Why good blogs succeed

Perhaps you enjoy maintaining your blog with a post only when you come across an item worth sharing, or a personal essay too good to let slip away. That's what I do here at Release Your Writing; share items I think will be of interest to you. And with over 34,000 visits to this blog, I feel gratified by the attention.

What if you want your blog to really sustain your big ideas? That requires more than posting a movie review, which is soon to be old news, or ranting about a topc of only marginal interest to your readers.

To bring a lasting value to your blog, TheBookDesigner.com [aka Joel Friedlander], offers the concept of a "backlist," similar to a publishers reprinting books that keep selling well, and magazine editors seeking evergreen content - those stories that everyone wants.

Below is a brief excerpt and here is a link back to the full article.

Although blog articles don’t have to prove themselves in the market the same way a book does, they have some of the same characteristics of great backlist books. Some kinds of articles that fall into this category include:

• Foundation content—articles that explain basic concepts will be in demand as long as those concepts are relevant to your readers

• Evergreen articles—software changes constantly, but general principles rarely change, and people always want to understand them
  
• Process overviews—quick-reference summaries of basic processes in your field are great to orient new readers to your topic
• Resource directories—readers will always need tips on where to find tools, vendors, and other necessities
• Best practices—whittling down the number of choices beginners face to just a few appropriate options will be helpful to many people

Let these five categories inspire you to write posts that help readers and keep them coming back for more.

Young Writers Dazzle.... stepping up to self-publishing

Today's New York Times has a front page article about teens and pre-teens who've joined the world of self-publishing. Good for them. Read the article here.

A quote from my review of "The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published, 5th ed."

Here's a link to the full review of The Complete Idiot's guide to Getting Published, 5th ed. by Sheree Bykofsky and Jennifr Basye Sander  on the book review page of this blog:
http://releaseyourwriting.blogspot.com/p/book-reviews-for-writers-by-writers.html

One important quote strikes me as so relevant for your 2012 publishing achievement goals. Remember, It's hard work.
Here's the quote:

Writing a book is an art

Self-publishing a book is a business.

Library of Congress chooses POD to re-issue out-of-print books

As print-on-demand surges ahead of traditional publishing for authors, the U.S. Library of Congress is even using POD, through CreateSpace, to re-issue thousands of out-of-print titles. I chose CreateSpace for my newest book: Blog Power & Social Media Handbook, to have a fast and inexpensive blogging guide for my publishing clients and fans of my earlier book, Release Your Writing.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Oct. 5th, 2010 – CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) group of companies, today announced an agreement with The Library of Congress to make at least 50,000 public books available through www.amazon.com. The Library of Congress also reached an agreement with Amazon Europe to make tens of thousands of books in the public domain available around the world to customers on www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de and www.amazon.fr using print on-demand technology, an inventory-free, cost-efficient publishing solution that only manufactures titles as customers order them.

"We are pleased to now give the public a way to enjoy print on-demand access to library collections around the world," said Dr. Deanna Marcum, associate librarian for Library Services, The Library of Congress.

With Createspace Print on-Demand, these national libraries will make a large selection of content available quickly and easily via CreateSpace's host of U.S. distribution channels, including www.amazon.com, ensuring wide public access with little economic investment. Since titles are only manufactured in response to customer demand, no inventory is needed and the titles will never go out of stock, making print on-demand an economic, convenient, and environmentally responsible public access solution for libraries.

Your books can receive the same good distribution at very low cost.

read full release here

Pub-It latest self-publishing service from Barnes & Noble

Publishers Weekly reports: "Barnes & Noble officially launched PubIt! today, its digital self-publishing platform for authors and independent publishers. Under the PubIt model, authors are charged no startup fee and will receive a royalty that ranges from 40% to 65%, depending on price of the e-book (or other digital content). Using a Web-based platform, publishers, upload their e-books, set the list price and track their sales and payments. Titles can be priced between 99 cents and $199.99. For e-books priced at or between $2.99 and $9.99, publishers receive 65% percent of the list price with B&N receiving the balance. For those priced at $2.98 or less, or $10.00 or more, publishers receive 40%."

So PubIt! joins Lulu and CreateSpace as great options to get your book produced and made available for sale online. Remember, though, no one will buy your book if they aren't aware of it. so, after the easy publishing process, put your energies into author marketing.

