Kindle Authors UK
I realise I’ve been going on about the Kindle experience quite a lot over the last few months, but I am really excited about E-books and the freedom they offer authors to control their own output. It’s the ultimate democracy of The Word. (If you're not convinced then read a very good post by Dee Weaver on 'Strictly Writing'.)
A few days ago I discovered a really good site for anyone who is interested in the E-book market. Kindle Authors UK are a new group of bloggers dedicated to Kindling their work and marketing it. Most are established authors either wanting to make their backlists available, or to publish new work difficult to place in the current publishing climate. This is how they describe themselves on the blog:
‘We are professional UK authors branching out independently for selected projects to bring you quality e-books at great prices. We hope you'll enjoy following our adventures and be inspired to try some of these titles we've published for Kindle, which include books out of print for many years.’
I’m really delighted that they’ve asked me to join. Most are writing fiction or books for children and apparently I’m their first biographer.
The blog is full of good information about the whole process of producing an E-book. The authors who form the group will be blogging at regular intervals. Katherine Roberts current post is called ‘How I didn’t sell a million e-books in 5 months’ - a response to a book by successful e-author John Locke who apparently did.
The way it works is that each author has been given a date to post on the blog and mine is going to be the 5th of every month. I’m going to be sharing my own experience of the e-market and hoping to learn a lot from the others about marketing work in cyber-space.
My new Kindle project is to go into Kindle Singles - individual short stories sold very cheaply at 90 cents each. I don’t know how (or if) they’ll sell but I’ll report back with the results.
On the personal front, I'm back in England for a couple of weeks - back to grey skies (whatever happened to the rumoured heat wave?) and pouring rain. I got drowned walking down from the station to the Mill! Italian sun and breakfast on the terrace watching peregrine falcons riding the thermals is just a rapidly fading memory. Sigh.......
Hi Kathleen - I too am so excited about the new possibilites that Kindle brings. Having spent the last year and a half angsting about an on/off deal for my novel I know I cannot go through this again. So although I have a lovely agent I am about to embark (actually with her belssing) on the Kindle journey and my novel The Orchid House is currently being copy edited by two very kind friends in preparation for publishing on Kindle direct. It's just so exciting and empowering. Like you I have soem shorts in mind too and I will be bloggin my journey to Kindle. Thanks for the really useful links. Sorry about the rain!
ReplyDeleteLove
Avril x
I like Kindle Authors UK as well and I link to it on my blog. It's nice to see other pro writers going the route I've chosen for my novel. Do you think living three months a year in Oxford qualifies me as a UK author? :-)
ReplyDeleteAn international network of professional writers who have books on KDP would be helpful to everyone. Good for consumer confidence too. It shows that they're getting work from people who have made the grade with traditional publishing.
Back on line, phew!
ReplyDeleteKindle and self publishing in general are amazingly liberating. However the down side is of course that it is all up to you.
I haven't had time (and probably the attitude) to promote my book properly so sales are pretty close to zero.
Having said that I can't see myself doing anything different next time.
Thanks Avril and Sean - I've posted responses on your blogs.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you back Al! Yes, that is the down side of self-publishing - the amount of energy you have to expend to promote the book. Better that though than not seeing the book in print at all.