Publetariat

How NOT To Win Friends On Social Networks

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Social networking is a wonderful way to meet people who share your interests, develop relationships and ultimately increase your book sales. But spamming people in your network isn’t likely to win you many friends. Here are some examples:

• On LinkedIn, someone in a group that I belong to has sent me two sales pitches for her products in the past couple of weeks, by direct message. I’ve never heard of this woman and she’s not on my list of connections.

• On Facebook, the use of direct messages to send promotional pitches has become so prevalent that many people simply tune out their messages.

• On Twitter, people I don’t know send me @reply messages asking me to buy their product.

• On Facebook, some people leave frequent promotional posts on group walls or post promotional messages on their friend’s walls.

Yes, you can promote yourself and your book on social networks, but be subtle about it. Most of your communications should be about developing relationships, getting to know people, sharing information and resources, helping others, and being a member of the community. I recommend that no more than 10% to 20% of your status updates and tweets be promotional or self-serving.

Be cautious about using direct messages for promotional purposes. For example, a direct message to announce an event (like your book launch) or a message that contains tips and resources will probably be more acceptable to people than a sales pitch. Just don’t overdo it.

Remember the golden rule of social networking: treat others as you would like to be treated. 
 

This is a reprint from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

Something To Be Said…Again

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If you work at something long enough, eventually you’ll find a work around [for] what “can’t be done.” Today I challenged myself to finding a solution to the Gravatar image problem I’ve had. The problem: keep the Gravatar image of my book cover while adding a photo of me to my blog.

[Editor’s note: Gravatar is a free service that allows users to set up a single avatar, or user icon, and use that one icon on multiple sites all over the web]

Why, you may ask, would I want to bother doing that? For two simple reasons: 1) I like using the book cover as a Gravatar because it’s great marketing on Facebook when I link my blog post to my “thought”, and 2) it’s super important to put a face with a blog (and everything else) for a writer.

After a lot of hunting (and a major headache :P ) I finally had a solution. Get a Flickr account, upload my author photo to it, link it to my sidebar Flickr widget and — voila! — instant author photo for my blog. In the future I may have to rethink this approach, but by then I hope to have a better web presence.

All that work is just another way to show just how creative Independent Authors can be on The Road to Writing.

Update: You have to make sure to choose the image you want displayed before you post your “thought” on Facebook.
 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s The Road to Writing blog.

Podcast: Crime Writer Seth Harwood On New Publishing Paradigms And Author Marketing

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It’s great to have crime novelist Seth Harwood on the show talking about the new publishing paradigm for his latest novel, Young Junius available for special edition pre-order on May 5th.

Seth Harwood is the author of several crime novels including ‘Jake Wakes Up‘ published last year and his latest book, ‘Young Junius‘ . Seth is also a podcaster, writing teach and co-creator of the Author Bootcamp program.

In this podcast you will learn:

  • The publishing world does not quickly recognise new novelists, so Seth used podcasting to build an audience for his crime novels.
     
  • Pre-release of ‘Young Junius’ is inspired by Scott Sigler’s self-publishing run of ‘The Rookie’ and now ‘The Starter‘ which his publisher didn’t want to publish as it didn’t fit the genre. Seth has partnered with a small press, Tyrus Books to organise a special edition that is only pre-sold on the internet with tons of special extras, photos, cover art, embossed and more. People pre-order on Amazon so why not skip them as the middleman and do this directly.
     
  • The possibility of mainstream authors doing this is out there i.e. avoid the middleman and publish straight to the market. We will likely see more authors using this model for publishing.
  • ‘Young Junius’ is a crime novel, fans of ‘The Wire’, ‘Dexter’, ‘Law & Order’ and authors Richard Price, David Simon, Michael Connelly will enjoy it. It’s available for pre-order on May5th – Cinco de Junius! If you use promo code ‘PENN’, you’ll get $3 off. Go to SethHarwood.com on May 5th.
  • How podcasting can still benefit new authors by getting your work out there to new fans. You need to have a presence where people can find out about you, and podcasting is ideal as you can podcast your actual work and people can listen when they are doing other things. [Seth has an online workshop with Writer’s Digest, a webinar on podcasting, coming up if you want to know more]. The podcast version of ‘Young Junius’ is here.
     
  • Don’t worry about your voice! Fans like to hear the author’s voice reading the book.
  • How to balance your time between writing, marketing, revisions, online promotion. It varies depending on the phase you are in for your book. But it is definitely tricky!
     
  • It’s important to write well but also sell a lot of books. Write what you love to read and create, not something that is ‘literary’ if that is not the genre you love.

You can order ‘Young Junius’ special edition at SethHarwood.com on May 5th. You can connect with Seth on twitter @sethharwood

 

 

Click here to download, or listen to, the podcast on Joanna Penn’s site.

 

 

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

When Editing & Critiquing, Check Your Personal Opinions At The Door

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I’ve been editing a provocative nonfiction manuscript that contains some ideas with which I agree, some with which I disagree, and some with which I disagree strongly. The author has expressed concern that in the process of editing his work, I may inadvertently or purposely alter his meaning due to its controversial content. This is a reasonable worry for any author to have when handing his manuscript over for edit or critique.

I’ve been on the receiving end of revisionist edits and notes which were based entirely in matters of the reader’s personal sensibilities, and it’s an experience that’s annoying at best, downright offensive at worst. Imagine having your independent, feminist protagonist watered down by a reader who feels such traits are unattractive in a woman. Or getting the note that there are too many references to liquor and bars from a reader who happens to be a recovering alcoholic. Such notes aren’t helpful, because while they demonstrate very clearly how to alter the manuscript to better suit one specific reader’s tastes, they don’t offer any guidance on how to improve the manuscript in a way that will make it more appealing to the general public.

