Kobo join the print-on-demand game — but should you play?

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Many Kobo Writing Life authors recently received an invitation to take part in a beta print-on-demand program at Kobo. Not all Kobo authors received this invitation, myself included, because the program is a subcontract to the POD manufacturer Lightning Source International (LSI): if you already have print books distributed by Ingram, the print distributor and parent company of LSI/Ingram Spark, and if your print books’ ISBNs are in Kobo’s system, then there is no point in them contacting you. For this new POD service, Kobo is charging authors USD $25.00 Read More …

How digital printers are misleading indie authors

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Print on demand (“POD”) is the buzzword of the day, and many commercial printers are losing a chunk of their business to print on demand manufacturers such as CreateSpace and Ingram Spark (Lightning Source International). The result is a plethora of short-run digital printers doing their best to masquerade as true POD printers. A short-run digital printer will often advertise themselves as print on demand, claiming that their system is such because they can print one book or a thousand “on demand,” that is, without having to set up the Read More …

What is the copyright date of my book?

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One of the most common questions I am asked by new authors is this: What date do I put on my book’s copyright page? For many authors this is confusing because they may have started the book in 2014, finished it in 2015, and intend to self-publish it in 2016. So what year do you put on the copyright page? The answer is 2016. To understand why that is, it is necessary to explain the difference between a work or title and a book. The term work (or title) refers Read More …

Author reading and book signing for The Point Between

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Saturday, 14 November 2015 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Point Roberts Public Library 1487 Gulf Rd, Point Roberts, WA 98281, United States Join me at the Point Roberts library for an author reading and book signing of my new novel, The Point Between. We’ll be in the dining room of the community center, adjacent to the library. See the Whatcom County Library listing here.

The Point Between available for pre-order and preview

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Cover of The Point Between by M. A. Demers: A woman, whose head is an open book that says A Metaphysical Mystery, wears a white dress and leans against the gates of the afterlife between the flag of the United States and the flag of Canada. On the gate sits an owl and a sign that reads Dead End, No Beach Access. On the left is a red drape.

eBook available for pre-order on Amazon and Kobo. NetGalley members can review it by clicking here. Print book available November 1st. Goodreads giveaway also starts November 1st. Bestselling mystery novelist Lily Harrington has been found hanging in her home in the tiny, oddball haven of Point Roberts, Washington, and all signs point to suicide. Worried the truth will be buried with her, Lily teams up with Marcus Mantova, the sexy detective of her novels, to influence the investigation and catch her killer. Yet no sooner has Lily come to terms Read More …

CreateSpace expand distribution to Canada – but there’s a catch (naturally)

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On this blog in September 2013 I predicted that Amazon’s CreateSpace were positioning themselves to supply the Canadian market directly. Two days ago, in an email to clients, CreateSpace made it official. Unless the CreateSpace publisher specifically opts out, the following will now apply: Starting October 8, we began making CreateSpace titles enrolled in the Amazon.com sales channel available directly to readers in Canada on Amazon.ca. Your title may already be offered on Amazon.ca through Expanded Distribution or other channels, but now you can earn the same royalty on Amazon.ca Read More …

Coming Soon! The Point Between

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Cover of The Point Between by M. A. Demers: A woman, whose head is an open book that says A Metaphysical Mystery, wears a white dress and leans against the gates of the afterlife between the flag of the United States and the flag of Canada. On the gate sits an owl and a sign that reads Dead End, No Beach Access. On the left is a red drape.

COMING NOVEMBER 2015 Bestselling mystery novelist Lily Harrington has been found hanging in her home in the tiny, oddball haven of Point Roberts, Washington, and all signs point to suicide. Worried the truth will be buried with her, Lily teams up with Marcus Mantova, the sexy detective of her novels, to influence the investigation and catch her killer. Yet no sooner has Lily come to terms with the existence of Marcus, the womanizing egomaniac she had thought a product of her imagination, than dead Whatcom County detective Penelope Winters also Read More …

Interview on Vancouver Co-op Radio

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I was interviewed yesterday on Writing Life, on Vancouver’s Co-op Radio, 100.5 FM. We covered some of the basics of self-publishing as well as marketing and international publishing. You can listen here or download here.  

Using charm pricing to increase your book sales

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Many self-published authors, focused as they are on the U.S. market, tend to take the lazy road and simply input a USD price and allow the likes of CreateSpace, Amazon, and Kobo to auto-convert to other currencies. The problem with this approach is that, between currency fluctuations and differences in sales tax in various countries, one’s book price can be all over the map. More importantly, however, by taking this approach you are likely cheating yourself out of a potentially lucrative sales strategy: charm pricing. Charm pricing, also known by Read More …

LSI announce direct deposit now available to publishers outside United States

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Last week Ingram announced that Lightning Source clients outside the U.S. can now receive payment via direct deposit (EFT). At the moment, EFT is restricted to authors in the UK, Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain, and of course the United States. Payments can only be made in the national currency where the bank is located, meaning if the bank is in the UK you can only receive pounds sterling; you cannot, for example, receive euro payments in a Read More …