Indie Publishing: It’s Your Book

By Marti Talbott

Writing a manuscript is hard work! Figuring out how to sell it is even harder.

 

In this no fluff, 2021 eBook, the author of over 50 Indie Published novels shares her eleven years of experience in the industry. Written with beginning novelists in mind, learn how she starts a new book, creates a blurb that sells, and chooses the best cover art. Included are tips on how to avoid writer scams, the uploading process, setting the price, best marketing practices with tricks and examples not found anywhere else.

 

It's your book - from the first word to getting paid, in Indie Publishing you're in complete control.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MT Creations
• Release date: Jun 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201196745

Marti Talbott

Marti Talbott (www.martitalbott.com) is the author of over 40 books, all of which are written without profanity and sex scenes. She lives in Seattle, is retired and has two children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. The MacGreagor family saga begins with The Viking Series and continues in Marti Talbott’s Highlander’s Series, Marblestone Mansion, the Scandalous Duchess series, and ends with The Lost MacGreagor books. Her mystery books include Seattle Quake 9.2, Missing Heiress, Greed and a Mistress, The Locked Room, and The Dead Letters. Other books include The Promise and Broken Pledge.

Book preview

Indie Publishing: It’s Your Book

What you don’t know can sink your book.

By

Marti Talbott

© 2021

––––––––

Writing a manuscript is hard work! Figuring out how to sell it is even harder.

In this no fluff, 2021 eBook, the author of over 50 Indie Published novels shares her eleven years of experience in the industry. Written with beginning novelists in mind, learn how she starts a new book, creates a blurb that sells, and chooses the best cover art. Included are tips on how to avoid writer scams, the uploading process, setting the price, best marketing practices, with tricks and examples not found anywhere else.

It’s your book – from your first written word to collecting the royalty, Indie Publishing puts you in complete control.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Isn’t self-publishing a dirty word?

Building a website

Brand Name

The Copyright ©

Book Title and Subtitle

Manuscript mechanics

How to write a book

Front-matter and Formatting

Table of contents

Back-matter

Chapter length and word count

The value of a good editor

Cover art

Write a blurb that sells

Genre and keywords

Pricing your book

The upload process

How important is your book’s rank?

Going wide or going exclusive

What is an aggregator?

Subscriptions services

Marketing and Promoting

Reviews good and bad

Reports and royalties

Scam, scams, everywhere scams

Burned by an agent

Burned by a vanity publisher

Royalties are taxed

Summary

Foreword

I was dead broke when I started Indie Publishing eleven years ago, so almost everything I did was either free or dirt cheap. Learning how to do it myself proved to be invaluable, even though I made a lot of mistakes along the way. In the end, keeping everything under my control has saved me a bundle of money.

The good news is, it’s a lot easier these days, and because many of us have waded through the earlier years and all the changes that followed, new authors can learn a lot from our tried and true experiences. Several get-rich-quick books on the market claim to tell you how to make the bestseller lists, etc., but have those authors ever done it themselves, or are they just making money off of how-to books? While I don’t claim to be a bestselling author, I have made it into the top ten a few times, and I can’t stress enough how important it is to take advice from someone who’s actually been in the trenches. To learn more about me and my books, just Google my name. It’s Marti Talbott, or visit my website. www.martitalbott.com

A little about my personal writing and publishing history.

Still working a day job, the first two novels I wrote before the internet was invented, were The Promise and Broken Pledge – the story of a British family unwillingly involved in the American Revolutionary War. To make certain my depiction of the story’s background was accurate, I bought several history books, and when those didn’t tell me what I needed to know, I sent letters to the Historical Society in Kentucky. For a modest payment, the nice people at the Society sent Xerox copies of recorded accounts and details, that I could use to make my books more interesting as well as historically accurate. After the writing was finally finished, I submitted those two books to agents and publishers, but neither one was accepted. Next, writing a book about an earthquake in Seattle seemed like something I could actually sell. That didn’t work out well when going the traditional publishing route either.

After I retired and had time to dive into my love of reading, I discovered several Scottish romance books. Because I come from a long line of Scots, I decided to give that idea a try. Anna began as a short story, was poorly written, and in serious need of a proofreader. Nevertheless, I posted on my website and made it available for people to read free. I added more short stories and to my amazement, in just a few months my website was getting nearly 10,000 hits a month. Bingo, I found my author calling. Thus the birth of Marti Talbott’s Highlander Series, a connection of short stories that follow the many generations of the Scottish Clan MacGreagor.

Along came the invention and popularity of eBooks in 2007, and the rest is history.

Isn’t self-publishing a dirty word?

About twelve years ago, I discovered a website called, Mighty Words, that let authors upload their books, so readers could buy and download them. It was a modern day miracle and the first book that hit the market big time was an erotica. No surprise there. I submitted one of my books (not an erotica by the way) and in no time at all, my earthquake book hit the top twenty – such instant success took my breath away!

Suddenly, WHAM! – Mighty Words disappeared!

What happened? A prominent bookseller bought the software lock, stock and barrel. A couple of months later, the eBook fad quickly gained popularity. The bookseller’s upload platform needed lots of work, but readers were delighted, and started buying eBooks to read on their computers. For the authors, it was paradise. It didn’t cost the author’s anything to publish their books and the money started rolling in. In no time at all, there were two booksellers offering authors the same sort of deal – then three, four and five.

Initially, bookseller offered a 50/50 royalty split. That was before the second largest bookseller got in on the action, and offered authors a 30/70