Diane Gilleland writes about crafting, business, the internet, and other splendidly geeky things at CraftyPod.com. She’s also been known to publish an indie book or two herself, and today she’s written a guest post for Cooperative Press on a topic dear to our hearts…

Why Your Favorite Indie Books Need You

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: publishing is changing mightily.

On the one hand, this state of affairs is creating a whole new breed of indie publisher – and this is amazing. Cooperative Press is a stellar example – books by a professional crafter, written for professional crafters. And others are doing similar work all over the craft community.

It’s a great time for indie publishers, and it’s a time of evolution for book-buyers. If you buy indie books, this moment in publishing means two things for you:

A) Increased Choice

Yippee! You are no longer at the mercy of the publishing establishment to choose what’s good for you. You’re living in a long-tail world. If there’s a craft book you think should exist, there’s a pretty good chance that a fellow crafter is making it. Or, that you could make it yourself.

Imagine the potential for creative learning and growth here! It makes people like me wave our arms about and spout superlatives.

B) Increased Responsibility

Wait — what? How does buying independently-published books translate to something as un-sexy as responsibility?

Ah, stay with me a moment. Back in the old days of publishing, most of us got our information about new books from a handful of sources: magazine and newspaper reviews. Print advertising. Best-seller lists.

This meant that it was simpler for publishers to promote books, and that all publishing needed you to do was buy stuff.

Well, magazines and newspapers are now in trouble. Print advertising has never been less effective. And these days, we book-buyers get our information from an incredibly diffuse network of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, other book-review websites, and recommendations from friends.

So, your new responsibility? If you like an indie book, help the author out. Spread the word!

If you have a blog, by all means, post a review. (Many authors will gladly donate a giveaway copy for your readers, so why not ask?) If you’re on Twitter, tweet about it. If you’re on Facebook, tell your friends about it. If the book is available on Amazon, post your review there.

In other words, if you like a new book, play a more active part in its success.

But I don’t have that many readers/followers/friends!

In the online space, that doesn’t matter! If your blog has only a handful of readers, but they all like you, then your enthusiastic recommendation is meaningful to them. And a handful of meaningful word-of-mouth endorsements frankly trumps a mainstream, mostly-ignored ad campaign these days.

As a book-buyer, you are now a vitally important part of keeping indie publishing alive and growing. So don’t just buy — recommend! Review! Share!

A gentle reminder from CP:

The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design’s blog tour details are here.

Cooperative Press is publishing a new series called Fresh Designs. We are seeking pattern submissions from designers of all experience levels for books on the following topics: shawls, scarves, hats, mittens and gloves, kids, sweaters, home, designs for men, toys and bags. Each book will consist of 10 patterns, except the 11th book in the series, Best Of, which will contain 30 patterns (or more) taken from the previous books. These books will be published in multiple formats, both print and digital.

How is this different from the usual publishing deal? In the spirit of our overall operating philosophy (single-book authors share directly in the proceeds of their books at a percentage level that can be 4-6x the typical publisher royalty rate), all book contributors will be awarded a share in the total earnings of the title after costs, payable monthly instead of the usual twice per year.

(Please note: all numbers are hypothetical and for the purposes of illustration only.)

Let’s say that a printed book sells for $20, and it costs $5 to produce. Cooperative Press takes 5 total “shares” in the book to pay for its operating costs, such as tech editing, advertising, tradeshow promotion, a small profit, etc. There are 10 designer contributors. The $15 that is left after production costs is divided 15 ways (10 designer shares + 5 CP shares) and you, the designer, receive $1 for each book sold. 500 copies sell? You just made $500 on your design. 1000 copies? $1000. And so on…

What are the benefits of operating this way, apart from the potential for a much greater upside than the usual low $75 or $100 book design fee? There are 9 other contributors on each book, and you all have a great incentive for promoting it! (Cooperative Press will also provide you with help in organizing various promotions, whether blog tours, knitalongs or anything else that you’d like to do).

We think it’s a smart way of doing business. You get the backing of a publisher who has your best interests in mind, you get to concentrate on designing instead of the million little details involved in a large publishing project, and we get to make an amazing book together.

Interested? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch!

Allow me to introduce you to IndieBound… (click here to join)

IndieBound is an amazing website that will let you do all the things Amazon does — wish list, affiliate linking, you name it… except it directs the person clicking to a nearby independent bookstore instead. To give you an idea, try clicking this. When you get to a page full of anezka media founder Shannon Okey’s books, click on any of the covers — it will prompt you for zipcode and forward you on appropriately.

IndieBound is part of the American Booksellers Association.