(To read Part Two, click here.)
The first person to speak to me post-conference was an intense, tiny woman who fired off a number of equally intense questions, “How does that work for you? Do you put your ebook on your site? People come and download it? How do you collect payment? How do you price your product? How do you get people to know about your book? And—”
I interrupted, reaching out my hand, “Hello. And you are…?”
She shook my hand briskly and told me she was an MEP, for the Greens, and her a rapid-fire name got shot out there too but I did not catch it (I rarely catch names in the best of times).
Since she wasn’t screaming nasty words at me I began explaining about that little known phenomenon called the Kindle .
And Amazon. Combined, an author needed no one or nothing else to publishing an ebook.
While hardly into the first steps of explaing these amazing Kindle-Amazon concepts, an older MEP guy with dyed yellow hair and a wobbly under-chin spoke from my left side. “But it is only famous writers who have success on the internet!”
I turned my attention to this, how can I put this gently, this rude creep, and began, equally gently, supplying some information he obviously had not encountered. “No, there are plenty of examples of unknowns attracting a large audience over time, such as….” But I could not get any further so click here for what he wasn’t interested in hearing.
Feeling his inner Alpha MEP, he raised his voice over mine and continued proclaiming his truth over my facts. It was fairly clear he hadn’t come for a conversation, let alone gathering information, but to hear himself say things he knew and not take on any information that might mean rethinking his thoughts. Quickly enough, he turned his face to that of the Green Party lady MEP, making his point to her, and she began nodding, and that circle slammed shut. I turned to the three other people had come up on my right. I smiled. Friend, or foe?
“I liked what you said.”
They were a literary agent, a trainee, and an assistant to another MEP from the Netherlands. Something refreshing happened. We exchanged ideas. One of them said, “They know nothing here.”
My attitude to most institutions is fraught with distrust, based on a lifetime of experience and observations. I had found that, after attaining a certain size over a period of time, an institutions primary activity was simply to conserve their existence after they ceased to be relevant. Sure, they had power but little influence on the street. For digital publishing, which was basically an online world with energetic communities, you needed to log on and stay logged on and dig around and dig in. The opposite of hanging with colleagues and lunching with lobbyists.
And the conference didn’t even touch on Social Media which powers all this vibrant online publishing.
We spoke of copyright, one of the subjects needing addressing in these circumstances, because what now is the meaning and purpose of copyright online? Right now anyone can upload their ebook to Kindle for free, and without an ISBN number that tracks and controls publications, or any copyright claim posted in the book. Online it’s all about good Metadata. Plus a title and your author’s name and a rather good book. Writers don’t need protection, they need distribution. And that’s where Social Media steps back in…. There’s circles within circles here, and hardly any of them are closed.
And, it seemed, perhaps, my dance card to these institutes and their conferences isn’t utterly blackened. The assistant to the Dutch MEP told me they were organizing another conference on the digital world at the end of this year, and would I be interested in speaking at it?
I said, “May I say what I want?”
“Of course.”
Then to be continued, sort of.
Before ending this Three Part Monster, here’s some For Further Reading bits.
The author Barry Eisler refused 500,000 dollars from a mainstream publisher and has gone ebook and Amazon instead.
Two Protests
Readers and writers said No to offline Power and Kindle and Nook readers staged an online ebook pricing protest with angry one-star reviews of Michael Connelly.
Something on VAT & and UK which the Big Guy was so adamant about.
And even Forbes weighs in on Publishing without publishers digitally
Last cliché: He who dares wins. And what I heard at this European Parliament conference on digital publishing was the exact opposite of daring.
Now, completed, worn-out from gabbing, I return happily to the stories I make up.
TO READ PART ONE, CLICK HERE.
Posts Tagged ‘Amazon’
PART THREE – I went to a Digital Publishing Conference at the European Parliament
Thursday, September 29th, 2011Tags:Amazon, Author-Publisher, Barry Eisler, digital publishing, ebook, ebook pricing protest, European Parliament, indie digital publishing, ISBN, Kindle, lobbying at the EU, MEPs, Metadata, Michael Connelly, Publishing without publishers digitally, social media
Posted in Musings | 2 Comments »
Gibberish
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
I’m busy being busy. And the following reflects it.
Or I’m busy trying to be busy. Circle stuff. Getting something halfway done when something hits my inbox and I need to turn my attention to that, and repeat such Pavlov dog behavior, and voilà by the end of the day, lots of half-done things that filled a whole day.
Let’s see if I can sweat some concerns out here. I need to do a couple more videos on my Self-Portrait of Someone Else work. Ideas: reviewing the reviews the book has gotten, and reviewing all the wonderful temporary refusals it got by UK publishers.
Also “drive” you and anyone else who reads this to my Hidden People Facebook Fan Page – a labor of half-love that went from a slow build to neglectful half-love. Haven’t pushed this because I’m not clear of its purpose and general reason why, except for doing because it’s somebody’s idea of a marketing package of indie publishers. Maybe someday I’ll do a blog on pleasepleaseplease “Join my Facebook Fan Page”, once I see the forest for the trees, as well as some mushrooms and all the leaves that turn into compost.
There’s been a lot of social media I’ve joined and tossed my books and info onto/into. Like another log on the fire, to see what burns brightest. It’s a massive world out there and lots of sites jumping up and down to get my attention and then my participation. So I can get other people’s attention, then participation.
