Archives for February 2015

Five Star Treatment – The Wolf’s Moon by Patrick Jones

ebooksinternational:

Patrick is such a great writer, love his story-telling. The Wolf’s Moon and his upcoming books are a MUST-READ!

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

five-star2

Today’s Five Star Treatment is a book that explores the dark side of the Ozark Mountains and scientific revival of an extinct and dangerous species…..

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000026_00039]

About the Book.

Extinct beast comes to life, stalks Ozarks town…….

In “The Wolf’s Moon,” Patrick Jones writes a suspense thriller where one man must hunt down a mysterious wolf that preys upon the people of a small town and creates a spellbinding tale of an ancient animal that haunts the foothill towns of Missouri’s Ozark Mountains. An unknown group of scientists has genetically engineered a Dire Wolf into the present day. Allegedly extinct, the ferocious beast preys upon the innocent people of Maple Hills.

To hunt and kill the beast, the town folk will have to rely on the tracking feats of Mark Lansdowne. He is a reluctant hero, still mourning the loss of his wife to illness. Relying on his rescue dogs…

View original 842 more words


Five Star Treatment – The Wolf’s Moon by Patrick Jones

ebooksinternational:

Patrick is such a great writer, love his story-telling. The Wolf’s Moon and his upcoming books are a MUST-READ!

Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:

five-star2

Today’s Five Star Treatment is a book that explores the dark side of the Ozark Mountains and scientific revival of an extinct and dangerous species…..

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000026_00039]

About the Book.

Extinct beast comes to life, stalks Ozarks town…….

In “The Wolf’s Moon,” Patrick Jones writes a suspense thriller where one man must hunt down a mysterious wolf that preys upon the people of a small town and creates a spellbinding tale of an ancient animal that haunts the foothill towns of Missouri’s Ozark Mountains. An unknown group of scientists has genetically engineered a Dire Wolf into the present day. Allegedly extinct, the ferocious beast preys upon the innocent people of Maple Hills.

To hunt and kill the beast, the town folk will have to rely on the tracking feats of Mark Lansdowne. He is a reluctant hero, still mourning the loss of his wife to illness. Relying on his rescue dogs…

View original 842 more words


If it Looks too Good to be True, it Probably is!

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As an author, don’t let yourself trap by Vanity publishers and a plethora of scam artists that want to cash in on writers.  The list of these unethical offers is endless and unfortunately some writers are not vigilant and tweet / re-tweet or post without carefully reading and researching these scammers on the Internet. It is easy:  just google “complaint” and the name… You might be surprised what comes up!
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For Example on Monday:
I was on our Twitter book account when I saw by chance this tweet:

Worth a bookmark: To purchase Single ISBN numbers http://www.aardvarkglobalpublishing.com/isbn_numbers.php?adid=askjeeves 
#authors #writing #books  pic.twitter.com/hL5fNi5RfW

(I omit her name here, not to give her more appearance than necessary. Not sure why she promotes this Vanity printer and defends them fiercly…)
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I immediately ran into protection- and investigative mode, and made a quick Google search, as I saw that several people had retweeted it already and posted it.  I replied to her:

NOT a good idea – don’t be tempted by the price! Aardvark Global Publishing is listed as the publisher!  … and I added
ANOTHER TRAP FOR AUTHORS – Don’t waste your money! Read also this and compare:    BTW they pay only $1  – and sell it to authors for $69 …….. Don’t fall for this!  

Her answer:

Exactly my point. So again I ask, why smear a business. CreateSpace has it’s own problems, so do your research

I tweeted back:

Here is the research: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/ECKO-HOUSE-PUBLISHING/   aka Aardvark. $69 ISBN price works only when you publish with them http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Aardvark-Global-Publishing/Sandy-Utah  

Her answer:

You are blocked from following … my Tweets.

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Fine with me. Will not miss her vitriolic answers.  But I hope some smart authors have looked up this Vanity publisher as well (see all the complaint links from the Internet search about this company – who recently changed their name – at the end of this blog post).
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And then she shot one more:

Answer to the pissing duel on ISBN. Aardvark Global is affiliated w/ Bowker.

