Don’t put all your eggs…

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Good Monday morning! It’s chilly here in Georgia and great writing weather. Saturday I managed a little over 3600 words, even with cleaning the house and planting mums. It was a productive weekend, to say the least.

Ok, you’ve written your book, now it’s time to publish it. As a self published author, you have so many choices. I’ve talked to authors that only place their books on Amazon, which is alright if you just want to get in with the Kindle reader, but there are so many other places to put your book, so why not?

You may be new to the publishing world, so I’ll enlighten you on some places that are great for self published authors:

1: Amazon – without a doubt, most authors go here first.

2: Smashwords – This website offers a one stop shop. Your book can be placed with Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and a multitude of other places just through Smashwords.

3: All Romance Ebooks – They offer your book on their website and in many different formats.

4: Barnes and Noble – Through Nook press, but I usually just go through Smashwords to get here.

5: Kobo – Again, I use Smashwords to get here too.

6: Google Play – I have some of my books here, but I’ve never done well on their pages.

7: Createspace – You need to get your book into paperback form and here’s where you can do that.

8: Draft to Digital – This site will get you on a couple of different foreign site.

9: Apple iTunes – If you use a mac, then this option is available straight to the site, but again, I use Smashwords.

This is only 9 of the many sites, but it gets you on the road to discovery and if you spread out your wings, readers will find you.

I hope this helped. If you need help getting your book formatted or the word spread, let me know. Horseshoe Publishing helps authors get their books ready for these sites and Fresh From the Book helps you spread the word.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Just a little Monday promo – Highlander’s Heart will be only .99 for a short while! So fall in love with a Highlander… myBook.to/HighlandersHeart

Where do I put my books?

As a writer I’ve learned a lot about marketing and where books sell and don’t. Before I published my first book I had never heard of many of these sites. As just a reader I was aware of Amazon and Barnes & Nobles and places like that. Now that I’ve done research it’s amazing how many are out there.

Here are some of the places I’ve found and how I’ve done with these.

E-book Sites:

1: Amazon: This was the first place I put my books. The first two I actually put in under KDP Select which for me was a mistake. For some KDP Select works, but it just didn’t work for me. It limits where you can put your work. As for Amazon it’s gone pretty well. They make it so easy to put your books on their site and it’s highly recognized.

2: Smashwords.com: This site was not known to me until an author friend suggested it. Now I’ve seen a lot of information on it. It’s been one of my best selling sites. Through their program my books are put on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Diesel, Sony, Apple, Baker & Taylor and Library Direct. It’s a easy site to put your book on. You get an author page and they make it easy to advertise.

3: Google Play: This site to me wasn’t easy to use. I have several of my books on this site, but they really don’t sale good. It’s really difficult to put your books on it. Others might find this site helpful, but it wasn’t for me.

4: Allromancebooks.com: This site is really cool. It’s as the name says for romance books. It’s an easy site to work with. My sales have been fairly decent on this site. But of course they haven’t been on there but a couple of months.

5: Lightning Source: This is a great site with a lot of professional opportunities. It’s fairly easy to put your books on and a lot of more professional sites look at these books more.

Printed Books

1: CreateSpace: This is a print on demand site. I have all my books on this site for print and the sales go through Amazon. The site is easy to use and if you pay for the Expanded Distribution then it goes to several wholesalers all over the world.

2: Lightning Source: I’ve just signed a contract with them. This is the first professional printer that I’ve signed with. I’m really excited about using them and Barnes & Noble highly recommended this site to me. This is the site most of the big publishing houses pull from.

As I say, this is just a couple of the sites where my books are at and the experiences I’ve had. But of course everyone has different experiences and this is only my opinion.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Let’s Talk Print On Demand

What’s been your experience with Print On Demand? It took me a few months to decide whether I wanted to go down this road. I weighed several options and found that CreateSpace offered the best bang for the buck. So I took a deep breath and jumped, hanging on to the edge for a moment then finally with the help of my editor/assistant I let go. (She would say I went kicking and screaming. It wasn’t all that bad. Really it wasn’t ;))

If you’ve never looked into CreateSpace I would suggest giving them a try. They make it so easy to submit your book and cover. But remember you have to have the back and spine completed also. Now that was a different monster in itself. We had to read the instructions about measuring the spine. Yep it’s a fine science and guess what, if you don’t do it right the spine design with wrap around to the front and back. Thank goodness the one it did that on with me actually turned out looking pretty cool.

With CreateSpace you can pay only $25 and go into their expanded distribution program. This sends your books to several wholesale distributors and big book franchises. I at first wondered if this was going to be a good thing, but when I googled one of my books it was amazing how many places my books have shown up. One day I found my books on someones blog that I had no idea who they were. That was so cool. Then it started happening pretty frequently. It’s like you’re paying $25 for advertising.

Also your book goes on Amazon and you can connect it to your author page. When Amazon recognized book stores pick up your print book, Amazon posts it on your book page. Sometimes the other companies post a different price then you input but you still get what you’re supposed to.

As for sales on the CreateSpace page, not many but you as the author can buy them really cheap from CreateSpace. All you pay is the print costs and shipping. At least you have your book in print without paying a huge printing fee. Try it, you might be surprised. Hope this helps you out or gives you a little food for thought.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…