December 2011 – Page 2

Who Should Be Acknowledged In Your Book?

January 3, 2016December 20, 2011 by Publetariat

Here is a guide to help get you started in building the acknowledgements page of your new book. Your acknowledgements page does not need to be an exhaustive listing of every last person that help you. But at the very least, you must include all the people that had an important impact on you and your book. And, of course, the bigger your book, the longer the acknowledgments page, or pages, will be. Explain to your readers, in a narrative form, exactly what each person did to help you complete your book.

And don’t forget that the acknowledgments page is showing your readers that many people were involved in helping your book come to life. This will make your acknowledgments page become a great way for you to not only thank those that helped you, but also show your readers that you had many people helping you build a credible book. And don’t forget, the acknowledgments page is not the same as the dedication page.

Family: Your parents, spouse, children, siblings, and relatives who supported your efforts while writing your book. In my case, my mother does errands for me so that I can stay in front of the computer writing. My kids are experts at finding information on the internet. My wife helps with editing and freely offers constructive criticism of my work. I generally find extra time to write by getting up in the morning before everyone else does, and staying up later at night after everyone else has gone to bed. The family plays a very big part in the success of my books.

Sources: Anyone, such as librarians, teachers, professors, or industry experts, that provided data or information that was used in your book. In addition, anyone that you interviewed that provided useful information and assistance. Be specific in what each source provided for your book.

Editors: Make sure that you list any editor that helped you complete your book. Be specific in describing what each editor helped you with.

Researchers: Anyone that took the time to assist you in finding data and information in the library or on the internet, etc. Don’t forget those college interns and librarian assistants. Again, mention what research was found and by whom.

Illustrators/Photographers: These are the people that helped bring your text to life. If you used illustrators and photographers, you will certainly have a lot to tell the reader about them.

Graphic Designers: You should also give the name of those that designed your book’s interior, as well as your book’s cover. Discuss some of the great designs that they gave you to choose from.

Mentors: These are all the people that taught you the ins-and-outs of your business and career. These are the people that you credit with helping you move up within in your industry.

Writing and Publishing Coaches: If you used a coach, mention in what ways they helped you. These people save you a lot of time and grief. These people have much more experience with writing and publishing, and help you in creating a professional looking book.

Writing Buddies: The one can cover people such as your co-author or even a co-worker that you bounce ideas off of. Don’t forget your professional acquaintances that you work with and share ideas with. Of course, if you had a co-author for your book, you should have a lot to tell your readers about how your writing relationship with this person greatly enhanced your book.

Publisher: If you used a publisher, mention each person at the publisher that actually helped you improve your book. Mention what each person at the publishing company did for you and your book.

Foreword Author: You will owe a great debt of gratitude to this person. A proper foreword will have a great impact on the financial and critical success of your book. In some cases, this person might also be one of your mentors.

All The Rest: Here you can give a blanket “thank you” to the countless others that assisted you in finishing your book. This includes those that helped with research, writing, and editing, and those that helped you to develop and understand the concepts that you write about in your book.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com.

Is Disintermediation Possible For The Indie Author?

January 3, 2016December 19, 2011 by Publetariat

This post, by M.A. Demers, originally appeared on The Global Indie Author on 12/19/11.

Following on the heels of my blog regarding Louis CK’s experiment with producing and selling his own video, the question arises as to whether this is possible for the indie author. “Disintermediation” is the new buzz word, and success stories such as CK’s suggest the only thing standing between the author and their audience is a blog and PayPal. But is it really? The allure of indie publishing is that it provides us with a way past the gatekeepers. But all gatekeepers? Or just the obvious ones?

The only true intermediary between an author and publishing success has and always will be money. If you had tens of thousands to spare you could start your own publishing company, publish your own book, have it printed at your expense, contract with a distributor, run numerous ads and buy reviews, and hire sales people. Hell, you could even hire someone to ghostwrite the actual book.

But most of us don’t have tens of thousands to spare; we had to go the traditional route and try to find a publisher to finance our efforts. Some authors were successful, the majority were not.

With indie publishing, many of those impediments have been removed. We now have direct-to-retail options like Kindle and PubIt!. We can leverage social media to garner some interest. Print-on-demand makes producing a print book financially viable for most of us. Those who are artistically talented can design their own books. The technologically able can bypass the expense of conversion services. But there still remains two final impediments to disintermediation: distribution and marketing.

Read the rest of the post on The Global Indie Author.

Self-Publishing And Ebook Predictions For 2012 With Steven Lewis From Taleist

January 3, 2016December 19, 2011 by Publetariat

It seems that every week brings a new development in the world of digital publishing and indie authors have varied opinions on what’s happening. In this interview I discuss some of the latest events and also debate what 2012 holds.