I am afraid she thought “affiliated” means belonging to Bowker.  Nothing could be further, they are just buyers there.  Dictionary: AFFILIATED means closely associated with another, typically in a dependent or subordinate position, or a re-seller.

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Why I Write About These Tweets?
As an author-publisher one needs to know about the publishing business and certainly about the predators who are hunting for victims.  Familiarize yourself with practices regarding ISBN “sales”, to learn what’s behind a seemingly cheap offer, and how these “businesses” work. 

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What Authors Need to Know About ISBN

  • ISBN numbers are sold to the publisher by the official agency for the USA, R.R. Bowker. If you are not buying it from Bowker, and instead getting it cheaper, or for free, from Vanity printers (everyone who poses as a “publisher”, taking money from writers for “services” that she or he could get much cheaper elsewhere), or POD printers (CreateSpace or SmashWords), trades his publisher-status in exchange for saving a couple of dollars to these “affiliates” of the official ISBN seller Bowker.  Like many others Aakvard / EckoHouse Publishing is a Vanity publisher, a printer or at least affiliated with a printing company.  Researching hundreds of Vanity publishers over the years, one always sees the same patterns…
  • How ISBN sales work: Bowker sells ISBN’s to publishers (and self-publishers) from 1 – 10,000 numbers.  See the prices below.
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This is an original screen shot from Bowker, the official seller of ISBN’s in the USA:
Buying ISBN’s in Bulk at Bowker:  

https://www.myidentifiers.com/get-your-isbn-now

1  $125.00

 

10  $295.00

 

100  $575.00 (= $ 5.75 / per ISBN

“If you are a USA based publisher and buying more than 100 ISBNs, we have programs designed to fit your needs,”  writes Bowker.

So, I gave them a call, to make sure my own files are correct, and 1,000 ISBN’s cost still $1,000 – which means Vanity Publishers and POD’s buy them for $1 / piece – and sell them for any amount, say for example $69 to an author – but ONLY if this authors buys also their other Vanity Services…  
If authors don’t sign up – they have to pay $139, exactly $14 more than they would pay at Bowker – or $138 more than Aarkvard-EckoHousePublishing can get it in bulk from Bowker…
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I am talking here about prices for US-authors / publishers.  The Canadian government supports the writing / publishing community generously, ISBN’s are free in Canada!

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isbn

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VERY IMPORTANT:
An ISBN gives a publisher (YOU)  free inclusion into Books in Print, the world’s largest catalog of books, which is licensed to all major search engines and to ten-thousands of bookstores and libraries.  Your ISBN record will also receive a free online listing at the online Books in Print bibliographic database that’s available on the open Web at http://seo.bowker.com.  Please read also how to sign up for this free listing on Bowker – but it works only if your imprint is listed as the publisher!
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The Book Designer, Joel Friedlander wrote:

  • The ISBN contains within it a “publisher identifier.” This enables anyone to locate the publisher of any particular book or edition. If you use a “free” ISBN from an author services company or a subsidy publisher, that company will be identified in bibliographic databases as the publisher.
  • Owning your own ISBNs gives you the ability to control the bibligraphic record for your book. This is an important part of your book’s metadata, and is a key component in your book being discoverable by online searchers. This has a powerful influence on your efforts to attract search engine traffic to your title.
  • And further cautions: “But keep in mind that it’s rarely a good idea to buy just one ISBN. If you intend to issue your book as both a printed book and an ebook, you will need two ISBNs right from the start, and the cost of buying two individual numbers is the same as purchasing ten numbers (currently $295). In addition, Bowker is actually registering your publishing company when they issue you your numbers, not your individual books. This is a key step for many self-publishers and that’s a pretty good reason to get an ISBN as well.”
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Bowker explains on their Help Page at Bowker:

Question: I got my ISBN from my printer and now I want to make sure it’s in my name, how do I transfer the ISBN?

