Changes in Self Publishing Books with KS Brooks

About this video

Dale introduces KS Brooks, a prolific author and photographer associated with the Indies Unlimited blog who has been in self-publishing for the past thirty years — well before Kindle publishing in 2008, a point Dale underscores by noting earlier guests who started in 2004 and in the 1990s. Asked what has changed, Brooks says the biggest shift in the past couple of years is the fading stigma that self-published books are junk laden with errors. She credits indie champions who stepped up and preached publishing quality work, raising the bar for everyone. Her core point, which she also teaches in her courses, is that fiction shoppers do not look at who the publisher is — they just want a good book and often cannot tell indie books from traditionally published ones. To make a living, authors must run it like a business and produce quality; a benefit of being indie is that mistakes can be fixed and the book reloaded, and many first-timers are now going back to get editing done and republishing.

Key takeaways

• Self-publishing long predates Kindle in 2008 — Brooks has been in the business for thirty years.
• The stigma that self-published books are error-filled junk has faded considerably in recent years.
• Readers shopping for fiction generally do not check who the publisher is; they just want a good book.
• To make a living at it, treat self-publishing like a business and insist on quality, which raises the bar for all indies.
• An advantage of indie publishing is fixability: if you make a mistake, you can have it edited and reload the corrected book.

Episode details: published April 16, 2018 · 3:12 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: How to Proofread with Microsoft Word Voice Reader · Next: Kindle Publishing Romance Books: Rank Removal & Suppression →

All Dale L. Roberts videos · Dale L. Roberts profile · Dale L. Roberts on YouTube