Steven Lewis is an author, podcaster and at Taleist he helps writers become published authors. He has just posted Self Publishing and Ebook Predictions 2012 on his blog which we discuss today. [Video and podcast at the bottom of the text]

One of the comments in the article is ” 2012 is the year things get bad for traditional publishing industry”. My thoughts are more that there’s a split between publishers going digital and those that are not. Steven comments that for publishers going digital the problem is pricing and customers think the price has to be low. 99c – $4.99 which in some cases still doesn’t cover the costs of all the editing, design etc. People won’t pay print prices, that’s a given but where is the limit. Publishers will find it tough to run the publishing machine with less income.

Publishers will be trying new things in 2012. Penguin opening up to ‘self-publishing’ is actually more like vanity publishing. None of us want to see the end of publishers and bookstores but things will continue to shift.

Steve thinks Amazon has to start doing something about the crap that is being published in 2012. The spam, the hardcore pornography and the things that come up in searches. They have to clean it up but there have been problems with Amazon trying to get rid of what some people think is wrong e.g. gay/lesbian writers. We have to balance free speech with what is genuinely awful. I prefer to think of the customer as the gatekeeper as I am browsing by categories, ranking etc. The new stigma will be ‘not selling’ as opposed to self-publishing.

What else will Amazon do in 2012? We discuss Kindle Select. It’s basically a way for self-publishers to put their book into the Kindle Prime lending program where members can borrow books. Amazon has put $500,000 in a pot and that is shared pro-rata depending on how many books & how many borrowed. You have to commit to 90 days exclusivity, so you can’t publish it elsewhere. It’s not an income strategy really. But what is interesting is that you can put your book for free for 5 days so you can control your timing on using free as a marketing tactic. Steven isn’t happy about this as he says we’re training readers that books should be free. I disagree and point to CJ Lyons’ article here as she uses free as a teaser to boost the sales of her other books. Steven has a full article here on KDP Select if you want to read the long version. Amazon’s job is to make an offer and it’s up to the author to decide what’s best for their book. We’ll also re-examine this after at least a month’s worth of data.
Check out David Gaughran’s article on KDP Select: How much do you want to be paid tomorrow?

Steven gets upset at my comparison of KDP Select to a library. My point is that it’s more about marketing and getting your books in front of more people. Personally, I will probably put one book into KDP Select but keep most of them out.

Will there be better tools for authors in 2012? Steven says it’s unlikely we will get much further than the basic formatting for mainstream books. I mention the FutureBook conference where I met publishers doing some really interesting work with transmedia and apps. This is something that we as self-publishers can’t do ourselves so if you have these ideas for cross-media ideas it would be better to work with a publisher. Authors also underestimate the amount of time to do all the things you can do and focusing on what will work for you. It’s a triathlon – you write, publish and promote but promotion also goes on forever. The cost is often in the time.

If we’re basically seeing an expansion of mainstream print books, we have to get better at marketing. Reading works as it is, there doesn’t have to be a change. You really still only have to write books. You don’t have to do apps and all that multi-media. I’m interested in doing audiobooks. Steven has some experience of this and doesn’t find it a huge market but it’s definitely something that we are keen on taking further. It’s not about the money, more about the marketing.

Amazon moving into international markets. I specifically want India to come online as a huge English speaking market. We note how Amazon keeps surprising us. There are no rumours, they just do it. They can move into these countries very easily and will do as soon as they are ready. Steven & I get annoyed about all the differences in pricing and sales tax.

Advertising in ebooks. Authors will do it and Amazon is also putting ads on the Kindle. Steven even likes the advertising on his Kindle as it offers things the reader wants. Seth Godin with the Domino Project did get companies to sponsor the book and give it away for free. It’s not radically different to what we are used to now. Authors will also be able to advertise in each others books. Bloggers can join in an advertising network, so why not authors? Join in an advertising campaign and see what happens with it. You definitely need to use your Kindle book to advertise your own books. Make sure you hyperlink to Buy Now for each of the books you have available. Think about linking up with other authors and advertise each others but be careful.

We talk about Scrivener and exporting to Kindle formats. The pros and cons. Check out David Hewson’s book “Writing a book on Scrivener“

Amazon continues to dominate but we discuss Kobo which has great statistics, like when people stop reading your book & people can interact socially about it. Nook Color vs Kindle Fire. What’s happening with the other players in the market? It’s very hard to challenge Amazon’s place in the market now, they are so entrenched. They are also selling their devices at less than cost. It would be great to see some decent challenge to Amazon as with great power comes great responsibility and with all our eggs in one basket, they could turn around and change royalty rates later.