ISBNs cannot be transferred on an individual basis. If a self-publisher wants to be identified as the publisher, the self-publisher must get their own ISBN.  A printing company or publisher services company cannot sell, give away or transfer one of their own ISBNs they bought in their publisher role, to a customer.

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The only way to be recognized as the publisher and have your book worldwide listed, is to order your ISBN’s directly from and pay to Bowker – and at the end it’s the least expensive!  Don’t give any of your rights away!  Not even to POD service companies. 

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Here is a Short List of Complaints on the Internet:

Aarkvad and Eckohouse Publishing are the same company!

ECKO House Publishing – The Revolutionary Way To Publish Your Book

What is “revolutionary” in taking advantage of authors? Or in printing books?  How else they make money from authors:  http://www.onestopcopyrighting.com

Judy SlackOrdered 10 ISBN numbers and bar codes. As of this date, I have not received or heard from Ecko after numerous calls and e-mails. What is going on with this company? PayPal has delivered the money so that should be no problem in delivery what I ordered in a timely manner according to their website promise.”  http://www.manta.com/c/mtrgs57/ecko-house-publishing

Better Business Bureau complaints
http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/publishers-book/ecko-house-publishing-in-sandy-ut-22311892/

http://www.mullinchinowsky.com/no_aardvark_global_publishing.htm

https://openlibrary.org/publishers/Aardvark_Global_Publishing  (Aardvark is claiming on their website to have 1000’s of authors helped… checking their website, there are only a few books)

http://www.scambook.com/company/view/122460/Aardvark-Global-Publishing

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/directory/aardvark-global-publishing

Well, and that’s their business site on Google+  –  no comment necessary …

https://plus.google.com/114875685637156881519/about

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Book Marketing on a Shoestring

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How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money 

A Prequel for:  111 Book Marketing Tips  – which launched in December 2015

Book Marketing on a Shoestring is available as an ebook on Amazon. Read it for FREE as KindleUnlimited or PRIME member!



OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS:

PART ONE

Why Book Marketing is Important – and Rewarding.

How Readers Will Find Your Book.

Author/Entrepreneur – Do You Have What it Takes?

Marketing Possibilities Seem to Be Overwhelming!

The Internet is Full of Bogus Stories.

What’s the Difference Between Marketing and Selling?

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PART TWO

Evaluate Your Current Publishing Situation.

Let’s Start With the Basic Tasks.

Get a Professional Author Portrait.

Create Your Avatar.

Use Your E-mail Signature.

Join the Most Effective Social Media Sites.

Join Reader/Writer Communities — Online and in Person.

Start a Website and/or Blog.

Sell Your Books from Your Website/Blog.

Create a Business Card, or Bookmarks.

Outline an “Elevator” Pitch.

Start a Newsletter E-mail List.

Write Blog Articles as a “Guest Blogger”.

Write Prequels for Your Future Novel.

Contribute Content to Article Directories.

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PART THREE

You Never Get a Second Chance …

Write a Compelling Blurb.

Edit, Edit, and Edit Even More!

Increase Readership: Create an Audio Book.

Will Print Copies Sell More Books?

Get an ISBN Number.

Why do you Need a Copyright Registration?

List Your Book Worldwide.

Create Excitement with a Book Cover Poll.

Gather as Many Early Reviews as Possible.

Get Advance Book Reviews from Magazines and Newspapers.

Get Pre-Orders for Your New Book.

How to Deal With the Media and Book Bloggers.

Submit Photos of Your Book Cover.

Sign up on HelpaReporter.com. 

Create a Media Kit.

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PART FOUR

Marketing Steps Within Your Book’s Content. 

Choose the Correct Category/Genre.

Let Your Readers Pay With a Tweet.

Press Releases for a Review—are They Worth the Effort?

Create a Separate BOOK PAGE or AUTHOR PAGE.

Organize Your Book Launch Party.

There are at least 17 Online Book Retailers.

