Update On Amazon's KDP Select Program

Edward Robinson over at Failure Ahoy! has written extensively about his experiences with Amazon's KDP Select program. After trying out various things, here is his tentative conclusion:

[R]iding free runs every 30-40 days can be an effective strategy (although ENT now says they won't mention a book within 60 days of the last time it was free, meaning you're basically down to POI, FKBT, and paid ads for exposure). This can last for several months, anyway. But it appears to be less effective the more you do it, and there is a point where a diminished 30 days of sales + a diminished free run isn't going to be enough to prop you up to a significant place on the pop lists. (Edward Robinson)

Although ER's conclusion seems cautiously optimistic, he has decided to pull his most popular book, Breakers, from the program and and explore what Barnes & Noble as well as Kobo have to offer. This should be interesting. He writes:

Over the last few months, I've grown disillusioned enough with Amazon Select to pull my book Breakers from the program. Yesterday, its exclusivity expired. Today, Breakers is available on Barnes & Noble for the Nook reader.

.  .  .  .

I know that Breakers can sell when it's in front of people, so unlike my other titles, if I can find a way to get it some visibility in the other stores, it should sell. Hypothetically. So how do you find that visibility?

Stay tuned.

Read the rest over at Failure Ahoy!: Exploring Bold New Non-Amazon Frontiers, Day 1: Barnes & Noble.

Other reading:
- More on Amazon Select: Is exclusivity worth it?
- Marketing Strategies For Writers
- The Harlequin Class Action Lawsuit Explained

Kristen Lamb: 5 Steps To Writing Success

Writing Success

Kristen Lamb writes the best posts! I love her writing style; it feels as though just the two of us are sitting together, having a cup of coffee, chatting.

Yesterday Kristen came out with another fabulous post, this time about how to unlock writing success.

1) Passion
Obviously writers need passion, but a lot of the time this ingredient is overlooked. Kristen writes:

This should be a, “Yeah, no duh,” but, sadly, it isn’t. I meet a lot of people who say they want to be a professional author, but the second they face any opposition or criticism they give up. Here is the thing, if we really LOVE it, we won’t give up.

2) Self-Discipline
It may seem counter-intuitive, but my experience has been that the more you write the more you can write. For myself, this has become apparent through blogging. Each weekday I post two blog posts, one per day on the weekend/holidays.

Of course, life happens. But, usually, generally, that's my blogging schedule. And you know what? I've found I can sit down and write more fiction! (* knock on wood *) The blank page doesn't invoke in me the horror/anxiety it once did. Kristen writes:

One of the main reasons I am such a proponent of blogging is that it trains writers for a professional pace. It trains us to meet deadlines. Disciplined people work no matter what, and they finish what they start.

I have a feeling that, compared to Kristen I'm something of a wuss, but she's right: Writer's write.

3) Humility
Kristen says it best:

I used to have a problem with deadlines and self-discipline. I had the attention span of a crack-addicted fruit bat. That was why I began blogging. I knew that those character flaws would always limit me. Even though it was embarrassing to admit I had some deep flaws, it would have been impossible to ever combat that weakness if I hadn’t mustered the courage and humility to recognize where I fell fatally short.

I love that description! "The attention span of a crack-addicted fruit bat." Describes me to a tee! So nice to know others suffer from that particular malady.

My theory is that many writers are held back from writing because they feel they must be perfect, that what they write must be perfect. In my view, as long as someone holds on to that idea the act of writing will be fraught with anxiety. It is when we let go of expectations--those of our parents, those of society and, most importantly, our own--that we can be free to express who we really are.

4) Healthy Relationship with Failure
 Kristen writes:

If we aren’t failing, then we aren’t doing anything interesting. Expect failure. Better yet, embrace failure.

Amen! Another person to preach this particular message is Seth Godin, and I couldn't agree more. I think it ties in with what I said above about letting go of the idea that we must be perfect. We need to allow ourselves to fail. Repeatedly. Unless we embrace failure, we'll never succeed.

5) Be Bold: Try Something New
This point is mine, you can't blame Kristen for it! :p If you've been writing mostly in, say, the paranormal genre shake it up and try writing something for another genre, romance for instance. They say that variety is the spice of life, try something new! Often times doing something unusual or uncommon can refresh our daily routine.