As indies getting on everything other than Amazon KDP, our options are Smashwords and BookBaby, that’s about it. Will there be other options for us? or will Smashwords expand their offering. We love Smashwords but recognise the immense amount of work it is for Mark Coker to manage the company now it’s really taken off.

Steven reckons Amazon will play hardball with the other players in 2012, e.g. asking for exclusivity. They also might move to a verification method for self-publishing e.g. paying $50 instead of free. It’s Amazon’s reputation at risk with the crap that is flooding the store. Serialization may also become available as a new model. Exciting times overall!

You can find Steven at Taleist.com and also on Twitter @Rule17

What do you think will happen in publishing in 2012?

Podcast: Download (Duration: 43:16 — 25.5MB)

This is a cross-posting from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Google+ : Do Writers Need It?

January 3, 2016December 18, 2011 by Publetariat

When Google launched Google Plus (Google+) a few months ago in their latest attempt to gain a foothold in the social media world, a lot of people weren’t sure whether to applaud the move or bemoan the fact that we had another place to try to build a community.

After all, the world of social media isn’t exactly lacking in things to keep authors who want to market their books occupied. You can work on building a tribe on Facebook, promote and connect with people in your niche on Twitter, keep track of colleagues and discussions on LinkedIn, and maintain relations with readers on Goodreads. Isn’t that enough?

The New Kid Has Some New Tricks

And yet Google+ quickly grew to millions of members and is now the fastest-growing social media site in history. Faster than Facebook, faster than Twitter, faster than LinkedIn. Right now, by recent estimates, there are already more than 40 million people using the service.

There are really good reasons it’s become so popular so quickly. Some of these reasons make Google+ a great location for authors. Let’s take a look at three features that distinguish Google+ from the other networks we’ve come to know, and see where these features present opportunities for self-published authors.

Circling

Before talking about the features, take a moment to enjoy the look and feel of Google+. I don’t know about you, but I find the Facebook interface—at least the last time I looked—to be quite busy and distracting. Twitter, of course, isn’t encumbered with much of an interface, since it’s mostly a stream of short text messages.

Contrast that to Google+, which bears the mark of most Google designs. Simple, spare, blue and white, and lots of “negative” space make it seem clean and functional, focusing your attention on the content that’s being shared rather than the accoutrements of the interface.

On Google+ there are no “followers.” Instead you can “circle” people and they can circle you. But you don’t just add people to a circle; you can have many circles if you like, and each can have its own uses. For instance, you can sort people you circle into different areas, like high school friends, colleagues, friends you like to play music with, or bloggers who review books. People can be in more than one circle, too.

When it becomes time to share something, you decide which circles will receive it, or if it’s available to the public (that is, anyone at all on Google+).

This solves the ongoing problem I have with Facebook, and I suspect a lot of you have too: mixing personal and professional contacts. With Google+, the ability to segment your interests is built into the program, an intrinsic part of its functioning.

One thing that this makes immediately obvious is that you can craft messages, shares and announcements for specific groups. Authors can easily maintain lists of book reviewers, readers, media contacts, editors, designers, and other authors.Segmentation is the foundation of direct marketing, so this ability alone gives you the opportunity to market in new ways.

You can also follow the circles other people have put together, which is a quick way to gain access to the updates and information being published by leaders in your field.

Hangouts

One of the amazing features Google+ incorporated from the beginning is Hangouts, the ability to have quick video chats with other Google+ users.

If you’ve ever wrestled with videoconferencing software or services, this is an amazing feature. With no more effort than just clicking the “start a hangout” button and inviting others to join you, you can instantly have a real-time video conference right inside Google+.

Authors could use this capability for face-to-face meetings with their editors, to have a chat with a designer, or to bring in virtual assistants and marketing people for a strategy session on a book launch. The ideas for hangouts are pretty endless, and that’s even before you start using them to connect to readers.

Some people have tried to explain Google+ as being somewhere between Twitter’s rapid-fire text updates and Facebook’s robust photo- and video-sharing abilities.

But Google+ is really different from both other services, and one reason is the flexibility of sharing. On Twitter, of course, you’re limited to 140 text-only characters, although updates are often used for links to other content.

On Facebook, the status updates are limited to 420 characters, enough to write a very, very short story perhaps (see Lou Beech for examples). On Google+, I don’t think there’s much of a limit. You can post a one sentence update, and it makes sense. Or you can post an entire article if you like, with photos, videos or other content as part of it. Darren Rowse, for instance, the author and professional blogger, uses Google+ this way to communicate with his vast tribe.

This flexibility combines really well with the ability to segment your lists, since not all communications with all communities can be made to conform to the same restrictions. For instance,

you might want to send a 300-word article to your community similar to an email update.
short messages to marketing partners like affiliates or other authors in a blog network are just as easy.
personal messages with a photo gallery from a trip or celebration can easily be shared with friends and family.

