Ebooks

Articles specific to writing and publishing ebooks.

It Isn't Wise to Draw Lines in the Sand That Ultimately Can't Be Defended

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This post, from Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on the Idea Logical Blog on 7/25/10.

Apologies in advance for a much-longer-than-usual post.

It is not like the publishers haven’t seen the ebook royalty fight coming. On a panel he and I were on together in March of 2009, John Sargent, the Chairman and CEO of Macmillan, identified ebook margins as the critical issue for publishers going forward. Even though ebook sales at that point were financially insignificant and the growth surge that we’ve seen in the past 15 months wasn’t yet evident, Sargent expressed the belief that ebooks would be the future and that publishers had to be diligent to preserve their margins in the digital environment.

There are three moving parts to the publishers’ margin equation for ebooks.

The one that I think Sargent was thinking most of at that time is ebook pricing. If “misguided” publishers or market forces drive down prices a great deal, that could threaten publishers as sales migrate to digital.

The second one, which was then and remains today a focus of publishers, is the potential consolidation of sales channels so that power moves from a multitude of publishers to a small number of, or perhaps a single dominant, point of contact with the customer. Until the Nook came along from B&N last winter and the iPad from Apple in the spring, Amazon and Kindle looked dangerously close to being able to dictate both pricing and margin in the ebook supply chain.

And third, of course, is the amount of the consumer spend that is taken by the authors: the royalty.

The ebook pricing and channel consolidation issues have been front and center for the past year, ever since Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks put “windowing”, which had been tried before for ebooks, in the spotlight as her solution to the perceived damage deeply discounted ebooks could do to print book sales, particularly of the hardcover edition. After she announced that she was holding back the ebook for Bran Hambric, similar announcements came from other publishing houses. At that time, only a year ago, Amazon was the dominant ebook vendor with Kindle sales amounting to 80% or more of the ebook sales for narrative trade books.

But the introduction of Barnes & Noble’s Nook device began to eat into Amazon’s hegemony last winter as 700 B&N stores started pushing a Kindle-type experience on their millions of customers. Then, in April, Apple introduced the iPad and changed the game two ways.

First of all, their tablet computing device, which can serve as a larger-than-a-cellphone screen for an ebook reader, started adding tens of thousands of new device-equipped potential book customers every day!

But along with the device competition, the iPad and its iBooks platform added a new business model called Agency. And, under Agency, the pricing of ebooks at retail theoretically becomes standardized across the web, not subject to discounting by individual retailers. This visibly upset Amazon, which appeared to pick a fight with Macmillan over the terms. It looked to those of us with no inside knowledge of their conversations to be an attempt to bully publishers to give up the Agency idea. In retrospect, this was perhaps a bad fight to have picked. Amazon’s threat was to stop selling the print editions of titles from those publishers who sold ebooks on Agency terms. Since five of the top six publishers were moving in that direction, and none of them blinked, Amazon had to, in their own words, “capitulate.” (On the other hand, we are not aware of any other publisher, beyond the Big Five, to whom they also capitulated, so the final score on this fight isn’t in yet.)

So it would seem that the big publishers have solidified two of the major components of their ebook margin. With their help, consolidation in the ebook channel has been reversed and they’ve taken critical steps to control prices to the consumer, while ebook sales have continued to rise at an accelerating pace.

But there remains this tricky question of royalties.

Read the rest of the post on the Idea Logical Blog.

I Like Customer Reviews

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In a previous post I wrote about a review I requested from Charlie Courtland for A Promise Is A Promise from my Nurse Hal series. Charlie is the author of Dandelions In The Garden and has a book review website http://www.bitsybling.wordpress.com. I appreciated her good review and the fact that she put it on Amazon and www.goodreads.com where it could be seen by people.

According to Steve Weber in his book Plug Your Book, Amazon has some regular customers that offer reviews on every book they read. One negative view can hurt sales. He says keep asking for reviews. The more often your book is reviewed, the likely a minority opinion can dominate. Numerous authentic reviews lessen the chance that a single review can overtake and monopolize the Spotlight position.

Think about it. Reviewers have likes and dislikes when they pick a book to read. That may play a factor in their review. Plus, their intention is to review the book so they’re naturally watching as they read for what they want to say. What would be great is to see more positive customer reviews on Amazon, but how do we go about getting buyers to respond. I want to know what people who buy my books think of them. Most book readers aren’t reading a book to find mistakes but to be entertained. Those are the buyers most likely to leave a good review. Anyone that has bought an item from Amazon knows if you don’t leave a review in a certain amount of time, you get an emailed reminder. That means the book buyers don’t just forget. It’s always possible they didn’t like some of the books well enough to make a positive review so they decided not to make one at all.

As far as my books are concerned, I’ve gotten good reviews from ebay buyers and private sales. These are the buyers I was referring to that read my books for the entertainment value. I always make a point to ask buyers for a review so I’d know how they liked my books. Most of them are glad to comply and all the reviews have been good. I know they aren’t just saying that. They like my books well enough that they want to buy another one.

I thought about how well my ebay buyers respond, and I had to wonder what was the difference between ebay and Amazon buyers. Maybe it has something to do with the reviews left by the experienced reviewers. Most book buyers couldn’t measure up to those detailed critiqued reviews with one of their own. Maybe buyers don’t know how to write a review they think would be all right. I can tell you from first hand experience I’m not good at giving a constructive review. When I was active on http://www.authonony.com I submitted Christmas Traditions and A Promise Is A Promise to get the opinion of other authors. Their reviews and thoughts were very complimentary and detailed, but I found it hard to review their books as well as they did mine. What I know for sure is I either like the books or don’t, and that’s based on the genre and the story in the books I like to read.

I write books that I hope are stories people will like to read. These books make you laugh out loud sometimes, describe characters that remind you of someone, and you miss them when the story ends. Those are not my words but words my customers have used to describe my books. So why is it so much easier to get ebay and private customers to give me positive reviews than it is to get them on Amazon?

Perhaps, there is another simple answer besides knowing how to write a review. On Amazon, customers don’t have contact with the author of the books. Sales are impersonal business transactions. On ebay and private sales I can reach out to customers to add the personal touches to my sales so they get to know me. I sign my books for buyers. I have their email addresses so I can let them know the book had been sent so they can watch for it, and I tell them I appreciate their business. I ask for a review, if they have time to contact me, after they read the books. I think they respond back, because I reached out to them. Many of these buyers have become my email pen pals. They email me to find out how soon another book will be published. I have email addresses on a mailing list so I can notify buyers when a book is for sale. I’ve never been a fan of mass emails. That to me is very impersonal. I know the process takes time, but I email each buyer one at a time. Besides, that way I can visit with many of them. Some of these buyers email me once in awhile to just to say hi. Makes me feel blessed to get to know so many wonderful people in the United States.

With this all in mind, I started two new discussions under Christmas Traditions in Kindle. The first one explains that I have decided to put my books on Kindle and hope the buyers like this book. There’s a short explanation about the use of Old English pronouns, because my book is a historical fiction. The second discussion is Reviews Needed For Christmas Traditions. Since I have sold many of these books on Amazon, I asked if the buyers could give my book a review. I explained I didn’t want or need a detailed review like the experienced reviewers give. It would be great if they could click one to five on the stars and just say they liked the book. That would be enough to encourage other buyers to give my books a try. Now I’m hoping that the customers find the discussion and read it.

I added three sample reviews for Christmas Traditions-An Amish Love Story from other buyers to give them an idea what I’m looking for.

I had a hard time putting the story down. It has some interesting twists and turns as we follow the customs and false pride of the characters.

You are so descriptive. I felt the little thread of hope Margaret felt, but she didn’t see.

I enjoyed this book very much. You sure made the characters come to life and what a sweet love story you have told. I wondered if you may be thinking about writing a sequel to this book.

What more could any author ask for when the book is already published and in the bookstores. By then it’s too late for a detailed, constructive review if it’s not positive. Reviews as simple as the reviews above show other buyers the books are worth reading for the entertainment value of each one. So book customers on Amazon or other sites speak up and let your favorite authors know how you feel about their work. Your opinion not only counts with other consumers, but it matters to the author.

Around the Kindlesphere: Two Very Smart People Weigh in on the Idea of Literary Agents Bypassing Publishers

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I’ve already had my say in the three posts linked [at the end of this post] on last week’s big news, but there are plenty of other intelligent points of view to choose from. Two of the smartest people with fresh things to say about changes in the world of books and publishing are author J.A. Konrath and publishing industry consultant Mike Shatzkin. I don’t agree with them on every word, but their most recent posts on this topic are well worth the time it takes to read them if you have an interest in these matters.

