PublishDrive Blog

21
Nov

The Importance of Book Reviews to Get Your Book Known

This is a guest post by BookRazor writer Sarah Robinson. Read her bio at the bottom of the page.

Congratulations! You’ve just published your book! Time to celebrate, right? Not yet. In fact, you have to sell as many copies of your book as you can after putting it out for the public to make a decent profit out of writing. But relying solely on your sales pitch by reaching out to people who are likely to buy and read your book, and convincing them that it’s got something other books in the same genre don’t have isn’t enough. Some readers want more concrete proof that your book is worth buying and you’re not just pulling their leg, which is why book reviews play an important role in getting your book known.

The Two Kinds of Book Reviews That Can Get Your Book Known

Two kinds of book reviews can either pull a buyer into the direction of your book or push them away from it.

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16
Nov

Faster Publishing Time on Amazon: How to do it?

In a world where we want everything ready as soon as possible, a lot can depend on average publishing time. But how long do you have to wait for your book’s publication? Are you better off if you make your book available for pre-order? Can you make any changes during the publishing process? This article is on average publishing time in the most popular stores like Amazon, Google Play and iTunes. Do you have to be afraid of increased demand and be aware of ‘peak’ publishing time?

We are also writing about the upcoming holiday season and on how different services are taking the increased demand.
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14
Nov

The Self-Publishing Journey: How to Self-Publish an Ebook

It takes a village to raise a child. Similarly: writing a novel is never the work of one person only. We all know how every book ever published by traditional publishing houses has months of work behind it by editors of different responsibilities, designers, and illustrators. Additionally, publishers often have a dedicated team of marketers working on photo shoots and Facebook campaigns. But what are the options self-publishers face when deciding to publish a book? Do you have to do everything by yourself, or are there dedicated ebook publishing services helping you along the way? And the most important question of all: You wrote a book. What now? Read our article to learn the steps of the self-publishing journey. What are the necessary and recommended steps? How to make the most out of your publishing experience?

With more and more authors every day deciding to self-publish, a guide like this has become increasingly necessary. Please note that we’re only outlining the steps; for details, please check the recommended reading after each main chapter. If you are at the beginning of your self-publishing journey, come and join our Facebook group to exchange ideas and experiences.

If you are not yet sure whether self-publishing is the right fit for you or don’t know the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing, check this article.

(Article was updated on July 16, 2018.)
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10
Nov

Import your books straight from Pronoun

This was not an easy week for indie publishers and self-publishers: Pronoun has announced to shut down, effective immediately.

We have built an importer to help migrating your books from Pronoun.

We are sorry to see an innovative competitor go: competition drives the industry to provide better service and keep improving. However, we understand that authors are frustrated and worried. These are bad news, especially before Christmas: losing your reviews and rankings sounds awful just before the most important sales period. There is a lot of confusion: should you remove your books from sale already? Do you need a copyright statement to confirm your rights?

pronoun import

PublishDrive is here to make migrating your books easier. Our development team was busy this week working on an import tool for former Pronoun authors. You upload your ZIP file and we do the switch, keeping your reviews.

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10
Nov

Authors Leaving Pronoun: How to Choose a Distributor

On November 6th, the Macmillan owned Pronoun announced that they are shutting down their services. Pronoun gave an author-focused service, inspiring competitors to innovate, and I believe their presence will be missed. This article is aiming to help former Pronoun authors (and others looking for a change) decide what to do in the information-overload that naturally follows.

Pronoun’s closing must have come as a shock for many: as an author you could think that a self-service portal backed by a big publisher is a safe place. You have probably already planned your Christmas promotions, prepared your new releases, and now you have to start everything all over again. But looking at the current chaos: this is no time to mourn. This is the time to share verified, true information.

To decide your next steps, you will have to consider the pitfalls of ebook distribution. Choosing a distributor is never easy. How to do your due diligence on your next partner?

If you are a writer or an author taking themselves seriously, do not rush this decision. You will have to think about the long-term consequences of finding your next innovative publishing partner. There are six questions you have to ask.

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08
Nov

Distributing to Perlego – New Retail Channel

PublishDrive is proud to have partnered with Perlego, an innovator in academic publishing. We’re offering our publishers and authors a chance to showcase their books at the Perlego platform among academic publishers.

Long gone are the days when you had to pay hundreds of pounds at the beginning of every term to cover the costs of your textbooks. Dubbed as the Spotify of textbooks, Perlego is an innovative ebook platform which provides users with access to the best professional and academic content, under a monthly subscription fee. Launched in September 2016, Perlego has already established partnerships with over 280 leading publishers and has over 200 000 books in their library. Perlego is targeting businesses, institutions and students directly in the European, Middle East and African region.

Perlego works with a subscription model, offering publishers a percentage of the monthly subscription fee based on the how much of the book is read.

Disruptors at the scientific market

Prior to channeling in Perlego, PublishDrive signed a contract with Mackin Educational Resources. Scientific content is highly popular in different library models like at OverDrive and CNPeReading as well. Big publishers like Bloomsbury are currently improving their ebook sales by trying different channels and models. Will the disruption of trade publishing come from the scientific, educational world?

Book Business believes that it should be. They argue that by following student’s behavior (as they access content online in free or freemium models) educators can better analyze their own success. They will be able to track student’s progress and measure the effectiveness of learning.

