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Articles about book / author promotion and marketing, and author platform.

Former Indie Author Jamie McGuire Penalized For Self-publishing?

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This post, by Sara Fawkes, originally appeared on her Erotica by Sara blog on 3/2/13.

Earlier this evening, during a break between edits for AHW6, I saw something on a Facebook page “What To Read After Fifty(50) Shades Of Grey” regarding Jamie McGuire, author of the indie (and now traditional) bestseller Beautiful Disaster:

** SPECIAL NOTE: Please Read This!! **

From Author Jamie McGuire:

I have looked into this as best I can, but being a Saturday, Amazon isn’t responding.

It appears that Amazon has sent a mass email to everyone who’s ever purchased the self-published version of Beautiful Disaster. They are encouraging readers to request a refund. When asked why they are offering this refund, Amazon customer service has given several different reasons, the most common is problems with content. THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH THE CONTENT OF BEAUTIFUL DISASTER, and it makes no sense for them to encourage a refund for a book that has already been read and enjoyed 6+ months later, but that is the only information I have for now.

Customer service admits that if you do NOT get the refund, your copy of BD will NOT be affected. If you get a refund, they are offering to reimburse the $4+ difference it costs to purchase the $7.99 version, but what they aren’t telling you is that **I** am paying for every refund.

Last week, I sent an email to Amazon asking why the self-published version of my book is still experiencing returns. Returns are only allowed for up to 7 days after purchase. 6 months after the self-published version of Beautiful Disaster went off-sale my account was still seeing negative amounts for returns. I’m not going to assume the reasons behind this mass email, but it appears that Amazon customer service is now encouraging these returns.

I was not notified of this. This email has nothing to do with my publisher Atria books. If you do not get a refund, your copy of BD will not be affected. If you do, the refund will show as a negative amount in my Amazon KDP author account. Because BD is no longer available, this money will be taken out of my Providence sales.

In other words, this is very bad, and I have no idea why this is happening. Please do not return your copy of BD, and please help me spread the word to not return your copy of BD.

I will let you know what else I find out from Amazon. In the meantime, your support has brought me to tears. I love you all. ♥

Well, you can imagine my shock at reading this. While I have yet to meet Ms. McGuire, she and I were fortunate enough to share similar career choices around the same time when our bestsellers were picked up by (separate) publishing companies. I won’t lie, I found this story difficult to believe; Amazon surely wouldn’t be this stupid, would it? I purchased BD as an indie book in 2011, long before the author signed a contract allowing the novel to receive a wider, worldwide distribution.

Yet, an hour ago, this is the email I received in my inbox:

 

Read the rest of the post on Sara Fawkes’ Erotica by Sara.

Free eBook Formatting & Marketing Guides for Writers

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This article, by Jason Boog, originally appeared on GalleyCat.

As self-published authors enter the eBook market, formatting has become more important than ever.

Indie authors don’t have the same support as a major publisher, so we’ve assembled a list linking to formatting guides for all the major eBookstores.

Follow the links below to access these free style guides…

1. Smashwords Style Guide (provides guidance for “major ebook retailers such as the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Diesel”)

2. Amazon Kindle Publishing Guidelines (PDF link)

3. Barnes & Noble PubIt! Support & Resources Page

Read the rest of the article, which includes 7 more resources, on GalleyCat. Also be sure to scan the comments section, where many indies are sharing similar resources of their own.

Publetariat Hacked Again: A Call To Action

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Publetariat was brought down by yet another hacker attack this weekend, and Evernote reports hackers succeeded in breaching its site this weekend as well. While nothing on Publetariat was actually compromised, thanks to all the security updates applied following the last hacker attack in December of 2012, this attack’s brute force attempt to run multiple malicious scripts on the site overloaded the server and caused Publetariat’s host company to shut the site down. The attempt was traced to two suspicious user accounts, and those accounts have been deleted. But that’s not the end of the story, unfortunately.

Recall that following the 12/12 attack, all new user memberships were suspended, precisely because of the excessive demands of weeding out hacker / spammer registrations from legitimate ones. However, shutting down new registrations wasn’t enough, because it turns out there were already nefarious user accounts previously registered on the site. For security purposes, all user accounts were put under review over the weekend and any that looked suspicious for any reason were deleted. Since all site content is visible to anonymous site visitors, even if a few legitimate users were caught in that net, it shouldn’t have a seriously negative impact on most Publetariat visitors’ use of the site. Unfortunately, these are the lengths to which we are now forced to go in trying to thwart cyber attacks: we ALL suffer.

Remember, Publetariat doesn’t make any money, it’s an entirely volunteer effort, funded totally out of pocket by myself. These attacks make it more and more difficult to justify keeping the site going at all. This time, after the many hours of work spent getting the site back online and culling user accounts were over, I decided to do something more. From my Digital Media Mom site:

I am sick and effing tired of working months and years to build a site and grow an audience for that site, only to have a target painted on my back by spammers and hackers precisely BECAUSE my site has become successful (and heavily trafficked). Every time it happens, I ask myself if it’s worth all the bother to run my sites at all. And one of these days, when the damage done is severe enough, the answer to that question will be, “No.” And on that day, some valuable resources for writers and people who need tech help will be gone.