Editing and critiquing demand judgment calls from the reader, but it’s a very narrow kind of judgment which should be based only in matters of linguistics and literary form. For example, it’s fine to suggest the author eliminate a lengthy passage of navel-gazing on the part of the indecisive protagonist because it brings the story’s pace to a crawl, but it’s not okay for the editor to make the same suggestion merely because she has no tolerance for indecisive people in real life.

It can be a very fine line to walk, because the nattering observations of an indecisive person truly will seem to bring the story to a crawl for a reader with no patience for such people. But it doesn’t mean a reader who doesn’t share that particular pet peeve would suggest the same change. This is one of the many reasons why authors should seek out multiple reads from different people, and one of the many reasons why those readers should approach their task with self-awareness and humility.

In the end, matters not specifically pertaining to rules of grammar, spelling and proper usage are all matters of opinion, and this is something authors, editors and critiquers alike should never forget. What one reader finds distasteful, another will find fascinating. What one finds boring, another will find lyrical.

For authors, the trick is to work toward some kind of majority consensus. For editors and critiquers, the trick is to remember that their proper role is merely to bring the author’s vision of his ideal manuscript into sharper focus, not to alter it, editorialize on it, or make it more closely resemble whatever vision the editor or critiquer may have in his own life or philosophy.

So, while I may not agree with an author who says [insert viewpoint to which you are strongly opposed here], it’s still my job as editor to ensure his message is communicated as clearly and forcefully as possible. If I’ve done my job well, by the time I’m finished I will have helped the author win some converts to his cause—just as I’ve been won over to various causes by well-written treatises. And if I have a problem with that, I shouldn’t be editing his manuscript in the first place.
 

This is a cross-posting from April L. Hamilton‘s Indie Author blog.

Getting The Attention of Indie Bookstores

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Small presses and self publishers usually have a difficult time getting positive attention from Independent (Indie) bookstores. I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret today that will help immensely.

You may know that the American Booksellers Association looks out for the interests of Indie bookstores; however, were you aware there are nine regional bookseller associations that do even more for them? For instance, my bookstore is served by the Midwest Booksellers Association (MBA). I know you’re probably wondering why I mention these. It’s because they have a marketing opportunity program that reaches all the Indie stores that are members of their respective regional organizations and get emails.

The following is a quote from an email I received from the MBA yesterday: 

Reach thousands of booksellers. The Regional Bookseller Trade Associations are combining efforts to get your promotional materials, ideas, and gift items into the hands of our nearly 3,000 independent bookstore members. Entries cost $100. Each participating regional will send an email alert to our members.  Payment must be made before the alert is sent.  You can pay with a credit card or a check.  For credit card payments call 800.331.9617, or mail your check to SIBA, 3806 Yale Ave., Columbia, SC 29205

New! Reserve your listing online: Click Here!

Email your entry to: alert@sibaweb.com exactly as you’d like it described in the alert.

Along with bookmarks & posters, there are other materials that our booksellers would like to know about, such as contests, event kits, authorless events, and other creative materials that you spend dollars on developing and shipping.  This would be a Call to Action to Booksellers to request the materials that they believe will be most valuable to them.  Booksellers will email you directly to request the items allowing you to capture the emails of the stores that are most interested in the materials.  All requests should include any parameters you choose.

Submission guidelines are below.

See a sample Creative Advertising & Promo Alert here!

This is a great opportunity for greeting card companies and other sidelines vendors to connect with independents and to get a sample of your wares into their hands.


Here is a quote from an email to member bookstores so you can see how they are contacted:


 

Dear Booksellers,

Here is the latest installment of the Creative Advertising and Promo Alert, sponsored by your regional trade associations. In this email you will find a list of promotional offers from publishers, wholesalers, sideline companies and other vendors who have developed a variety of marketing tools and pieces designed to help you sell more stuff; specifically, more of their stuff!

Offers are arranged alphabetically by vendor name, but we have included a summary at the top of each listing to show the company name, the category their products fall under, and a list of the items/promotional pieces that are being offered. These are great items, not just for your own in store use, but also to give to teachers, educators and librarians.

PLEASE READ EACH LISTING CAREFULLY. They each contain specific instructions. If you are interested in a particular item, please follow the directions in the listing to request an item. DO NOT simply reply to this email, as we can not guarantee that your request will get forwarded to the proper person in time.

We hope this Creative Advertising & Promotional Alert will be useful to you, by bringing together into one place many of the resources publishers and vendors create to help encourage sales.

Yours truly,

Your Regional Booksellers Trade Association

Here is contact information for all the regionals:

Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association

Jim Dana (Executive Director)
208 Franklin St.
P.O. Box 901
Grand Haven, MI 49417
(800) 745-2460, (616) 847-2460
Fax: (616) 842-0051
E-Mail: glba@books-glba.org

 

Midwest Booksellers Association

Susan Walker (Executive Director)
Kati Gallagher (Assistant Director)
3407 W. 44th St.
Minneapolis, MN 55410
(800) 784-7522, (612) 926-5868
Fax: (612) 926-6657
E-Mail:  susan@midwestbooksellers.org
kati@midwestbooksellers.org

 

Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association

Lisa Knudsen (Executive Director)
19 Old Town Square, Suite 238
Fort Collins, CO 80524
(970) 484-5856
Fax: (970) 407-1479
E-Mail: lisa@mountainsplains.org

 

New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association

Eileen Dengler (Executive Director)
2667 Hyacinth St.
Westbury, NY 11590
(516) 333-0681
Fax: (516) 333-0689
E-Mail: info@naiba.com

 

New England Independent Booksellers Association

 

