Publetariat

The Most Super-Duper, Exhaustive, Comprehensive, and Current Listing of Free and Paid Book Advertising Websites and Ideas

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Today’s post is by Ana Spoke, off of her site AnaSpoke.com  on October 8, 2015. Ana gives a pretty decent list of marketing options that she has tried or researched. Full disclosure, as a Freelance Software Engineer I do work for Windwalker Media as a General Manger.

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The Most Super-Duper, Exhaustive, Comprehensive, and Current Listing of Free and Paid Book Advertising Websites and Ideas

Hi, everyone,

As mentioned in the previous post, I have found the hard way that advertising books on social media is not a very good or even a decent marketing strategy, if it is, in fact, your one and only strategy. As an update, I have to let you know that it does work, though – I have ignored Twitter for a few days last week in the wake of this realisation, and my book sales dropped from an average of 11 per week to 3. Not a huge difference in numbers, but let’s express it in percentage points…OH MY GOD, I’VE LOST 75% OF SALES! Sorry for yelling, but you get my point, right? Keep working at social media, but do consider doing what the pros have always done – broadcast to unsuspecting masses.

I hope I can help by sharing this list of book marketing sites and ideas with you. I intend for it to be a continuous work in progress – I plan to update it as I go and then reblog once I have something super exciting to report. Even if you don’t want to advertise a book, the sites below are excellent resources to find free or bargain-priced books.Marketing Mix Signpost With Place Price Product And Promotion

First, how about the NUMBER ONE THING I’VE LEARNED from doing this research? It’s simple – you must plan an overall sales strategy, preferably over the whole year. Why? I’m glad you’ve asked:

  1. The main reason for this is that once you’ve had a sale or a free promotion for your book, many sites WILL NOT CONSIDER promoting your book at a higher price for 30-90 days (see below for details on each site).
  2. Some sites you can notify on the day of the promotion, others you have to notify well in advance.
  3. Holidays. You might want to schedule your sales to be around Christmas? Or beach vacations? Or Independence Day?

And now, without further adieu, here are the advertising sites (some of which I’ve used), in alphabetical order:

Addicted to eBooks: Can post a free or low price ($5.99 or less) ebook only for free! The catch is that you will not know when it is posted on the front page, but at a cost of nothing, why not? They don’t accept erotica and you have to have at least 5 reviews. You can only submit your book once.

My experience: I have applied for an account on 25 September and got approved on 28 September. Created a profile and Shizzle, Inc ad on 28 September. Considering paying $15 for a week-long sidebar ad and a Facebook post, although the profile by itself has not made any impact on the sales.

Ask David: They have 43,900 Twitter followers as of October 2015. $15 promo package or free service for KDP Select freebies. Schedule free days up to 30 days in advance.

Author Marketing Club: subscribe to get marketing tips. 25K+ subscribers. Free subscription or optional premium membership. Very flashy website, and it kept sending me to the premium membership form – I almost gave up, but luckily found the Free Membership Form eventually.

My experience: I have signed up to try some of the tools.

Awesome Gang: Appears to be run by the same person that runs the Discount Book Man. I was pleasantly surprised that the top books in their “featured” list had great Amazon rankings (not to say it was all due just to the Gang, no matter how Awesome). That’s only for $10!! They say their newsletter goes to 4,600 subscribers, and they have almost 50K Facebook fans.

My experience: I was pretty impressed with the apparent value for the money, so submitted Shizzle for a promo on 10 October for a $10 USD. UPDATE: hard to say, as I had another promo on the day, however I’ve heard from other writers that they’ve been disappointed. I’ve tried contacting them after to ask when they’ve sent my book out – no response whatsoever.

BargainBooksy – see FreeBooksy.

BitTorrent: this is a bit “out there” idea, as this is the site often blamed for piracy.  It has over 200 MILLION users. This seems great if you have a series – just give away the first book in the series for free, to build a fan base which will come back to buy the rest.

BookBlast: now called Booksends (below).

Booksends: claim that big-name publishers advertise with them. NOTE: the promo price has to be the lowest of any within the previous 90-day range.

BookBub: you will need to set up an account, after that you can go straight to Submit a New Deal. The price to list a free promotion is $70, and a $0.99 sale is $140 FOR THE US ONLY. Ouch. Another issue that the sale price has to be the lowest of the last 90 days. Apparently it’s so popular that it’s difficult to get selected, despite the cost. There’s an excellent series of articles by an author Nicholas Rossis, which describe tips and tricks on how to get selected.

Book Goodies: post your book for free, but only once, and you have to fill in an author interview (answer questions). So, you first have to complete the interview, then wait 2-3 weeks for it to be approved, then list your book. Cumbersome – yes. Free – hells yes. Please note that you give the website the right to publish your interview and your photo (if you choose to upload a photo).

My experience: I have answered interview questions and it was live just a week later on Book Goodies website. I received an email notification of the interview being posted on 5 October and it already had  3 Facebook and 4 Twitter shares. On 8 October it had 14 Twitter shares, but that number has not increased since.

