Business End

Articles about the business aspects of publishing and self-publishing.

In Defense of Amazon

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This post by Neal Pollack originally appeared on Slate on 9/2/14.

I’m a writer, and my experience with this supposedly evil corporate behemoth has been fantastic.

Last August, Amazon flew about 80 writers on its Thomas & Mercer mystery and thriller imprint—including me—to Seattle for a conference. They put us up at the Westin downtown, a nice hotel by any standard, and spent the weekend feeding us well and serving us top-shelf booze at an increasingly fabulous series of parties. There were tourist outings, the usual conference mix of panels and workshops, and a non-stressful visit to the Amazon Death Star. Also, they gave us a free Kindle Paperwhite, a nice touch.

With a few exceptions, none of the writers at the conference were particularly famous; some had only published one or two books, all with Amazon. The Seattle trip wasn’t normal treatment for them, or for anyone. I’ve published books with independents and with big corporate imprints, and I’ve published books on my own. Each of these experiences was positive in its own way. But never before had I been treated quite like this. It felt like I’d entered a glorious new age. Amazon had given me a free sneak preview of what book culture would be like from now on.

As usual, I was naive.

 

Click here to read the full post on Slate.

 

Authors Teaching Authors and the Idea of “Slow PR”

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This post by Michael Blanding originally appeared on Publishing Perspectives on 8/29/14.

When Maria Mutch needed advice on how to handle PR of her debut memoir, she found guidance and solace through Grub Street Writer’s Launch Lab in Boston.

Maria Mutch has two words to describe how she felt about her publication of her memoir Know the Night this year: “Utter terror!” She laughs. “Okay, not quite—but not so far off. Obviously I was happy that my book was coming out, but publishing and book promotion seemed to be filled with so many unknowns.”

Mutch knows what it is like to struggle with fear of the unknown. Her book is anything but the typical memoir, chronicling the two years she spent awake virtually every night with her son Gabriel, who is autistic and also has Down Syndrome, and rarely slept through the night. Alternatingly lonely, funny, and exhilarating, it also weaves in the story of Admiral Richard Byrd, the Antarctic explorer who battled his own form of solitude and loneliness, and in whose story Mutch found unexpected solace and inspiration.

 

Pursuing Publicity

When it came time to embark on publicity for her new book, she knew she didn’t want to go it alone. Reaching out for others going through the same process, she found it in Launch Lab, Grub Street Writer’s intensive boot camp for new authors, in Boston. “It seemed like a great way to demystify the whole process,” she says. “It also seemed like a great way to get some comrades, and I couldn’t have been more right.”

 

Click here to read the full post on Publishing Perspectives.

 

Why Book Criticism and Literary Culture Needs a Poptimist Revolution

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This post by Elisabeth Donnelly originally appeared on Flavorwire on 8/28/14.

When bestselling author Jennifer Weiner was profiled by The New Yorker in January 2014 in an article called “Written Off,” writer Rebecca Mead made sure to outline Weiner’s two audiences: one, the loyal readers of her books, who propel them onto the best-seller list, and number two, a pricklier sort, consisting of the “writers, editors, and critics… who have given Weiner a parallel notoriety, as an unlikely feminist enforcer.” The short version is that, through Twitter (and her following, which currently numbers about 93K), Weiner used her platform to needle such august institutions as The New York Times Book Review and everyplace else with mediocre VIDA counts regarding the amounts of space they give to reviewing and considering the three books that “matter” for the season written by male authors like Jonathan Franzen and Jeffrey Eugenides, while simultaneously ignoring the span of women’s writing, and, additionally, commercial fiction.

Like any provocateur’s performance, it was equal parts annoying — if you see book reviewing as advocacy for the little guy, a review of a Weiner novel is certainly not part of that performance — and righteous truth. It’s sexist that book critics can ignore Weiner while making sure to cover the next book by a Stephen King (who bridges “commercial” and also gets literary cred all the time).

 

Click here to read the full post on Flavorwire.

 

Put Calls To Action In The Back Of Your Books To Sell More Books

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This post originally appeared on the Book Marketing Tools blog on 5/5/14.

There are two different kinds of book marketing, active marketing and passive marketing, and both are important.

Active marketing is when you go out to tell others about your book through blog tours, giveaways, free promotions, tweeting about your book, and more.

Passive marketing is setting up fan building and book selling mechanisms once, which will help you to continue to sell books passively once they are all set up.