Steve Fischer (Executive Director)
297 Broadway, #212
Arlington, MA 02474
(781) 316-8894
Fax: (781) 316-2605
E-Mail: steve@neba.org

 

New Orleans-Gulf South Booksellers Association

Britton Trice (Chair)
Garden District Bookshop
2727 Prytania St.
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 895-2266
Fax: (504) 895-0111
E-Mail: betbooks@aol.com

 

Northern California Independent Booksellers Association

Hut Landon (Executive Director)
The Presidio
P.O. Box 29169 (mail)
37 Graham St. (delivery)
San Francisco, CA 94129
(415) 561-7686
Fax: (415) 561-7685
E-Mail: office@nciba.com

 

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association

 

Thom Chambliss (Executive Director)
214 East 12th Ave.
Eugene, OR 97401-3245
(541) 683-4363
Fax: (541) 683-3910
E-Mail: info@pnba.org

 

Southern California Independent Booksellers Association

Jennifer Bigelow (Executive Director)
959 E. Walnut St., Suite 220
Pasadena, CA 91106
(626) 793-7403
Fax: (626) 792-1402
E-Mail: office@scibabooks.org

 

Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance

 

Wanda Jewell (Executive Director)
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
3806 Yale Ave.
Columbia, SC 29205
(803) 994-9530
Fax: (803) 779-0113
E-Mail: info@sibaweb.com


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This is a reprint from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iPad's epub: the "Book" of the Future?

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A few weeks ago Smashwords made it possible to get self-published books into Apple’s iBookstore for sale on the iPad, and from what I read there are already several thousand Smashwords titles in the iBookstore.

Some of Apple’s approved content aggregators have also put out mechanisms for making contact with content creators and rights holders. Both Libre Digital and Bibliocore will take your information and have someone get in touch with you if you want to talk

Bibliocore, “… was launched by the same team that created TuneCore, the largest distributor of music, artists and labels in the world. We believe that all writers, artists and musicians should have equal access to the channels of distribution without having to give up rights or revenue.”

LibreDigital ” … has already delivered thousands of e-books to the iBookstore on behalf of some of the largest book publishers in the world.”

Bibliocore also states they take no commission on sales, that you will receive 100% of payments from Apple. They do this by charging fees upfront. LibreDigital, on the other hand, seems to have the opposite model. They announce no fees up front, and a “transparent” pricing model.

Constellation, from Perseus Books, is another Apple Approved EBook Aggregator. Perseus is ” … the largest distributor of independent publishers in North America, with more than 300 publisher clients.” Their focus is on independent publishers, and providing complete, end-to-end services not just for iPad but—ambitiously—for all types of digital distribution.

I haven’t explored these companies in detail, but I think it’s fascinating how many options are starting to open up with the rapid sales of the iPad. Many of the ads for content creators mention “over 300,000 iPads sold” and the expectation that Apple may sell as many as 3-5 million iPads this year alone.

Here Comes the DIY Option

According to an article by Dan Moren in Macworld the Storyist software—an intriguing hybrid word processor specifically designed to format and organize writing projects of all kinds—will now come with a direct to ePub export feature. You can create a book, add a cover, and upload it to your own iPad to sit on the iBook shelf alongside all your favorite authors.

Increased support for ePub conversion is also built into the new Adobe InDesign CS5, and you can see why. The demand from publishers of all sizes has increased exponentially over just the last four months. Even in my own design practice, every author now wants to include ebook conversions in their project right from the start. This week I received the first inquiry from a prospective self-publisher about whether it was still necessary to get the print book ready at all.

Over at Foodsville, Hewlett-Packard is showing one example of their new BookPrep system, which pretty much allows you to scan old books directly to ePub files, suitable for … well, you know.

More and more programs will likely come with the epub export option, and why not? It is the typesetting of the future.

Mixed Feelings

I assured the author I was talking to that it would be best to do the print book first if he had any plans to publish at all. Although a lot of the formatting will be lost in the conversion to epub, it will be maintained in the “original” book.

But I really started to wonder how long we’ll be referring to the print books as the “originals” or the “best edition” in the language of the Copyright Office. More and more it feels like the pace of the transition to digital books has picked up. Things are moving faster. As the beautiful full-page iPad ads continue to spread over the countryside, more and more people get accustomed to the idea of reading on tablets, phones, screens of all kinds.

Soon the word “book” will be like the word “leading” is now; a convenient descriptor that some people will remember actually existed in the real world at one time, but is only remembered now because of its name. Digital “books” are unlikely to resemble printed books for very long, and that is as it should be. Digital works—text and a host of other media and capabilities—are entirely different from printed books. Why should they continue to slavishly imitate a 500-year old form?

Typography will retreat, maybe completely out of the mass-reading space. Watching text reflow in your choice of fonts and sizes is pretty much the death of typography until someone comes up with a format that can be both designed and extensible. The implied elasticity of that future typography is dizzying to someone who is used to fixed forms on paper. How will they do that?

It’s questions like that that keep this revolution interesting. And this: What will happen next? Stay tuned.

Takeaway: We can watch as the epub format for ebooks and iBooks begins to assert itself as the foundation for the “book of the future.”

This is a cross-posting from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer site.

Writing A Book: What Are Some Different Approaches?

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You know, since I’ve started to work on a new book, I’ve been sitting here thinking about what sort  of methods I would use.

I mean for the novel I wrote, I sort of started with the "discovery writer" method and later did some chapter by chapter break downs – or my own unique outlining method. I know that some of my fellow writers would object to casting out a line to catch all the different methods for putting a book together from concept to finished pages. It may not be because you’re loathe to share your "secrets" but rather about burdening future writers with an outline of the convoluted ways you may have gone before you settled upon a collection of methods that worked well for you – at least on a book-by-book basis.

