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Feb 20
Love2

Should a self-published author get a distributor or agent?

By Blog

I recently received an email from a self-published author who wanted to know whether he should get a distributor or agent for his book. He had printed up 1,000 copies using a China-based printer, and wanted to know how he could get them into stores or noticed by an agent.

My answer: Getting distributors for printed books is extremely difficult … and probably not worth it. In-store retail paperback sales are falling While print sales have shown signs of life, margins are thin, there has been a lot of consolidation in the industry (or outright closures), and the distributors who remain are extremely picky about who they sign.

I tried for more than a year to get a distributor for In 30 Minutes guides on the terms that I wanted. The terms were key, as our guides are already very inexpensive. Selling the books at a wholesale rate (typically a 55% discount off the cover price) and giving the distributor a cut would lead to a gross profit of just a dollar or two per copy. Moreover, print distributors demand control (and a cut) over ebook distribution even though they add practically no value to this side of the business. Finally, distributors require publishers to adhere to their sales and marketing playbooks. That might be OK for some publishers, but not for i30 Media — in fact it would add significant delays and expenses to our production and marketing processes.

I ended up abandoning the effort to find a distributor. I now handle wholesale and direct distribution on my own through Createspace, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and a short-run digital printer. While it’s true I am missing out on some brick-and-mortar retail sales, it works a lot better for my business — I have more control over my product, keep more money from sales (gross profit is 2x-3x more than what it would be through a distributor), and if retailers want to order the book they can do so through Ingram iPage or contact i30 Media directly through our contact form.

What about agents for self-published books?

As for the question about agents, my response was similar. Reputable ones will want to see evidence of very strong sales on Amazon before talking with a self-published author. And frankly, if your self-published books already has good sales on Amazon, why would you need an agent or a publisher? It’s questionable whether the traditional agent/publisher approach can improve sales for most authors. Even if an agent scores an advance, it won’t be much, and they will end up taking more money from both retail and online sales, leaving just a small cut for the author. Many readers of this post may be surprised to learn that big publishers seldom market books by new authors.

The questions about distributors, agents, and publishers come up a lot. Many people who are new to publishing assume that these players from the 20th-century publishing world are something to aspire to, or are required for success. The reality is it is possible to publish and profit in the 21st-century industry without going through agents, distributors, or big-name publishers in New York. Yes, it requires more investment on the author’s part to edit a manuscript, find a professional cover design, and market the book, but it is doable.

As for the author who contacted me, it turns out that he had self-published a cookbook. I told him that for a book like this, it will be either local bookstores in the community or special venues that will provide the best opportunities to sell cookbooks. Special venues could be a farmer’s market, a community or school fair, or flea markets. At IBPA’s Publishing University conference last year, I heard a presentation by poet/author Kwame Alexander who said that he was able to sell thousands of copies of one of his books at farmer’s markets, based on his wife’s suggestion — and he wasn’t even trying to sell a cookbook, which would be an even better match for people buying fresh ingredients.

Another option: volunteering to speak about the dishes or giving a cooking class … and then marketing the book to attendees.

As for online efforts, I would try the following:

  1. Create a website for the book with links to Amazon or other options to buy
  2. Create some simple videos on YouTube with a link to the book website.
Nov 10
Love4

WordPress login problem solved

By Blog

As a digital publisher, one of the worst feelings in the world is losing control over some aspect of production. Maybe your laptop breaks, an employee or key freelancer leaves, or a vital tool disappears. In i30 Media I have built a lot of redundancy, so if something fails we can move to the backup … but what if the backup option has problems of its own? That’s what happened to me this week when one of our WordPress installations had a login problem. I am happy to report that the WordPress login problem was solved, with a relatively minimum level of effort to fix. This post will describe how I dealt with this particular WordPress problem. (Note that it may not be applicable to other situations involving hacked WordPress sites or corrupted databases. Consult the official WordPress resources cited in the post for guidance).

The site in question is the companion website for Genealogy Basics In 30 Minutes. The book launched in September, and since then we have been adding resources to the site including blog posts and free genealogy forms. This week, we launched a new product—a genealogy forms library. There is a digital version, which includes 15 PDF and Excel files, as well as a physical bundle of 50 genealogy forms that are made out of archival-quality acid-free paper.

