#indiepublishing

Okay, but how do you actually publish?

My new blog post walks you through everything I have learned in publishing my first novel, Seven Minutes. It gives you the road map through the pre-publishing sprint (as far as I have learned so far): ISBNs, domains, print-on-demand, cover files, copyright, release day. Everything I have personally gone through.

"So you want to publish that book? Then prove it."

Free pre-publish checklist at the end!

Publishing is hard. Writing is harder.

At TKG Publishing we believe in publication (it’s kind of our thing). It is a difficult industry, especially for an indie publisher.

But to get the manuscript to publish? That is a more rigorous effort. It takes skill, craft, and pure dedication.

Drawing up a pen name for better book promotion.

A pen name may be able to better direct readers to your book in ways your real name cannot.

Consider SEO, compliance, comparative and competitive overlap, connotations, reputation, and connections to other books or people you might not want associated with your name, or that may make it harder for readers to find you.

If your name is too common, associated with other books, brands, or businesses, carries reputation issues, or is the same name as another author, a strong and strategic pen name may be the answer for you. It can help readers find you and your book more easily, instead of getting lost among similarly named authors, books, or brands.

From the WINsomer LOSEsomer publishing industry observations series by Neal Winsomer.

10 months down and one month to go.

Episode 05 of Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast. The other day Amazon showed up with the first paperback proof of the book. Ten months in. One month and a day to go.

There are many people right now that talk about using the abuse of AI. And then there are others out there saying, no, I do not use it that way. Well, how? Prove it.

One of the things I wanted to do, and did from the first day, was track my writing time. I can show on a calendar the last 10 months. 999 hours and 9 minutes. Not a vanity number. The audiobook took 51 hours to record a 14-hour audiobook. Not in the greatest of health. But it was all me.

Consider marking that journey and laying out that journey.

Available on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

Creators, authors, designers — this is the pack you’ve been waiting for. 15000+ art images, 1500+ book PDFs, 20+ adult & 20+ children audiobooks, 300+ business cards, 300+ vine games. One price: 26.26. Perfect for content, print-on-demand, and indie publishing.

Instant access:

Bestseller is one of the easiest claims to buy and one of the hardest to earn.

Episode 04 of Calling Out the Shadows: A Clarity Over Comfort Podcast. Neal Winsomer breaks down the Amazon bestseller scam. Amazon has over 16,000 book categories. Many of those sell only a few copies per day. The bestseller calculation runs every hour and resets every hour. Whoever sold the most copies in a given category in the last hour wins the orange number one bestseller banner for that category. The Brent Underwood case from 2016 (foot photo uploaded to Amazon, three copies bought, hit number one in two tiny categories within minutes) is the canonical proof of how easy this is.

Stop letting marketing manipulation trick you. Real bestsellers sell to thousands of global readers, not 10 people in a hidden database node. The orange banner is marketing, not proof.

Available on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.

I have noticed many authors that hide behind the word author the way it used to mean something.

Being a published author does not make the work professional, authoritative, or true.

Defending an argument by pointing to a published-author credential is a weak defense.

Today, becoming a published author can take less than three hours.

Dig deeper into those using surface-level hype to see if anything sits behind the words.

From the WINsomer LOSEsomer publishing industry observations series by Neal Winsomer.