The Jungle

What you’re going to discover very quickly is that there are so many cobbled together methods, so many gimmicks being peddled out there, both on the web and in the books you might find in the library that to settle upon a fair selection of what would be called the top methods may seem a foolish errand. Perhaps, it is. But, hey, I’m a creative writer. Why should I little such nagging details stop me from the attempt?

Really, what this post is about if the solicitation of thoughts and ideas on the subject. That’s right folks, I’m asking you, my fellow wordsmiths (and others who may be reading this) to help me narrow down some of the top ideas for crafting books that you come up with. I’m interested in having a list as well as a bunch of comments.

This is post will only be effective if you answer so please don’t leave me hanging. If I get a good turn out here, then we can continue the conversation through comments and subsequent posts. That’s the idea anyway.

By The Way

Part of the incentive for me is also to get some better ideas about the book I’m currently writing. It’s a piece of non-fiction. I think I could call it a memoir but it could also be an inspirational story about real life. It tells an intimate story that mixes hope with tragedy.

I’m looking for ways to put this material together. I’ve thought about using straight chronological order, but it may make for drier reading, but it would get all of the story out there for readers to see from point A to point B. Otherwise, I could mix the details and facts with a more flexible thematic structure that addresses different parts of the story on a chapter-by-chapter basis. Then I would take this and weave it together as a whole.

Like I’ve mentioned before this book represents my entrance to a whole new level of professional writing as well as a golden opportunity to add the second book to my publishing company list. I hope to hear some feedback from my colleagues in the writing world.

Thanks again. Good luck with your writing projects!

 

This is a cross-posting from Shaun C. Kilgore‘s site.

Time We All Took The Self From Self-Publishing

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Last year I wrote an article about Lulu and in the title for that article I suggested; 2010 May Be The Time For Lulu To Drop The Self From Self-Publishing. At the end of that article I wrote the following as an explanation as to what I meant. On reflection, and in light of the following Lulu Forum posting by author Julie Ann Dawson, which today was cross-posted by Emily Veinglory on POD People, I would like to expand on that original article I posted here in January.

Having re-read the post again today, I think there is a danger in believing I was being somehow entirely supportive of the direction Lulu where taking their marketplace and business as a whole. If anything, I have subsequently being calling for Lulu to get back to the core values of what they are; a DIY self-publishing services company – at least that is how I still see them – but their recent attempt at diving into the Canadian stock market in an effort to raise investment finance may suggest something quite different.

Here is what I wrote at the end of my article in January:

Indeed, and that movement and protection under the umbrella of publishing is what Lulu is quickly trying to embrace by expanding their marketplace to include mainstream books for purchase, as well as recently trumpeting the arrival of John Edgar Wideman, presented as the exasperated renegade from the traditional world of publishing. It is this fairytale renegade story of disillusioned author that Lulu wants to sell us. Wideman is among the self-publishing masses – equal in our kindship of self-publishing and its empowerment. For the most part, Lulu still remain in the business of selling self-publishing services, but authors crossing over the self-publishing/publishing divide are what helps Lulu sell their services to the ordinary masses.

Let us pause for a moment and consider what Julie Ann Dawson has cited for her decision to remove her books from Lulu. Incidentally, there is not one thing which follows I do not disagree with…
 
Julie Ann Dawson on the Lulu Forum:

Referencing The Last Song for points:

Preferential pricing: This is a 413 page book, selling for $10.94. Do you know what my cost to print a 413 page book is? $12.76! It costs me almost $2 more to print than this book sells for! And if I went through retail with the book, with NO ROYALTY the book would sell for $19.52. WTF!!!???

Preferential tools: Notice that this book has a “retail” price and a sale price? Well, I have been asking for this FOR YEARS for US, and Lulu has systematically refused, claiming that they couldn’t let us sell the books on Lulu for less than what the book retails for due to contractual agreements with Amazon and other vendors. I think this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt Lulu was LYING."

Dawson refers to traditionally published authors getting preferential treatment from Lulu, and that rules and limitations imposed on self-published authors, which Lulu previously advised could not be broken, are now being freely broken to woo (my hypothesis) authors with books printed and published by mainstream publishers over to Lulu’s marketplace. This flirtation also extends to wooing experienced authors with a mainstream publishing background to move their latest books to Lulu’s new VIP publishing service.

The example Dawson gives in her forum posting on Lulu is Nicholas Sparks’ The Last Song. Dawson comments; ‘How the books get printed is of no concern to me.’ Well, actually, it should, because it would explain why your 413 page book retails at $19.52 and Sparks’ book retails at $10.94. Lulu have a deal with Ingram as their ‘available’ distributor for POD books, but The Last Song is published by mainstream publisher Grand Central Publishing, and you can bet your bottom dollar it ain’t being printed POD, but rather sourced from printed stock Ingram hold in a warehouse for Grand Central. And that will be likewise for all books from mainstream publishers Lulu has in its marketplace. So, yes,  we can go on comparing apples with oranges, but they will always be uniquely apples and oranges.

Looking at the deal John Edgar Wideman did with Lulu; if any author believes, like the multitude of authors who sign up with Lulu each day, that Wideman somehow decided one evening over a coffee, ‘ah fuck it, I’ll sign up with Lulu and self-publish my next book’, they are being naive, deeply naive. Wideman was negotiating with Lulu and using their VIP services. From an article I wrote on Wideman’s publication with Lulu:

All authors are equal, just some are more equal than others!
 