However, yesterday when I attempted to log into the website to post information and links about the genealogy forms bundles, there was a problem. I got to the login screen OK and entered my password, but it redirected me to the home page of the website.

That’s odd, I thought. Why can’t I log into WordPress? I tried several times on different browsers, but it was the same result. I then checked my other WordPress sites, such as the sites for Excel Basics In 30 Minutes, LinkedIn In 30 Minutes, and Google Drive & Docs In 30 Minutes. There was no issue accessing the dashboard on these other sites.

Was I using the wrong password on the genealogy website? I initiated a WordPress password recovery. I was able to reset my password, but afterwards I still got the redirect problem after trying to log on to WordPress. This was concerning, because even though the site looked OK and people could still check out the book and other elements, I was apparently unable to access the WordPress dashboard to make changes.

The fact that the site was visibly working indicated that my WordPress login problem wasn’t a WordPress hack or security issue. In many cases, WordPress hacks will result in defacement or the creation of ads for porn or bogus pharmaceuticals, and I didn’t see anything like that. In addition, I use security plugins that control most common problems, and follow good security protocol for passwords and user access.

I had a backup for the site (using the Updraft plugin) but I could not even access the plugin screen to restore the backup because I could not log into the site. While it was possible to still make a backup and restore via cPanel or FTP, it would take some time and I feared that the bug or issue would be re-introduced. A third option: manually rebuild the site, which would take the better part of an afternoon.

So I did what everyone does when they encounter a WordPress login problem: I googled how to fix it. There were lots of random blogger solutions, but I paid most attention to what the official source had to say—and the official source is the WordPress Codex “Login Trouble” page. Under “Disable Plugins,” it said:

Some WordPress Plugins may interfere with the login process. Disable all of your WordPress Plugins, either through the admin panel or by removing them from the /wp-content/plugins/ folder, so they will not be recognized by the program.

Alternatively, you can rename the plugins folder to something else temporarily to something like /wp-content/pluginsXX/ and they will not be recognized. Rename the folder back to /wp-content/plugins/ once the base WordPress installation has been recovered.

Now, I don’t know what caused the WordPress login problem, but my suspicions fell on the theme (Salient) or an issue with one of my plugins. I was less inclined to believe the Salient theme was causing the login problem with WordPress, because I hadn’t made any changes to the theme since launch and had also not updated the WordPress installation itself for a few months.

Plugins were another story. I had a few that triggered certain behaviors when errors were encountered, such as a redirection plugin that sent people visiting certain pages or WordPress files to the home page. Maybe one of the redirects was inadvertently triggered, or there was a problem with plugin itself.

So I used the “pluginsXX” trick from the Codex to troubleshoot the WordPress login problem. I went into the cPanel “Files” area, which basically gives me an FTP view of the WordPress installation. I navigated to wp-content, selected the plugins folder, and appended “XX”:

Wordpress login problem solvedImmediately the front page and login page on the genealogy site changed as various visual plugins and security features (such as captcha) were disabled as the plugins were now turned off. But at least I could finally log into WordPress!

I got to the WordPress dashboard and poked around to evaluate the situation. I didn’t see anything other than the warning about missing plugins. I made another backup with a specialized plugin called Updraft Plus, and exported the posts and other content from the WordPress Tools menu just in case.

I went back to cPanel and opened the pluginXX folder, which showed a list of all installed plugins. I deleted the plugin that handled redirections. Then I renamed pluginsXX to “plugins” which made the plugins once again visible to the WordPress software. I went back to my WordPress genealogy dashboard and reloaded the plugins menu. The remaining plugins reappeared, except for the one I had just deleted. However, they were completely deactivated. So I activated them all (save another security plugin) and loaded the site in another browser. It was back to normal. I logged out, logged in on the original browser, and reactivated the security plugin, then logged out again. Logging in was no problem — I could get back into WordPress.

I think the WordPress login problem was caused by the redirect plugin, possibly because of something in the settings that I messed up rather than the plugin itself. I will probably reactivate it again, but be more careful with which 404s I try to fix, especially with xml or php files.

If you can’t log in to WordPress, the first place you should go is the WordPress Codex “Login Trouble” page. Be careful trying to mess around with FTP, WordPress databases, or WordPress settings that can potentially cause bigger problems than the one described above!

