C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

07/24/2011 • 3:26 PM 9

Self-publishing: The Couch Change Economy vs. The Great Personality Argument

How does a guy go from getting paid $85 an hour to taking the risk of self-publishing? It’s not such a big leap.

Last night, on impulse, I bought a little tub of Heavenly Hash ice cream for $1.99.

That explains everything, huh? Okay. Let’s go deeper:

When a new tax hike hit my province last July, my business changed. I’ve been a massage therapist for 18 years. I have great clients I care about and not just a few who care about me. To accommodate the new tax, my hourly rate went up to $85 per hour. A bunch of my clients took it in stride, but several just couldn’t afford to come in for treatment as often. I live in a lovely, but economically depressed area. Since I work as a part-time therapist and that fee is before tax, $85 an hour isn’t quite as great as it sounds. When I did my taxes, the numbers confirmed what I suspected: I like my work, but it wasn’t paying. I needed to change something if I was going to have anything left over at the end of the month. I could go back to working out of clinics full-bore and full-time and make “real” money or I could explore other options.

Then I thought, “You know, I don’t have that much to lose now.”

That’s the “A-ha” moment. I believe in my writing and marketing savvy. It was time to bet on that and switch to writing full-time. This wasn’t coming out of nowhere. I’d held several positions in traditional book publishing and trained and worked as a journalist. As a freelance editor, columnist, features and speech writer, my writing income rose to become a healthy chunk of my overall income. Last year I spent more time working on writing and editing than I did in health care.

Also—and this is crucial—I had five novels in my drawer ready to edit and bring to fruition.

Many authors propose books and only start to write them after they get someone to ask them to do so. (That’s a smart way to do it, by the way, but it’s not the only way.) I had opportunities to go that route. However, I had no interest in doing so. I have a strong streak of I-want-to-do-it-my-way (which doesn’t always serve me best but, for me, that’s the only way it’s going to happen and sustain.) I hadn’t sent out any manuscripts at all! As soon as I completed one book, I rushed on to the next, giddy and getting high off the writing. Writing is always way more fun than chasing agents and editors. It’s an odd kind of procrastination, staying busy kneading dough but never actually finishing a loaf of bread so you can eat it. I helped several authors get their books published, but was in no hurry to bring my own out into the world. I was waiting for something and that something was me.

This week, I finally caught up to me. I finished the last manuscript I needed to get written before I could move forward with my grand plans to go full-time as a writer. (More on my complex marketing plans in another post, another time.)

Soon I will jump into what I call the Couch Change Economy. You could call it the iTunes Purchasing Model or more simply, impulse buying.

That Heavenly Hash ice cream I bought? It was a stab of nostalgia that did it. I grew up in Nova Scotia. In the summer my parents would sometimes take me to the shore in the evening to cool off and watch the sunset. An old clapboard ice cream shop with poor posture leaned into stiff Atlantic winds just 100 feet from relentless ocean waves. That was the only place I ever ate a waffle cone with two scoops of Heavenly Hash. If the tub had been priced higher, I wouldn’t have picked it up and put it in my shopping basket. I haven’t tasted it yet. I may not even finish it all. But for $1.99, it’s a cheap indulgence that reminds me of a good time with a dead mom.

When a book is cheap, no one minds taking a chance on an author they don’t know if the book sounds like it might interest them. If you don’t like a cheap ebook, you aren’t going to lose sleep over the equivalent of the sum of coins you can find in your couch.

How low that ebook price must be is the subject of many passionate discussions.

John Locke says 99 cents (and a marketing strategy) made him a million-book seller.

Joe Konrath has run the numbers and says $2.99 is the “sweet spot.”

Others object that these prices devalue the work and no author who believes in their writing should charge so little. While I understand where they’re coming from, that sounds suspiciously like The Great Personality Argument. You can have a great personality, but if you don’t arrive at the party smiling, freshly scrubbed, with your hair combed, few people will approach you to discover how smart and funny you are. In short, couch change pricing sells more books than pricing on arbitrary values the author holds for his work. An author can believe in their work all they want (and they should) but for the sale, what matters is how much the buyer values the work. Your ideal readers may never discover how great your book is unless you make the package very attractive at low to no risk. Pricing at couch change levels is the No-pressure, Get-to-know-you price.

