Friday, February 24, 2012

Raise Funds for Your Self-Publishing Project

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might have noticed my post about Kickstarter back in January 2011. Authors have been using sites like Kickstarter for quite a while to fund their self-publishing projects. I've seen plenty of authors raise thousands of dollars through this "crowdfunding" model. Well, Rich Burlew recently raised a million bucks through Kickstarter for his webcomic book. You read that right: One million dollars! Here's the story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/22/author-raises-1m-self-publish-webcomic.

Kickstarter's not the only player in town, either. There's a bunch of crowdfunding sites out there. Go ahead and Google "crowdfunding websites" and you'll find a nice list of options.

Why not give it a try?

(Screenshot from Kickstarter.com) Top Self Publishing Company

Shipping Your Own Books

In addition to relying on Amazon.com, BN.com and other online retailers, most authors sell printed copies of their book(s) via their own website. This means they're responsible for accepting orders and ultimately shipping copies to the end customer. It's a time consuming process, but the author usually makes more profit per copy this way...

If you're one of those authors, I suggest you invest in some quality mailers. Flimsy mailers look unprofessional and don't really prevent your book(s) from being damaged. Have you ever ordered a book from Amazon.com? Take a look at their mailer. It's hard cardboard, very sturdy. That's the kind of mailer you need. And now you can buy them through ULINE. I'm not affiliated with ULINE in any way ... Just thought this tip might be beneficial to you and your readers. Have fun!