When you’re in a centuries-old trade that has been completely turned on its head, there are no rules by which to be guided, nor to be bound. People have been writing and selling books for a super long time, but the indie author/POD/online marketing approach is brand spanking new. It’s an interesting challenge, because some of the tools you need have been around forever, but are entrenched in the old way of doing things, and others are simply so new, there’s just no way of knowing what the best ones are.
Pondering Amazon Matchbook as an indie author
Prostitution and hunter/gatherer notwithstanding, I would venture a guess that writer and musician are two of civilization’s oldest careers. I would also guess that this is the first time, over centuries of these careers, that a writer walked into the living room to ask her musician husband about the wisdom of bundling her ebook with the sale of her physical book for a discounted price. And for that musician to respond, “Just as long as it’s not free. Free is what ruined music sales.”
We live in strange times, is what I’m saying. It’s interesting to be doing something that people have been doing for so long but in a totally different way with so many different options. It involves making a lot of decisions about a tried and true business that are neither tried nor necessarily true. And as Mike pointed out has happened with music, if we as indie authors or the larger publishing industry makes some poor choices, things can get really screwed up.
The Swedish Lessons Party!
Nearly a week ago, I had a book release party! It was terrific. We had a wonderful turnout at Ann Arbor’s Bar at 327 Braun Court, delicious punch, and attendees even shocked me by eating a great deal of the food I’d purchased and arranged from IKEA. Honestly, some of it was meant to be humorous props. Perhaps more people than I suspected would survive a year in Sweden.
Natalie Burg 