Month: February 2014

An Author's Guide To Acing Pinterest

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This post by Sima Thakkar originally appeared on the San Francisco Book Review on 12/11/13.

Pinterest is so much more than just a pretty interface. While the UI (user interface) does boast a beautiful display of amazing visuals that you can mindlessly scroll through all day long, Pinterest is an extremely powerful tool that can drive potential readers back to your website. And we’re talking masses. Ready to get started? Here’s a 5-step process to get your Pinterest author page up and running:

Step 1: Claim Your Username
Just like all your other social networks, you want to be sure to claim your Pinterest URL. Your Pinterest name will read as www.pinterest.com/username. Try to keep this username consistent with your Twitter and Facebook handle names, so your audience knows exactly where to find you.

Step 2: Complete Your Profile
Just like any other social media profile make sure you’ve uploaded your profile image and filled out all the necessary information including your website URL, links to your other social media profiles, and a short description.

Step 3: Create Interesting Boards

 

Click here to read the full post on the San Francisco Book Review.

 

Playing with Permafree Books – The Results

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This post by Nick Stephenson originally appeared on his site on 1/9/14.

I’ve been experimenting with a permafree book over the last few weeks – admittedly, I’m a little late to the game, but with so many indie authors using this approach, I figured it was time to dip my toes in the water. I chose my shorter title, “Paydown” (a 95 page novella) as the guinea pig for this little experiment. The book has been well received, with a 4.2* rating on Amazon over 15 reviews at the time the title first went free. A few weeks later, reviews are still good, averaging 4.1* over 28 reviews. But I’m far more interested in measuring the ROI, so here’s the breakdown for y’all:

Price of Paydown prior to permafree = $0.99c
Average daily revenue for Paydown prior to permafree = $2.20
Average daily unit sales for Paydown prior to permafree = 6

Granted, I only had the book up for sale for 2 weeks before going free, but that gives you a rough idea. Essentially, for every day the book is free, I’m losing $2.20 off the bat (I figured I could live with that). So how did jumping on the permafreebie bandwagon help sales across my other titles? Here’s a lovely graph:

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes a breakdown of the sales figures, detailed analysis, and conclusions, on Nick Stephenson’s site.

 

A True War Story Does Have A Moral

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This post by Michael Carson originally appeared on The Hooded Utilitarian on 2/3/14.

“A true war story is never moral,” says Tim O’Brien in The Things They Carried. “If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, “ he continues, “then you have been made a victim of a very old and terrible lie.” A nice idea. I thought of it after finishing Ben Fountain’s novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Certainly I did not feel uplifted in the sense that I wanted to go and fight a war. But the story quite clearly had a moral, even if I couldn’t quite put the moral into words. Would this book be proscribed according to O’Brien’s ideal? Would O’Brien’s own book? Were they in fact true war stories or did fiction circumvent this requirement? For some time now, Americans have been caught in a frustratingly circular conversation about war movies and war literature (see here and here for examples of those using O’Brien to break the impasse). The debate is not so much pro-war versus anti-war, but the authentic versus the non-authentic, with each side accusing each other of the same lack of authenticity. I blame Tim O’Brien. A true war story is always moral. Encouraging young writers, young soldiers and young civilians to believe such amoral stories exist or might be someday written is a dangerous American tradition that we would be well advised to stop.

Though nominally a work of fiction, The Things They Carried obsesses over the idea of a true war story. One chapter – appropriately titled “How to Tell a True War Story” – goes so far as to layer successive, often contradictory, arguments as to what makes a war story true.

 

Click here to read the full post on The Hooded Utilitarian.

 

12 Most In-Demand Content Types for your Website

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This post by Jeremy Powers originally appeared on 12Most on 2/5/14.

Business is all about giving customers what they want. On your website, your prospects expect an awful lot from you. Your visitors want proof you are trustworthy, human, and smart. At the same time, however, your web visitors want, DEMAND really, you keep them entertained, informed and engaged.

How can you keep visitors to your website engaged?

The best method to keep your customers and prospects interested is to make your content interesting. The tactic we are focused on today is diversity of content type. Here are some content types readers enjoy. I encourage you to make your website more interesting by using all of them throughout the year.

 

1. Video

There are many ways you can use video to engage your website visitors. Sam Fiorella covered some great options using video just last week. I don’t think you need to use video all the time, but you can consider video your secret weapon. Video can give your website a serious traffic boost. As an added bonus, your regular visitors will appreciate the new medium.