My only real quarrel with Joe Konrath’s post is his concern that a literary agent who becomes a publisher is engaged in conflict of interest:
Wylie is an agent. His job is to sell his clients’ work. If he is also the publisher of his clients, there is a HUGE conflict of interest there, as well as some ethical considerations. 
My take there is just that all the lines are changing and blurring so quickly that I don’t see this as any more significant a conflict than, say, booksellers becoming publishers, publishers become booksellers, or authors becoming booksellers and publishers, all of which is happening. It is all part of the process of experimenting with different kinds of, excuse me for the 75-cent word, disintermediation, as we all try to become more efficient and effective and making better, stronger connections between authors and readers.
 
The biggest flaw that jumped out at me right from the start of Shatzkin’s post is an error of omission. He says that the "three moving parts to the publishers’ margin equation for ebooks" are (1) ebook prices, (2) the potential consolidation of sales channels that could occur through Kindle domination of ebook content market share and, presumably, the failure of brick-and-mortar bookstores, and (3) author royalties. I think that he — and many who are looking at these issues from the Big Six publishers’ point of view — have structured their viewpoints so that they are failing to recognize the importance of another significant moving part, which is the potential decline of Big Six content sales relative to the content provided by other authors and publishers.
 

But once you get beyond that problem, Shatzkin provides the brilliant if obvious solution to the whole mess.
 

There’s a very simple, clear policy they could declare that would make this whole issue go away. Maybe there are one or two already acting this way, but it would be nice if even one publisher would just say this:

“Our policy for all new titles we sign up in the context of all our other standard terms is that we pay 25% royalty on ebooks. But for those books on our backlist which a) have earned out their advance and b) have ambiguity in their original contracts making it unclear what the royalty rate for an ebook should be, we will negotiate a higher royalty in recognition that a contractual element is being negotiated after the value of the copyright has been demonstrated in the marketplace and the risk profile has changed.”

Life is very complicated here. Every deal is different. There are costs and risks for authors and publishers trying to set up these separate ebook deals while a print backlist remains with a legacy publisher. The publisher might sue (although that opens up, for them, the danger that they’d lose, and the consequences of that could be dire.) At the very least, the author annoys the guys with the big checkbooks who are still the custodians of their print sales.

Although it is certainly possible that some authors or estates would want a publisher as talented as Jane Friedman remarketing their backlist, I still believe that if Open Road and others are offering 50%, publishers would find many authors receptive to avoiding the conflict if the publishers were offering 40%. But even if they had to pay 50% to some authors, the publishers would be doing themselves a favor by stating the position articulated above.
It may not be a total solution, but it could well put off the ultimate death of the Big Six publishers at least a few more years.

Related Posts:

 

This is a cross-posting from Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation Daily.

Screenplay Writing Interview I

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Because Shannon made such an informative comment on my last post, I asked her to please allow me to interview her. The result was so filled with great info, that I am going to split it into 2 or 3 posts. Shannon can be reached at http://www.shannonlarrant.com/ .

Should a writer convert a novel they’ve written into a screenplay?
That really depends on the novel and the writer. A novel written in the first person where much of the plot is explored inside the main character’s mind might not translate well to the screen without some serious rewrites.

Also, if you’re the type of writer who cannot look at your work objectively and rip it to pieces, then you’re probably not the best choice to write the screenplay for it. Being an author myself, I know that a little piece of my heart and soul gets put into everything I write. It can be difficult to look past that but you have to when you’re writing a screenplay. You have a very limited amount of time to convey your entire novel in. If you’re not prepared to cut out chunks of it, you’re not prepared to turn it into a screenplay.

What is the absolute first thing a writer should do when converting a novel into a screenplay?
Make sure you have the film rights for it. This is an absolute must. No legitimate production company will even think about looking at your screenplay without them.

Even if you’re converting one of your own novels, don’t automatically assume you have the rights. If you’ve published your story through a publishing company instead of going the self-publishing route, odds are you no longer have the right to film it without their permission.

 

There are thousands of novels out there where their copyrights have expired and they are now in the public domain. Anything in the public domain can be turned into a movie without written consent.

How would a screenwriter go about securing the rights to a novel?
There’s a couple different ways you can do this. Which one you choose is really dependent on your personal preference and budget. They both begin with contacting whoever presently holds the rights to the novel in question. If it’s a print novel you can buy off the shelves of a major bookstore, odds are the publisher listed on the inside front cover holds the rights. If it’s a self-published print or eBook, generally the author still has all of the rights to it.

 
There are two ways you can contact them; yourself or with the help of a lawyer. Personally, I think it’s more professional if you use a lawyer. Getting a lawyer might be a bit of an investment but you’ll show that you’re serious as a screenwriter and should be taken seriously in return.
Once you contact the rights’ holder of the novel, the next step is to see if they’re even willing to let you write a screenplay based upon it. If they’re interested, you then get to hammer out the details of the contract: how much the film rights will cost, how much say the original author has in the screenplay, how long you have the film rights for, etc …
If you haven’t consulted a lawyer before now, I highly recommend that you do so for this step. While you can create any sort of contract you want with the rights’ holder, a lawyer will be able to help you plan for any potential complications you might encounter down the road and ultimately protect you and your screenplay in the process.
There is nothing worse than pouring your heart and soul into converting a novel into a screenplay that you can’t use because you didn’t take the time to properly secure the film rights first.
 
Where can a screenwriter find works that are in the public domain?
Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) has thousands of books written before 1933 whose copyrights have expired in the United States. Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) also has a search feature that will allow you to find works you might be able to use, depending on the Creative Commons license assigned to the novel by the author.
Please note, this information is good for residents of the United States only. Laws vary in other countries. If you live outside of the US, be sure to check with the proper authorities in your country before using any work you find in the public domain to write your screenplay.
 
How would you go about converting a novel into a screenplay?
The first place I would start is by reading the novel. It should go without saying that a screenwriter would read the novel first but it’s amazing how many don’t. Even if it’s one I’ve written, I would take the time to read it from start to finish. I would try to get it read with as few interruptions as possible. You don’t want to rush through it but you don’t want to take weeks to get it finished, either.
 
 
After finishing the novel, I would set it aside for a few days. During that time, I would try not to think too much about it or the screenplay I plan on writing.
 
Once several days have passed, then I would sit down and think over what I read; jotting down any scenes, plot points, and characters that immediately come to mind. Odds are good if it’s something I remembered several days after I finished reading the novel, it’s something that’s integral to the overall plot and should be included in the finished screenplay.
 
With that list in hand, I would go back to the novel to fine tune the scenes, plots, and characters that need to be in the screenplay and flesh out anything else I had forgotten about but feel should be included.
 
What are some things writers need to keep in mind when writing a screenplay? Why are these important?
 
The average feature length screenplay is anywhere from 90 to 120 pages long. With one page of a screenplay equating to roughly one minute of film time, that means the average feature length film is anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours long. It’s very important to keep this information in mind while writing your screenplay because most production companies and screenwriting competitions will not accept screenplays that fall outside of the 90 to 120 page range.
 
Some will make exceptions if you are a few pages under or over but that’s it.
Even though your script most likely hasn’t been picked up for production yet, it’s still a good idea to write with some sort of budget in mind. Basically, you want to try to keep the budget small. It’s easier to spend more money if you have any leftover than it is to cut costs later. A smaller budget also means you can pitch your script to more production companies.
 
The absolute cheapest script to shoot is one that can be filmed with one camera, in one location, with a minimal amount of actors, costumes, and special effects. Obviously, these restrictions aren’t always practical for the screenplay you’re writing but it does help explain why adult films and B-horror movies tend to be the biggest money makers in the movie industry.
 
Generally, action sequences are quicker to shoot than dramatic ones, but can be expensive depending on the props and special effects involved. Unless you know the cast ahead of time, dramatic scenes can be a total crapshoot. You can get a shot done in one take or take all day just getting one good take of one shot. There are so many variables that come into play that can make dramatic scenes deceptively expensive and time consuming.
 
The best course of action is to be flexible and to try to keep a good balance between the two. If you have to write drama, keep the number of actors and locations to a minimum. If you need to go the action route, start small with fist fights and foot chases with dreams of going bigger if the budget allows for it later.
 
There will be much more to follow [in this series].