To read Kristen Lamb's entire article, click here: Unlocking Your Great Future—5 Keys to Writing Success

Well, that's it! I hope you have a productive writing day. Cheers!

Oh, by the way, Kristen Lamb has set up an archive of royalty free images over at Flickr called, Wana Commons. Nice!

Further reading:
- Query Tracker: Keep Track Of Your Stories
- Twylah: Turn Your Tweets Into A Blog
- How To Sell 100 Books Per Day: 6 Things You Need To Do

Photo credit: The Grant Goddess Speaks

Ewan Morrison's Misconception

Ewan Morrison has made a number of incendiary remarks about the future of self publishing and social media. He believes that self publishing is a fad and that it's day will soon be over. Specifically, in his latest article, Why Social Media Isn't The Magic Bullet, he claims that writers who have published their work themselves will not be able to use social media as an effective means to grow a readership for their work.

My response: Time will tell. It seems to me a number of writers are doing just that, but if Mr. Morrison believes this is a bubble and it's about to burst, well, I guess we'll wait and see.

David Gaughran has a more active and literary response, one much more befitting an indie author. He writes:

This gets to the heart of Morrison’s misconception of how self-publishers use social media. It’s not about selling books, it’s about making connections. The only thing that has ever really sold books is word-of-mouth.

The difference today is that social media can act as an accelerant to the spreading of that “word.” If a reader discovers a book they enjoyed (whether self-published or not) they don’t have to wait until they meet somebody in person to recommend it to them. They can email their friends, blog about it, post it to Facebook, or tweet it (reaching all their friends in less time than it takes to meet one of them for coffee).

Note: I said “a reader” not the author. If you are friends with somebody, and trust their taste in books, you will place value in their recommendations. What happens with social media is that such recommendations can spread much more efficiently.

Authors – whether self-published or not – who attempt to mimic this organic process through relentless tweeting about their own work will soon find that such an approach is ineffective (and counterproductive).

That doesn’t mean that authors don’t do it. You only need to log on to Twitter and Facebook to see plenty of “buy my book” spam.

The problem for Morrison’s argument is that he (a) assumes that all self-publishers use social media in this way and (b) assumes that such marketing is integral to self-publishers’ sales/marketing strategies; neither claim bears any resemblance to reality. In fact, I would wager that there is an inverse relationship between a self-publisher’s sales and the amount of “buy my book” spam they emit.

Precisely! Growing a readership is about connecting with people, as Seth Godin says, it is all about building a tribe. And who wouldn't want to be part of a tribe? I'm part of many tribes/communities.

As David writes:

I don’t relentlessly tweet about my work. I announce a new release, or a special sale, and I might point my followers towards a nice review now and then – but that’s about it.

The rest of my time on Twitter or Facebook is spent connecting with people – hashing out the issues of the day, making friends, joking, sharing advice, seeking help, getting to know each other; you know, just like meeting people in real life.

David mentions that well-known self publisher Joanna Penn has a rule-of-thumb. 80% of the time don't say anything about what you're selling. Less than 20% of your social media time should be taken up with promoting your products.

That seems about right to me. By the way, if you haven't taken a look at Joanna's website, it is full of great articles. You can visit her here: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/

Further reading:
- The Harlequin Class Action Lawsuit Explained
- Helping Writers De-Stress: Meditation Apps
- Writer Beware: Outskirts Press

Photo credit: Alaskan Dude

Indie Authors: Bad Sales? Redo Your Cover!

If you're approaching cover design for the first time, or your book sales are slumping, here are five ways your cover can help sell your book:

1) BIG Author Name
Make sure people can see your name, even on the thumbnail of your cover.

2) Genre Appropriate Cover
Make sure your cover clearly indicates the genre of the story you've written (e.g., sci-fi, western, romance, and so on). DWS writes:

... [C]overs need to scream genre. For example, I had a book I did called “On Top of the Dead” which was a pure science fiction story with aliens and everything. So what did I do to make sure it didn’t sell?  I put the lower half of a dead body in a street on the cover, making it look like a literary mystery. And, of course, it didn’t sell much. I just redid the cover putting alien spaceships hovering over New York City on the cover instead. Duh…

3) Write A Fantastic Blurb
a. Tell your reader what your story is about
Your readers want to know what your book is about, not about the events in the book itself.