I think all organized spammer and hacker collectives should be prosecuted as terrorist organizations, just like any other collective that sets out to commandeer, attack or subvert a public utility. The internet has become a necessity of life in the developed world, no different from electricity, phone or sewer service. Any group that attacked THOSE services would be dealt with very severely. It should be no different for hackers and spammers who are sucking down untold millions of our productive work hours and valuable technology. Maybe if the punishment were severe enough, more of those pieces of human garbage would find less risky means of employment.

Sign my White House Petition if you agree, to ask the President to classify organized spammer and hacker groups as terrorist organizations for purposes of law enforcement and prosecution. The deadline to get 100k signatures is 4/2/13, so please share this link with anyone you know who would like to see this done: http://wh.gov/fWcw

And yes, of course I know many, if not most, of these collectives are operated from overseas, which makes them harder to find and prosecute. But this is no longer a mere annoyance, it’s a daily threat to our productivity, financial stability, and even national security. And again, if some foreign collective were to target a U.S. power grid, there would be no question of tracking that group down and bringing them to justice. Hackers and spammers are no better, and should be treated no less severely by international law enforcement agencies.

I’m asking all American citizens who use and value Publetariat to sign this petition, and share it with their social media networks. If 100k signatures are collected by 4/2/13, the White House is required to look at the petition and issue an official response: either that they are not going to take action and why, or that they are going to take action and how.

For those who are concerned that approval of such a petition would take valuable resources away from the fight against other types of terrorism: the White House has always prioritized all threats to the nation, and it will always do so in the future. Hackers and spammers will usually be pretty far down the list, but having them classified as terrorists gives international law enforcement agencies more and better tools to track them down and subjects them to much stiffer penalties when they are caught.

Note that I include organized spammer collectives in this petition because they now regularly employ hacker tactics. Spammers waste millions of man-hours of website administration staff effort all over the world in finding and deleting their fake comments, fake user accounts and unwanted links. They waste millions of man-hours that belong to the general public, too; how many hours have you wasted over the past month deleting spam from your email inbox, your Facebook pages, your author sites and blogs and your Twitter account? Spammers have made hijacking our tech resources for purposes of inflicting unwanted advertising a for-profit business model. They infiltrate sites like a swarm of despised parasites, and are no more welcome than their hacker brethren.

Hackers and spammers continue to proliferate and make all our lives miserable in a multitude of tiny ways because it’s very easy and mostly consequence-free. They have automated scripts they can unleash online to seek out vulnerable sites, email accounts and devices. They have automated systems in place that make it difficult to trace the source of those scripts. And when their destructive handiwork is discovered, site, computer and device owners have to invest many hours of effort —and sometimes considerable amounts of cash, too— to undo the damage, but no harm befalls the criminals who caused all the trouble in the first place because we’ve largely adopted a “whaddyagonnado?” attitude about it. Even if we can find them, it’s nearly impossible to successfully prosecute them under existing civil and criminal statutes.

Maybe if those criminals were facing the much more draconian penalties facing other terrorists, and if the government were empowered to use the same tools employed in tracking down terrorists to track down organized hacker and spammer collectives, would-be and existing hackers would start looking for a new line of work.

The more connected our society gets, the more this problem is going to snowball. Now is the time to take action. Please sign the petition, and share it with everyone you know who’s just as sick of spam and hacker attacks as I am. The direct link to the petition is http://wh.gov/fWcw .

 

Second-Class Contracts? Deal Terms at Random House's Hydra Imprint

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This post, by Victoria Strauss, originally appeared on Writer Beware on 2/28/13.

Over the past few years, more and more trade publishers have created digital-only imprints. Another new one just popped up in my newsfeed today: Little, Brown UK’s Blackfriars will be launching its first list this coming June.

Last November, there was some excitement over three brand new digital imprints from Random House: Hydra for SF/fantasy, Alibi for mysteries and thrillers, and Flirt for the is-it-or-isn’t-it category of New Adult. I was interested by the fact that these new lines were pitched in language reminiscent of self-publishing services:

Under this program, authors will have a complete and unique publishing package. Every book will be assigned to an accomplished Random House editor and a dedicated publicist. They will also have the invaluable support of Random House’s experienced marketing and digital sales teams, who know how to reach out to and expand each book’s dedicated readership. Not only will authors benefit from working with the finest cover designers to ensure irresistibly eye-catching books, but they will also be offered the unique advantage of social media tools and training that will allow them to connect directly with their readers. To reach the widest possible readership, every title will be available for purchase at major e-retailers and will be compatible with all reading devices.

I wasn’t alone in this impression–much of the news coverage of the new imprints speculated that Random House was attempting to snag self-publishers, what with the imprints’ focus on short content, their willingness to accept previously-published books, and their literary-agent-optional submission procedure.

Authors who are accepted by Hydra and the others will have access to professional editors and designers, and will benefit from Random House’s publicity team–just as with conventional imprints. If they desire the prestige of being able to say they’re published by Random House, they’ll have that too.

