Review: Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran

Posted November 20, 2018 by Lola in Non-Fiction, Review / 6 Comments

Review graphic

Let's Get DigitalLet’s Get Digital: How to Self-Publish, and Why You Should
by David Gaughran

Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Non-fiction/ self publishing

Blurb:
*** Updated & Expanded Third Edition! ***

Learn how to publish your work like a pro and start building your audience with the most comprehensive and up-to-date self-publishing guide on the market today. Packed with practical, actionable advice, Let’s Get Digital delivers the very latest best practices on publishing your work and finding readers.

· Boost your writing career with marketing strategies that are proven to sell more books.
· Get expert tips on platform building, blogging and social media.
· Discover which approaches are best for selling fiction vs. non-fiction.
· Implement powerful ways to make your ebooks more discoverable.
· Increase your visibility by optimizing keywords and categories.
· Weigh the pros and cons of Kindle Unlimited, and find out exactly how to tweak your promotional plans depending on whether you stay exclusive to Amazon or opt for wider distribution.

And that’s just for starters…

My Review

Let’s get Digital is a great read for anyone who is thinking of self publishing or wants to know more about it. David Gaughran explains in an easy to understand manner the whole process of how to self publishing and makes it all seem very doable. I think for those new to self publishing this can be a big help to know where to start and what to get ready before publishing their book. There is also some information about the marketing side of things, some history of the publishing industry and a bunch of stories from other indie authors.

While there wasn’t as much information in this book that I didn’t already know, I still thought it was a great read and added to my knowledge. Thanks to my tour business and assistant work I am already quite familiar with the whole self publishing community. There were still new tidbits I learned, mostly about parts like editing and uploading your book on Amazon, as I don’t have anything to do with that part of the process. Although I don’t have plan to publish a book, I still liked reading about the whole process surrounding that. The writing style is pleasant and I liked how the author worded everything. How he explains things makes it all seem very doable and he takes you through the whole self publishing process.

It’s mostly a book that gives you a great overview of the whole self publishing process and what to consider and keep in mind. If you want to know more about a specific part of the process, this might not be the best book for that, but I think it works great as a way to get a basic idea of everything involved in self publishing. And even with the topics that only get shortly addressed I feel that the author does manage to touch upon some of the most important parts. You get a good feel of everything that’s involved with self publishing and what to think about.

I also liked how the author explained why self publishing is a viable option and explained why some common myths about self publishing aren’t true. I also liked the part that deals with the history of publishing as I wasn’t as familiar with that yet. I am also glad how strongly he emphasized the importance of a good blurb and cover as in my experience this is so important and I am glad the author mentioned this too as I think it’s essential for those new to self publishing to be aware of this fact. There also a part about going KU or wide and I think he nicely explained the pros and cons without strongly having a preference either way.

My least favorite part of this book were the stories from other indie authors at the end, but that’s mostly because I’ve been part of this community for a while now and have heard a lot of success or not-so-successful stories from indie authors. I also thought most of the stories were a bit older, mostly from people who started publishing when ebooks were just gaining popularity. There weren’t many stories of more newer authors that started later when ebooks were already much more popular and I would’ve liked a bit more variation in that. But I think this part definitively serves a purpose especially for those who don’t know many or any indie authors yet as this provides social proof that authors can and do make a living self publishing.

To summarize: this is a great read for those new to self publishing or if you want to know more about the whole process. The author explains the whole self publishing process in an easy to follow way and walks you through the steps involved. It touches upon a lot of topics and while it might not go as in depth everywhere, it gives you some main points about everything. I like how this book was writing in a nice style and guides you through the whole process and touches upon important topics. The author emphasizes the importance of a good cover and blurb, which I totally agree with and I was happy to see that got addressed in this book. The last part featured stories form indie author, which was my least favorite part as I already have heard and seen a lot of stories from authors and it didn’t add much value to me, but I can see how for those who don’t know any indie authors (yet) this can be great to see making money from self publishing is possible. All in all I would definitively recommend this book to those who are new to self publishing and want to know more about the whole process.

4 Stars

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon
B&N
Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

What’s the last non-fiction book you read?

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6 responses to “Review: Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran

  1. That does sound like a very helpful book for a beginner like me. I’ve mostly worked with small publishing firms, but I might someday try to self-publish so I need to read up on it.

    I don’t read that many non-fics, but after seeing a Non-fiction November challenge at someone’s blog, I thought I might try to in the next year. I’ve got a couple writer how-to guides similar to this one they gifted me for participating in NaNoWriMo so I’ve decided to finally read them. LOL
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Review: Cowboy Christmas Jubilee by Dylann CrushMy Profile

    • I think it’s a great book for beginner :). As it touches upon most of the important topics for self publishing.

      I mostly go for the book marketing non-fiction books as that’s what I am mostly interested in reading when it comes to non-fiction. I actually enjoy non-fiction more than I thought I would, I guess just like with any other genre it’s all about picking the right books.

  2. I do read non-fiction, but it tends to be memoirs or the history of something. I will read “how-to” style books when I need to learn something new, but then to skim a lot more than I should. I’ve read a ton of self-published authors. I think the biggest issue with some of the ones that aren’t doing as well, is they cut corners, like really bad covers or bad or no editing. Great review.
    Melanie Simmons recently posted…Seasons of Sorcery by Amanda Bouchet, Jeffe Kennedy, Jennifer Estep, and Grace DravenMy Profile

    • I actually read this whole book, but was tempted to skip a bit at the end as I wans’t as interested in that part. I think it makes sense that with non-fiction you might skim or skip the parts that you don’t care about. I agree editing and good covers can be so important and I am glad the author of this book emphasized that as well.

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