Last week, the Web site, Techcrunch, posted the press release announcing Author Solutions distribution deal with Barnes and Noble to offer ASI published books on the Nook.
ASI published books are now available on the Nook
The release drew a number of interesting comments. I have pulled a couple I thought provided some interesting insights regarding the changes taking place right now in publishing.
People in the news business didn’t take bloggers seriously, didn’t take the web seriously and are getting killed. Once there are distribution channels for authors to circumvent book publishers, especially for what you disparaging refer to as vanity authors but are, in effect, the publisher’s equivalent of bloggers, there are ways of authors to sell their books in the new mediums being released. And many of us are using the books as ways to attract clients and business and the additional money is a nice bonus.
This is great for everyone in the long run. Yes, they may be smaller vanity presses now, but they are the early adopters. Just like the music/tv biz, the large houses need someone to prove the model to them.
The other key benefit here is a standardized book format being enforced by the ereader platform/nook/kindle. Books will have to conform to specific formatting requirements to get on the readers. A single publishing standard could be a big help in searching for books and research.
As authors, we write because we are inspired to tell a story, or have something to say to help people or just enjoy it. However, if we are going to be as successful at selling books as we are at writing books, we need to think about the marketing plan for the book when we are writing the manuscript. In fact, the best way to think about marketing is in three phases. Phase one is before you submit your manuscript for publication. Phase two is when your book is in production, but not in release. Phase three is book live and beyond. What you do at each phase is critical to making the most out of marketing your book. AuthorHive, the new marketing services company, launched by Author Solutions has a helpful book marketing guide that gives tips on what to do at each phase. You can request a copy here.
I am at the San Francisco Writers conference and you can definitely feel the shift in the wind. More and more speakers are encouraging writers to self publish and then look for a traditional publisher to pick them up. Agents are also confessing they look at self-published books for potential books to pitch. This is not something you would have heard even two years ago.
