From fantasy to reality – how Ben Galley became a successful self-publishing authorpreneur

Reading Time: 7 minutes Ben Galley is the self-published fantasy author of The Emaneska Series. Zealous about inspiring other authors and writers, he also runs the popular advice site Shelf Help, and is the co-founder of ebook store Libiro. Ben became a successful full-time ‘authorpreneur’ at the age of 26 and within a few years of publishing his first book. Jon Reed asks him how he did it.

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Four ways to make life easier if you self-publish

Reading Time: 4 minutes 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.

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How to be a Rock Star

Reading Time: 4 minutes If you were trying to make it in a rock band, you wouldn’t face the dilemma of ‘should I play gigs or try and get signed by record labels?’ You’d be thinking, “I’ll play lots of gigs, record my music myself and send it off to the record labels”. You’d have a MySpace page and do as much as you could to build up your fan base and reputation as a way of drawing attention to the quality of your work and proving that there is a market for it. So, why not apply the same philosophy to writing?

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