Altogether, Google+ has made a big impression on the social media community. Many users report spending a lot less time on Facebook, as the clean, uncluttered, and easy-to-use interface attracts them. Others say they enjoy the longer communications possible and don’t market quite as much on Twitter. There are communities of authors, readers, and lots of other kinds of people forming on Google+.

All of these developments will become more and more important to you as an author as the service continues to grow. Google has just recently added the ability to create pages for businesses, brands, products and companies.

The more Google+ grows, the more Google will combine it with its search, video, and advertising streams, and that combination is potentially explosive. I think you should be on Google+, and it looks like it’s going to be a great destination for some time to come.

If you have a Google account, you can just go fill out your profile and spend some time checking it out. I think you’ll like what you see.

Google+ Resources for Writers

Debbie Ohi’s master list of literary people on Google+
The Mashable.com Guide to Google+
Book reviewer Natalie Luhrs’ site on Google+
Jason Boog’s GalleyCat roundup of writers on Google+

This article was originally published as “Is Google+ Good for Writers?” on CreateSpace.com on November 17, 2011

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

Give Your Favourite Fiction Some Cashmoney Love For Christmas

January 3, 2016December 18, 2011 by Publetariat

I’ve just been to a few of my favourite fiction podcast sites – places like Pseudopod and Podcastle, among others – and donated a few dollars their way. I’m a starving artist, but I love to listen to the things they produce and they pay their authors well. It’s in all of our interests to support them. They all have an option on the site to subscribe (by paying a regular amount every month) or to simply donate once.

When we buy a magazine – in ebook or print – we’re directly helping that publication to stay alive. But so much content online these days is essentially free and relies on the generosity of its fans to keep it going. I read a thing recently that talked about how downloading doesn’t really cost sales. From the article:

The report states that around a third of Swiss citizens over 15 years old download pirated music, movies and games from the Internet. However, these people don’t spend less money as a result because the budgets they reserve for entertainment are fairly constant. This means that downloading is mostly complementary.

On the whole, people can be honest and kind and they do value the things they consume. I’m firmly against DRM and all for open source and Creative Commons. I think it engenders a greater sharing of art and a greater consumption overall. The Swiss study cited above seems to validate that opinion. I know for a fact that I’ve bought music from a band I discovered via downloads. I’ve bought books by authors after borrowing one of their works from a friend too, and that’s exactly the same thing. It’s all about learning that these things exist, discovering that we like them and subsequently paying for those things we enjoy.

With stuff that’s always free, however, like podcasts, it’s not so easy to follow that line of action and end up giving back. So we have to make that little bit of extra effort and find a way to give. Most podcasts, ezines, magazines, publishers and so on have a PayPal option on their site for you to drop a few shekels through and show your appreciation. Tis the season to be loving and generous, so get online and get clicking. Throw some cash around. It only has to be the cost of a few beers and you’ll be making a real difference to your culture and the livelihoods of struggling artists like myself – we need places to sell our work to, and they need cookies to pay us. It’ll make you a better person, I promise.

(Incidentally, Thrillercast has a donate button too. Just, you know, in case you were interested.)

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

The Sixty-four Million Dollar Question – How Do I Become a Writer?

January 3, 2016December 18, 2011 by Publetariat

The other day a friend of mine said she wanted to become a writer and asked me for advice. At first I thought, "Who the hell am I to give advice. I’m still not sure if I’m a scribbler, a writer, or an author. Well, I have written a book. Maybe I’m a writer. The book has been published – maybe I’m an author. Hummm　.　.　. OK, here is my advice.

Sit down and write – write everyday. Set aside a specific time each day. Maybe in the beginning it’s just thirty minutes or an hour, but do it religiously. Soon writing will become a habit. At first don’t get bogged down with creating the perfect sentence. Nothing is ever perfect to a writer. I have revised my book at least thirty times. If I allowed myself, I could revise it several more times. Write what’s in your head and sort it out later. Also read books in the genre want to write in. The authors you read have spent a lot of time learning their craft and have things to teach you. Consider, but don’t be deterred by the opinions of others – follow you dreams.

Anything can be fixed, but try to use the same word processing program all of the time. Each program leaves residual formatting that can lead to frustration when you move between programs. Don’t let your word processing program "auto-correct" your grammar. Spell check is ok, but also has its limitations (for example: to, two, and too are all correctly spelled, but may be incorrectly applied. Spell check won’t pick that up.)

There are many books on writing. Some of my favorites are: THANKS, BUT THIS ISN’T FOR US by Jessica Page Morrell, A WRITERS GUIDE TO FICTION by Elizabeth Lyon, and GETTING THE WORDS RIGHT by Theodore A. Rees Cheney. Finally, join a writer’s group, keep writing, take everything people say with a grain of salt, and listen to your passion.

