Self-published books gaining global success An interview with Publicious Director Andy McDermott for the Sydney Writers Festival Magazine 2015 "There's never been a better time to do it," says Andy McDermott, Director of Publicious, a self-publishing service provider. Self-publishing is indeed flourishing. A July 2014 report by Author Earnings indicated that 13 per cent of books on the Amazon e-book bestseller list were self-published, with self-published books comprising 31 per cent of all Amazon e-book sales. "Because of the internet and the online stores, authors can distribute their books worldwide, quite inexpensively and quite easily," Mr McDermott says. The self-publishing tsunami is occurring at a time when the profits of traditional publishing houses are dwindling exponentially as they struggle to compete with cheaper online publishers. Penguin and Random House trimmed expenses with a 2013 merger in an attempt to rival online books...

Book Marketing #5 Building your brand. You may hear the term brand used a lot these days. Brands have been around for many years and we come into contact with them on a daily basis. The ones we're most familiar with are Coca Cola, Google and Apple. As you read over each of the three brands, it is not difficult to visualise the products at their mere mention. You don't have to be told what the companies manufacture: you already know because they have a succesful brand, recognised by people the world over Successful authors also have strong brands. Stephen King is an example of a strong author brand. We know that he primarily writes horror genre, and most of his titles go straight to the top of the best sellers' lists. Here's one way his brand works for him: A fan of Stephen King knows that the author's next book is about to be released; he doesn't need to know the title of the book because all he has to do is walk into a bookstore and ask for...

Book Marketing #4 Social media networks In Book Marketing #1 and #2 we discussed the importance of having a website, a blog and getting reviews for your book. This time we'll be focusing on how to market your books through social media networks. Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, and Google+ are all free marketing platforms that are perfect for today's authors. Facebook. Create an author page on Facebook, separate from your personal page (if you have one) and drive traffic to your book website. Search for groups you feel may be interested in your book and join them. A word of caution though: don't join a group and then go in with the big sell. You will alienate group members and likely get kicked out. Take a normal, casual approach by first introducing yourself, then get involved with the group discussions, and gradually introduce the members to your book. Seek 'likes' from wherever you can and regula...

Book Marketing #3 Blogging You're a writer, so what better way to get the word out about your book than to write about it? Basically, a blog is a way of writing and publishing short articles online and you control the content. Wordpress is a great platform for setting up a blog, either within your author/book website or as a standalone blog site. Write about what you know, share your articles with others, invite guest bloggers, reviews of your book, and link your blog to other sites and blogs.  Maintaining a blog takes some effort, but is a great (and free) way to market your work and get involved with the online writing community. Articles Writing articles and posting them online will help lift your profile and build your brand. Articles are usually associated with non-fiction books, but even a novel may have a central theme. If you write a detective story set in 19th century London or the modern day outback of Australia, no doubt you will do a fair bit o...