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

Ebook Revolution Well Underway

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Exactly a year ago, I wrote about how ebooks are the future. Today I read that the Oxford English Dictionary, the mighty volumes that record our very language itself, will only be available online. You can read a bit about that here.

Now, I’m a speculative fiction writer. I love science fiction. I’ve said this before – my iPhone does way more than Captain Kirk’s communicator could ever do. The iPad is suspiciously like Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s PADD (Personal Access Display Device). Incidentally, check out the gibberish on the PADD screen in the picture below. Are we really surprised that things like a multi-volume behemoth are crumbling under the weight of online use? We can’t have the future and the past together. That’d be some weird time twister where everyone’s confused.

As a writer, I often use a dictionary to check words. You know which one I use most? www.dictionary.com. I have a beautiful printed dictionary, in fact I have a few, but I rarely use them. If I’m not at my computer, I use the dictionary.com app on my iPhone. It’s easy and it’s good for the planet. You can hear the trees breathing a sigh of relief.

But you may also remember me gushing about how much I love Angela Slatter’s new book. Not just because it’s awesome storytelling, but because the physical book is just a beautiful thing to hold and behold. It was limited to 300 copies. Here’s a relevant quote from my previous post a year ago, that I linked at the start of this one:

But here’s my prediction – 99% of the books of the future will be either electronic or Print-On-Demand. Within twenty years or so traditional off-set print runs will be used exclusively for high-end collectors edition books.

I know – quoting myself. What a wanker. But you get my point. We have to accept that these things are happening and we have to accept that it’s not a bad development. I heard a statistic on the radio today that by the end of next year, one in ten books bought will be ebooks. Ten per cent of market share. That’s a lot for a new technology. It’s already around the three to five per cent mark. But literacy rates are expected to go up as well, as more people will have access to more reading options more often.

That 20 year estimate in my quote above could be grossly inaccurate. It might all happen far quicker than that. It’s the future people. Embrace it. Real books aren’t going anywhere, because too many of us love them. But the face of reading is changing just like the nature of book buying and book publishing is changing. Don’t be scared – it’s all really quite exciting.

EDIT – There’s been a fair amount of chatter about this post on Twitter and other places and one of the things that keeps getting mentioned again and again is, more or less, “I just hate reading from a screen, simple as that.”

Well, it’s worth noting that ebook readers are evolving rapidly too. Already the Kindle and other e-ink devices are replicating the printed page very well. Screens will soon be so advanced that they’re just like a printed page. And isn’t that deliciously ironic. Accept it – we already live in a digital future. The Schwarzschild radius has long since passed.

 

This is a cross-posting from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

New RSS Feed Options At Feedburner

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Recently I wrote a post about why it’s so important to offer RSS feeds on your author blog. Feeds enable your author blog posts to be automatically delivered to your readers’ email inbox or feed reader, so you don’t have to rely on people remembering to visit your blog periodically.

The best way to set up a feed is through FeedBurner. You may be tempted to use one of the feed widgets offered by your blog service provider, but they do not allow you to see statistics on your feed subscribers or customize your feed settings. It’s best to go directly to FeedBurner to set up your feed. 

I recently logged onto FeedBurner to set up a feed for a new website I’m developing (more details on that coming soon!) and I noticed that there were quite a few changes on the FeedBurner site since the last time I was there. It seems that since Google purchased FeedBurner several years ago, they have continued to tweak the service by adding and deleting options that help you promote your blog posts, podcasts, and vcasts (video blogs). 

I was happy to learn that MaAnna Stephenson has just updated her ebook, Just The FAQs: RSS Feeds, to reflect the recent changes at FeedBurner. If you offer your feed via email, you’ll want to check out all of the new customizing options for email format and delivery. There is also a new Password Protector option that helps keep your feed safe from hackers, but could negatively impact the delivery of your email feed. The new Socialize tool has customizing options for pushing your feed to Twitter, but the jury is still out on whether this tool works well for everyone.

Be sure to read the Publicize section to learn about an often overlooked link on FeedBurner that offers even more free ways to publicize your blog and help you rank higher with Google. Podcasters should pay attention to MaAnna’s explanation of the conflict between FeedBurner’s SmartFeed and SmartCast features.

If you aren’t yet offering feeds on your blog, get started today! If you’re already got a feed, it’s a good idea to log onto FeedBurner and check out the new features. From your home page, click on the name of your feed, then go through all of the tabs and check out the various features and settings.

To learn more about how to set up your feed on FeedBurner and take full advantage of all of its features, I highly recommend Just The FAQs: RSS Feeds. This ebook offers step-by-step instructions in plain English, and comes in several versions, designed for installing and configuring feeds on WordPress.com or WordPress.org.

If you use TypePad (like I do), read this article to learn how to find your TypePad RSS feed and connect it to FeedBurner, then order the WordPress.com version of the Just The FAQs: RSS Feeds ebook to learn how to configure your feed.

And be sure to subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss any posts on The Savvy Book Marketer! In the right column of this page, under "Get Blog Updates," just enter your email address in the box to receive blog posts by email or click the "subscribe in a reader" link to have the feed delivered to your favorite feed reader or to the "RSS Feeds" folder in Outlook.

 

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

Late To The Fair: Why I Became An Indie Author

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Last week I caught up to the fact that Chris Kelly was having a blog carnival on Indie Publishing just as the deadline closed. However, after reading the blog posts of those who made it to the fair, and mulling over my reactions, I thought it would still be useful to post on this topic.