With a Little Help from Your Friends…

Get More Book Reviews.

Cross Promotions and Blog Tours.

Create a Slideshow for Your Book.

The Power of Book Trailers.

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PART FIVE

Book Marketing Strategies

Selling Books and e-Books to Libraries

Offer Your Book to Book Discussion Clubs.

How to Profit from an Award

Get Interviews on Radio and TV Shows.

Improve Visibility for Your Books.

Connect All Your Social Networking Sites.

Read from Your Books at Libraries.

Book Signings at Local Bookstores

Get Your Book Translated Into World Languages.

Sell Your Foreign Rights.

How About a Movie Deal for Your Book?

How Else Can You Leverage Your Manuscript?

Bestseller Tips from Trade Publishers.

Checklist for Your Book Marketing (Timeline)

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Book Marketing on a Shoestring contains 103 pages, chock full of valuable tips for authors, and will be very affordable priced at US$2.99.  If you are a frequent reader of our blogs you can already imagine how useful this ebook will be for your own book marketing!

Thanks for writing a review after reading it  : )

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Indies Unlimited Excellence Awards

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Indies-Unlimited

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A Big THANKS to Sandy & Patrick Jones who Suggested Our Blog

and to All of You who Voted in these Excellence Awards

and to the Organizers from Indies Unlimited.

Honored, humbled and a bit proud.

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We will certainly continue to deliver several times a week

all the latest information, valuable tips and links to our readers –

in order to make their publishing experience as smooth and successful as possible.

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To receive even more insider tips, join our monthly newsletter:

On the upper right-hand-side of each blog post you see

Subscribe to our mailing list

Type in your email address and hit the button “Subscribe”.

You will immediately receive a confirmation email.

Usually in the last third of each month you find our newsletter in your emails.
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Let your friends on Social Media know about it,

click on the sharing buttons on top of this page, THANKS.

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11 Tips How to Prepare Your Manuscript for Editing

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Editing Process.

Editing for an Executive-Level Manuscript
Many new authors are surprised to find the editing process may take longer than anticipated. The first step in publishing is easy for them: formulate ideas and write them. it’s often much more difficult for authors to correlate, expand on, add clarity to, and chop down those ideas.

Imagine an executive chef cooking a roast chicken. She takes the plain, unseasoned chicken out of the oven and sets it on top of the stove to cool off. Next, she smiles, throws her hands up in victory, exclaiming “It’s done! It’s done! Okay, people, enjoy my 5-star creation! It’s worthy of my name!” This would be comparable to an author, finishing the last sentence of a book, and throwing it on the market without carefully editing and proofreading.
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How to Prepare for Editing
Needless to say, the chicken is not complete. The chef may have cooked a chicken so tender it falls off the bone. However, the job is not thorough. The diners are interested in a complete experience. They want seasoning, possibly sauce and garnish. A cook may be capable of making a tasty, simple chicken dish. However, an executive chef in a gourmet restaurant will turn the dish into a lingering, mouth-watering delight.

Every author who wishes her work to stand out and entice a loyal audience needs to think in a manner similar to an executive chef. Two-star books aren’t adequate; there are hundreds of thousands of books out there. Five-star works stand out. The key is in the details.  Top-level books flow better, and provide a quick read, precisely because an excessive amount of time was expended on editing.  Time, patience, and attention to detail are crucial to every successful manuscript.
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To Save Time and Money: Prepare for Editing
Self-editing is a necessary step to the writing process. It’s a good idea to edit your manuscript before you send it to a professional editor. This may save time, money, and confusion. Various professionals suggest authors self-edit a minimum of two rounds. I edit continually as I write, which may not work for everyone. I revise my blog posts even after I click the “publish” button.