I'm re-watching Lord of the Rings. Everyone knows the tag line for this series: Frodo must overcome countless obstacles to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.

Actually, I just looked it up and here's the official tag line:

An innocent hobbit of The Shire journeys with eight companions to the fires of Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring and the dark lord Sauron forever. 

Here's my take on this. What you talk about in your blurb, your tag line, is the goal, what the book(s) is all about. The blurb isn't the place to talk about Frodo's stay at the Prancing Pony, or meeting Bilbo in Rivendell or Gandalf's amazing scene with the Balrog ("Thou shalt not pass!"). No. It is the place to tell your readers what your story is all about. What are the stakes?

That's one point. Another is:

b. Avoid passive verbs
Avoid them in your blurb and in your writing in general. DWS writes:

[W]hen I write a blurb, I ask myself what would make a reader buy this book? But if you use nothing but passive voice, the reader will automatically think your book is dull and never open it to the sample.

4) Use Common Themes
Have all your book covers for a series look similar and have all your book covers in a certain genre look similar. How do you do this?

- Use the same Name/Pen Name. One of my writer friends has one name for the first book in her series and another, a pen name, for the last two. My friend isn't indie published, a traditional publisher insisted she change names in the middle of the series and then didn't re-issue her first book! That is an extreme example, but try and use the same name for all your novels in the same genre so readers can find your books.

- Use the same font. Make the title font the same for all books in a series.

For instance, here are a few covers from Kim Harrison's Hollows series:

The font does differ slightly from book to book, but there is always a young woman on the front cover and you can never quite see her face. The look and feel of the cover is largely the same from book to book and her name is always pominent.

Here are two of the covers from Kim Harrison's paranormal series for teens:

These books are a better example of what DWS is saying. Look at the title fonts, they're identical AND perfect for the genre. Same model, different poses, subtle difference in the background color, but they are both pastels. Most important, the author's name is clearly visible.

5) Professional Look And Feel
Here are DWS's pointers:

a. Fonts: Make sure you can see them easily, which means they should contrast with the background.
b. BIG author name easily readable even in the thumbnail.
c. Small text near the authors name "such as 'Author of (another book title).'"
d. Put your tag line on the front of your book.
Here's an example:

I don't know if that picture is high resolution enough for you to see, but DWS's tag line is, "A Step-by-Step guide to Publishing Your Own Books". Perfect. Now you know what the books is about and why you should buy it. By the way, Dean's book is available on Amazon.com and well worth the read.

e. The cover art must be genre appropriate, must look good as a thumbnail, and go well with the font you've chosen.

All the information in this post comes from Dean Wesley Smith's article, The New World: Publishing: Killing Your Sales One Shot at a Time, and is well worth the read.

I'd like to add one more thing. When you're starting to put your cover together, when you're still in the 'getting ideas' stage, look at the covers of other books in your genre, especially those that are like your book. Make a list of 5 or 6. You don't want your cover to be too different from these because you want to tell your readers that if they buy your book that they will get a similar story.

Similar but unique! :p But that's a topic for another post.

I hope you read DWS's article, it's great. He's been doing this for decades and knows what he's talking about.

Cheers and good writing!

Other articles:
- Writers & Blogging: Should You Host Your Own Blog?
- Twylah: Turn Your Tweets Into A Blog
- How To Build A Platform: Why Every Writer Needs A Website

Photo credit: Excellent Book Covers and Paperbacks

Amazon UK: Ebooks Are Outselling Paper Books

The Jetsons

From TheGuardian:

Amazon said ... customers are now buying more ebooks than all hardcovers and paperbacks combined. ... [S]ince the start of 2012, for every 100 hardback and paperback books sold on its site, customers downloaded 114 ebooks. Amazon said the figures included sales of printed books which did not have Kindle editions, but excluded free ebooks. (TheGuardian, Kindle ebook sales have overtaken Amazon print sales)

But that's not all:

The company said ... British Kindle users were buying four times as many books as they were prior to owning a Kindle, a trend it described as a renaissance of reading. (TheGuardian, Kindle ebook sales have overtaken Amazon print sales)

That's why Amazon can sell it's ebook readers at a loss. And I'm betting people use them to buy a whole lot more than books.