I have written previously on my blog about the path that lead me to self-publishing, which echoed other writers (disappointment with the traditional route, issues of control, greater financial opportunities, etc) so in this post I am focusing more narrowly on the most important personal reason I had for deciding to become an indie author.

The traditional publishing route takes just too damn long (and I am too damn old).

I remember a year ago last June coming back from a mystery convention, business cards from an agent and the editor of a small press in hand, and sitting down and looking at those cards. I knew the drill. I and my author friends had been down that road before and I knew that even if I was successful, the minimum time it would take from first query to finished product was 18 months, and as a first time author it would more likely take two years. Even worse, editors at that convention made it clear it would take at least another year after coming out in print before the book was published as an ebook.  (I know that this, like much of publishing, is changing, but in June 2009 most traditional publishers were adamant about not publishing print and ebooks at the same time.)

I had had the idea for Maids of Misfortune: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery 30 years earlier, I had written the first draft 20 years earlier, and I was now approaching sixty, and 2-3 years simply felt too long to wait to get it into readers’ hands and discover if my book was indeed something that readers would enjoy.

Now I know that sixty is supposed to be the new forty, but my mother was dead at the age of 67 and my father’s poetry writing came to a halt when he was in his late 70s and entered the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s, so in actuarial terms, life really was too short.

In addition, while theoretically my sixty years have brought me wisdom, experience and the financial security that would give me an edge over younger authors, what I felt was just old as I read blogs by twenty-somethings who, with the boundless energy of youth, could put in longer days, were more comfortable with new technology, and didn’t have to spend so darn much time keeping the body moving smoothly. Even more distressing were the real forty somethings who not only had widsom and experience, but also had twenty to thirty years of successfully publishing books under their belts, with established contacts and fans, to help them on their way.

I felt like I was late to the Fair, and if I didn’t get a move on, all the rides would be closed. So I put the business cards away and committed myself to taking the self-publishing route. I took the next six months to do the final edit and do what was necessary to be ready to publish (get cover designed, set up author website, set up blog), much of which I would have needed to do prior to even sending out my query to that agent or editor.

Then in a two-week period in December of 2009 I published my book as an ebook on Smashwords and Kindle and used CreateSpace to publish a POD edition.

Two weeks, not two to three years.

And now I am nine months down the road and I am not worrying that my window of opportunity is closing and that bookstores will be sending unbought copies of my book back, and Books Scan is going to label me a failure because my sell-through rate wasn’t high enough, and my publisher is going to drop me (or let my book go out of print) because I didn’t make back my advance.

Instead I am having the time of my life. I have sold over 1150 copies of Maids of Misfortune, over 500 copies of my short story, Dandy Detects, and I am watching my sales improve every day. And I haven’t even turned 61 yet!

 

 

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

What Writers Can Learn From Flamenco

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Creativity through dance is fascinating when writing is our main form of expression. Here are some lessons learned for writers from Spanish flamenco dancing.

  • Know the tradition that lies behind and within you. Flamenco is native to Andalusia in Spain with Gypsy, Sephardic Jew, Moorish and Byzantine influences. It is beautiful to see old people dance it as well as the women in their prime and the young girls who learn the skills. There is a vast tradition behind the movements of flamenco as well as the songs that are sung with it. For writers, we have a great tradition behind us that we need to be aware of. We need to know the rules and the past in order to bring our words to life on the page.
  • Extemporize from that tradition to find your personal expression. For dancers, this is your style of flamenco, for authors, this is your voice and writing style. Once you know the tradition, you can express yourself within it and use creativity in your own way. Flamenco dancers seem to go with the music, almost as a jazz band improvises as the music moves. Each time they perform it would be a little different. As writers, we need to know where we are coming from and the rules of our genre, and then we can go out from there to a place of originality.
  • Use your passion and your personal power. Flamenco is incredibly empowering to watch and to dance. It exudes pride and power, a separation of the artist from those who watch. The expression is usually serious and the movements compelling with authority. This is a dancer that knows their worth. As writers, we definitely use our passion to write but sometimes that power can be missing. We need to reclaim that, to be unapologetic in the ability to express and create. No one can take that from you, whatever their judgement.
  • Have a varied repertoire. Flamenco is best known for the stamping of feet, the fast tapping and grand movements but there are also slow dances, almost mournful in their experience. The songs and flamenco guitar are spine tingling in emotion. For writers, we must also have this full range of skill both in writing, and also in all the other areas of a writer’s life these days, like marketing and promotion.
  • Celebrate each other with Ole! When watching flamenco, it is part of the experience for the audience and other participants to shout ‘Ole!’ and other encouragements, and clap during the performance. It is an interjection like applause and acts as a spur to the dancer to move faster. As writers, we don’t have much applause in our daily writing lives so we can learn from this to try to encourage each other further, to spur each other on to greater things.

It is important to get out there and live a life that is worth writing about. Watching or even dancing flamenco is an experience that will challenge most people and spark new ideas. Have you found inspiration in a dance or other physical form of creativity?

 

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

Whither The Author-Artiste?

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Seth Godin’s announcement yesterday that his future works will not be traditionally published seems, to me anyway, to have finally knocked over the "Tipping Point" domino in a chain that’s long been poised to open the floodgates of true acceptance and respectability for indie authorship. For authors like Godin, JA Konrath, Steven Covey, and lesser-known indies like me, this is a wonderful development. It’s a clear signal that going indie can be a big step in the right direction for any author, established or aspiring, who’s got an entrepreneurial spirit and commercial sensibilities. But what about all those other authors, published and aspiring, who are more in tune with art than commerce? How would a Flannery O’Connor, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Camus, Dostoevsky or Salinger fare in this brave new world of indie authorship? Not too well, I suspect.