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Tips for Initial Self-Editing 

1. Grammar and Syntax
Before you let anyone else look at your manuscript, refine the grammar and syntax (the arrangement of words and phrases.) It’s crucial for any writer to double check syntax; however it’s especially crucial for second language speakers. The arrangement of words and phrases may vary with the language. For example, in Spanish, we will write “salsa picante”, literally translated “sauce hot”. However, the phrase will translate correctly to “hot sauce” in English. Nouns come before adverbs in many languages; adverbs come before nouns in English.
Note: “Syntax” relates more to the placement of parts of speech, or the structure of a certain part of the sentence. “Sentence construction” relates to the general feel of a sentence, or the way the entire sentence is put together.

2. Punctuation (correct placement of commas, semicolons, colons, apostrophes, quote marks, and hyphens).

3. Grammar (appositives, complete sentences, subject-verb agreement)

4. Varied sentence construction (Don’t always put your sentences together the same way. For example, if you usually write “John said, ‘I’ll meet you at the library’”, start writing “John told us he’d meet us at the library”–or a different variation.)

5. Strong, not passive, verbs

6. Spelling (Did you use the spell check?)

7. Limit redundancies and unnecessary words. Limit overused words as well as “that” and “ly” adverbs. Use the “Find/Replace” key of your computer.
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Getting Your Manuscript Critiqued.

8. Here are some questions to ask yourself before you move forward:
· Is it your first draft?
· Has anyone else read at least a portion of it?
· Did you thoroughly revise and edit it?
When you’re satisfied with your answers, you may choose to initiate your first (quick) round of finding beta readers and proofreaders.

9. Get one or more Beta Readers—Honest individuals who read a pre-published copy of your work. They will look for continuity, flow, points of confusion as well as general grammar and syntax issues.

10. Proofreader—A detail-oriented person who goes through your manuscript word for word. They look for nit-picky issues of spelling, grammar, syntax, and sentence construction.
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Why Should Others Look at Your Manuscript?
I’m not sure how many other authors initiate multiple stages of proofreading and editing; but, I do. I find that recruiting another set of eyes to look at even part of my work before I take a break from writing gives me valuable insight. The first beta readers of my book didn’t read many pages of the manuscript; but, they gave me worthwhile guidance on the following: switching direction and emphasis; and, clarifying, deleting, or shortening particular points.
An outside, objective view during this stage of the process is crucial. It may showcase inconsistencies or errors to which you’ve grown accustomed. Beta readers and proofreaders don’t have to be publishing professionals, although they fulfill some of the duties of a trained editor. They can be friends, relatives, or fellow authors, especially during this first, “look at the big picture” cycle.
Choose people who aren’t afraid to be honest. They will tell you if you are on the right track with your message and/or plot. Their other duty is to let you know if there are any confusing, incomplete, inappropriate, or lengthy parts.
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The Final Stages
The next step is to take a break from your manuscript. Move on to something else—for as long as it takes to clear your mind. It’s difficult to self-edit; it’s easy to become skewed in your thinking, even obsessive. You will get a fresh perspective if you move on to another project for a while. You may choose to read and write something else.

11. Repeat the above steps as many times as necessary.
Now, it’s time to get serious; it’s the final, official round of beta editing and proofreading. This period will be comprehensive. The people you choose to help you should be prepared to devote hours to your manuscript. At this point, if you’re satisfied with the results, go ahead and send your manuscript to an editing professional.

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Traci Lawrence writes about her passion: communication, relationships, the value of individuals and rising above verbal bullying, or trash talk.
She lives in the Northern Virginia area of the United States and teaches English, among other subjects.  Please find more on her blog, and read her book: Accept No Trash Talk: Overcoming the Odds.
For more information on Traci’s editing services, please click here

 

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Tax for Books Sold in Europe

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Taxes-in-Europe

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Amazon sent out an email two months ago, as they had to change their tax requirements in Europe.  Other European countries charge up to 21% tax (VAT) and contrary to the US and Canada, their tax is INCLUDED in the sales prices, NOT added, like in North America.  
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They paid almost no taxes there, setting up shop in Luxembourg, tax there is the lowest in the European Union. Amazon did for many years not pay the tax in countries of their shipments, where it is much higher, and therefore was ordered by European courts to pay the tax where the books where actually delivered.