For what it’s worth – that’s my two cents.

Stretching The Definition Of The Word, "Book"

January 3, 2016December 15, 2011 by Publetariat

The concept for my latest book, Overshare, had been bouncing around in my head for well over a year. In it, a young man encounters some major life challenges in rapid succession, and unwittingly, publicly reveals his increasing stress level and alienation from his wife, family and friends through his posts on social media sites. It was a scenario I’d seen unspool in the real-world life of an online acquaintance, and I knew it would make a very timely and relatable story. The only problem was how to convey the events of the story in a way that would capture my experience: following status updates and posts with growing heartache for this person with whom I was only nominally acquainted, yet whom I’d come to know so much about—so much more than I’m sure was intended.

Then it hit me: why not give the reader exactly the same experience I had?

Why not show the reader my protagonist’s actual social media web pages, containing his status updates and others’ responses to them, as well as his blog posts, but purposely limit the content to only what a member of the general public would see? To make the reader’s experience as realistic as possible, I knew I’d have to mimic the look and content of the most popular social media sites very closely, and the resulting book would have to be presented in full color. To produce such a book in print would be cost prohibitive, but with the advent of color ereader apps and devices, it seemed an ideal fit for a totally new kind of ebook.

The next hurdle to overcome was sourcing the many photos I knew I’d need to fill the simulated social media site pages. I’d need avatars, or user pictures, of the protagonist and everyone he’d be interacting with online. I’d need candid family and event photos of the sort people regularly post on Facebook. And because of the story arc, I’d need a series of pictures of a young woman at various stages of pregnancy, a series of pictures of a young man depicting the journey from hale and cheerful to beaten and haggard, and finally, baby pictures depicting a preemie’s path from NICU to healthy newborn at home.

At first this seemed an insurmountable obstacle. I couldn’t afford to hire models to pose for all the pictures I’d need, and didn’t have the time, equipment or skills to act as photographer. Anyway, posed stills would never give me the realism I needed. Then, another stroke of inspiration: Creative Commons –licensed images are easily found online, and plenty of them have been licensed as permissible for commercial and remix use. I soon had a treasure trove of real-life photos of real-life people for which the rights holders had pre-emptively granted permission to anyone to use for commercial purposes (such as in a book to be sold for profit) and remix use (such as cropping and coloring to achieve my desired effects).

With this last piece of the puzzle locked into place, I knew I’d be able to produce the "book" I had in mind: one consisting entirely of simulated screen shots of the protagonist’s social media postings.

It would be a novel, in that it would be fiction, but it would be unlike any novel I’d ever seen before. Kind of like an epistolary novel, in that much of its content would consist of written communications taken directly from the characters, but not really, in that those communications did not take the form of letters or any other kind of traditional correspondence. Kind of like a graphic novel, in that much of the content would consist of images, but not really, in that it would also contain blocks of prose in the form of blog posts. I decided I’d need to come up with a new term for this type of book, and after giving it some thought, I came up with "social media novel".

Here are some examples from the book:

Something I wanted to be sure to illustrate in the book is how what someone doesn’t say online can often reveal much more than what he does say. The screenshot below shows the protagonist’s first post following the decision to go public with his wife’s pregnancy; note the complete absence of happiness or excitement in his remarks. There’s not even a smiley face there. What does this tell you? Also note how, based on the number of "Likes" and "Comments", you can tell how large Michael’s circle of acquaintance and support is at this point; as the story goes on, these numbers shrink.

In creating this unusual book, I found that the form it took underscored and illuminated the theme as much as the content. A few early readers asked if the people in the pictures might be upset to learn their photos had been used in this way, and my response was if they did, that would only serve to further exemplify the point I’m trying to make in Overshare: that posting anything online for public consumption can have unintended consequences.

This book took a LOT of effort to produce. The words were the easy part, and constituted maybe only 40% or so of the finished book’s content. I had to do a great deal of work in my graphics editor program, and a lot of complex formatting in MS Word. Then I had to pass the completed manuscript on to someone well-versed in advanced HTML and graphics techniques to take my Word file and convert it into an ebook file that preserved my images and formatting. I’m thrilled to see the finished product at last, and know that it looks exactly like the book I pictured in my mind’s eye all those many months ago. I’m also very excited by the creative possibilities I can now see in full-color, non-traditional ebooks. I hope that as time goes on, many authors will be inspired to explore those possibilities.

April L. Hamilton is the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat. Overshare is now available.

In A World With Amazon, Whither The Small, Independent Bookseller?

