What’s Behind the Recent Growth of Self-Publishing in Brazil?

Over the last five years or so self-publishing has grown to be a very stable part of the book market on a global scale. International and local businesses have offered a variety of services for self publishing authors who are willing to distribute their books in a digital format. Kobo and Amazon are two such examples. This same type of growth in self-publishing has been happening in many different regions around the world, most recently in Brazil. Ricardo Almeida is the founder and CEO of the most popular self-publishing platform in Brazil, the Clube de Autores. They have been having remarkable growth and in 2014 they won the British Council YCE award.

Inception of Clube de Autores

In 2009, Clube de Autores was started by three writers who were having a difficult time publishing their books. They basically had only two choices: find a publishing company to sponsor the book – which was very rare; or pay the outlandish publishing fees outright. The three writers didn’t think that a market as huge as it is and one that is saturated with content should be so difficult to get started in. So they began working on their own self-publishing model that would be sensible for all writers. Their basic model was designed such that an author could publish their works online for free and once a sale was made the book could be downloaded or printed. The plan took off and worked perfectly so that now, five years after its inception, Clube de Autores publishes about 10% of all of the Brazilian market.

Challenges Clube de Autores has Faced

One of the biggest challenges the partners faced was printing the books on-demand. It was difficult to negotiate prices with a print shop to print books in these tiny batches. But the organizers would not give up on their vision because it was one of the factors they knew was necessary for the success of their self-publishing platform. They also faced all of the regular challenges for a business in Brazil, such as high taxes, postal company strikes, and government red tape. But their mindset was that these were just common barriers that they had to get around.

Growth of the Self-Publishing Platform in Brazil

One of the most surprising things for the three founders was how fast the platform began to grow. They knew it was going to be successful because of the high need of self-publishing authors, but it grew up overnight, much to their surprise. They learned to work well with their authors and eventually grew into a complete marketplace including reviews, book covers and a variety of needed professional services. They even received international recognition by being awarded the YCE award for their work.

Top 5 Best Reads for Translators

It’s very likely that if you are a translator, you enjoy reading. The reasons for reading are varied and it can be fun as well as rewarding. But it is a good idea to read as part of our professional development. What should a translator read in terms of professional development? Are there any specific books that would be beneficial? There are literally thousands of relevant books, but here we’re listing five of the top books that are great to get you started.

Translation as a Profession

This book by Roger Chriss is a good resource for translators from novices to veterans. It is full of useful information and his style is concise and succinct. You’ll enjoy this read and learn a lot about translating in the process.

The Entrepreneurial Linguist

Judy and Dagmar Jenner did an excellent job covering how to develop a successful translation business. For the most part, the book shares a variety of ideas and tips on how to become a freelance translator, but presents it all from the perspective of building a business. The Entrepreneurial Linguist is a wonderful tool in the hands of translators who are serious about taking their translation business to the next level.

How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator

If you are just getting started in freelance translation services, then How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator is for you. Author, Corinne McKay discusses a myriad of topics, including how to start and grow the business, how to set up your home office, how to determine your rates and tons of other useful bits of information. It is also a very good source for a variety of related resources and tips.

The Translator’s Handbook

The first edition of this handbook was printed in 1996, but it is now it has reached its 7^th revised edition. Even though the title makes it sound like the book contains specific information on how to translate, it is not the primary topic. Morry Sofer took the time to create an overview of translating, useful resources and professional development opportunities.

Mox’s Illustrated Guide to Freelance Translation

This book by Alejandro Moreno-Ramos is a fun read. He created a fictitious cartoon character named Mox. The character is well educated, works way too hard and is typically misunderstood by friends and family. You’ll enjoy this fun look at the types of situations only translators are able to relate to.

Barbara Freethy’s Transition to the World of Self-Publishing and Translations

Just a couple of years ago romance author Barbara Freethy began self-publishing ebooks using her books that were out-of-print. By the early part of 2012 she had sold over 1.5 million copies. To grow sales, Freethy began self-publishing translated versions of the books. Needless to say, she’s been quite successful and a had a fun run along the way.

The Road to Self-Publishing

When Freethy started self-publishing it was a marketing decision. She decided to sell her titles that were out-of-print as inexpensive ebooks as a way to draw attention to the newer titles she was having published through traditional publishers, such as Simon & Schuster. As she made the transition to indie publishing, she created new book covers and ran social media campaigns using Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic to her books' listings on sites like Amazon.

Her strategy worked. Her book The Sweet Thing had previously been published by Avon back in 1999, and when it was brought back to the market as a self-published book sales thrived. In 2010 The Sweet Thing ranked #35 on the New York Times Combined (print and ebook) Best Seller List and ranked #22 on the New York Times eBook Only Best Seller List.