BookSurge either shrinks or expands

Amazon, owner of the BookSurge print-on-demand company, is merging Book Surge with CreateSpace, its Lulu-like publishing option.

Amazon doesn't make many visible mistakes but this seems like a big one. BookSurge has, to the public, a very good reputation as a high-end POD firm. CreateSpace is, well... a lot like Lulu. I think they could get the same resulting cost savings, synergy, unified brand, if they went with the Book Surge name, but we'll see how well they do.

For now, will BookSurge shrink into the lower-level product or expand into more products, more avenues, more market share. POD is a thriving, dynamic business, so stay tuned.

"The Price is Write" - another favorable article on self-publishing

If you had your head up in the clouds in May, flying on United Airlines, you might have enjoyed the Hemispheres Magazine article "The Price is Write.:

In it, author Willa Paskin says:

"As the chances of landing a book deal dwindle, even tweedy literary elites are whispering that self publishing might be an acceptable path to legitimacy." She then explains the reasons why self-publishing and print-on-demand can be the best choice for an author, and that sometimes "it's the only game in town."

So, don't wait your life away. Release your writing this year!
Helen

Read the full article here.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Books

We've all been reading about the rise in book sales, partly because Amazon's Kindle making people lust for bedtime reading, as an instant download for a flat $9.99. And, partly because more people are choosing Print-on-Demand to bypass the rejection channels, and have a book published in months rather than years.

Today, Salon.com pulled this from the AP Wire...

May 19th, 2009 | NEW YORK -- A shrinking economy and rising technology have transformed how, and how many, books are being published.

With publishers cutting back new releases in response to declining sales, an estimated 275,000 traditional books were released in the United States last year, a drop of about 9,000 from 2007, according to Bowker, a New Providence, N.J.-based company that compiles industry statistics.

Categories with the biggest reductions included travel, religion and biography, Bowker said Tuesday.

But the number of "on-demand" books, a category featuring works with tiny, digitally stored print runs, topped 285,000 in 2008, the first time they outnumbered traditional texts. In 2006, there were fewer than 22,000 on-demand titles, which have become an increasingly popular way to bring old books back in print or keep recent releases from going out of print.

Print-on-demand magazines!

Have you always wanted to launch a glossy print magazine, but been daunted by the start-up money needed to fund it and to print it? well, there's nothing holding you back now.

Hewlett-Packard has been developing futuristic ideas for a long time. They've now announced MagCloud, a facility to print magazines, glossy high-color gorgeous magazines, on demand, just like print-on-demand books we all know have become commonplace.

Read today's New York Times article and view the MagCloud video demo here:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/30/technology/internet/20090330-MAG-AUDIOSS/index.html

Book Publishing: Who gets the money?

In traditional publishing, an author may earn, for example, a 10 percent royalty on sales, the agent gets 15 percent and the publisher keeps the rest. When an author receives an advance upfront, no royalties are paid until the publisher recoups that advance.

With self-publishing, the author deals directly with a printer and distributor, and produces a book at much lower cost than print-on-demand, perhaps $4.00 per book. At a selling price of $20, the author might gross $16 for each book sold. But then the distributor takes about 35 percent, warehousing and advertising costs vary but are unending. So the take-home, after managing the business of being a publisher, is still not grand.

Print-on-demand (POD) requires upfront payment to the printing firm, and they also take a percentage of each sale, to cover cost of the book, making it available to online retailers, and the POD firm processes and fulfills orders. Their fee also covers your presence on their web site, online catalog, and their profit. What's left for you depends on the firm and on your contract It is usually about 35 to 40 percent of the book's retail price, paid to you monthly or quarterly, on all sales, from the first copy sold.

You don't earn royalties on books that you purchase for resale, but you can buy them for about 50% off list price. So you have a low start-up cost, fast production and you earn back your cost from the very first book sold. Using POD, your book need never go out of print.

Ebooks cost almost nothing to make from an existing manuscript, and profits are upwards of 80 percent on each sale.

Isn't it time you release your writing?

Author House * IUniverse * and now Xlibris

I guess we should be glad, in a tough economy, that print-on-demand (POD) firms are doing well. The three largest POD firms are now one.

Under its new name, Author Solutions, the conglomerate now boasts 100,000 titles.