January 3, 2016December 15, 2011 by Publetariat

There’s been much commentary about Amazon’s new KDP Select program, as well as about its one-day price comparison app promotion, some of which we’ve been sharing here on Publetariat. The debate rages on, and now branches out into the question of the impact programs like this and mega-bookseller Amazon have on small, independent booksellers. Surprisingly, there are well-considered arguments on both sides.

Independent Bookseller Bob Spear quotes from an open letter American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher, written in response to Amazon’s one-day, bricks-and-mortar price comparison app promotion:

Despite your company’s recent pledge to be a better corporate citizen and to obey the law and collect sales tax, you created a price-check app that allows shoppers to browse Main Street stores that do collect sales tax, scan a product, ask for expertise, and walk out empty-handed in order to buy on Amazon. We suppose we should be flattered that an online sales behemoth needs a Main Street retail showroom.

Forgive us if we’re not.

We could call your $5 bounty to app-users a cheesy marketing move and leave it at that. In fact, it is the latest in a series of steps to expand your market at the expense of cities and towns nationwide, stripping them of their unique character and the financial wherewithal to pay for essential needs like schools, fire and police departments, and libraries.

Over on Slate, Farhad Manjoo takes the controversial position that buying books on Amazon is better for authors, better for the economy, and better for you, because (in his opinion) small, local booksellers aren’t really doing consumers much of a service by comparison:

…I was primed to nod in vigorous agreement when I saw novelist Richard Russo’s New York Times op-ed taking on Amazon’s thuggish ways. But as I waded into Russo’s piece—which was widely passed around on Tuesday—I realized that he’d made a critical and common mistake in his argument. Rather than focus on the ways that Amazon’s promotion would harm businesses whose demise might actually be a cause for alarm (like a big-box electronics store that hires hundreds of local residents), Russo hangs his tirade on some of the least efficient, least user-friendly, and most mistakenly mythologized local establishments you can find: independent bookstores. Russo and his novelist friends take for granted that sustaining these cultish, moldering institutions is the only way to foster a “real-life literary culture,” as writer Tom Perrotta puts it. Russo claims that Amazon, unlike the bookstore down the street, “doesn’t care about the larger bookselling universe” and has no interest in fostering “literary culture.”

That’s simply bogus. As much as I despise some of its recent tactics, no company in recent years has done more than Amazon to ignite a national passion for buying, reading, and even writing new books.

In a rebuttal to Manjoo, on Flavorwire, Judy Berman explains why she feels he’s giving small booksellers short shrift:

I find it sad, actually, that Manjoo — a generally sharp and smart technology writer — finds clicking around on Amazon to be more fun than browsing the shelves of a real-life bookstore where (gasp!) one might actually interact with other book lovers. It also seems specious to argue that Amazon customer reviews are more useful than the advice of an independent bookstore employee or owner, who presumably has more knowledge of and enthusiasm for literature than your average unknown dude typing angrily in his parents’ basement. A bookseller, for example, would probably not opine that Jane Eyre is “a longer story of 456 pages in which really could have been written well in half the length.”

Mark Coker believes the KDP Select program is wholly predatory, and bad for authors, publishers, and booksellers alike. As he writes in his blog post on the matter:

Impact on authors:

Forces the author to remove the book from sale from the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords and others, thereby causing the author to lose out on sales from competing retailers.

By unpublishing a title from any retailer, the author destroys any accrued sales rank, making their book less visible and less discoverable when and if they reactivate distribution to competing retailers

Makes the author more dependent upon Amazon for sales. Do you want to become a tenant farmer, 100% dependent upon a single retailer? As some of you history buffs may know, tenant farming, and the abuses of power by landlords, was a primary contributor behind the great Irish potato famine.

Author LJ Sellers, on the other hand, feels her decision to offer some of her work through KDP Select was merely a formality since most of her sales come through Amazon anyway:

…I don’t want to see Amazon become a monopoly or have it be the only place my books are available. I want readers to have choices. Still, to survive financially, I may have to climb on board the Amazon train and let go of the idea that I’m an independent author.

Two issues are on deck for me right now. First, is the lending library that everyone’s buzzing about and some are calling predatory. Amazon called me two weeks ago to pitch KDP Select to me personally. Surprised by the contact, I assume it’s because I have ten books on the market and sold quite a few on Kindle last year.

My only concern was the exclusivity issue, but in the end, I decided to enroll two of my standalone thrillers. Which means I had to pull those books from all other e-readers. I wasn’t making enough money on them from any other sources for it to be a financial decision. My hesitation was based only on my commitment to give readers full access to my books.

But the promotional opportunity Amazon offered—a five-day giveaway of the books—was hard to resist. The exposure could be invaluable. Right now, The Suicide Effect is being downloaded in record numbers. Because I have nine other books for new readers to buy, this could turn out well for me. I’ll know in the next month or so.