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Add the Tax to Your Book’s Price
Amazon pays writers a revenue of 35% or 70% from the books net price. So if you set the price for your book for all other countries (not the US) for example to the equivalent of $2.99 – the net price in Europe would be approx. $2.30 or $2.50, depending on the country.  Amazon would only pay you 35% revenue as the net price is under $2.99 – instead of the 70% you used to get for a book priced at $2.99..

In their December 2014 email Amazon suggested authors to opt in, having their USD price automatically converted by them. If you took advantage of this courtesy offer, Amazon added VAT to the converted price – but only for those books that were already on Amazon before December 31, 2014.

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Books Uploaded After January 1, 2015
For all books uploaded from Jan 1, and your future ebooks, Amazon will convert the US Dollar price into Pounds Sterling (UK) and Euros and NOT add any VAT. It means that your future royalties will further decrease if you do not take the time to set your own European prices. These changes do not affect only Amazon, they affect all ebook sellers across the EU, such as Kobo, Barnes & Noble or Apple.

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Earn More
For future book price calculations, always keep in mind: Sales tax (VAT) is deducted before your European revenue is calculated – at all online book retailers and bookstores.  By taking the time in the future to set your own prices, you earn more. For more details, prices examples, charm prices and aggregator considerations check out these two articles by Michelle A. Demers, excerpts from her latest book The Global Indie Author:

http://mademers.com/globalindieauthor/2014/12/using-charm-pricing-to-increase-your-book-sales/

http://mademers.com/globalindieauthor/2015/01/understanding-kdps-new-vat-inclusive-pricing-and-how-to-work-it-to-your-advantage/

 

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If you would like to get a mentor and support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,160 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? There is also the “SHARE” button for easy sharing at Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

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Hyper Smash

Pingate

Why it is Smart to Get Your Own ISBN

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ISBN

In a recent blog post I mentioned the findings of the January 2015 Author Earnings Report: 30% of the e-books being purchased in the U.S. do not use ISBN numbers and are invisible to the industry’s official market surveys and reports.  Which also means: all the ISBN-based estimates of market share reported by Bowker, AAP, BISG, and Nielsen are wildly wrong.

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Bestseller Author M.A.Demers Explains:
“An ISBN clearly identifies an e-book as a book, no different from a print book.  No ISBN leaves the door open to classify the good as a digital good and not a book.  Since e-books retailers such as Amazon sell a multitude of items in addition to e-books, only an ISBN “proves” the good sold is an e-book. This explains why Italy, who are already facing prosecution for lowering the rate of VAT on e-books, will only do so if the e-book bears an ISBN.”

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A Book – or Not a Book in Italy?
Writing about changes in sales tax (VAT) in the EU, Amazon recently explained in their email that Italy has implemented new legislation that charges a higher rate of VAT on e-books that do not have an ISBN.
e-Books that do not contain an ISBN are charged 22% VAT, while e-books with an ISBN are charged a rate of only 4%.  One might argue: I don’t care about the Italian book market, but other countries might follow this example. 

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The Publisher?  The One Who Owns the ISBN!
You may encounter offers from other sources to purchase single ISBNs at special offer prices. Companies that provide limited services such as distributing, retailing, bar code services, printing, and/or marketing should NOT assign ISBN’s from their company to your publications – unless you allow them to also hold the publishing rights for your books.  If you use one of these reassigned ISBN’s, you will not be correctly identified as the publisher of record in “Books in Print” or many of the book industry databases.  If you want to appear as a professional author-publisher: an ISBN helps to cement your publisher brand and makes it easier for the bookstores and libraries to carry your book or e-book. Each version of your book (e-book, paperback, hardcover, or audio- book) needs a unique ISBN.  So be smart and order a block of ten.  And list your book worldwide with Bowker to be in all databases of libraries and bookstores around the globe.
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BTW:  Did you change your sales price on Amazon? If not, hurry, otherwise you might get only 30% instead of 70% for your $2.99 book.  Amazon would pay you only half of your revenue.

