EBook Sales Are (no surprise) Up.
Internet Book Sales Are
(no surprise) Up too!
Read the whole story on Ask the Agent
Read the whole story on Ask the Agent
Amazon Book Promotion
You have listed your book on Amazon.com because it is the world’s largest book seller and everyone in the publishing field says you must. Once your book is published on Amazon, do you let it just sit, while waiting for sales? And then you are not making sales to anyone but family and friends. You need to learn “how to work Amazon”!
Discover how brilliant their book catalog sales pages are structured and how you can promote your book continually and on multiple levels – if you use their free promotion tools. Amazon structured their site for auto-promotion, promotion and more promotion for each and every book.
Unfortunately these automated systems and promotional layers are unknown to many authors. Also unknown is the importance of, and how easy it is, to rank to the top 100 in several high-profile lists, some without even selling one book. But being seen in these lists nearly always generates sales.
Category Bestseller
Category and subcategory best seller lists were created to highlight an item’s rank in the categories or subcategories where it really stands out. Choose the smaller categories that are more tightly targeted to your subject. This sounds simple but you would be surprised how many authors don’t pay attention to this. One example: instead of placing your book in the Business category choose the smaller, less competitive and more precise sub-category under it, Business-Budgeting.
Why are the proper categories so important? Without the right categories you may never earn a category bestseller, therefore never gain the publicity needed for higher visibility, never be recognized by Amazon’s algorithms which gains you better rankings in the numerous other Amazon top 100 lists, which generates more sales, which gains higher visibility, which gains rankings, which generates more…
Tags
You won’t believe how easy it is to rank in the first few pages, and you don’t have to sell even one book to earn placement. Choose tags that best describe your topic and ask friends to “agree” with them by clicking on them. Get as many as possible to click the checkboxes because this gives you higher ratings in those Tag Communities. The Tags section of Amazon sales pages are much more than just a search engine assistant.
Top Rated List
Here is another Amazon top 100 list, where you don’t need to outsell anyone to make the list. You don’t have to sell one book, yet inclusion in this list nearly guarantees sales.
Amazon’s search algorithm finds and tallies the number of reviews for each book and its star rating. The more good reviews your book has the higher up this reader’s choice Top Rated list you go. So be sure to urge all your readers to write a small review on your sales page.
Top Rated – for Kindle books only
The Amazon top rated calculation is based entirely on customer reviews. In addition to average star ratings, the calculation takes into account an item’s total number of reviews and compares it with other items within a category or subcategory. This allows books with strong star ratings across many reviews to outrank items with a better average rating but only a few reviews. The Top Rated calculation also gives less value to older ratings in favor of more recent ratings to ensure that the Top Rated lists highlight items that customers currently think are best.
Customer favorites Top 100 of the year
Customer orders per year are measured by this rating.
Best books of the month
These books are monthly picks of Amazon editors.
Bestsellers in Books
These lists contain the top 100 bestselling book sold by every author in every category combined, and are hourly updated.
Best Books of the Year
Books editors at Amazon read all year, considering every book, “Is this one worth telling people about?” These are the books they’ve been talking about all year, and have watched customers spread the word about too.
Top Rated – Kindle e-books only
The Amazon Top Rated calculation is based entirely on customer reviews. In addition to average star ratings, the calculation takes into account an item’s total number of reviews and compares it with other items within a category or subcategory. This allows books with strong star ratings across many reviews to outrank items with a better average rating but only a few reviews. The Top Rated calculation gives less value to older ratings in favor of more recent ratings to ensure that the Top Rated lists highlight items that customers currently think are best.
Most Gifted
These lists, updated daily, contain books most often ordered as gifts.
Most Wished For
These lists, updated daily, contain books most often added to Wish Lists and registries.
Amazon created an ingenious marketing engine, in several layers of free and automated publicity, each layer completely unique, and each one reaching millions of readers every minute – but it helps authors only if they use it!
Before you even attempting to write, develop and market an e-book, or paper book for that matter, create yourself a roadmap.
Research first and build a solid foundation. The problem is that too many people are in a hurry to start writing and don’t lay a foundation for book marketing. They spend all this time writing, and then they have no buyers.
Do the research and find out if your idea is going to make money. If yes, great! Go for it. If not, find another idea.
Ask yourself some hard questions:
• Who will be your e-book readers?