Bookavore examines the corporate culture and business practices of Amazon, as they trickle down to readers:

At this point I am thinking one or all of the following must be true:

The company culture at Amazon is in some part developed on the back of a scrappy underdog mentality that can only, given their current dominance, be furthered by deliberate business decisions that allow the company to feel like a misunderstood victim

The marketing department has hard data showing that given the general miasma of free market exhortation in modern political discourse, consumers respond enthusiastically to offers that deliberately and overtly screw over competition, in large enough numbers to make any negative press a moot point

This is all part of an elaborate campaign to make decisions that compel Amazon’s competition and detractors to come out in numbers ruing their predatory and unethical practices, which given the reactive nature of the Internet will give Amazon’s defenders endless chances to label the detractors as old-fashioned, elitists, nostalgia-hounds, and/or Luddites, further cementing the “Amazon vs. the world” brand story

Amazon has studied the possibility that they could make more money long-term by gaining the loyalty of customers who would be swayed by more ethical business practices, but has also realized it wouldn’t be worth the investment

A Statement From Louis C.K.

January 3, 2016December 14, 2011 by Publetariat

In which the comedian, writer-director and producer makes proponents of DRM look foolish, and demonstrates how going indie can be much more profitable for artists—even those as famous and successful as himself.

Today, Galleycat reported Louis CK Earns $200k Profit on DRM-Free Show:

Comedian Louis CK wrote a frank essay about his most recent experiment, a “Live at the Beacon Theater” comedy DVD that was sold for $5 to fans without any digital rights management (DRM) protection. In less than four days, he has earned a $200,000 profit by avoiding traditional distribution strategy and channels.

Nearly all digital books currently contain some sort of DRM protection–making it harder for readers to take notes, read on different devices or share the book. Publishers and authors should read Louis CK’s argument against using these tools to restrict your readership.

In the ‘frank essay’, Louis C.K. shares the following interesting facts and figures:

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again.

Read the full statement from Louis C.K. here. (Note: the statement contains some strong language)

How Amanda Hocking Really Did It

January 3, 2016December 14, 2011 by Publetariat

This post, by Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications, originally appeared on The Book Publicist blog on 12/10/11.

Amanda Hocking, as I’m sure you know, is a best-selling e-author on Amazon.com. Since uploading her first e-book in the spring of 2010, she has grossed about $2 million. She’s got 10 novels under her belt, all of which fall into the paranormal-romance category. The prominent entertainment company, Media Rights Capital, optioned her four-book vampire series “Trylle”.

Clearly, she’s had great success self-publishing her e-books. So, it was a surprise when Hocking decided to sign with St. Martin’s Press, which is a very established publishing house.

Hocking has openly explained that she suffered from depression for the vast majority of her life and turned to writing as a sort of escape. She finished her first novel at 17, titled “Dreams I Can’t Remember” and was turned down by each of the 50 agents to whom she’d sent her work. Not long thereafter, she caught a clip on YouTube of the band Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus encouraging American youth to make their dreams come true. Hocking admits having a sort of “aha” moment and realized that she could not wait for her dreams to come true. She had to put forth the effort and make them come true.

In 2009, Hocking began to treat writing as a job rather than something she did for entertainment. She wrote a few more novels, sent them off to agents, and still received only rejections. In April 2010, Hocking uploaded her novel “My Blood Approves” to Amazon, then later to Smashwords, then directly on Barnes & Noble’s site. Hocking started selling books, first a few a day, then as she uploaded more of her work, she managed to sell 26 books in one day in May. These days, the author is selling 9,000 books a day.

Just how did she do it? Well, the stories she writes are an obvious piece of her success. Her novels combine action and romance with a dash of quirk and topped off by Hocking’s creative style of writing. Additionally, by selling e-books, Hocking was able to sell the books for far less money compared to a traditional bookstore book. Therefore, people were more inclined to spend the 99 cents or $3.00 to read her work instead of dropping upwards of $15.00 for a book off the shelf of a trendy bookstore. Hocking has a very blasé attitude in regard to her success and rapid writing. When asked just how she manages to complete her work so quickly, Hocking responds on her blog, “I don’t know. I just write a lot and drink a lot of Red Bull.”

Hocking also suggests that writing paired with reading more than she writes, was instrumental in her success. She made sure to edit her novels a great deal in order to get them just right. Learning to take criticism was useful to Hocking’s success because she was able to understand that although her books weren’t for everyone, they did have an audience.

Read the rest of the post on The Book Publicist.