As debt ceiling negotiations rage in the United States and nervous stock market investors watch in horror as economies go off the rails, this is an excellent time to be working in a non-premium market. Low-priced items are low risk. Low-priced items sell at higher volume. (And a massage therapist doesn’t ever work in high volume.) I’m optimistic—which doesn’t come easy for me—that this is the year to make the jump if I ever will. And so I’ve begun informing my patients that I’m wrapping up my practice. Self-publishing suits the kind of hairpin I am and the math makes sense to me, if not to everyone.

Most important, writing full-time is my unfulfilled dream. I don’t believe in heaven or reincarnation, so I get one shot at making my heaven here and now.

A client (who isn’t mean but does have sarcastic streak) asked, “So when do the millions start rolling in?”

“I may never make millions,” I said. “It’s quite a loss compared to the billions I make as a massage therapist.”

We both laughed because the working poor are, considering all the challenges we face, surprisingly good-natured.

But I think things will work out. I believe in my books. I’m willing to price my work low enough that readers will find me, take a chance on something fun and quirky, new and different. Over time, I believe they will believe in me, too.

And last, consider this:

I’ve written books for years, very happily, giving no thought to getting paid at all.

TOP TEN: The divide between the published and the self-published (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
DRM: The Digital Rights Management Scam (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Time Saving Steps for your WIP (kimkoning.wordpress.com)
A Quick Note on the Manuscript (howtolivethefreelancelife.wordpress.com)
Note to Self: Get Serious About Your Writing (donweston.wordpress.com)

Filed under: authors, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, Rant, self-publishing, Author, ebook pricing, JA Konrath, John Locke, publishing

07/16/2011 • 7:06 PM 32

TOP TEN: The divide between the published and the self-published

At a recent writers’ conference, I was in grand company. I met a lot of cool people. Almost all of them were traditionally published authors. I watched them ask questions of panels of publishers, agents and editors.

Here’s what I noticed:

1. They don’t want to change along with the rest of the publishing landscape. Inertia is powerful, even in broken systems. And why should they want to change? Things haven’t actually been good, but they didn’t have to worry about things they have to worry about now with the DIY route. It used to be that they were expected to write, mostly to the exclusion of all else. That was job #1 and everything else was supposed to be, in theory, someone else’s job. However, many authors have already felt this pressure change because more and more book promotion and publicity duties have been unloaded on them by publishers.

2. Some of them are excited to self-publish. Either they had bad experiences with agents and traditional publishers or they simply want more control of their books. Their out-of-print books and their unpublished books may have new life as self-published works. The digital revolution, to these authors, is an opportunity. (Also, some DIY authors see self-publishing as their way into legacy publishing.)

3. Some are still wringing their hands, aggressively…as if that will turn back time. Like the music industry, Blockbuster, milk men, buggy whips and enjoyable air travel, there was a lot of nostalgia in that room. But nostalgia isn’t an argument against the proliferation of ebooks. It’s sadness at loss and change. They mourn the loss of some of the perks. Though many authors complained about the six city book tour and hanging out in bookstores ignored and unnoticed, admit it: all those bookstore signings had cachet. Book signings were part of the dream of being published and it was nice to rely on the publisher to pay for the trip.

4. Some traditionally published authors denigrate indie authors. That’s understandable. I admit, many self-published books are, at the very least, utter crap. Not just to my taste! Crap! If careless authors call themselves authors, their old world club is no longer quite as special in the new world. However, blanket condemnations are pretty silly. Writers on either side of the divide are amorphous and as unified as a herd of cats. That’s part of our charm.

5. I found many authors I listened to weren’t angry at indies. They weren’t pointing fingers with nonsense “pay your dues like I did” rhetoric. Instead, they were worried that they themselves couldn’t adapt. Look at the demands on the self-published: write, revise, edit, review, format, upload, distribute, promote, market, repeat, improve and next time so it all faster. So much for self-publishing being the lazy way to get published. The mantra is, “When will I have time to write in this environment?” Indies worry about this, too. Though more books will be published digitally, somewhat fewer may be produced per author. As my self-published author friend Jeff Bennington observed recently, half of his time is spent writing and the other half is spent marketing. Somewhere in there, Jeff mixes in a job and probably eats and sleeps a little, too. There’s simply so much authors have to do to have a chance at getting noticed (and perhaps even getting their books bought.)

