News and updates on important topics for writers
(1) Bookstores, and Barnes & Noble in particular.
In case you haven’t heard the news about B&N being up for sale, here’s Kris Rusch’s take on it and on bookstores in general and how they have applied to authors. Once again, I want to point out the widespread fallacy that having a publisher behind you gets your books into bookstores. I found it amusing when Kris pointed out that even being a name author carries no guarantees.
Indie authors take note: Amazon is the biggest bookstore on the planet, in case you forgot. And note what Kris said the B&N in-store personnel told her to do: Order through our online site.
(2) Copyright savvy, or yet another reason not to trust an agent or a publisher.
(3) KDP Print
Back in September, I did a short post on the new KDP Print.
THOUGHTS ON KDP PRINT REPLACING CREATESPACE
As I said in that post, I put my novel More Than Magick back up on Amazon with a new cover and I did it through KDP Print with only a minor glitch on my part.
I have since published the “Write Well Award 2018” anthology. I had a minor glitch there as well that I easily fixed. For previous anthologies on CreateSpace, I had not put my name on the cover as the editor of the anthology, although my name was listed as the author/editor of the volume in the book details. CreateSpace did not complain about it. The cover simply said “sponsored by Silver Pen Writers.” However, the KDP Print checkers saw it as a discrepancy. I emailed them and did receive a response, but prior to getting it, I had decided to add my name to the cover. That got it approved immediately (and the person who responded was courteous and helpful).
These experiences demonstrated to me that (1) they have a good customer service area, and (2) they’re checking things a little more carefully that was done by CreateSpace. In the first case, they spotted an error that I probably never would have caught.
Further, I was able to move two previously published books, Punctuation For Fiction Writers and the Fabula Argentea 5th Anniversary Anthology in less than five minutes. All I had to do was confirm moving them. I was able move them both in one operation and without a hitch.
I have an author friend whose novel I just finished editing and doing the cover for ready to put his book up on KDP Print in the next few days. I don’t expect any issues there either.
So, I can give an enthusiastic thumbs-up to KDP Print on all counts. What I really like is that I can do both the print and e-books all in one place. Once I do either one, the system has all the book details for the other one, and I only have to fill out the choices that differ between them.
–Rick