View attachment 57303
One of the most exciting/terrifying developments of the past several years is the explosion of self-publishing options available to the general public. It's possible, using just internet tools, to publish both digital and print books on your own (and now audiobooks!). The tools are easier and easier to use all the time, and that's going to continue.
The Amazon Route
Amazon has become an important player in this game -- perhaps the most important player. Sure, you can make your books available through other outlets -- both digital and physical -- but Amazon is the big kid on the mainstream block.
Other Rivers
There are more -- lots more.
It's possible to make choices as you select providers based on the amount of support you need, or the percentage of your royalties that you plan to keep. Obviously, royalties on print books will be a lot lower than they are for digital, simply because so much has to go into the expense of printing the books.
The Marketplace
Some hard truth: the relative ease of self publishing ebooks and print on demand books has naturally resulted in a deluge of absolute drek. Now there is no barrier that keeps your cousin who drinks curdled milk and wears a tinfoil hat from publishing his novelization of the life of Pauly Shore. Your books will be out there in the same bin, and quality is no guarantee of success in that marketplace.
The Good News: Niche publishing is one of the big winners in the POD marketplace. Bigger publishing houses can't afford to take on many niche projects because they need to have a certain volume to make a book profitable. But with the vastly lower overhead that a self-publishing author has, a niche is a comfortable place to be -- especially given that in most cases that niche comes with dedicated audience and some clear paths for marketing to that audience.
You know, through web-based communities and interest groups. I wish I could come up with a good example of one off the top of my head…..hmmmmmmmm
Anyway, the point is that if you've written a book, there are a whole host of ways for you to sell that book to an audience.
And What Does This Mean for Gamers who Write?
First of all, I've expressed my feelings about PDF as a format before -- I think there are far better, more flexible formats for eBooks, but accepting the idea means accepting the idea that what matters is the content, not the very highly engineered page design we are used to from gaming books. As a Kindle Fire HD owner, I can tell you that PDFs -- especially graphically intense ones like gaming books -- are a real drag to read. Pages load slowly, I have to pinch and zoom around the page to make a section of copy large enough to read, etc. It's less of a problem on my iPad, which is bigger and has more processing power.
I've noticed on RPGNow that some books are being offered in mobi or epub format -- that's an excellent start. After all, what matters in most of these cases is the text content of the book, not the page design or the art that goes with it. There are exceptions, sure, and it's possible to put art into an eBook -- but it doesn't need to take over the presentation.
RPGnow has big advantages in our gamer niche; however, there are plenty of gamers out there who have not heard of it yet; but most of them will have heard of Amazon. And there's no harm in offering your books through multiple sites. RPG now offers some of their products as Print products, too -- a very interesting new development for the folks who love actual paper books.
Even if your title is only of interest to a fraction of a percent of the Amazon audience …. that's still a lot of people.
I'm excited about is the ACX option for self publishing audiobooks through Audible. I'm constantly listening to books, whether I'm driving, walking the dogs, or working around the house. There are a lot of RPG titles that might be really interesting as an audiobook. Maybe not RPG rulebooks, but DMing advice books might be great to listen to while I'm mowing the lawn. Now it's possible to create those audiobooks without being a big publisher. I, for one, would love to listen to a collection of Chris Perkins' Dungeon Master Experience columns -- if they were ever collected into a book and then an audiobook (perhaps read by the author). (Hint. Hint.)
This also means that the sort of long-tail writers and producers are going to be able to create more content - and do it with a lot more ease. That means a lot of great stuff that might not have been published will be out there - in all kinds of formats. And it means that it's going to be surrounded by a lot of drek competing for attention.
Which brings us back to community. As a writer, you need to be active in building your audience in the communities that are out there. And as a reader, understand that more than ever it's user reviews that are driving the success of some books over others -- take the time to review the books your enjoy -- that's your best bet for making sure that there are more books like that one in the future.
Photo "Old Books" by Maguis & David on Flickr
One of the most exciting/terrifying developments of the past several years is the explosion of self-publishing options available to the general public. It's possible, using just internet tools, to publish both digital and print books on your own (and now audiobooks!). The tools are easier and easier to use all the time, and that's going to continue.
The Amazon Route
Amazon has become an important player in this game -- perhaps the most important player. Sure, you can make your books available through other outlets -- both digital and physical -- but Amazon is the big kid on the mainstream block.
- Kindle Direct Publishing - The kindle isn't the only e-reader around, but the kindle sets the standard for e-readers, and they have their own tools for creating and selling kindle books. The KDP tools will walk you through creating your ebook in their tools, including formatting the text, placing art, etc. It's important to note that if you plan/hope to offer your title in both print and kindle formats, you're going to need to format the copy twice. But that's as it should be -- spending the time to make sure the book is formatted well for each format means making sure your reader has a good experience -- and will be happy to come back for your next one.
