Peter Goodman’s article Printing in China: Is It Wise? Is It Safe? (Independent, August 2013] is brilliant. Although I deal with media liability insurance, I can report that insurance is available for publishers who do business in foreign countries and who might suffer lost profits and unbudgeted expenses as a result of an overseas printer going up …

Spotlight October 2013 by Linda Carlson Closeup: Kelly Gallagher IBPA board member Kelly Gallagher has been vice president, content acquisition, at Ingram Content Group for the past year. This means he and his sales team are working with publishers, author services companies, and self-publishers—even corporations that publish such material as training guides. It’s a long …

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2013 by Linda Carlson, Staff Reporter, IBPA Independent SEE ALSO: Part 1 How important are endorsements and testimonials for selling books? That question is hard to answer, but most book industry people believe that praise from credible sources has value in getting books reviewed, accepted by wholesalers and distributors, hand-sold by booksellers, and …

All Aboard the Blog Tour or How to Promote a New Title with an Interactive Launch October 2013 by Mary Ann F. Kohl   Many authors and publishers are jumping on board the blog tour to promote their latest books because that can increase sales and make an author or publisher name highly recognizable. A …

What POD Can Do, Part 2 October 2013 “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean,” Humpty Dumpty told Alice in Wonderland. As you’ve probably noticed, we take pretty much the same position about “POD” here in our world. Sometimes, of course, we use it to mean what its …

How Small Publishers Can Still Sell Good Books October 2013 by Martin Shepard What follows is what we at The Permanent Press have learned over the past 35 years when it comes to promoting and selling books, particularly the kinds of books we usually publish. Many of the things I mention may seem self-evident, but …

Maybe it was something you saw in a magazine or at a bookstore. Maybe it was something you saw online. Maybe it was something that caught your eye in an unsolicited query letter or proposal—a good idea in poorly skilled hands. In any event, wherever you first saw it, it inspired you to develop and …

13 Million Copies and Counting: The Free Spirit Story October 2013 by Linda Carlson Judy Galbraith insists that she no longer has the energy to work the 60-hour weeks that were common when she was starting Free Spirit Publishing at age 29, but she bubbles with enthusiasm for the company’s new lines, her staff, and even …

An Image that greets visitors at UponAStarryNight.com Adventures in Crowdfunding October 2013 by Sylvia Binsfeld I have had an unusual challenge to meet. To create a book, I first need to make a movie, and not just any type of movie—a short fantasy film, which means the expensive kind. The children’s picture books in the series …

           The Title P&L for Predicting Profitability October 2013 by Dave Marx   Will this book make money? We all wish we could get a clear answer to that question when we’re trying to decide whether to publish a particular book. There are so many variables; how many copies can be …

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2013 by Angela Bole, CEO, Independent Book Publishers Association — Last week, I received the following email from an IBPA member: “I’ve been a member with IBPA since 2009–2010, and I would like to know if there is any book you can suggest regarding ‘the business of book publishing/industry.’” It’s a great question! …

Spotlight September 2013 by Linda Carlson   Closeup: Deltina Hay Who’s who on the IBPA board? To help you get to know the people behind the names you often see at IBPA events and in its publications, Spotlight continues its brief profiles of board members and officers. This month, we feature Deltina Hay, recently elected …

When people shop on the virtual shelves of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, or Kobo, chances are that they are looking for books within a specific category. Categories constitute one the most important metadata elements for every book, and using the appropriate categories is critical for discoverability of e-books in online stores. Because major online …

                 Twitter for Beginners September 2013 by Joel Friedlander Twitter just gets bigger and bigger. It’s really the perfect medium for getting the word out quickly, making a point, poking your opponents while they are still in the middle of a speech, or complaining about NFL refs. And …

What POD Can Do, Part 1 Print-on-demand technology is a major driver of success for independent publishers. That conclusion stems from reports by IBPA members which also show that both relatively large, long-established publishers and brand-new, one-book publishers profit by using POD. And they show that independent publishers pioneered with POD, just as they pioneered …

We are all born with the capacity for insight, a capacity that remains with us our entire lives. Insights are those “Aha!” moments when the clouds part and the solution to your problem arises right in front of you. They happen when fresh new light is spread on a subject you’ve considered for some time. …

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2013 by Steve Gillen, Lawyer, Wood Herron & Evans Endorsements are good for business. We know this intuitively. And a 2012 article in the Journal of Advertising Research confirms it empirically in a report on a study of more than 300 endorsement deals over nearly two decades, which found that endorsements resulted in an average …

The Stigma of POD: September 2013 by Aaron Shepard Nowadays, there’s an odd belief circulating that self-publishing a book as print-on-demand will keep it out of bookstores. Actually, the opposite is true. Let’s follow Susan Self-Publisher as she visits her local Barnes & Noble, book held proudly in hand. Her mission is to convince Michael …

Building your own email list from your own Website and also from a sign-up message at the back of your book will give you a way to contact fans over time when you have a new book out, and give you more control over sales. It will also help you build up a relationship with …

In the rush to be part of the digital revolution in publishing, it’s easy to forget that what some dismissively call traditional publishing is still a force to be reckoned with. As several observers have pointed out, even if e-books account for more than 20 percent of books published or sold—the general estimate of e-books’ …