What is an Indie Author? This new kind of author is a self-made hybrid of writer and entrepreneur. Indie authors have a huge opportunity to publish for no cost in epublishing and no cost to very low cost in self-publishing paperbacks.
We all saw the independent bands emerge in the music industry. Then, came the independent film industry. Finally, we have the Indie authors flying to the top of Amazon Kindle’s best sellers lists, as well as Amazon book best sellers lists.
Indie authors do most of the work themselves to keep creative control. They may outsource the editing for that professional touch, and many of them outsource the cover graphics.
Other than that, the Indie author carves out her niche and runs full steam ahead. She builds her self-esteem by learning and doing, putting into action alll she learns and sees working successfully from other successful Indie authors.
JK Konrath came out in front by publishing his own ebooks after his impressive career with traditional publishers. Many jumped on the rumor bandwagon insisting it was his prior published books that brought him name recognition that was the means for his indie author publishing success. Like all rumors…this is untrue, and JK Konrath proves it on his blog.
Robin Sullivan added a guest post to JK Konrath’s blog January 7, 2011, listing 26 indie authors who sold 2500 to over 100,000 books in December 2010 alone! You can read this post here: Guest Post by Robin Sullivan.
Robin scoured Kindle’s forum to find the data to back her figures up here: Keys to epublishing success.
This new trend has hit the Print-On-Demand publishers as well. Most POD publishers offered expensive packages that rivaled the vanity presses of old. POD became known as: New face, new name, same old over pricing of printing costs.
Well, no longer. Enter Create Space. You can begin with trade paperbacks that can be sold in brick and mortar bookstores as well as libraries. If you choose the do-it-yourself-route, you can do this for free. You can also spend a measly $39 to expand your distribution internationally with Create Space as well. That is $39 for the year, not per book. No one else comes close to this.
You can still buy the professional services, like copyediting and cover design. That is a must for us all. The difference here is you can go to the professionals themselves now and not pay inflated costs.
Another unique twist in POD today, is that you are no longer tied to POD publishers who are marking up the printing costs so high you can not compete and get your book into bookstores. This is because booksellers have a very tight wholesale book price margin they must stay within to survive.
So where do you begin? Today, the biggest sales and avenue for exposure is in Amazon Kindle ebooks. Second, is in paperback books.
To get your feet wet, publish an Amazon Kindle ebook. Then publish a low cost, high quality paperback edition of that book using Create Space. Once you have a title or two out there, you can begin to learn the marketing end.
From there, you can expand your reach and visibility and explode your sales. Truly a unique opportunity for all writers today.
The first time is the hardest because of all the unknowns. Don’t sit on the fence here. Take a deep breath and publish your book. Then do another one, and another one. Soon it is easy and your sales will soar. Remember, the only thing you fear…is fear itself. Take action now and put that fear to rest.
Here are the links to get you started:
Kindle Direct Publishing
Create Space
To Your Indie Author Publishing Success!
The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use
Here is a Kindle Formatting video series I did to help improve the way ebooks
look in the Kindle eReaders.
Quick Kindle Formatting Secrets Video Tutorials
Happy Publishing!
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