Mar 22
Love3

Q&A with Ian Lamont, i30 Media founder and publisher

By Blog

Ian Lamont is the founder of i30 Media. In this Q&A, Lamont discusses some of the issues independent publishers face in a rapidly evolving industry. 

For the first question of the Q&A, please tell us about i30 Media and In 30 Minutes guides.

i30 Media was established in 2013, and our main product is the In 30 Minutes series of guides. At the start, I wrote many of the titles myself, but now all new titles are written by other authors. They include Angela Rose, who recently wrote the second edition of LinkedIn In 30 Minutes.

What percentage of your company’s income is generated from digital versus traditional print sales? How did this percentage evolve?

About 20%. It’s gone down in the last three years from about 30%, as digital sales have stagnated on most platforms while paperback sales have grown.

However, I am constantly interested in expanding into new digital platforms and leveraging the strengths of the In 30 Minutes brand. People have less and less time to spend on reading and learning, and appreciate the concept of learning a mildly complex topic in a short period of time. But I have also found opportunities to work with authors on new titles, expand the brand into new channels and experiences (such as our hugely popular YouTube presence), and develop ancillary products.

For your company, what are the benefits of e-publishing?

Easy to make changes, production costs (design, copy editing, etc.) are all up front. We can launch a new product very quickly into distribution.

For your company, what are the challenges of e-publishing?

Dealing with Amazon’s monopolistic tendencies, which aim to squeeze publishers of all sizes through restrictive pricing rules and platform dominance. Another challenge: The inability of other platforms — chiefly Apple and Google — to get their respective acts together and provide effective competition to Amazon. To give you an example, Apple has an excellent hardware platform (iPad) but the software used for purchasing and managing ebooks (iTunes/iBookstore/iTunes Connect/iTunes Producer) is in desperate need of streamlining. Instead of updating this infrastructure, Apple has devoted development resources to creating a superb closed-garden authoring tool (iBooks Author) which has done little for sales in the iBookstore and makes it impossible to export ebooks to any non-Apple channel. Google Play Books has its own set of problems: unilaterally applying major discounts to publisher pricing, providing a substandard reporting tool, and shutting out new publishers for the past 9 months while it deals with a pirated content problem.

For your company, which e-publishing methods and strategies yield the best results?

Avoiding platforms that demand exclusivity, such as Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited. This is not just a pitfall of digital publishing, I have heard it exists in some retail channels as well. It restricts your customer base and puts you at the mercy of the platform. What if they decide to cut your payments, or cut you loose?

In addition to recruiting expert authors, outsourcing to talented editors and designers has been key. Working with a designer, Rick Soldin of http://book-comp.com, who can design great print and ebook interiors using the same master, has been a huge help on the production side. It makes managing new releases and coordinating changes much easier, because I don’t have to coordinate with multiple designers. He is a total pro and a great pleasure to work with.

In addition to (or in lieu of) e-books, what sorts of materials—and in what formats—does your company e-publish?

We publish how-to guides in ebook and paperback formats. PDF editions of the guides have sold surprisingly well, too.

Last year we split off some of the book content into “cheat sheets” containing instructions, examples, and keyboard shortcuts (for instance, the Excel 2016 Cheat Sheet and the Google Drive Cheat Sheet) which we sell as printed 4-sheet pamphlets on high-quality card stock.

A recent content experiment is video content, including a video tutorial based on one of our top-selling ebook/paperback titles, Google Drive & Docs In 30 Minutes. As I mentioned earlier, the In 30 Minutes YouTube channel has been a great success, with thousands of subscribers.

When choosing the best digital format(s) for content delivery, which factors do you consider?

I think a better question is: When choosing the best platforms for content delivery, what factors do I consider?

The number one question I ask when I evaluate any content delivery platform is whether we are treated fairly by a prospective partner. I have said “no” to platforms that treat independent publishers as second-class citizens, or give low payout rates to content providers. Some subscription-based services are particularly bad, and I am not just talking about Kindle Unlimited. One service that targets corporate clients made us an offer based on a shared “royalty pool” of just 20% of subscription revenue.

Models that are designed to benefit only customers and the platform owners at the expense of authors and publishers represent a threat to our industry, and we only need to look at what’s happening in the music publishing world with Spotify and other services to get an idea of what a subscription-based world looks like.