The World Has Changed
80 percent of the billboards I saw yesterday were for various brands of cell phones, and every single add I saw displayed a domain name. I remember a time when the average person wouldn't have known what to do with a domain name or URL.

The digital revolution has radically changed the world we live in, how much further is it going to go? Are we, eventually, going to order everything from online sites like Amazon? Will stores evolve into storefronts only? When I bought my MacBook Air I was surprised to learn I couldn't have it shipped to my local Apple store, nor could I return my drive there, although the Apple associates were very nice and helped me ship it back free of charge.

Some have envisioned a world where bookstores are subsidized by publishers and kept as storefronts. You wouldn't be able to bring books home from the storefront. You would visit the storefront, browse the books, make your selections, order them online and have them delivered to your home (or wherever). Or your could buy the ebook and have it delivered instantly.

What do you think? Which would you prefer, store or storefront?


Further reading:
- Penelope Trunk Discusses Time Management
- How To Sell 100 Books Per Day: 6 Things You Need To Do
- Writers: Register Your United States Copyright

Photo credit: Wikipedia

J.K. Rowling's Next Book, The Casual Vacancy, On Sale Sept 27, 2012

J.K. Rowling's next book, The Casual Vacancy, will be released at 8:00 am British Summer Time, so no midnight release and attendant parties as with her Harry Potter books.

The Casual Vacancy seems quite the departure from her previous work; for starters, it was written for adults and is described as "blackly comic". Here is how her publisher, Little Brown Book Group, describes it:

When Barry Fairbrother dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations? (Wikipedia, The Casual Vacancy)

J.K. Rowling is a marvelous writer and I admire her striking out into a different area. I expect The Casual Vacancy will be every bit as well written and engaging as her Harry Potter books. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Other reading:
- 10 Tips For Decluttering Your Life and Increasing Creativity
- The Lawsuit Against Harlequin In Plain English
- Ripley Patton: The Self-Validated Writer

50 Shades Trilogy Has Outsold Harry Potter on Amazon UK

Wow! That's when you know you're popular. Apparently in only 4 months EL James has become Amazon UK's biggest selling author OF ALL TIME. Again, wow.

And to think that E.L. James started out as a self published author. Yep, I'm smiling.

E L James Fifty Shades trilogy has out-sold J K Rowling’s seven-book Harry Potter series on Amazon in the UK, the online retailer has announced.

Although James’ erotica books have only been on sale since March 2012, they have sold over four million copies in print and digital, making James the bestselling author ever on Amazon in the UK.

Rowling’s final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is being outsold by the first book in the James trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey, by more than two to one.

To read the entire article click here: James 'has outsold Potter' on Amazon UK.

Related articles:
- Fifty Shades of Grey - Oh My!
- 50 Shades Of Alice In Wonderland: Another Indie Success Story
- 19 Ways To Grow Your Twitter Following


Photo credit: theilr

10 Tips For Decluttering Your Life and Increasing Creativity

I don't know about you, but my life is too cluttered with things I never use that get underfoot.

Part of the problem is I try and see the usefulness in everything; it seems rude to say to the cardboard packing case my wonderful new computer came in: You are no longer useful to me, begone! I mean, with the right tablecloth, perhaps a few flowers, it could be a fashionable side-table. Maybe. (Sometimes creativity can really come back to bite one in the posterior.)

The following tips for decluttering your life and channeling your energy in creative yet productive ways are from Sara Rauch.

1. Say no.

To invitations and purchases, to guilt about disappointing others and items you don’t need. We all have our weaknesses—mine is shoes, my partner’s is helping people—but learning to say no, is really the first step in simplifying your way back to creativity. It isn’t selfish to honor your creative self; it’s self-care.

.  .  .  .