 

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear’s Book Trends blog.

Wylie Agency Circumvent Publishers on e-Books with Odyssey Editions (Updated)

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The Wylie Agency has launched an e-book imprint, Odyssey Editions, which will initially publish twenty titles of literature’s most influential authors exclusively through Amazon’s Kindle Store. This is potentially one of the most significant pieces of news this year in the publishing world, and perhaps for some time to come if Wylie continues to expand and utilize the availability of their authors’ e-book rights.

Andrew Wylie pulled no punches last month when he was interviewed by Harvard Magazine. In the interview he said that the time had come to circumvent publishers and monetize unassigned digital book rights.


 

 
 
 
“We will take our 700 clients, see what rights are not allocated to publishers, and establish a company on their behalf to license those e-book rights directly to someone like Google, Amazon.com, or Apple.”

Today’s announcement by the Wylie Agency and Amazon delivers on that threat to publishers with the launch of Odyssey Editions for the Kindle. (see update from PW on Random House suggestion that the move by Wylie may be illegal)

From some of the press release:
 
 
Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that The Wylie Agency is publishing 20 books from some of literature’s most influential authors through its new Odyssey Editions imprint (http://www.odysseyeditions.com/) and making them available for sale exclusively in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). This is the first time any of the titles–which include Norman Mailer’s "The Naked and the Dead," Philip Roth’s "Portnoy’s Complaint" and Ralph Ellison’s "Invisible Man"–have been available electronically, and all of the books are exclusive to the Kindle Store for two years. Starting today, customers can download these books for $9.99 from the Kindle Store and read them everywhere–on their Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, PC, Mac, iPad and Android devices.

"Our goal with Kindle is to make every book, ever published, in print or out of print, available in less than 60 seconds," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "Having these prominent and important books available through The Wylie Agency’s Odyssey Editions is another great step toward this goal. We’re excited to let our customers read books like ‘Rabbit Run’ for the first time ever electronically."

"As the market for e-books grows, it will be important for readers to have access in e-book format to the best contemporary literature the world has to offer," said Andrew Wylie, President of Odyssey Editions. "This publishing program is designed to address that need, and to help e-book readers build a digital library of classic contemporary literature."

The Wylie Agency operates internationally from offices in New York and London. In business for more than 30 years, it has built a reputation for consistently high standards. The writers and estates it represents include many of the greatest names in 20th and 21st century literature. Odyssey Editions is the first digitally native literary imprint launch of its kind.

Books available in the Kindle Store through Odyssey Editions include modern classics such as Hunter S. Thompson’s "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," Salman Rushdie’s "Midnight’s Children," Oliver Sacks’ "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," Vladimir Nabokov’s "Lolita," John Cheever’s "The Stories of John Cheever" and four novels from John Updike’s Rabbit series.

The 20 e-books published by Odyssey Editions carry an elegant and unified new look designed in collaboration with Enhanced Editions (http://www.enhanced-editions.com/). Features include:

• Newly-designed jackets

• Interior typography adhering to best conventions of book design and reading on Kindle

• Colophon, book covers and series design optimized for the Kindle screen

The 20 books being published by Odyssey Editions and made available exclusively on Kindle are:

• "London Fields" by Martin Amis

• "The Adventures of Augie March" by Saul Bellow
 
• "Ficciones" (Spanish Edition) by Jorge Luis Borges
 
• "Junky" by William Burroughs
 
• "The Stories of John Cheever" by John Cheever
 
• "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
 
• "Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich
 
• "The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer
 
• "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
 
• "The Enigma of Arrival" by V.S. Naipaul
 
• "The White Castle" by Orhan Pamuk
 
• "Portnoy’s Complaint" by Philip Roth
 
• "Midnight’s Children" by Salman Rushdie
 
• "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks
 
• "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson
 
• "Rabbit Run" by John Updike
 
• "Rabbit Redux" by John Updike
 
• "Rabbit is Rich" by John Updike
 
• "Rabbit at Rest" by John Updike
 
• "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh

The Kindle editions of these books are now available for sale exclusively in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Kindle offers the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read. The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 630,000 books, including New Releases and 106 of 110 New York TimesBestsellers. Over 510,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 75 New York Times Bestsellers. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle.

For more information about these books, visit www.amazon.com/odyssey or http://www.odysseyeditions.com/. Eleven of these books will be available globally. Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at www.amazon.com/kindle.

 

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

Top 10 Worst Self-Publishing Mistakes—Explained!

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I learn a lot from the comments readers leave on the blog. People have pointed out errors, shown me resources I hadn’t heard of, and made connections that had never occurred to me. It’s a big web out there, and one of the things I enjoy most is this sharing of knowledge, resources and experiences.

Two weeks ago I published Top 10 List of the Worst Self-Publishing Mistakes, a semi-serious look at normal mistakes newcomers to self-publishing might make. But a couple of people asked if there was going to be a follow-up article. They wanted to know the reasons why these were the so-called “worst mistakes” so they could avoid making them.

So here is the follow-up, the explanation for why you wouldn’t want to do any of these things when it comes time to publish your book. I’ve copied the questions from the earlier article and given an explanation for each.

Top 10 Worst Self-Publishing Mistakes—Explained!

“10. You thought you could re-use that ISBN you paid so much for since the novel you put it on last year isn’t selling anyway.”

Explained: You never want to re-use an ISBN, or even use it for another edition of the same book. The ISBN is known as a unique identifier. It’s intended to be assigned to one edition of one book. You book’s information has been entered in book databases everywhere, and you will only create tremendous confusion between the two works, hurting sales for both, if you attempt to re-use an ISBN. Just don’t do it.

“9. Everybody knows the words to the song, so it’s okay to quote lyrics from it throughout your novel, right?”

Explained: Check out this blog post about using bits of songs in your writing. The author here found, after using only snippets of 60s songs in a party scene, that he had a liability of over $6,000. Just like paintings, poems, or any creative expression, people’s lyrics and music are protected by copyright law, and violations of this law can be expensive and very damaging. If you want to use it, get permission first.

“8. The photos looked fine on your screen, and that means they will look fine when they’re printed, it just makes sense.”

Explained: Graphics on screens are all displayed at a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi) in Reg-Green-Blue (RGB) colorspace. That’s just the way computers display graphics. However, when you go to print your book, your color photos will need to be 300 dpi in the Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black (CMYK) colorspace. So no, the image you see on your screen, no matter how gorgeous, may not have enough resolution to print well.

“7. I picked Arial for my book because the name reminded me of my middle school girlfriend.”

Explained: Many people don’t notice typefaces, typography, design, serifs, ligatures, and the other elements book designers take for granted, and why should they? But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter what typeface you use. The classic book typefaces, when used correctly, will produce a book that’s beautiful, readable, and reader-friendly. That’s why they’re classics.

“6. I know they’re charging me $6,000 to publish my book, but I get 10 copies, absolutely free!”

Explained: Well, $6,000 divided by 10 is . . . The point here is that if you want to publish your own book you may be better off using a plain author services company like CreateSpace or Lulu than a subsidy publisher. Why? The subsidy publisher makes its money from sales to authors–that’s you. If you use a service like CreateSpace you are the publisher and you use them as a printer. You pay only for the services you decide you need, and then you make your money from book sales.

“5. I thought it would sound more impressive if I wrote my memoir in the third person. All my sports heroes talk that way.”

Explained: By far the best way for most authors to present their information in nonfiction books is with a clear, active, straightforward style. Attempts to create unusual styles, strange viewpoints, exotic points of view almost always fail since they are incredibly difficult to carry off well. Both you and your readers will be well served by a natural conversational style that follows a normal and expected narrative. This will make your valuable information stand out, not an eccentric of saying it.

“4. I really got the unit price down, but I had to print 10,000 copies. You have any room in your garage?”

Explained: Having a plan on how you intend to market, publicize and sell your book before entering into book production is highly recommended. The unit cost of your book is meaningless if you never sell any. Many self-publishers are using digital printing through print-on-demand distribution to minimize this type of risk. However, you have to plan your book, its retail price, and your method of distribution before going to press.

“3. Sure, I included an invoice with all the books I sent to book reviewers. Hey, they don’t care, it’s just a big company paying the bill.”

Explained: Although reviewers do usually work for larger companies, sending an invoice with a review copy will ensure that while you won’t get paid for the book, you won’t get a review either. The convention is that you are asking for valuable editorial time and space in a publication, and certainly the least you can expect is to provide a book to anyone gracious enough to go to the trouble of reviewing your book.