Even so, I can’t help feeling that, with digital-only or digital-mostly imprints, print-based publishers are offering a kind of second-class publication.

Read the rest of the post on Writer Beware.

What's the Best Way for Authors to Use Twitter?

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Twitter can be a great networking tool, but many authors wonder about the most effective ways to use it. Here are some common questions:

How often should I tweet?

It’s best to post several tweets a day, but it is hard to say what is the optimum frequency. Personally, I would like to post 5 to 10 times a day. Some people post several times an hour and repeat the same posts frequently, but that takes a lot of time and it may annoy your followers. And it’s not a good idea to post unless you have something interesting to say.

As each new tweet appears at the top of people’s home page, it pushes the earlier ones down a notch. Most people probably don’t read beyond the first page when they log onto Twitter. If you make several posts at once, they will all be bunched together on your follower’s screen. But if that person doesn’t happen to be on Twitter at that time, they might not see any of your tweets if they have already been pushed beyond the first page. If you make several posts spaced out during the day, it’s more likely that one or more of them will be seen.

You can save time by using a scheduling service such as HootSuite (the service I use) or SocialOomph (formerly TweetLater) to pre-schedule your posts on Twitter and other social networks. HootSuite is free but you can pay a modest monthly fee to be able to upload pre-scheduled tweets in a spreadsheet.

What can authors tweet about?

Most of your tweets should be about sharing and interacting with others, but it’s fine to make occasional promotional posts. Here are 7 ideas for tweeting:

1. Link to helpful or entertaining books, articles, websites, and blog posts. Add your own comments or ask for feedback.
2. Re-tweet good posts by other people, but don’t go overboard—most of your tweets should be original. Include “RT” and the original tweeter’s name in your post to indicate that you’re re-tweeting someone else’s post.
3. Invite people to subscribe to your ezine or blog, and offer an incentive.
4. Announce your live and virtual events, such as book tours and teleseminars.5. Ask for advice or ask questions that encourage responses.6. Introduce other authors or experts in your field who are also on Twitter.

7. Post an inspirational quote or message.

For more information on using Twitter most effectively for book promotion, see Twitter Guide for Authors.

Your turn: What do you tweet about? What is the most effective ways for authors to use Twitter? Please share in the comments section [on the original post].
 

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

Are You Making This HUGE Book Marketing Mistake?

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I *hate* greeting card shopping.

Recently, I popped into my local CVS to grab a Valentine’s Day card for my niece.

It started out as a positive experience. I approached the sparkling red and white display of Valentine’s cards with a smile on my face, imagining how excited my niece would be when she received a special note from her (favorite) aunt in the mail.

I picked up the first card that caught my eye because it had a cute puppy on it.

Then I checked out another with sparkly hearts.

I picked up one with flowers and one with a cute poem. I grabbed another with a Charlie Brown cartoon and opened another one with a teddy bear. I checked out one with Minnie Mouse and one with a rainbow and at least three others with more sparkly hearts.

Pretty soon, I’d gone through every card in the kids’ Valentine section — at least 30 cards in all.

I didn’t hate any of them and I didn’t love any of them, but I was overwhelmed by all of them.

Too many choices!

Frustrated that I couldn’t decide on a card, I stomped out of the store in a huff.

Whether it’s greeting cards or shampoo (Which one will really make my hair all shiny and flouncy like the girl in the commercial?) or cereal or car insurance, having lots of choices does not always make us happy customers.

So why do we do it to our readers?

I’m talking about a very specific mistake I’ve seen a lot of authors make (and truth be told, I used to make it myself).

You give your readers too many choices for buying your book.

Here’s how it happens:

You publish your book and pay for the additional distribution package (as you should). Now your title is available all over the web — at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, etc.

And that’s just the paperback.

Add in your eBook options (the aforementioned three plus Smashwords, iTunes, Kobo, etc.) and suddenly you’ve given your readers 9 – 10 choices to make before they can purchase your book.

What’s wrong with choices?

We’ve been conditioned to think that more is always better — especially when it comes to options, right?

A few years ago, a social psychology graduate student conducted an experiment at her local market that proved exactly the opposite.

She set up a sample stand of jams and alternated between offering customers 6 and 24 varieties of jam. She discovered that even though the 24 choices attracted more attention, only 3% of people who stopped made a purchase, but when she displayed only 6 choices, customers bought jam 30% of the time. [Read more about the study here]

I’m pretty terrible at math, but even I can tell you there’s a significant difference between 3% and 30%.

How does that translate to book sales?

If your website lists 9 – 10 options for readers to pick where they should buy your book, you are losing sales.

I guarantee it.

You’re forcing readers to not only make the decision to buy your book, but then to weigh the pros and cons of each retailer before deciding where to make their purchase. As they analyze their choices, readers often find themselves in “analysis paralysis.”

They become overwhelmed and they make the easiest decision of them all — they choose not to buy anything.

So how do you fix analysis paralysis?

You should have one paperback choice and two eBook options. That’s it.

And I’ll tell you something else — your paperback choice should be Amazon. Not only is it the most popular online bookseller, it has the best shipping options, which is an important factor in the cost of your book.