A combination of both of these forms of book marketing will definitely help you to sell more books.

 

Use Calls To Action
Putting calls to action in the back of your book is a form of passive marketing that will help you to sell more books. Once you set up these calls to action and you publish the update to your books, you’re done, but they will continue to help you to sell books.

If a reader makes it to the end of your book, they are going to go somewhere. Direct them where you need them to go. If you can direct them in a specific direction, then you are likely to keep them as a reader. If you don’t, they may move onto the next book in their reading list, then you will have lost the opportunity to continue to sell to them.

 

Click here to read the full post on Book Marketing Tools.

 

The Three Reasons I Have Fallen In Love With Writing Short Stories

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This post by M. Louisa Locke originally appeared on her blog on 6/12/14.

I am the last author you would think would be writing short stories. As a writer who tends to be prolix, the short form wouldn’t seem a good match for me. I don’t write anything short––not emails, not blog posts, not books. Twitter, forget it––the most I can do is retweet those of you who are good at being succinct. I don’t even read many short stories, (except by 19th century writers like Alcott, Wharton, and James).

Yet, this spring I took time off from doing the research for Deadly Proof, the next book in my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, to write my third and fourth short stories, which are now part of a collection, Victorian San Francisco Stories, that I just published on Kindle, and I have every intention of putting out more short stories in the coming year.

 

So what happened?

Dandy Detects, my first short story happened. Three months after the publication of my first book in my series, Maids of Misfortune, I started to write a short story about the Boston terrier I had introduced in the book. I had read that publishing an inexpensive short story was a good way of introducing potential readers to your work, so my reason was completely pragmatic. Maids of Misfortune was selling less than one ebook a day, and I wanted to feel like I was doing something to help gain it some visibility. I was only producing about two blog posts a month (remember my tendency to be long-winded), and writing a short story and putting it up on Kindle seemed like manageable activity.

Dandy Detects ended up doing more than I could have thought possible to boost sales. Stephen Windwalker picked it as one of his earliest Kindle Shorts on Kindle Nation Daily (probably the first site to effectively promote ebooks) over the weekend of July 4, 2010. This prompted so many people to buy the full-length book that Maids of Misfortune raced to the top of the historical mystery category, where it stayed for over two years.

But even more significantly—writing this story turned out to be great fun, and the readers enjoyed it. Dandy Detect also was less than 8000 words—a triumph for me since I swear I have blog posts longer than that!

While I didn’t write the next story for another two years (in this case after the publication of my second novel), during that time I started keeping track of short story plots I wanted to write. By the time I had written my third story, I had concluded that writing short stories is about more than providing a loss leader to sell other books. In fact, I believe that, particularly for authors of series, short stories can be one of the most effective methods of building and maintaining both the readers’ and the author’s enthusiasm for a series.

 

Reason #1: Short stories permit me to expand on events, places, and, most importantly, characters from my longer novels.

 

Click here to read the full post on M. Louisa Locke’s blog.

 

A Guide to Pinterest for Fiction & Nonfiction Writers: 15 Best Practices

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This post by Frances Caballo originally appeared on Writer.ly on 8/8/14.

Pinterest and SEO

It can be tempting to get lost in the floral images, funny quotes, and pictures of dreamy kitchens on Pinterest, and that’s okay. However, there’s more to Pinterest than collecting DIY, wedding, and craft images while you sip a cup of tea or glass of wine at the end of the day. Pinterest is also a powerful network that can improve the SEO of your blog and website. Here are some tips:

Always categorize your pinboards. Pinterest has gone to great lengths to assist search engines that crawl the Web looking for new content. By using the platform’s own categories, you will alert search engines to the content of your boards.

A common pinboard title is Favorite Books. Search engines crawling the Web will notice the word Books and tie some of your entries to the more general category of books. For example, if your book cover is on your Favorite Books pinboard, search engines may link your book to the category of Books and in turn index your book, improving your SEO.

You can drive traffic to your blog with Pinterest. Use the Pin It Button in your browser to add images from your blog to your pinboards. When another user clicks on the image, they will immediately be directed to your blog.

 

Best Practices

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes 15 specific best practices tips, on Writer.ly.

 

Scam Alert: Editors Beware

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This post by Dave Bricker originally appeared on The World’s Greatest Book on 8/11/14.