“2. It was cheaper to print my novel as an 8-1/2″ x 11″ book because I got so many words on each page.”

Explained: Although it’s true that you can save money in digital printing by creating a book with fewer pages, a novel printed full page on letter-size paper with small margins and tight lines to “get so many words” on a page is likely to be read by no one. Making your book difficult to read is a quick way to eliminate many readers. There is no economy in printing books that no one wants to read.

“1. What do you mean, I need a cover designer? Don’t books come with covers?”

Explained: Most author-services companies are only too happy to put a cover on your book for a fee, or to turn you loose on their cover creation programs. But it’s pretty easy to tell most of the books that have been “designed” this way, and it isn’t a pretty picture. If your book is worth publishing, and you want people to buy it, and you understand the cover is the primary way that people will identify the book wherever it appears, don’t you think it might be worthwhile to get a cover designer you can afford to create a cover for you?

Well, there you have it. If there was any doubt, you now know some good things to avoid when it comes time to publish a book.

 

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

Does Social Networking Really Sell Books?

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In my recent "Social Networking Success for Authors" teleseminar, someone asked if social networking really sells books.

It can be hard to track the sale of books directly to social networking (especially if your books are sold through retailers) but I strongly believe that social networking, if done effectively, develops relationships that lead to book sales and other opportunities.

Let’s say that one of your Twitter followers re-tweets one of your messages. One of their followers sees the message and starts following you. After enjoying several of your posts on Twitter, they hook up with you on Facebook.  In looking at your Facebook profile or page, this person sees a link to your blog and clicks through to check it out. Then they sign up for your opt-in mailing list and later buy one of your books. Now you have made a sale to someone that you might not have reached in any other way.

Here’s a real-life example. Several days ago I received an order for one of my books and I noticed this comment in the "where did you hear about this book" field on the order form:
 

"Found Dana on Twitter, joined her Facebook, then saw her Facebook links and the rest is history. Job well done, Dana."

Obviously, not everyone that you meet online is going to buy your book – in reality only a small percentage will buy. But the more contacts you make and the more frequently those folks see and hear from you, the more books you are likely to sell.

And don’t forget that social networking opens the door to many other opportunities that can lead to book sales. The folks you meet online may end up reviewing your book, exchanging guest blog posts with you, becoming an affiliate or joint venture partner, hosting your virtual book tour, or inviting you to speak to their group or be on their radio show. In fact, I have personally experienced all of these opportunities with people that I met through social networks. And of course it’s always valuable to make friends with others in the publishing business.

Yes, social networking really does sell books – so make sure that you are doing it effectively.  If you missed the Social Networking Success for Authors teleseminar, the recording of the call is now available as a downloadable audio program. You’ll also get a learning guide with screen shots and resources, and a copy of the special report, 10 Steps to Online Networking Success. 

Also, check out my Facebook Guide for Authors and Twitter Guide for Authors, as well as The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide to Successful Social Marketing (which includes the Facebook and Twitter guides).
 

 

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

Kindle Post Featured On iFOGO Village & More Author Sites

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What a nice surprise to get an email to let me know that my blog post from last week – Kindle Book Sales A Surprise – has been featured on www.iFogovillage.com. Thank you iFogo Village.

I read in an Amazon discussion that another author was surprised at how well his book was selling on Kindle after not getting as good a result for his hardcover book. Made me wonder just how many Kindles have been sold. Maybe sales would dry up soon. Also, on the discussions, I’ve seen it written that Kindle users were running out of their favorite genre to download. They were asking for help in finding electronic books they hadn’t read yet. Maybe that is why Amazon raised the royalty fee for authors, encouraging them to download on Kindle.

This morning I had an answer to my wondering. At the bottom of the screen on Good Morning America, the scroll stated Amazon’s sales of electronic books surpassed sales of hardcover books for the first time.

Looks like I picked the right time to download on Kindle. However, I’m not giving up on my paperback books. So many people stare at computer screens all day. Their eyes need a rest from that glare which means they are more likely to pick up a book. Call me old fashion but trying to relax after a busy day with a electronic device to read just isn’t the same as getting cozy with a book.

This week I want to share sites I promote my books on. This is just a few that I know about. There are many more on the internet to try so I keep looking for the ones that are right for me to join. If you don’t know about the sites in my list, check them out to see if any of them will be helpful to authors looking for places to put portions of their books for readers, agents or publishers to find. Some of the sites have an upgrade which you have to pay for, but I stick to the free plan. I like the sites that have a link to the social sites I belong to, because I can get an added announcement from that each time I add a book. When an author submits to these sites, Google crawler picks up book titles and authors to add to Google search.

　

Booksie.com

Published.com

1chapterfree.com – displays the first chapter of your book and shows how many hits have been made to read it

Stumbleupon

Authorden.com

Filedbyauthor.com

Goodreads.com

Reader2.com

Biblioscribe.com

Writetobreath.com

Weread.com

Zvents.com

Compulsivereader.com – just found this site. It has 23 book related links to check out. This site does reviews.

One more newsletter – Author Marketing Experts, Inc. – Penny C. Sansevieri, Editor

This free newsletter has some helpful tips for marketing and provides link.

　

Absolute Write watercooler – Forum topics you can check out. I’ve gotten information on publishers and agents I was curious about by reading authors posts.

Writers Beware – warnings about literary frauds, scams, deceptions and pitfalls listing agents and publishers you might not want to submit your query to. Definitely, a helpful site.

　

　

　

　

　

　

Upcoming E-publishing Revolution, Part 2

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Publetariat is pleased to present Part 2 of Upcoming E-publishing revolution, entitled "E-Magination: What’s Now and What’s Next in Ebooks", a podcast, webcast and transcript from Copyright Clearance Center’s Beyond The Book site.

The podcast and transcript originated from a panel discussion for the Independent Book Publishers Association at their annual “Publishing University” program. More information about Part 1, along with links to the Part 1 podcast and transcript, can be found here.

In this episode, featured guests Mark Coker of Smashwords, Jack Sallay of Vook and O Magazine Books Editor Sara Nelson explain the ongoing e-publishing revolution.

The podcast, webcast and transcript (in pdf format) are available now.

Editor’s Note: the webcast link is not available as a permalink, and therefore the webcast to which it points may not be available indefinitely.

Working Amazon: Some Strategies For Selling in E-retail Stores

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Lesson #8 of the Publetariat Vault University’s Platform/Promotion Curriculum, by Zoe Winters, is called “Working Amazon.” I know it is skipping ahead, but I recently spent a good deal of time looking into what had “worked” and what hadn’t in selling my book in the large internet retailers like Amazon, and I would like to tell people what I learned in the hope that others who are embarking on this wonderful journey of self-publishing will benefit from my experience.

Until recently, when an author’s book was traditionally published (or independently published in the traditional way), there were three essential steps a publisher and author took to get the book sold. The first major step was to get the book on the shelves of bookstores. The second step was to find ways to inform people about the book and convince them to come to a bookstore to buy it. A third step was to try and ensure that people would come across the book while browsing in the bookstore in the hope they would spontaneously decide to buy it.
 
With the emergence of large electronic retailers like Amazon, these steps still exist, but as you will see, they play out in a slightly different fashion.
 
Step One: Get book onto Amazon’s bookstore shelves
 
In the fall of 2009 when I decided to self-publish my historical mystery, Maids of Misfortune: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery, I made the decision to concentrate on getting my book into the electronic retail markets, rather than into brick and mortar bookstores. No need for sales representatives, sales catalogs, or schmoozing with booksellers at conventions. I didn’t have to convince Amazon’s Kindle store or Amazon’s bookstore to carry my book, all I had to do was upload my formatted files for the ebook through Amazon’s Digital Text Platform and the files for my print on demand version through Amazon’s CreateSpace. Step One took me less than a day to do, and within a week both the ebook and the paperback were for sale. This aspect of working Amazon was really quite easy.
 
Step Two: Get people to go to Amazon’s bookstores to buy the book
 
The next six months I concentrated my efforts on this step—and it will be an ongoing process. I set up my author website, got the word out about Maids of Misfortune on Facebook, sent my books out to be reviewed, got my book listed on websites that specialize on my genre like CrimeThruTime, entered the book into book award contests, set up a blog, and wrote Dandy Detects, a short story featuring the same characters from Maids of Misfortune, to help promote the full length novel. This step is the one that deviates the least from traditional publishing.
 