Book Gorilla: seems a cheaper option, while still being quite popular and famous. This explains why they are BOOKED UP TO 2 MONTHS IN ADVANCE. Once again, the price of advertising depends on the book price – $4 to $50. You can also ask to be “starred”, although they will decide if they want to do it, based on your book quality – that would be an additional $100. They themselves say that it’s not likely to make much difference.

Read the full post on AnaSpoke.com.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com

What is in a name? Everything if you are an author. Why you need your own author site.

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Have you ever googled your own name? You should. It is interesting to see what comes up. If you are an author what shows up when a fan or agent searches for you is pretty important. If you write, you need an author site.

Why an author site instead of a book site? With the focus on you as an author, instead of the individual book, you have room to grow. Each book can have its own landing page or subdomain under your author site. Fans want to get to know the author behind their favorite books. Read on for the reasons why you need your own author site.Web Design Puzzle Shows Website Content And Creativity

  • Shows you are legit
    There are a thousand new books being created each day. To stand out, especially from the “do-it-yourself-quick” crowd, you want to present as a professional author. Having a good looking site with well written content sets you apart. Agents and fans often google peoples names. To be the first result that pops up in a Google search is reason enough to have you own author site.
  • Social Media Anchor point
    Social media is more powerful with a website, and an author website is more powerful with social media. It is a symbiotic relationship. Managing multiple social media outlets is much easier from a central website. In fact, there are plugins and options that will automatically post to social media for you, especially if you use WordPress or other content management systems.From your author site you can post to Facebook, tweet to Twitter, pin on Pinterest, or whatever your social media flavor is, while keeping a consistent message. Promoting from Facebook or Twitter to another platform is much harder. Which makes sense if you think about it. Each social media site was set up for a different niche.  Facebook allows images but is more chatty. Twitter is text less than 140 characters. Pinterest and Instagram are more image driven. So you might not get as much traffic on your site as on your social media outlets, but having a website will make your life easier and will drive traffic through the social media sites. Plus not everyone is on social media, so it is good to have a place for them as well.
  • Control
    An author’s site is their castle. You get to decide what goes on your site, and you are not restricted by Amazon or anyone else’s policies. In fact they will all have a place where you can put a link to your author site!There are so many cool options that you can provide on your own site. If you want to provide a free chapter you can. You can have press kits, media kits, official author bios, event listings, book club materials, testimonials, whatever you want. Sell your book off your own site and keep every precious penny!While this might seem overwhelming, having this freedom and control over your message is a beautiful thing. So guard it well and don’t fret. There are plenty of articles out there to help guide you. Start small and then grow.
  • Connections
    This is what it is all about really. You wrote down words with the hopes that they would connect with someone, hopefully with many someones. The someones are going to want to connect back to you. The author site is about you, and because you have control over your site, you can manage how your fans interact with you. Interactions vary from providing a simple bio where you fans can learn carefully scripted information about you, to interacting directly with your fans through comments or even forums.You can set up your site to collect emails. Emails are golden! Having someone decide that they like you enough to take the action of filling out a form and trusting you with their contact information is a wonderful thing. This is a very targeted audience, no matter how small. Make sure you treat people’s emails with the respect they deserve. Offer them extra treats for being so cool, like bonus chapters, or even to be a focus group for your next book!

Of course creating an author website is not the end, you will need to set aside time for updates and maintenance. Updated content keeps the search engines happy. While this sounds like a lot of work, a good author site will be a solid foundation for your overall market strategy and it can be a load of fun too.  In future articles, we will dive deeper in the process of creating an author website: how to create one, what you need on your author website, more on social media, and tools and tricks to help.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com

Writers, we need to stop saying this

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Today’s post by J.H. Moncrieff, off of her site J.H. Moncrieff Tales of Terror and Suspense. Since I am way behind on my NaNoWriMo numbers, I especially feel her. Writers are people who have stories in them that want to be told. Sometimes they get written into text, sometimes they don’t.

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 Writers, we need to stop saying this

Usually I limit myself to one writing-related post per month.

But something has been irritating the living hell out of me for years, and the more time that passes, the angrier I get.

So, lest I morph into some female version of The Incredible Hulk, I’ll expel that rage here, as a semi-productive rant. Because if I can stop just one person from saying this, it will be fury well spent.

Ready to hear the most destructive thing writers say to each other? Here it is…

“Writers write.”

Seems simple. How on earth could anyone feel like a sack of mucus drowned by pond scum after hearing those two words? Let me explain.

From the time we pick up our crayons and scrawl a story rather than a picture, we identify with the word writer. It’s not just what we do–for many of us, it becomes who we are. And if you’re a writer, you’re probably also by turns highly sensitive, insecure, and self-loathing.

So you’re a writer. It’s not just what you do; it’s who you are. And then you read a blog post, or some “How to Write Kewl Stuff” book, or perhaps an ill-thought Tweet.

“Writers write.”

And it makes you feel like absolute crap.

Read the full post on J.H. Moncrieff Tales of Terror and Suspense.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com

Writing The Perfect Scene

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Today’s post by Randy Ingermanson – “the Snowflake Guy” originally appeared on his site, Advanced Fiction Writing. Need to learn how to structure a scene or just a refresher, then this article is for you!

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Writing The Perfect Scene

Having trouble making the scenes in your novel work their magic? In this article, I’ll show you how to write the “perfect” scene.

Maybe you think it’s impossible to write the perfect scene. After all, who can choose every word perfectly, every thought, every sentence, every paragraph? What does perfection mean, anyway?

Honestly, I don’t know. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Style is a matter of taste.

But structure is pretty well understood. Maybe you can’t write the perfectly styled scene. But you can write the perfectly structured scene. And that’s a whale of a lot better than writing a badly structured scene.

The Two Levels of Scene Structure

A scene has two levels of structure, and only two. They are:

  • The large-scale structure of the scene
  • The small-scale structure of the scene

This may seem obvious, but by the end of this article, I hope to convince you that it’s terribly profound. If you then want to fling large quantities of cash at me in gratitude, please don’t. I’d really rather have a check. With plenty of zeroes. I am going to steal insights from Dwight Swain’s book, Techniques of the Selling Writer. This is quite simply the finest book ever written on how to write fiction. If you don’t have this book, you are robbing yourself blind. I will be giving you the high points in this article, but there is really no substitute for reading the book and digesting it.

Before we begin, we need to understand how we keep score. How do we know what perfection is? The answer is based on understanding your reader’s motivation for reading.

Your reader is reading your fiction because you provide him or her with a powerful emotional experience. If you’re writing a romance, you must create in your reader the illusion that she is falling in love herself. If you’re writing a thriller, you must create in your reader the illusion that he is in mortal danger and has only the tiniest chance of saving his life (and all of humanity). If you’re writing a fantasy, you must create in your reader the illusion that she is actually in another world where all is different and wonderful and magical. And so on for all the other genres.

If you fail to create these emotions in your reader, then you have failed. If you create these emotions in your reader, then you have succeeded. The better you create the desired emotional experience in your reader, the better your fiction. Perfection in writing comes when you have created the fullest possible emotional experience for your reader.

Read the full post on Advanced Fiction Writing.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com

Building Buzz Before Your Book Comes Out: 10 Strategies That Work

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Today’s post by  originally appeared on Writer’s Digest on November 4, 2015. He has some really good points about using social media.

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If you’ve got a book scheduled for release, whether it’s traditionally published or indie-published, the onus is on you to promote it. Here are some helpful strategies for making a big splash by using social media to build buzz before your book comes out.

1. Start early

It’s never too early to get your name and face out there. This gives you time to find your groove, make mistakes, and grow your social media following so that when you finally have news about your book, there will be an audience to hear it.

2. Explore social media

Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Pinterest? Goodreads? You can’t do them all. Start experimenting to see what works for you. If you started early, you’ve got time.

3. Post

Get creative, think out of the box. If you write historical fiction, post pictures of period clothing, dirty words from your époque, recipes from the era. If you write romance, update the public on the whereabouts of Fabio, post pictures of your favorite cover model. Review romantic comedies. If you write detective fiction, post a recipe for your character’s signature cocktail, or a diagram with the parts of a gun. Young adult (YA)? Post funny YouTube videos. Science fiction or fantasy? Announce and review cons. You get the idea.

Every tenth time, post book news—signing with an agent, book contracts, cover reveals, release dates, book giveaways, early reviews, announcement about pre-sales. People will endure your self-promotion because they like your other posts—kind of like a fundraising drive on public radio.

4. Use Facebook

It ain’t what it used to be, but it still rules across every age group. Last January, Facebook began sending out fewer and fewer posts to the people who like our pages, hoping we all would pay money to boost those posts to reach our followers. Also, posts from liked pages are now shuttled out of our “news stream” into a “page stream.” Here’s a simple trick to help circumvent that.

a. Post the following message on your Facebook page.

“When you like this page, remember to:
* Hover over the LIKED button.
* Click GET NOTIFICATIONS.
* Click SEE FIRST.

b. Pin that post to the top of your page. Followers who use this setting will be notified when you post.

Remember, you aren’t limited to your own Facebook page for promotion. Join existing community pages with members from your target audience. Find pages with a high number of engaged followers (lots of comments and likes). Every time you post, your name is out there. Mention your book when it’s polite to do so. It’s rude to over promote and it can backfire. Make sure you obey the rules.

Always put key words in the “topics” box on the “About” section of your Facebook page to make it more searchable.

5. Build relationships

Respond to everyone who comments with a like or a word. Check often so you can hide offensive posts. I’ve had Facebook followers duke it out over the pros and cons of corsets, so don’t underestimate the potential for conflicts.