These are authors of seminal literature which has inspired whole generations of writers, thinkers and artists, and their works will continue to inspire thought and action for generations to come. Yet somehow I doubt any of them would’ve been very excited about, or done very well with, something as worldly and mundane as author platform. And this begs the question: where, and how, is the important and challenging literature of tomorrow to be discovered and brought to the public’s attention? Will it be lost to the ages for want of a Twitter account and Amazon Rush?

I’m not saying the rise of indie authorship has somehow created this problem. If anything, indie authorship has opened a door of opportunity for those few authors of literary fiction and philosophical or metaphysical nonfiction who are also web savvy and/or highly motivated to get their work out to the world. After all, it’s not as if mainstream presses have been clamoring for more edgy, unclassifiable, non-commercial manuscripts. Trade publishing in the United States hasn’t been primarily about enlarging the canon of quality American literature for quite some time.

While there have always been passionate and compassionate editors, agents and others willing to champion this or that "great" book, regardless of its apparent commercial potential, these have increasingly been diminished to the role of mere voices in the wilderness. Because the publishing business is, first and foremost, a business, and there’s nothing wrong, illegal, or unethical about that. A book that doesn’t look like a substantial moneymaker isn’t likely to be picked up by a big, mainstream house. Small, independent presses can bridge the gap between art and commerce to some extent, but those presses have to turn a profit to survive too. Great reviews and a slew of doctoral theses based on a given book won’t pay the rent.

I’ve turned this over in my head again and again, but there are no easy answers. Plenty of people have gone through the exercise of sending some literary classic or other to a mainstream house or agent under a different title just to get it rejected and then knowingly blog about the generalized cluelessness of trade publishing (and in so doing, entirely overlook the fact that publishers are engaged in a for-profit business), but this exercise barely pays lip service to the larger issue. If we agree as a culture that important, if non-commercial, literature deserves wide exposure, study and discussion, who’s supposed to foot the bill for getting it out there in front of eyeballs?

Indie authors like me who’ve worked long and hard to master platform and publishing skills may feel some righteous indignation at the notion of our artier, less business-savvy counterparts getting somewhat of a free ride when it comes to the labor involved in indie authorship, but we should try to get past this tit-for-tat mentality and look at the big picture. I know all kinds of things about self-publishing, trade publishing, setting up and maintaining an author platform, and the business side of indie authorship, and I’m a pretty good writer of entertaining little novels and instructional nonfiction, too. But I’m no Salinger, O’Connor, Dostoevsky, Garcia Marquez or Camus, and I never will be.

Is it better for the culture at large if the only new authors to achieve any meaningful level of exposure or acclaim are like me, succeeding largely for reasons having at least as much (if not more) to do with our business and marketing skills than our writerly gifts? I’m thinking, no. I have come up with some ideas to address the problem, but it’s a woefully short list. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments area.

1. Introductory self-publishing, author platform and publishing business courses should be added to the core curriculum of all creative writing degree programs; many students in such programs may have no intention of ever self-publishing, but these subject areas are so commonplace in the publishing world of today that to be ignorant of them is indicative of an incomplete education.

2. The National Endowment for the Arts has grants on offer each year, but admittedly, they’re limited to pretty specific categories and putting together an acceptable grant proposal is scarcely easier than setting up and maintaining an author blog and Twitter account.

3. Anyone who’s mastered a crucial publishing or author platform skill like podcasting, ebook creation, book cover design or the like should share the wealth of those skills by providing some free instruction to their fellow writers in the form of how-to videos, articles, or podcasts.

4. Any author or publishing pro who’s in a position to give wider exposure to a deserving non-commercial manuscript, book or story should do whatever they can to lend a hand to the writer in need.

Remember: it was probably some classic of literature, not a NY Times Bestseller, that originally inspired you to become a writer in the first place. Let’s all do what we can to give that same gift of meaning and inspiration to future generations of writers, thinkers and artists everywhere.

 

This is a cross-posting from April L. Hamilton‘s Indie Author Blog.

When Redesigning Your Site Or Blog, Don't Forget To Grandfather

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I recently redesigned my author website. It’s something many of you will do at some point, whether to add features, get a more professional look, put the focus on a specific book or service, or just because you think it’s time. Whatever the reason, when bringing in the new, be careful not to get too overzealous about throwing out the old.

Some of the content on your site may be quite popular, with many links, tweets, backtracks and so on all over the web. Check your site statistics or pageviews to get a quick read on which pages or articles are getting the most traffic, check for backtracks/backlinks on any of your content (backtracks and backlinks are instances of other sites linking to yours) and also take a trip down memory lane to remind yourself which pages or articles you have heavily promoted in the past. Be particularly alert to any content that has been mentioned in the media or highlighted on others’ websites and blogs.

When revamping your site or blog, be sure to keep that popular and much-linked content, and keep all of the associated web page addresses and links intact. After all, you’ve already put in the effort to create the content, and it’s bringing new visitors to your site or blog on a regular basis. Why on Earth would you want to toss that valuable information and goodwill asset on the junk heap?

In the case of my old site, there was a very popular page containing a BookBuzzr widget which displayed the first edition of my book, The Indie Author Guide, online in its entirety for free, as well as a free guide to Kindle publishing. This page has received numerous positive mentions (with links) in the mainstream media. It was no cakewalk building my author platform up to a point where outlets like The New York Times, MSN Money, CNET and The Huffington Post were sending new site visitors my way, and the articles in which my guide had been mentioned will still be on the web for years, or even decades, to come. Even though that Kindle publishing guide is currently out of date and I’m in the process of updating it, and an updated and revised edition of The Indie Author Guide is on its way as well, it would’ve been a mistake to completely eliminate the page and leave a slew of broken links in the wake of my site redesign.