Freethy self-published books include 18 titles so far: 17 are back-lists and A Secret Wish is an original book. Although she made her titles available through a variety of e-bookstores, most of her sales came from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Trying Out Translations

After having such marked success at self-publishing, Freethy began creating foreign language editions. She started with just three titles: Don’t Say a Word was translated into German, Daniel’s Gift was translated into Spanish and Just The Way You Are was translated into French. All of these were made available on Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble. She hired translators and proof readers for each of the translations.

Today indie authors can have their translations done at Babelcube for no cost (just share the royalties) by a team - lead translator and editor and proof reader. Babelcube distributes the books through language specific retailers from a list of 300+, from Amazon to country specific retailers. 

Freethy’s Persistence Paid Off

Fast forward to the middle of 2013 and her self-published sales reached 3 million books. Now that’s exciting! She only began self-publishing in 2011 with a single book, Summer Secret, and its sales began to increase until it was listed as #1 on Barnes & Noble’s list and the next month it reached #1 on Amazon as well. Shortly after that Summer Secret was #1 on the New York Times eBook List. Within a short time, her other self-published titles began showing up on best seller lists.

Self-publishing was a learning experience for Feethy. And, initially sales were slow. Through research, such as online videos about book cover design, she studied many topics on self-publishing books. She also made her books available through a variety of retailers. And, even when sales were initially slow, she continued to add books to her self-published list.

What Freethy Likes About Self-publishing

While Freethy has stated that she seems to work harder now than ever before, she enjoys the rewards of self-publishing far greater. She loves running her own business, having control over what she writes and how frequently she can choose to publish. She always wrote faster than what publishers could produce and now she does not have to space out a series or hold back on the number of books she produces in a year. She is enjoying her new life as an indie author.

Presentation: Taking Your Book Sales to New Heights

Once your book is ready for sale, the next phase of the book's life begins. Authors, publishers, and translators all have the job of driving book sales.

To help you with promoting your book, we developed a presentation with numerous book marketing ideas.

Check out Guide for Authors: Taking Your Book Sales to New Heights. We were fortunate to have the presentation featured on SlideShare's homepage, after being chosen from thousands of presentations updated that day.

We hope you find it helpful!

LinkedIn for Authors

There are a myriad of social media platforms and each of them provide benefits for authors. The particular social sites that an author chooses will depend on their personal taste, marketing strategies, and how they desire to connect with their audience. LinkedIn is one social platform that can be an effective and beneficial tool in the hand of an author.

Why LinkedIn Is Different

LinkedIn is one of the more popular social media sites available today. However, it has a very different flavor than most of the other popular social sites. LinkedIn is designed for social networking in the business community. It’s the largest social media platform that is geared toward the professional. Its design is such that professionals are able to connect with others in the same industry, for example. You may be asking how an indie author can use LinkedIn for marketing their books. There are actually several ways to use LinkedIn successfully.

LinkedIn Profiles

One way to use LinkedIn effectively is through the use of your profile. It is important that you update your status on a regular basis. If you are an indie author, for example, by including information relevant to the self publishing industry, you’ll demonstrate that you are actively involved and knowledgeable. Always use a current photo of yourself and make sure that it is a clear headshot. Be sure to fill out all of the fields including some of the newer ones like courses, publications or projects. Use relevant keywords to update the jobs field. By using relevant keywords in descriptions and titles you increase the likelihood of your profile showing up in search engine results. Make sure to keep your interests updated as well. Update your Amazon reading list, slideshows, and of course your blog. Your headline and summary are where profile visitors will get their first impression so make sure that they are creative and catchy.

Updating Your Status

Use timely and relevant information to update your status on a regular basis. You might include a sneak peak of your coming projects, speak of industry trends, discuss fast breaking news or even ask a question. By asking questions, you are likely to increase participation of others. If you want others to participate and be engaged, limit the length of your status to 50 characters. Typically, with an update it is good to include a web link, such as to your blog, a video or a website. Stay engaged with those who respond to your updates. Always be a part of the conversation by reacting to other’s comments or asking questions.

Using Groups On LinkedIn

One of LinkedIn’s finer qualities is in their groups. It’s important to select a number of relevant groups to join. You want to join only the number that you can reasonably be active in and don’t join just for the sake of joining. LinkedIn groups offer a great resource for making connections with likeminded individuals and creating enduring relationships. By being active in LinkedIn groups you can develop a good rapport with many other authors and readers. The key to success on LinkedIn, just like any other social site, is to stay actively involved.