6. Some view digital publishing as part of the decline of literature. Hm. That’s an interesting one. The digital revolution propagates more books conveniently therefore there are many more books out there. If you are very concerned about the difference between low brow fiction and vaunted literature (say “literature” with a royal British accent), then go write some literature, you big baby. If it can’t be found amid the din, that doesn’t mean it’s not available. It’s means you can’t sell it. If the argument is that you don’t like the taste of the hoi polloi, that’s not digital publishing’s fault. That’s your fault. Or maybe it’s the educational system’s fault. Or the human brain isn’t as good as you’d like. You can blame readers, I suppose, but that’s a rather unprofessional stance. Most people who claim their stuff is good but out of step with their fellow humans are really just writing stuff that can’t connect. On the other hand, lots of people (well…English majors) will love you high-lit writers after you’re dead. So there’s that.

7. Some traditional authors are very concerned about the change in gatekeepers. It’s not a small group of editors anymore. The market is the gatekeeper. Democracy can be scary because the group may go where you don’t want it to go. There’s still a very strong market for vampire books and bodice-ripper romances and yes, even the Jersey Shore, for instance. If actual readers don’t want your fiction, there might still be a market for it with traditional publishing (which, by the way, isn’t disappearing completely) but traditional publishing is less adventurous the bigger the press. You’ll have better luck with a small press or DIY. It’s as if the kids who ran the chess club suddenly had to contend with a bunch of dumb jocks getting a voting membership…and the lunkheads want a kegger.

8. Authors want reassurance that bookstores will survive. What am I? A freaking miracle worker? You want a combination of Harry Potter and Merlin to fix it so more bookstores won’t die? Magicians are on film, TV and in books. Hey! I love bookstores, too! But that’s more nostalgia. (See point #3.)

9. Many authors will carry on with their traditional publishers. They got in early and they got in good and they’re going to ride that train right to the end of the line and hope the fuel doesn’t run out. Yes, they wonder about the pittance publishers are throwing them with regards to ebook royalties (or wonder how well those sales are recorded.) Yes, they’ve had spats with their agents. But a broken system isn’t a dead system and there is…eh, has been…much to recommend it.

10. Indies and the traditionally published agree: its about the writing. We all love good books. We may be dubious about how it’s delivered, but the core product is no less valued on either side of the divide. The concerns about the delivery and quality may vary, but we’re all writers and readers.

It used to take a powerful store of hope to be a self-published author. Now more faith is demanded of my traditionally published friends.

To Self Pub or Not? (ridingwiththetopdown.wordpress.com)
Writing Conference Cataclysm: Ebooks versus the Amish (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Robert Chazz Chute: Literature hater & narcissistic bastard! (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
You: E-Book Revolution Upends a Publishing Course (nytimes.com)

Filed under: authors, DIY, e-reader, ebooks, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, Rant, self-publishing, Top Ten, Writing Conferences, authors, DIY, ebooks, self-publishing, traditional publishing versus indie, writers

07/11/2011 • 12:55 PM 3

New Feature: Scoop it!

Scoop it! allows me to grab a bunch of articles to quickly curate an on-line magazine for your pleasure. My focus, of course, is writing and reading and publishing news, particularly indie publishing. It’s more great stuffing for my juicy and delicious info-turkey that will complement the Chazz Writes potatoes, mashed, potatoes and gravy you’ll find on this blog.

In other news, I think I need to go get some lunch.

Shoot on over to check it out.

Scoop.it Wants to Make Curation Frictionless (newsgrange.com)
Scoop.it opens the flood gates to allow curation on more sites [Invites] (thenextweb.com)

Filed under: authors, blogs & blogging, Books, publishing, self-publishing, web reviews, Writers, Digital curation, fiction, indie, online magazine, publishing, Scoop it, self-publishing, writing

07/08/2011 • 7:18 PM 0

Shocked yet not surprised: Indigo halves its bookshelf space

Here’s the link to Five Rivers publisher Lorina Stephens’ excellent post on how Indigo is changing its returns policy (45 days and you’re out!) and cutting its space for books in half. So much for anybody whose name isn’t Rowling, King, Meyer and whoever the guy is who came up with Go the F**k to Sleep. This stirs up a lot of questions for people whose names are not those names. For instance, how many scented candles does anyone really need to buy in one lifetime? And how will traditional publishing cope?

