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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Scribd - the new author's best friend for online self-publishing

I'm sure you have heard of this site.... right? Well, I've recently used it (actually I've made an account several years earlier but somehow I've forgotten about this lol) and I gotta say - it's pretty simple to use and very convenient!

Let's say you've written a story and wanted to publish it but then you are afraid that you might get scammed by those self-publishing companies (like Trafford - there are plenty of rumours where Trafford ripped off authors of their royalty and charged extra... plenty of extras. Be careful!) - then Scribd is for you!

How does it work?

Generally, it works like any online publishing sites but then it's free and fully customisable. You just have to upload your stuff onto your account, set it to pay per view/ per download and set the price. Then, you should add a free preview to your story - perhaps the first chapter/ the summary? Some people may put the book cover, but I don't think this helps to increase your revenue much due to the fact that book covers are just pretty things (or not) that disclose absolutely nothing about the book that someone is going to buy... and no one buys unknown stuff from a new author just trying to make a name for him/herself. Oh and make sure your visibility is set as Public - you want people to buy them, right? 

Next, you can promote your story via sharing and wait for revenue to come in :)

However, like all medium, Scribd has a 20% charge per purchase - meaning that for every sale you get, you'll get 80% of the sale price. That's a pretty sweet deal for new authors and considering that you are new to publishing and stuff, it's better to take a little less (or even provide several free stories as demos) at the beginning. ;)

Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/

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Check out my Scribd account for more creative, written work :) (essays, proses/poems, short stories etc):
http://www.scribd.com/AveynToh
I'll be putting up more stuff there and, once I've written a summary for each of my essays/ short stories, I'll be replacing the 'cover page' image with the summary, so it's fair to the buyers :)

Honestly speaking, I don't mind sharing my stuff for free but then I'm currently facing some financial crisis due to having to self-fund my postgraduate studies at the moment... I'm really hoping that I can get at least one of the many scholarships that I've applied for. However, at the moment, I have no income whatsoever and have to pay for my hefty tuition fees and daily expenses. If you could help out in any way, I will be very grateful. P/S: I'm not asking for a hand-out, I just hope you could go and see my stuff and perhaps you might like it so much that you decide to purchase it. Do comment as well! - Like any aspiring author/poet, I crave attention and acknowledgement for my work. ;) Thank you.

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