One of the projects that I’ve had churning around in the background is a revamped version of ePublishing 101 — a project that Phil Reed and I did some years ago. The original version was very game-industry specific (since the industry was an early adopter of digital publishing), so my plan is to expand the material to account for the current digital publishing boom.
My plans, however, are definitely going to have to change somewhat, due to the recent publication of Write. Publish. Repeat., which is unquestionably one of the best books on the topic of independent publication that I’ve ever read. My own efforts will definitely need to be stepped up to clear the now much-higher bar set by this book.
Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt, two of the folks behind the excellent http://selfpublishingpodcast.com have written a clear, no-hype, no-bullshit examination of how to make a solid, full-time career as an independent author-publisher. No get-rich-quick schemes, no promises of millions, no political agendas about the superiority of self-publishing and blind ignorance of traditional publishing — just a clear discussion of the steps needed to make a living as a writer who releases their own stuff.
They break down the terms you need to be familiar with, debunk the usual myths, and give you step-by-step advice on topics ranging from creating professional product (how to avoid looking like an amateur, from pre-production, through writing, and into post-production), to marketing (building relationships, having conversations with your readers, etc.), to building what they refer to as “product funnels”(intellectual properties that lead customers from one purchase to the next in a natural progression).
A lot of this material is the same sort of stuff I’ve been talking about for a while, via these Insurgent Creative blog entries. Even with my familiarity with the tenets involved, I still found this to be an incredibly valuable resource, simply due to the examples and tips they provide — and they often suggested methods surrounding the concepts that I hadn’t considered.
I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. If you are looking at making a full-time living as an independent author-publisher, you need to read this.