- Createspace - Createspace is Amazon's Print On Demand service, with tools and wizards that will help you build your book. They even have a cover builder tool and will provide you an ISBN if you need one, which may or may not be a good idea, given your specific situation. I've published a handful of books through Createspace, and found the tools reliable and easy to work with. There are a few limitations --
- ACX - Amazon now owns Audible, making Amazon the largest seller of audiobooks, too. They've recently launched ACX, a service that helps facilitate the creation of audiobook versions of your titles. If you have your own audio, that's great (although they have some standards you'll need to meet, so don't think you're going to read your own book into your laptop's onboard microphone and call it good). They'll also help connect you with actors auditioning to record the audio for your book -- their performance can be negotiated for either a flat fee or a cut of the royalties, as I understand it. Audiobook production has been one thing that has appeared to set the bigger publishers aside up until now, so I see this as a terrific opportunity for the rest of us.
Other Rivers
- Barnes and Noble have their own ebook publishing site Nookpress
- Apple has their own proprietary iBook format & digital bookstore
- You can use tools like Mobipocket[http://www.mobipocket.com/ ] and Calibre [http://calibre-ebook.com/ ] to format your ebooks yourself
- If you want Print On Demand, and want as much of the royalties for yourself, you can go right to the POD source, Lightning Source[https://www1.lightningsource.com/default.aspx ].
- Lulu is a Print On Demand publisher providing services very similar to Createspace.
- And, of course, our dearly beloved RPGNow, which to date has offered primarily PDFs, but there are other formats available through their storefronts.
There are more -- lots more.
It's possible to make choices as you select providers based on the amount of support you need, or the percentage of your royalties that you plan to keep. Obviously, royalties on print books will be a lot lower than they are for digital, simply because so much has to go into the expense of printing the books.
The Marketplace
Some hard truth: the relative ease of self publishing ebooks and print on demand books has naturally resulted in a deluge of absolute drek. Now there is no barrier that keeps your cousin who drinks curdled milk and wears a tinfoil hat from publishing his novelization of the life of Pauly Shore. Your books will be out there in the same bin, and quality is no guarantee of success in that marketplace.
The Good News: Niche publishing is one of the big winners in the POD marketplace. Bigger publishing houses can't afford to take on many niche projects because they need to have a certain volume to make a book profitable. But with the vastly lower overhead that a self-publishing author has, a niche is a comfortable place to be -- especially given that in most cases that niche comes with dedicated audience and some clear paths for marketing to that audience.
You know, through web-based communities and interest groups. I wish I could come up with a good example of one off the top of my head…..hmmmmmmmm
Anyway, the point is that if you've written a book, there are a whole host of ways for you to sell that book to an audience.
And What Does This Mean for Gamers who Write?
First of all, I've expressed my feelings about PDF as a format before -- I think there are far better, more flexible formats for eBooks, but accepting the idea means accepting the idea that what matters is the content, not the very highly engineered page design we are used to from gaming books. As a Kindle Fire HD owner, I can tell you that PDFs -- especially graphically intense ones like gaming books -- are a real drag to read. Pages load slowly, I have to pinch and zoom around the page to make a section of copy large enough to read, etc. It's less of a problem on my iPad, which is bigger and has more processing power.
I've noticed on RPGNow that some books are being offered in mobi or epub format -- that's an excellent start. After all, what matters in most of these cases is the text content of the book, not the page design or the art that goes with it. There are exceptions, sure, and it's possible to put art into an eBook -- but it doesn't need to take over the presentation.
RPGnow has big advantages in our gamer niche; however, there are plenty of gamers out there who have not heard of it yet; but most of them will have heard of Amazon. And there's no harm in offering your books through multiple sites. RPG now offers some of their products as Print products, too -- a very interesting new development for the folks who love actual paper books.
Even if your title is only of interest to a fraction of a percent of the Amazon audience …. that's still a lot of people.
I'm excited about is the ACX option for self publishing audiobooks through Audible. I'm constantly listening to books, whether I'm driving, walking the dogs, or working around the house. There are a lot of RPG titles that might be really interesting as an audiobook. Maybe not RPG rulebooks, but DMing advice books might be great to listen to while I'm mowing the lawn. Now it's possible to create those audiobooks without being a big publisher. I, for one, would love to listen to a collection of Chris Perkins' Dungeon Master Experience columns -- if they were ever collected into a book and then an audiobook (perhaps read by the author). (Hint. Hint.)
This also means that the sort of long-tail writers and producers are going to be able to create more content - and do it with a lot more ease. That means a lot of great stuff that might not have been published will be out there - in all kinds of formats. And it means that it's going to be surrounded by a lot of drek competing for attention.
Which brings us back to community. As a writer, you need to be active in building your audience in the communities that are out there. And as a reader, understand that more than ever it's user reviews that are driving the success of some books over others -- take the time to review the books your enjoy -- that's your best bet for making sure that there are more books like that one in the future.
Photo "Old Books" by Maguis & David on Flickr
