The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use [Paperback]

April Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1582979944 | ISBN-13: 978-1582979946 | Edition: 2

This Is Your Roadmap to Success!

The Indie Author Guide takes you through every stage of the self-publishing process. With e-books, print on demand and the power of Web 2.0, you have the ability to publish your own high quality books and go indie—just as filmmakers and musicians have done. Get detailed instructions, complemented by screenshots, so you can get the most of cutting edge publishing options.

April L. Hamilton, founder of Publetariat, an online news hub and community for indie authors, gives you insight to the latest technology and step-by-step advice for making the most of your self-publishing options.

Inside you'll find everything you need to know to:

1. organize your files
   
   
2. create your brand
   
   
3. explore your self-publishing options
   
   
4. format your book for POD
   
   
5. edit and revise you work
   
   
6. design your own book cover
   
   
7. publish through a POD print service provider
   
   
8. publish in e-book formats
   
   
9. build an author platform
   
   
10. promote your work
    
    
11. transition from indie to mainstream publishing

Plus, you'll get worksheets to help you plan and organize your book, your business, and your writing life, as well as an HTML primer so you can build your own website—even if you're not tech savvy.

The Indie Author Guide gives you the skills and confidence you need to take full advantage of today's unique publishing opportunities and grow your readership yourself.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Please be sure to check out the companion website for the book, indieauthorguide.com, which includes lots of helpful links for self-publishers and a number of free, downloadable supplemental materials too. For example, there's a guide to publishing for the Kindle and a packet of the worksheets which appear in one of the appendices, both provided in pdf format for easy download and printing.

About the Author

April L. Hamilton is an author, blogger, Technorati BlogCritic, leading advocate and speaker for the indie author movement, and founder of Publetariat, the premier online news hub and community for indie authors and small imprints. She's spoken at the O'Reilly Tools of Change conference and the Writers Digest Business of Getting Published conference, and has also judged self-published books for competitions run by Writers Digest and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Recently, she launched the Publetariat Vault University, offering online courses for self-published authors and would-be self-published authors. Her websites are aprillhamilton.com; aprillhamilton.blogspot.com; publetariat.com; vaultu.publetariat.com; and the companion website for this book, indieauthorguide.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books; 2 edition (November 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582979944
• ISBN-13: 978-1582979946
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

April L. Hamilton is an author, blogger, Technorati BlogCritic, speaker and essayist on issues related to self-publishing and indie authorship. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Authors, and is the founder and Editor In Chief of Publetariat: the premier online news hub and community for indie authors and small imprints.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a gem. It is good as a stand-alone guide, but it will really shine if used in conjunction with other books. June 22, 2008

By Jeff Lippincott VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is informative, well outlined, well written, and covers a topic close to my heart - self publishing. This book is divided into the following 12 chapters:

1. Indie authorship: An introduction
2. Publishing options
3. Getting organized
4. Creating your brand
5. DIY formatting for POD
6. Editing and revising
7. Designing your own book cover
8. Publishing through CreateSpace
9. Publishing for Kindle
10. Publishing for other eBook formats
11. Promotion
12. An HTML primer

At one point the author says that subsidy and vanity publishing don't offer any advantages over POD publishing these days. I'm not sure this is true. After reading Aaron Shepard's book entitled "Aiming at Amazon" (ISBN: 093849743X) last year I learned that small text does not print as well with POD. Nor do pictures in the book using POD technology. And if the book is going to be over 200 pages or so, then POD might get a little expensive as compared to traditional printing methods. But if you understand the ins and outs of POD publishing, then it is definitely the route to go in order to sell your writing on Amazon. A good, but slightly dated, book on POD is "Print-on-Demand Book Publishing" (ISBN: 0972380132).

Although I haven't read "The Frugal Book Promoter" (ISBN: 193299310X), it is my understanding that it goes into some depth about the importance of branding when promoting one's book. Chapter 4 in the instant book did a nice job explaining the importance of branding.

Although I haven't read "Perfect Pages" (ISBN: 0938497332), it is my understanding that it goes into some depth about how to create formatted Word documents for Print on Demand (POD). Chapter 5 in the instant book did a wonderful job explaining how to use Word to format your self published book copy for POD.

