Done with that book but can’t bring yourself to chuck it? Register it at BookCrossing, write the id number on the inside cover, and leave it in a public place. Someone else gets a good book and you get to watch it travel the world. Fun!
(Thx, John Mavin!)
Have a good weekend, litfarmers. On Monday we’ve got some very, very, very short sf stories for you.
In an era of declining sales, declining readership and shrinking marketing budgets, publishers are looking for authors with a “profile”. Or better still, a small following. Podcasts are yet another way of getting the word out about your book, without spending a penny on editing, printing or design.
Ask Scott Sigler. He offered his first novel, Earthcore, as a free, serialized podcast on iTunes and his personal site. By the time he’d released his second and third novels, he had 30,000 listeners and publishers lining up to take his books.
Sigler, 38, likens his distribution method to that of public broadcasting, adding that giving away content pays off even if fewer than 10 percent of the samplers ultimately make a pledge.
To me, this is very exciting. Not only can you have a hand in pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, it’s a remarkable chance to connect with your readers. Once I was involved with a highly successful, albeit niche, video game and I can tell you: we didn’t get rich, but there was a tremendous amount of satisfaction meeting our rabidly devoted fans.
(apparently, bookninja!)