It so happens that I didn’t intend to include this specific page in my new site. I’d created a new organizational scheme and the page just didn’t fit. However, I didn’t want to turn away any new visitors who might discover me through all those links to the page.

So I created a new version of the old page, to match the new site design, and ensured it had the same title and web address. I added a statement indicating I’m in the process of updating the guide and when I expect the new version to be posted, plus a statement with information about the revised and updated edition of The Indie Author Guide, so anyone landing on that page will get the most up to date information.

Note to those who actually write the code for their sites or blogs: even though the new page didn’t have any need for HTML anchors to be included on it, I ensured all anchors present on the old page were included in the new one, so that any links pointing to those old anchors wouldn’t be broken, either.

I didn’t include this page in my site’s navigation bar, because again, it just doesn’t fit the new scheme. But anyone who clicks on one of those old links will not be disappointed, and since the navigation bar for my new site is on that "secret" page too, it’s possible new visitors may click around a bit and learn more about me and my books. 

 

This is a cross-posting from April L. Hamilton‘s Indie Author Blog.

My Digital Kingdom

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This is as much for my own benefit as anything else, but I thought you lot might be interested. I’ve started fine-tuning my online presence to get a bit more control over it all. I’m the first to admit that I’m an absolute net-whore. I wander around the digital domain waving my business at anyone that happens to look in my direction. Such is the nature of the modern world.

I have all kinds of online communities that I like to be a part of, as well as keeping an online presence to promote my work in the hope that people will be interested enough to read my stuff and help keep my career alive. Or, at least, not entirely moribund. Plus, I just love being a part of the online landscape. I get to meet so many interesting people, learn cool stuff and enjoying absolute lunacy from the around the world, all in the comfort of my office chair. It’s a crazy place out there and I don’t like to miss anything.

So, because of that, I have numerous things to keep an eye on and numerous places to share my own little slices of madcappery. This website, The Word (assuming you’re reading this there), is my main place. It’s the hub of my online activities. But I also have a LiveJournal blog (where you may well be reading this right now) and I’m very active on Twitter and Facebook. (I actually have two Facebook places. The one linked to here is my author page, but the one shared with Posterous and The Word is my personal page, which I keep for people I actually know.)

I’ve also recently become very busy on Posterous, but that’s partly to help streamline all this stuff and partly to collate all the crazies I enjoy. In an attempt to get my head around how I’ve set everything up, and in an effort to show anyone else that may be interested, I came up with this little diagram. It illustrates all the places that I’m active and how those places cross-pollinate each other to save me posting things in multiple places.

my digital kingdom My digital kingdom

I hope that helps to clarify things, if you were even vaguely interested in knowing. Everywhere you see an arrow is an automatic share, so posting in the one place automatically shares that thing with every place pointed at. And this doesn’t include all the various forums that I tend to chat away on to a greater or lesser extent, depending on mood and time. In fact, looking at this makes me wonder where the fuck I get time to do anything else, but I do. I’m actually pretty good at it. And, with that, I’m off to work on the new novel, before the Grudge Monkey comes looking to kick my arse again.

 

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

Getting Ready to Publish

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The very first thing to do when you start thinking “Should I self-publish?” is to find out what kind of publisher you might become. This decision is critical because it will influence the decisions you make down the road about organizing your publishing business, if you start one, budgeting for your book, and the way the book will be manufactured.

In order to help decide on your publishing path, take a look at these articles on the different ways to be a self-publisher:

What Kind of Self-Publisher Am I?

Two Kinds of Self-Publisher—Which One Are You?
Self-Publishing Basics: Four Ways to Publish Your Book
5 Good Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book
7 Reasons Not to Self-Publish—Is This You?
The Self-Publisher’s Self Questionnaire

Now that you know the direction you want to go, it’s time to do some homework. You’ll have to establish your company with local authorities, pick a name for your press, and establish yourself in the world. You’ll be putting in place the infrastructure your new company will need to launch your book. You’ll deal with companies like Bowker and get your ISBNs in preparation for publishing your book.

Preparing for Publication

How to Create, Register and List Your New Publishing Company
Slow is the Best Speed for Self-Publishing

You’re just about ready to start your publishing life. It’s natural to feel a little nervous about the world you’re entering, but pretty soon you’ll feel right at home. Each time you make progress toward publication, or to increase your readership, you add valuable experience. For most self-publishers, this book is the first one they have written and published. It’s daunting to have to learn everything at once.

Becoming Part of the Community

Becoming part of the community of self-publishers, indie writers, editors, book designers, marketers and everyone else associated with indie publishing gives you the opportunity to learn from dozens of experienced people.

5 Things That Shouldn’t Surprise You About Self-Publishing
Top 5 Discussion Forums for Self-Publishers
3 Indie Publishing Discussion Groups: Getting Your Questions Answered

There’s no other way to say it: Self-publishing can be an exhausting and demanding job, but it’s also satisfying in very unique ways. Sometimes when you’re getting started it helps to remember both sides.

Getting Up and Running as a Self-Publisher

6 Ways to Jump-Start Your Self-Publishing Career
8 Answers That Help Self-Publishers Get Up and Running

And even though we won’t talk about marketing until later in this journey, it’s time for your publishing company and you as an author to have a presence online. The sooner the better. Authority and influence build over time.

