John T. Reed’s self-publishing blog

I hate people who look for symbolism in literature. I especially hate English teachers who did that and who tried to make me and/or my sons find symbolism.In the vast majority of cases, there is none.To Kill a MockingbirdWhen I was a junior in college, my entire class was assigned to read To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. After we read it and discussed it in class, including many of our instructors urging us to find and discuss the symbolism in it, Harper Lee came to our college and addressed an assembly of our entire class. After her remarks,...

Advanced Marketing Systems, Inc. On December 29, 2006, Advanced Marketing Services, Inc. declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. One of their subsidiaries is Publisher Group West of Emeryville, CA which distributed my books to book stores from 1981 through 2001. The San Francisco Chronicle story also said that PGW’s bankruptcy threatens the survival of many small presses. Not mine, baby! They terminated me in 2001, apparently because I kept complaining about slow payment and other misbehaviors. The Chronicle also reports that the FBI and SEC began investigating Advance Marketing Services in 2003 and that those investigations resulted in three of the company’s...

I have written and self-published over 100 books counting multiple editions of some. My books are famous for having typos. I try to get rid of them before publication. I proofread the book myself. I spell check it. I often have another person proofread it. But typos are elusive. I saw an article about them once at my typographers back in the pre-laser-writer days. It said something to the effect that typos hide with great skill before the book is printed. But after it is printed, they leap out at the reader.As time goes on, I hear about typos that I...

Copyright 2012 by John T. ReedBelow is an email from an author that you wannabe authors need to read. I find the beliefs of wannabe authors about Amazon and publishers to be fairy tale-ish. Here is a guy saying the publishers will not even tell you how many of the books you wrote were sold.I know how many of my books I sell, because I am the publisher and distributor. You should be too. See my book How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Own How-To Book. Good Afternoon –Please see below for an article submission by Michael Levin, eight...

Copyright 2012 by John T. ReedAn author friend of mine once let Nolo Press distribute his book. It sold rather well. Nolo then came out with a book on the same subject to compete with it.Later Nolo asked to distribute one of my books.No, thanks. Nowadays, Amazon lets all sorts of third-parties sell stuff through Amazon Marketplace.Guess what?By processing your sales, they see which of your products sell best at what volume and and what price point. I presume Amazon gives you stats on your sales when you do that.Do they give you all the stats? We have no way of...