I was con­tacted by a not-so-articulate per­son who requested my ser­vices as an edi­tor for an arti­cle. I looked at his doc­u­ment and found a ten-page para­graph that needed plenty of help. I wrote a polite response explain­ing that this piece would be time-consuming and expen­sive to edit, but the author seemed intent on hav­ing me rewrite it. He read­ily agreed to my price, explained his 30-day dead­line and told me he’d send a check.

If this doesn’t sound sus­pi­cious to you, it should.

Pay atten­tion and stay safe.

In a relationship-based busi­ness like edit­ing or design, a new client is almost always a referral.

“I saw the work you did for Jim Smith. I was won­der­ing if you ….”

If you pub­lish a web­site or blog, intro­duc­tions invari­ably start with,

“I read the arti­cle you posted about ….”

This client vol­un­teered no point of reference.

 

Click here to read the full article on The World’s Greatest Book.

 

What NOT To Do On CreateSpace

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This post by Laurie Boris originally appeared on Indies Unlimited on 5/20/14.

When you’re getting ready to release a new title, it might seem handy to hop onto CreateSpace first to craft your print version and then hit the big magic button allowing them to format your e-book. Automation is more awesome than videos of tap-dancing kittens, right? Um, in this case, not so much. Allowing CreateSpace to make an e-book out of your print version is asking for trouble, and here’s why.

When you format an e-book directly from the word processing document you used to prepare your final manuscript, you have a good measure of control. Or as much control as you can have over a process in which the user can modify the appearance of the product and you’re trying to satisfy the quirks of a multitude of e-reading devices. If you choose to do your own formatting, and follow the guidelines supplied by your online retailer, you can prepare that document for upload to Amazon or a spin through Smashwords’ meatgrinder with tidy results and few if any formatting errors. (The Smashwords style guide is particularly user friendly, or see Melinda Clayton’s tutorial on how to use the “nuclear” option to zap weird coding errors out of your document.)

 

Click here to read the full post on Indies Unlimited.

 

Surviving in the Amazon Jungle – How Authors and Reviewers Can Co-exist in a Hostile Environment (and run to court if they don’t)

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This post by Pete Morin originally appeared on his site on 3/20/14.

Well, the Rice Petition has lost a lot of its steam as author after author continues to sign it with no apparent understanding of exactly what it proposes (based upon their own comments), but in the meantime, there has been a lot of discussion, and agreement, that Amazon’s review guidelines could use a few tweaks and a lot more enforcement.

There has also been a fair amount of criticism that demanding the true identities of ten million customers of Amazon products was too high a price to pay for a few dozen militant female reviewers to be “taught a lesson” by Queen Anne.

In that light, I began to consider the kind of actions the author and reviewer could take to both clarify their expectations in the book review arena and provide meaningful remedies against wrongdoers. There is no reason to send the cockroaches into the woodpile when a few well-coined provisos and wherefores can bring about harmony and understanding.

As a (dreaded) litigation attorney, I am forced to parse the language of contractual covenants, indemnifications, waivers, warranties, representations, certifications, promises and disclaimers. While the reading is excruciating, I take comfort in the fact that, pedantic and dull as they are, these kinds of clauses are usually enforceable according to their terms, no matter what they say. As long as both parties agree to the language and it is otherwise unambiguous and capable of only one meaning, it will be enforced in the event of a breach and consequent suit.

 

Click here to read the full post on Pete Morin’s site.

 

More Thoughts on Wattpad

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This post by Elizabeth Spann Craig originally appeared on her blog on 8/15/14.

I blogged in May that I was giving the publishing platform Wattpad a go.  I was somewhat worried about this decision at the time, wondering if my octogenarian protagonist and I would fit in among the youthful readers on the site.

From May to August, I went from several reads to steadily increasing reads.  Nothing I’d call spectacular.  But each day or couple of days I’d get a notification that I had someone else following (I think of them more as subscribers of) my story.  The number of reads (not readers, reads of each chapter) grew and with them grew more visibility.  That’s how it works at Wattpad.

Now, suddenly, I have over 18,000 reads.  I’ve done absolutely nothing to get these.  I’ve not been actively networking, not been joining groups.  I’ve been pretty darn introverted on the site except for my pleasant exchanges with readers who have commented on each chapter.

 

Click here to read the full post on Elizabeth Spann Craig’s blog.

 

Why Write?

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This post by Cathy Fyock originally appeared on The Working Writer’s Club on 8/14/14.