Convincing people to go to Amazon’s bookstores to look for my book isn’t really any different than convincing them to go to a physical bookstore—except it is easier. With a click of link on my author website, a blog review, or a list of historical mysteries, a customer is not just at my product page on Amazon (where my Kindle edition and print edition both show up), but they are looking at my book—and if they are buying it as an ebook, all it takes is another click of the buy button and they can be reading it.
 
In addition, as the author and publisher I also get almost instant sales data to see how I am doing, because each night I can check to see how many books I sold on Amazon and Kindle. I can also tell what percentage of the people who checked out my book actually bought it, and see what other kinds of books they bought. This tells me a lot about how well my advertising is working. I can even see in some cases when something I am doing has a direct effect on sales. For example, when I became a regular contributor to Publetariate, then again when I dropped my price from $4 to $2.99, my sales jumped.
 
Step Three: Get people who are browsing the Amazon bookstores to find and buy the book
 
Traditionally, publishers and authors focus on making sure the cover of the book they are selling is eye-catching and that the back cover has a good description and blurbs that will entice a buyer. In addition to ensuring that the book is shelved in the appropriate categories in the store, they will try to get the book placed in the store window, or featured on tables at the front as a new release, or bestseller, or one of the staff’s recommended books. All of this is designed to get someone who is browsing to pick up the book, check it out, and decide to buy it.
 
This step is only slightly different when dealing with an e-store like Amazon.
 
The important role of a cover remains the same—only now you need to make sure that the cover shows up well as a thumbnail (see my post on Establishing a Brand.) There is no back cover in an e-retailer, but there is the equivalent in the product description and the customer reviews. Of course, you don’t get the option of picking and choosing your reviews; I would hope that several in depth positive reviews might be at least as effective as the short one-line reviews that grace back covers.
 
Amazon and other e-retailers also try to duplicate the experience of browsing in a bookstore by offering “sneak peeks” or free excerpts from the book. I think I “worked” Amazon effectively in these respects as well. My cover is eye-catching as a thumbnail, my product description snappy, and I have collected a few stars and strong reviews. In turn, my use of the words Victorian and Mystery in my title and Amazon’s nifty formula that tells a customer who bought another Victorian era mystery that they might like Maids of Misfortune had meant I did have the equivalent of a staff recommendation.
 
What I hadn’t done very well was to make to sure that my book showed up in the right shelves of the bookstore and I really hadn’t done anything in particular to make sure it showed up on one of the equivalent of the best-seller tables. I think I simply assumed as an indie author with a first time novel that the best-selling category was completely out of my reach. Turns out that I was wrong.
 
How I “worked” Amazon and achieved “best seller status”
 
I first reviewed where a browser might find my book if they weren’t coming to store specifically to buy the book. When you get on Amazon and click under either Kindle Books or Books there is a side bar on the right side that give you browsing categories. Skipping the various best-seller, editor’s picks, and movers and shakers categories (which I knew I wasn’t in) I looked for the categories I had chosen when I uploaded my Kindle and print editions.
 
When you upload a file into the DTP program for Kindle, or into CreateSpace, you get to pick five categories using the Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) subject headings for listing your book and you also are given the option to list any tags (key words) you want to help customer’s find your book. I chose my categories and my tags, but I hadn’t followed through to see how that affected the chance a customer who was browsing either in the Kindle Book Store, or the Amazon Book Store would run across my book. When I looked into this, I was in for a few surprises.
 
First of all I noticed that the browsing categories were not identical to the BISAC categories I had chosen. For example, I had chosen Fiction-Mystery & Detective-Women Sleuths for the BISAC subject heading, but the browsing path on Amazon (for both Kindle and Books) was Fiction-Mystery & Thrillers-Mystery-Women Sleuths. Well that seemed sort of strange, but no big deal since they were pretty closely matched. Then I saw that there were 4,500 books under that category in the Kindle Bookstore. Another category I had chosen, Romance-Historicals, was even worse-there were 5400 listed.
 
Amazon does list on the product page for a book its ranking by category, but only if the book is in the top 100 books under that category, but at the time I couldn’t imagine that I would have a lot of chance competing with the likes of Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich, and Charlene Harris in the Women Sleuths category to get into that top 100. (And this was the Kindle Store-in the book store on Amazon, there were nearly 9000 books listed under Mystery-Women Sleuths, and over 22,000 books under romance-historicals!)
 
One bright note, I noticed that on my product page I was consistently showing us a one of the top 20 books under one of the other categories I had chosen- History (ie non-fiction section)-US-State&Local-West. Why? Well, where there were less than 400 books in that category!
 
I was a bit puzzled, because the category I had checked on launching the book on Kindle had been fiction-history-US-etc, but the books under this browsing category were clearly non-fiction. There my historical mystery sits, next to books on the founding of Texas and Kevin Starr’s history of California. But hey, if someone wanders into that category, I figure they might enjoy a pleasant interlude of fiction. And anyway, after seven years working away to get a doctorate in history, writing 400 some pages of a dissertation about working women in the west, I am pretty darn proud of the historical accuracy of Maids of Misfortune. But, I didn’t think that the people browsing in this section would be my main target audience.
 
What should have been the perfect category, however, was Mystery & Thrillers-Mystery-Historicals-and on Kindle there were only 72 books listed under that category, and on Amazon’s bookstore less than 800 books were listed. Hallelujah! In that pool I had a real fighting chance of getting noticed. Except, neither Maids of Misfortune or my short story, Dandy Detects, showed up under this category in either list!
 
After correspondence with the dtp and CreateSpace support staffs the error was corrected, and within a day, Maids of Misfortune began to show up in the top 10 books in the Mystery-Historical category in the Kindle store, and the top 100 books in the Mystery-Historical category in the Amazon store. Even better, at the end of that week the number of books I sold was double that of the number I had been selling in the previous weeks. I even began to show up in the Kindle Store on its best seller list for the category.
 
My book was now shelved in the right place, it was showing up on a best-seller table as well, and I could rest assured that for those people looking for an historical mystery, there was a good chance they would find mine. Lesson learned? Be very careful about your choices of categories: try to find categories where your book will stand out and have a chance at competing with traditionally published books and follow through and make sure your book shows up where you think it should.
 
What struck me is how much more difficult it would have been for a traditionally published author to even find out if their book had been mis-shelved, much less correct it. I read a blog post recently (can not remember where-sorry) about an author whose science fiction book kept being shelved with African-American Literature. Problem was, there weren’t any African American characters in this book, and his primary readers weren’t going to find his book under this category. He might get this corrected at a local store—but what if this was a widespread problem throughout the bookstore chains and independent bookstores? Would his publisher even care enough to help him get this error corrected?
 
Once again, I was left with the satisfying knowledge that my success or failure as an indie author was in my own control. It was up to me to “work” Amazon, and I must say Amazon has worked well for me. 

This is a cross-posting from M. Louisa Locke‘s The Front Parlor.

Web Presence Checklist

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This post, from Muriel Lede, originally appeared on her site on 7/14/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

 You’ve spent months, perhaps years, writing your book. Did you do so for it to die in obscurity? Why then does its web presence reach no beyond the Lulu Marketplace? Why then doesn’t it even show up upon typing its title on Google? Why then does its Amazon’s sales rank sag below the 4 millionth mark? If that sounds anything like you, keep reading, for I’m about to list all those opportunities to broadcast your title and reach your target audience that you’re missing out on. To the extent that they’re inexpensive, easy, and of course applicable to your book, you have no excuse not to implement them.

Let’s begin with the bleeding obvious—alas so often neglected!—and progress toward the more forgivable omissions:

  • Website

    I mean a real website, with its own domain name and all. These days web space has become inexpensive enough for pretty much any author to afford; I recomment the likes of FatCow and JustHost, that offer unlimited storage and bandwidth, plus a free domain name. But then, even without considering this variable, how many books out there don’t have their own dedicated webpage, paid for or otherwise? How do you expect prospective customers to take you seriously if you don’t even bother to make one?

    Tip: If you pay full price for web hosting, you’re a fool. I suggest you first track down referral links to the provider you’re targeting, which often grant rebates up to 50%. You can do even better than that: start filling out the form until you’ve got an actual quote and reach the payment section, then drop out of it and wait. Chances are, you’ll receive within hours an email offering you an additional discount, no kidding!

