Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave: Self-Publishing
Self-publishing has more and more options and therefore more and more confusion for authors.
In my new “Ask PZM” for Joylene Butler’s blog I talk about ebook publishing options.
Yet as I sit at my computer juggling my social media marketing for clients with the writing and online marketing of my own books, I can only shake my head at some of the decisions I have made.
In retrospect, for me it was a mistake to choose BookBaby over my trusty ebook converter Chris O’Byrne (www.ebook-editor.com). Getting expanded distribution from BookBaby (and it takes WEEKS for most of these expanded sites to start carrying an ebook from BookBaby!) is not worth giving up having Chris upload a well-converted ebook to Smashwords and thus onto making the ebook available on the iPad.
In addition, I have been rethinking my position on ebooks. While I think all new books should be available in ebooks, I have decided that it is foolish not to also make these ebooks available in paperback.
Therefore this week I have used a formatted template from Amazon’s POD publisher CreateSpace to turn both the technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS and HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE into paperbacks.
I already had the book covers for these books (both created by my business partner Yael K. Miller), so the actual cost of publishing each book is only the $25 I invested in expanded distribution.
LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS is already available in paperback on Amazon, and HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL should be available on Amazon in a few days.
I have determined that, this time around, I will first publish the second and third books in the HOW TO SUCCEED series in paperback, then turn these into ebooks.
As I said in the “Ask PZM” post mentioned above, there is probably no right answer in terms of self-publishing that applies to everyone. There are better answers for each author, although it can be a lot of work to find those better answers.
NEWS FLASH: This week Amazon Studios expanded from being in the film business to being in the TV comedy and children’s TV series business.
I have already uploaded two TV scripts, although the TV script written with Susan Chodakiewitz has to await her approval of the submission (and there is a glitch in her Amazon Studios accounts).
You can download for free DR. SOAPY as a TV comedy series on Amazon Studios.
You can also download for free KARATE MOMS as a TV comedy series on Amazon Studios.
(c) 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients with defining who they are and what they have to offer.
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