For eBooks, I would strongly suggest Amazon and Smashwords (Obviously if you’re doing KDP Select you will only have one option!).

The reason we can offer two options in the eBook category is because we don’t have one universal format for eBooks just yet, so you can cover your bases with the most popular option (Amazon) and offer the rest of the available formats via Smashwords.

STOP! Really important point coming in 3…2…1…

Please note: I am *not* saying you shouldn’t have your books distributed to other retailers.

I’m saying you should limit the purchase options you give readers on your website and your social media networks.

It’s fine to have your books available on Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Kobo and the rest. You never know when someone might be searching through titles on any of those sites and come across yours.

But where your marketing plan is concerned, you should avoid overwhelming your readers with too many options.

As an added bonus, driving your readers to three specific places will save you time when choosing links to share on Twitter, Facebook, in your Media Kit, etc.

What do you think?

  • Do you get overwhelmed when you have to make too many decisions for a purchase?
  • How many purchase options do you offer readers?
  • Have you recently reduced your purchase options and noticed a difference in sales?

 

This is a reprint from the Duolit blog.

Ann Voss Peterson's Big Regret

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This post originally appeared on J.A. Konrath’s A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.

Joe sez: And now a word from my frequent collaborator and good friend, Ann Voss Peterson…

Ann: Last May I wrote a guest blog here about my decision to stop writing for my publisher (Harlequin) and self-publish my new thriller instead of submitting it to traditional publishers. In the piece, I shared terms of my publishing contracts and showed how those terms translated into money, using one of my books as an example. I did this not as a complaint, but to give other authors–some who might be thinking of writing for Harlequin–a look at how the numbers stack up.

Plenty of people weighed in on this blog and others, both in support of my decision and criticizing it (some of whom didn’t even bother to read the post).

So the question is, after nine months, do I regret my decision?

Let me share some numbers:

Last May 8 through 12 using KDP Select, I gave away 75,420 copies of Pushed Too Far.

In May and June, I sold 11,564 copies, netting me $22,316.30.

I also had 874 borrows during this time for another $1902.30.

So in a bit over six weeks, Pushed Too Far earned $24,218.60 and was downloaded onto 87,858 e-readers. My highest earning Harlequin Intrigue earned me $21,942.16 in the last twelve years.

Verdict: In less than two months, Pushed Too Far became my highest earning book. EVER.

As Joe has said many times, sales ebb and flow, and PTF has been no different. But for May through December of 2012, this one book (Pushed Too Far) has had a grand total of 15,257 (paid) sales and borrows, netting me around $31,179.03.

Of course there’s no guarantee. I’ve known authors who have done better. I’ve known authors who’ve done worse. But the question is, do I regret my decision to self-publish?

Are you kidding?

I regret I didn’t do it sooner.
 

Read the rest of the post on A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.

The Free Kindle Book Ride May Be Over

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

Many authors have been taking advantage of the Amazon KDP Free Book promo option ever since KDP Select was rolled out, and many a bookish website and blog has sprung up specifically around promotion of free Kindle books.

All of that may be about to change, thanks to an Amazon Associates agreement revision that’s set to take effect March 1 of this year:


March 1, 2013 version
The following is added at the end of the sub-section:

“In addition, notwithstanding the advertising fee rates described on this page or anything to the contrary contained in this Operating Agreement, if we determine you are primarily promoting free Kindle eBooks (i.e., eBooks for which the customer purchase price is $0.00), YOU WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO EARN ANY ADVERTISING FEES DURING ANY MONTH IN WHICH YOU MEET THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:
(a) 20,000 or more free Kindle eBooks are ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links; and
(b) At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks.”

A Little Background On Amazon’s Associates Program

Amazon Associates program participants can provide a link to virtually any page or product on Amazon (including links to free Kindle books) with their Associate ID attached to it, and that ID piggybacks on most purchases the customer makes on the Amazon site during the same shopping session. So Associates have historically had an incentive to share ANY Amazon link, including links to free Kindle books.

If anything, links to free Kindle books have been very desirable for Associates program participants to use because shoppers’ resistance to clicking through on such links is low: the product in question is free, after all. But very often, once on the Amazon site, the customer will start browsing or will think of some other item they’ve been meaning to buy, and commissions for those purchases are paid to the Associate whose ID first brought the customer to Amazon.

Possible Chilling Effects of the Associates Policy Change

There are two factors to consider when trying to forecast possible outcomes of this change:

1. This new policy puts ALL of a given Associate account holder’s commissions at risk in any month where “sales” of free Kindle books from that Associate’s links are high.

2. With this new policy, authors and Associate link / promo providers who used to have the common goal of maximizing click-throughs on free Kindle books are set in opposition to one another. The author still wants to maximize downloads during the free promo period, but the more free downloads are generated, the greater the risk that the Associate link provider will lose all of his commissions for the month.

In my opinion, this will be a pretty effective discouragement for many Associates to promote free Kindle books. Even if the bar for commission loss is set pretty high (both of the above-quoted conditions must be met for a given month’s commissions to be forfeited), the mere possibility of commission loss may steer many Associates away from continuing to promote free Kindle books.

