Moderators: Amy Edelman & Claire McKinney, IndieReader.com
Panelists: Alisa Fleming, author, Go Diary Free; Isobella Jade, author, Almost 5’4″; Randy Kearse, author, Changin’ Your Game Plan

Kearse: published first book POD – a lexicon of hiphop slang. Took it to a small book fare and it caught attention of a publisher. Felt that POD would make it easier for a publisher to pick up the book rather than giving them a manuscript for a 700 page book. Book was picked up by an indie publisher but didn’t get any money out of it so decided to self-publish the next book. Took book to the street and set up a table and started selling it. Self-promotion has gotten him into the NY Times, on TV, etc. Your book doesn’t sell – you sell the book. Put together a “pitch” and actually sells 35 to 50 books a day on the NYC subway, at $10 each. Writing the book is only 10% of the work, other 90% is promotion and selling.

Jade: wrote first book at the Apple store. Book is about being a petite model in NYC. Went to media and Apple Store manager and the manager give her a reading in the Store. Wrote MediaBistro editor, who published her email on the website. Tooting your own horn important. Took about 2 months to find a good agent, but wasn’t pleased and so published it through BookSurge. Used Apple Store as leverage to do marketing. Eventually HarperCollins in the UK picked it up. Retained US and movie rights. Authors need to understand rights management. But even though Harper picked it up, her own marketing was just as good. Have to hustle and not be afraid of pushing yourself. Hooked up with Lightning Source. An author should be a publisher as well. Social media is very effective and found has a lot of teen followers so now is writing a teen model. Uses Ingram’s Lightning Source and to do that she set herself up as a publisher.

Fleming: received 3 publishing offers and turned them all down. The publishers found her. Turned them down because they wanted too much of the pie. Felt that if want to make a living out of it you need to self publish it because can only make $1 to $2 a book and as a self publisher can easily make $7. Has a niche publishing base (diary free) and after do one book the niche will want more. You should consider yourself as a “publisher” and can get the same services that the big publishers get because the printers, for example, want your business. 50 to 60 percent goes to middleman if go to major distribution. Means have to know how to price your book. When contact people about your book, contact them as a publisher not as an author. Publishers would have to quadruple her sales for her to make the same amount of money as she makes now. You have access to channels that publishers can’t reach. Companies that deal in traditional self-publishing will be the most costly avenue. May be good for the first time if you don’t want to learn about it yourself.

Moderators: Writer has absolute control over the product when goes Indie, but means that writer must educate self on all the choices available. IndieReader acts as a curator for self-published books. Will only list books that their reviewers like. “Independent” films and “Indie” music have good rep, but ‘indie” books needs to polish its image. Comes from publishing industry marketing. Standard in industry is that 7% of the advance goes into marketing, which is not enough to do the job for smaller print runs. Book must be the best possible – need to be edited by a professional editor. Pricing is important. Look of the book is important – cover should be good. Should look at your book the way a traditional publisher will.

Impressions: an excellent panel with participants who really knew what they were talking about. All of them are directly involved in the industry and have published books themselves. Gave a lot of real-life experience on how to do it.

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