If you think Lulu see all their authors in the same light; think again. This is akin to DellArte Press authors (Harlequin’s self-publishing service) thinking they are operating in the same field of publishing dreams as all of Harlequin’s traditionally contracted authors. The Lulu VIP program offers everything to try and lure an established author to the lulu brand, every turn of the drive shaft and spark from the Lulu engine—pre-production and post-publication—is being directed towards the sale of the author’s book. It is notable that the press release to go with the book was not released by Wideman, but Lulu themselves. While Lulu right now needs Wideman more than he needs them, there is no doubt in my mind; the experimental nature of Wideman’s Briefs made it a difficult sell to Houghton Mifflin, and as the author freely points out, he is no writer of literary blockbusters."

There is a dichotomy at the heart of this discussion, and it can lead us to make an inaccurate assumption about self-publishing and mainstream publishing. Lulu has taken a step closer to the traditional world of publishing by taking on the wider marketplace, and the traditional world of publishing has begun to re-evaluate its own publishing models and taken a step closer to embracing some of the components of the self-publishing fraternity. Some might say never the twain shall meet, but it is discussions like this which come from the inevitable collision and consummation of all publishing into one entity. We are seeing the Lulu marketplace as a platform where self-published author collides with traditional author. The glare of the headlights shows us that an author is an author and a published book is a published book. It is just that some authors and their books are more equal than others. There is nothing new in this – it has being going on in the traditional world of publishing for decades.  

This is also one of the reasons why I believe self-published authors should be careful not to be so quick to adopt labels like ‘indie author’ or ‘indie publishing’ when so many authors happily label themselves with these convenient monikers as badges of honor when actually they have little experience or knowledge of what it is they perceive themselves to be independent of; in abhorrence of; or dislike. I have pointed out before the label of ‘indie’ is a complete misnomer, Faber and Canongate are strictly ‘indies’, but they punch way above their weight in the publishing industry.
 
It seems to me that what this whole discussion is simply here to remind us of the fact that self-publishing is still publishing a book in essence, and now that self-publishing is broadly accepted as it is; it is still reluctantly part of the whole publishing industry. Self-published authors must realize and accept that they shelter under the same umbrella of the book buyer, book reader and industry. They must accept that in any form of aspiration, commerce or even faith, there comes an ordained hierarchy whether it is perceived or imposed.

No publisher or agent, in their heart of hearts, believes all their authors are equal. They may humanly treat them as equals, but as business people they will not act equally and accordingly.

Whether the above is accepted or not, self-publishing affords the author the latitude of not accepting any compromise – that is – total control, but that comes at a price, and a greater price than the ones Lulu or CreateSpace charge if self-publishing is truly to be executed properly. More importantly, it also comes with a responsibility and presents the author with The Publishing Road Less Traveled. Complain as we may, we are all in this together.

It is time we all took the self from self-publishing.

How many are really up for that journey?

 

This is a cross-posting from Mick Rooney‘s POD, Self Publishing and Independent Publishing blog.

Writers: "Don't Let Yourself Off The Hook"

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If I could name one thing I’d be proud to have as my epitaph, "He never stopped challenging himself" is a pretty good candidate. This applies in most areas of life, not just writing. Whether I will have succeeded is not for me to judge, as the essence of continual challenge is not getting hung up on either success or failure. In any case, a recent blog post by J.C. Hutchins has really gotten me thinking about how hard it is to avoid taking the easy way out.

 
I almost always agree with what J.C. has to say. He is motivated, articulate, reasonable, and from what I know of him a genuinely nice guy. His recent post, The Three Abatrosses of Podcast Fiction has a lot that I agree with and some that I don’t.
 
I posted a comment, and he was gracious enough to respond. I think we still disagree about some things, but I quickly let go of that and started thinking about what lessons I might learn from his words. Many years ago, a very wise woman taught me the value of not always focusing on being critical, which is a tendency I’ve fought all my life. That goes for being critical of myself and of others. It’s too easy to miss out on opportunities when one is subconsciously looking for reasons not to take them. And I have found that I even need to go beyond that.
I have found that the most valuable learnings tend to come from disagreements.
 
I’m not talking about massive differences like we see in politics or religion, though I’m certain there is always some value in trying to place oneself in someone else’s shoes. No, I’m talking about how honest disagreement can lead to growth, and to what Thoreau called the examined life.
 
One of the things I pointed out was that coming up with new and creative ways to promote your work is a talent, just as writing is a talent. Certainly one can work at improving it, but some of us will always be better at it than others. J.C. did not agree with this. After I resisted the urge to respond to defend my position again, I thought some more about it. What I realized is that even if I am right (and I can admit that it is possible I am not), it’s an irrelevant point. We all have to make the efforts we can, regardless of limitations.
 
As soon as I realized that, I remembered making the argument to others in years past in the context of running. Guys I know who were among the top runners in the United States would complain that the Kenyans who were and still are winning everything have a natural advantage. Incidentally, you can imagine how charged a discussion that could become. In any case, I’d tell them it didn’t matter even if that were true, because unless they were planning on hanging it up, they needed to focus on the things they could control. When I realized that I was making essentially the same misguided kind of argument to J.C. that they had made to me, I felt kind of ashamed.
 
But I am glad that I persisted rather than just sticking with "agree to disagree" on this issue. And I’ve thought some more about why I had the reaction I did. The reason is fairly obvious and it doesn’t make me proud: I think of myself as someone who has no natural talent whatsoever for creative solutions. I’m about as left-brained as it gets. My only creative outlets are writing well and playing the guitar poorly. I try to think of something new and innovative to promote my books and. . .nothing.
 
As so often happens, lessons don’t tend to be isolated. When I think back on what I did after the launch of New World Orders in 2008, I realize that I did try a couple of at least somewhat different and new things. What I remember most is that they were utter failures. Or so I thought, until I read the March 29 blog post by Jeremy Robinson, How should I market my book.
 
