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There are many people out there writing books and offering help to indie authors. One such individual who offers great information is Aaron Shepard. One of the compelling things about Shepard is that he is making pretty good money as an indie and he’s using print-on-demand and ebooks.

Despite the knowledge out there, it still can be difficult to find a lot of solid information for the indie who doesn’t want to do a giant print run, warehouse thousands of books, and most likely end up in debt. One of the issues with starting a business is running out of working capital before you really build up steam. One of the major problems with a big offset print run is that you’re shelling out thousands of dollars which would be more beneficial to you spent in marketing endeavors, just for ‘product.’

Using POD the right way, through CreateSpace or Lightning Source eliminates this giant up front cost.

Aaron Shepard’s strategy is very close to mine. Probably the only difference in our approaches to indie authorship and publishing is that he focuses pretty much on Amazon and I think it’s wise to put your eggs in as many sales baskets as possible because it all adds up.

I’m going to give mini reviews of the three self-publishing guides available from Mr. Shepard:

Perfect Pages

I’ve mentioned this book a few other times in previous posts, but seriously… If you want to make your layout and formatting as unproblematic as possible and you don’t want to shell out $1-$2k for someone else to do it for you, then add this book to your library.

I’m of the opinion that because this is such a learnable skill and because you can do it to great effect with Word or Open Office (provided your book isn’t heavy on graphics), most indie authors will be better off just sucking it up and doing it.

I know it can be overwhelming. I realize some may look at the prospect and scream “Does not want!” But that’s because you haven’t had it laid out for you in an easy-to-understand and step-by-step manner. The beauty of this book is that Mr. Shepard doesn’t just “assume” you know anything at all about either page layout or specifically all the features Word has.

He understands most people use Word like a typewriter and that most of the buttons and options they never even explore, let alone know how to apply to formatting something like a book. I might be weird, but using this book, I’ve found page layout pretty fun and now look forward to that part of the process. The one thing I had a problem with, curly quotes, had nothing to do with Mr. Shepard’s directions and everything to do with a glitch in my Open Office program.

Aiming at Amazon

The next book you might want to check into is Aiming at Amazon. This is the book in which Mr. Shepard lays out his publishing plan for the “new” self-publishing. When I read this, I was like “YAY! Someone else gets it!” Because I swear I’ve been pulling my hair out and screaming at the ceiling over those who say you aren’t really self-publishing if you don’t do an offset print run.

Is image really worth it when you can do something else for lower risk, lower cost, and higher profit? In this book, Mr. Shepard introduces Lightning Source. He goes into using LSI more in-depth in the third book. The basic premise here is that if you are a self-published author you need to forget about bookstores.

I still can’t believe the number of indie authors who will publish a book, even using print-on-demand, then they will try to get it into physical brick and mortar bookstores on consignment. It’s like they aren’t stopping to do the math. Even if you are able to sell books that way, it’s not very effective, not for your time and the gas required to drive around, etc. Why not just do it all on the Internet? With sites like Amazon.com, Indie Reader, and others, it’s hard to imagine what use a brick and mortar bookstore is going to be to an indie.

Shepard focuses on Amazon because it’s the biggest and there are many tools within the system that allows authors to sell more books. i.e. the phenomenon of “more sales equals more sales” as you rise in the rankings system and more people see you. Also through LSI you can get into the other Amazon stores such as Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk. Amazon.com is the largest, but the others are still big and worth having your book listed.

One of the great benefits of this book is that it doesn’t have a million strategies and techniques. Why is that a good thing? Because no human being can put into practice a million strategies and techniques. A book that is meant to help you should be narrowing things down to the most effective and time-tested strategies, not infinite fad options which may or may not work for you. Shepard boils it down to the essentials so you can get done what you need to get done and get out.

POD For Profit

POD for Profit is Aaron Shepard’s latest book and it goes into the nuts and bolts of how to work with Lightning Source. Interestingly LSI (Lightning Source International) is the best at what they do, bar none. And yet, they are still so “unknown” to those wishing to self-publish.

That’s because LSI does a really good job of making themselves look intimidating, and they only work with publishers. However, if you’re a self-publisher, you “are” a publisher. All you need to pass the LSI litmus test is three things:

1. ISBNs for your books which you own
2. A business/publishing name that your ISBNs are registered under
3. Enough knowledge to work with LSI

Lightning Source makes that last part pretty easy by having file creation guides that tell you exactly what they need from you to work with you. Aaron Shepard makes it even easier with POD for Profit.

If anything in LSI’s information packets is confusing… if you want to work with LSI, ask somebody else. LSI expects those they work with to understand publishing and printing terminology. That’s a part of publishing.

Mr. Shepard walks you step-by-step through getting your ISBNs, setting up your business, applying for an account, getting set up with LSI, and then working with LSI. This is the only comprehensive book I’m aware of that goes into so much depth for those wishing to work with Lightning Source.

He also explains to you the different reps that will be assigned to you from LSI and their purposes so you don’t make an LSI social faux pas. You basically want to not even be a blip on LSI’s radar. If you prove too complicated, they’ll suggest you use an author services company, something which you do not want to do if you want to make decent profit margins.

Everything you need to know to work with Lightning Source is contained in this book, so unless you somehow already know everything about it, you need it. Like with his other books, Shepard lays everything out in an easy-to-understand manner making it more accessible to more readers.

Zoe Winters writes and self-publishes both fiction and nonfiction under a few different names and imprints. She’s been called a “publishing geek” and loves all the minutiae of publishing just a little too much. She’s very passionate about the indie author movement and helping other authors who want to self-publish learn how to do it in the way that best suits them and their goals. To contact Zoe, visit her at: smartselfpublishing.com or http://www.zoewinters.org

Tags: aaron shepard, indie advocates, indie authorship, indie help

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 9:33 am and is filed under For authors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.