3. Keep the editor away.

The editor has her place in creative “work”—like when I write book reviews or polish stories for publication—but she has no place in the creative sphere. Figure out a way to keep her busy or send her packing, and only call on her when her not-picky voice might actually be useful.

.  .  .  .

5. Expect and embrace imperfection.

Perfection is creativity’s enemy.

.  .  .  .

8. Keep it simple.

Don’t run out and buy anything you think you need to be creative. Creativity isn’t about items—though you may need brushes or a pencil or paper—it’s about the act. Start small, start with what you have.

.  .  .  .

10. Make it a routine.

This might sound anathema to creativity—it’s all about inspiration right?—but it’s actually the key. The grass doesn’t get green from the occasional heavy watering. It gets green from regular tending.
Creativity is the same: Attend to it everyday—the results are worth the effort.

I don't want to list all of Sara Rauch's tips so I've only given 5 here, the rest are listed in her excellent blog post: 10 Tips to Nurture Your Creative Life: Making Time and Space. Thanks to C.G. Cameron for the tip!

Other reading:
- Penelope Trunk Discusses Time Management
- Writers & Blogging: Should You Host Your Own Blog?
- How To Sell 100 Books Per Day: 6 Things You Need To Do

Photo credit: Rebeca Stovall

Non-Compete Clauses And A Writers' Career

Kris Rusch on non-compete clauses:

In reality, it’s a “do-not-do-business-without-our-permission” clause.

I did write about this in last year’s article, but I was a bit more lenient toward publishers than I am now. What changed? I certainly didn’t. I believe that writers should protect their rights as much as possible.

What changed is this: publishers have started requiring non-compete clauses in almost all of their contracts, and are making those clauses a deal breaker from the publisher’s side. In other words, the publisher will cancel the deal if you do not sign a non-compete.  The choice you are given is this: either you let the publisher control your entire career just because you sold that publisher one book for $5000 or you walk.

If that’s the choice you’re given, walk. Hell, run.

You can read the rest of Kris' article here: The Future And Balance (Deal Breakers 2012).

If you're thinking about signing a book contract I recommend that you get an IP attorney to look it over.

Other articles:
- 99Designs.com: How I Solved My Book Cover Dilemma, and How You Can Too
- Derek Haines: Are Free Ebooks A Good Marketing Strategy?
- 50 Shades Of Alice In Wonderland: Another Indie Success Story

Photo credit

The Lawsuit Against Harlequin In Plain English

Joe Konrath hit another home run, this time by explaining the lawsuit against Harlequin in terms anyone can understand. That make his post sound dull but I assure you it's anything but. Here's Joe's summary of his summary:

Recap in layman's terms: Harlequin assigned rights to itself, which I'm pretty sure is a no-no legally, and it licensed those rights below fair market value, which is another no-no, and then it sold ebooks on its website without having the rights to them, yet another no-no.

I highly recommend reading Joe Konrath's entire post: Harlequin Fail Revisit.

Laura Resnick also did a darn good job of explaining this and you can find that post here: The Harlequin Class Action Lawsuit Explained.

Other reading:
- 99Designs.com: How I Solved My Book Cover Dilemma, and How You Can Too
- 8 Ways To Become A Better Writer
- Changes In Publishing, Signs Of Hope: A speech by Stephanie Laurens

Photo credit: carbonated

Ripley Patton: The Self-Validated Writer

I am honored to have another guest on my blog! Ripley Patton is soon publishing a young adult paranormal thriller, Ghost Hand. Her book has everything: ghosts, the paranormal and it's a thriller! What's not to like?

Ripley: I always thought I would get published via the traditional route. After all, I had been writing and successfully publishing short stories for seven years. I had been nominated for an award multiple times and won once. I already had a strong author platform, blog following, and fan base (in both hemispheres). I was pretty sure I was an agent or publisher's dream client. But, apparently, that was not the case.

When I began to shop my YA novel Ghost Hand around in the traditional manner, I didn't even get a nibble. Beta readers had loved it. I had revised it savagely three times. A well-published, award-winning novelist had read the manuscript and thought it was both well-written and marketable. Still, I got form rejections and finally a "no" from a major agency on the full manuscript.

