Showing posts with label author-publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label author-publishing. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Canada: Best Country for Writers and Publishers

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July 1 is Canada's National Day, and today's blog post is dedicated to everything Canadian. The Canadian government is supporting and fostering literature, writers and publishers, even ISBN's are FREE in Canada! 

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There is a huge list of government grants and support for writers and publishers. The Canada Council for the Arts offers a range of benefits for professional Canadian writers, collectives and publishers.  In addition to providing support for the creation, translation, publication and promotion of Canadian literature, the"Writing and Publishing Section" funds among others for example author residencies, literary readings and festivals, as well as new areas of activity such as rap poetry, storytelling and electronic literature. 

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PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT BENEFITS 
Just one of many provincial benefits for publishers is the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit, offering  generous tax deductions. 
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WHERE and HOW TO OBTAIN A FREE ISBN IN CANADA 
Good news for Canadian authors and publishers: the ISBN application process is simple and free of charge – but only if you are living in Canada and your publishing company is registered in Canada. 

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COPYRIGHT CANADA 
What Every Writer Needs to Know About Copyright. Register your manuscript or articles online to the Copyright Office, Canadian Intellectual Property Office Web site (fee Can $50). 

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Native - PowWow 


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CANADIAN WRITERS DON'T NEED AGENTS 

“You must get an agent!” is an advice that aspiring authors hear and read everywhere. Is it really true? Not for Canadian writers! Beacon Literary Services owner Julie Ferguson says: ”Publishing statistics in Canada demonstrate that it is simply a misconception caused by American influence. In Canada, only ten percent of books are agented. Aspiring and established authors here successfully submit the majority (10,000) of the titles published every year directly to editors."  Julie Ferguson wrote a great blog post for Canadian authors, explaining in detail how publishing “north of 49th parallel” works, with a link to Publishers.ca, featuring listings and contact information for several important literary agents and agencies in Canada. 

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CANADIAN SHORT STORY PRIZE 2013 

Canada Writes, with partners CBC, Canada Council for the Arts, Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and "The Banff Centre", are pleased to announce the Grand Prize winner will receive $6,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and will have his/her story published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and on the Canada Writes website. She or he will also be awarded a two-week residency at The Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Colony, and will be interviewed on CBC Radio. The 4 runners-up will each receive $1,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and their stories will be published on the Canada Writes website.

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WRITE FOR AIR CANADA INFLIGHT MAGAZINE "ENROUTE" 

Writing for airline magazines, such as enRoute represents a real opportunity for freelance writers. Travel pieces are a staple of in-flights, yet airline publications also offer articles on technology, business, sports, and food, as well as lifestyle trends. Find as much of the articles online. Or try to get hard copies. Since in-flights are not sold on newsstands, request a copy from the magazine’s publisher and ask traveling friends for their help. 
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Canada-Day-Ottawa 

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HOW TO OPEN A PUBLISHING BUSINESS IN CANADA?
Authors are smart and able to start their own publishing business, REAL publishing, not POD and not Vanity Publishing: Finding and getting quotes or referrals for an editor, a book lay-out company or book designer, cover artist, e-book formatting company and a printer is not difficult. Setting up their own company can be done online – in minutes. 

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READING CANADIAN BOOKS and ARTICLES
English is English! – No! Not at all! Canada and America are two countries separated by a common language - this is how George Bernard Shaw's statement could be converted. Many American (and other) readers are surprised to learn that there are huge differences in spelling between English-speaking countries. A book, written and published in Canada, needs almost to be “translated” into American English and vice versa. 

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ACCESS Copyright
A study found that 80% of all copies made on copy machines are from books! As a Writer and first-time publisher, back in Europe in the early 1980′s, I was thrilled to receive a copy-royalty cheque for $180.00 from VG WORT.
Later I found out that the same system works well in Canada under the name ACCESS COPYRIGHT. One of the benefits of being a small publisher or trade-published writer in Canada! However you must have set up a small business in Canada, if you are not with an established (not Vanity) publisher ACCESS COPYRIGHT explains on their website. 

