Getting Started in Indie Publishing with Tony Nester

The Different Approaches to Publishing• 1. Traditional Publishing- through established brick-and-mortar

houses such as Double Day, Penguin, Chelsea, Harper-Collins, etc…• 2. Vanity Publishing- because you just want to see your work in print

and are not planning on mass-producing, selling, or marketing. • 3. Indie Publishing- this is done through your own company. You are

the publisher, author, marketer, designer, and all-around PR person. Your options are: A) Print books only B) Print/Ebook C) Ebook only.

Cons of Traditional Publishing

• Industry standard is for the author to receive an 8-10% royalty for each book sold while the publishing house retains 90-92%. • How much control you have over the finished product/manuscript will

vary from publisher to publisher. • Turnaround time from final manuscript submission to having your

book on the shelves can range from 6-12 months. • Large publishing houses generally allot $500-800 towards marketing

during initial release. For the life of your book, you will be the main driving force (PR person) pushing sales forward.

Pros of Traditional Publishing

• Excellent for large format books, children’s books, photography books

• Editorial staff to help with the layout, design, and printing/formatting

• Chance to do hybrid writing: you have some titles exclusively with a publisher while others titles are indie-published.

Indie Publishing

-You are both the fulltime writer and the fulltime marketer for your book.-Retain more of the royalties.-You can adjust your book’s prices & promote openly on any sites or forums. -You can modify/edit your book, cover, & blurb as often as needed. -Non-fiction titles can be another aspect of your overall business as they are the “employees” working 24/7 around the globe.

Print vs eBook

• 40% of readers are Ereaders• Kindle dominates in the U.S. while Kobo and iTunes dominate in other

countries• eBooks involve no overhead other than initial costs for cover design,

editing, and promotional efforts.• Some books are best in print: How-to, photography, coffee-table/large

format, etc…• You can always start with an eBook and then go into print later using

Amazon CreateSpace or another service.

eBook Formats- Two Approaches:

1. Amazon Kindle exclusively using Kindle Digital Publishing (KDP) and Kindle Unlimited (KU).

2. Going Wide using Kobo, iTunes, Smashwords, Nook, etc…. You can upload to these sites individually or use a service like Bookbaby.com or D2D.

Pricing• Start out at .99 cents for the first 1-3 weeks to build sales, reviews,

and, most importantly, work your way into the Amazon algorithms. • The latter will help you get on the Amazon Hot New Releases (HRN)

section which is only open to new titles for 60 days. • If you make it onto the HRN list then Amazon begins automatically

marketing for you which will boost sales tremendously. • It will also put you in the “Customers Also Bought” section with other

books related to your topic. • After the initial period of 1-3 weeks, raise your book to $2.99-$5.99

depending on genre, length of book, first in series, season, etc….

The Holy Trifecta of Indie Publishing1. Have a professional cover

Use Kindle Boards to locate a designer. This can range from $75-500.

2. Hire an editor. Again use KB and expect to pay .50 cents to $1 a word. For fiction have as many Beta readers pour over your book as possible beforeuploading to Kindle.

3. Formulate an excellent blurb for your book description that really summarizes the content, draws the reader in, and includes keywords related to your genre. Which blurb is more enticing for a book in the Vampire genre?A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold. So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets.

OR

Jennifer’s world is shattered when Allen, one of her good friends, reveals a horrifying secret, and then disappears without a trace. Later, she meets a mysterious stranger who steals her heart and sweeps her off of her feet. Little does she know that he has his own dark secrets, ones that threaten her very existence.

Industry Blogs/Websites

Hugh Howey- Sci-fi and the Indie Publishing industry in general

Joanna Penn- TONS of podcasts, marketing advice, and tutorials

Lindsay Buroker- Fantasy, Steampunk, and lots of great advice on going Indie and marketing strategies.

Russell Blake- thrillers/mystery/adventure and no-holds barred advice on what it takes to succeed as a fulltime writer

Some Interesting Stats to Consider

-Fiction outsells non-fiction 5:1

-Series outsell standalone titles

-Novels (60k words) outsell short-stories & novellas

-People buy books because:• 1. Author reputation (52%)• 2. Personal recommendation (49%)• 3. Price (45%)• 4. Book Reviews (37%)• 5. Cover/Blurb (22%)• 6. Advertising (including online) 14%

MarketingKDP provides you with 5 FREE days to enroll your eBook during the 90-day period.

You can opt out after each 90-day period or just stay enrolled.

Your 5 FREE days can be used all at once or spread out during that 90-day period. Amazon automatically lists the book as being FREE on the dates you’ve selected ahead of time. I would use KDP for the first 90-days and then assess whether it’s for you.

Once you are enrolled in KDP, you are automatically enrolled in Kindle Unlimited (KU).

The monthly KDP Global Fund will determine how much your royalties amount to. Generally, it’s around $1.35 per sale.

Places to Market

FreebooksyPixel of InkAuthormarketingclub.com (use their Free services)EreaderNewsToday

BookBub

Costs typically range from $10-50 except for Bookbub which is $150-600.

The Writing Business & Lifestyle

Come up with a daily discipline of writing a minimum of 1000 words. By the end of two months, you will have a rough draft of your novel.

Aim for a new release every 3 months for fiction and 1 month for non-fiction/how-to books (4k-10k words).

The BIC method is the best approach to making a living at writing: Butt-in-Chair

What the Writer’s Life is Supposed to Look Like

The Muse Won’t Come Every Day: Writing is a job!

“Your first million words don’t count.”

“Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.”

“Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.”

“Avoid adverbs. The adverb is not your friend.”

“You have three months. The first draft of a book—even a long one—should take no more than three months, the length of a season.

Remember to get a professional cover, have your book professionally edited, make a great blurb, and then get to work writing your next book.

Writing for a living is a marathon and not a sprint. Aim to produce many fine books over your career rather than trying to knock out the one-

shot wonder.