What’s Amazon Up To?

This policy revision speaks to some business changes on Amazon’s end.

Amazon is surely aware that the free Kindle promo option has been a major driver in getting authors to sign up for their KDP Select program, but recent changes to Amazon’s book sales rank algorithm have drastically reduced the formerly positive effects of large numbers of free downloads. While a given book’s sales rank isn’t exactly penalized for free downloads, free downloads are no longer driving the kinds of sales rank leaps and bounds that drew authors to take advantage of free book promo periods in the first place.

Now add the disincentive for Associates to promote free books, and it definitely starts looking like Amazon is moving to discourage publishers and authors from offering their Kindle books for free.

Has Amazon Finally Turned On Indies, As So Many Predicted Would Happen?

Since the great majority of authors and publishers who have been willing to offer their Kindle books for free are indies, some may conclude this is some kind of long-planned attack from Amazon on indies in general, but I doubt it.

Sales rank algorithm changes levelled the sales rank playing field again to a great extent, but maybe sales rank integrity wasn’t all that was troubling Amazon. Maybe Amazon never anticipated how popular and widespread free book promotions would become, and how large a percentage of their monthly Kindle book “sales” in any given month would eventually come to consist of free downloads. Every free Kindle download represents a loss to Amazon, since Amazon is absorbing overhead costs to host and sell the book but isn’t earning any profit on it.

Given that Amazon only earns money on downloads of Kindle books people are actually paying for, I think the most obvious and simple answer is the correct one:

Amazon is tired of losing money on free book downloads.

But once the genie was out of the bottle and indies everywhere had made free downloads an entrenched part of best practices for any new Kindle book launch or promotion, nobody outside of Amazon or mainstream publishing was motivated to stop the runaway freight train of free Kindle books.

Even indie authors and publishers who don’t want to offer free promo periods have felt pressured to do so, since others who did offer their books for free have sometimes seen such great results.

You May Have To Start Making Money On Every Kindle Book Download, Whether You Like It Or Not

I can only speculate about the long-term impacts of this most recent policy change, but after thinking it over I’ve concluded that in the end, it’s probably a good thing. The change gives indies a good, solid business reason to move away from offering their Kindle books for free; what’s that old expression, about how a rising tide lifts all boats?

When the majority of us are selling our books at a price instead of giving them away, the majority of us will be making money on every download.

When free Kindle books become the exception instead of the rule, book buyers will stop ‘waiting till it’s free’ or even having an expectation that a given book should be free. I was never one of those who backed the ‘devaluation of books and literature’ argument, I’ve always thought that within reason, ethics and the law, any promotional tack that gets an indie author more exposure and sales is worth trying. Even so, I think the prevalence of free Kindle books has shaped—some might say distorted, or even dominated—the ebook market in ways that few predicted, and it has ultimately hurt indies overall more than it has helped most of us.

The former, nearly guaranteed sales rank boost one could expect from a free promo period is all but gone, thanks to algorithm changes. Yet many have continued to cling to the free promo gambit like a drowning man to a piece of driftwood, because it has worked for so many authors in the past.

In the face of the very daunting book launch and promo task, a free book promo was at least something an indie could do pretty easily to get his or her book in front of as many eyeballs as possible, and an easy “in” to book blogs and sites. Like I said before, a free product is an easy “sell”. And if most customers who were taking advantage of those free promo downloads were actually just book hoarders, collecting but never actually reading hundreds of free titles, well, most of us preferred not to think about it.

Amazon may be trying to force authors, publishers and book bloggers alike to stop offering and promoting free Kindle books, but in so doing they’re forcing us in the direction of more profit for everyone. It’s hard for me to see that as anything but a positive development.

The Endangered Fate of Barnes & Noble

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This article, by Peter Osnos, originally appeared on The Atlantic on 2/5/13.

America’s last major book store chain is shuttering locations as it tries to evolve for a digital future. Is this simply a tough transition, or the beginning of the end?

Washington D.C.’s Union Station is a major point of entry for the nation’s capital. Streams of daily commuters from the region, tourists, and business travelers on the Amtrak circuit from Boston and New York can choose from an especially ample array of shopping and dining opportunities. But, as of the end of February, one of the anchor retailers will be gone.

Barnes & Noble is shutting down its bookstore in a main concourse after failing to reach terms with the landlord. Browsing the aisles at Barnes & Noble stores has been a core feature of the chain’s strength in the forty years since Leonard Riggio purchased the assets of what was then a venerable seller mainly of textbooks and turned the enterprise into the country’s most formidable shaper of a superstore culture for book selling.

It is hard to imagine a destination like Union Station without a fully stocked bookstore, even if it is also the case that an increasing percentage of the consumer traffic is carrying a mobile reading device that is loaded with books purchased elsewhere, mainly from Amazon.