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BERTON HOUSE Writers’ Retreat, Dawson City, Yukon Territory
Professional Canadian writers who have one published book and are established in any creative literary discipline(s) — fiction, non-fiction, poetry, play-writing, journalism — are all encouraged to apply for Canada's most northern Writers’ Retreat.  The Writer’s Retreat offers writers time, and a remote location to pursue their professional projects. The writer will be housed in the Berton House at no cost in rent or utilities. Travel costs to and from Dawson will also be covered! The writer is responsible for a public reading in Whitehorse and Dawson City and a summary of their stay at Berton House. Applications may be submitted by mail or email to: jdavies@writerstrust.com Berton House Writers’ Retreat,  c/o The Writers’ Trust of Canada 200-90 Richmond St. East, Toronto, ON M5C 1P1 http://www.bertonhouse.ca
A monthly honorarium is provided to help cover food and other living expenses. The competition to be a writer-in-residency during the 2014-15 season is now open. An online application form is available.  The deadline for submissions is October 2, 2015.
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Canada Day celebrations July 1, in front of the Parliament in Ottawa, Ontario. 
Image courtesy NCC. 

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HAIG BROWN RESIDENCY
Published authors are being invited to apply for the 2013-2014 Haig-Brown House Writer in Residence position. The residency entails spending the winter months (or a portion thereof) living in the Haig-Brown Heritage House, which is under the management of the Museum at Campbell River on Vancouver Island (BC).
 The modest four bedroom house reflects the character of writer Roderick Haig-Brown and his wife Ann. Located in a peaceful setting on the banks of the Campbell River on Vancouver Island, it contains a Heritage library and is surrounded by two acres of garden and 17 acres of public parkland. The writer’s time will be divided between pursuing personal writing projects and providing literary advice and support to the local community, and participate in Museum winter programming.  
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A stipend of up to $2000 per month, depending on available funding, will be provided. Please include a resume (maximum two pages), a list of publications, a one-page proposal of anticipated community activities, and a sample of work in progress (20 pages); with reasons why the residency would further your work. Forward your application package to Sandra Parrish, Museum at Campbell River, Box 70 Stn A, Campbell River, BC V9W 4Z9. Deadline is January 16, 2016. 
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RCMP-officers-on-horse

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RCMP-officers-on-horse, courtesy NCC

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LIST OF CANADIAN WRITERS Past and present writers, including poets, novelists, children's writers, essayists, and scholars. compiled in a Wikipedia article. 

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PUBLIC LENDING RIGHT PAYMENTS TO AUTHORS
Canadian authors receive approx. $10 Million per year/ in average $600, and up to $3,500.
The Canada Council for the Arts distributes annual payments to Canadian authors through the Public Lending Right (PLR) Program as compensation for the free public access to their books in Canadian public libraries. 
Canada is one of 29 countries with an active public lending right payment program.  
Well, not bad to be a writer in Canada! Happy Canada Day!


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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Top 7 Tips to Promote Your Book for FREE

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Do you want more readers for your books and articles?  There is a cornucopia of free and effective promotion tools for writers on the Internet. You can achieve these marketing goals through online activities in a fun way, as most writers already like to hang out in cyberspace, networking and blogging.  Be Patient and Start Early.  Self-publishing can mean connecting with readers on a one-by-one basis.  It may take a few months to see a large uptake in traffic.
If you have a book coming out, give yourself time to create a fan base.  Don’t just start two weeks before your book becomes available - or worse: after its launch.