Author Platform: What Are You Waiting For?

And the next step in your journey is Planning Your Book. Onward.

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer.

How To Write The Ending Of Your Novel

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There is plenty of writing advice about the first 10 pages, the importance of hooking the reader at the start and making an impact in the first paragraph. But what about making sure that the reader wants to buy your next book?

If your ending sucks, it can leave a bad taste in the reader’s mouth and will ensure they don’t want to read your next book. So here are some tips on writing endings for your …novels:

  • Don’t cheat and suddenly have everything work out fine. This is lazy and the reader isn’t fooled. For example “And Jesus lived happily ever after”. From ‘How Not To Write A Novel.
  • You can surprise the reader but you must also satisfy them. There should be more than one possible ending to a book, so the reader doesn’t just give up as they know what will happen. It’s worth foreshadowing this ending with hints in the rest of the book though so that they are surprised but it is not entirely out of the blue. Paraphrased from Holly Lisle. This is also covered by the disappointment of twist endings at Kim’s Craft Blog.
  • Don’t use sappy extraneous contemplation. This is the big problem with the ending of Dan Brown’s ‘The Lost Symbol‘. The last chapter or two is just watching the sun rise and thinking about the experience. Boring and pointless.
  • Some genres have an expected ending that you can’t mess with. If your genre is romance, they have to get together at the end. There’s no getting around this unless you want to change genres! You also need to keep some characters alive if you have a series of books planned.
  • Don’t forget to end the book (or explain it is a trilogy!). I recently read ‘The Passage’ by Justin Cronin, a very chunky post-apocalyptic, majorly hyped novel. I enjoyed it but was hugely disappointing in the ending which basically didn’t end. There were so many loose ends so I went onto Twitter to see if anyone else felt the same way. A wonderful fellow tweeter pointed out that the book is first in a trilogy! However, this doesn’t excuse the feeling of disappointment as the brilliant ‘Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins is also the first in a trilogy and wraps the story up and yet still leads onto the next book. It’s definitely a balance.
  • The resolution comes after the climax. The ending does not have to be in that last action/adventure scene. It needs to be after the climax so the story is rounded out. In film, “the audience can catch its breath, gather its thoughts and leave the cinema with dignity” From ‘Story’ by Robert McKee.

    The graph on the right shows the climax and then resolution – from my seminar notes!

Here are some of comments from Twitter – thanks to all who contributed!
  • Make it satisfying. Doesn’t have to be good or happy, but readers want to be satisfied. @Kessbird
     
  • Surprise the reader and definitely tie up the lose ends (I hate sub-plots that are just abandoned!) @graywave, author of ‘TimeSplash’
     
  • Emotionally move the reader in some way to make her feel that her money was well-spent. @jchutchins , author of 7th Son thriller trilogy
  • Think of the biggest, most mind-blowing final conflict you can. Then make it bigger. :) @AlanBaxter, author of ‘Realmshift’
     
  • I always start with the idea of where I am going, makes it so much easier to get there! @PhilippaJane , author of ‘Chasing the Bard’
     
  • End on a note of anticipation. Leave with the reader wanting more. @teemonster , author of Billibub Baddings books
  • “…and then the world exploded” @ShearersBooks
     
  • Endings in a book must come natural, but “out of the box” at the same time. @myotherhand
     
  • Write the ending out fully that comes to mind. Then try cutting the last line or paragraph. It’s often an improvement. @vickigundrum
  • Ending depends on the beginning. in my two novels i have chosen unhappy ending and the third one a happy ending. @sudampanigrahi
     
  • End with a question to encourage comments. :) @code_and_prose
     
  • Always go back to your opening point. @smuttysteff
     
  • Figure it out before you write the beginning! @ChrisMorphew

 

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

Top 10 Ways Authors Can Use Twitter

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It’s Twitter week here at the Savvy Book Marketer! In today’s post, I discuss the many benefits of Twitter for authors. Tomorrow, novelist Graham Storrs shares his secrets for planning a successful round-the-world virtual book tour on Twitter. On Thursday, Tony Eldridge and I will be presenting the Boost Your Book Sales With Twitter Teleseminar.

Top 10 Ways Authors Can Use Twitter

Twitter is a great tool for building an author platform and promoting books. Here are some of the top ways authors can benefit from Twittering:

1. Help others by sharing information, while you gain a reputation as an expert. Nonfiction authors can post links to helpful articles, recommend resources, and teach mini-lessons. Novelists can talk about their genre. Children’s authors can promote literacy, share information about the benefits of reading for children and young adults, and offer tips on how to select age-appropriate reading material.

2. Meet potential customers and stay in touch with existing customers. Promote your Twitter URL everywhere you’re listed online, and include keywords in your tweets to attract followers who are interested in your topic or genre.

3. Stay on top of news and trends in your field or genre and get ideas for your articles and blog by reading the tweets of the people you follow.

4. Promote live and virtual events such as book signings, podcasts, virtual book tours, book fairs, teleseminars, and book launches.

5. Gain visibility and new followers by hosting a Twitter contest where you give away a prize to a randomly chosen winner, or give a free gift to everyone who follows you and re-tweets your contest message.

6. Ask for help and get instant responses. When you request product recommendations, referrals to experts, or help with a technical issue, it’s amazing how helpful folks are.

7. Spread good will by helping your peers. Introduce other people in your field or genre, or recommend other related books or products.  Re-tweet interesting posts from people that you follow.

8. Promote your book and other products and services. The key is to be subtle and make promotional tweets a small percentage of your overall communications, so people feel like they gain value from following you, not just a stream of sales pitches.