The sprawling Barnes & Noble on Georgetown’s M Street is gone, and the company has closed superstores in New York, Dallas, Chicago, and Seattle (among other places) in similarly well-situated locales as part of a broader brick and mortar contraction that suggests–disturbingly–its long-term decline. Barnes & Noble’s post-holiday report for 2012 reflected a drop in same-store sales of 3.1 percent, and despite a substantial push to expand its Nook line of e-readers, product sales for the devices were down 12.6 percent from a year ago.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mitchell Klipper, chief executive of Barnes & Noble’s retail group, said that, over the next decade, the chain will reduce its outlets by about twenty a year to reach a figure of about 450-to-500 consumer stores, down from a peak of 726 in 2008. A separate chain of 674 college bookstores (which thrive on tchotchkes and their exclusive franchises) is not part of that calculation. Even with so many fewer consumer stores, Klipper said, “It’s a good business model. You have to adjust your overhead and get smart with smart systems. Is it what it used to be when you were opening 80 stores a year and dropping stores everywhere? Probably not. It’s different. But every business evolves.”

Read the rest of the article on The Atlantic.

We Interrupt This Series On Marketing With A Timely Lesson On How NOT To Succeed…

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This post, by Gayla Drummond, originally appeared on her Feral Intensity site on 2/15/13.

A writer dropped into the KDP forum today, linked to her two books, and said, “Take a look and your opinions are welcome!”

She stated one was a “wonderful romance”, and the other was about basic training.

For the most part, we’re a pretty welcoming bunch over there (at the moment). The first response complimented her covers, but also pointed out that there were formatting issues with both books.

Her response?

“Come on people! You’re quick and ready to tear down a bad book, but you have nothing to say about good books?????”

For anyone who hasn’t interacted on public forums, that response is a signal to pop some corn and settle in for a drama llama show. It’s a clear indicator that the poster thinks his/her shit don’t stink.

She didn’t want anyone’s real opinion, she only wanted to be told how awesome she is, and the first responder replied saying as much. Her response?

“oh please…. what makes you an expert?”

Um. [scratches head] Why did she come to the forum and ask for opinions, again?

Another member pointed out that the KDP forum isn’t really the place to ask for criticism. Our fearless writer’s response?

“This is a general forum, is it not???? Many people here offer opinions and thoughts about content. Its not too difficult to read sample pages and enjoy the writing. If there are any Vets on here, [redacted] should be of special interest and well worth the money and time to read.”

Okay, she has confidence in her writing. There’s nothing wrong with having confidence in your work. I and many others have confidence in ours, or we wouldn’t put it out there. :)

However, it becomes clear as the discussion progresses that our first responder nailed it: Our new member doesn’t want to hear any criticism.

 

Read the rest of the post on Feral Intensity.

How EBook Readers Shop And The Importance Of Sampling

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An author at a conference recently asked me for tips on publishing on the Kindle and then said that he didn’t actually read books on digital devices.

I was kind of gob-smacked because how else are you going to know if there are problems until you start getting 1 star reviews?

When you publish a print book, don’t you buy it immediately to test the process and the quality? So why not do the same for ebooks?

If you’re going to digitally publish, I believe you should own an e-reader, even if just to test how your book looks. They aren’t expensive anymore so there is no excuse.

It’s also important to understand how ebook readers shop, because they are the high-volume readers, the ones who will make up the bulk of your digital sales.

How do ebook readers shop for books?

I read around 95% digitally, on a Kindle Paperwhite and through the Kindle app on my iPhone. I don’t own every device but I certainly test the .mobi format on Kindle and the ePub format on my desktop reader and my iPad and iPhone. I am also a voracious reader, getting through 3-5 books per week, more on holidays. Not having a TV helps!

This is how I shop:

a) I hear about a book on twitter, or I see one at a physical bookstore, or see a review somewhere, or find something I like in the Amazon store Top rankings for categories I like. I surf for fun in the Last 30 Days area.

b) If the book is available as an ebook, I download the sample right away and put it into a collection marked Samples. If the book isn’t available as an ebook, 99% of the time I won’t buy it unless it is an author I am committed to. I have other Collections on my Kindle marked ‘To Read’ which are books I have bought but haven’t started yet, “Reading” for ones I am reading now and “Make Notes On / Review” for those I want to revisit to write notes on or review on Amazon & Goodreads.

c) In between books I am currently reading, I go through my samples. If I make it to the end of the sample, I will usually buy the book because I am hooked. If I don’t, I delete the sample. No sale. I usually give a book 3 clicks of my Kindle before I delete it. Harsh, maybe, but life is too short to read books that don’t call to you.

So your marketing efforts, your book cover, your book description and reviews have helped your book get this far, but it is the sample that leads me to buy. I probably delete 60-75% of my samples so I have a harsh approach, but I don’t think I am an untypical example of a high volume ebook reader (although if you are one also, I’d love to know what you think in the comments!)

Make sure your sample makes the reader want to buy

Your book has to start with something that hooks the reader.

This isn’t new advice – if you want an agent, the first page has to hook them, and readers of print in bookstores may browse the first page, but because there are so many ebooks available, readers are increasingly unforgiving if a book doesn’t fit what they are looking for.

