I spent a great deal of time researching self-publishing. In the process I discovered that most self publishing companies don’t care if you sell books. Your book may get listed and be available through a wholesaler or listed with Ingram, but you still must do almost all of the marketing yourself. You have to get the word out.

Publishing a book can sometimes be an underestimated task. It seems simple- I’ve got a great idea, so I’ll write the book, send it through to a few publishers, choose the one which offers me the best deal, and tell all my friends to buy it from the local bookstore…

Your book cover is the most important part of your book. Skimping on the design of your cover could result in a major loss of book sales.

If you’re hoping to have mainstream bookstore distribution, using a Vanity Press may present some obstacles. Book buyers will likely tell you, “your book may be excellent, but you’re using a Vanity Publisher and the vast majority of their books are poorly edited. We’d have to read hundreds of their titles before locating a gem. We have neither the manpower nor the time to spend on that endeavor.” While this isn’t true of all Vanity Publishers, it’s true of many.

Are literary agents seeking to promote self published authors? If they are what does this really mean for the thousands of published and aspiring authors who use this method of publication? Is the industry about to be radically overhauled or is it just more talk?

Potential readers trust professional book reviews because they realize the opinions expressed are completely objective. While book review newspaper sections are fast disappearing and top reviewers are difficult to obtain, numerous opportunities remain for authors to locate impressive reviews for every category of book.

Maybe you are having trouble finding the right words or with word choice in general. Maybe your sentence structure is terrible. In any case, what you need is a proofreader that can help you go beyond the basics. What you need is substantive editing.

Unveiling now at a publisher near you is a concept and strategy that is either pure genius or folly depending on how you look at it. Many of the publishers of books, magazines, ebooks, iPad-naseum… are deciding to go all agency on ourselves. What this basically means is that they will set price and dictate within an inch of the customer’s and retailer’s lives how that retailer sells their book and what price that book will be. In the past, many publishers have offered a suggested digital list price to try and persuade retailers like Amazon and others to be Jedi Mind Tricked into posting the suggested price they provide. Of course, retailers have in turn done what they do best which is to totally disregard this suggestion and do what they do ie sometimes use a specific title as loss leader, offering it at deep discounts and paying the publisher 50% of digital list.

As an author, I am constantly searching the Internet, reading interesting things, and searching for new inspiration. While using my favorite search engine, I stumbled upon a blog post by Bob The Teacher entitled, “Would You Rent An Office From Your Employee?

In the euphoria of getting a book deal, many writers and authors overlook the fact that they are getting rather a raw deal in their publishing contract. This naivete prevents them from getting deals that are better for them and better for their books. Here’s a list of things you really should check in your book contract before signing on the dotted line.