Ebooks can be more than just files you download onto your ebook reading device. They can come in many different formats and be used for a multitude of purposes (i.e. entertainment, tech manuals, etc). And one of the biggest draws of ebooks, at least for me, is the flexibility one has with distribution methods.

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Self-publishing is getting a whole lot easier for authors who prefer to go the ‘indie’ route and avoid the hassles of trying to get the ever-more-evasive traditional publishing contract. Espresso Book Machines (EBM) are paving the way not only for indie authors, but also indie bookstores as well – who must compete with the likes of Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon.

The EBM is basically a mini-self publisher all wrapped up into one machine. You select the book you want printed, and it prints the entire book (nifty covers included!), binds, trims and spits the newly printed book out for you to enjoy.

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If you are going to be in San Francisco on July 18 then you might want to consider going to the InStock Conference. The one-day event focuses on ‘the business and marketing of self-publishing.’ Here’s the press release that was emailed to me a few days ago:

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In this tight economy, the gatekeepers of the publishing world (i.e. agents and large publishing houses) are keeping their gates closed a little more. This is sad news for unpublished writers who have dreams of seeing their words in print. Is the system fair? No, not by a long shot. Even in a good economy, the chances of getting your book published aren’t good. Just the sheer number of writers out there ensure that most of us will live in obscurity.

However, this doesn’t mean there is no hope. Advancing technology and a number of high-profile success stories have really lit a fire under the world of self-publishing. Being a successful author doesn’t mean hitting the New York Times bestselling list, or even selling millions of copies of your latest masterpiece. By self-publishing your writing, you can be a successful author and also make a tidy profit.

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The online self ebook publisher Smashwords has announced the beginning of their affiliate program, which will let bloggers, publishers, authors, and website owners promote ebooks sold on Smashwords in exchange for a commission on each sale. Here’s an excerpt from their press release:

“Our mission at Smashwords is to help authors and publishers publish, promote and sell their ebooks,” said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. “The Smashwords Affiliate Marketing Program will help authors and publishers expand their digital shelf space while providing affiliate marketers the opportunity to profit from the rapid rise of electronic books.”

According to the Association of American Publishers(AAP), ebooks are the fastest growing segment of book publishing today. Ebooks experienced a compound annual growth rate of 58 percent per year for the last six years, versus an overall industry growth rate of 1.6 percent. In recent months, the growth of ebooks has accelerated to over 100 percent while print books have declined, according to the AAP (source: http://www.publishers.org).

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In a move that signals the continuing growth of the self-publishing arena, the first-ever self-publishing book expo has been announced:

Publishing veterans Diane Mancher and Karen Mender are launching Self-Publishing Book Expo, an event that will focus on self-published books and the companies that produce them. SPBE will offer attending authors a place to exhibit and sell their books to the general public–and agents and publishers–as well as offering representatives from self-publishing companies to showcase their services. The event is slated for November.

You can read the the entire article from Publishers Weekly. And you can visit the book expo website here.

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It’s a great time to be a writer! You’re probably shaking your head saying: "Brad finally lost his marbles". Writing is more competitive than ever, the chances of getting published by a large house is nill and very few people make a living off their writing. So why is it a good time to be a writer?

Ebooks are your friend!

If you write any kind of fiction, and even certain types of non-fiction, ebooks can be your best friend right now. Think about it: You can publish and distribute your own ebooks with little cost to you. The biggest cost involved will be promoting your work.

The key here is the right pricing. If you’re a new and unknown author, then it’ll be hard to justify selling an ebook at $9.99 (Amazon’s preferred price point). Maybe start by giving them away for free to build a readership. Then, give away older titles for free in order to entice customers to buy your newer titles. Using free ebooks to entice new readers appears to be working for many other authors.

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It’s rare that I finish a book in one day. Not that I’m a slow reader, I just like to savor the experience of reading a book (yeah, that’s it!). But I just started, and finished this book in less than a day. Of course I’m talking about Lisa Genova’s book Still Alice (aff link). I have written briefly about this book in this post because Lisa originally self-published this book before signing on with a traditional publishing house.

The novel follows Alice Howland, a fifty year old Harvard professor, married and a mother of three. She is, by any measure a successful woman at the top of her game. And this is what makes it so tragic and chilling when she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. The symptoms start innocently enough; forgetting words, an occasional appointment and other lapses of absentmindedness we all fall into during the course of our lives. But when she is out running and becomes lost in Harvard Square, a place she has known for 25 years, her life is kicked off track.

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Sometimes I miss a unique angle on an article I’m reading for this blog. I must have been asleep at the wheel when writing this post about self-publishing. The New York Times article was about how self publishing is doing pretty well because of so many writers are willing to pay to see their work in print.

Today, I came upon this interesting article from WritersWeekly.com that talks about the angle I missed: The CEO of self-publishing company Lulu, Robert Young, had some interesting things to say about his company’s own customers:

Indeed, said Robert Young, chief executive of Lulu Enterprises, based in Raleigh, N.C., a majority of the company’s titles are of little interest to anybody other than the authors and their families. "We have easily published the largest collection of bad poetry in the history of mankind," Mr. Young said.

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Self-publishing has long been the bastard child of the publishing industry. That could be changing now. More and more authors who self-publish are finding success after traditional publishing houses offer lucrative contracts for their self-published books. And most of these cases, the manuscript in question was rejected over and over before the author took matters into his/her own hands.

That is the story of Lisa Genova, who tried to get her book Still Alice (aff link) into the hands of agents and publishers before turning to self-publishing. Her story, in part, is featured in this article from the New York Times about the world of self-publishing:

When Lisa Genova, a former consultant to pharmaceutical companies, wrote her first novel, "Still Alice," a story about a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, she was turned down or ignored by 100 literary agents.

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