Publishers Weekly reports that Keith Ogorek, Authors Solution spokesperson, said

"even with the recession, business remains strong, noting that November and December were the best months ever for the Author House, iUniverse and Xlibris brands."

If you're a POD author, our side of the publishing industry never looked better. If you currently have a book in the works with Xlibris, watch your contract for any change in terms, or move to a smaller POD firm if you don't want to get lost in the shuffle.

Does your book need a "do-over" for 2009?

One advantage of print-on-demand (POD) is that you can change your book if you wish. You might want to issue a new edition, correct a serious problem, or re-do the cover. POD offers you that flexibility. Depending on the firm you use, you may incur a new set-up charge, and of course, you'd pay a small fee for a new cover layout. But if you feel you're missing your target audience, it's better to spruce up the book than have regrets. By using POD you're not locked into a 2,500 copy print-run, or sitting on a lifetime supply of a book that doesn't address the market's needs.

Keep in mind, your book was issued with an ISBN, the number which makes it a unique registered object. So you can not alter these features under the same ISBN:

title
binding size
trim color
interior color

Also, if you change text, move or replace chapters, or change the cover, it is considered a new edition requiring a new ISBN. With most POD firms, the cost of the new ISBN is included in the set-up fee.

More options for self-publishing and print-on-demand

This excerpt is from the 9/03/08 New York Times. I've placed a link to the full article below.

By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: September 3, 2008

Hundreds of small, independent publishers will have easier access to digital book technology under a new service offered by Perseus Books Group, the result of agreements between it and more than a half-dozen technology companies, Perseus is expected to announce on Thursday.

The new service, called Constellation, will allow independent publishers to make use of electronic readers, digital book search, print-on-demand and other digital formats at rates negotiated by Perseus on their behalf. Unlike large publishers, small ones typically lack the resources to use digital technology and as a result often bypass it altogether.

David Steinberger, the president and chief executive of Perseus, said that by using Constellation independent publishers could make their books quickly available in several digital formats, allowing them to compete on the same technological level and with the same speed and flexibility as larger companies. Many publishing analysts see digital technology as one of the few major growth areas in the book industry.

Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com have features that allow consumers to read or search inside a book, and such tools are known to improve sales; digital printing technology allows publishers to produce books when they become suddenly and unexpectedly in demand.

... read full article

Antitrust matters over Amazon

I was pleased to receive an after-hours email message tonight from the Washington Attorney General's Antitrust Division office. Her comments are posted below, (see March 29 entry) and she kindly suggested we visit this link where the current status is posted:

www.atg.wa.gov/amazonpod.aspx

Borders offers Self-Publishing packages

Well, this is big news for those who think self-publishing is a step below traditional publishing and placement.

Borders has partnered with LuLu, the online do-it-yourself publisher, to offer in-store kiosks for people to publish their own works: musical, photography or written. So you can assemble an ebook and publish right at Borders.

Better yet, they seem to be stepping into the field of print-on-demand (POD) by offering service packages ranging from $299 to $499 for full POD with page design, cover, layout, procuring the ISBN etc. By paying for editorial evaluation your book also becomes eligible for in-store placement at Borders.

Read more about their new Digital Life program here.



It gives you another avenue to Release Your Writing !! If you have questions, my book has the answers you're looking for about the choices in traditional, self-publishing and print-on-demand.

Publisher's Weekly article on self-publishing

The desire to "release your writing" just got a little easier. I gave a presentation last night at Mt. Prospect Public Library (IL), touting the benefits of print-on-demand (POD). The savvy library director pointed me to this Publishers Weekly article. It says so many of the same things I was saying to the crowd last night:

[Lightning Source] CEO J. Kirby Best recites a list of print-on-demand milestones: Lightning Source has grown from three employees in 1997 to more than 500 today; the company digitally scans about 2,000 books a week and prints 1.2 million books a month. “It took us seven years to print 10 million books,” says Best as we stroll through the 159,000-sq.-ft. building. “This year we published 10 million books in the first 11 months.”

For years, print-on-demand has held out the promise of a new business model. Rather than print thousands of copies of a book and then work frantically to sell them, POD stands the usual publishing model on its head. POD offers publishers the possibility of selling a book before it is printed and then delivering it directly to a consumer, to a store or to a publisher's warehouse. As the differences in the quality between POD and conventional offset printing continue to shrink—“it's getting damn close to offset,” says Best—publishers are taking a good long look at the potential of POD technology to eliminate warehousing entirely and manage their supply chain as never before.

