is, most legacy-pubbed books don’t sell.“

Too true.

Read the entire post. David Gaughran says, “I can’t afford to take a publishing deal.”

Again, too true.

That’s the case for many — I’d say MOST authors.

I’ve been the traditional publishing route many times. I’ve had two New York agents. New authors tend to think that having an agent and a publishing contract from a publisher solves problems.

Here’s the truth — it increases your problems, because more people are involved, and you have little control over what they do.

Your agent has other clients. Your editor has other books. Neither your agent nor your editor cares about you and your career as much as you do. They’ll give you advice, and taking bad advice can stymie you for years. Only you know what’s best for you.

If you’re a new author, you’ll think that everyone knows more than you. A trip down the traditional publishing path will soon disabuse you of that idea, I promise you. To repeat, only you know what’s best for you.

I’ve been writing for over 30 years. There’s never been a better time to write your own books and sell them — there have never been more opportunities.

If you want to go the traditional publishing route, and think that this is the short path to bestsellerdom, remember: as Joe Konrath says “most legacy-pubbed books don’t sell”.

There are many reasons for that. Mostly, they’re out of authors’ control.

Self-publishing gives YOU control. Write a good book, whack it up on Amazon. Or, go the trad publishing route… and give up control. Your choice.

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