The Self Publishing Show

Software engineer, Brian Spangler, talks to SPF about his data gathering app that helps authors understand the Amazon marketplace and reveal which categories offer the highest profit potential.

Legendary comic book author, Pat Mills, creator of 2000 AD, featuring Judge Dredd, talks to SPF about the state of the nation in the comic book industry, his move to writing text novels, and what he's learned from his experiences dealing with Hollywood.

Science fiction author Michael Anderle talks to James about writing fast, finding voracious readers and building a publishing empire, one book at a time.

Sci-fi and paranormal author TS Paul shares with James how he's flouted every indie author 'rule' for writing, publishing and platform building, and has subsequently had huge success selling his short fiction.

In this week's episode, Kindlepreneur's Dave Chesson explains how to validate your book idea before you start the long-term and time-consuming process of writing your novel.

Dictating your first draft, as opposed to typing it, can exponentially increase a writer's daily word count. James talks to Dragon Trainer Scott Baker about tips, tricks, and equipment to get you dictating like a pro.

Book launch expert Tim Grahl talks to James about the importance of an email list, successful book launches and his own experience of writing a novel for public consumption.

Fighter pilot and commercial airline captain, Susan Grant, talks to James about making the leap from traditionally published writer to successful indie author.

If you're looking to make sense of all the stats and figures out there relating to the world of digital book publishing, who you gonna call? Thankfully, the pseudonymous Data Guy has got it covered.

In this week's podcast episode Mark Dawson hosts a masterclass on Amazon Ads, explaining how indie authors can use them to sell books and boost their visibility and platform.

This week's interview is with romance author HM Ward, one of the great success stories of self publishing. Tune in to hear her story and how it could, with the right approach, be emulated by other indie authors.

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Personal branding. If you spend any time with online entrepreneurs (and you should if you're an author) you hear that phrase all the time. But what EXACTLY does it mean, and how can it increase book sales and advance your career as an author? There's nobody better to explain it than our guest today, Chris […]

The SPF team has been very impressed with the platform and service of the team at Draft2Digital. Their service has a two-pronged approach to help self-published authors with some of the most important aspects of self-publishing – and the service ensures that no financial investment is required until a book actually sells. On this episode, […]

One of the best things about self-publishing is that anyone can publish a book. One of the worst things about self-publishing is that anyone can publish a book. The marketplace is getting more and more crowded with new authors appearing on Amazon and other online book outlets every day. How do you stand out from […]

What you'll hear on this episode of the Self Publishing Formula is nothing short of empowering. Tony Garrett is a new and very successful author, (writing as 'T.J.Garrett'), pulling in over $30K per month in book sales. But in order to get to that point he's had to overcome a degenerative disease that makes it […]

Working with your spouse may not be your idea of a perfect work environment, but many authors are discovering it's a natural next step once success comes knocking on their door. If you've listened to the Self Publishing Formula you know that Mark and James often speak of the real work it is to become […]

As an author, it's a given that you're going to have get used to dealing with all kinds of feedback on your work. But don't get downhearted by the negative words. For a start, new authors should quickly get used to the fact that you simply can't please all of the people all of the […]

If you haven't gotten far enough in your self-publishing career to worry about formatting your ebook, you've got some learning ahead. It's not easy. In fact, it's quite complicated. Instead of there being one format that all of the ebook platforms use, each of them has their own file type that they use. But before […]

Many of the publishing tools indie authors need to access are hard to find – at least with the quality and trustworthiness you need in order to make your book of the highest quality. That's why Ricardo Fayet and the folks at Reedsy developed their online platform. It's a site that brings together editors, graphic […]

Self publishing success stories are becoming more and more common. The opportunity to write and benefit from your books is now very real. During their recent trip to the United States for the NINC conference, Mark and James were able to meet a number of SPF students, one of whom was Elicia Hyder. She is […]