 

Read All About ISBN here:

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/isbn-numbers-and-how-to-get-one/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/author-beware-unauthorized-resellers-of-isbns/

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If you would like to get a mentor and support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,160 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? There is also the “SHARE” button for easy sharing at Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

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Hyper Smash

Pingate

5 Facts About Your Book’s Ranking on Amazon

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Amazon-Rankings

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In my last blog post I explained the differences between all these rankings and lists on Amazon. Today Amazon’s algorithm is explained and what it means for authors and their work.  Did you know that Amazon has the second largest search engine after Google?  Knowing Amazon’s algorithm can help to boost the exposure for your book.  These little known facts are not publicised by Amazon:

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No Sales Today? 50% Rank Decrease…
A single day without sales decreases your book’s sales rank by ca. 50 per cent, which means the Amazon algorithms devalue a sales rank by half every 24 hours (approximately).  Sales numbers are increasing exponentially with high ranks, which explains why it its hard for a new title to climb into higher rankings.

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Disadvantage for Brand New Books
A book with a lower rank must reach at least double the sales numbers of a higher ranked title to overtake it – if it is brand new book.  This distance decreases from day to day because the newer, lower title also gets counted with its sales from previous days. Pre-sales help to increase the rank for your new book in the beginning.

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Borrows on KindleUnlimited influence the sales rank immediately.
For your sales rank all borrows count immediately.  Borrows on KindleUnlimited are only paid when the user reads at least 10 percent.  However, sales only count for the sales rank if they are in the sales report (being shown on the dashboard is not enough).  You can reach higher visibility on Amazon without having to wait until a borrower actually reads your book.  Even if a borrower never reads your book but only returns it later, you still have a higher sales rank (but you won’t get paid, of course).  It also explains why there often is a difference between sales numbers and sales ranks as the author has no possibility to actually see these virtual borrows.

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Reduced Prices or Free Books.
Amazon does also count-in the price of a book. Reduced book prices, often used by author-publishers might not be such a good idea after all…  Edward W. Robertson explains in an interview regarding book prices:  “Something like $5.99 – $12.99 looks to be the ideal range at the moment. Affordable enough for people to buy in droves (if the quality is there), but with a high enough price to hang with all the high-priced traditionally published books.”

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Amount of Reviews Plays a Role.
How you get onto the first search results depends also on how many reviews you’ve managed to receive. Your customers won’t see those reviews at first, but Amazon will be using them to determine where your book belongs in the rankings.
And don’t forget that there are still Top 100 lists for both paid and free books. These lists are created differently than other lists, but also effect your book sales. See also Bestseller Ranks: Only the top 10,000 books are calculated hourly, while books with a ranking of 10,000+ are calculated once per day with ‘current projections as well as historic sales information playing a key role in Amazon’s calculations’.

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What Does Amazon’s Algorithm Mean for the Author?  Twenty sales each day for a week get you higher than 150 sales one day and none the other.  KindleUnlimited is not a bad deal as some authors might claim – as you get an immediate boost if someone borrows your book.

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If you would like to get a mentor and support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,160 of them : ) if you haven’t already.  Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? There is also the “SHARE” button for easy sharing at Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

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All About Amazon Rankings

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Puzzled by all these rankings on Amazon?  You are not alone!  Author ranking, bestseller ranking, sales ranking, popularity lists… Here are the most important rankings and what they mean. One thing for all rankings: they are valid only in one specific country.  Your ranking on Amazon.com maybe totally different from the one in Germany or the UK.

