This Week in Indie Publishing

Reframing Publishing Success

What to expect—and what not to expect—when publishing a book

There’s nothing like writing and publishing a book to bring out the dormant diva who lives inside every aspiring author. Even the most unassuming authors have moments when indulging the fantasy of übersuccess sends them into an uncharacteristic fanning of tail feathers as they imagine what might be possible. And, of course, there are authors with far less reserve, who can be blatant in their own self-regard. I say more power to them. Publishing a book is a big deal, and it doesn’t hurt to dream. What does hurt, however, is allowing that dream to cloud reality.

In my experience, there are two ways in which authors inadvertently sabotage themselves through anticipation: first, their expectations are too high, and, second, their expectations are too high and they are unwilling (or unable) to put publicity dollars behind their efforts, which results in a huge disconnect.

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Walmart Is Selling eBooks for the First Time Thanks to Its Partnership With Rakuten

Walmart’s quest for ecommerce dominance continues with the arrival of Walmart eBooks, the company’s newest strategy to compete with Amazon.

Walmart eBooks by Rakuten Kobo is part of the company’s broader partnership with the Japanese ecommerce company. With Walmart eBooks, consumers will be able to choose from 6 million titles in Kobo’s library, and they will be able to join a new audiobook subscription service for $9.99. (Amazon’s Audible subscription is currently $14.95 a month.)

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The Book World Is Getting Way Too Politicized. Here’s What To Do About That

By Anna Mussmann

AUGUST 20, 2018

My kids and I love our local library. It’s small, but that’s okay. Parents squeeze strollers between the stacks while toddlers spread wooden blocks over the floor. Every now and then, a train goes by, and children watch it through a window in the back door.

We enjoy browsing for books, and if we don’t find what we want, nearly every children’s title I’ve ever heard of can be ordered from one of the other branches. Our library is an awesome resource.

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The NY Public Library wants you to read more books–on Instagram

Tapping through Instagram Stories usually means you’ll peek into one friend’s wild Friday night, witness another friend’s beach vacation, and see a series of photos of another friend’s cat, complete with sassy captions. But now, thanks to the New York Public Library, you can also encounter a piece of literature.

The library partnered with the design firm Mother in New York to create and upload a digital version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland to its Instagram story, and there’s more to come. Over the next few months, the NYPL will also upload Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” illustrated by the design studio Buck, and Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, illustrated by designer César Pelizer. The beautiful drawings for the digitized Alice in Wonderland are by conceptual illustrator Magoz, and perfectly capture the classic’s colorful whimsy.

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Here’s What Scribd’s CEO Thinks Of The New Walmart eBook Service

Walmart announced its latest Amazon-competing service on Wednesday: Walmart eBooks comes in partnership with Rakuten Kobo. The service will allow consumers to read from the more than six million titles in Kobo’s library, “from New York Times best sellers to a wide variety of indie titles and children’s books,” according to the press release, as well as a new monthly audiobook subscription that charges $9.99 per month for one audiobook a month, undercutting Amazon’s $14.95-a-month Audible service.

Scribd — a reading subscription service to offer books, audiobooks, and magazines in one place for a $8.99 per month fee — offers content from the top five biggest publishers. Given the digital business’s presence in the reading subscription industry, I asked Scribd’s CEO and cofounder Trip Adler what his thoughts on the new Walmart eBooks service were. Interestingly, he welcomes the competition, calling it “great for the publishing industry.” However, he did highlight one concern that he feels could hamper Walmart eBooks as it moves forward.

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