9. Meet other authors, experts, publishers, marketers, and vendors. Twitter is ideal for networking and it’s a great place to meet potential joint venture partners.

10. Keep in touch when you’re on the road. There are a number of applications that facilitate twittering from mobile devices.

Have fun! It’s fascinating to meet people from all over the world, gain a glimpse into their lives, and develop a cyber-relationship.

To learn more about using Twitter to promote yourself and your book, join Tony Eldridge and I on August 12 for the Boost Your Book Sales With Twitter Teleseminar.

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

Some Words of Advice to Dorchester Authors

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I went on line late this afternoon and was bombarded by the swirl of news and commentary about Dorchester Publishing’s decision to switch to an e-book/POD approach to publishing. At first I simply felt a wave of sympathy for those authors who found their familiar world swept away, particularly those authors who had books that were supposed to come out this fall and were in the middle of marketing campaigns designed around traditional trade paperbacks and brick and mortar stores. See for example the discussion on the Smart Bitches website.

Next I thought about what advice I would give these authors from my experience this past year as an indie author whose book, Maids of Misfortune, is in both ebook and POD formats. Like many of the commentators on the Smart Bitches site, I would suggest that once they know for sure where and when their books will be available they take advantage of their social networks (facebook, myspace, twitter) and their author websites and blogs to get the word out.

If they haven’t yet developed those social networking tools or they don’t have their own website or blog-it was high time they did so anyway, so this will provide a powerful motivator for them to do something they had probably been saying to themselves (and to their agents) they should be doing for some time.

I would recommend Publetariat and the blogs Creative Penn and There are No Rules as good places to start.

But then, I suddenly thought, wait a minute! Many of the Dorchester authors have something that most indie authors would love to have, a backlist. As I scrolled down and looked at the long list of books that some of these authors had, I couldn’t help but notice how many of them were listed as “out of stock,” and I thought, OMG, these authors need to run–not walk to J.A Konrath’s blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, and read every one of his posts for the past year. Because what Konrath has done for authors is show how they can turn their backlists and their previously unpublished works into a decent living.

First of all, it seems to me there should be no excuse from now on for Dorchester not to start making these out of stock books available in POD and/or ebook format, and if they don’t, the authors should be negotiating to get those rights back.

Second, if they do have the rights to any of their past books, once they have converted those books to electronic form (and there are lots of guidebooks and real people out there anxious to help authors do this for relatively modest prices), they can start to use those books if priced correctly (or offered for free) to drive a new audience to their published books with Dorchester.

Third, if they have any short stories, novellas, or books that they love but were never able to sell, these also can be offered for free or at low prices as a way to boost sales for their published books. I can’t stress too much how important reading Konrath is to understanding the effectiveness of this sort of strategy.

For example, even as a complete novice, who self-published her first historical mystery eight months ago, I have already gotten to the point where I am selling about 300 books a month, making about $2 a book (my ebooks sells for $2.99). Imagine what I could be doing if I had a more books to sell and an already established fan base?

So my advice to Dorchester authors is to begin to imagine this future where today might just be the day when they took control of their destinies and ended up making more money from their writing than they had ever hoped to do. I wish them all the luck in the world.

 

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

People Don’t Buy Books Based On The Publisher

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Most writers and authors also buy a lot of books. I’m certainly do, and you probably do too. So what makes you buy a book?

I buy books primarily based on the following:
  • Recommendations from others mostly found on blogs I read and twitter
  • Browsing Amazon Kindle store in the categories I read, as well as how Amazon uses suggestions on other books I have read. I download lots of samples and then buy the books that take my fancy.
  • Browsing physical book stores, although now I note down titles and then go buy them on my Kindle as they are 1/4 of the price of the physical book
I definitely do not buy books based on the publisher. In fact, most of the time I wouldn’t know who the publisher was anyway and in a brief survey of other book buyers they have a similar experience. This raises a couple of very important questions for authors and writers, and perhaps publishers as well.
  • If book buyers don’t care who the publisher is, why is there a stigma to being self-published? (it’s changing but it is still there). If you have a professionally edited and interesting book, with an eye-catching cover, buyers will not know the difference anyway. I have the same Amazon shelf-space as any other books. What do you think?
  • If book buyers don’t care who the publisher is, why do authors care so much? Do we all want a 10 book deal with Harper Collins because it means more physical distribution to bookstores, potentially world rights and more publicity budget? and is that scenario very likely for most authors. I don’t think so. The reason must be ego and I will freely admit to being one of those authors! I would love a 10 book deal with Harper Collins! But I know that I will still need to do my own publicity and marketing, and I may well make less money than  digital publishing. It is important to identify the why behind what you want for your book and your career as an author. Why do you care who publishes you?
  • If book buyers don’t care who the publisher is, whose brand is associated with the book? In a brilliant audio to the indie publishing industry a few weeks ago, Seth Godin challenged the audience on brand. He basically said that publishers should be aligning with audiences and brands and become the “go to” publisher for that audience e.g. be the publisher for civil war books, or for coeliac disease sufferers. I can think of a couple of publishers who have this right at the moment. O’Reilly Books is for tech books, and Harlequin is for romance, but do the readers go there to spend money? I find branding to be a fascinating topic for authors and the publishing industry and right now, you need to consider your branding in a very crowded marketplace.
[Update: This piece was written a week ago, but I just saw the interview with Mark Coker from Smashwords where he says the same thing:
“Readers typically don’t pay attention to the name of the publisher on the spine of the book. They pay attention to the author and the story.”
Do you buy books based on a publisher? and do you care who publishes your book?

