“Global Dan”

It may not surprise you to learn that on September 17th, 2014, Dan Poynter, self-publishing movement pioneer and author, spent his 76th birthday in a room full of writers and wanna-be writers talking about–guess what?–publishing. “I haven’t retired,” he said. “I’ve never met an author who was retired.”

After we all sang “Happy Birthday Dear Dan” and shared some homemade fudge, we quieted down and leaned forward so as not to miss a single word of what this man had to say. We all know that Dan Poynter knows stuff.  When a man travels 6000 miles a week to different places around the globe in order to share with people about publishing, and then he listens to what they say back, he obviously has his ear to the ground and it’s smart to pay attention.

“Amazon is Your Friend”

Dan Poynter usually has a specific theme when he talks, and on this particular night his topic was Amazon.com, the world’s largest online book-seller. He addressed himself to the fact that Amazon is constantly being maligned by segments of the book-industry world, especially bookstores and publishers, which Poynter seems to find irritating.  “Publishing hasn’t changed the way they do business since 1947, so they should stop complaining and start marketing.” He points out that readers are now reading books on their iPhones, yet back before Border’s went belly-up, one brick and mortar store in California was paying$32,000-a-month rent. “You have to sell a lot of books to pay that.” Dan said. “Don’t expect the book business to change anytime soon,” he added. “It’s really too late for most of them to catch up.”

While traditional publishing was taking pot-shots at self-publishing and Amazon, Amazon started giving customers what they actually want. (What a concept!) He recommends a book called The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone (2014) because it tells you all about what Amazon can do for you, the self-published author. (Or how you can buy a toaster).

“Amazon Does More for Authors”

Poynter listed just some of the things that Amazon does for authors:

•  Amazon leveled the playing field so everybody can play. Anybody can publish their book for FREE.
• Amazon makes it easy for self-publishers to market their books, including their own “page” where they can put photos, videos, links to blogs, and more.
• Amazon lets you have real people review your book and tell you want readers really want and don’t want. (And buyers actually read these reviews before buying).
• Since bloggers are the new book reviewers, Google for bloggers in your area to write reviews. Type in “your subject + book bloggers.”

Poynter’s Conclusions

• Thanks to Amazon, you can now be in charge of your writing career
• Learn the rules
• Don’t put out shoddy work –it hurts all self-published authors
• Support our industry–buy books as gifts
• Amazon is the only dog in the fight
• Amazon is a fact of life
• Keep buying Amazon stock!

Dan Poynter has three free newsletter you can sign up for — one on publishing, one of marketing, and one on speaking. Go to http://www.parapub.com and sign up on the top left side of the front page.

Filed under: Amazon.com, Dan Poynter, Jeff Bezos, self-publishing Tagged: " "indie" publishing, "The Everything Store", Amazon.com, Brad Stone, Carolyn Howard Johnson, Constance Anderson, Dan Poynter, DIY publishing, Jeff Bezos, Pacific Coast Regional, PALA, Publishers Association of Los Angeles, publishing, self-publishing