Jeremy gives some good tips, and he makes the same general point that J.C. Hutchins made, that innovation is the key more than exactly what you do. I agree with this point 100%. But the thing that really struck me in light of my musings is his description of a marketing attempt that didn’t go as well as expected. I am not someone who puts authors on a pedestal just because they’ve sold some books or had some success. But I have to admit that I am surprised that someone with an established platform and audience got so little response to a promotion.
 
It drives home a point that J.C. Hutchins made, which has obviously been far too easy for me to forget. Trying something new and having it not work is not the same thing as failure. In fact, not trying something new because it might not work is much more of a failure. I’d even go so far to say that sometimes I have been guilty of not trying anything, new or otherwise, because I wasn’t sure it would work. There are many overused phrases about failing many times before eventually succeeding, and there is a reason why they are overused: because it is so much easier to give up.
 
I haven’t forgotten the title of this post, "Don’t let yourself off the hook." Beyond the specific takeaways that I have discussed is the larger question of how to stave off the inevitable attacks by doubts. After all, I already knew all the things that I outlined in this post as learnings. But I forgot or ignored them, and if history is any judge, it will happen again. And that’s where not letting myself off the hook comes in.
 
When I allowed myself to question my reaction to J.C.’s post, I wasn’t letting myself off the hook. When I realized that I was using a questionable form of analysis to avoid my own insecurity on these topics, I wasn’t letting myself off the hook. And going forward, when I decide what things do differently, I need to not let myself off the hook. Perhaps for some people this comes naturally, but for most of us I know it requires constant effort and vigilance.
The proof will be in my actions of course. When I release a podcast and a novella this summer, I am once again going to have to not let myself off the hook.

 

This is a reprint from Edward G. Talbot‘s site.

About That Kindle Revolution: A Few Nuggets From Amazon's April 22 Conference Call

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As a follow-up to my post yesterday about Amazon’s earnings report and the company’s progress in advancing the Kindle Revolution, I thought it would be helpful to post some brief excerpts from last Thursday’s Amazon earnings conference call.

I am using the transcript provided by Seeking Alpha, which is available here if you’d like to see the full transcript.  

In order to abide by Seeking Alpha’s 400-word maximum on such excerpts, I’ll pare this down to a few quotations from Amazon senior vice-president and chief financial officer Tom Szkutak, specifically about the Kindle:
 

  • "[I]n terms of marketing itself you saw that it increased a little bit as a percentage of revenue year-over-year and we are doing advertising for Kindle, it’s certainly a product and an area that we are very excited about. You probably seen some of the ads that we are doing…."
     
  • "We are excited about the idea that the world may shift to a place where 3G connected devices are available to browse [the] net and our view is that the more of web connected devices whether [they] be tablets or smartphones, the better that is for our retail business … and we will figure out the best way to make sure that we [make it] as easy as possible for customers to purchase from those devices but we think that that’s an exciting opportunity to have a world that looks like that."
     
  • Spencer Wang of  Credit Suisse asked an interesting Kindle question:"A question on e-books. I guess, as you and the industry move more towards the agency model for digital books, it shifts the ability to set pricing to publishers. I guess our understanding is you also have to charge sales tax, also. So it would seem that your ability to leverage low price maybe mitigated a little bit. So I was wondering if you could just talk about how you would adjust your model to differentiate Amazon versus some of the other players in the context of the other two pillars, I guess, convenience and selection that you are focused on?" Szkutak answered: "One of the things that we’re doing is we are expanding selection, pre-dramatically. When we launched two plus years ago, with Kindle we had approximately 90,000 titles. Just recently we passed over 500,000 titles and so our vision is, as we stated when we launched Kindles to have every book ever published in any language available for customers in under 60 seconds and that’s still our stated long-term goal and so we’re going to continue to add selection in support of that vision."

A few other nuggets from the call, not specifically about the Kindle, that struck me as significant:
 

  • Amazon now has 114 million active customer accounts, which more than doubles that metric for the point when the Kindle was launched in the fourth quarter of 2007.
     
  • Although it is reasonable to think that the Kindle is just beginning to penetrate the international ebook market, given the fact that the Kindle is still nearly an English-only platform and only began shipping outside the US in late 2009, it is nonetheless stunning to note the extent to which Amazon itself, the mother ship, has matured into a truly international company. $3.35 billion of Amazon’s $7.13 billion in first-quarter revenues came from outside the US. It would be silly to think that Amazon does not have plans to give the Kindle an equally impressive global footprint, or that such plans would not be based on an integrated business plan involving expansion of catalog, foreign language support, and in-country retail and wireless carrier support.
     
  • Regarding Kindle demand during the quarter, Szkutak did give one cryptic but significant answer that suggested that the rate of growth for Kindle sales compared with the year-ago first quarter of 2009 was greater than the 2009 fourth-quarter rate of growth for Kindles sales over the year-ago fourth-quarter of 2008. Although Szkutak wouldn’t translate any of this into actual units or dollars, the fact that Kindle unit sales experienced such an upbeat first quarter (within a calendar-year model) is especially significant given that we might reasonably have expected the January announcement of the iPad and the subsequent opening of iPad pre-orders to have at least a chilling effect on Kindle hardware sales. I’ve seen where some observers have tried to extrapolate a slowdown in Kindle sales from "data points" such as a slowdown in Kindle hardware orders placed via their own Amazon Associate links, but this just seems a little silly: unless those "sales" were in the hundreds, the sample size is just too small to be a basis for such assessments.

This is a reprint from Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation Daily.

Good Show, Sir

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My brother-in-law put me onto this great site (thanks Adrian!) It’s called Good Show Sir and it’s all about showcasing the worst book covers in sci-fi and fantasy. Their explanation is this:

Because sometimes, a book cover is so bad that all you can do is step back in wonder and say “Good show, sir, good show”.