 

This is a cross-posting from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Final USPS Udate, Twitter, Merchant Circle & More

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I’ve received another $55 check from the Postal Service. That brings the total repayment to $110. I’m going to stop with that amount though I’m still owed another $25. I feel lucky to have gotten this much back. For future reference if I ever lose something else in the mail I’ve insured, I now know to keep pushing for a fair payment and have the Washington D.C address to write first.

At last count, I have 40 following me on Twitter and 66 followers. It seems as though I see an increase in followers after I’ve blogged on Book Marketing Network, iFOGO and Publetariat. This last week I picked up Blog Expert, Rachel Karl, as a follower. She said I had a nice blog. I wondered which one she looked at since I blog on eight sites now. Rachel had checked my Twitter site out well enough to let me know that the link to my website under my name wasn’t working. I appreciated the FYI, immediately fixed the problem and tweeted Rachel back to let her know the link works now.

My twitter bio has lead different types of businesses and people with varied interest to follow me. I stated I like writing books, gardening, flowers, fishing and boating. Therefore boat businesses and boaters, flower businesses, gardeners and nature lovers follow me. I thought about not returning the follow or changing my bio if I might be misleading some tweeters, but what I wanted was to promote my books and online bookstore. Most followers must read books so after email notification from followers, I send them a thank you message from Author Fay Risner and mention one of my books or where to buy my books online and my online bookstore. I’ve picked up some authors including Steve Weber, author of Plug Your Book, a book about internet book promoting which has been helpful to me, and he didn’t even know at the time I’d bought his book.

Google Partner Program has decided to make ebooks out of the books in the program if the authors are agreeable. I’ve had my books in the program for awhile but I haven’t finished filling out the forms they needed. August 6 is when they will begin promoting ebooks. Once a month for some time now, I’ve received an email notice about how many of my books were viewed and how many pages looked at. This notice is a way for me to see what genres readers are interested in.

I accidentally came across Merchant Circle on the internet. There is one for every city in every state. If a you come from a small town that hasn’t started using Merchant Circle yet be the first one to start if you consider your book selling a business. Sign up is free. I didn’t think of myself as a business when I began this venture, but last year I published two books at Lightning Source, Inc. I had to fill out tax forms and send for a sales tax permit before Lightning Source would print my books. Since I was considered a business, that lead to me to starting my online bookstore.

The added features on Merchant Circle are from $249 to $39, but I signed up for the free site. Do I expect to sell more books in my area when my town has a population of 600, and everyone knows everyone else. The biggest businesses are the nursing home and the John Deere Implement dealer. Not really, but Google Crawler is working on the site. My blog is picked up by major search engines which extends my reach and will introduce my books to more customers that search the internet like I do. I felt it was worth the effort to sign up for the free package and give it a try.

I had to have a logo so I used a copy of my business card since I’m not good with graphics. An advertisement and a coupon can be made. My coupon states a free book for the sale of one book on the site and a review of my business or the book purchased. The advertisement states that my stories are clean; no curse words or sex scenes. Books written by a Midwestern author with wholesome values.

The results are in for July for my Kindle books sales. With the raise in price, sales went down to about half of what I sold in June, but the royalty went from 35% to 70% so the total royalty amount was about the same. Better news is I’m now selling my series of five mystery books which wasn’t getting noticed before. That gives me encouragement to write Amazing Gracie Mystery number six.

Amazon’s Author Central has sent out emails to authors with an author page to tell them they won’t be able to blog on site after August 15th. They will need to submit a link to another blog they write. I’ve tried linking to another blog before without success, but I’m working on it again.

And finally, I read a helpful article on Publetariat.com that I liked titled The Truth About Typos by Mark Barrett’s Ditchwalk. He said reread what you write at least once. Slow down and concentrate. Don’t publish when you’re tired. Just know that what you’ve written will never be perfect. Sooner or later a typo will survive. If you as a self published author worry about those typos like I do, this would be a good article to read. If nothing else the article made me feel a little better about those dreaded typos that did survive.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

 

Fear of Success?

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Dude, what the f*** does that mean?

That’s what I keep thinking when I hear people drop that line. “Oh, so and so is just scared of success, so they self-jeopardize, yadda yadda.”

I don’t understand what that means.

Or at least I didn’t think I understood what that meant until a few minutes ago.

The Yankee game is on a rain delay so I thought I would sketch out a plan of action to tackle the various projects I have jumbling around in my head. Prioritize, make a timeline, create an outline, do some research, that kind of thing. And then I realized that I have a novel I am about to release any minute now.

What am I doing working on other projects — juggling several of them, in fact — when I have a life-sucking day job, two toddlers, a commute from hell, and Back(stabbed) In Brooklyn to release? Since my last book’s promotion was brought to a screeching halt due to circumstances beyond my control, I owe it to myself to push Back(stabbed). So then I thought, am I that scattered, or am I really just trying to escape what could be a disappointing, anticlimactic release? Or is it the other thing — that fear of success thing?

For those of you who know what my last book was about (the young me), you’ll recall that it was a series of goals that I set which I met, and became disoriented after having met the goal. It’s kind of disappointing when you set out to reach what you tell yourself is a lofty expectation, and then you get there and it’s not so fabulous.

So perhaps it’s not a fear of “success,” in its immeasurable form, but a fear of continued disillusionment. Or, worse, (and this is where you say, babes, go see a shrink), an inability to feel satisfied not just with my own work but with its acceptance in the world.