 

2. Infographics

Infographics have been talked about for some time as a great source of link-bait. For our purposes, I want you to forget all that SEO mumbo-jumbo, and I want you to just think about creating something truly unique for your visitors. A one-of-a-kind graphic can be a simple thing. Some of my favorite infographics are hand-drawn, and they are my favorites because they are so memorable.

 

3. List posts

What is a list post? Ummm, I want you to open your favorite article here on 12 Most. That is a list post. List posts can be done in a variety of ways. You don’t have to expand on each individual item, but I recommend it. The nice thing about list posts is that these posts tend to encourage reader comments. The posts are “scannable,” and easy to appreciate with minimal effort by the reader.

 

Click here to read the full post on 12Most.

 

Facebook Is About To Get More Friendly—Just Not To Brands

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Authors and publishers who use Facebook Fan Pages as part of their platform will want to read this article by Selena Robinson on ReadWrite.

Yes, Facebook is about to change its newsfeed algorithm yet again. Here are some highlights from the article:

Facebook went on to say that users weren’t as engaged with the service when shown more text updates from Pages. So Facebook is now telling Page owners that if they want their posts to appear in newsfeeds, they ought to feature photos or links.

The change is the latest in a slew of newsfeed tweaks that aim to put “higher quality content” front and center in the newsfeed. Facebook is trying to eradicate annoying memes and Upworthy-style articles by encouraging pages to share only interesting and relevant posts.

But Facebook’s algorithm changes also risk minimizing the exposure small businesses and brands can expect from the social network. Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman and owner of the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team, pointed out last year that Facebook’s policy of charging pages huge fees for his team’s posts to reach more newsfeeds forced him to look for other outlets to share team updates.

 

Click here to read the full article on ReadWrite.

 

3 Book Marketing Projects to Tackle in 2014

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This post by Toni Tesori originally appeared on Duolit on 1/8/14.

This is my year.

No more excuses.

2014, I will OWN you!

Sound familiar?

The ringing in of a new year forces us to think about what we’ve achieved in the past twelve months — and how we can do things a bit better this time around.

After the fireworks die down and the champagne stops bubbling, we sit down and make those dreaded…you guessed it: New Year’s Resolutions.

The funny thing about resolutions, though? Their success could be determined by a simple coin flip!

That’s right, less than half of us will actually stick to our resolutions — and that means half of our author friends will end the year no better where they started, which makes us mega-sad. But why does this happen?

You start out with good intentions, right? January 1st brings with it plenty of motivation, but it is darn near impossible to keep up that drive for twelve months. To actually accomplish our goals, we need to add something else to our awesome motivation:

Motivation + [Focus] = WIN!

That’s right, Focus. Motivation without focus is like deciding to go on a road trip, but accidentally leaving the map and smartphone at home. You might eventually reach something really cool, like the Jimmy Carter Peanut Statue…but, without a plan, you’re likely to turn around after an hour or so when your trip starts feeling like a waste of time and gas.

Let’s be real: choosing where to focus your marketing attention is hard. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone just told you what you should do to promote your work?

Ta-da!

3 Book Marketing Projects to Tackle in 2014

 

Click here to read the full post on Duolit.

 

Book Publishing May Not Remain A Stand-Alone Industry And Book Retailing Will Demonstrate That First

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This post by Mike Shatzkin originally appeared on his The Shatzkin Files blog on 1/29/14.

You are missing some good fun if you don’t know those AT&T commercials where the grown-up sits around a table with a bunch of really little kids and asks them questions like “what’s better: faster or slower?” There always seems to be an obvious “correct” answer. Those kids could answer some important questions about ebook retailing in the future like these:

“What’s better? Selling just ebooks or selling ebooks and print books?”

“What’s better? Selling in just one country or in all countries?”

“What’s better? Selling just books or selling books and lots of other things too?”

“What’s better? Having one way to get revenue, like selling books with or without other stuff, or having lots of ways to get revenue so that books are only a part of the opportunity?”

And the answers to those simple questions, so obvious that a 5-year old would get them right, explain a lot about the evolving ebook marketplace and, ultimately, about the entire world of book publishing.

Book retailing on the Internet, let alone an offer that is ebooks only, hardly cuts it as a stand-alone business anymore. The three companies most likely to be in the game and selling ebooks ten years from now are Amazon, Apple, and Google. The ebook business will not be material to any of them — it is only really close to material for Amazon now — which is why we can be sure they will see no need to abandon it. It is a strategic component of a larger ecosystem, not dependent on the margin or profit it itself produces. And the rest of their substantial businesses assure they’ll still be around as a company to run that ebook business.

 

Click here to read the full post on The Shatzkin Files.

