Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #478208 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 294 pages

Customer Reviews

Very helpful book
This book is full of good ideas and is very accessible. What could be a dauntingly large area is broken down well. The writing style is enthusiastic and I would say this book is well worth getting.

With added vitamins
For the last couple of weeks or so, I've been digesting The Well Fed Publisher. There's quite a lot to it. But I managed it in several sittings.

Peter Bowerman is an established self-publisher who specialises in freelance writing guides. He's also had 30 years experience of sales and marketing and has made a living from doing what he says. He's not obese but he's not starving, either. And when faced with the monumental task of marketing your own book his best advice is to adopt the same approach as you would for eating an elephant - one bite at a time.

There's stacks of good advice and it's all explained in a very readable style. Peter Bowerman points out that self publishing is front end loaded so it's particularly encouraging to hear from someone who's been through this process. You just have to keep on keeping on. And it's all about identifying the pivotal influencers among your niche groups and hitting those niches until you're hitting so many people you become "mainstream" and develop "passive revenue streams" - great for an "active spender" like me.

For the inspirational insights alone, this book is worth the money.

The Well-Fed Self-Publisher
People self publish for many reasons. Many want to keep strict control over their intellectual property. Others just think it is ridiculous to receive royalties of a buck or so while the publisher takes in the majority of the profits. For Peter Bowerman control of his writing is important but making money is his main motive for self publishing.

In The Well-Fed Self-Publisher, the author shares his secrets to success, success meaning selling large quantities of books. Much of this material is the common sense notions that writers often completely forget when trying to promote their work: getting reviews, determining your target audience, creating name recognition, and selling without appearing you are selling.

It would seem that the author source of his success is that he takes these aspects to the extreme. Most writers think that a handful of reviews is more than enough, Bowerman sends out hundreds of review copies. He then follows though to get those reviews complete. The author does the same with gaining media attention. He is constantly trying to find and make use of a new angle to get his product recognized. Bowerman also states that in order to make money you have to spend money (on professional editing, covers, typesetting, review copy costs, etc), but do so wisely.