The $1.99 Author

Is on Draft2Digital.

The $1.99 Author Expanded Edition Hardback retailer links list.

Starting on December 1, 2022 you can order the even more fun (or crazy — tomato, tomautto) Expanded Print Edition Hardback from your favourite, hopefully indie, bookshop. ISBN 9780994089328.

THE book for book writers.

Image courtesy of S. Kroese

See the full review HERE.

See the full review HERE.

See the full review HERE.

See the full review HERE.

Thank you ARC readers.

Now let’s see what paying customers have to say.

See the full review HERE.

See the Press Release HERE.

See my most recent author interviews HERE.

See the latest site to promote The $1.99 Author HERE.

There is an inside joke for readers.

The elevator pitch:

The $1.99 Author is an informative and fun book for those who write books and people who think they might want to.

The short blurb:

The $1.99 Author offers a pragmatic look at today’s publishing options for both budding and previously published authors. Almost every conceivable publishing path is touched upon with the pros and cons of each laid bare. This book is free of sugar-coated empty promises of success. Instead, readers will be made to understand there is a ladder awaiting them, and The 1.99 Author shows us how to climb it safely without going broke, without getting taken, and without too many heartbreaks.

The really long blurb:

Are you planning to write and publish a book?

Do you have a completed manuscript?

Have you self-published a book or even a few books?

Would you like to write books for additional income or a living?

Were you traditionally published by a “small-press” and have found yourself faced with book marketing? 

There are more myths and legends in the book publishing game than can be found in ancient Greek literature. 

The $1.99 Author offers a pragmatic look at today’s book publishing options for both budding and previously published authors. Almost every conceivable publishing path is touched upon with the pros and cons of each laid bare. E. A. Barker is a journeyman writer with a knack for drilling to the bottom of the truth-well while managing to serve up even the most disturbing of discoveries with a dash of humour. This helps to make this insider’s view of a truly bizarre industry a little more palatable. The pages are free of sugar-coated empty promises of success. Instead, readers will be made to understand there is a slippery ladder awaiting them, and The 1.99 Author shows us how to climb it safely without: getting ripped off, getting sued, going broke, being laughed at. . . in addition to mitigating some of the gut-wrenching experiences like piracy and plagiarism which most published authors have likely encountered.

Best of all, once you understand the game, you will be given a map of the minefield that is today’s book publishing industry so you can avoid the time-consuming low-yield traps . . . allowing you to concentrate your efforts on what really matters . . . writing more and better books. 

Are you the next one-in-a-million author with a hit book? 

If you think you might be, picture The $1.99 Author as being a glass-bottomed boat from which you can view the shark-infested waters of the publishing industry before choosing where to dive in. For every one author, there are hundreds of people lined up to fleece them. Whether you simply want to publish your memoir; publish as a hobby; or think you have what it takes to climb the publishing ladder into “The Big Five”, The $1.99 Author will save you a great deal of time, money, and heartache in your publishing journey.

The painful process behind the creation of

The $1.99 Author.

Or. . .

Why it took a year to get the hardback out.

I know. I know. I said it wouldn’t be long before I’d have these books out, but there were distractions:

  • I’m on LinkedIn now.
  • In December of 2020, @EABarker1 was released from twitter jail and I was fined 400 followers even after serving a six month sentence.
  • ‘To website or not to website, that was the question.’ A question which has now been answered by the creation of this web-page on this under-utilized site.
  • I do have a long blurb which will never fit on a back cover unless I print it in a coffee table travel book size which could sell for one-hundred quatloos. Yeah, THAT’S what readers want.
  • I’ve probably made a hundred promotional posts [excuses really] documenting why the books were taking so long.
  • My usual twenty rounds of revisions were not enough as a missing word and a duplicate word still showed up when I was battling Draft2Digital’s e-book template to give me a look I can live with. Hint: Remove all tabs and don’t use “pretty” bullets or numbering. It will do weird things in EPUB conversion. I hope there are no mobi specific issues as I cannot view that one.
  • The hardback is “much more better” (Jack Sparrow) in almost every way, and the few minor imperfections I noticed will quietly be fixed in the New Year.
  • AllAuthor, Goodreads, BookLife, books2read, and my Nonfiction Authors Association pages were all updated when the e-book came out. I suppose I will have to visit them again now there is a print version.
  • My first interview in about a year also happened. Julie Tuttle posed some interesting questions. You can see my replies here. Make sure you check out some of the other authors while you are there.
  • And then I did another one. It seems I was desperate to do anything except finish the damn book. This time it was an Author Spotlight with a handful of interview questions posed by Samantha Kroese.
  • A month spent chasing down ARC readers did lead to some nice reviews which I’ve used shamelessly wherever I could.
  • All this no-fun-stuff is why authors throw themselves launch parties. Mine happened December 1, 2021 on my @EABarker1 twitter page. A dose of liquid bravery allows us to read those first few reviews. Alcohol quiets the “Please don’t say it sucks.” anxiety-riddled voice screaming in our heads.
  • A month of intensive book marketing followed in December of 2021. In November of 2022 I launched The $1.99 Author Expanded Edition with an e-mail blast to +/- 1200 indie-bookstores located throughout the English speaking world. If all those book people can’t create some buzz around the book, little else will.

*****

Watch this site or follow me on twitter @EABarker1 or LinkedIn to stay informed about my progress or lack thereof.