 

100 Tips to Be a Smarter, Better Twitterer

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This post originally appeared on the Computer Colleges site on 5/12/09.

1. Set up your profile: Give people a glimpse beyond what your tweets reveal.

2. Include a picture: Make sure you add a photo of yourself so that your tweets will be more personal.

3. Create a simple and short Twitter name: The longer your Twitter ID, the more space it takes up, and having a complicated name can make it hard for people to respond to or mention you.

4. Just do it: Don’t just lurk-jump into the conversation.

5. Make your profile link something that tells more about you: Share your blog, an about me page, or any other page that offers more information about the person behind the tweets.

6. Share photos: Post your photos on Twitter to shake things up a bit and add some interest to your stream.

7. Use proper grammar: Occasional abbreviations are passable, but make sure that your tweets are readable.

8. Use your real name: Build your personal brand by choosing your real name as your Twitter ID.

9. List your location: Many people use Twitter for local networking, so they’ll be more likely to follow you if they know where you are.

10. Learn the lingo: If you don’t know what DM, @, RT, and other Twitter symbols and words are, look them up or ask.

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes 90 more Twitter tips, on the Computer Colleges site.

 

10 Creative Ways to Challenge and Improve Your Writing

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This post by David Eagle originally appeared as a guest post on Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen’s Quips and Tips For Successful Writers site on 7/6/13.

My writing skills improved dramatically when I freelanced for Reader’s Digest, because the editor would go over every sentence with me. She’d call me up and we’d analyze my articles – and I’d learn what Reader’s Digest readers were looking for, what editors want from writers, and even how to pitch future articles.

Most editors don’t have the time to do this – I was one lucky writer! Though it was painful at times, I have to admit.

Anyway — in this article, you’ll learn several ways to improve your writing skills. It’s written by David Eagle, on behalf of the GKBC Writing Academy.

Here’s the one very important thing I’d add to his tips: EDIT your writing. Don’t just write stuff and file it away. Find someone who writes better than you – better yet, find an editor – and get him or her to tear apart your writing.

10 Ways to Improve Your Writing

Guest Post ~ David Eagle

I work as a freelance writer, creating content for various clients. I also have a blog on my website that I’ve been writing since 2009, which allows me to experiment and develop as a writer in a more unstructured environment.

Like any skill, the more you practise at writing the better you become. I’m going to share with you ten tips that you can use to improve and challenge your writing. These are free, simple and fun things that you can start doing right away…

1. Pick a Word
Open a dictionary at random, take the first word you see and write about it. What feelings and emotions does it evoke in you? This is a great way of inspiring new and original ideas, and adding new words to your vocabulary.

2. Play a Wikipedia Game
Wikipedia has a “random article” feature in the left column of its homepage. Hit the link and let it decide your fate! Try writing about whatever subject it randomly selects. This is another a great way of stepping out of your comfort zone, writing about things you probably know very little about which also helps develop your research skills.

3. Look Around You
Observe and write about what’s going on around you. I get so many ideas just from conversations I’ve overheard in restaurants, on buses or on trains. If you are looking to write fiction then observing situations and characters around you is an excellent exercise. Just don’t get caught staring intensely at people as you write derogatory things about them in your notepad! I am not taking responsibility if you end up in hospital.

 

Click here to read the full post on Quips and Tips For Successful Writers.

 

Vellum: New Ebook Production Tool Launches

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This article by Suw Charman-Anderson originally appeared on Forbes on 12/19/13.

If you’ve ever tried to produce a nice-looking ebook that works as well on your device as it appears to on your computer, you’ll know that it’s often a nightmare. Although there are several programs that will take your text and create an ebook from it, rarely are they easy to use. This is the problem that Vellum is trying to solve, for Mac users at least.

Vellum is a very good looking piece of software, with your chapter list on the left, text window in the centre and a preview pane on the right so that you can see what your book will look like when it’s an ebook. Whilst the preview pane only provides facsimiles of the iPad, iPhone, Kindle Paperwhite and Nook Simpletouch, it is nice to be able to see what your book will look like whilst you’re working on it.

This becomes particularly useful when you open the styles list and start experimenting with the built-in options. There are eight overall book styles, and then you can also choose from a small selection of options for your headings, first paragraphs, block quotes, ornamental breaks and the paragraph after a break. It is easy to quickly select a series of options that result in a very good looking ebook, which is rather the point of the software.

In terms of ebook output, I sent the sample files over to Baldur Bjarnason, the most knowledgable ebook wrangler I know, for his opinion.

 

Click here to read the full article on Forbes.