Re-Brand Without The Sex

January 3, 2016December 13, 2011 by Publetariat

In this rapidly changing industry, writers must adapt on a near-daily basis and continuously search for new ways to reach new readers. In that mode, I’ve decided to re-brand my Detective Jackson series by listing Secrets to Die For as the first book and creating a new cover for it. The old cover was never meant to be the final product, but that’s another subject.

For those of you who have read and loved The Sex Club, first I thank you for your support, and second, I ask your forgiveness… for pushing this story into my standalone thriller column. I do it reluctantly after much consideration and many discussions about changing the name. After thousands of people have read it though, changing the name was not an option. And a new title wouldn’t alter the content.

Which brings me to the Why? There are many readers who will never try my series because they can’t get past the name, and others who can’t get past the provocative subject matter. So now that I have five other Jackson stories, I’m setting The Sex Club apart from the series. The truth is when I wrote the novel, it was intended to be a standalone with dual protagonists.

Then at some point, it occurred to me the detective would make a great series character. I wrote Secrets to Die For three years later, based on the Jackson character and thinking I’d try to make a series of it. So Secrets is really the first book I intended as a series. Of course, readers can start with either one. But right now as part of this effort, Secrets to Die For is on sale for $.99 at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

In this very competitive market with ebooks selling for $.99 and $2.99, I can’t afford to alienate thousands of potential mystery readers with one little word. Don’t worry, The Sex Club isn’t going away. I’m very proud of this book and will continue to sell it as a standalone thriller.

Also, as part of my whole re-branding project, I’m also launching a new website that will be more search-engine friendly and will accommodate my growing number of books. I’d hoped to announce these things at the same time, but the website is a little behind schedule. It should be up and running in another two weeks.

One other bit of news: I finished the first draft of the new Jackson story, and I’m working on the rewrite. If my editor and formatter both do their part on schedule, I’ll have the ebook ready by Christmas and the print book shortly after.

So what do think of this re-branding decision? Brilliant or cowardly? Worthwhile or waste of time?

This is a reprint from L.J. Sellers‘ blog.

How Much Do You Want To Get Paid Tomorrow?

January 3, 2016December 13, 2011 by Publetariat

This post, by David Gaughran, originally appeared on his Let’s Get Digital site on 12/11/11.

Things had been going pretty smoothly for self-publishers.

We were more or less done with the arguments about whether this was a viable path and whether you could attract an agent/publisher (if you wanted to) by self-publishing first.

We had generally agreed that e-books were here to stay and that print books and bookstores (sadly) were on the way out.

Then Amazon came along with a curveball, splitting the community: KDP Select.

KDP Select is an opt-in program where self-publishers can be part of Amazon’s e-book lending library. There has been a lot of discussion about KDP Select and the Lending Library – some hysterical, some measured – but I think it needs to be considered in the framework of subscription models in general.

I won’t spend much time on the pros and cons, they have been debated pretty exhaustively on The Passive Voice and this Kindle Boards thread, and I think most writers already know where they stand on this. I want to ask everyone to take a look at the bigger picture of subscription models and how we will collectively define future compensation for our work.

There had been murmurings about Amazon’s move for some time. With the launch of the Kindle Fire – and the obvious corollary that the device was designed to generate future profit on content – speculation turned to whether Amazon would attempt some kind of Netflix-for-Books. Indeed, rumors abounded that they had approached publishers on this and had been universally rebuffed.

For a reader, the deal is seductive: read as much as you like for a fixed fee. In practice, it’s only attractive if the books you want to read are part of the package. For the company selling the package, the clearest way to show value is by having content you can’t get anywhere else.

It was inevitable in one sense. Exclusivity was always going to rear its head. We’ve seen it in plenty of other content industries (software, games, music); it was only a matter of time before it inserted itself in the e-book game. It’s not that new – Amazon just got people talking about it.

Writers are used to being on the sidelines, watching these power plays. This time is different (partly because the publishers decided to sit this one out). We’re being asked to make a decision. And make no mistake, whether we participate, and how we participate, has huge ramifications for the whole publishing business: how readers pay for books, how writers get paid for those stories they read, and how publishers and retailers get to play in this new game.

Amazon arouses strong feelings (in either direction). But whatever your feelings are, you need to realize that subscription models of some sort are going to play a big part in the immediate future.

Read the rest of the post on Let’s Get Digital.

Top Posts of 2011: Five Proofreading Techniques Every Talented Writer Should Know

Top Posts of 2011: Where to Submit Your Book for Review

Top Posts of 2011: 7 Distraction-Free Writing Environments for Authors

Windows

Macintosh OS X

Multiple Platforms

Who Should Be Acknowledged In Your Book?

Is Disintermediation Possible For The Indie Author?

Self-Publishing And Ebook Predictions For 2012 With Steven Lewis From Taleist