03
Nov

Frankfurt Book Fair As Indie Author – Should you go?

Are you interested in attending a book fair as indie author? Should you attend book fairs as an independent author at the first place, or is this just a waste of money? This question is driving most authors nuts: on one hand, book fairs seem like the heart of publishing industry, where experts from all fields meet, network, make deals and give amazingly interesting lectures. On the other hand, book fairs are all about signing deals and making new contracts: what can an indie author make out of it?

As a relative newbie in the publishing industry, this was the first year I ever attended book fairs: early summer I went to London (this was kind of home territory), then this October I participated in Frankfurt Book Fair: I thought it will be similar to the London one, but I was mistaken.

At this point, most big book fairs have an area dedicated to indie publishing. However, this area always is a tad detached from the rest of the fair: in London, Author HQ was right behind children’s books, at the far end of the fair; and in Frankfurt, author services were at the back of Hall 3.0, Amazon present with only a tiny stand in a whole separate building dedicated for German publishing. Definitely very far away from the rest of the fair that was happening mostly in Halls 4 and 6, with the agents’ lounge and the business tables all situated in at least 10 minutes of walk; and surrounded with German teens queuing up for signings.

Authorpreneur event at Frankfurt Book Fair 2017

Despite the hostile environment, though, the organizers of the International Independent Author Program (Porter Anderson and the Publishing Perspectives) did everything in their power to make the program interesting and engaging.

Starting with IngramSpark’s Andrew Bromley (who was the only one using the great chance to give away free books); continuing with ALLi’s Orna Ross giving an inspiring pep talk on how the indies should use every opportunity to give away free samples of their writing (by blogging for example) in order to attract much needed audience; and finishing with our very own CEO Kinga talking about smart tools indie publishers can use to increase their ebook sales, the program has something in it for authorpreneurs at all levels. Last but not least, there was a discussion involving all speakers and the audience.

I’m sure that all attendees have enjoyed it.

However, it isn’t necessary to have been present in Frankfurt in order to access all these talks and much more: ALLi organized an Indie Author Fringe to coincide with the Fair, collected great speakers on their own and published recordings of the Frankfurt speeches as well. All for free. Lecturers include Porter Anderson on whether Frankfurt Book Fair is indie author friendly, Joanna Penn and Sukhi Jutla on how to become an author-enterpreneur and Tim Lewis on using a podcast to deepen follower engagement.
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27
Oct

Create an Ebook Cover with Canva or Adobe Spark: Which is Better?

Who would have thought that the design giant Adobe will create their own Canva? It is easy to see why the simple-to-use and user friendly ebook cover design tool Canva is so successful, and it is actually not that big a surprise that Adobe – usually known for endless options, hidden settings and taking years to master – decided to join the flow introducing Adobe Spark.

Read on to learn how to design a beautiful ebook cover with this easy to use tool on your computer, tablet, or straight from your mobile, and compare Adobe Spark to Canva.

If you are a newbie to cover design, we recommend that you also check out our cover design masterpost to help you avoid common mistakes.

(Article was updated on May 22, 2018.)

Adobe Spark: what is it?

Adobe Spark is a powerful Creative Cloud tool priced from free to £10 a month – it is already obvious from the pricing that this one tool is not aimed at professional designers but students, marketers, bloggers and small businesses (including writers and publishers) for their smaller scale design needs.

The suite contains of Page for web stories, Video for graphic videos and Post for any kind of graphic material you would normally use PhotoShop for.

Platform: iOS (Spark app), cloud using any browser

Uploading your own images: yes

Stock images: access to Adobe Stock and free images (around 90 million pictures)

Pricing: free (with Adobe logo), 10 GBP per month

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20
Oct

Everything about exclusive distribution: definition and examples

Going wide or KDP only? Today’s article is covering exclusive distribution definition, examples and arguments for and against it.

Exclusive distribution means that a distributor has unique rights to distribute your book: you can’t sell it anywhere else. Currently KDP Select is the most popular exclusive distributor, as most self-publishing authors already know: for a higher percentage of royalties, authors can enroll in KDP Select for a 90-day period and re-enroll any time. If your book is available through KDP Select, it is available to KU users, Kindle Lending Library borrowers and to everyone using Amazon. As a return for the exclusive rights, Amazon offers a wide range of promotion services, including 5 days when you can sell your book for free.

Going exclusively to Amazon is a great tool that works for many authors. But what about other distributors and markets Amazon doesn’t reach?
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13
Oct

Other Disruptors: New Ways of Distribution, VR and Royalty Share

This is the third, final part of our series focused on industry disruptors. The first part analysed how AI will automatize much of the marketing, and the second was interested in whether blockchain is here to decentralize distribution and pose a threat to Amazon and Google.

In the third part of the series, we are focusing on disruptors once again: how they change distribution and book production processes.

There is only a certain number of regular readers, and it seems like traditional publishers and self-publishers are fighting againsteach other to see who is able to get the biggest slice of the pie instead of simply focusing on providing better solutions to the readers.

As Richard Nash points out: there are two contrasting tendencies working against each other, both extremely low prices set by Amazon and extremely high prices set by traditional publishers. And this is the point where industry disruptors can come into picture.

Can you enter the price competition without compromising on quality? Will you present yourself as a premium service? Today’s biggest question is how to keep your professional integrity and stay on your feet.

 

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