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Last month I received an intriguing email from Barnes & Noble Press, which sells many of my company’s books on the bn.com website. It was about a new self-serve ad platform that could potentially help promote my books there. But my interest evaporated when it became clear that B&N was massively overcharging for the service,Read more

There’s a great article in The Economist about management lessons derived from the rock world. I think the study of bands’ management styles really does give useful insights into creativity and venture creation — this is a topic I covered in Lean Media, especially with discussions about the rise of Led Zeppelin in the lateRead more

It’s reached the point where if I see an article about startups that uses the term “lifestyle business” I just stop reading. It’s either a business or it’s not. Product or service? Check. Place to sell it? Check. Cashflow? Check.  It can be a one-person shop, or it can be a massive enterprise. Yes, theRead more

This question about Amazon FBM royalties came from a member of the Independent Book Publishers’ Association, on whose board I serve. Here’s my answer: Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) is technically part of “Amazon Seller” accounts and there are two tiers: FreeProfessional ($40/month) Free gives you basic access to selling stuff on Amazon and thenRead more

A former colleague recently asked a very good question: Why not create audiobook versions of my nonfiction guides? In this post I’ll explain why this idea despite having promise won’t work for my book publishing company. Some quick background: I am the founder of i30 Media Corp., which publishes IN 30 MINUTES guides. There areRead more

A publisher recently reached out asking about how to use Internet graphics in a yet-to-be released book on a specific medical condition. The author had found the images on a Google search, and wants to use them in the book. The problem that the publisher immediately identified: the images are copyrighted and therefore can’t beRead more

Don’t assume anything about your ability to make custom goods on Amazon FBA and successfully sell them. I say this after reading this account from a prospective FBA seller who is documenting his or her journey, and making some mistakes that could be very costly down the road. But it provides a window into gettingRead more

When I first started thinking about creating a lean framework for media content, I wrote some blog posts about Lean Media. As I began to prepare the Lean Media book, I gave a few presentations for which I recorded some simple videos. Recently, I decided it was time to update the Lean Media video contentRead more

As described on Amazon’s own brand services site, Amazon Transparency is a program to fight counterfeit products on Amazon.com and give Amazon customers confidence that they are buying authentic products. The following blog post and video cover the following topics: The Amazon counterfeit problem and First Sale doctrine What is Amazon Transparency What Amazon TransparencyRead more

Amazon Seller Central has several features that display sales, including the dashboard, inventory planning, and business reports. This 7-minute video covers the pros and cons of each one and explains the tool that power sellers should be using to track sales on Amazon Seller Central, with either merchant fulfilled inventory or Fulfillment by Amazon (AmazonRead more