• Is there a demand for your eBook product?
• Is your e-book a “must have” purchase?
• How much will people pay for your product?
• Does the purchase of your eBook lead to additional e-book sales?
• How much money will you need to fund your project?
• How likely are you to excel among the competition?
• How do you contact and “pitch” your product to your potential buyers?
• How to you get the important book reviews?
• Do you have already lots of followers in your social networks?
Writing your book is only 20% of the work, 80% is marketing! Having a plan on how you intend to market, publicize and sell your book before starting to write it is crucial.
• Choose your book content
• Start marketing your book, even before writing it
• Design and format it into a perfect downloadable file
• Create a professional cover for your e-book
• Select the e-book retailer to upload your book (Amazon, Apple, B&N, Sony…)
• Continue marketing your book
You are responsible for providing your own ongoing marketing for e-published work – the same as for paper books that are often not very well marketed. A book might be great, but if nobody knows about it, it won’t sell. Authors can’t count on the public seeing their books on shelves or in store windows – they have to find it on the internet.
Suddenly e-books are much better looking…
Amazon is releasing “Kindle Fire” by mid-November, and the company is already working on tweaking its immense collection of e-books for maximum compatibility with the Kindle Fire.
Amazon is actually retiring their MOBI format in favor of the new .KF8 format (or Kindle Format 8), this includes support for 150 new formatting tags, supporting HTML5 and CSS. This is quite a shift in direction for the eCommerce giant from supporting MOBI 7. HTML5 is quickly becoming the new web standard and Amazon is moving in this direction.
They will convert all existing content into the .KF8 format, and users also have the option of updating existing titles they have on their Kindle ebook readers and Kindle readers on other mobile platforms.
Amazon is also releasing a new set of Kindle Publishing Guidelines, which ebook authors and publishers should take into consideration when building their content for distribution via Amazon.
This is where a professional formatting/conversion company gives helpful support to authors and self-publishers. Publishers will need to update their titles in order to use the new format.
The new Amazon Kindle format will ideally support a wider array of devices, and not just Amazon’s proprietary Kindle ebook reader. The new format also allows for more versatile formatting, as well as a more portable format. The company is said to be looking for a replacement for its .MOBI format, and this seems to be it.
Joining the community of contributors is a great way to get more readers to your blog. It’s easy! More readers find a link to your blog or website. Submit an article from your blog to:
http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_5301.html
•Choose a blog article to share, and note its Permalink URL.
•If you know what carnival you’d like to submit it to, select it below.
•If you’re not sure which carnival to choose, browse our list of carnivals.
•Fill in the other fields (hint: copy and paste!), and hit Submit.
http://www.networkedblogs.com/topic/epublishing
Ninua (pronounced nin-wa) has built one of the largest distribution platforms for news on social networks, connecting 750,000 blogs and publications to the real identities of their writers and readers. You need a Facebook account to login and submit your blog.
JAMES MERRILL HOUSE WRITERS IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM
http://www.jamesmerrillhouse.org/index.html
$30 APPLICATION FEE
We ask that writers spending an extended (4-1/2 month) residency give a reading of their work during their time of residency and contribute to the literary life of Stonington Borough, CT, in some other fashion. Applications for the 2012-2013 term will be accepted between October 1, 2011 and January 25, 2012.
The stipend for the Spring 4 1/2 month term will be $5,000. Smaller stipends offered for the Brief Residencies.
GLIMPSE CORRESPONDENTS PROGRAM
http://glimpse.org/the-correspondents-program/
DORLAND MOUNTAIN ARTS COLONY
http://www.dorlandartscolony.org/
Readers can ask authors questions about their books as they are reading it.
The new program, called @author, lets Kindle users highlight a passage and then ask the author a question about it via their Amazon author page or Twitter. Only questions as long as 100 characters can be asked from within the e-book itself, but more in-depth ones can be posted to the author’s official page on Amazon.
Of course, only a handful of questions will actually be answered directly by authors, but other readers are free to chime in (or http://chime.in) and offer their take. If the writer does respond, readers will be notified by email.
It is a step toward a book culture that is increasingly author-driven rather than one driven strictly by publishers or even necessarily books.
Here are 8 possibilities to offer your freelance articles.
Check out their previous editions and study carefully submission guidelines before pitching a story.