    Implementing a webpage is easier than you might think. Anybody can learn basic HTML in a day or two, or ask someone they know to format their contents for them. You don’t know what to say on that webpage? How about putting your title information and book cover, for starters? My own website you can use for inspiration. It’s single-page, with two columns: one for the title information, the other for my sales pitch. A book website doesn’t need to be fancy, nor to have lots of graphics; a minimalistic design might actually work better than a complex website, so forget about Flash and fancy animations that take forever to load. All that matters is that you put your title information, blurb, book cover, and a link to where to buy it. Anything else is unnecessary, and might even be in excess.

  • Blog

    Same as above, except this time it’s totally free, or at least does not incur any additional expense, as you can host it on your own website; I recommend installing WordPress for that purpose, which is both infinitely customizable and very user-friendly. You don’t know what to write on that blog? Let’s start with an announcement for your book, with a link to your website or wherever it can be purchased. Even if you were to abandon your blog after that one post (what I sure hope you won’t do!), that would at the very least help improving your website’s page rank a little. Need more ideas? Think about what makes you or your book interesting, or your target audience’s interests, and write about that. I sure hope your book is interesting, and that you do have a target audience.

    These days, a blog is so pivotal to an author’s marketing strategy that it’s worth spending some time customizing, with links, polls, widgets, and the like; see Facebook, Goodreads, or BookBuzzr for ideas. Don’t hesitate to crowd the sidebar all the way to the bottom. Running out of ideas? Post links to other blogs, and propose that they link back to yours!

  • Author email and signature

    Once again it’s free, while you won’t go very far without one; it’s required to subscribe to pretty much anything. Did you set up your email signature? That’s an opportunity to post a link to your website or blog with every message you send, without additional effort! Keep it subtle and no one will complain. Better still: link to your blog instead of your book’s website, so it doesn’t look like an ad.

  • Announcing on forums and mailing lists

    Did you know that many forums have a section dedicated for authors to spam on? You believe no one reads them? Think again. Besides, even if that held true, it remains another opportunity for increasing your website’s page rank. Arguably the most prominent is AbsoluteWrite’s Announcements, Events, and Self-Promotion forum. You should also search Amazon’s forums for active threads on which to make such an announcement, like these, listed by genre.

    Then there are mailing lists, mostly Yahoo! groups. In my sphere of writing, the largest such list is LoveRomancesCafe, which holds Promo Mondays dedicated for recent releases announcements and excerpts.

    No really, there are places begging to be spammed—so to speak—and readers will thank you for it.

  • Social networking

    I would classify such networks in two categories, for the purpose of this article. One is generic networks, like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. The above applies to those: even if you were to treat them as mere parking lots, you’re better off occupying them than leaving them vacant. It’s easy, it’s free, it helps driving traffic to your website, and it makes you look professional.

    Tip: Are you a woman? Make sure to flag yourself as single and looking for a relationship. I guarantee that swarms of men will mysteriously stumble upon your profile.

    More interesting is the second category, those meant for readers, like Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Shelfari; Goodreads in particular, as you’ll see throughout the rest of this article, is a must. It offers widgets you can put onto your blog to list your most recent reads, apps to crosspost these to your other social networking pages, book preview hosting, giveaways, etc. while its features list keeps expanding. To be fair, LibraryThing isn’t far behind, although free accounts have a cap on the number of books you can list.

    Tip: Spend some time thinking of a good-looking user name (or pen name) and designing eye-catching avatars. You want to draw attention to your posts, or they might drown in a sea of comments, especially on high-volume threads. Can’t produce an eye-catching avatar? Use your book cover then!

    In both cases, social networking is all about making friends, so don’t be shy and make requests. You don’t know whom to friend? How about the people you already get along with on blogs and threads? The larger your list of friends, the better, because it makes you look big to strangers discovering your profile.

  • Author pages

    Some websites allow for authors to post biographies and promotional material. One is Amazon’s Author Central, while another is Goodreads’ Author Program. Even if you post only your picture and a short bio, it already helps convincing readers that you’re not a nobody; they might even have the perception that only successful authors have one! Never mind the fact that they’re free and easy to set up. Also, both pages not only provide authors with a blog, then even allow to synchronize with your existing blog! It amounts to automatically cross-posting on both Amazon and Goodreads.

    You can also become a LibraryThing Author, to unlock a significant portion of the above two’s functionalities on their website, only you have to write them a request by email. It has a feature that sets it apart though, for it provides a Hobnob with Authors page where book sollicitation is encouraged.

    Among websites meant specifically for authors, there is AuthorsDen, the largest of its kind and offering the widest array of features—but also the most expensive featurewise. Red Room also grants author pages, although only to those among self-publishers that already made significant achievements; still, a premium membership grants you the right to advertise your book on their website at will, which could nonetheless make it an interesting platform for promotion.

    Tip: Make sure to write down your bio at the third person, as in the following example. Not only does it look more formal, it suggests you’re important enough for someone else to have written it! It’s all about perception.

  • Title information submission

    That one can make a huge difference, although they’re limited to publishers. When a title surfaces on an online store such as Amazon, it’s pretty much naked. There might be a cover, a one-paragraph blurb, and a Buy button, but that’s about it. Did you know you can customize your title’s page on some of those stores? Amazon has a Books Content Update Form, which you can use to upload a formatted description, a table of contents, reviews, etc., and also the Search Inside The Book Program. Regarding the latter: when is last time you purchased a book you couldn’t browse, whether in a brick-and-mortar store or online? It has the potential to boost sales tremendously. Barnes & Noble also provides means for publishers to submit contents, including scans of interior pages. Then there’s also Google Books, so obvious yet so easily forgotten!

    Tip: Did you rate your own title? A five-stars rating, even if it’s propped up by only one vote, draws far more attention than no rating, or even a lower rating from many votes. Unethical? No more than a candidate for office voting for himself on election day. Also, make sure to tag your title according to its contents.

  • Book reviews

    Nothing boosts sales like book reviews, especially favorable ones—but even caustic ones are better than none; the worst review is no review. How about giving it a try? One easily overlooked avenue is Independent Publisher’s Highlighted Titles, which amounts to a seal of approval from a major publication. Then there are blogs that focus on POD titles, such as POD Book Reviews & More, POD People, Self-Publishing Review, The LL Book Review, and The New Podler Review of Books. Feel more ambitious? If your book could pass for a small electronic publisher’s, you could try your luck with more mainstream blogs. You don’t think you’ll be accepted? The worst thing that can happen is that you receive a polite rejection.

    Warning: Avoid paid review services like the plague! Not only are the likes of Kirkus Discoveries a waste of money, most have such a bad reputation that a “review” from them might turn off potential customers at first glance!

    Tip: Should you get glowing reviews, post snippets of these on your website and blog for all to view! If you don’t brag on your own website upon receiving praise from strangers, where and when will you?

    While we’re at it: there’s nothing to stop you from commenting on any of the above blogs and beyond. If anything, that contributes to spreading your name even further and building your reputation. Plus, many blogs allow for a link to your website with every post you make! Once again this helps improving your website’s page rank, to the point that link spammers track down WordPress blogs and mechanically comment on them for that single purpose. Of course you’re not spamming, as long as you’re contributing to the conversation.

  • Contributed articles

    There are several blogs and websites out there to which you can contribute your own articles. There is no better way to build your reputation than to provide authoritative advice on a popular blog. As a bonus, this constitutes yet another opportunity to post a link to your website. You think this is link spamming in disguise? You’re totally right, and this is precisely the attitude you should be having, never to miss an opportunity to plaster your name and a link to your website wherever you can. As long as you post something pertinent and useful along with it, not only will you get away with it, readers will even thank you for it! Especially if it saves them money and weeks of research.

    Registered Self-Publishing Review and Publetariat users can post blog entries, which may end up promoted to the main page. Some other blogs, such as POD, Self Publishing and Independent Publishing, also are open to article submissions.

    The following articles detail how to post at ezinearticles.com:

     

Then there is the optional, but still worth considering:

  • Contests:

    These are long shots, but could give your book tremendous visibility should it be selected even among the finalists. Two reputable contests immediately come to mind: one is the Independent Publisher Book Awards, better known as IPPY, the other is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award or ABNA, the latter which I advise to enter as early as possible since each category allows only up to 5000 entries. Yet another would be the Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards.

    Warning: Star clear of “vanity” contests, like those charging exorbitant entry fees or those that guarantee an award to all entrants. In doubt, consult Writer Beware.

