Will My Publisher Let Me Self-Publish Too?

These days, I’m sensing that many authors are gung-ho to write and publish as much as possible. Now that the term “hybrid author” has been coined, referring to those who are both traditionally and self-published, everyone thinks they want or need to be one. As one author put it, “It seems like the time is now! It’s time to be prolific!” I am not sure what makes people think “the time is now” as if we are in some kind of awesome bubble that is going to burst soon. We’re not. We are in a long, slow transition period of our industry, in which people are experimenting with different ways of doing business. Some will work, some won’t. More importantly, different things will work for different people. More does not always equal...

Deciding Between Traditional and Self-Publishing

It’s rare for me to post anything strictly promotional here on my blog, but today is a special day for me. My first self-published e-book is now available on Amazon! Here’s the info:     How Do I Decide? Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing   There is plenty of information available on both traditional and self-publishing. But how do you decide between the two? How Do I Decide? is a concise, definitive resource that will guide you through the decision, allowing you to ignore the noise and hype and focus on the right path for YOU. This is a fair and balanced approach that avoids favoring one choice over the other—and instead shows you how to determine which best fits your own situation. About 50 pages jammed full of insider information, How Do I Decide?...

5 Surprises About Self Publishing

Guest Blogger: Jennie Nash (@jennienash) My first six books were all published by major New York houses, including Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Crown, and Berkley/Penguin. I adored my editors and their teams, but I was a midlist writer getting midlist attention, and the midlist was starting to feel like purgatory. For my seventh book, Perfect Red, a historical novel set in 1950’s New York, I decided to self publish. Why I made that decision is a story for another day, and how it turns out, economically-speaking, has yet to be determined. But a few revelations about the process have surprised the socks off me. Herewith, the top five: 1. I underestimated the weight of having the legitimacy of a traditional publisher. When I could say, “My third novel is being published by Penguin,”...

Can I Make More Money via Traditional or Self-Pub?

These days, authors are carefully considering the merits of self-publishing versus traditional publishing, and many are doing both at once. (My upcoming e-book: How Do I Decide? Self Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing, will help with these decisions.) I’m having almost daily conversations with my clients, most of whom are already traditionally published, about various ways they can extend their brands, increase their income and/or grow their readership by self-publishing e-books “on the side.” I’m coming across some interesting questions during these discussions. One that I’ve been hearing lately comes from authors trying to figure out how they can make the most money with their next book: through traditional or self-pub. They’re trying to estimate...

How Does Your Publisher Make Money?

If you read the publishing blogs and follow industry Twitter feeds, you’ve no doubt gathered that there’s a firestorm of controversy over Pearson, the parent company of Penguin Books, purchasing a company called Author Solutions (ASI), a well-established self-publishing company. You can read numerous diverse opinions on this acquisition and plenty of astute commentary (links at the end of the post) but here, I want to focus on one tiny aspect. What is the most important thing for an author to understand about a traditional publisher entering into the self-publishing fray? As it happens, I addressed this very issue over 2½ years ago on the blog (December, 2009). Much of what follows is what I said back then. Self publishing represents a completely different business model from...