Hey all, I think we have a critical mass of authors in here now, more will definitely be joining, but I wanted to kick off this strategy brainstorming by describing some trends I've noticed, since self-publishing and from owning this website.

Here's the bottom line - most readers don't value ebooks. They will get an ebook for free, but even books at 99 cents are not bought at an appreciable rate. In fact, I've seen no difference in the rate of purchasing ebooks priced at $4.99 vs $0.99, the exception being during Stuff Your Ereader Events (more on that in a moment).

What does this mean? To me, it indicates that readers are happy to pick up a free ebook and put it on their reader for a rainy day or when they are looking for a quick read or a mood read. But that isn't enough motivation for them…

One thing that I think a lot of authors underestimate is the power of ARCs. Getting a good ARC team is incredibly powerful for getting your book out there, letting others do the promo work for you, getting reviews, and simply getting the book in front of people. As they see the same book over and over from bookstagram accounts they like, they are more likely to buy your book. I used to think 25 ARCs was a good place to start, and obviously if you are struggling to get there, that's OK. But now I'm not sure there's an upper limit to how many ARCs you should send out. The more, the better IMO. What are people's thoughts? Do you have strategies on how to you attract ARC Reviewers? What has worked best for you?

Hi! Some of you may have seen my post on Instagram that Indie Reads is attempting to create a Kickstarter-style platform for new releases and special editions. I love kickstarter for books because if fully funded, you essentially start your book release with zero publishing costs. This is HUGE. So why aren't we just using kickstarter? Well, first, Indie Reads doesn't make any money if you use a kickstarter 🤣 but beyond the obvious, here are a few other reasons:

Payment system - many people who back project are new to kickstarter and they get confused that kickstarter does not bill them right away, but waits until the project is funded. I've had backers credit cards expire, I've had a few that labeled dit as fraud and froze their credit card, etc. because it's a charge they weren't expecting. Instead, we will be collecting payment up front, and reimbursing if…

Hello writers!

My name is Adrienne and my writing/publishing/marketing life has been kinda bonkers this year because I moved from FL to the Midwest, so "fish out of water" and all that.

As for the ebook situation, Evan makes a lot of great points and I don't know if my perspective will help much. I have an epub version of my novel out in the world, but I don't have a Kindle/ereader and I don't read ebooks myself. I just don't care for the format.

That said, if someone is curious about my book but might not want to pay to take a risk on me and my work (which I completely understand, especially in this economy), I send them to Hoopla, where they can download a digital copy of my book for free through their library. That way, I feel as though I am offering something for free and…