  • Book trailers:

    It’s just as possible for a self-publisher with next to zero budget to produce a decent book trailer than it is for LucasFilm to produce a 112 million dollars lemon. Money has little to do with it, it’s more a matter of skill and creativity. And then, there are two undeniable advantages to making a book trailer: you can post it on Youtube, which millions browse while eating breakfast; while it can ironically make your book look like it’s a big budget title, to the extent that it’s good enough and that viewers believe only big-budget titles have one. Smoke and mirrors? In this business, perception is everything.

    A good starting point: 43 Book Trailer Sites to Inspire, Instruct, and Share. You will probably need iStockphoto, both the best and the cheapest among stock pictures websites; indeed, most others either are outrageously expensive or set unacceptable restrictions on how to use their contents. Once you’re done, you can upload it to your Facebook, Myspace, and Goodreads profiles, to AuthorsDen (requires Gold membership) and Redroom, to Amazon (through Author Central), and also to book trailer websites such as BlazingTrailers, PreviewTheBook, LiveWriters, TrailerSpy, and Metacafe, in addition to regular video sites such as Youtube, Yahoo! Video, Vimeo, and Revver, and also to blogs like Rate My Book Video!. Not only will most of the aforementioned link back to your website, thus improving its—well, you get the picture—but some even enrolled into Amazon Associates and will help you sell your book through their own website! You can also promote it on Goodreads’ Book Trailers ™ & Author Web Sites group.

  • Paid advertisement:

    This one is controversial. You will be told that it’s not worth it, especially for a self-publisher. But then did you sit down and actually calculate how much an ad would cost you versus how much you expect to earn in increased sales? You might decide against it. You might not be able to afford it. But you have no excuse for not considering it. Publishing is a business, and businesses advertize. The successful ones, anyway.

    Among affordable options, there are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Sponsored Search, Facebook Advertising, MySpace MyAds and Goodreads self-serve advertising. All these allow for arbitrarily low budgets, so you can try them simultaneously and see which one works best. Websites like Bookslut, Bookgasm, and Publetariat offer banner advertising that mere mortals can afford, so you might want to try that too.

    Tip: There are plenty of coupons for Adwords and the like floating around, so you can try them with a rebate! See whether your website provider offers any; if so, you’d be a fool not to use them. At the time of this writing, Google even offers a $75 free trial to residents of the United States and Canada!

    Initially, your target should be to break even, not to make a profit; what you’re really after is to get ratings and reviews while improving your sales rank. Little drives potential customers away more than a title with no prior activity, which also keeps it buried at the bottom of search results. This is a vicious circle you must break as soon as possible. Given what is at stake, this is well worth spending a few hundred dollars, especially if you have already poured that much into your project.

    Speaking of reviews and such, the most effective way to obtain them is to organize giveaways. Of course many blogs and mailing lists might be happy to award your copies to their readers, although a more reliable way would be to leave that to the likes of Goodreads and LibraryThing. BookBuzzr Games also provides a program to give away copies as prizes.

  • Merchandise:

    This is an opportunity to expand your visibility both online and offline. Do you have a gorgeous book cover, logo, or palette of graphics? How about plastering these onto T-shirts and coffee mugs? CafePress allows you to do just that. Not only is it free and easy, it even opens a secondary revenue stream!

The possibilities are endless. There always remain inexpensive and efficient tribunes from which to market your book, so keep digging. Are you sure you didn’t miss a blog, forum, mailing list, reader or author organization, fan website, announcement thread, list of featured books, link directory, link reciprocity program, etc.? How about those that keep popping up all the time? How about those regarding connex topics? No search can be exhaustive, let alone a list, so never stop looking for more avenues, and use your imagination to create some where most people would see none.

Hashtags Could Save Publishing

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This post, from Jenn Northington, originally appeared on Shelf Awareness on 7/14/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with the permission of that site.

Twitter has been hyped (and over-hyped, some would argue) in the book industry for many things, one of which is to improve communication between booksellers, readers and publishers. But trying to track conversations on Twitter is like trying to find a specific needle in a giant stack of needles–unless you have a hashtag.

Hashtags, for the uninitiated, are a way for people to "tag" their tweets with an agreed-upon word or phrase that follows the # symbol, so that others who may not be online at the same time or part of the same discussion can search for them, see who is saying what and join in. And yesterday saw the birth (and then explosive expansion) of #dearpublisher.

Booksellers will often tweet general musings and requests in the form of tiny letters; for example, yesterday afternoon I wrote:

 

HarperPerennial observed that a tag would be helpful in tracking these kinds of tweets and offered #dearpublisher as a solution.

The tag was swiftly picked up by booksellers, publishers and readers alike, and within a few hours a search for #dearpublisher turned up hundreds of diverse requests and observations, ranging in tone from thoughtful to snarky (and often both).

Katrina Lantz: Combine ebooks with hardcovers, but please don’t stop printing books ever. The book is not dead. It just had babies.

Bloggers[heart]Books: I’ve seen a LOT of gorgeous covers this year. But why are people not allowed to have a head anymore?

Kevin Smokler: Will I be able to pay one price for both a paper book and a digital copy anytime soon?

Justina Ireland: People of color don’t all live in the ghetto or have abusive parents or wish they were white. Why can’t we be vampires?

BriMeetsBooks: I really dislike books with wheels for kids. They never stay on the shelves.

And publishers responded, such as PublicAffairs: PublicAffairs code of conduct: I swear we will never publish a stupid book, books about zombies or vampires, or chick lit.

If communication is key, then Twitter could bridge the oft-lamented gap between publishers, booksellers and readers with initiatives like #dearpublisher. While publishing houses will certainly get conflicting feedback and some tweets will be less helpful than others, trends can become clear. For example, Katrina Lantz and Justina Ireland’s tweets quoted above had become "Top Tweets" (meaning that many other users had Re-Tweeted, or seconded, them) by 10 p.m. last night. At the very least, publishers will get to know readers and booksellers in a way that hasn’t been possible before.

Other tags on reading and the book industry, some more (ahem) playful than others:

  • #askagent, in which agents field questions from writers and readers
     
  • #bookrageous, chronicling some of the outlandish things readers and booksellers are doing in honor of their favorite books
     
  • #bookstorebingo, which tracks some of the crazier things customers say to booksellers
     
  • #followreader, featuring weekly conversations exploring the evolution of publishing as an industry
     
  • #fridayreads, which encourages Twitter users to exchange notes about what they’re reading on a given Friday
     
  • #pantyworthy, the book version of throwing panties at your favorite band
     
  • #pubQT, in which publishing veterans Ron Hogan and Ed Nawotka answer questions and encourage conversation about the future of publishing.

 

Pricing to Fail: Case Studies in Dumb Pricing – Harvard Business Review Short Cuts, the Irrelevance of Cost Issues

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This post on ebook pricing follows yesterday’s post on the failed pricing approach behind Stephen King’s baseball novella. As you can doubtless tell, it’s excerpted from a forthcoming book on ebook pricing and related issues.

Of course I exaggerate when I use any form of the word "failure" in a discussion about even the weakest-selling titles among Stephen King’s books, but there are plenty of other authors and publishers for whom dumb pricing can condemn otherwise viable book projects to death-like sales doldrums.

In January 2010 we noted the launch of an initiative called "Harvard Business Review Short Cuts." An Amazon press release at the time said that "Short Cuts are individual chapters and summaries from Harvard Business Review Press publications that are broken down by the time it takes to read them (i.e. ’30 minute read’ or ’10 minute read’). They are specifically chosen to give business readers quick and informative business information and theory while they drink their morning coffee, wait for a meeting or travel for business."

Six months later, the initiative looks like a failure, despite heavy promotion by Amazon and the valuable imprimatur of the Harvard Business Review Press. Most of the titles are languishing far out the "long tail" in Kindle Store sales rankings, i.e., over 70,000 in most cases. Part of the problem, it seems likely, is that the "Short Cuts" series is overpriced, with a list price currently set at $3.99, discounted 20 percent by Amazon to $3.16. Even at $2.99, a reader wanting to work through all eight to 12 chapters of the full books from which these short-form ebooks are drawn would have to shell out roughly $25 to $35.

One would think that anyone with the wherewithal to be able to digest Harvard Business School materials with his morning coffee would also be capable of the number-crunching necessary to determine that the convenience of bite-size ebook chapters is more than offset by the high price. At $1.49 to $1.99 each, "Short Cuts" might well be a winning proposition.