Dec 15
Love2

Five pieces of advice for aspiring authors

By Blog

Goodreads recently prompted me to share some advice about writing to aspiring authors. Although I do not write fiction, I have been a nonfiction writer for years as a journalist (1994-2010), blogger (2002-present), and author of “how to” books (2012-present). I am going to share five pieces of advice for aspiring authors, which may be useful to fiction writers as well as nonfiction authors.

  1. Make time to write. It doesn’t have to be long–an hour in the evening two or three times per week is fine–but you do have sit down, turn off or remove all distractions, and start putting words on the screen. Even if it looks bad, keep at it–you can always go back to edit it later, and in time you will find your voice. Also keep in mind that even if you only manage 200 words per session, that’s enough to generate a chapter or even a very brief short story in 10 days. If you need inspiration, check out the NaNoWriMo movement, which encourages authors to write 50,000-word manuscripts every November.Woman writing in her home office. Licensed from Shutterstock
  2. Work with whatever format you are comfortable with–manuscript, essay, blog, short story–and try to experiment from time to time. Two of the biggest boosts for my writing was keeping a travel journal in the 1990s and then blogging starting in the early 2000s. Both formats helped me develop a very easy-going voice which has served me well as a journalist and author.
  3. Get your book in front of readers. It can be friends, family, or colleagues, writers’ circles, blog audiences, or actual readers that read your book after seeing it on a self-publishing platform. You want honest feedback from people about what works and what doesn’t, so don’t take it too hard if you get constructive criticism about style, spelling, cover art, etc. Audience feedback is central to my “Lean Media” methodology for content creators, so if you are interested in learning more check out my lean media website I created.
  4. Do not waste time pitching agents or “Big Five” publishers unless you have a solid track record with traditional presses or self-publishing. I hear way too many new authors say “I’m waiting to hear back from an agent” when they should be publishing on their own and concentrating on writing their next work. Don’t wait for top industry professionals to help you, because they won’t unless they see evidence of strong sales or a national “brand.” In the meantime, you can try independent publishers or even publish the book yourself, using self-publishing services offered by Amazon KDP, Smashwords, and others.
  5. Learn how to do basic marketing activities, from writing cover copy and online descriptions to setting up a simple author website. If you don’t know how to do this, google it or check out one of the many online forums or blogs aimed at authors. Many new writers are shocked to learn publishers don’t do much marketing for their authors (big-name writers being the exception) so it will be up to you to send out review copies, organize author events, and take care of many other marketing opportunities.

I’m happy to discuss this advice in the comments section … or feel free to share your own advice for aspiring authors!

Oct 15
Love1

Turn off Twitter notifications on your phone (with screenshots)

By Blog

One of the top complaints we hear from readers of In 30 Minutes guides concerns social media notifications. The networks want to do everything they can to get people coming back, so new accounts are mercilessly bombarded with friend requests, recommended accounts to follow, promotions, and much more. Twitter is particularly bad when it comes to notifications because there are so many possibilities that aren’t seen in other networks, such as retweets and being added to a list. In addition, so much Twitter activity takes place on phones, that the notifications can be a serious distraction. This post will show how to deal with Twitter notifications on a phone (specifically, an iPhone 6), as well as email notifications, which also show up on phones. For more information about how to manage your Twitter experience, check out Twitter In 30 Minutes).

While the phone’s master settings can be used to shut down all notifications (for instance, in iOS 9 go to Settings > Notifications and scroll down to the Twitter app to turn off banners, lock screen notifications, etc.) chances are you may want to receive some notifications while disabling others. Here’s how:

1. Open the Twitter app, and click on the profile icon. Then, click on the gear icon to access settings:
Twitter mobile app iphone settings

2. The general settings screen is very basic. To get to the notifications, tap the account name (for instance, @in30minutes):

Twitter mobile app settings

3. Then tap “Mobile notifications” for that account.

4. Finally, you will see the notifications toggles:

Twitter mobile app notifications settings

If you no longer want to receive a certain type of notification on your phone, toggle it off. For instance, to stop receiving “new follower” alerts, toggle the New Followers settings to the left so it is greyed out. There is no “Save” button; the changes simply take effect right away.

It’s important to note that this method won’t control every type of Twitter notification; for instance, if you are receiving Twitter notifications via email (most people do receive notifications via email as well) these will be forwarded to your inbox, which may also show up as mobile notifications on your phone. Twitter email notifications have to be handled separately, as the following video describes: