How to Have a Great Social Media Presence and Still Have a Life

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This post, by , originally appeared on Ezine @rticles.

If the idea of Facebook, Squidoo, Twitter, and YouTube (not to mention your own site and blog) are inundating you. Take heart! You’re not the only person overwhelmed with choices. With more places to post and keep track of, our days seem to shrink . Here are some helpful, time-saving tips for making the most of your social networking without having it take over your life.

1) Blogging: first off, try and plan as many blogs as you can so you can preload them and forget about them. You can still post additional content but ideally you want to have at least one or two posts a week that are scheduled.

2) Social networking: sometimes an author will come to us with 35 social networking sites. Frankly that’s about 34 too many. With the popularity of social networking growing these niche social sites are popping up everywhere. I’m not telling you not to post something there but if you are stretched too thin and can’t keep them updated, what’s the point? Personally I recommend posting to two sites: Facebook and Squidoo. Start with one or the other and get your feet wet, then once you have an audience built and a social networking routine in place you can expand your networks.

If you’re unfamiliar with these sites (and many are unfamiliar with Squidoo, I’ll explain why in a minute) know that these are the two powerhouses when it comes to social networking. You can get on there and start a page, build a fan base and promote your book. It’s very easy to do and best of all, it’s entirely free. Squidoo.com is (like Facebook) very integrated in Google’s ranking system. Any Search Engine Marketing expert will tell you that you need three things: Facebook, Squidoo, and Twitter. Squidoo (again free) is very easy.

Also take advantage of time saving options on both of these sites. Both Facebook and Squidoo let you feed your blog and Twitter account through there which will help with keeping the page updated. You should plan to update each page once daily and here’s a quick Facebook tip for you and a great way to expand your network. Go in and wish folks a happy birthday. Birthdays are always posted on your page so go in and write on someone’s wall and wish them well, it’s a great way to network with your FB peeps and trust me, it will also help to expand your network!

 

Read the rest of the post on Ezine @rticles.

Using Engagement Analytics to Understand What Drives Customer Engagement

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This post originally appeared on My Business Marketer. While it is aimed at small business owners, the advice it contains is just as useful to indie authors, who are, in effect, running a small business.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – –

I came across an interesting report a few weeks ago that offers an in-depth exploration into how to use engagement analytics to better understand what drives customer engagement with your brand and how you can use this information to improve your company’s revenue stream.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – –

For the uninitiated, engagement analytics give online marketers the ability to more precisely define those advertising and marketing initiatives that are the most successful in driving targeted customer engagement and generating revenue for the company. These analytics are invaluable when it comes to measuring aggregate average quantities, such as number of visits, most visited pages, time spent on each page, among others.

Knowing what’s driving whom is crucial information in the world of online marketing. After all, you can attract tons of traffic to your site, but if the traffic you’re getting isn’t the kind that is interested in the products or services you have on offer, your efforts are ultimately an exercise in how to burn through time and money. 

To get there from here, you need to drill down deep and mine the information recovered  for clues that you can then use to build subsequent successful marketing campaigns. 

Effective engagement analytics measurement will help you do just that as you zero in on three key areas: 

1. Traffic Sources. 

Sophisticated engagement analytics don’t just attribute traffic sources to the major search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo! Instead, traffic is broken down into paid, organic search, and organic branded search engine traffic (that is, traffic from visitors who included your company name or brand in their search term). This level of detailed understanding enables you to monitor what quality and quantity of traffic to your site is coming from which marketing channels so that you’re ensured that your marketing dollars are well spent.

 

Read the rest of the article on My Business Marketer. Also see: Use Statistics Counters In Managing Your Author Website, by Savvy Book Marketer Dana Lynn Smith.

The Problem with Fantasy . . .

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This post, by Amy Rose Davis, originally appeared on her A Modicum of Talent With Occasional Flashes of Brilliance blog on 7/16/12.

After reading the two already-published installments of The Kingkiller Chronicles, I started to put into words some of the real criticism I have about my beloved genre. I think these thoughts are worth sharing in more general terms for a few reasons. First, I don’t want to rant about Rothfuss anymore. I don’t think his books are rant-worthy. I just think they’re overhyped and not nearly as brilliant as people think. Second, I want to go over these things because I think anyone who reads my blog and writes fantasy might find them useful. And third, I want you all to know what I’m trying to avoid in my own work!

As I see it, fantasy falls into three big traps:

The books exist to build bridges, set up conflicts, or establish scenarios for future plots. One could argue that most of The Wheel of Time exists purely to set up the next book, ad infinitum, until we hopefully get the big payoff in the last book. I wouldn’t know because I don’t plan to re-read the books. The problem of books existing only to bridge gaps is probably more of a problem with second books, I think. I suspect that authors work so hard on those first books in order to get an agent or publisher that the first book is usually polished to a fine sheen–plots are tight as they can be, characters as fleshed out as possible, worlds intricately built.

But the problem is that when we come to book two, authors have deadlines, expectations, and multi-book deals in hand. So maybe there’s a rush to write something to meet the deadline and expectations. Or even worse–book one was outrageously successful, so maybe in the haste to publish book two and book three, the author writes like a demon, the agent and publisher work more on marketing or publishing than on editing, and the result is a book that’s not nearly as tight as the first one.

Listen, authors. Every book in your series should potentially stand alone. There should be some kind of central conflict, some kind of goal for each book in the series. Do not expect your readers to go along with you for three or five or twelve books just hoping for the big payoff at the end. Give them a payoff in each book.

Too much backstory becomes frontstory.

Did I just make that word up–”frontstory?” Honestly, I think this is about 90% of the problem I had with Rothfuss’ books, and I think this is quite possibly why Kvothe comes off as such a special snowflake to me. If I just didn’t have to hear every flipping detail about his entire life, maybe he wouldn’t come across as so irritating. I think Rothfuss got caught up in writing backstory and history for Kvothe and never really distilled those stories into an actual plot.

 

Read the rest of the post on A Modicum of Talent With Occasional Flashes of Brilliance.

Copy-Editing And Beta Readers

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After some major rewrites based on my Editorial Review from the Steve Parolini, the Novel Doctor, I gave my thriller novel ‘Pentecost’ to seven beta readers and asked for their feedback.

This is one of my honest, personal posts! I hope it helps you on your writing journey.

Who are beta readers anyway?

 

Review copies printed locally for beta readers

Beta readers read your book prior to it going to the printer. You could also use them before submission to an agent or publisher. They read the manuscript for comment on the structure, characters, plot as well as grammar/spelling or anything else they notice that may need revision.Their comments will generally result in another rewrite although of course you don’t need to action everything. Beta readers should be people who like the genre you write in, and also need to be able to give honest feedback. There is no point in just hearing praise at this stage. Criticism only makes our work better!

The practicalities of working with beta readers

I selected five of my friends who read in similar genres as me i.e. fans of thrillers, crime, mystery and fast paced novels. I also asked a writer friend I respect, the lovely Alan Baxter and also my copy editor (who just happens to be my Mum – lucky me!)

I gave them a hard copy A5 version of the book I had printed locally (above) so it was easier to review and make comments on. I also included a letter indicating the comments required i.e. grammar and spelling would be done by my copy editor but I wanted feedback on character, plot, any parts they skipped over or found jarring as well as general comparative notes on other books vs mine.They had three weeks to read it and provide feedback.

I received feedback in the form of marked up A5 books, an interview style discussion and brainstorming as well as phone calls, during which I took copious notes with page references. The most heavily marked up version was from my copy-editor (to be expected).

For the next step, I took my own hard copy of the novel and added comments and notes from all the beta readers. Blue writing is for word changes, tense issues and grammar. Red is for more rewriting needed. Finally, I went through another full rewrite fixing everything from that master draft.

Feedback and lessons learned

Hard copy with edits

I had a few depressed days as I considered the extent of the feedback! I had thought I was 95% complete but it was actually more like 85%. Going through another full rewrite was not on my schedule and by this stage, I was pretty sick of the manuscript! BUT/ the whole point of the beta reader review and copy edit was to ensure that a quality product is released in Feb 2010.

Some of the good feedback included:

  • Great idea for the plot, believable and unsure what was real and what wasn’t
  • Fast paced with no time to rest for the reader (this was also given as a criticism but it’s how I like my thrillers to be)
  • Good settings, vivid descriptions made it cinematic in scope
  • Learned a lot about the Apostles and also Carl Jung which made it interesting
  • Good beginning and good ending (with obvious potential for a sequel)

In the spirit of full disclosure and learning for us all, here is some of the constructive criticism received:

  • Overuse of particular words e.g. now, just, was, then as well as using the same word in consecutive sentences
  • Wrong tense often used
  • Dialogue stilted in places
  • Point of view moves into third person omniscient when it shouldn’t, especially when settings are described as if from a travel book instead of character’s POV
  • Protagonist name change was needed. Morgan Stone as a character came to me when the book was called “Mandala” back in Nov last year. Then the plot morphed to be about the Pentecost stones and her name was too much repetition. I chose Morgan Sierra and rewrote some back story to explain the history of her family so it makes sense.

Not a page was untouched in the edit

One of my beta readers also came up with some brilliant additions to the plot which I’m adding in with his consent. It made me think that I need to give the book to readers earlier so I can expand on the plot at an earlier stage.

From this I learned a few very important points:

  • I need to study the craft in 2011 so I can fix all the basic stuff myself next time. I’m happy with the story but upset at how much blue is all over the book. Thankfully my copy-editor is brilliant and will go over it again now it has been rewritten so you can expect all this to be fixed in the finished product!
  • I understand why editors, agents and publishers hate to read the slush pile. If people don’t use editors, copy-editors and proof-readers before submission, the work could be definitely be improved.
  • To all indie and self-publishers, we MUST use editors, copy-editors and proof-readers. Quality in our publishing is especially important as the most annoying criticism of self-publishing is the lack of quality. Yes, it costs money but it definitely improves the finished product!

Have you used beta readers and copy editors? What have you learned from the process?

 


This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Justice Department slams Apple, Refuses to Modify E-book Settlement

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This post, by Jeff John Roberts, originally appeared on paidContent.org on 7/23/12.

The Justice Department released a document today that characterized criticism by Apple and publishers of a controversial price-fixing settlement as “self-serving” and ill-founded. The Department also pointed to recent ventures by Google and Microsoft as evidence that the e-book market is thriving and that Amazon’s dominant position has been overstated.

 

The arguments came as a reply to the 868 public comments that were filed in response to a settlement announced in April under which three publishers agreed they would change their pricing policy in accordance with Justice Department demands.

The settlement was imposed after the Justice Department sued Apple and five publishers for allegedly conspiring to wrest pricing power from Amazon. Apple and two of the publishers, Penguin and Macmillan, refused to settle and are fighting the case in court.

The Justice Department document is posted below with key passages underlined. The primary upshot is that the Department is refusing to modify any parts of the settlement agreement despite about 800 comments in opposition to the deal and new political opposition from people like Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY).

In its filing, Justice says it addresses Apple’s objections at length because of “[Apple’s] central role in the events leading to the underlying enforcement action.”  It also quotes an incident in which Steve Jobs reportedly told publishers, “the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.”

The government goes on to refute Apple’s contention that it is imposing a business model on the industry:

 

Read the rest of the post on paidContent.org, which includes an embedded copy of the DoJ’s full response. Also see Consumers face long wait for $52 million tied to Apple e-book ‘conspiracy’, by the same author, on the same site.

Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Pics on Your Blog – My Story

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This post, by Roni Loren, originally appeared on her blog on 7/20/12.

So today I’m forgoing the usual Fill-Me-In Friday post to talk about something that I’ve been wanting to blog about for a while but couldn’t until the situation was wrapped up.

For those of you who are super observant, you may have noticed some changes on my blog over the last few months. Tumblr posts went away. Fiction Groupie disappeared. I deleted most of my Pinterest boards. The Boyfriend of the Week has changed format. And all my previous posts from the past three years–all 700 of them–now have new photos on them.

Why is that? What happened?

Well, you’ve probably figured it out from the title, but it’s because I’ve been involved in a case regarding a photo I used on my blog. Like most of you, I’m a casual blogger and learned my way into blogging by watching others. And one of the things I learned early on was that a post with a photo always looked nicer than one with just text. So I looked at what other people were doing for pictures. And mostly it seemed that everyone was grabbing pics from Google Images and pasting them on their sites. Sometimes with attribution, most of the time without. And when I asked others (or looked at disclaimers on websites and Tumblrs), it seemed that everyone agreed using pics that way was okay under Fair Use standards. 

Here is an example of a disclaimer I found on a bigger site (name of blog removed):

THIS BLOG claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

And site after site had the same kind of thing. Just look on Tumblr, that same type of disclaimer is on a ton of them. And I’m thinking–well, that must mean it’s okay because if that weren’t true, sites like Tumblr and Pinterest couldn’t even exist because reposting pics is the whole POINT of those sites. So off I went doing what everyone else does–using pics from Google Images, putting a disclaimer on my site, etc. 

Well on one random post, I grabbed one random picture off of google and then a few weeks later I got contacted by the photographer who owned that photo. He sent me a takedown notice, which I responded to immediately because I felt awful that I had unknowingly used a copyrighted pic. The pic was down within minutes. But that wasn’t going to cut it. He wanted compensation for the pic. A significant chunk of money that I couldn’t afford. I’m not going to go into the details but know that it was a lot of stress, lawyers had to get involved, and I had to pay money that I didn’t have for a use of a photo I didn’t need.

 

Read the rest of the post, which contains more information about limitations on using images on your blog and how to avoid getting into trouble, on Roni Loren’s blog.

Tim Roux of Taylor Street Publishing, on “The Publishing Market”

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This post, from Winston Emerson, originally appeared on The Object on 7/22/12.

Recently, The Object interviewed author J. Eric Laing, who told us he had placed his novel Cicada with Night Publishing, owned by Tim Roux, but several months ago withdrew it from Night and self-published instead.

A disagreement between the author and publisher unveiled itself during the interview and subsequent commenting, which has led to Tim offering us an article entitled “The Publishing Market” that details his perspective on the subject, along with how his company operates in today’s publishing world.

____________________

The Publishing Market

by Tim Roux, Taylor Street Publishing

I have been a professional international marketer, brand manager and business strategist for 30 years but, like many a closet (or at least bookcase) bookworm, I always felt I had a book inside me.

Then, in 2004, after throwing away a few chapters of an effort that embarrassed even me twenty years earlier, I went for it and wrote ‘Blood & Marriage’ in 3 months, mostly 35,000 feet in the air.

It was, and is, a totally self-indulgent book that nobody should ever be asked to read, but it led to nine other books, some of which have been kindly reviewed, and I have had something like 20,000 sales / downloads of my books since, so I can declare with false modesty to anyone who will listen – and many who won’t – ‘Yeah, I have sold a few books’.

However, where I have really begun to sell books has been as a publisher. When I started out in January 2010, I simply knew that I wanted to get some books I loved into print. I knew how to publish books on the cheap into paperback – I had self-published my own – but I certainly didn’t know how to promote or sell them. Nevertheless, I was friendly with several authors and managed to persuade a few of them to let me publish them (as I still do).

I started with a target of publishing 5-6 books a month. Nine months later, our first book really took off – 3 sales in 6 months, then 11,000 the next day. The company got into its true sales rhythm about a year ago. It has certainly had its ups and downs since, and the original company was driven into the sidings during a particularly vicious divorce process, but the phoenix companies are up and fighting all over again, with a specific view of publishing which I would like to share here, whether it is useful to you or not, or even true or not.

I think the first thing, as authors, we have to decide is what we want from writing. Do we want to hold our own book in our hand; do we want people to read it; do we want to make money out of it?

If all you want is your own book, then you can self-publish your book in a day, and nothing can stop you. If you want people to read your book, you have Kindle Select and Smashwords to offer free downloads in their tens of thousands, if your book is attractive enough. If you want to make money, well, as Mark Twain said, “Any idiot can write a book, but it takes a genius to sell it.”

The book market is a market, and all markets have segments, eventually. As far as we are concerned, there are four topline segments for fiction – literary, genre, life and weird.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Object.

Splurge & Save: How To Be A Thrifty Indie!

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If you’ll allow me, I’d like to take just a second to clarify an important point before we resume our regularly scheduled blogging…

Last week, our post on Self-Publishing Costs was added to Reddit.com by a well intentioned reader who felt we were projecting way too much overhead cost for indie authors (a sentiment that was echoed by many other readers on that website).

Holy misinterpretation Batman, that’s definitely not what we meant.

Judging from the comments we received here on Duolit from our wonderful readers, you guys seemed to have no problem picking up on the point of the guide – it was an overview of the possible costs associated with self-publishing.

 

But just in case that wasn’t clear, we want everyone to know that it was never our intention to say that self-publishing required the purchase of every service, product, tool, and coaching session we mentioned in the post.

Just like the example we used at the beginning about going to Wal-Mart – it’s possible to spend thousands of dollars in Wal-Mart (especially if you like camo and beef jerky) but it’s also possible to spend $5.

It all depends on your wants, needs and budget.

The same goes for self-publishing.

*Phew! Glad we got that straightened out!*

Moving right along, we thought that this week we could delve a little deeper into the possible costs of self-publishing by giving some advice about where you’ll get the most bang for your buck and where it’s okay to scrape and save a little.

To simplify things, we’re going to use the same breakdown from last week.

The Costs of Writing

¢ Save ¢

  • Organizational Materials: The dollar store sells post-its, pens, highlighters, thumbtacks and a variety of other office supplies that we love (!) but don’t need to spend big bucks on.
  • Coaching: Find a friend or family member who can be your sounding board/motivational coach through the writing process. You can also buddy up with a fellow author to keep each other on the straight and narrow for free!

$ Spend $

  • Books and Courses: Research is valuable. The more information you have at the outset of your project, the more you will save down the road by avoiding costly mistakes. Don’t go overboard by any means, but find a few resources that you trust and invest in your author education.
  • Software: If you’re planning to do your own formatting (see below for more on that) Microsoft Office is a better bet than any of its open source counterparts. There are more features, it’s user-friendly, and you can easily find support for it online if you have questions. It’s worth the extra cost for less headaches!

The Costs of Editing/Revision

¢ Save ¢

  • Beta Readers: This is a no-brainer my friends. If you start your marketing early on in your writing process (like we recommend!) you should have some fans in your corner prior to publishing who would be happy to test drive your novel. You’ll get valuable feedback, earn new fans, and not have to spend a dime. That’s the definition of a win-win!
  • Proofreader: When it comes to copyediting (finding those pesky typos, misspellings, inconsistencies and general word flow) you can probably find a friend, family member, or former teacher who can read over your manuscript for the cost of a nice dinner (or maybe a gift card). It’s so cheap we’d recommend getting at least two people to proofread for you.
  • One other quick savings note for editing: Do the less expensive editing options above before you dive into the professional editing below – you’ll take care of all the basic fixes before you put your manuscript in a pro’s hands and start incurring some pro costs by the hour.

$ Spend $

  • Professional Editor: A good editor is worth Fat Albert’s weight in gold, if you know what I mean. This is not the place to cut corners – find someone good, with good references, who has experience in your genre. Get this domino positioned perfectly and all the rest will fall into place behind it. [Check out our Indie Resource Directory if you don’t know where to find someone!]

The Costs of Professional Design/Layout

¢ Save ¢

  • Layout Design: If you really need to save money, you can DIY your interior formatting with the right software (see the discussion about software above).  To avoid piling up your set-up/submission fees with your publisher, you should do your research on margins, bleeds, fonts, letting, etc. (see the discussion about courses and books above). Believe it or not, eBook formatting is actually more complicated in a lot of ways than print formatting, so be sure you know what your publisher requires before you dive into this one and if you don’t feel comfortable doing this yourself, you can hire a professional without breaking the bank.

$ Spend $

  • Cover Design: We all know this by now, but you absolutely do judge a book by its cover. There are simply too many books in the marketplace not to make snap judgments based on a book’s immediate visual appeal. To compete in this market your book design *must* hold its own against traditionally published titles. Still, you can sometimes college art students or online designers who can give you a good deal without sacrificing quality.

The Costs of DIY Design/Layout

¢ Save ¢

  • Software, Stock Images/Photography & Fonts: Toni gave pretty good details on how/where to save here, so I’ll just offer one other tidbit for you – if you are a college student (with a valid college email account), you can get major awesome discounts on design software like the Adobe Creative Suite through AcademicSuperstore.com. If you are not a college student, I would NOT ever tell you to find a college student in the family and use his credentials to get your discount. I would NOT tell you to do that. NOT.

The Costs of Publishing

¢ Save ¢

  • ISBN: If you plan to write multiple books, it’s well worth it to buy ISBNs in bulk (lots of 10) directly from Bowker (keep in mind that your eBook has to have a different ISBN than the paperback version, so that’s two separate numbers right there). If you’re just getting started, it’s totally okay to use the provided ISBNs from publishers like CreateSpace and Lulu. You absolutely maintain the rights to your work, they just get listed as your publisher in the files and on your title page. Not a big deal, yo.
  • Setup Fees & Distribution: Do your research on publishers before hand to find out who has the loweset fees for set-up and distribution (but be sure you’re comparing apples to apples – what you get for the money is as important as the money itself).

$ Spend $

  • Proof: Once your book is approved and sent out to the distribution lists, releasing a new edition becomes time consuming and often requires you to pony up those set-up fees all over again. It’s MUCH better to get the proof copy and clear up any issues from the outset than to try and fix those mistakes down the road.
  • Review Copies: Like Toni said, where possible you’ll want to provide eBook copies to reviewers, but some will require paperbacks so it’s worth it to have a stash of printed copies on hand to mail out.

The Costs of Promotion/Marketing

¢ Save ¢

  • Website Design: I recently put on my big girl pants and redesigned my website all by myself (even though I have a world class designer for a best friend and business partner). With the newest Twenty Eleven WordPress template (free) it was easy peasy to add a custom header and background. You can also add navigation tabs and set-up pages with one click, it really couldn’t be any easier. (Also, take a look at Suzanne Collins’ website and you’ll feel much better about anything you can design yourself.)

  • Domain Name & Hosting: I hate their commercials, but Go Daddy is cheap and easy when it comes to domains and hosting. You can choose to pay monthly or quarterly (for less commitment and smaller upfront cost) or get long term savings by paying for a year in advance. Either way, it’s a bargain.
  • Mailing List: We seriously love Mail Chimp like whoa. We are unfortunately in the process of leaving them for AWeber (only because we’re planning some more advanced marketing stuff coming up in the near future) and it’s breaking our hearts. But for your indie author purposes MailChimp is a dream come true!

$ Spend $

  • Book Trailer: You don’t have to do a book trailer, but they are becoming pretty popular and give a three-dimensional feel to your book. If you do decide to get one, it’s worth it to spend the extra bucks and get a quality one versus using something that looks like it belongs in a bad corporate media presentation.
  • Author Branding: If you’re really serious about making a career out of this author business and you are clueless when it comes to design, it’s worth it to get with a designer and plan out a logo, colors and general brand aesthetic you can carry through everything you do (website, book designs, business cards, etc.). It will help readers begin to recognize your books from the very beginning and I think it has a lasting impact!

Don’t smash the piggy bank just yet!

That’s our two cents (get it???) on where you can save and where you should splurge when self-publishing your book.

We have one other tip that’s worth mentioning – and it’s you! If you’ve already been down the self-publishing path, you probably learned where you could save in the future and where you were glad you spent some extra money.

Help your fellow authors out and share some of those tips, you’ll probably learn a few secrets as well!

 

 

This is a reprint from Duolit.

Why Your Idea Isn’t Spreading (The Salesman’s Problem)

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This post, by Jeff Goins, originally appeared on his site.

This one’s inspired by you, Mr. Pushy Salesman who tried to sell me a home security system by coercing and shaming me (instead of wooing and charming me):

What? You don’t want your family to be safe?

Yeah, buddy. This list’s for you and all those like you who try to convince the customer to do what you want instead of empowering him to make the right decision.

Please stop this

Here’s why your idea isn’t spreading, why your product isn’t selling, and/or why people generally don’t want to listen to you:

  • You’re too pushy.
     
  • You’re impatient.
     
  • You don’t solve a real problem.
     
  • You insulted me.
     
  • You’re rude.
     
  • You put your needs before my own.

 

Read the rest of the post on Jeff Goins’ site.

Publishing in the Cloud is the Next Big Important Subject

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This post, by Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on The Shatzkin Files.

Much of the change we are living through in publishing is plain as day to see. The shift from print to digital, like the shift from stores to online purchasing, is evident to all of us, inside the industry and out.

But there’s another aspect of the change that is not nearly as visible and that’s around systems and workflows. Publishing, even in the pre-digital age, was a systems-driven business. The big companies are producing 3,000 to 5,000 titles a year: each one with its own unique contract, metadata, editing requirements, and (in most cases) market. I like to observe that “each book published presents the opportunity to make an unlimited number of decisions, which must be resisted.” Most of the time the systems don’t help so much in making the decisions, but it takes a lot of support just to keep track of them all and report them to each person who needs to know!

Over the years, the companies with stronger systems have tended to acquire the companies with weaker ones. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it has most of the time. And over the years there have been stories about when publishers almost lost their business because systems broke down. The original Macmillan (now a division of Simon & Schuster) almost died in the 1960s when they fell so far behind on returns processing that they couldn’t properly dun bookstores to pay their bills. In the late 1980s or early 90s, Penguin had a warehouse crisis that was a similar existential threat. A friend of mine with a process-oriented consulting practice really made his year working on that problem.

In the digital age, systems are once again front and center. Every publisher is facing new requirements and seeing the parameters change for the old ones. Most of a trade publisher’s revenue, for at least a while longer, comes from print but the digital side is where the growth is. Systems have to support both.

Until recently, publishers ran on systems that were, primarily, housed on their own computers, either created or heavily customized by their own IT departments, and the operators in the publishing house (editors, production people, marketers, salespeople) were at the mercy of their IT department queues. If they wanted something done, they had to get on line for tech support.

And smaller publishers doing 50 titles or 100 titles or 200 titles a year had to make do with less robust, less customized, and often less capable systems even though their outputs also required thousands of decisions to be tracked and they are no less affected by the shift from print to digital.

But this is changing. Or maybe we should say it has changed. The new systems in publishing are Cloud-based. They are frequently referred to as SaaS: software as a service. They don’t live on a company’s own computers but are hosted by the service provider. They often don’t require an IT department to customize them and they certainly don’t require an IT department to keep them up to date. And the best news of all is that they are cheaper to acquire and faster to install in a company’s workflow than the systems of the past.

Within this change, there is enormous opportunity. Big publishers can sidestep the tricky question of scaling down their print-based systems and scaling up their digital ones. Small publishers can now use systems and workflows that give them capabilities equivalent to their much larger competitors.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Shatzkin Files.

To Be (authentic online) Or Not To Be (authentic online): That Is The Question

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Writers are supposed to be passionate, communicative, and have some strong opinions. Like all artists, it’s their job to speak truth to power when others will not or cannot. In other words, they’re supposed to have something to say, and they’re supposed to say it, and they’re not supposed to give a damn what anybody thinks. It is in this that the purity of their art is grounded. 

Authors are supposed to establish an online presence that’s open, welcoming, inclusive, and entirely inoffensive. Like all marketers, it’s their job to appeal to the widest demographic possible. In other words, they’re not supposed to have anything negative or controversial to say, and if they do, they’re not supposed to post it, and they’re supposed to care a great deal about what everyone thinks of anything they do post. It is in this that their online reputations are kept untarnished. 

Do you see the disconnect here, the fundamental opposition of these two sets of requirements? 

[palm-forehead] What were we thinking?!

For years now, I’ve been proferring the same author platform advice: carefully cultivate and maintain your image, always be nice, don’t say or do anything that could be construed as negative or controversial, and strive to avoid turning off your readers (and potential readers) at all times and at all costs. I’m beginning to think this advice is wrong. 

How can one possibly spend half or more of the time wearing his Author hat and being a totally benign milquetoast, and the rest of it wearing his Writer hat and churning out impassioned, moving prose? Assuming it’s possible to make a habit of pretending not to care too much, or be bothered too much, by anything, is it a good idea for any artist to do so? 

I’ve noticed that after about five years of doing the benign milquetoast thing, the seams on my carefully cultivated, totally benign, online effigy are starting to show sometimes. And rip open in a few places. However hard I try, when I come up against something or someone with which/whom I disagree very strongly, there are only so many times I can avert my eyes, either say nothing or just mumble something vague, and keep moving. Increasingly, I can’t seem to help going off on the things and people that bother me lately. 

Maybe it’s just because election years always bring out the ignorant yahoos and smug twits in droves, and I’ve had just about enough of their nonsense. Maybe it’s that the collapsing economies all around the world have us all on edge. Maybe it’s because I haven’t felt I’ve had a well-developed enough concept to channel all that writerly angst and passion into a new novel. Maybe it’s because I’ve been (figuratively) beaten down and bloodied by a few simultaneous life crises over the past two years. 

Maybe I’m just a cranky bitch. 

Or maybe, just maybe…it’s because behind my carefully tended online persona, I’m a human being who’s alive, with an active mind, who has thoughts and experiences and feelings, who is imperfect, and sometimes gets angry at the wrong people or for the wrong reasons, who feels guilty or insecure every now and then, and every so often runs out of patience at precisely the wrong time. 

As a writer, I’m supposed to believe—no, I NEED to believe—that all the mistakes I make, all the wrongs I either inflict or endure, inform my work. As an artist, if my art is to have any impact at all, I am supposed to wring meaning and insight from these experiences and channel it into my work. 

Remember when part of the charm of celebrated authors was their other-ness? They were legendarily prickly, snarky, bohemian, drunks, or brawlers who seemed to spend their days in bed (often with multiple partners), and their nights about equally divided between scandalizing the bourgeoisie and pouring out Important Literature. Above all, they didn’t give a toss what the general public thought about them. How could they? In much the same way an actor must be totally un-self-conscious in order to really disappear into a role and be true to the material he’s been given, a writer must be totally un-self-conscious in order to disappear into the world of his stories and characters and be true to the material he’s creating. 

When you’ve developed the habit of turning off your authentic self to the point that it feels effortless, how can you be sure you’re really capable of turning it back on again? If you spend so much of your time worrying about how you’re being publicly perceived, how can you prevent that insecurity from creeping into your work? If you care so much about being perceived negatively online that you’ve made it a practice to avoid posting anything that could possibly cause you to be perceived negatively, how can you be sure you’re not sanding off all the rough edges of your ideas, plots and characters as well? 

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying writers should all immediately pick up some self-destructive habits and start purposely offending everyone within virtual earshot. No, no, no. But I am saying that maybe it’s not so bad to take a stand every now and then, and maybe it’s not the end of your career if it’s a poorly informed and badly executed stand. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing to expose your human-ness and your passions once in a while. 

Being a good little Author Platformer means putting the Ego in charge: the reasoning, detached part of the self that suppresses baser urges and animal instincts. The Id is where all base urges and instincts originate, but it’s also where insight and creativity live; chaining the Id to a post in the basement of one’s day to day life may be the worst mistake any artist can make. My Id has been locked up for too long, and it’s acting out. I’m beginning to wonder if I should’ve been letting it come out to play, and make its mistakes and messes, a little more often than I have these past five years. 

Case in point: a post of mine was picked up by The Passive Voice blog, and there were a number of comments. One commenter zeroed in on one specific line in the post, and took up a real battleflag against it. And this irked me, a great deal. Straw man arguments are a pet peeve for me, but not without good reason… 

I have read and personally experienced far too many cherry-picking arguments when the indie author movement was just getting off the ground, where some naysayer or other would attempt to discredit the entire notion of indie authorship by attacking or attempting to disprove one specific statement in an essay or blog post—an essay or blog post with which they could find no other particular fault. Time and again, the trolls would come forward to hold up this or that one, specific example of a failed or poor-quality indie book, and use it as the foundation for their thesis that, "therefore, all indie books are bad and virtually no one buys indie books." So I’m pretty touchy about cherry-picking arguments. 

I do not believe this commenter is a troll, nor do I think he necessarily deserved the chilly and irritated responses he got from me. I’m sure many people have seen the exchange, and some of them thought worse of me for it. Three years ago, I would’ve been frantically working damage control and obsessing about the potential fallout. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have responded to the commenter at all. One year ago, I would’ve responded with some bland bit of mild disagreement, sure to include at least one qualifier that would welcome anyone reading my response to dismiss it completely. 

Now, I’m doing nothing. I overreacted because this commenter unintentionally hit a raw nerve, but while I did go so far as to wonder "aloud" what his motivations might be for so tenaciously clinging to this one line of argument, I don’t believe I stepped over the line into being rude or hurtful. A display of poor judgment on my part? Absolutely. Obnoxious? Fine, I’ll give you that. A total meltdown? No, I think that’s going too far. 

Above all else, what it was, was proof positive that I’m not just a bland…um, I mean brand. It was a demonstration that I can and do get bothered and passionate about things sometimes, even if this Author Platform lifestyle of stuffing those tendencies down for the past five years is now resulting in me getting a little too bothered and being a little too passionate about relatively unimportant things. 

I’m not advocating for authors to start shooting their mouths off about anything they want to in any setting. There are such things as decorum, respect, and ‘reading the room’, after all. I’m just saying that maybe it’s not such a bad idea to be your authentic, opinionated, imperfect self now and then, at least when the stakes are low, even in the context of author platform. Some will respond well, others won’t. But those who don’t like your authentic self probably never would’ve liked your work anyway. And if constantly stifling your authentic self may also result in stifling the authenticity of your work, it’s a price that’s too high to pay. 

Maybe letting your Id peek through the veil every once in a while serves to vent bile that would otherwise build up until you do have a public meltdown when some minor irritation tips the scale. I can’t say for certain. All I can say is that whatever I’ve been doing up until now ain’t working anymore.

 

This is a cross-posting from Publetariat founder and Editor in Chief April L. Hamilton’s Indie Author blog.

On The Subject of Being Offensive

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This post, by Chuck Wendig, originally appeared on his terribleminds site.

I’ve had this unformed post in my head for a while, and I’m tired of it racing around the ol’ skull-track like a squirrel with a lit firecracker up its ass. So, here’s the post in all its unformed, uncertain glory.

Last week, I wrote a thing about Tomb Raider and Lara Croft. And I saw some comments around the Internet — not so much in reference to anything I wrote, but rather to the overall negative reaction to Lara Croft being used, abused, and downgraded — that chalked up the outrage to “political correctness.”

In a totally different thing, sometimes people send me things — via email, tweet, Facebook, psychic transmission — written by other people, and they’ll say things like, “This sounds like Chuck Wendig wrote it!” And what they send often has a certain whiskey-and-rage-sodden vibe to it, but also often uses pejoratives like “retarded” or “gay” or “fag” in the process. Which, to my mind, doesn’t sound like me at all.

And again, you might be thinking, “Well, sure. Political correctness.”

Let me stop you. Hand planted on your chest, me clucking my tongue.

Political correctness is a desire to minimize or eradicate offense.

I care very little about minimizing or eradicating offense.

I’m okay with offending. I don’t find that traipsing too gingerly about a subject does that subject any good. I’d rather expose something for what I feel that it is rather than swaddle it in gauzy, soft-focus layers.

Clearly, this blog is part of that. I’m happy to use sexual imagery or profanity — not as a means to an end but because it’s just part of the way I like to say things.

And yet, I no longer use words like “retarded” or “gay” or “fag” in my posts or my daily parlance (though once upon a time I, quite lazily, did in fact use those terms as clumsy and inept shorthand).

 

Read the rest of the post on terribleminds.

Thank You For Unsubscribing

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This post, by C.J. West, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

Several years ago I had a conversation with a woman that really changed the way I think about how I relate to people. What she said was simple and elegant and probably one of my first memorable exposures to a Zenlike philosophy.

She said, “Do you want everyone to like you?”

What a stupid question. Of course I want everyone to like me.

I’m a people pleaser. I like doing things for people and I have a terrible time saying no to a request.

But there is more to me than that. I have my share of strong opinions and an overactive sense of justice. Some people disagree with me based on what I believe. That’s only natural. So even as I go through life trying to make everyone happy, I invariably find some people I don’t get along with.

Another thing I’ve realized is that I am very slow to anger. Very few people annoy me and usually when someone annoys me they are annoying a whole lot of other people, too. So I’ve decided that sometimes it is okay to act on those feelings of annoyance.

Last week someone on Facebook taunted me about a spelling mistake in my status (with three derogatory posts). I reflected for a moment and realized a few things. This person is highly unlikely to buy my work. They might prompt others to decide not to buy my work as well. And I certainly was not enjoying their company. So why have this person on my page?

I’m not a public service. I’m just a guy trying to make a buck and have some fun.

The solution… I blocked them. I never have to hear from that person on Facebook again. Ever.

That got me thinking about what’s been happening with my newsletter lately.

I’ve been running a Kindle Giveaway called CJ West Fires Me Up. Each month I send out two or three newsletters to contestants. At the end of each month I give away a Kindle Fire in the form of a $200 Amazon Gift Card.

A month or two ago I came across a guy named Ben Settle who professes to be a master of email marketing. I read a bit of his advice and changed the way I write my contest emails.

My new messages are snarky and fun. Sometimes flirty. Almost always sarcastic. Basically I’m having fun writing a quick email and delivering some news to my contestants.

The response has been very interesting.

First there was the older woman who accused me of trying to start a fight between her and her husband.  I got a good laugh out of that one, but I was concerned.  I didn’t want my female readers to think I was hitting on them. (I’m writing suspense not romance.)

A dozen other people have unsubscribed in the past two months. Reading between the lines of their messages I could tell they were not entertained.

I became concerned so I started paying close attention to feedback.

Several friends on Facebook complained they didn’t get one of my messages when I had a database glitch. One woman actually requested that I resend a message because she deleted it too soon. She wanted to reread it. Really?

And nearly fifty people have written to say how much they enjoy my contest emails.

How cool is that? I’m sending marketing fluff and people enjoy it so much they thank me.

What I realized in the end is that I should thank people who unsubscribe. They give me the freedom to be my authentic self. My new messages are fun for people who enjoy my writing and my sense of humor. And I enjoy writing them, too.

How do you feel when someone quits your list?

 

Indie Authors And Amazon Removing Reviews

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This post, by Renee Pawlish, originally appeared on her To Become A Writer site on 7/10/12.

Many times I write posts with what I hope is helpful information for other indie authors.  I try to impart things that have helped me along my journey, like marketing advice.  One key thing that is critical to our marketing is Amazon reviews.  And unfortunately there is something not up-and-up going on with Amazon and book reviews.

Indie Authors And Dropped Reviews

Some of you may be seeing issues with your Amazon reviews.  I first saw something on a Facebook group about this topic.  For those of you who haven’t heard, it would appear that Amazon is starting to remove reviews.  At first I didn’t think anything of it.  I see so many rumors of what might be, so I dismissed it.

Then It Happened To Me!

I’ve seen three reviews for Nephilim Genesis of Evil removed and two (oh, since I started this blog and now checked again, I’ve lost two more reviews, so make that four) from The Sallie House: Exposing the Beast Within.  What???  I’ve heard a number of different reasons why this might be happening:

  • the review didn’t say Amazon verified purchase

  • the review didn’t say that the reviewer received a complimentary copy of the book
     
  • the review posted links though to an outside source like Goodreads or the blog where the original review was posted
     
  • some bloggers were plagiarizing Amazon reviews so Amazon is removing those reviews
     
  • the reviews were paid for so Amazon doesn’t like that (don’t even ask me what I think about Amazon being in cahoots with Kirkus and their paid-for reviews)
     
  • Amazon is targeting certain reviewers and removing all their reviews

Indie Authors And What Amazon Says

I emailed Amazon and here is the response I received:

I understand your concerns about these missing reviews. We take the removal of customer reviews very seriously.

I’m not able to tell you why these specific reviews were removed from our website.  I can only discuss that with the person who wrote each review.  However, I can tell you that reviews are removed from the Amazon.com website for three reasons:

1. The review conflicted with our posted guidelines http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines/.

2. The review was removed at the request of the customer who submitted the review.

3. We discovered that multiple items were linked together on our website incorrectly. Reviews that were posted on those pages were removed when the items were separated on the site.

None of this explains what happened to the reviews of my books.

Indie Authors – What To Do?

 

Read the rest of the post on Renee Pawlish’s To Become A Writer.

Promote Your Book with Book Awards

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Book award contests can be a great promotion tool for authors. When your book wins an award, you can promote yourself as an "award-winning author" and the book as an "award-winning book."

In addition, the award organizers often promote the winners and they usually provide some kind of a graphic (such as the one shown here) that you can use for promotional purposes.

My book, How to Get Your Book Reviewed, recently won an Indie Excellence award. The award was for the paperback version, but the book is also available in PDF, Kindle, and epub formats. Here are some of the things that I’m doing to promote this award:

  • Write a blog post about book awards.
  • Write an article in my newsletter about my award.
  • Add the award graphic to the book’s sales page and the media page on my website.  
  • List the award in the book description on my website, on Amazon and on the Nook site.
  • Add the words "award-winning author" to my bio.
  • Post a press release about the award on a free press release site.

Award competitions are held throughout the year, but the major ones tend to have entry deadlines in the December to April timeframe. This article lists some of the most popular contests. The entry fees can really add up, so you’ll need to be selective about which contests you enter and read the eligibility rules carefully. For example, some book award competitions accept only books published in the current year, and some do not accept ebooks. 

Now is the time to start researching and planning for book award contests to enter. And if you have won any awards, be sure to get maximum promotional benefit from them!

Do you have any other ideas on how to promote book awards? Please share them in the comments area below.

 

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