The emergence of “influential readers” has changed the way books are discovered. These folks–Vine Voices on Amazon, notable readers on Goodreads, certain book bloggers–have enough clout to push a book up in popularity so that
Because I spent 16 years running the Stanford Publishing Courses, I’ve seen far more than my share of book talks–the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s tricky, creating a talk that pulls people in.
When it comes to publishing ebooks, I’ve often helped writers make their books available on all the e-readers in the marketplace-Kindle, iPad, Nook, Kobo and a dozen or so smaller ones. Usually, we’ve accomplished
Ah, permissions. This is one of the knottiest areas of publishing for writers who are trying to do things right. When do you need to ask permission to use a quote, or a graph, or
Jeff Bezos spoke at the Stanford Publishing Course for several years running in the ’90s. At the time, the only thing Amazon was selling was books, and we loved books. But he tipped his hand
One of the most intriguing announcements at Book Expo 2014 was about Goodreads’ new “Ask the Author” feature. If you’re signed up as an author on Goodreads, you can now host your own Q&A sessions,
Ever since Ingram Spark launched late last summer, we’ve been keenly interested in it for many reasons, among them: 1) Spark offers the first print-on-demand service for hardcover books with jackets; and 2) Spark provides
Plenty of people will tell you that self-publishing a book is free. And it is free if all you’re talking about is the cost of uploading your files to CreateSpace or Kindle or Bookbaby. But
I’m working with an author on a book cover for a nonfiction book with strong commercial potential. Since the cover is among the top 3 reasons why readers buy a book, we’re working closely with
I’m often asked by authors how to get their books into local bookstores. I recently sat down with Tanya Landsberger, manager of Books, Inc., just off the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, to find out