Publishing Talk

Jon Reed 7th January 2011 Friday Project, Neil Gaiman, Sarah Salway, Something Beginning With, Twitter, William Gibson

How Twitter propelled a republished book up the Kindle charts

Amazing things can happen on Twitter if you catch the eye of an ‘influencer’ or two.
Sarah Salway’s Something Beginning With was first published in 2004. Although it had a blog, this was in the days before Twitter, Facebook, and the huge word of mouth possible to achieve with them.
In November 2010 it was republished by the Friday Project. Within a week, it went from nowhere to the top 250 in the Kindle charts. How did this happen?

Interviews Writing

Danuta Kean 5th January 201117th May 2020 #writerwednesday, A Woman of Substance, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Writing

INTERVIEW: What does it take to be a bestselling novelist? Barbara Taylor Bradford explains

Want to be a bestselling novelist? In the first of our features on writing, Barbara Taylor Bradford tells Danuta Kean what it takes.
Barbara Taylor Bradford is a tonic: a tonic for writers jaded by capricious publishers whose loyalty to authors’ careers is barely longer than a supermarket promotion. She is also a lesson to all that hard work is as essential to a long career as a passion about writing. At 77 there is no slacking off for BTB. Thirty-one years after her blockbuster début A Woman of Substance appeared, she has just published her 26th novel, Playing the Game, backed by a publicity schedule that would daunt far younger writers.

Facebook Featured post Social Media Tutorials

Jon Reed 13th October 2010 Facebook, Facebook pages, FBML, HTML, Static FBML

How to Customize your Facebook page

A Facebook page is a great way to promote your book: you can use it to connect with your readers, encourage discussions around the topic of your book, automatically pull in your latest blog postings, and send updates to your fans.
By default, a Facebook page has tabs for Wall, Info, Photos, Discussions and Boxes, with the Wall tab being the first thing you see. But you can also personalize your page with a customized tab that offers more information about your book, draws people in and gives them a clear call to action. You can even make it the first thing people see when they visit your page for the first time. Follow these 5 easy steps, and you too can have a customized Facebook page.

blogs

Jon Reed 23rd August 2010 Seth Godin

Seth Godin quits traditional publishing

By Seth Godin on Seth Godin’s Blog: Authors need publishers because they need a customer. Readers have been separated from

Digital Featured post Opinion

Jon Reed 26th July 2010 Andrew Wylie, disintermediation, eBooks, John Sargent, Macmillan, Odyssey Editions, Random House

2010: A Publishing Odyssey

Über-agent Andrew “the Jackal” Wylie has hatched an audacious plot. Or maybe he has just seen the future. Either way, he has disintermediated the publishers he works with – for ebooks at least. With last week’s launch of Odyssey Editions, his Kindle-only ebook imprint, a range of his authors are now available digitally for the first time. To me, this seems inevitable. Many authors and their agents get the new digital realities – and, more importantly, the opportunities – while too many publishing discussions still focus on a protectionist response to the ‘threat’ of digital. If publishers won’t grasp digital, authors and agents will.

Digital Featured post

Tom Evans 15th July 2010 Amazon, Amazon Digital Text Platform, apple, Apple iBookstore, epub2, HTML5, iPad, iPhone, Issuu, Kindle, Lulu, Myebook, Smashwords, Stanza

Do iPad or do I Kindle? – Part 2

Should authors and publishers publish for the Kindle, the iPad, or something else? Some of the current options are:
– Print – not going away in a hurry
– Publish for the Kindle and iPad via the Amazon Digital Text Platform
– Publish for the iPad via the iBookstore
– Publish via a third party ebook app like Stanza
– Publish via an aggregator like Smashwords, Lulu, Myebook, Issuu
If you are an author, my advice is to write, create accompanying audio and video assets and by the time you are ready to publish, there will be more than one route open to you.

Second Life Social Media

Adele Ward 5th July 201026th January 2021 Adele Ward, Ann Alexander, Cinnamon Press, London School of Journalism, LSJ, Mike Fortune-Wood, Mike Horwood, Second Life, Sue Guiney, Ward Wood Publishing

Virtual contacts made Ward Wood Publishing a reality

Is Second Life still useful for authors and publishers? It depends how you use it, argues Adele Ward – who has recently used virtual contacts to make her new business, Ward Wood Publishing, a reality.

conferences Digital Social Media

Jon Reed 2nd July 201020th September 2020 Digital, Huffington Post, Independents, Second Life, Small press, social media marketing, Twitter

Are you too big for social media?

There are natural advantages to being a small, independent publisher when it comes to social media marketing. But, big or small, there’s a social media marketing strategy for you. Just keep it appropriate to your type of organization, make sure you engage your audience, and go for a personal voice – whether that is you and/or your authors.

Tweetups

Jon Reed 27th June 2010 tweetup, Twitter

London Book Trade Tweetups? There's a Facebook group for that.

What could be nicer than a summer’s evening with a couple of dozen book trade tweeters, a vast picnic spread and lashings of Pimms and champagne? #booktwicnic, the latest London book trade tweetup, took place on Thursday evening in Regent’s Park, attended by the usual mix book trade folk.

iPadivity: Creativity and Productivity on an iPad

A new way of working merits the introduction of a new word – iPadivity.
noun [n] :
1. the phenomenon of increased creativity and productivity when using an iPad – and activity while doing the same
2. the generation of new ideas using an iPad
3. profitability from generating and using iPad apps

Four ways to make life easier if you self-publish

Self-publishing your book is now easier than ever. Self-publishing your book well, however, can still be a real challenge. You will often hear mutterings in publishing spheres that, “You can always spot a self-published book just by looking at it”. And in all fairness, it’s not too surprising, especially if you have chosen to do as much as possible yourself. I’m going to hazard a guess that it is unlikely that as an author, you have also trained and worked as a designer, typesetter, editor, proof-reader and marketer in between writing your book! It’s undoubtedly going to be hard to get the same effect as a publisher who has spent thousands on a book’s production. However, there are some basic things that you can do that will make your life much easier and help your book blend in with the best.

skills workshops Writing

Tom Evans 19th May 2010 Betty Edward, Cat Bennett, Draw, Findhorn Press, Visual Arts, whole brain thinking

Why authors should learn to draw

I’ve just finished reading an excellent book by Cat Bennett called The Confident Creative: Drawing to Free the Hand and Mind.
When I read Cat’s book, I realised that being able to draw is not something which is a nice-to-have skill – perhaps just so I could do my own illustrations or even my front cover. There are areas of the brain (and mind) that are activated, exercised and honed by the very act of drawing. As such, for authors, drawing actually makes you a better writer.

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