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1. Join Book Communities
As an author it is a MUST to be a member of these communities and a free (other than your time) way to introduce your book(s) and show your book titles.  Join Goodreads, Wattpad, Bibliophil, Scribd, BookMoch or Shelfari. More on my blog about book communities and for direct links.
Post snippets (or chapters) of your book to excite potential readers at Wattpad – see my blog about Wattpad: 15 million readers before her book was even published.
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2. Use Your Signature
Never send out an email without your author’s signature. You have probably heard this advice before, but: do you use the gains of e-mail signatures to market and promote your books?
Every day you send out emails to friends, business colleagues, your lawyer or accountant, potential clients, potential readers … If you have an email signature, you are constantly sending people “passive” marketing, spreading the word about you, your brand and your books. Create your email signature right now!
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3. Involve Social Networks
Most important of all for your success is to have LOTS of FOLLOWERS on SOCIAL MEDIA.
Show up on Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook and Linkedin.  Important:  Click on “public” when posting on Google+ and your content will be immediately picked up by Google’s search engines. If you share interesting links (and your blog posts), and offer great free information, you will quickly become a favorite in these social networks. Your followers and connections on Social Media will later become your fan base, read and subscribe to your blog posts and newsletters and read / buy your books.
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4. Comment on Other Blogs
Take the time to find bloggers who write about topics similar to those you write about. When they have something good to say or you can add something to what they have written, leave a comment on their blog. Each time you do so, you leave behind a link to yourself, your website, or your blog. If people who read your comment find what you have written interesting, they will click on the link to find out more about you. They may then decide to become regular blog readers or subscribers, newsletter subscribers, or book buyers.
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5. Start and Maintain a Blog Yourself
Blogs serve as the best tool for increasing online visibility as these are constantly updated and thus attractive for search engines. The more visible you, your book, your website, and your blog become, the more traffic (readers) your blog will attract. This means more buyers for your book now or when it is released. To create a successful blog, write about something you feel passionate about and do so often and consistently. That’s all it takes.
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6. Contribute Content to e-Zine Article Directories
Recycle parts of your blogged book manuscript or blog posts into short articles you can post in content farms or e-zine article directories, such as Ezinearticles.com, Amazines.com, or Blogs of the Week and many more.  Almost all have a resource box for a short bio and a link back to your website, book, blog, or subscription form. These articles are picked up by other bloggers, newsletter editors, e-zine editors, etc., and each time your resource box is featured. Readers click on your links to find out more about you, subscribe to your blog and newsletter or purchase your book.  You can even use an e-zine article distribution services, and get your articles distributed to hundreds of e-zine directories at once, making it available to hundred-thousands of new readers and possible book fans.
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7. Optimize your Amazon Page
The first step of all you can do to climb up to bestseller status:

- “autograph” Kindle books
– choose the best categories for your books and update them regularly
– add tags/keywords/subjects to your book listing for more exposure
– add lots of reviews, “About the Author” and additional information to your Amazon sales page
– get the most out of your Amazon Central account, create a brilliant authors page
– find out which part of your books your customers highlight the most on the Kindle and post it on your website or blog
- If you want your writing to stand out from the thousands of competitors, good article, book or blog headlines are one of the most important things you can do to entice people to read further.

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No Money? No Problem!
Success in social media book marketing, using the tools described here, doesn’t require any financial investment.  Depending on your level of involvement, it may demand a strong time commitment, at least in the beginning.  Yet, as more you use these marketing tools, as faster you can handle them and as more visitors and buyers you will get.


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Monday, August 4, 2014

How Much Do Self-Publishing Authors Earn?

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Ever wondered exactly how much self-published authors earn? According to a new study by Digital Book World, the median income range for self-published authors is less than $5,000, and nearly 20% of self-published authors report deriving no income to speak of from their writing.
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Comparing authors with the same number of manuscripts, there is a strong similarity in income between hybrid and traditional authors, but hybrid authors outperformed their self-published counterparts on earnings. No wonder, as trade-published authors already have a platform and are already a brand!
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Is your self-publishing:

  • an amateurish endeavor,
  • a means of sharing stories,
  • a strategic move in a writing career,
  • or an entrepreneurial activity?


Authors who have a greater focus on earning income from their writing, have produced more manuscripts than either their self-published or traditionally published counterparts, and are earning higher incomes on average.  
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Yes, some authors do break through… 1.8% of self published authors made over $100,000 from their writing last year, compared with 8.8% of traditionally published authors and 13.2% of hybrid authors. The study was conducted online in October and November 2013.
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Conclusions? Don’t quit your day job yet!  
Read more how to improve author earnings:
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/smart-authors-get-paid-for-marketing-their-books/
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Friday, March 7, 2014

The Big Seven: Steps to Business Success

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These seven basic steps show a complete map to business success.  For book publishers and any other business ... 

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The Big 7 Steps: What Every Small Business Needs to Know About Sales & Marketing

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Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

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Where do you find your customers online? Read more in this blog:

http://www.lizlockard.com/start-a-business/

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Helpful Books on Your Path to Success:


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