For me personally, this is not a big deal because I am not in the least surprised. As I’ve been saying, this is not an if. It’s just about when. Blockbuster is battered senseless and HMVs are shrunk to nubs. I am so the opposite of an early adopter of new tech I’m nearly Amish and I don’t go near the Busted Block nor do I buy CDs anymore (though I understand some people still make them, everybody’s just picking the songs they want off iTunes.) I anticipated this boostore shift and consider it to be The Half-Measure of Doom on the Road to Bookstore Apocalypse.

Ahem. Pardon the hyperbole, but I’ve encountered a bunch of resistance from people who are convinced that my sole focus on ebooks was career suicide. No matter what I said, the doubters were sure a book had to be in a bookstore to be “real” and “worthy” and “made of paper and stuff.”

And I said, “What’s a bookstore?” Now I’m doing my “Told you so” dance and though I should be ashamed of myself, to be honest, I’m not feeling it.

But seriously, bookstores are literally farther and fewer between. As they cut down on shelf space to make room for doodads to dust, yo-yos and novelty pens, there will be no shelf for indies. You want choice, variety and a taste of the new? Go look online because you won’t find it in a bricks and mortar chain store.

But enough from me and my reactionary delusions of grandeur. Lorina says it all in detail in her usual reasonable, convincing tone, so do go read what she has to say.

Filed under: authors, Books, ebooks, Useful writing links, Bookselling, Business, E-book, ebooks, indigo books, Kobo, publishing, Publishing and Printing, Shopping

07/07/2011 • 10:29 AM 2

Book Review Circle: Growing ideas (& an announcement about great things to come)

Salient points:

1. You won’t review the same author who reviewed you. That’s why we need a big circle. That’s one way to getting solid reviews, too.

2. This is a give-to-get situation where you will only review one or two books a year. Once it’s posted on this site, you can repost your review elsewhere.

3. Check the post below for details on the information you need to send. This helps me match you up with a genre that interests you.

4. Send said information to: expartepress@gmail.com

Ah, and here’s another grand pronoucement:

I’ll be posting the book circle reviews on the new website (coming this fall.)

This blog will continue, but Chazz Writes is primarily a place for writers interested in indie publishing.

The new site will run concurrently, like sentences for both stealing fireworks and accidentally lighting your school on fire with those fireworks.

The new site will be a place for readers.

Book Reviews: A Very Decent Proposal (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)

Book Review: Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (fightlikegirls.wordpress.com)
Who’s in your Circle of Influence & Virtual Boardroom? [Tom Evans] (ecademy.com)

Filed under: authors, book reviews, Books, DIY, ebooks, getting it done, web reviews, What about Chazz?, Writers, book, book review, Literature, review, Reviews and Criticism, writer

07/04/2011 • 1:14 AM 4

Book Reviews: A Very Decent Proposal

The magnificent Kim Nayyer sent me a very interesting idea

**that the self-published among you might just love.**

“Magnificent?” you say, skeptically.

Me? I don’t say anything. Instead I whap you on the nose with Kim’s rolled up bio: Peter Parker and Marian the librarian’s love child. Selects and edits creative non-fiction submissions to Victoria’s Island Writer magazine. Writes book reviews, mainly of children’s literature and adult legal texts, to the extent those genres are distinct. News and information junkie. Proved her good citizenship by writing a blog for Canada’s public broadcaster during the recent Canadian federal election. Her website is http://www.kimnayyer.com.

Here’s the email Kim sent:

What a coincidence that I spotted your video book review today (nice!). Coincidence because a couple of days ago I was going to suggest to you a book review corner on your site, a corner restricted to reviews of self-published or e-only or e-first books, something along those lines to give a platform to the non-traditional market.

Recently a twitter contact asked me whether I was able to review his book. I checked with a couple of my outlets. One only does Canadian books (and the guy’s in Portland) and the other only does pre-release publishing house books (and he’s self-published and the book came out earlier this year).I thought of you and your forthcoming books, and I thought of a couple of local self-published authors I know and how hard one of them works to sell her book.

My idea is not that you do all the reviews yourself (unless you want to, say in videos), but that you get a roster of a handful of decent writers/vloggers, perhaps other self-published authors, to do them as guest posts or to commit to doing one or two a year each, or perhaps in exchange for reviews of their books. The authors of course would send you or the reviewer free review copies of their books.

