First Word

  Available for Sale on Amazon in print and Kindle. Also on sale in Nook and Apple iBook versions. 5 Kale soon returned to Arizona for more on-set work. Other staffers from the office went with him so the place was quiet. I didn’t mind. I was able to get a lot of work done, and believe me, the pile of notes for rewrites had only grown. I’d heard, though, that they were actively casting the movie and that Johnny, the hot man I’d met in the hallway, had won the Drew part. As I rewrote Drew’s scenes, I wondered if he would see the movie. It occurred to me as I wrote the female lead that her words might make him feel the least bit repentant, but somehow I doubted it since Drew never expressed remorse. I was staring out my office window thinking about this when I heard a voice come from behind me. “ Are you busy?” I turned around to find Monica standing in the doorway, which surprised me since she had gone with Kale to Arizona and was obviously...

Unless you're a publisher you might give the eBook revolution no more consideration than you do the iTunes revolution. It's happening, and you love your eBook reader -- it's compact, carries thousands of books in your purse or briefcase, and it's really fun to play with. As a publisher, our focus is to shift and change with the business model. While "old-schoolers" continue to embrace their paper tomes, eBook readers are buying the electronic versions in droves. In the last six months, our company 3L Publishing has seen the most dramatic shift in interest when it comes to eBook sales vs. print. This change was long ago predicted to escalate by 2015, and so goes the trend. Our last top-selling book sold one print to nine eBooks. Whereas just last summer our top-selling book sold more like every 4 out of 5 eBooks. The eBook revolution isn't going to slow. Diminishing floor space in Barnes and Noble, increasing restrictions in national distribution system...

Today is royalty payment day. As I'm collecting information from the sales channels and most specifically Apple iTunes Connect I want to write Apple this letter: Dear iTunes Connect, Why? Sincerely, Michelle Why? is a very simple and direct question to ask about their stupid sales and tracking system. Unlike Nook or Kindle, the geniuses over at Apple seem to think they're more clever than the rest of us. They created a sales reporting system that doesn't show what was sold and when! It's strictly a total. Nothing tracks back to the actual product sold and when. The number of products (iBooks) sold is completely disconnected and you can't tell if payment has been remitted either. If I want to know the payment remittance I have to check my business account. I'm hoping my complaints somehow receive the light of day and either A. someone changes the system or B. I'm the one who just doesn't know where the "easy" reporting system is located...

With so many self-publishing choices, many authors confuse something very important: the ability to publish OR the ability to publish it RIGHT . Many different "distribution mechanisms" like Create Space enable authors to publish on the cheap (and I use the word "publish" loosely since Create Space is not a publisher but a "publishing tool"). Authors write the book and find the tool (they call the tool their publisher, which again it is not a publisher), and they call their books published. They also believe they got such a deal, and this cheap publishing tool enabled it. The book might sell to friends and family -- and that's all the audience it will ever find. It wasn't even done professionally. It's often not professionally edited (the author is a professional writer and their English teacher friend proofed it). They didn't have a graphic designer design it, they hit "format" in Word and it is "formatted" and not d...

The publishing industry has been in rapid change for the last 10 years. With the advent of easier publishing methods and now the rise of eBooks, many authors (even famous ones) are bypassing the traditional publishing method that has become driven by big name celebrities and well-known authors to bother to give the new and emerging authors a shot. This is why companies like 3L Publishing have risen to open new doors and create opportunities for new authors to have a way to publish. So, what is a hybrid publisher? A hybrid publisher offers all of the services of a traditional publisher only authors pay to have their books published in exchange for higher royalties. Traditional publishers typically offer royalties that range from 10-12 percent. Here at 3L Publishing, we offer royalty rates that range from 35-70 percent. Additionally 3L Publishing selects roughly two to three titles a year to publish traditionally, which means we not only pay advances, but also we pay the entire freig...