The truth is that these days there’s been a considerable improvement in book cover design. Some covers of recent spec-fic releases are truly outstanding. But there was a time when any sci-fi or fantasy book was guaranteed an awful cover of one kind or another. That’s where this site comes in. Check it out here.

To whet your appetite, I present this:

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s alanbaxteronline site.

Book Sales on Ebay

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About a year and a half ago, after I self published, I decided to try selling my book, Christmas Traditions – An Amish Love Story, on Ebay Fixed Price at an affordable price and see what would happen. Buyers pay the postage. I pay 15 cents to list for a week and $1.50 more when the book sold.

 At first, sales were slow. I’m an unknown author. Buyers weren’t sure they should take a chance on me. What helped my sales was the fact I had written an Amish story. That’s why out of fifteen books, I picked the Amish story to sell on ebay. My reasoning was 15 cents a week to advertise my book wasn’t too much to pay in a market that has as many viewers as Ebay does. Even if the book didn’t sell, I was getting noticed as an author.

There are a lot of Amish book consumers around the world. I’ve hit on a market with fewer authors to buy from. I hear quite often from readers that they have read all the Amish books in the stores. They don’t buy anything but Amish stories and eagerly await the latest book from any of the Amish authors, including mine now.

I had a few customers that have continued to email me just to visit. At least one recommended my book to someone else so I’m sure there are others talking about my books now. By the time my next Amish book, A Promise Is A Promise – Nurse Hal Among The Amish, was for sale, I’d saved a long list of emails from my ebay customers that bought Christmas Traditions. I sent a notice to each of them before I put the book up for sale on ebay. The customers that choose to buy from me directly saved me Ebay’s selling fee. After I put the book on ebay, sales continued to grow.

By the time my next Amish book, The Rainbow’s End – Nurse Hal Among The Amish, was ready to go, I had an even longer customer list. As a way to increase sales, I asked each buyer to send me a review of the book if they had time. The reviews I immediately put on Ebay in my book descriptions so other buyers could see them.

My customer service approach has been each time I sold a book to a new customer I put a list of all 17 of my books with a synopsis of each in with the book. Each book is signed. Extra postage is refunded. After the first book when the customer buys another book, I slip one of my business cards in the book as a reminder. I wrap each book to protect it from getting scuffed in the mail before I package it and stick on a colorful sticker that matches the holiday or season. For a follow up, I email the buyer to announce the book is on the way so watch for it. If the book gets lost in the mail, I will send another book to replace it. Last year, I found out paying for insurance to the postal service doesn’t do me any good. I lost $250 worth of books between two shipments. The last one of those shipments was insured.

I filed a claim, and I’ve never been reimbursed.

Ebay asks for feedback about the service between seller and buyers. My reviews from buyers have all been good. The sales are handled through Paypal and happened fast most of the time. So I started using my feedback review to advertise. After saying this was a speedy transaction, I write Thanks for buying my Amish book Enjoy Author Fay Risner. This review got me in google search at least once that I know about. I hadn’t expected that but I knew that first time buyers would be checking out my sales reputation. The reviews from buyers does help with sales when they leave remarks like they liked the book, and I do a good job of packaging.

A few months back, I decided to try my mystery series, Amazing Gracie Mysteries – five books, on ebay now that I am better known. These books are cozy mysteries about a Miss Marple character in Iowa. As I’ve been told, the story line is now known as Geezer books. At first, sales weren’t going so hot. I had to do something to get some interest for the books.

I had three of my proof books in the series I hadn’t given away to relatives. I put them in the ebay auction for 99 cents. Starting at 99 cents meant that I didn’t have to pay an insertion fee, but ebay doesn’t mention they expect to have the seller fill in the buy it now fee box. For that the charge is 5 cents. Then if the books sold the charge is 9 percent. No one bid on the books the first week so this last week I listed in Fixed Price for $4.00. All three books sold to the same person. I sent a reminder email that I still have two more in the series priced at $10.00 if that person wants to continue reading those books. The proof books were ones that I would never have sold otherwise so I think I put them to good use.

The buyer of the mysteries had bought one of my Amish books the week before at the Fixed Price, a proof for $4.00. The Rainbow’s End-Nurse Hal Among The Amish. I wondered why she let such a bargain on the four mystery books go from 99 cents to $4.00. When I found the notes on the ebay invoices I knew why. One of the notes was a practical reason. The buyer wrote, "I am ordering several of your books, hopefully to save on postage. I love your books." (The more books in the package, the cheaper the postage is, so I do refund any postage I don’t use. Out of almost $10.00 ebay took for postage on all four books, I used $3.16.) After that the buyer’s notes were, "I am so excited to find another author that I know I am going to love all your books." "Can’t wait to get this one too. Thanks so much."

What happened to spark the added sales to this buyer? The buyer waited until she read the Amish book. When she found out she liked that book, she was positive she was going to like the mystery books, because she likes the way I write.

This last week I added a couple more of my books to ebay. Both books are in genres that are popular for sales – a children’s book – My Children Are More Precious Than Gold and a Civil War story based on true facts – Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia- A Civil War Saga In Vernon County, Mo. Besides the proof books, I had a box of books I’d read over the winter laying around. I put those used books on Ebay a few at a time for 99 cents in the auction. Am I making money at this? No not a cent by the time I deliver the used book to the post office, but in each sale is a list of my books and how to buy them. Selling the books I no longer have a use for is just another way to promote my own books.

Re-listing the books at the end of seven days took time when I had 8 books, and now I’m adding two more. So I listed the books until I decide to cancel them, and that is for a month at a time at 50 cents. I save 10 cents in that four weeks each time, and the time it took to list the books is cut down.