Read the full post on Writer’s Digest.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com

Quick Hacks for the Top Misused Words

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I know I am guilty of some of these. Please be aware that this is not the deep cuts of grammar rules and there are always exceptions. English is such a messy language! However, these tips will help you the majority of time.

  • Adverse vs Averse

Adverse means the results are not good, while averse means unwilling.

Example: I am averse to trying nuclear weapons on the giant hypnotoad as the effects might be adverse.

  • Affect vs Effect

Affect is a verb implying action or change. Effect is usually a noun. When you affect something it produces an effect.

Example: The electricity from the power lines is affecting the giant hypnotoad! It has produced the effect of making the hypnotoad grow larger!

  • HypnotoadEnsure vs Insure

Ensure means to make sure something happens. Insure is what you do when you purchase insurance.

Example: We need to ensure that the giant hypnotoad does as little damage as possible. I hope the people whose houses it has destroyed were insured.

  • Every day Everyday

Every day is an adverb while everyday is an adjective that means common. Put the word single between the words every and day in the sentence, and if the sentence still makes sense then you should use two words.

Example: I am tired of getting up every day and finding new monsters attacking our town!

I am tired of getting up every single day and finding new monsters attacking our town! Correct.

Example: Monsters attacking our town has become an every day occurrence!

Monsters attacking our town has become an every single day occurrence! Incorrect.

Monsters attacking our town has become an everyday occurrence! Correct.

  • Fewer vs Less

If the subject is plural then you use fewer. If the subject is singular you use less.

Example: We have less chance of fighting the giant hypnotoad, now that we have fewer guns.

  • Farther vs Further

Farther* always refers to distance. Further relates to amount or time.

Example: We need to move everyone farther away from the giant hypnotoad, and then we can further discuss the plans to end this menace.

  • It’s vs Its

It’s is the contraction form of “it is” while its is the possessive pronoun. Replace the word in a sentence with “It is” and see if that makes sense.

Example: It’s a giant hypnotoad, coming to destroy Metropolis!

It is a giant hypnotoad, coming to destroy Metropolis! Correct.

Example: That giant hypnotoad has its own reality show!

That giant hypnotoad has it is own reality show! Incorrect.

That giant hypnotoad has its own reality show! Correct.

  • Lose vs Loose

Lose is a verb and means to misplace or to suffer a loss. Loose means something that is not tight.

Example: We have too much to lose if we don’t beat the giant hypnotoad. So get that bolt loose so we can fix the laser cannon.

  • Me vs Myself vs I

To decide between me and I, change the sentence to having one person and try the words out.

Example: Pat yelled for Chris and I to watch out!

Pat yelled for I to watch out! Incorrect.

Pat yelled for me to watch out! Correct.

Pat yelled for Chris and me to watch out! Correct.

Example: Chris and I dived to the side to avoid the fireball!

Me dived to the side to avoid the fireball! Incorrect.

I dived to the side to avoid the fireball! Correct.

Myself is a reflective pronoun and always the object of a sentence. So if you are talking about yourself (another reflective pronoun) then myself can be used. The other way to test when to use myself is to swap myself out with me and see if works.

Example: If someone knows how to deal with the giant hypnotoad, please contact Pat, Chris, or myself.

Simplified the sentence would read:

Please contact myself. Incorrect.

Please contact I. Incorrect.

Please contact me. Correct.

If someone knows how to deal with the giant purple hypnotoad, please contact Pat, Chris, or me. Correct.

  • Than vs Then

Than is used to compare two different items. Then has a variety of uses. Use than to compare and then any other time.

Example: We are better off using flamethrowers than guns on the giant hypnotoad, as bullets bounce off its skin. Then we better get a move on, before it does any more damage.

  • Their vs There vs They’re

Their is when you are talking about more than one person or something they have. There is a location, and they’re is the contraction form of they are.

Example: Pat and Chris are over there, with their nets. They’re going to try and catch the giant hypnotoad.

Pat and Chris are over there, with their nets. They are going to try and catch the giant hypnotoad.

  • You’re vs Your

You’re is the contraction form of you are while your is a possessive pronoun. Replace the word with you are and see if the sentence still makes sense.

Example: Your car is rolling down that hill right into the giant purple hypnotoad!

You are car is rolling down that hill into the giant purple hypnotoad! Incorrect.

Your car is rolling down that hill into the giant purple hypnotoad! Correct.

Example: Your going to get a reward for saving the city!

You are going to get a reward for saving the city! Correct.

You’re are going to get a reward for saving the city! Correct.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com

*unless you are from Massachusetts, in which case farther is the person who married your mother and raised you.

The 37 Basic Plots, According to a Screenwriter of the Silent-Film Era

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Today’s post by Rebecca Onion originally appeared on Slate on October 27, 2015. What do you think, are we all repeating the same plots over and over again?

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In his 1919 manual for screenwriters, Ten Million Photoplay Plots, Wycliff Aber Hill provided this taxonomy of possible types of dramatic “situations,” first running them down in outline form, then describing each more completely and offering possible variations. Hill, who published more than one aid to struggling “scenarists,” positioned himself as an authority on the types of stories that would work well onscreen.

Advertising Hill’s book in a 1922 issue of the Scenario Bulletin Digest (“A Magazine of Information and Instruction for the Photoplaywright”), the manual’s publisher, the Feature Photodrama Company, offered hope to screenwriters feeling stuck for inspiration who might be willing to send away for the volume:

A few hours’ study of this remarkable treatise ought to make it an easy matter to find a cure for your “sick script”; to inject new “pep” and suspense into your story or safely carry it past a “blind alley”; it gives you all the possible information an inspiring [sic] scenarist may require.
Read the full post on Slate including screenshots of the 37 basic plots!

Secrets of the Book Designer: Paperbacks

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Today’s post by Linda Huang originally appeared on on October 22, 2015.

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Secrets of the Book Designer: Paperbacks

On Creating the Paperback Edition of Dept. of Speculation

THE DAY JOB

I’m a cover designer at Vintage & Anchor Books, the paperback imprint at the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. On average, roughly half our covers are adapted from the hardcover design, and the rest are entire redesigns. Whether or not a book needs a facelift depends on a number of factors, including (most importantly) hardcover sales, the hardcover design’s commercial accessibility, and its reproducibility in paperback. The goal of the paperback is therefore to reposition a book, capture a wider audience, or target a new market. We give books a second chance.

What this means visually is democratizing the design: making it appeal to more readers by showing more of a sense of place, time, character, genre, or mood. Generally, hardcovers can afford to be a bit abstract while paperbacks prefer to be more concrete. Although this can sometimes result in graphic sameness, readers do need cues to help them decide what to buy. The goal is, after all, to sell books. The internal struggle as a designer, then, is finding a satisfying balance between commercial accessibility and artistic standards. We try to push boundaries to create covers that are graphically interesting—which has a pragmatic purpose because it helps them stand out—while maintaining a level of marketability.

Before I begin work, I read as much as I can of and about the book and author—reviews, marketing strategies, and similar titles, jotting down anything I find metaphorically significant or visually interesting. If necessary, I collect art research for inspiration, especially for era-specific books. It helps to have a mood board containing the visual language I am trying to capture. I then ask myself:

What is the overall tone or mood of the writing?

Does it call for a photograph, an illustration, or a collage?

Is the author important enough to warrant an all-type cover?

I design as many iterations of a cover as necessary until I am happy with at least a few directions. My art director might make suggestions or help me narrow it down even further to present to the committee, who then select one to be sent to the author for approval. All this communication is handled through the editor. Unless you have a relationship with the author, designers rarely interact with them in the design process.

Read the full post on .

Eight Myths New Writers Need To Stop Believing In

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Portrait of a frustrated student being surrounded with piles of books

As General Manager for Windwalker Media and an independent author service provider, I keep seeing the same mistakes that derail new authors. Here are a few of the biggest ones that I have encountered, out of a lot of love and a little tongue in cheek.

  1. If I write it they will come/but my mommy told me I was special

Perhaps in your heart you know you are the next undiscovered J.K. Rowling, but the fact is she spent many years working her craft and perfecting it before being discovered. Your manuscript is competing against approximately 1,000 new books each day, in the United States alone. You may write it but if you want anyone to read it, you need to make it about your reader and not about you.

  1. But I heard/read everyone is making a lot of money with writing and self-publishing

Nope.

Not even close. Or as my wise old granny used to say, if it sounds too good to be true then they are trying to sell you something. You can make a living as a writer, but it takes time, hard work, and patience. It is a job, just like any other job.

  1. I can just figure it out as I go along

The best time to start planning is before you even write one word.

Why are you writing? What is the goal? To make money or to be famous – see above. The best reason is because writing is your passion and you have a story that wants to be told. Understanding why you need to write, will help you figure out some of the next steps.

Who is your target reader? Write for them, not you, in their language.

This is also when you start to put together a marketing plan. By doing a little work ahead of time, you will save yourself many hours of frustration.

  1. I don’t need a marketing plan, my books is so awesome it will sell itself!

Killing this myth will save you so much trouble down the road.

How are you going to distribute your book? EBooks, print, print on demand? Combination? If you plan on just publishing an eBook, then you might be able to get away with a clean and well formatted MS Word document. However, print and print on demand will require someone who knows how to set up your manuscript per the requirements for the company printing your book.

What is your target genre? If you want to succeed and stand out from the 1000 of books you need to find your niche and promote that. Don’t be a romance writer. Instead be an Edwardian period piece romance that specializes in clean Christian bodice rippers. Writing a historical novel? Specify and be an expert in crooked New York politicians in the early 1800s. By finding your niche, you are also finding the people who are going to want to read your book, and help your rankings.

Do you want to try self-publishing or find an agent go the traditional route. Depending on what you choose, your approach will be different. There are many articles that can describe the benefits and disadvantages of both. Perhaps you will try one path and then switch over. The point is to know ahead of time what your options are.

How are you going to market your book? This is the perfect time to start thinking and to start marketing, before you are ready to publish. Good marketing takes time, much longer than you realize. Think of the worst pushiest salesperson you have ever dealt with. Don’t be them. Social media is a great tool but should only be a part of your marketing plan. Start a blog, build friendships, and solve problems. Build real connections over time, and then when the time comes to promote your book, you will have some solid cheerleaders in your corner.

  1. I can save money by:

Self-editing – If you go on Amazon and look at the number one reason for lost stars, it will be because someone tried to self-edit. After having spent so much time staring at the pages during the writing process, you will miss errors. Typos, grammatical errors, bad sentence structures all upset readers. Upset readers leave bad reviews, which don’t go away. By the way, there are two types of editors, content editors for proof reading and grammar errors and developmental editors which help you make your story flow better. Both are worth every penny.

Design my own book cover – This sounds easy, open up MS Paint, add the title and your name in different fancy fonts, throw in a piece of clip art and voila! Ok, maybe you know the difference between san serif and serif fonts and how they should be used, but it is really easy to tell when someone does their own artwork. If you don’t care enough to invest in your story, why should customers care to read it?

A good cover design will complement your story. This is often the first thing that a customer will see, and it needs to give them information about your book at a glance. A professional will make sure the cover work well as a thumbnail.

Do my own layout – If you are going to offer your book in print, then know there are so many little details that go into making a print book great. Pictures are managed completely differently between an eBook and print book. Alternating headers, gutters, font choices, and a variety of other important details are all items that a professional will handle and that all add up to a quality product.

Have my cousin do the work – The same thing goes for asking a friend or a relative to do any work for you. Unless they are a professional and you are paying them the same rate as any other job, don’t. They might not have the heart to tell you the truth or the skill set needed, so it isn’t worth your reputation. Hire a professional, there are very reasonably priced ones out there.

  1. Nobody cares about the description, I don’t need to spend a lot of time on it

If you have gotten a customer to read your book description, congratulations! It means they are interested in your book and this is your opportunity to really impress them. Start with a one or two sentence summary and then expand with a couple of paragraphs below that lets the reader know more detail about your book. Include any awards or quotes promoting your book. Don’t blow it with typos, run on sentences AND QUIT YELLING AT EVERYONE WITH BOLDED ALLCAPS!

  1. I can write my book and get it published in a weekend!

Every part of building your final product will take longer than you expect, especially if you want to produce a quality book that people will want to read. Don’t use this as an excuse to cut corners, but as motivation to plan ahead! Most decent editors and eBook creators are booked for weeks in advanced, if not months.

  1. Once I put my book up for sale, the reviews will come rolling in

It takes about 50 reviews for Amazon’s algorithm to really start noticing your title and rise in rankings. Customers prefer books that already have reviews, so they can get some idea of the quality of the book. Getting the first few reviews can be painful, especially if you just sit there and wait.

If you have started your marketing and building of relationships before now, then you can offer copies of your book for honest reviews. Don’t be tempted to cheat and pay for reviews. Amazon especially is cracking down on purchased reviews and if your book can’t stand on its own merit, then the paid reviews won’t help you anyway.

This list isn’t meant to discourage you, in fact the hope is to empower you to avoid some of the mistakes that will slow your success down.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com

Book Design Basics: Quotation Marks and Primes

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Today’s post by  originally appeared on his blog on October 25, 2015.

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Book Design Basics: Quotation Marks and Primes

smart-quotes-preferredWrit­ers often ask about the dif­fer­ence be­tween “straight” or “dumb” quo­ta­tion marks and tra­di­tional print­ers’ quotes, com­monly re­ferred to as “smart quotes” or “curly quotes.” Add in the need to dis­tin­guish be­tween left sin­gle quotes and apos­tro­phes, and the primes used to spec­ify feet and inches or min­utes and sec­onds and you end up with a ty­po­graphic co­nun­drum that con­founds many a ca­pa­ble au­thor. This ar­ti­cle ex­am­ines the var­i­ous types of quotes and primes and ex­plains how to use them.

Book De­sign Ba­sics: Straight or Dumb Quotes

Straight quotes evolved to fa­cil­i­tate in­for­mal writ­ing sit­u­a­tions. When typ­ing into a dis­cus­sion forum, twit­ter feed, or com­ment box, use your apos­tro­phe and dou­ble-quote keys for all the spe­cial char­ac­ters (ex­cept the “de­grees” sym­bol.) “Dumb” text ed­i­tors don’t try to fig­ure out which di­rec­tion to slant your punc­tu­a­tion. “Dumb” writ­ers don’t have to go to the “in­sert spe­cial char­ac­ters” di­a­log box or re­mem­ber spe­cial key se­quences for each type of mark.

Con­sider the var­i­ous punc­tu­a­tion styles needed to ren­der the fol­low­ing ex­am­ple:

straight quotation marks example

Straight quotes make it quick and easy to ex­press a thought. You don’t have to be a ty­pog­ra­pher to make your­self un­der­stood. In the right sit­u­a­tions, “dumb quotes” are a smart idea.

Read the full post on The Worlds Greatest Book.

Advice to First Time Authors – From Michael Hyatt

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This post by Michael Hyatt originally appeared on his blog on July 12, 2012. His good advice is timeless, especially don’t lose heart. I see so many people who believe if they write it, people will flock to read it. Writing well is hard work.

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As the former Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson, I receive a lot of email from would-be authors who are trying to get published. Because I make my email address public, it’s pretty easy to get to me.

However, by the time I hear from people, they are usually frustrated. They can’t get anyone in the book publishing world to respond, and they are convinced that they have a killer-idea. “If only someone would just read my manuscript,” they plead.The problem is that most publishers will not review unsolicited proposals or manuscripts. When I worked at Thomas Nelson, I personally received hundreds of proposals each year; my staff received thousands. Publishers simply don’t have the resources to review these. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.

So as an author, what do you do? Here’s what I recommend:

  1. Educate yourself. If you want to publish with a general market publisher, read 2012 Writer’s Market by Robert Lee Brewer. If you want to write for the Christian Market, read The Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2012 by Jerry Jenkins. Both books include writer’s guidelines and submission procedures for publishing houses. These books will give you a good overview of the literary marketplace.

Read the full post on Michael Hyatt’s Blog.

Amazon Has an Absurdly Inconsistent Review Policy

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This post by Nate Hoffelder originally appeared on The Digital Reader on November 2, 2015.

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Amazon won’t allow paid book reviews, and they won’t let you review your friend’s books, but as the Seattle Times tells us, anything else goes.

Jay Greene brings us the sad tale of conspiracy nuts running rampant in the review sections at Amazon.com.

Most book authors know they need to endure critics, even comments that may be malicious and personal.

But the venom that runs through more than three dozen reviews on Amazon.com of Scarlett Lewis’ latest book are particularly scathing.

 “This Scarlet Lewis person is a real sick human being,” writes one reviewer named Kevin. “Scarlett Lewis is a fraud and a sellout to all of humanity,” writes another, anonymously. “Scarlett Lewis is a lying traitor,” writes a reviewer named David Weiss.Those reviews might suggest that Lewis is a polemic politician, treasonous spy or scurrilous financier. She’s none of these. Lewis is the mother of Jesse Lewis, a 6-year-old boy who was murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School three years ago.

She wrote “Nurturing Healing Love: A Mother’s Journey of Hope and Forgiveness” to describe her journey after the massacre and help others choose love and forgiveness instead of anger and resentment in their darkest moments.

The reviewers cited above were inspired to post bogus reviews by their belief that Sandy Hook was a hoax, but not all review spammers share that motivation nor is this problem unique to Amazon.

Read the full post on The Digital Reader.

How Writing Makes People Smarter Supported By Science

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This post by  originally appeared on Lifehacker. We all knew this anyways, but it is nice to have your views supported by science!

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Everyone should write—not just professional writers.

You might say it’s easy for me to say that because I’m a writer. A singer can just as easily say, “Well, I believe that everyone should learn to sing.” But, out of all the creative means of expressions available to human beings, none intrinsically champions critical thinking, enhances creativity and improves clarity of thought quite like writing. Writing makes us smarter.

Here are some reasons (backed by science) why that is so:

1. Writing helps us untangle the messiness in our minds and allows for clearer thinking.

This is perhaps one of the most beautiful things about writing. In her book, Why We Write, curator Meredith Maran interviewed writers on why they write. Nearly all of them gave self-serving reasons, but there was a delightful, recurring motive of why people write: Writing provides a pocket of time in the present moment to reflect, digest and think deeply.

Joan Didion, author of Play It as It Lays said, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.”

Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City explained, “I write to explain myself to myself. It’s a way of processing my disasters, sorting out the messiness of life to lend symmetry and meaning to it.”

It’s not uncommon for one to think they have totally grasped a concept until they write it down and realize there are aspects of the concept they hadn’t quite thought about.

Writing, then, is a way to organize our thoughts. It allows us to reflect and helps us gain new insights and achieve new perspectives. You think more deeply when you write, and that helps you see things more clearly.

Read the full post on Lifehacker.

Google may be copying your book without your permission. Here’s why that is a good thing.

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Similar to web searches, Google is trying to create an online searchable library through Google Books and the Google Library Project. Approximately 30 million books have been scanned. The only larger collection is the Library of Congress, which has 37 million items of various media, not all of which is accessible online and the Library of Congress doesn’t point potential buyers to Amazon, any other merchant, or even an author website.

With the Google Library Project, Google partnered with libraries who provided select materials for scanning. The materials are often out of print, or rare books and publications. However, authors are not contacted for permission to use their works, which brought the attention of the Author’s Guild.