Getting clear on the purpose for your writing is one of the significant hurdles to getting your book completed. If you don’t know how you’ll use your book in your business, you may miss the mark or fail to leverage the full value of your authorship.
By being clear on how your book will benefit you and your business, you’ll find that you can justify the necessary time to write it. You’ll also find that identifying your purpose will provide fuel for your motivation and drive.

Look at the list below and determine which of these benefits of writing a book will fuel your motivation for getting your book completed. And, be sure to add to this blog by commenting [beneath the original post, here] on the benefits you plan to derive (or are currently receiving) from authorship.

To give to prospects as a “calling card”

To help sell your professional services

To establish your credibility

To gain media exposure

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes MANY more specific reasons for writing and publishing, on The Working Writer’s Club.

 

Konrath's Advice to Publishers

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This post by J.A. Konrath originally appeared on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog on 8/17/14.

Over four years ago I wrote a blog post about ebooks:

Joe sez in May 2010: I’d always assumed that print publishers would begin to lose market dominance once ebooks took off in a big way, and they’d have to either restructure or die.

But now I’m predicting another death for them.

What is going to happen when authors stop sending their books to publishers?

If I know I can make $100,000 on a self-published ebook in five years of sales, and I have the numbers to back up this claim, why would any informed writer–either pro or newbie–ever settle for less?

The dominance of ebooks is coming. I have no doubt. But I always thought it was the readers who would lead the charge, based on cost and convenience.

Now I’m starting to believe that the ones with the real power are the ones who should have had the power since the beginning of publishing. The ones who create the content in the first place.

The authors.

It’s a wonderful, dynamic, empowering time to be an author. For the first time, we can command our own ships.

We’re the ones who write the books. We can reach readers without any gatekeepers at all. And we can make money doing it.

The print publishing industry’s biggest fear shouldn’t be the eventual dominance of ebooks over print.

 

Click here to read the full post on A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.

 

Announcing Pre-order for KDP

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An email Amazon sent to KDP authors today:

We’re excited to announce that you can now make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. With a few quick and easy steps you can create a pre-order page up to 90 days in advance of your book’s release date–your pre-order product page will be created within 24 hours. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set. We will deliver it to them on that date.

One advantage of using pre-order is that you can start promoting your Kindle book pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your personal website, and other places ahead of its release to help build excitement for your book. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising ahead of release, which can help more readers discover your book.

Visit your KDP Bookshelf to set up your new book for pre-order.

Best regards,
The Kindle Direct Publishing Team

Questions? Learn more about pre-order on our Help page.

 

The New Bestseller Lists

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This post by L.J. Sellers originally appeared on The Kill Zone on 8/11/14.

Elements of the publishing industry have never been more hotly debated! The most passionate discussion is the Amazon/Hachette dispute over distribution terms and pricing, but another issue has come up that may have a broader effect on authors. Or at least, a more personal influence.

Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited program was unveiled recently, and it’s already affecting the measure by which authors all live—the Kindle bestseller lists.  I’ll get to that in a moment, but first the background: Kindle Unlimited (KU) is a subscription service for ebooks. For $9.99 a month, readers can download all the digital books they want. So far, the books included in the service mostly come from the Select program of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Amazon Publishing (AP) imprints.

[You can enroll in the KDP Select program by clicking on the box when you upload your book. When you click the Select box, you’re agreeing to make that ebook exclusive to Amazon and not sell it in ebook form anywhere else. In exchange, you get various promotional opportunities, plus you’re enrolled in KOLL (the lending library), so you get paid each time someone borrows your book. And now, with the new program, you’re also in Kindle Unlimited, for even more paid sales.]

 

Click here to read the full post on The Kill Zone.

 

The Ideas Have It

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This post by Philip Jones originally appeared on Futurebook on 8/12/14.

When The Bookseller launched the FutureBook Hack earlier this year, I wrote that the “book business has a remarkable record in publishing innovation, and a terrible reputation for digital inertia”. Part of the reason for this is that there are more ideas about this business, and what might be changed about how we go about the business, than there is capacity within it for the ideas to be given the oxygen they need. Just last month I noted a list of ten innovations I thought deserved greater attention, and last week Porter Anderson interviewed Headline’s Ben Willis, the person behind Bookbridgr.com, an idea which I cruelly left off my original list.

At the FutureBook Conference last year we asked a panel of industry experts for their big ideas. Each speaker got 5 minutes to pitch one way in which the industry could improve. The ideas looked at adapting to a shifting digital landscape, cultivating innovation and how to make the most of technological changes.

 

Click here to read the full post on Futurebook.