This afternoon at Barnes & Noble I read "The Frugal Editor" (ISBN: 0978515870) and found it to be a good book. But I liked the coverage of how to edit and revise (or get help in editing and revising) in Chapter 6 of the instant book. Well done!

Mr. Shepard in "Aiming at Amazon" explained how to go about designing your book's cover if you were going to use Lightning Source, Inc. as your POD printing service. In Chapter 7 of the instant book we are told how to design a cover if we are going to use Amazon's CreateSpace printing service. I think this coverage could have gone into a little more detail on how to use and customize graphic files. But it was certainly good coverage on the topic.

The material covered in chapters 8 and 9 I have not seen in print in other books yet. They were well done. And Chapter 10 was informative.

Chapter 11 covered promotion well. I liked it. Other books on the subject I like are: "Sell Your Book on Amazon" (ISBN: 1432701967), "Plug Your Book!" (ISBN: 0977240614), and "The Author's Guide to Building an Online Platform" (ISBN: 1884956823). But consider getting another book ["The Web Savvy Writer" (ISBN: 0977830403)] sold as an ebook by its author, and an audio book entitled "Secrets of Successful Blogging System" (ISBN: 0978806018) which is kind of pricey, but really good. If you get all these resources, read them, and study them, then you should have an excellent idea about how to go about marketing your tome or tomes.

Chapter 12 was OK. But I think I would have liked the book better if it had been left out. It kind of felt as though it was not within the scope of the book's subject matter. All in all, this book is a gem. I think it is good as a stand-alone guide, but it will really shine if used in conjunction with other books I have referenced in this review. 5 stars!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You Can Do It! August 1, 2008

By Clive Collins

Format:Paperback

It is probably true to say that writing a book has never been easier than it is today. The sheer facility of composition with a computer word processing programme has removed one of the great barriers to producing a large volume of text. At the same time, it is also probably true to say that it has never been more difficult to place a book with a publishing company, the reasons for which are persuasively presented at the beginning of April Hamilton's wonderfully comprehensive guide to independent publishing, The IndieAuthor Guide.

As a man, as a previously published author, it might seem that I would have no need of such a self-help volume. Men, supposedly, hesitate to ask for advice or assistance, particularly from women; published authors are - erm - published. Why would one of them want to think about independent publishing? Well, the fact is that I, along with many other published writers, am published no longer. I am still writing, however, and so independent publishing is an increasingly beckoning way out of the impasse I find myself in. But how on earth does one go about it? Enter Ms Hamilton.

The IndieAuthor Guide leads even the chronically inept (I'm thinking of myself) along the road from desire to achievement. It seems to me that there is nothing the would-be independent author needs to know that is not covered, in detail and with examples, in this splendid guide. Even when Ms Hamilton tells her readers that she cannot offer advice on something (the legal aspects of Kindle publication, for example), she promptly offers a link to a site where such advice will be forthcoming.

Some readers might possibly be disappointed that this guide is particularly centred on independent publication through Amazon and its subsidiaries, but the truth is that Amazon is very much the big boy in this particular world now. That minor quibble aside, the vast majority of the advice in the book is as relevant to other independent publishing venues as it is to Amazon.

All in all, The IndieAuthor Guide seems to me to be an excellent and timely helpmate to writers pondering new ways of setting their work before the public. "Come on, you can do it," this guide seems to say, and it does not deceive in this. A five-star piece of work if ever there was one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good info, but very much focuses on the basics August 1, 2011

By Justin

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm sure this book will do well for its intended audience, but I don't think I'm it. It's extremely basic -- the author spends a lot of time on doing things like setting up styles in Microsoft Word or how to create a Twitter account or fill in an online form. I think, maybe, if you have problems with all those things, you've got a long way to go before you'll be able to take advantage of the technology that makes independent publishing possible and cost-effective. But that's beside the point.

The two column layout (which I think is unique to the Writer's Digest Version) was a bit annoying to me. It made the pages seem very grey and daunting (something the author quite correctly tells you to avoid in your own work).

Overall, if you need the basics explained step-by-step, this book is a good place to get that.