As you probably already know because I’ve mentioned it way more than what could be considered a reasonable level of self-promotion, Ben Johncock and I are facilitating at Faber Academy’s first ever self-publishing and social media workshop in London, in February 2012. You can find out more about Bring Your Book to Market on the Faber Academy website. The course is limited to 15 people so if you want to go, I’d book a place sooner rather than later.
Oops. I appear to have mentioned it yet again…
Anyways, when I first posted about Faber Academy a few weeks back, I got messages from my Irish readers that went along the lines of, “I’d love to attend that course, but I can’t go to London.” That gave me an idea, and today I’m delighted to announce that I’m going to be holding a one-day self-publishing workshop in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, on Saturday 3rd March 2012. Vanessa O’Loughlin of Inkwell Writers is the brains of the operation, and you can find out more and book your place here.
As for the course content, the aim is to give you all the information, instruction and advice you need to self-publish in what I consider to be the cheapest and most effective way: Print-On-Demand paperbacks that you can sell on global online bookstores such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and The Book Depository (as well sell yourself, to family, friends and local bookshops) and e-books with Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.com.
This course is not intended for people who want to hire someone else to self-publish for them, but for people who want to project manage the publication of their own book—do as much as they can themselves, but hire professionals (e.g. editors) where needed. It’s also not intended for people who want sell a million books in a month (or even think that’s possible for the average self-publisher); it’s for people who are realistic about the hard work, time and energy self-publishing requires, and who have goals—such as see my work in print, build a readership, make modest amounts of money—that are at least related to reality. It’s for people who would be happy with what I’ve done: built a platform, sold 10,000+ books and been able to write full-time. It’s for self-publishers who are prepared to treat self-publishing their book like a business, and understand why it has to be that way.
It’s aimed at all levels and motivations: from the historian who wants to make a book to sell locally to the published author who wants to revitalize a backlist of titles. If you’ve already self-published you’ll still benefit from the social media section, and you may even discover ways to make things a little easier for yourself next time around. If you’re not sure yet whether or not to take the plunge, this course may help you make up your mind and, if your mind says yes, you’ll enter this process knowing exactly what lies ahead and how to do it.
And it has me, infused with a considerable—if not unhealthy— amount of caffeine seeing as I’ll probably have to get up before five a.m. to travel up to Dublin on the day…
The day will begin with an overview from Vanessa O’Loughlin of how the market for books has been changed by this digital publishing revolution. Then I’m going to follow the structure of Self-Printed, which I think is the best way to approach any self-publishing project, particularly if you’re starting out from scratch:
1. Is Self-Publishing for You?
Defining what “self-publishing” will mean for you, deciding whether it’s right for you and your writing career, how to tell if your book is good, setting realistic goals. Why self-publishing isn’t one size fits and all and why now the term is more synonymous with “opportunity” than “last resort.”
2. Preparing to Self-Publish
How to set the right price, the importance of a professional cover design and why professional editing is not optional.
3. Publishing a Print On Demand Paperback
4. Publishing an E-book with Amazon KDP and Smashwords
5. Selling Your Book
How to use blogging, Twitter and Facebook to build anticipation about your book, launch it with fanfare and, ultimately, sell copies of it—and keep up the momentum needed to turn your book into a consistent seller.
6. Q&A Session
To find out more about SELF-PRINTED: An Inkwell Self-Publishing Workshop, click here for all the details. Hopefully I’ll see you there! Bring me a coffee, would you?
(JOKE. That would be great, but I can only drink one at a time and they go cold quickly. Plus I’ll be busy talking and stuff.)
In other news, Results Not Typical has been longlisted for Trashionista’s Top 20 Books of 2011! The winner (and the rest of the Top 10) is to be decided this year by a public vote, so if you’ve got a second, please pop over there and vote for it. (If you’ve read and liked Results, of course!) A couple of great friends of this blog (and this blogger!) are nominated too so do take a look.
*Not really. That was just a blatant attempt to catch your attention.
Filed under: News, Self-Printing