Nevertheless, publishers contacted for this article maintain that offset printing remains more cost effective for print runs over about 1,000 copies. Best, noting that Lightning Source can print up to 45,000 copies a day, is quick to argue that the difference in cost can be a myth, insisting that the cost-per-copy advantage of offset printing should be balanced against the prospect of pallets of unsold copies sitting in warehouses or sales lost because not enough copies are printed.

Note: In comment from "Yvonne" below, use www.ahablog.com for her link. Won't work without the www.
-- Helen

ISBN now available in singles

If you're publishing a book, you need an International Standard Book Number (ISBN.)
As I mention in Release Your Writing, they are available through R.R. Bowker Company, and must be issued in the name of the publisher. So, if you publish through a print-on-demand firm, the ISBN is in the firm's name. If you want to own the number, you would have to purchase a minimum of ten ISBN's at a cost about $245 plus $30 registration fee plus $25 per barcode or a total investment of $525

Now, I've learned RJ Communications has become an authorized agent for R.R. Bowker and is selling single ISBN's at about $125. In fact, his site shows a December special for $99.

If you are issuing only one book and really want the ISBN in your name, look into it and review the application at this site, rjcom.com

If you are more likely to stay with print-on-demand, or are publishing multiple book formats, such as: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio book, etc., you might be happy to purchase the ten-pack.

Chicago Writer Assn. Interview

Authors interested in self-publishing will enjoy these comments regarding the ASJA conference in New York. These notes are excerpted from a chicagowrites.org interview, conducted by Walt McElligott, editor.

We're lucky to have many good writing organizations in Chicago, and Diana was a brave adventurer when she launched Chicago Writer's Assn. I believe we all have an obligation to support the groups who support writers, especially in our own community.

I attend out-of-town conferences too, especially ASJA (American Association of Journalists & Authors), in New York. The April conference has about 50 panels, for ASJA members, Friday through Sunday, and open to non-members just on Saturday and Sunday. I think the attendance runs about 700 people. Topics range from freelance journalism to finding an agent, specializing in particular niches,and so much more.

This year I was surprised to see three things at the conference:

1. Technology played a bigger role: They usually have one speaker discuss the web each year, but this year there were sessions on Blogs, Making six-figures online, Online travel writing, and Writing for tech markets. That's four new topics spawned by the blurred lines between writing and technology, and an interesting trend. Some of these sessions were standing room only.

2. Many speakers discussed the move from print to, not just online journalism, but multimedia. Even a New York Times columnist spoke of the recent changes in her work. She used to write a 1,000 word column. Now her editors want 600 words, plus make her read the column aloud for a podcast, and create a multimedia story, combining voice, text, and photos. All for the same pay. Almost every editor said they want shorter work that leads the reader somewhere else - another link, another story.

3. The third change was the reason I went to the conference this year: A growing movement toward self-publishing. ASJA has partnered with iUniverse, one of the top print-on-demand firms,to offer members a better publishing package. And during two half-day sessions on self-publishing. I saw the audience doing the math -- as our own Nolan Lewis has mentioned on the CWA forum -- there is something wrong with the traditional publishing model, when the author keeps less than one percent of the revenue from their book.

Self-publishing and print-on-demand offer writers both the ability to get their book published, and to make more money per book. In fact, I've gotten Nolan's permission to quote him in my upcoming book on self-publishing.


Full interview available here

Printer's Row Book Fair

Thanks to all the visitors and book buyers who stopped by at the Printer's Row Book Fair. It was my 2nd year there, and I enjoyed meeting so many of you Saturday, and appreciate all the book sales. It's important to support independent authors, as you'll soon find out if you plan to write a book. The validation that comes from people stopping by to inquire, leaf through your book, and then take a copy home is the reason we write.

Release Your Writing will be going to the printer in about two weeks. Visit Computer Clarity in the meantime to sign up for a free email newsletter, or check out The Write Brain at my other site, GallagherInk.com.

We have five workshops and events planned for September and October. Stay in touch to find out more.

Helen Gallagher
author: Release Your Writing
and Computer Ease