So what does this all have to do with writing? Because it is a tremendous emotional and personal investment in our work and while we rely on external validation to a certain extent, much of how we feel about our work is measured on an internal scale. I write because I like to tell stories. I feel personal satisfaction once I’ve read the story I’ve written. I am proud of a lot of the stories I’ve written. But I cannot help but to put my work on a larger scale with the hopes that I’ll find gold at the end of the rainbow. Part of that desperation is due to the fact that the gold is simply unattainable.  It is like asking to live in bliss, to be able to support my family and writing.

Well, girlie, this life doesn’t work that way (for me, at least). My fear of success isn’t the problem so much as my expectations to win over fans and readers, adulation, demand, and my overwhelming desire to have the freedom to start any project I want. In order to really hit the next level as I want, I have to take some serious risks and just focus. I realize that I probably am not willing to risk what I have now (lame) in order to pursue what I really want. I did that. 29 times. And failed.

Projects I would like to get off the ground:

  • Sports Blog – http://TheIntentionalWalk.wordpress.com (this is live, but sucks a little bit. need graphics.)
     
  • Freelance articles and interviews with sports figures
     
  • Maggie & May full length novel (4 chapters done)
     
  • Jean-Baptiste Foulon is a Brilliant Liar full length novel (3 chapters done)
     
  • Screenplay for Back(stabbed) In Brooklyn and set up some major meetings to get it produced
     
  • Find an excellent food photographer and publish Intuitive Cooking cookbook (manuscript is complete)
     
  • Biography of Jay-Z (alternatively, a story or novella about a fictional character attempting to write a biography of Jay-Z.) Not started yet.
     
  • Launch Back(stabbed) In Brooklyn with more readings and appearances (1 appearance scheduled, here on August 22 for Katelan Foisy’s book release party)

Can I do it all? Check back to measure my progress. Nudge me, will ya? Thanks.

 

This is a reprint from Lenox Parker’s Eat My Book.

The Secret to Getting Great Book Reviews on Amazon

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When consumers shop for books on Amazon.com and other online bookstores, many of them read the book reviews before they make a purchase. Even if they came to the site to buy a particular book, they may read the reviews to verify that they are making a good selection.


Positive reviews are a great selling point for all types of books, but they are especially important for nonfiction books, where consumers often compare several books on the same topic. Amazon actually encourages this, by displaying other similar books on your book’s sales page.

So, what’s the secret to getting great book reviews on Amazon (besides writing a great book)? ASK people to post reviews and make it EASY for them by providing a link to your book page on Amazon.com. 

Amazon is by far the largest online bookseller. Anyone who has an Amazon user name and password and has purchased any product on Amazon.com can review your book there, even if they purchased your book elsewhere or got a free review copy.

Here are several easy ways to invite people to post reviews for you: 

  • When you send out review copies to colleagues and influencers seeking testimonial quotes, ask them if they will also post the testimonial or a brief review on Amazon.
  • Any time someone writes a positive review of your book, ask them to post it on Amazon. Before contacting the reviewer, check to see if they have already posted the review.
  • When you receive an email or other correspondence praising your book, reply with a request to post a book review on Amazon. If someone has taken the time to write to you about your book, they are obviously a fan and will probably be happy to post a book review for you. Here’s a sample message:

Thanks so much for your note. I love getting feedback from readers and I’m glad that you enjoyed the book.

I would really appreciate you taking a few minutes to post your comments or a brief review on my Amazon page at www.Amazon.com/mybookpage. Look for the "customer reviews" section about halfway down the page and click on the "create your own review" button to the right. Or, use this link to go directly to the review form: http://yourshortlink.com.

If you’re a Barnes & Noble customer, click the "write a review" button at www.BarnesAndNoble.com/mybookpage.

You can create a link directly to the book review form by clicking on the "create your own review" button and then using a URL shortening service to create a short link to the form. To save time, save your review request in a Word document and copy and paste it as needed or set up an alternate signature in your email program containing this text. 

AmazonReviewer

  • You can ask family members and friends to post a review (or they may offer to do so), but be careful. Anyone who shares your last name (unless it’s a really common name) will look like a relative. Also, you don’t want the reviews to sound contrived. For example, posting something like "My friend Susan has written a great book and everyone should read it" is not a good idea. And of course you want these folks to post an honest opinion – you might ask them to write a couple of sentences stating what they liked best about the book.

Should you write a review of your own book? Maybe, but think very carefully about what to say. I don’t recommend writing a review talking about how great your book is or making a sales pitch. Doing so may turn people off or cause them to question the validity of your other reviews.

However, you might want to consider writing a "review" as a way to provide some information that’s not included in the book description listed on Amazon.com. For example, you could mention your inspiration for writing the book or mention resources available on your website, such as a free sample chapter or book club discussion guide. I suggest keeping it low key and avoiding blatant sales pitches.

Positive book reviews on Amazon and other online bookstores can boost your sales – take the initiative to ask for reviews and you’ll be rewarded. 

Savvy Tip: You may also want to use this email to ask for permission to use a portion of the customer’s message to you as a testimonial quote on your own website. In your request, I suggest pulling out the portion you want to use and formatting it as a quote so the customer can see exactly what it will look like.

  • Another possibility is to seek out reviewers who have reviewed books on similar or related topics or in your genre on Amazon and ask them if they are interested in reviewing your book. You may be able to get the reviewer’s contact information by clicking on their name and looking for their website or blog address on their Amazon profile. Below is an example of how reviewer information is listed on Amazon.com. Anyone who has "Top 500 Reviewer" beneath their listing is an especially active reviewer.

 

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