Most of the self-publishing success stories we hear revolve around selling books on Amazon, and for good reason: authors like Steve Scott and Mark Dawson have used the platform to bring home six-figure salaries. But if you’re considering self-publishing, you should know there is another option: selling ebooks on your own site. If you’re able to carve […]
Note from Alexis: I don't typically publish guest posts, but this is an exception. This post is from one of my team members, Heather van der Hoop, who helped me self-publish my first Kindle book. Because Heather was the mastermind behind making sure we set ourselves up to succeed with this venture, I asked her […]
Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word about the launch of my first Kindle book on, You Deserve to Love Your Job! And a special thanks to those of you who left Amazon reviews — that’s what will help this book continue to succeed. Because I shared behind-the-scenes details about the creation process and […]
Last week I sent a poll to my newsletter subscribers asking this community to choose which cover you liked best for my first Kindle book. (If you don’t get the newsletter and want to be part of these types of experiments, you can sign up here.) While I’d hoped this poll would help me choose […]
The blogosphere is full of posts about failure. About how you have to face failure if you want to succeed. About how the biggest successes stem from failures. About how no one succeeds without failing. In fact, I’d even say it’s actually hip to write about failure. But here’s the catch: most bloggers write about […]
When I launched my first eguide on social-media consulting, I explained one of the reasons I called it a guide: Because one of my favorite bloggers, Chris Guillebeau, says “ebook” creates the expectation of a full-length book and low value (and, I say, a paperback price). He suggested calling any digital product a guide or […]
This week my agent Rachelle Gardner answered a question that pops up again and again: If you self-publish, will that ruin your chances of ever getting published traditionally? Yet while we all hem and haw over whether to shoot for traditional publishing or use our platform to self-publish — and which is better for our […]
Even as my awesome agent and I prepare to pitch my first book to publishers — that’s my travel memoir about backpacking solo through Africa — we’re already coming up with a plan for Book No. 2. It’s a practical guide to taking a career break to travel, a kind of how-to version of my […]
My RSS feed has been awash lately with blog posts on self-publishing. Author Amanda Hocking makes a ton of money self-publishing but then signs a book deal. Another author, Joe Konrath, writes again and again about how self-publishing is the way to go. Yet another author, Barry Eisler, turns down a mega book deal to […]
Figuring out how to make a living doing what you love is one of life’s biggest challenges. But Alastair Humphreys has made it happen — and he’s our guest today. Alastair calls himself an “adventurer” — a title that makes me oh-so-jealous. He has biked around the world, an expedition that took him four years. […]