Hey, this blog ain’t going much of anyplace, but isn’t that what so many blogs are for? Blowing off steam, or whining or venting and then instant ether death?
I also want to blab about Twitter, and some musings on videos, and Amazon, and my publishing experiences, and more, oh so much more, but you know, eyeballs, who cares? I do stories, and want to release them. Get a small living going via ’em. You can get gab elsewhere. Anywhere. I’ll just ooze words, images, performance bits up and wonderful that are story related. That’s what I think is most interesting about what I do and am and being and Zen om. Keep doing what I am doing.
That’s about it. Videos for the next few Wednesdays, promise. Thanks for reading this and wasting your time. I love you. Who are you again? Buy something. Buy what? (That’s another blog post.) Or in the word of many these days: Whatever.
Tags:Amazon, blogging, books, Facebook Fan Page, Indie publishing, Internet publishing, promoting, selling, social media, storyteller, the purpose of a blog, Twitter, writing
Posted in Musings | No Comments »
On a technical level, putting together books for indie publishing
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010Following up on yesterday’s post on initial steps to take when setting up a indie publishing company, on a technical level, here’s how I put the first two books together:
1.Set-up a publishing company, Hidden People Limited, bought a series of my own ISBN numbers fromNeilson — UK as it’s cheaper than USA branch.
2.Signed contract withLightning Source (which I knew about 10 years ago) as my primary printer–United Kingdom rather than the USA, as I am UK-based Limited company.
3.Book cover design by Fontana identity & design.
4.Since I work on every story for years (unless I get lucky and it comes out in a couple of hours), they don’t need huge amounts of editing. My “Self-Portrait of Someone Else” was edited by Viking-Penguin, and the pages from the original book was scanned and directly used in my paperback reissue. The Viking-Penguin editor suggested two paragraph deletions and a few sentences. I agreed with half. Otherwise, on proofing, after one less successful episode with an American proof-reader in Scotland, I do had two upcoming titles (novella and children’s book) line edited by Scribendi.
All this is ongoing and evolving and changes constant.
5.I’m still engaged in getting ebooks off the grounds via Smashwords and Amazon throughout the world.
6.Audiobooks, which I’m recording in my home studio, are still finding their best home via ongoing research and then more research.
That’s some of the basics that fills out yesterdays impressionistic piece….
Tags:Amazon, Fontana identity & design, Fontn, Hidden People Limited, How to Find Yourself (or a reasonable facsimile)", Indie publishing, Internet publishing, Lighting Source, Neilson & ISBN, proofreading, Scribendi, Self-Portrait of Someone Else, Smashwords, Viking Penguin, Vincent Eaton
Posted in Publishing | 2 Comments »
The first steps in setting up an indie publishing house
Monday, January 18th, 2010 Here’s what happens when you set up an independent publishing house whose aim is the online community.
You write something. You research Print on Demand houses. You contact and question them. You read their stuff on their sites.
You research to find a professional proofreader, check them out: has degree, passed tests, recommended by association, price okay, and then send, then pay, then submit for layout by book designer, then re-reading find errors proofreading did not see at all. Then correcting them, asking designer to correct them because it is in a .pdf file with following certain guidelines that I know nothing about. Then uploading book, producing a proof, finding more errors, correcting them, having another layout correction, begin doing the voice over for the audio book, and reading through the text aloud find even other errors. Know I am a shit proofreader, which is not revelation for me.
I chew off my lips and spit out the pus.
I submit excerpts for online publication, to gain exposure. Much research of dozens of online journals, get some acceptance, get some rejection. Time runs out as publication deadline nears.
I met with webmasters to revamp my personal and publishing site. I want to blog, also for exposure, but mostly as a “platform” of running a business, being a writer, and a place to store some of my better writing bits. Yet must wait for my web site re-launches, to make sure all is shipshape and shapely and well-integrated.
Register the ISBN number: purchase these numbers, submit to those who control such things, wait, get confirmation, then submit book to distributors, wait for confirmation from them.
Work with graphic designers for cover design. Ask several for different styles & tries, review them, decide, re-work, tinker, get it finalized.
Interior layout (see above concerning typos). Huge job, even for thin books. Check, recheck, book once loved now an annoying infant wailing all the time and not toilet trained. So to speak.
Oblique and direct babble on social sites.
Submit ms to my print on the demand publisher. Wait for confirmation and okay, because size of book, size of cover, size of cover’s spine must all line up, and dpi gotta be good, too.
Set-up online: Amazon, others. Research how to, email questions for clarifications, wait, receive response, demand more clarification, upload the cover, a minefield of fun and gore…
Continue recording the audio version.
Research ebooks, distributors, formats, contact via email, ask question, await responses.
Research various online companies that distribute audio books, the good the bad the ugly. … Put together Press Releases. … Research who the fuck would want one of these…
Oh I’ve reached my word limit for this post, and really, I’m not even halfway through what needs doing.
Someday, though not quite yet, I am hoping to be able to say, Working for me is the best job I’ve ever had. But that’s in the future.
Tags:Amazon, beginning, book covers, book coves, book layout, design, Indie publishing, ISBN numbers, Print on Demand, proof reading, rs, setting up a publishing hosue, social sites
Posted in Publishing | 1 Comment »