For a few days now, I’ve been dabbling with the idea of adding a “Success” Tab to the LLBR blog where both Lulu authors, and even other POD authors, could share their success stories in writing, publishing, marketing, and sales. It’s always fun to bounce ideas off one another and find out what may be working in the industry for some, and what may not. And of course, we all love to brag, right? After surfing the web today and visiting my regular blogs I like to read, I found some valuable resources I wanted to share here on the Lulu review site.
The iUniverse Book Reviews site posted an excellent interview today with author Janet Smith. Janet is a POD pioneer with a wealth of knowledge and experience. She’s also self-published over a dozen books! Read the interview for some nice insight to self-publishing success and also check out Janet’s PromoPaks book for some advice on “nearly-free” marketing. I have already ordered my copy!
An MSN article on B&N’s attempt at winning the big retailer book wars led me to another blog kept by POD author April Hamilton. April was a fellow ABNA contestant along with myself. She used Amazon’s Createspace opportunity to publish her work, which inspired her to start an indie author blog. April’s blog offers some fresh views on the direction of the traditional publishing world and how POD is growing faster than ever because of it.
In the continuing online saga of Amazon’s attempt at monopolizing the POD world, I think we need to offer inspirational support to one another as writers and publishers. I know I need motivation from time to time and all of these interviews and blogs I visited today definitely helped.
So what’s working for you? What isn’t? How many copies did you sell last week? Do you have a public reading or signing this weekend that you are antsy about? Did you start writing a killer novel last month that you can’t wait to publish? Got writer’s block and need a boost? Let’s hear those success stories (or the one’s that weren’t so successful). Just click on the “Success” tab at the top of this page and start typing! All Lulu and POD authors are welcome!
Readers too! Tell us what type of book covers you like, which ones you don’t like. Which POD publisher has the best online bookstore? Where do you buy your POD books? Do you prefer one site for a specific genre, and a different site for something else? Does price matter? What are you reading right now?
I’d love to see this Success tab outweigh the rest of the tabs on this site (except for the reviews, of course). Think of this as an online ongoing writers/readers conference if you want. So, let’s hear from all of you!
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
-Winston Churchill
UPDATE: Due to a lack of interest, but hopefully not a lack of success, from authors and readers, the SUCCESS tab was turned into the POD Diary tab which now chronicles my own adventures (and some advice) in POD Publishing.
First things first.
Authors, do not sell your electronic rights to the paper publisher. Retain them for yourself. If the publisher argues with you, get another publisher.
I have written four best-selling books on New Astrology© and The Chinese Zodiac. I own all my electronic rights and you should too.
I sell all my books as digital downloads on my web site. I even sell chapters of my books as downloads. I have been doing it for years with great success.
Secondly, if a publisher gets lazy or isn’t doing your book justice, ask for your rights back. I did it a couple of years ago and the publisher (Harper) finally let go. The book needed updating. I was the only one who could do it. They didn’t want to pay me. Now I am publishing that book digitally and selling it on my site as well as for Kindle and on a site I own on Facebook.
Defend yourselves. And by the way, I checked out Scribd. A mess. Their terms are appalling. They win. You lose. Typical.
Good luck, Suzanne White
suzanwhite@aol.com
Hmmm….Hi Suzanne- Thanks for your comment. Did you mispost it though? Our post is about success stories and never mentions selling electronic rights, Scribd, or lazy publishers. But thanks for the tip.
-Shannon
LLBR