Self Publishing Ideas 2017

Introduction

My self-publishing ideas 2017 are discussed in this post. Reflecting on the past year’s self-publishing achievements, and planning goals for the forthcoming year is considered best practice by many people. I’ve tried this over the past couple of years and I’ve found reflection on the past year’s self-publishing activities instructive, and if I’ve achieved goals then it has been fairly rewarding.

However, my self-publishing achievements never seem to match my plans!

Nevertheless, I do think it is worth thinking about the coming year – just not worth committing to specific targets.

This year I sat around for the best part of January and February without committing to any real goals or ideas. I just continued working on our latest eBook – Six Days in Prague.
Until a place became available on a February self-publishing event: “How to make a living with your writing: books blogging and more” conducted by Belinda Pollard (Small Blue Dog Publishing) with Joanna Penn, and Rachel Amphlett.

This event got me moving. I’d forgotten how much workshops like this inspire me to “get on with things”!

So, this post about some self-publishing ideas I wish to pursue this year. They aren’t goals but some initiatives I want to explore. I’m sure they’ll lead me forward.

My self-publishing ideas 2017

I am going to focus on four categories:

eBooks

I think the best thing to do is keep producing eBooks. eBook ideas are:

• complete our eBook on Six Days in Prague (finished already!); and
• combine our eBooks on Istanbul, Bucharest, and Budapest into a set. The three cities mentioned are on the train line from Istanbul to London, so there is some coherence. This idea was mentioned again at the conference and up until now I couldn’t see the relevance to our travel eBooks.

eBook Marketing

I simply must do something about marketing our eBooks. Last year, for various reasons, I did little in the way of blogs, tweets and posting to Instagram. People can’t buy our eBooks if they don’t know about them. So, improvement is required. Some marketing ideas are:

• prepare a free eBook about Our eBook Journey (after five years) to support our email list – I’m always reading (and being told) this is essential;
• prepare a total of 12 blogs for the year (future travel, photography, and self-publishing) – I commit to less each year and fail each year (But hey – I’ve completed two posts about Athens this year, and I’m about to post this!);
• post photos from our Regent’s Canal walk to Instagram (underway); and
• explore Amazon Ads (I’m told they are manageable and reasonable)

Photography

To continue the uphill struggle to improve my photography: Practice, practice and more practice!

Innovation

My motivation is fuelled by new ideas. I want to, and need to, explore new techniques and approaches to support our self-publishing endeavours. Some ideas include:

• explore print based options. This has been on my list for years! However, I’m enthused more than ever after a tip I picked up from Joanna at the conference: “try Blurb“: I’m actively pursuing this idea in relation to a print book; and I’ve almost finished a print version of our Prague eBook.
• investigate video and audio to supplement our eBooks. I am totally frustrated with the progress towards meaningful ePub 3. It reminds me of the Betamax versus VHS wars. So, I’m not waiting: I’m going to trial travel video. I figure I can use my Nikon D7200 DX-format DSLR Body (Black) to take video. I’ve just ordered the Manfrotto MVH400AHUS lightweight, travel friendly Be Free Live Fluid Video Head, Black for my Manfrotto BeFree tripod and a microphone for dubbing (researching). I can post these video and audio files to our website.
• What can be done with PDF? Every photographer I follow self-publishes PDF files: to promote their photography, or for tutorials. I figure this approach could be good for our photo heavy travel books. Until now I didn’t know how to publish them: but Blurb will do it! So, this is a real possibility. Is it feasible to include video/audio?
• explore the Amazon Associates program (already signed up)

Measuring Progress

The four categories above frame my self-publishing ideas for 2017. I don’t want to revisit them at the end of the year and assess my achievements. I am more interested in these ideas guiding my efforts and see what happens. Once I start exploring an idea I never know where the journey will go or end (but it is generally enjoyable)!

A final thought

Our latest eBook “Six days in Prague” is our seventh eBook. Our short to medium term plan is to complete 10. After that I want to shake things up a bit. What does this mean? I’m not exactly sure. The idea is churning around in the background.

However, some principles about the future approach are clear:

• Self-publishing will be the focus.
• Leveraging/scaling each eBook will be an increasing emphasis: print option? PDF option?
• Photography/video will be an integral component.
• Any future travel eBooks will not follow the format: Arrival, Day 1, Day 2 etc. Instead there will be an increasing focus on themes (e.g. culture, history, architecture, fishing etc). The research, planning, record of daily activities and reflection will be part of the Appendices.

We are quietly musing and dreaming – so who knows where we’ll end up?

I fear I’ve put too much on my plate again, but that self-publishing event has fired me up!

This is a link to all of our Goals and Reflections posts

This is a link to all our eBook self-publishing posts.

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