Think it’s workable?

I love that idea! How about it, self-published party people?

If you’re a self-published author and want:

1. Your book to be reviewed, and

2. to review a couple of books a year

then, 3. Email Chazz at expartepress@gmail.com with:

your name, book title, genre, book length and what genres interest you for writing book reviews. I shall attempt to match up the compatible submissions and we’ll take it from there. Also, if you have suggestions, let me know. I do love the idea. I just haven’t thought much about what the protocol should be.

The self-published can support each other. As it stands, The System and The Man wants to keep you down. Let’s subvert The System, kick The Man in the crotch and spread the word about our books.

Yes, Kim the Magnificent. I think it’s workable!

GO INDIE!

Filed under: authors, reviews, self-publishing, web reviews, Writers, Author, book, book review, indie reviews, indie writers, Literature, review, self-publishing, writer

07/03/2011 • 9:25 AM 0

Book recommendations & VIDEO: People, nature and killer robots are out to get you

What an amazing book this is! It’s terrifying and very funny at the same time. Written by Cracked writer Robert Brockway, this book lays out everything that should terrify you to hide under your bed. Some of the stuff I write is really about scary what if scenaria. But Everything is Going to Kill Everybody isn’t so theoretical and fictional. For instance, there are autonomous killer robots in Korea right now…that can decide on their own to kill you…from two miles away…in the goddamn dark! In a few years, one-third of US ground forces will be drones and robots! (That’s ground forces! Not just the flying killer robots they have now that can kill anyone anywhere with the pilots sitting safely in a bunker n Nevada.)

(MORE TEXT AFTER THE VIDEO)

But that’s just one Skynet scenario. There are all kinds of things that could wipe out humans everywhere: hypercanes (instead of hurricanes), manufactured mega-tornadoes on a fragile leash, energy device plots that could fry us all, asteroid strikes, Mother Nature bludgeoning you over and over, microscopic robots, huge military robots designed to eat the fresh kills for energy (no, I’m not kidding!) and biotech wonders that could wipe us out with horrible plagues. In other words, you’ve got to buy this book, because, as deep as it goes, it’s also hilarious. The writer realizes that at some point he’s going to make you may lose all bowel control, so there are lots of comedic opportunities there. This is the scariest book you’ll ever laugh at.

(If you care to order immediately, just click the image for the Amazon link. If you’d prefer to live in sad denial, I understand, but you’ll miss a lot of fascinating, scary science and a lot of chuckles.)

Why Robots Will Kill Us All (blogs.wsj.com)
Robot-apocalypse jokes need to become serious discussions about robot safety. (slate.com)
Robot Mercenaries and Corporate Power – The Dark Future of Video Games Seems Closer Everyday (Video) (singularityhub.com)
Killer Robots With Grant Imahara, Tonight on Science Channel (wired.com)
Would The Three Laws of Robotics Work? (neatorama.com)

Filed under: authors, book reviews, Books, everything is going to kill everybody, Military robot, Mother Nature, robert brockway, Robot, Robotics, Skynet

06/27/2011 • 1:51 AM 1

The “But At What Cost?” Miscalculation

John Locke has written a book: How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks in Five Months.* (I recommend it)

LA Times writer Carolyn Kellogg wrote a piece that asks, “At What Cost?” Here’s that nonsense argument and my bit of nonsense follows.

The upshot is, Ms. Kellogg thinks Mr. Locke undersold himself. He sold a million ebooks, but charged 0.99 for many of them. She says he could have made a million of with higher pricing instead of making do in the $300,000 range. (A figure that would make many authors swoon.) There are many interesting observations in the comments section of the LA Times article that pick apart Ms. Kellogg’s worries very well.

Here’s my take away: I had never heard of John Locke until now. He used 0.99 loss leaders to sell a shit-ton of books. Yes, he “only” made 0.30 on the 0.99 ebooks, but low or no pricing allowed wary readers to try him out. And now many more people know about him. And I bought his non-fiction ebook which details his success so far. And I bought it for $4.99.

Kellogg is saying Locke was an idiot for leaving money on the table, assuming he could have moved so much and so quickly with a middle man trad publisher involved. Why would she assume that, I wonder? There’s no basis for it. The new world is not the old world and hers is classic old world thinking.