If you take the time to go to my online bookstore, http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com, and look at my customer site map, you’ll see I’ve sold to customers all over the United States and three International in this last sixteen months. I haven’t had one bad review yet from buyers and plenty of return emails that want me to hurry up and get the next book done. I’m happy with the way my book sales have progressed. I’m getting somewhere with my books. After waiting years to get discovered by a publisher or agent, I’d say this is an improvement that can only get better.

 

This is a cross-posting from Fay Risner‘s BooksByFay blog.

Results of my submission to Writer's Digest Self-Published Awards

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Last year, I submitted Don’t Mess with Earth to the “Writer’s Digest 17th Annual Self-Published Book Awards” and a couple of weeks ago, I received in the mail, the results of entering into the competition. I know it was almost a month ago, but, I’m busy with finishing up my last semester of college. I have to type in the Commentary Sheet because there is no digital copy, which I wish they had, so here goes:

Author: Cliff Ball
Title: Don’t Mess With Earth
Category: Genre
Judge: 57

On a scale of 1 to 5 , with 1 meaning “poor” and 5 meaning “excellent,” please evaluate the following:

Plot: 3
Grammar: 4
Character Development: 2
Cover Design: 3

Judge’s commentary:

What did you like best about this book?

Ball covers a long period of time in the book, from biblical times to present day. He does a nice job weaving all of this human history into a sci-fi story.

The opening scene is compelling and draws readers right into the story. The author does a great job creating interest from the start.

The author’s passion for the story creates a story that entices the reader to keep reading to find out what events he will next tie into the story.

It can be difficult to remain consistent with the point of view. Third-person was the only plausible point of view for this story. This made for a richer story.

The author’s grammar and spelling make for an easy read.

How can the author improve this book?

It’s obvious the author spent time working on the plot. However, covering such a large expanse of time made it difficult to create a protagonist with whom the reader identifies. Readers need a character or group of characters to root for — someone to tie the story together.

The Terrans and Ragnor seem extremely forthright when talking with the humans. They seem extremely trusting of a planet they want to conquer.

The cover image portrays the essence of the story. With a few tweaks or the help of a professional designer, it could easily sit on the fiction shelves with other covers.

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_genre17/
Check out the link, and you can find me near the bottom if you do a search/find on your web explorer.

 

How Amazon's Pricing Affects Author and Publisher Profits

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Authors and independent publishers are sometimes upset to find that online bookstores like Amazon.com are selling their book at a discount from the list price (the price printed on the book).

For books sold and shipped by Amazon, the fact that Amazon has chosen to sell at a discount to list price has no effect on the amount of money that the author or publisher earns – they still receive their standard payment from their publisher, distributor or wholesaler.

For example, if Amazon purchases your independently published book at a 55% discount through their Advantage program, it doesn’t matter what price they offer to the consumer – you will still be paid 45% of the list price. Amazon is reducing their own profit margin (to undercut their competitors) when they choose to sell a product below the list price. Of course if you are selling books on your own website, then you are competing with Amazon.
 
The books listed for sale on Amazon by other resellers (the "new" and "used" listings you see below Amazon’s selling price) are being sold through the Amazon Marketplace. Most of the vendors who are selling new books on Amazon don’t even have the book in stock – they will order it from Ingram when they get an order. Again, the fact that the vendor is selling below list price doesn’t affect the author’s profit. You can even list your own book for sale in the Marketplace.
 
Many book dealers and individuals sell used books on Amazon.com. When used books are sold anywhere (in online or physical bookstores or at garage sales or used book sales) authors and publishers receive no payment. The practice of selling used books has been around for decades, but large online booksellers like Amazon make the process much more efficient and widespread. There is nothing authors and publishers can do to stop used books from being resold.

One positive effect of used book sales is that it gets your book into the hands of a wider readership – these readers may tell others about your book, buy new copies of your other books, or purchase other products and services from you.

See this article for a explanation of how the Amazon Marketplace works and how you can list products for sale there.
For an explanation of reseller discounts and the role of distributors, wholesalers and retailers in the book trade, see this article.
 

This is a cross-posting from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

Book Marketing Tips

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Our journey to a Midwestern Booksellers Assoc. training session in St Louis last weekend was very interesting. There was a lot of discussion about the digitization of books and how that might impact independent booksellers. More of us are selling books over the web, and the major distributors are starting to carry ebooks, so we’re trying to figure out how all this will work out.

 
As an author/publisher, I’m really glad I’ve gone with Smashwords, who have just signed a contract with Apple to provide content for the new iPad.
 
I’ve been asked to chat a little on book marketing. Since that’s a huge topic, let me focus on the lowly postcard. First, I recommend that you use a 4×6 inch format. This is the largest that can go at postcard rate. Anything larger than that will be treated as standard first class and bulk rates, and be more expensive.
 
Why a postcard? Because bookstore staffs have so little time, it is one of the few marketing pieces they’ll take time to read. Forget sell sheets, press releases, extensive review sheets, and bookmarks. Make your initial contact with the postcard, and send that other stuff if they ask for more information.
 
What should be on the postcard? On the front side just place the book cover. That way the bookseller will have an idea of how the book will show up on the shelves among other books. On the back side: Divide it into two halfs. The one on the left should contain contact info, what the book is about (very briefly), and what are the target markets and how to handsell them. On the righthand side, reserve room for the stamp and the mailing label. Along the bottom on both sides, leave about .5 to .75 inches across the card for the post office barcode.
 
Follow up with email, letters, or phone calls, depending on the size of your campaign. The postcard is like a resume–it’s an invitation to a conversation.
 
By the way, if you enjoy my blog, please consider RSS-ing or email subscribing (look on the right hand side of the home page—scroll down a bit till you see these options).

 

This is a reprint from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.