Sometimes bad pricing decisions result directly from bad publishing decision. An old friend and organizing colleague told me with some excitement that he was approached by a publisher with a proposal to collect some of his essays, speeches, and blog posts on labor organizing in what became a nice little 96-page paperback and ebook. Had my friend (and even perhaps his publisher) come to me first, I would have counseled them that as a first-time author with little marketing budget and a 96-page book for a niche market, they would have done well to price the paperback at $9.95 and the Kindle edition at $2.99. I would have told them how they could have secured print and ebook packages with a truly professional appearance and feel with a total front-end expenditure of less than $100, and earned, at the prices just quoted, royalties of $2.05 for every Kindle edition sold, $2.13 for every paperback sold to bookstores and libraries, and $3.82 for every paperback sold at Amazon.com.

At these affordable prices, I would have been able to give the book a significant marketing boost via my Kindle Nation Daily blog, and my friend’s first experience as an author would have been a successful one. Instead, probably because he didn’t want to bother me, he made a bad deal with a publisher who made a bad deal with a printer and ebook publisher. Because of cost slices taken by intermediaries at each step of the way, they were stuck pricing the paperback at $12.95 and the ebook at $7.99. At those prices, the paperback and ebook are languishing far out the "long tail" in the Amazon and Kindle bookstores with sales, in a good week, of a copy or two a week. The unsustainability of the prices also makes it impossible for me to help: the author’s a great friend and I love him like a brother, but my Kindle Nation readers would laugh me out of the Kindlesphere if I recommended to them that they spend $7.99 on a 96-page ebook.

The lesson in that final case is a simple but essential one for everyone from the first-time self-published author to the Big Six publishing company executives responsible for property acquisition and the economics of pricing and cost: books of all kinds, but especially ebooks, must be priced based on the value proposition they present to their prospective buyers and readers. If you get forced into setting a high price because of your costs for editorial and creative, property acquisition and royalties, pre-press and publishing, or the slices taken by publishers, aggregators, distributors, wholesalers, or retailers, that high price is your problem, not the customer’s. Unless you have a truly hot property for which customers will pay above-market prices, the fact that you can "justify" your price based on costs is irrelevant. The book will not sell.

 

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

Weighing Up Traditional Publishing & Ebook Publishing

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This guest blog post, by Robert W. Walker, originally appeared on Buried Under Books on July 13, 2010. In it, Mr. Walker compares the traditional publishing model to the new ebook self-publishing models, and finds the traditional model wanting.

Robert W. Walker is a graduate of Chicago’s Wells High School, Northwestern University, and the NU’s Graduate Masters in English Education program.  Rob has taught writing in all its permutations (“All writing is creative writing but not all writing sings,” he says.) from composition and developmental to a study of the literary masters to creative and advanced creative writing.  His first novel was one only an arrogant youth could have conceived — a sequel to Huckleberry Finn (now published as Daniel & The Wrongway Railway, Royal Fireworks Press, NY), but his first suspense-techno-thriller-sf-mystery came in 1979, after college, a novel that won no awards entitled SUB-ZERO.

In any non-traditional publishing as in ebook publication, there is no such thing as “an advance against royalties”.  In Traditional Publishing as we know, now often termed DTB’s by our younger generations, ie. Dead Tree Books the “advance” has always been there. This is a significant difference. For the older generation, my generation, the first phrase that comes to mind for the author is “an advance against royalties” and what this means is the author gets a lump sum “loan payment” to start work on the process of crafting a book or novel. However, in ebook non-traditional publishing wherein everything is lower case, there are NO advances. In fact, in “non-publishing” as some like to call it, there are a lot of “NO’s” to the traditional model.

However, before we get too far afield, an advance against a royalty of a $100, 000 is a thing of beauty on the surface. No doubt about that. A writer can rejoice. However if it is for four books to be written over four years, that’s pretty much slave wages or $25,000 a year, which if one is independently wealthy makes for nice pen money. Not so with most people who are attempting to make a living (no joke) at writing.

To the midlist author who wins this arrangement or spin of the publishing wheel, 25,000 a year does not go far. It’s about minimum wage if that. Whereas in ebook publishing, there are NO advances and no paying back of that 25,000 a year either. On the one hand, your publisher grants you a “loan” to be paid back via your royalties (if royalties even occur); on the other hand, every cent of an advance must be paid back to the publisher via your royalties, and until that hundred thousand is worked off by your royalties (if at all) you see no additional funds from royalties. Should your sales be too low to return that advance to your publisher, you are both left with a bad business loan, and your name or reputation as a writer is mud thereafter.

The above is one area where traditional and non-traditional publishing go in very different directions. But there are far more differences for the writer as businessman as well. Below are some of the glaring differences other than no advances.

 

Read the rest of the post on Buried Under Books.

Kindle Book Sales A Surprise

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The month of June has past with several of my books in the Kindle store on Amazon. I priced the download of my books very cheap. I’m an unknown author so my paperback books in the list of choices in the different genre is near the bottom of thousands of titles. I’ve searched Amazon for them myself, and by the time I went through a few hundred books, I was tired of looking so I know how buyers feel. Then there is the fact that $16.00 plus $4.00 postage is a lot of money to pay to take a chance on a paperback written by an unknown.

So I’ve tried Kindle. I was amazed at the wide variety of my books sold in June including one download of my western book, The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary. Still my best sellers are my Amish books. Now part of the Kindle buyers will know me as an author. If they liked what they read, they will find my books by searching for my name. They will watch for my latest books in the future and tell someone else about my books. Word of mouth has always been a great way for me to get buyers. Also in the back of each of my books is my bio with email address and a list of my other books.

In June, I didn’t have an easy experience with kindle downloading. I wanted to use PDF because that’s the format I downloaded my books to publish and save, but the system warned that PDF conversion didn’t format well. Amazon was working on that but couldn’t guarantee conversion with PDF yet. I found that out. The sentence structure was all out of whack. I don’t have Microsoft, but my Open Office should work just as well. I found the format that worked one time didn’t the next. I’ve went from PDF to rft, to hmtl to doc. I kept trying until I found a format that is fairly neat, I hope. Thank Goodness for the preview pages so I could check. Two years ago when I put the first book in my mystery series in kindle, I didn’t finish filling out the form. When someone in the mystery community asked when my books would be on Kindle, I finished the download only to hear about the odd sentence structure so I stopped the production and resubmitted that book. Next problem was the cover downloads. They are blurry. I was wondering why Amazon didn’t transfer the covers from my book page to Kindle. Checked the Kindle store and found my covers had been transferred.

What a difference a month makes. The last books I downloaded didn’t give me as much trouble. The different formats to download a book weren’t mentioned so I used PDF. Amazon has fixed their system to automatically help with conversion when needed before publishing. Hopefully, my next Kindle books are neater now. A discussion on Amazon mentioned the problems with the format downloading so now I feel better, knowing this wasn’t a ME thing.

Amazon’s 35% royalty wasn’t very much. By July 1st, a new royalty has been added with a choice of 35 or 70%. I stopped all my books and repriced them so that I get a descent royalty. The bottom price is $2.99. Now my books are back for sale. The Kindle download at $5.99 is still much cheaper than the price of my paperback books. With 70% royalty, I have to pay for the buyer’s download of the book according to the size. In my case that amounts to 2 – 6 cents.

Here is a review of Neighbor Watchers from Luv2read in Amazon kindle community discussion group I started titled New Amish Books On Kindle. She looked for my Amish books and found my mystery series book one Neighbor Watchers so she downloaded it, too.

She wrote I loved this book! The characters were so well written, it was easy to see it played out in my head as I read. Gracie was my great grandmother and Sam Elliot was the sheriff. Gracie & Melinda get into quite a few predicaments trying to "Help" solve the murder across the street. It kept me turning the page to find out what mischief these two adorable old ladies would get into next. I see more books in the series. I would definitely buy them.

Another time she wrote

I highly recommend this series to anyone who has ever known or had a nosy elderly neighbor that seemed to ALWAYS know what is going on in the neighborhood. This is a funny laugh out loud easy read. Neighbor Watchers is really unique as the time period is the turn of the century.

Of course, the thing I can’t do in the Amazon discussion groups is advertise that my books are cheaper in my online bookstore( http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com ), on ebay or from me personally. Not everyone wants to read a book from a screen on Kindle. Since my books sold on Kindle in June, it looks like what buyers are looking for is a bargain. Next month I’ll update you about July sales after I’ve raised my prices. What I need is to get the word out to buyers of paperback books that I am the keeper of my book bargains and am glad to accommodate customers.