Google uses the scanned items to provide better literary searches along with “snippets” of relevant text, while the libraries have access to scanned copies of their materials. The libraries are still restricted by copyright law on how they handle the scanned content. A win-win for both parties, but what about the authors?

According to Google’s website “The Library Project’s aim is simple: make it easier for people to find relevant books – specifically, books they wouldn’t find any other way such as those that are out of print – while carefully respecting authors’ and publishers’ copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers. ”

The Author’s Guild filed a lawsuit on behalf of the authors, with claims that the snippets of text shown in the search results through Google Books and the Google Library Project are against “fair us” and could be used to compile a copy of the text by enterprising hackers. It should be noted that Google does not make any money off of the links or run ads against the search results. Author’s benefit because links are provided to purchase the titles when available.

“Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.” – copyright.gov

Recently the Second Circuit Appeals Court unanimously exonerated Google from the lawsuit brought forth by the Author’s Guild.

As part of their findings the judges said “The ultimate goal of copyright is to expand public knowledge and understanding, which copyright seeks to achieve by giving potential creators exclusive control over copying of their works, thus giving them a financial incentive to create informative, intellectually enriching works for public consumption.””

The “snippets” show up as text in the search, just like the text of websites shown by Google currently, but as excerpts from the scanned books. There is an option for authors and rights holders to opt out. If there is an alternative source that will fulfill the search request, such as a dictionary, then that source is used. Parts of the scanned books are “blacklisted” and won’t show in the search results. You can see yourself, in the sample below.

Google search snippet example

In one part of the litigation process, The Author’s Guild and Google had come to terms where Google would pay a nominal fee to have exclusive rights to use the scanned texts. This was dismissed by the judge as providing an unfair advantage to Google and if approved would have stopped anyone else from providing an online book search.

From the judge’s statement “Google’s program does not, at this time and on the record before us, expose Plaintiffs to an unreasonable risk of loss of copyright value through incursions of hackers.”  With less than 16% of a book used for the snippets, it is not possible for someone to recreate the book even if they wanted to take the time and effort to do so.

The judges went on to state “Google does not sell its scans, and the scans do not replace the books. While partner libraries have the ability to download a scan of a book from their collections, they owned the books already — they provided the original book to Google to scan. Nor is it likely that someone would take the time and energy to input countless searches to try and get enough snippets to comprise an entire book.”

While the judges conceded that theoretically the snippets might mean some lost sales to authors, reality is that someone looking for factual validation has many resources, such as Wikipedia.  If more than a snippet of text is needed then the likelihood increases that the user will purchase the book and be able to use the handy links provided. While the majority of the current scanned texts are more esoteric and hard to find publications, who knows how far Google will take this project in its bid to become the comprehensive online library catalog. One thing all authors struggle with is getting their material in front of likely readers. Someone searching for specific material online is the author’s target audience and will be more likely to make a purchase.

In response to the ruling, The Author’s Guild is planning to present the case to the Supreme Court. From their website:

“We aren’t challenging the benefits of Google Books search engine, just the seizure of copyrighted material,” explained Authors Guild President Roxana Robinson.  Indeed, Authors guild members are perhaps the greatest users of Google Books search and know its benefits better than anyone. “But Google should be willing to compensate an author for copying her work for use in its database,” continued Robinson.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com

Resources:

Click to access agvgoogle.pdf

http://copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html

Authors Guild

https://www.google.com/googlebooks/library/

http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/what-ever-happened-to-google-books?mbid=rss

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151016/08010632559/appeals-court-explains-yet-again-to-authors-guild-that-googles-book-scanning-is-fair-use.shtml

http://consumerist.com/2015/10/16/appeals-court-says-googles-book-scanning-project-is-legal-fair-use/#more-10220932

Six Easy Tips for Self-Editing Your Fiction

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This post by Kristen Lamb originally appeared on her blog on 8/21/13 but has some really good self-editing tips.

There are a lot of hurdles to writing great fiction, which is why it’s always important to keep reading and writing. We only get better by DOING. Today we’re going to talk about some self-editing tips to help you clean up your book before you hire an editor.

When I worked as an editor, I found it frustrating when I couldn’t even GET to the story because I was too distracted by these all too common oopses.

There are many editors who charge by the hour. If they’re spending their time fixing blunders you could’ve easily repaired yourself? You’re burning cash and time. Yet, correct these problems, and editors can more easily get to the MEAT of your novel. This means you will spend less money and get far higher value.

#1 The Brutal Truth about Adverbs, Metaphors and Similes

I have never met an adverb, simile, or metaphor I didn’t LOVE. I totally dig description, but it can present problems.

First of all, adverbs are not ALL evil. Redundant adverbs are evil. If someone shouts loudly? How else are they going to shout? Whispering quietly? Really? O_o Ah, but if they whisper seductively? The adverb seductively gives us a quality to the whisper that isn’t already implied by the verb.

Check your work for adverbs and kill the redundant ones. Kill them. Dead.

Read the full post on Kristen Lamb‘s site.