No doubt you’ve read plenty of sage advice about building a long-term livelihood as an independent author. One recommendation you’ve probably come across before is to establish a website early in your career. Why? Because even if you’re promoting your work widely on social media, and in online groups, it makes sense to have a…
The Half-Life of Published Works is Shrinking. Here’s What Publishers Need to Do – Paul Perry | Guest Post
Less than two minutes. That’s how long the average user spends on a website consuming content that interests them. The old days of publishing are long gone. Captive audiences no longer subscribe to a few news outlets, spending hours consuming one or more newspapers or magazines in their entirety over morning coffee. These days, people graze…
How to Make an Awesome – and Effective – Book Trailer – Victor Biasco | Guest Post
From the very first one – for a Broadway musical show in 1912 – trailers have enticed us for over a hundred years. And even though they are now mostly used to promote great films, what these brief video pieces really do is help audiences decide what to consume next. Understandably, we tend to associate…
Merry Christmas from The Independent Publishing Magazine
As 2019 draws to a close and the Christmas holidays are upon us, so too a decade. We are over that odd bump every century when you can’t quite figure out how to refer to a decade when it ends with a year between 00 and 19, the noughties or the teens?! Will the decade…
Ages of Bestselling Authors – Francesca Bjorkegren | Guest Post
In The Book, a small publishing house, has undertaken research on the age of New York Times bestselling authors when they published their first bestseller. From this, they have created an interactive index to look at, in a new way, how old each bestselling author was when they published their very first bestselling work of…
10 Best Digital Publishing Platforms for Mobile – Joseph McLean | Guest Post
Independent authors enjoy the privilege of finding and using unique channels of communication with their target readers, but it forces them to keep in touch with the latest self-promotion technologies. From digital publishing to mobile platforms, they have to embrace cutting-edge solutions in order to approach the audience and sell more books. Although it requires…
Book Printing 101: Everything you need to know about book trimming – Lori McKnight | Guest Post
Are you a self-publisher or writer investigating book printing options? Here are some things to consider when designing and printing your next book. One size doesn’t fit all Books like people come in different shapes and sizes. From the smallest pocket-sized handbooks to beautiful table top collections, the size, cover and weight of your…
Marketing Your Newly Published Book – Carolyn Grady | Guest Post
You thought the hard work was done. Your book is published either through a deal with a lesser known publishing company or you self-published. Either way there isn’t going to be a huge marketing campaign to sell your book. If Penguin, Little, Brown and Company or Harper Collins is going to publish your novel, you…
10 Valuable Self-Publishing Blogs That Successful Author Should Read – Joseph McLean | Guest Post
Self-publishing is a complex niche that forces authors to deal with all sorts of barriers and challenges. The industry has become extremely competitive, with the number of reported self-published titles going well over 1 million. No matter how skilled or experienced you might be, there are always a lot of new things to learn and…
Publishing Service Index: October 2019 [with notes]
This is the PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX for 2019. Our previous one was released last year in November 2018. So we have seen almost a full year past by. I am switching to releasing it just once a year. The index takes a great deal of work, and while there are some moderate changes, even a…