Here’s some tips:

  • Get into the meat as soon as possible. Put all the acknowledgements and extra stuff at the back, not within the sample. I was severely annoyed recently to download an Angela Carter anthology of short stories to find that the entire sample was an essay about her work and the stories didn’t come until later. I looked for a better version.
  • During the editing process, make sure you pay particular attention to what will hook the reader. If non-fiction, what is the problem you’re solving. If fiction, why would the reader read on? What have you caught their attention with? What loops have you opened mentally that they must close?
  • Make sure the formatting is excellent and easy to read throughout. I have deleted samples straight away when they start with coding errors. It denotes a lack of respect for the reader. This is why you need to test and curiously this has happened with more traditionally published books than indie. Seriously, one book was entirely formatted in Bold. Did no-one even check it? (Make sure this doesn’t happen to you!)
  • If non-fiction, DO include the table of contents. If fiction, your chapters don’t really add anything so aren’t so necessary.

What other suggestions do you have for improving samples? How do you shop for ebooks? Please leave your comments [on the original post page].

 

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

The Best Way to Build an Author Website

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One common question that authors ask is how to build an author website, and some authors wonder if they really need a website at all.

A website is an essential tool for all authors. You need an online hub to send people to (everyone from potential customers and fans, to influencers and the media) and a place to showcase your books and your credentials.

By using a blogging platform to build your site, you can easily create a combination website and blog, all on one site, or just create a traditional website without a blog. For most authors, it’s the easiest and cheapest way to create an author website.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the terminology, a blog is a particular type of website where people post articles periodically. This article is a blog post and you can see a link to the blog section of my website in the navigation menu near the top of my site. Other links in the menu go to other parts of my site.

Here are the platforms that I recommend considering for your author website:

WordPress.org is the most powerful platform, offering the most flexibility and design options, plus lots of “plug-ins” to perform various functions. This is the tool that professional online marketers use. The platform is free, but expect to pay around $10 a month for web hosting services. To learn how to build, use, or improve your WordPress site, I highly recommend Blog Aid’s training programs.

Authors should be aware that there is a different version of WordPress called WordPress.com. There is a free version or you can pay a fee for certain upgrades. I don’t recommend WordPress.com because there are some limitations to the service. For example, Javascript is not allowed, which may cause problems with things like installing an opt-in form for your mailing list. And the terms and conditions of the service limit or prohibit advertising on your site – you can get details here.

TypePad is a good compromise between ease of setup and features. It’s the platform that I use, but I would use WordPress.org if I were starting over today. Expect to pay $9 to $15 a month, and there’s a discount for annual payment.

Blogger is free and it’s the easiest to set up, but it has some limitations in terms of what can be included on the site. This may be a good choice for single book authors who want to keep it really simple.

Related Articles

What’s the Most Important Thing on an Author Website?

Author Blogs – Use Categories to Organize Your Posts

Want to learn more about promoting your book? Subscribe to the free Savvy Book Marketing Newsletterto get advice and resources delivered to your inbox twice a month.

 

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

Open Mic Night For Self-Published Authors

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This post, by John Wilwol, originally appeared on The Washington Post Books site on 1/29/13. It describes a very interesting use of the Espresso Book Machine, in which authors are allowed to read excerpts from their books and listeners can purchase print-on-demand copies immediately.

Since it arrived a year ago at Politics & Prose, “Opus,” Washington’s first print-on-demand Espresso book machine, has helped hundreds of area scribblers realize their publishing dreams. On a gray, biting afternoon Saturday, a dozen of them gathered at the bookstore to delight a standing-room-only audience with selections from their work. It was the first-ever Opus open mike [sic].

Picked by a lottery open to all Opus authors, the diverse group brought poems, novels, memoirs and biographies. Before the writers came to the lectern, marketing director Lacey Dunham — timecards in hand — warned them not to break the five-minute limit: “I used to be a teacher!”

Joseph T. Wilkins, dressed in a red tie, white shirt and blue blazer, kicked things off with a lively introduction to “The Speaker Who Locked Up the House,” his historical novel about late-19th-century House Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed. “It’s a fat sucker,” he said of the book. “If you like history, you’ll like this.” A former municipal judge, Wilkins lives outside Atlantic City and comes to the District regularly for research. When he heard about Opus, he said, he was “fascinated by it.”

Read the rest of the post on The Washington Post Books site. Note – you’ll need to scroll down, an ad cuts the article in half right in the middle.

10 Amazing Low-Cost Ways To Market Your Book

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Here is a list of effective, popular, proven-to-work, and low-cost ways to market your book. I personally use every one of them, so I know for a fact that they are an effective way to build up your audience and sell more books. The steps to marketing your book, and deciding which avenues are good for you to utilize for this, might take you a few months to figure out. But all of the ways on this list are very easy to set-up, and most of them are low or no-cost to you.

1. Blog Your Book: Post articles from your book, as well as articles on related topics, on your blog. This is a great way to prove to your audience that you know what you are talking about. Writing on your blog is also a practical way to create the content that eventually might go into your book. The best website for blogging is WordPress.