Now you know, if you didn’t, who John Locke is. And now you’re thinking, maybe I should buy one of his books and give it a try. Maybe more than one, huh?

*Thanks to Joanna Penn for her post on Mr. Locke. I love Joanna’s blog and podcast, The Creative Penn. Subscribe if you haven’t!

Random Thoughts on People jealous of John Locke and Kindle Indie Author success (ireaderreview.com)
Independent author John Locke joins Amazon’s million-Kindle-seller club (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Self-published author John Locke sells 1M e-books (seattlepi.com)
John Locke – The New Sensation (onemano.biz)
Every author really should read this book – today (ireaderreview.com)
Self-Publishing: Maybe Not a Cottage Industry Anymore? (batterrier.com)
How to Sell a Million eBooks in 5 Months! (montyenglish.wordpress.com)
Independent Author Sells 1 Million eBooks Via Amazon’s Kindle (chatootsboots.wordpress.com)

Filed under: authors, DIY, ebooks, getting it done, links, Media, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, self-publishing, Writers, Amazon Kindle, books recommendations, E-book, John Locke, Los Angeles Times, publishing, Publishing and Printing, selling ebooks

06/23/2011 • 1:52 PM 0

VIDEO: Moso, the free Mac app for vlogging

Did I mention that this app is free, free, free? Also, it’s free.

(There’s the power of the written word over video right there. I forgot to mention the app is free, but it was easy to add the detail of the price using this ancient keyboard thingy.)

More details: You don’t edit Moso, you just do retakes. It’s easy to upload to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, though. I’d say if there’s a social medium that’s underused for authors promoting their books, it must be YouTube. Moso will help you with that.

Podcasts can be helpful, though access and difficulty of execution/time involved increases the variables in that argument. I don’t think Facebook is as effective for promotion as it could be. Twitter can be effective if used well (but that’s another post.)

I Vlog, You Vlog, She/he Vlogs … and You Know How the Rest of It Goes (englishforteenagers.org)
Sharing YouTube Activity Digital Breadcrumbs (speedofcreativity.org)
20+ Apps To Bring Your Favorite Websites To Your Mac Desktop (makeuseof.com)

Filed under: authors, blogs & blogging, Books, podcasts, Publicity & Promotion, self-publishing, What about Chazz?, Facebook, Social Networking, Twitter, Video blogging, vlogging, vlogs, YouTube

06/20/2011 • 10:02 PM 1

Zoe Who? I recommend you find out who! (PLUS GREAT VIDEO)

The Little Me Update: I’m reading and writing a lot lately. Yesterday was an incredibly productive day as I get closer to putting a (long) short story called The Dangerous Kind up on Smashwords. It’s amazing how many alterations I still want to tinker with as I go through the editing process. Still!

Anyway, I’m also in book recommendation mode this week, so…

Have you subscribed to Zoe Winters blog yet? If you are an indie author, you definitely should. I especially like her ranty goodness on her wordpress blog. As I waited for my son to finish soccer practice I started digging into the last chapter of Zoe Winters’ book: Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author.

This is the single most helpful book on the business of self-publishing I’ve read. (I have the Sony e-reader version, though I think I’ll want to get the print copy, too, for easy reference and permanent residence on my bookshelf. Yes, I do that, too!)

Zoe has a no-nonsense approach to the subject which boils things down to what you need to know to succeed as an indie author. There are a lot of useful books on the subject out there, but this is delivers the bullet without preamble or extra excavation needed on the part the reader. Zoe Winters has broken the trail and mapped out the way so it’s easier for you.

I especially love how frank she is about the self-publishing strategies that didn’t work. The book is worth your time and money for the troubleshooting section alone.

And she’s good at spotting the details others might have missed. For instance, everyone agrees Goodreads can be a great place to boost awareness of self-published books. But Zoe is savvy to point out the pitfalls, too (like if the regulars get a whiff of the stink of self-promotion on you they’ll find your home, break in and beat you to death with Webster’s dictionaries.)

If you don’t love her already, she also made a series of YouTube Videos about breaking into publishing the indie way. Go to YouTube and search for the series called Zoe Who? . Enjoy. (And buy her guide.)

Here’s a sample video of Zoe Who? by Zoe Winters: