Publishing and Book Marketing

Yes you do. If you take free ISBN from a third party, even if they put it in your name, your book will be under their ISBN listings and forever belong to their distribution. For more information READ THIS  BLOG.

A full explanation of Library of Congress numbers and how Cataloging coding works, READ THIS BLOG.

KDP will get you onto Amazon, but bookstores and libraries will not be as willing to order from an Amazon company. Amazon is a big part of the industry, but still only 50% of the sales. Are you really going to give up 50% of the market? For a full explanation READ THIS BLOG.

There is a wonderful set of rules published and updated by Writers Digest. To see the latest thinking on this that agents and publishers will want you to follow, CLICK HERE

Yes you do. I know Amazon has ASIN numbers, but you still need an ISBN for your ebook.  Ebook sales need to be tracked across all markets and ISBNs are the only way to do that. You may need TWO. For more information READ THIS ARTICLE.

KDP has “expanded distribution” which will allow them to put your book in THEIR IngramSpark account. This is only available to books that have taken an ISBN from KDP. (which is not a good idea…) Otherwise, use IngramSpark to get into Ingram and apply to the other wholesalers. For a full explanation and directions on how to work with wholesalers AND KDP, READ THIS

Library of Congress numbers are given to publishers who request them AND who have  at least 4 books by a minimum of 3 different authors. The full rules can be found HERE. But consider applying for a PRE CONTROL NUMBER from the LOC.  Again, details can be found HERE.

General FAQs

Yes, there are a few ways to work with Keri and New Shelves

Free Advice Fridays logoIf you have questions about publishing or marketing, Keri hosts a session each week online where she answers questions and offers guidance to authors.  These sessions are hosted on a weekly podcast called FREE ADVICE FRIDAYS. Be sure to email questions@freeadvicefridays.com to submit a question for her to answer in an upcoming session.

If you would like to have Keri coach you on matters of book marketing, publishing or sales, she offers one-hour coaching sessions. For more information, CLICK ON THIS LINK.

Keri and New Shelves has also created an extensive written and video collection covering a wide array of topics. Find them at:

News Shelves Blog

New Shelves on YouTube

Answer: We used to. For many years we sold books into bookstores and libraries, but over the years, we found that it was FAR more effective to have the publishers and authors do it themselves. 

So what we do now is offer authors training.

We can also help you with:

A list of people we can recommend for sales, PR, Editorial, Design and other publishing needs

Library and Bookstore Sales Information

Emailing 7,000 libraries about your book

Emailing over 1,000 bookstores about your book