A dark cloud descended over my dream. No one wanted what I had spent two years writing and polishing. I won't lie that I found myself in a dark place. I was depressed. I couldn't believe that all those years of people enjoying my writing were a lie, or something that had suddenly dried up and blown away. My one passion in life was to be a writer, but I had hit a serious road block. Maybe it really was all over.

Then I went to a Con, because that tends to cheer me up. And there I was, sitting in the audience at a panel on women in the gaming industry when some woman I don't know said something I will never forget. She said, "As women, we are always waiting for others to validate us. We want to be told we've done a good job or made something worthwhile before we will ever believe it ourselves. It is time for women to rise up and self-validate. It is time for us to take our place and toot our own horns."

I don't think this concept applies only to women. I think it applies to writers as well. The entire traditional publishing industry is an endless gauntlet of seeking the validation of others. We seek the validation of our peers. We seek the validation of an agent. We seek the validation of a publisher and an editor. We seek the validation of reviewers and sales. And last, but most importantly, we hang on the edge of our writerly seats, waiting for the daily validation of our readers. Traditionally, an author who wanted to get published had to run that gauntlet of spanks and paddles before they could ever reach their readers.

But not anymore.

And when that woman said what she did, I had an epiphany. I realized I had already circumnavigated the gauntlet. My writing had already been validated numerous times through contest wins and awards won and publications accepted. I had readers. I had a fan base. I had people who loved my writing. Yet, there I was lining up for a tunnel of punishment when I didn't have to.

That was the day I decided to self-publish Ghost Hand. That was the day my depression lifted, and I got really excited about being a writer again.

Of course, the self-publishing route isn't easy. It isn't any easier than the traditional route, though it certainly has been much more enjoyable for me. I love being a self-validated writer. 

Recently, I commissioned a professional cover design for Ghost Hand and that was a blast. Then I realized I was going to need money to pay for a quality professional edit, and I turned my eye to Kickstarter. Right now I am running a Kickstarter Project for Ghost Hand, and it has been very validating. My family, friends, and fans have gotten behind me. At the moment, I am nearly half-way to my goal. When I reach the half-way mark, I will be doing a BIG Unveiling of the Cover of Ghost Hand, so head on over and be a part of that by backing me today.

One thing I like about Kickstarter is that it isn't charity. Every backer receives a reward related to the creative project they are backing, and payment is made securely through Amazon, so if you have an Amazon account, you're all ready to go.

Want to join me in validating Ghost Hand? The first two chapters can be read on my website HERE. Two more chapters can be acquired by sending a request to my Ghost Hand mailing list. And of course, I hope you will go to my Kickstarter and back Ghost Hand with your financial support.

Karen: Thanks Ripley! I love your writing style and I can hardly wait to read Ghost Hand. By the way, for anyone interested in reading a great essay on agents I highly recommend Ripley's article, When Agents Fail.

Related posts:
- 50 Shades Of Alice In Wonderland: Another Indie Success Story
- 19 Ways To Grow Your Twitter Following
- How To Sell 100 Books Per Day: 6 Things You Need To Do

Google Wallet And Writers

Here's Google Wallet Overview, from YouTube:

You've probably heard about this. Rather than carry around a bunch of plastic you just carry around your smart phone which, chances are, you were going to take with you anyway. Rather than store a gazillion credit cards in a bulgy wallet you just use your phone to make purchases.

You might be wondering: Okay, but so what? This is a blog about writing and the publishing industry, not about new apps no matter how nifty.

It seems this technology could help change the way indie authors sell books. I don't know much about it, I've just watched a couple of Google videos, but wouldn't it be great if it made setting up an online store easier? Or at least gave us more options, more ways for folks to pay?

Wouldn't it be great if it made selling paper copies of our books easier? Just get your customer to use their phone to log into your online store, make the purchase, you'll be emailed a confirmation, and there you go! No more expensive wireless credit card machines.

Or am I on the wrong track? What do you think?

Related reading:
- 99Designs.com: How I Solved My Book Cover Dilemma, and How You Can Too
- Derek Haines: Are Free Ebooks A Good Marketing Strategy?
- My New MacBook Air: The Adventures Of A PC Gal In The MacBook World