2. Write Guest Posts: This is a very effective way to get your name in front of the readers on other blogs. You should only post useful content on other blogs that let you include a link back to your blog. If they don’t allow this, don’t waste your time on them

3. Get Published In The Print Media: Do your best to get your articles printed in magazines and newspapers. This will get you a lot of credibility with your audience – and this credibility will eventually help you sell more books. The very big mass-media publications are very difficult to get published in – especially for beginners. Start with the smaller industry specific publications. These little publications are always in need of high quality content from someone that they can trust.

4. Post Your Profile: Post your profile on blog listing websites. This is a great no-cost way of getting very wide exposure on the internet – and, most importantly, in Google searches. A few good websites for you to look at are Bloggers and AboutUs.

5. Connect Your Blog: Some blog listing companies will also connect your blog to your profile page on their website. This means that every time you post to your own blog, it will also show up on the blog listing website – automatically. A good website for you to look at is PaperBlog.

6. Create A Google+ Account: This is very quickly becoming a very important and popular way to connect with others. It takes a while to figure out how to use all of its features. But because it involves Google, you must learn how use it and take advantage of all of its features.

7. Use LinkedIn To Develop Your Professional Network: This is the best way to show the world what you have accomplished. It is also an amazing way to connect with people all over the world with similar professional qualifications and interests. Some of these people will become part of the audience for your book, as well as a pool of people to ask to write testimonials and endorsements for your book.

8. Use Everything Amazon Has To Offer: Amazon is just about the most amazing tool for marketing your book as well as yourself. It has several tools that are very effective and easy to use. Its best feature is the Author’s Page, where you can add lots of information about yourself and your publications, as well as add a video. This Author’s Page is like having an additional website devoted to you. Amazon has several other ways for you to connect with your audience. One such tool is Listmania, where you can help guide readers by listing your favorite books for a particular subject.

9. Article Marketing: This is a way for you to post your articles (blog postings) on an “article listing website”. On these websites, readers can search their database by typing in particular search terms and find articles that contain the appropriate article tags. The best website on the internet for this is EzineArticles.

10. Post Videos On YouTube: At the very least, you should post at least one video about your book. This is your chance to show yourself to your audience, let them see you talk about your book, and see how confident you are about your topic and your book. It only needs to be a short video, anywhere from five to eight minutes long.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com

 

10 Reasons Self-Publishers Should Avoid Selling To Bookstores

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Trying to get bookstores to accept your book and give it shelf space is very time-consuming and difficult to achieve. Most bookstores are not anxious to get your book. And to make matters worse, as a small, independent, publisher, or self-publisher, you are at the complete mercy of the bookstores. They set all of the terms, whether you like them or not. But even if you do everything they want, and spend lots of time and money in the process, to get a bookstore to accept your book, and give it some self-space, there is no guarantee that they will sell your book. Here are ten reasons that a new self-publisher should avoid spending valuable time and money trying to get their book into brick-and-mortar bookstores.

1. Bookstores Only Take Books That They Deem Will Sell In Large Volume
They will almost never believe that a self-published book will sell more than a few copies. They know that a small publisher does not have the power, connections, or budget to execute a large and sophisticated marketing plan.

2. Bookstores Will Typically Order Less Than 10 Copies
Even if they accept your book and agree to give it some shelf space, most bookstores will order less than ten copies at a time.

3. Bookstores Only Accept Books That Can Be Returned
And they might return 50% to 80% of your books to you – and you must pay to get them back. Some big bookstore chains know that small publishers cannot afford to buy back the books. They will then offer to buy your books back for under a dollar, and then put your book on their discount table.

4. Bookstores Expect The Publisher To Pay For Shipping Both Ways
This is a fact of life for the self-publisher that self-distributes. It is also time-consuming to package your books for shipping, and postage is expensive.

5. Bookstores Sell Very Few Books Compared To The Online Retailers
This is especially true for self-publishers. Big-name well-established authors, and the biggest publishers, are the ones that get the best displays and locations in the bookstore.

6. Bookstores Physically Do Not Have Enough Room To Stock All Titles
The small bookstores might stock 5,000 titles. The huge bookstores might stock 140,000 titles. Amazon stocks a few million titles. You will end up spending lots of time and money trying to get your book into bookstores, most of which simply do not have the space to take your book.

7. Bookstores Will Force You To Take Back All Of The Damaged Copies
You book will sit on the bookstore’s shelf, get handled, bent, banged-up, etc., and then the bookstore will force you to take them back, and force you pay for the shipping.

8. Bookstores Have A Bias Against Self-Published Books For Two Big Reasons
a. The reputation of vanity presses and self-publishers producing low-quality and un-marketable books.
b. Self-publishers typically lack the proper relationships with distributors, therefore their books are difficult to obtain.

9. Bookstores Can Order Your Book Even When It Is Not On Their Shelf
Almost every bookstore in America can order a book online through companies such as Ingram or Bertrams. The book will then be shipped to the bookstore, and the customer will pick it up.

10. Bookstores Can Easily Take 90 To 120 Days To Pay You
As a small, independent, publisher, or self-publisher, you are at the mercy of the bookstores. They set all of the terms, whether you like them or not. And as a small publisher, waiting several months for your money can be devastating.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com