 

  • The author ranking shows how the author compares to other authors who sell books.
  • The sales ranking shows how well your book ranks in sales out of millions of other books.
  • Bestseller Rank is calculated once per day (if your ranking is more than 10,000 – otherwise hourly) with “current projections as well as historic sales information playing a key role in Amazon’s calculations”.
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Rankings are different in every country’s Amazon store, as Amazon sorts the world’s nations into different markets.  This way a book can get a wide variety of rankings – depending on the country.  A #1 rank means this book has recently sold more than any other product in that category, in this specific country.
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The Rank is Based on Sales, not Reviews or Ratings.
Certainly do reviews and rankings help your sales, and in turn your sales rank.  Jim Kukral, founder of the author marketing club explains: “You will never be able to sustain a top ranked, top-selling book on Amazon without sales. And there’s no way to “game” sales except to spend the money and buy more books. Sure, you could price your book $.99 and then take hundreds of thousands of dollars of your own money and buy your own books in an attempt to boost your sales ranking. But Amazon will only count sales in small increments.”

“For example, you can’t go and order 1,000 of your books at once and expect it to jump your sales rank.  It will only count as a few sales.  This is of course to stop people from doing that exact thing.”

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Buying into Bestseller Lists
“Some have tried to get around this by funnelling their seed money to “best-seller” outlets who will, for a fee, take your money and have their network of people around the world buy one or two copies of your book at a time, which can and does work. This is how many NY Times best-sellers are allegedly produced.”

10 sales each day for a week get you higher than 100 sales one day and none on the other day. KindleUnlimited is not as bad a deal as one might think and: you get an immediate boost if someone borrows your book.  For your sales ranking all borrows count immediately.

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One More Rank: Bestseller
Only the top 10,000 books are calculated hourly, while books with a ranking of 10,000+ are calculated once per day with ‘current projections as well as historic sales information playing a key role in Amazon’s calculations’. Paid and free books on Amazon are weighted the same when it comes to the Amazon Bestsellers rank, but are published in different bestseller lists. To increase your bestseller rank, your book must sell more units than other books in the same category.

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Amazon’s Predictive Analytics
Author Phoenix Sullivan explains how Amazon algorithm works. Here is a short listing he extracted and which is explained in length in his article How those Algorithms work.
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Differences between the popularity and bestseller lists:

  • The popularity list includes freebies. The bestseller list does not.
  • The popularity list does not include borrows. The bestseller list does.
  • The popularity list has a price bias. The bestseller list does not.
  • The popularity list influences the bestseller list more than the bestseller list influences popularity.
  • The popularity list includes sales (and sales-equivalents) over the last 30 days. The bestseller list weights sales history, but not to the extent the popularity list does.
  • The popularity list re-submits about once per day. The bestseller list re-crunches hourly.
  • The popularity list has a lag time of about 2 days. The bestseller list has about an hour lag time.
  • The popularity list rank does not display anywhere except in the list itself. The bestseller rank is the rank you find on a book’s product page.

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Rob Nightingale Wrote a Great Explanation about Amazon’s Predictions:
“Recent sales alone are not all that’s taken into account.  Amazon also has predictive features built into the Bestsellers Rank, which are likely to be based on historical data of a title.  This is how a newly released book can have a higher ranking than a book released three years ago, even when the latter has more cumulative sales – Amazon can predict that the new release will overtake that book in a given period of time.”
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“A book that’s ranked 800,000 can see it’s rankings skyrocket to 200,000 just with a couple of sales. As you move up the ladder, however, Amazon’s complex algorithm kicks in soon thereafter making it harder for you to break through the 100,000 milestone, and even harder to get past 10,000.  This is because these higher rated products have historical data to back them up, so a lull in sales for them won’t result in as dramatic a drop in rankings as it would for a new title with less data to draw on. In all, the ranking seems to be somewhat logarithmic.”
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See also a Video:
Amazon Keywords & other Tips by Jason Matthews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC8lD9EaGOQ

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Want to be successful selling Kindle books?  Write more high-quality books so that it can get more high-quality reviews to be placed onto wish lists and “also-bought lists”.  Write better descriptions for your books, test new covers, new prices and place your book into a different category to try out how it fares there.  Most important: find ways to get more people to leave high-quality reviews.

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If you would like to get a mentor and support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day!
Learn more about our customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,160 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email?  There is also the “SHARE” button for easy sharing at Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

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Hyper Smash

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