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Home : writers

Tag Archives: writers

Should Indie Publishers Lower Their Expectations?

The World's Greatest Book Posted on December 12, 2011 by Dave BrickerDecember 23, 2011

Many authors start down the publishing road believing that printing books is the same as printing money, only to be disappointed by low returns and the amount of work involved. This guest article by novelist, poet and songwriter Richard Geller responds to advice offered by marketing luminary Seth Godin who suggests indie publishers should lower their expectations. Geller proposes different ways to measure success. Printing books is not the same as printing money, but for creative writers, printing books may give rise to something of even greater value. Changing expectations and lowering them are two different things.


In his insightful blog, Seth Godin offers two separate lists of marketing tips for writers. I want to reflect a bit on what he has in the number-one position on each list; they’re closely related:

1. Lower your expectations. The happiest authors are the ones that don’t expect much. (2005)

1. Please understand that book publishing is an organized hobby, not a business. The return on equity and return on time for authors and for publishers is horrendous. If you’re doing it for the money, you’re going to be disappointed.

On the other hand, a book gives you leverage to spread an idea and a brand far and wide. There’s a worldview that’s quite common that says that people who write books know what they are talking about and that a book confers some sort of authority. (2006)

Any comparison of the number of books published versus the number of authors making useful amounts of money at it is damn sobering stuff. Seth Godin certainly has his facts straight. The odds are definitely against you achieving anything that resembles business success.

I have, however, a question about lowering our expectations. Does the unlikelihood of ever realizing material success or fame from your writing mean you should lower your expectations? Or should you, instead, adopt different sets of expectations—aligned with marketplace realities—that are high nonetheless?

Continue reading →

Tagged ablogaboutsomething, asiteaboutsomething, author, Dave Bricker, fiction, indie publishing, indie-author, nonfiction, novel, pod publishing, poetry blog, publishing, publishing success, Richard Geller, self publishing, writers, writing

POD, Vanity Presses and Publishing

The World's Greatest Book Posted on September 24, 2010 by Dave BrickerSeptember 24, 2010

There is a tendency to refer to “POD Publishers” with disdain, but POD is just a printing technology. I use Lightning Source for printing, own my own ISBN numbers and retain all of my rights. I do my own design and layout. “Vanity Press” is the term most often associated with companies who offer book production packages, take a share of royalties or rights and bundle your work into their “publisher’s catalog”—and I think the more reputable vanity presses can be a good fit for many writers.

Lightning Source is a printer. iUniverse is a vanity press. Both use POD technology. I suggest a distinction between “POD Printers” and “Vanity Presses” with the term “publishing” reserved for those who own their own ISBNs, rights and royalties. If you publish through Xlibris or iUniverse, technically, you’re not self-publishing, but whether that distinction is important varies according to individual circumstances and points of view.

Irrespective of intellectual property considerations and who facilitates production, without POD, we’d all be sitting on stacks of books, handling fulfillment ourselves, and praying for the day when we get our closet space back.

Tagged amazon, authoring, book covers, book design, book printing, createspace, Dave Bricker, eBooks, iBook, iBookstore, iPad, kindle, lightning source, nook, One Hour Guide, publishing, self publishing, The Dance, writers, writing

Tips For Book Cover Design

The World's Greatest Book Posted on September 23, 2010 by Dave BrickerDecember 22, 2011

The following is something I posted on a discussion forum in response to someone who asked for a critique on about a dozen of their self-designed book covers.

Since you asked for a critique, I’ll pick on you, but with the caveat that you make many of the same errors everyone else does. I’m using you as a catalyst to educate rather than to make an example of.

The sore spot for me (and with many of my university design students, by the way—you’re in good company) is the typography. Continue reading →

Posted in Book Design, Self-Publishing | Tagged amazon, authoring, book covers, book design, book printing, createspace, Dave Bricker, eBooks, iBook, iBookstore, iPad, kindle, lightning source, nook, One Hour Guide, publishing, self publishing, The Dance, writers, writing
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