Self-publishing Survey - Please Participate
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"The average self-publisher sells 100 books. Or is it 200? And is that in a year? Or is it over the lifetime of the book? The problem is, we have no idea at all, no way of measuring how we are doing."
Inform via the Comprehensive Self-Publishing Survey

 

~Kelley ~ Intentional Insights ~ The Huffington Post ~ SKH on Facebook ~ SIA on Facebook ~ @SKelleyH ~ @SoulIntentArts

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  • Today and tomorrow, I am celebrating Gay Pride with a KDP action -- free Kindle give-away of "Lesbian Marriage" --a book with secrets for every woman... http://tiny.cc/xurxh

    My co-author and life companion Kim Chernin and I took the seminar by SheWrites Press director Brooke Warner and Howard van Es and followed their advice by the letter -- self-publishing with CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle as well as paperback. A lot of work (I wrote blog posts and articles here about it) and a lot of fun. We have published many times in the old model of NY publishing, and this is our first venture into do-it-yourself. Wonderful feeling to have creative control, but plenty of angst over final decisions, PR and marketing. We hired a VA (Virtual Assistent) and reached out to media and platforms and started selling right away in the top 100 in our (niche) category. We created a landing page for the book and revamped our websites. We began to engage with gay and lesbian magazines and blogs, contributing posts. I never dreamed self pub would be so much work!!! We are hopeful -- and nervous.

  • A glimpse into my most recent challenges and highlights on my journey into publishing my memoir, Diary of a Vet's Wife, Loving and Living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - “Self-Publishing / PTSD – A Passage of Passion.” 

    Nancy MacMillan @  http://blogofavetswife.blogspot.com/

    I submitted to agents the traditional way for a full year, then switched to self-publishing in November. I started my blog last April detailing this journey.  A self-imposed book release date has been set for July 4th, due to the subject matter.  Currently, I'm tackling audience recognition. I believe this point is critical, if an author has a story to share.  

    I'll keep you posted, once I have an idea how my current marketing has affected sales, compared to the Bureau of Census & Statistics.  Self-publishing does give an author the opportunity to be exposed to publishers.  Her marketing skills can bring her work to their attention.  Each day I learn more about marketing . . . too bad the days are so short.

  • It's 200 over the life of the book according to my sources. My favorite website is "The Passive Voice" written by an attorney who reproduces knowledgeable blogs on his site (saving the need to sign up for a dozen other sites primarily focused on the ins and outs of self-publishing), then gives his dissective-mind  lawyer-take as to whether he agrees or disagrees and why. Or just google your questions and someone will have the answer, no matter what you ask, really. 

  • In the years 2010 & 2011, published authors (self or traditional) only sell around 100 books a year - this is according to the Bureau of Census & Statistics in D.C. The advent of 'free e-book downloads' are skewing numbers and causing a great deal of confusion. This statistic is based upon reported paperback and hardback sales for royalties and retail figures.

    Consider this - in 2010, almost 1 MILLION books were published, with around 300,000 being traditional and the remainder self or indie. That's a lot of competition for authors and a lot of choices for readers.