Self-Publishing News Updates Authors Need To Know

What’s News and New In Self-Publishing

Please note: This page is no longer updated. However, we will leave it online for reference value only.

However, you can track Amazon KDP updates on our new page.

It’s hard to keep up with all the changes and developments in self-publishing. It is a constantly changing industry and one that will keep changing in the future.

While Just Publishing Advice endeavours to post new and relevant articles to keep authors and writers informed, the pace at which change happens makes it difficult to post full in-depth articles for every change or development.

To overcome the problem, this page will be updated regularly with the latest publishing and self-publishing news authors and writers need to know.

So, bookmark this page and come back from time to time and we will try to keep you informed of everything important you need to know.

This will not be a news feed, as there are plenty available on the Internet.

However, we will try to keep you informed about what you really need to know to stay ahead in self-publishing.

Latest Self-Publishing News and Updates

17/01/2018

Createspace Lays Off Staff

The Post and Courier report that Createspace is downsizing. With Amazon KDP now offering paperback publishing, it seems to have had serious consequences for Createspace.

15/12/2017

A Look Back at 2017 Publishing Headlines: 5 Issues Raised for Authors

An in-depth read from Jane Friedman covering publishing in 2017.

08/12/2107

Amazon has changed its review guidelines.

To be able to contribute to Customer Reviews or Customer Answers, Spark, or to follow other contributors, you must have spent at least $50 on Amazon.com using a valid credit or debit card. Link to Amazon page.

06/12/2017

Kindle Create comes out of beta.

Kindle Create is now available for all authors.

Kindle Create helps you transform your document into a beautiful book. Works with .doc and .docx files exported from word processing apps like Microsoft Word, Apple Pages and Google Docs. Kindle Create currently supports English content only.

02/1272017

Goodreads extends (very) expensive ebook and book giveaways

Goodreads is launching new giveaway packages that start from $119 up to $599. The base price of $119 allows authors to giveaway 100 copies of their books. The offer only applies to US based authors. One would have to ask though, why pay so much to giveaway books for free?

27/11/2017

Type & Tell closes

Type & Tell, a self-publishing service provider from Bonnier Books Nova is closing its business. T&T offered publishing packages ranging from £199 up to £3,399. Perhaps no surprise the business model failed. You can read Type & Tell’s closure announcement.

21/11/2017

New ebook retailer

BUK is a new ebook sharing platform. It links book quotes on social media back to direct sales from BUK. New, but perhaps worth a look. You can find more information in the BUK website.

15/11/2017

Inktera is temporarily suspending all eBook distribution.

This is the notice from Draft2Digital

We have received word from Inktera regarding some changes in progress, and we wanted to ensure that you knew what was happening, and why.

Over the past few months, Inktera has begun revamping their business model, in order to better serve the indie author community. These changes include an update to their sales platform.

Because of these updates and changes, Inktera is temporarily suspending sales for all books in their catalog.

Draft2Digital enjoys a good relationship with Inktera, and because so many of our authors use the service as part of their eBook distribution, they have asked us to let you know what was happening behind the scenes

Publishing—and particularly independent and self-publishing—is a constantly changing industry, and it’s not unusual to see providers and services come and go, or to pivot and redefine themselves. Inketera has long been a great resource for authors, and will continue to be so.

We are happy to see that Inktera is improving their service, to serve the author community even better, and we look forward to seeing their success!

At this time, we have no projected date for when Inktera will resume distribution, but we will notify you the moment we have new information.

If you have any questions regarding Inketera’s temporary suspension of distribution, please feel free to contact us at support at draft2digital.com.

13/11/2017

The Amazon Kindle turns 10 years old this week.

Take a look at this 2007 article on Newsweek to recall the release of the Kindle.

Happy Birthday, Kindle!

12/11/2017

Amazon has quietly discontinued Price Matching.

This has two effects for self-publishers.

One: Books can be discounted on other book retailers without affecting the list price on Amazon. This is very good news for authors who want to run price based promotions to increase sales on Apple, Kobo or B&N for example.

Two: Without Price Matching, it will now not be possible to create perma-free ebooks on the Kindle Store.

10/11/2017

It would seem that the Createspace Store is now redirecting to amazon.com book pages.

This fits with Amazons KDP paperback publishing changes. If you have paperbacks available on Createspace you may want to check and update your book links from Createspace to Amazon.

9/11/2017

Facebook shop feature

Until recently, the Shop feature on Facebook Pages was only available to US users. Now happily, this feature is available for users outside the US.

While on Facebook, if you have a Page, you can add yourself as a Team Member and this will link your Page to your profile page.

8/11/2017 

Pronoun closes

Macmillan has announced the closure of its self-publishing unit, Pronoun. For authors using Pronoun, it would seem that you will have to change to a new aggregator such as Draft2digital or Smashwords.

Draft2digital now offers ebook distribution to Amazon.

This is a big development, but before you jump in, read the fine print first as this distribution agreement will not include KDP Select and therefore, Kindle Unlimited listing.

Grammarly comes to iOS

Many writers use the popular Grammarly service to help with grammar and spellchecking. So it is good news that Grammarly is now available as an iPhone and iPad app.

280 characters for Twitter

Twitter has increased the length of Tweets to 280 characters. This is good news for authors using Twitter as a book promotion tool as you can fit more of your book description in one Tweet.

More publishing news to come, when it happens …