COUNTRY BUSINESS
http://www.country-business.com/magazine/submissions.aspx
Note the editorial calendar. Readers find useful tips and articles that pertain to any retail operation–everything from marketing and display ideas to finance and legal matters.
SALVO
http://www.salvomag.com/new/mag/subguides.php
—
Salvo publishes an eclectic range of articles in the areas of sex, science, and society. What distinguishes our content is its systematic deconstruction of false ideologies, philosophies,
and worldviews. Articles should be well-researched and logically sound, as well as somewhat timeless in subject matter. Salvo is intended as a permanent resource; thus, articles that are overly tied to current events will be rejected. Articles should be no less than 600 words and no more than 2,500. Pays 20 cents/word.
SPIRITUALITY AND HEALTH
http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/about/submission-guidelines.html
Spirituality & Health is a nondenominational bi-monthly magazine that reports on the people, practices, and ideas of the spiritual renaissance in contemporary society and their impact on personal and community well-being. It provides readers with practices to aid them in their own spiritual formation and strives for journalistic objectivity in the presentation of stories about specific religions and denominations. Features may run from 800 to 2,500 words.
We do not accept fiction, poetry, or music submissions. Pays $300 to $1,000 for features and up to $200 for briefs.
SPORTING CLASSICS
http://www.sportingclassics.com/contact
Hunting, advice, true-life adventure, and equipment about sport hunting. Also accepts fiction and art with hunting themes. Pays up to $800 for fiction up to 3,000 words and articles up to 2,500 words. Departments are 800 to 1,200 words and pay $250 to $750. Photos pay extra.
HERIZONS
http://www.herizons.ca/contribute
Payment is made in Canadian funds upon publication. Articles in Herizons are licensed for first time North American rights @ .20 cents/word with an additional .5 cents/word for non-exclusive subsidiary rights, including the right to transfer articles to CD rom for educational/academic libraries and/or secure on-line database services. Herizons’ audience is a feminist readership.
BREATHE
http://www.readbreathe.com/contributors-guidelines/
We’re looking for content that’s both informative and entertaining for active women who value a healthy lifestyle. A “healthy lifestyle” encompasses everything from how we treat our minds and bodies (nutrition, fitness, health, beauty) to how we treat our planet (green living, social responsibility, eco-friendly products and practices). Our features vary in length from 800-2,500 words.
SECOND STORY PRESS
http://secondstorypress.ca/submissions
We are a Canadian feminist press publishing books of special interest to women. Our list is a mix of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. We look for manuscripts dealing with the many diverse and varied aspects of the lives of girls and women.
COLLCA
http://collca.com/index.php
Collca is an electronic publisher specialising in bite-size ebooks and apps for the Apple iOS devices – iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. We’re also starting to expand our electronic publishing program beyond apps for iOS devices. In particular, we’d like to hear from authors who could write bite-size non-fiction ebooks on almost any subject, well-structured, contain around 10,000-15,000 words and written for the general public rather than for experts. Pictures and diagrams are desirable but not essential.
Excerpt from www.fundsforwriters.com
Subscribe to their newsletter and you will find regularly tips about freelance writing.
How Darren Rowse gets millions of blog visitors
DigitalPhotographySchool.com is seen by over 3 million people each month. In April 2006 when Darren Rowse started the site, it was just a simple blog that saw 3-4 new posts a week. The growth of a blog can be attributed to many different factors: quality content, generating a subscriber’s list, and excellent Search Engine Optimization. Rowse says that “leveraging” had a big part in his blog’s success. What he did was:
Among other good practices, he used resources that he already had on-hand to help him to boost his new site.
What can YOU do with your blog content?
Create an Ebook
Find a series of articles that have a similar topic and compile them into a marketable format.
Create a Video Series
Say you’ve got a bunch of articles that describe, step by step, how to create (…fill in…)
Post on Social Media
Recycle some of your most interesting content and post it on Chime.in, Facebook, eZines – always with a link to your blog.
Refer-a-friend Promotion
Provide a reward for your users that gets another person to become a visitor, member or sign up for the email list.
Guest Posting
Guest posting allows you to attract targeted traffic that is already interested in your niche.
Blog Comments
Participate in the comments section of other blogger’s posts and on social sites.
There’s no need to constantly create new things – instead form new relationships, or attract new readers to your blog. You can even use this post to start leveraging right away – can you leave a comment that will get me to visit your site?