There are many book cover creators and designers out there but none with the expertise and experience of today's guest on the podcast. Stuart Bache has not only designed books for Mark Dawson but also for many other bestselling authors such as John le Carre and Stephen King. On this episode we chat with Stuart […]

It's every author's dream to have their books made into movies and today's guest, A.G. Riddle might be about to realize that dream. His best-selling series of books has already had the movie rights purchased and he waits to hear from the studio as to what the next steps will be. But Gerry is amazingly […]

Like more and more traditionally published authors these days, Orna Ross took her rights back from a large traditional publisher to re-publish her books herself. Because she was the one in charge she was able to do it in the manner she'd always wanted. That was in 2011. At The London Book Fair in 2012, […]

Best-selling thriller author, Rachel Abbott is quick to point out that her success is just as surprising to her as it is to anyone. Her skill and her savvy for marketing and sales have combined to make her the best-selling author in the UK on Amazon's KDP platform. On this episode, you'll get to hear […]

Writing a novel is one thing. Writing a novel specifically to fulfill a demand is another. On this episode of the Self Publishing Formula podcast, James has a very intriguing conversation with Gabriel Mercer, a marketing and technical expert who was approached by a would-be author about marketing her books – before they were written. […]

ConvertKit is an example of a niche focused business. And the focus is authors and bloggers. Nathan Barry was (and still is) running a very successful self publishing business of his own and found that the majority of his sales came through promotions he made to his mailing list. But he began to have problems. […]

Self-Publishing is what we're all about here at SPF. And that's because it often makes more sense than traditional publishing. In fact, self-publishing is very much a response to the limitations of traditional publishing. Today's guest, Barbara Freethy, was already an established traditionally published author when she dipped her toe into the self publishing waters […]

You can't approach an advertising campaign haphazardly. That's one of the main lessons learned in this conversation with Depesh Mandalia. Depesh is a successful social media marketer and advertiser and has boosted the popularity of a children's book project through his use of Facebook Ads and other social marketing. In this episode, Depesh shares some […]

Daily word count is one of the metrics many authors track to ensure they are moving toward completion of their projects. One of the struggles is increasing that word count to get more work done, but doing so in a way that doesn't sacrifice quality for quantity. Today's guest has discovered a way to do […]

Social Media Ads are a big focus of our work here at the Self Publishing Formula simply because the days when you could organically drive traffic to your website and book sales pages through normal social media interaction are gone. That's not only because social media is becoming more and more crowded but also because […]

Indie authors have long taken pride in their ability to use the tools at their disposal to create works of fiction and nonfiction that easily rival the quality and appeal of those published through the traditional channels. But using the traditional PR (public relations) channels has been a bit of an enigma to this point […]

When you're able to get your non-fiction book or area of knowledge put into an online course you'll have plenty of options when it comes to organizing that course for online consumption. And when you do, it's important that you find a platform that serves you as a partner, not just in a business relationship. […]

This episode of The Self Publishing Formula is part two of a three part series about using non-fiction writing to establish revenue through online courses. Give some time to this episode and you'll see the common sense and not-so-difficult way you can turn your knowledge and expertise into an online course that generates income for […]

Much of the Self Publishing Formula audience is engaged in writing fiction. But there are distinct advantages to learning how to write and distribute non-fiction works. To investigate and expose these opportunities we're starting off today with the first of a 3-part series that focuses on how to write and leverage non-fiction for the purpose […]

It's an amazing thing when you realize that you might be able to write a stellar novel, full of excellent scenes and powerful characters, but when it comes to writing a blurb to put on Amazon and other online retailers, it feels like pulling teeth to do it well. It requires a different set of […]

In this episode we've included a great conversation with the author of smash hit crime thrillers, Clare Mackintosh. Clare is traditionally published but the lessons she's learned about rewriting, editing, and Facebook fan interaction have a lot to each Indie and Self Published authors, so we thought it would be a valuable conversation to bring […]