Archives for October 2015

Just in Time for Halloween – Two Thrillers FREE

You might have heard or even know Patrick Jones’ 400+ pages thriller
THE WOLF’s MOON   http://www.amazon.com/Wolfs-Moon-Linden-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B0077F0DFI/  which is FREE on Kindle today, October 29 and on Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31.

 

The-Wolfs-Moon

Get it via the “international” link
rxe.me/77F0DFI  –  FREE for all countries 

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About the book: Mark Lansdowne, whose friendly exterior masks a history of covert missions and lethal violence, is still recovering from the death of his beloved wife one year prior. The outside world intrudes into his grief in a bloody fashion with a string of horrific attacks on locals. The body count spirals; the apparent culprit is an animal allegedly extinct for thousands of years. Lansdowne relentlessly tracks the creature, inadvertently becoming engaged in a life-or-death battle. Victorious but wounded, Lansdowne ends up in the hospital – while outside, evidence implies that the animal Lansdowne killed was not the only one of its kind.
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Bestselling author Patrick Jones – read also an interview with him – has a second Halloween gift for readers:  His latest book THE RIVER  – it’s FREE too for the next three days.
http://www.amazon.com/River-Patrick-Jones-ebook/dp/B0157GPKCE/

 

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Get it via the “international” link
rxe.me/7GPKCE –  FREE for all countries 

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Follow Patrick Jones on his social media and author pages too:
Patrick Jones’ author page at Amazon
Patrick Jones’ Twitter page is, another link to Twitter
Pinterest
FaceBook
Goodreads
Goodreads The Wolf’s Moon
Goodreads The River
LinkedIn

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How to Create Curated Content for Your Blog

curating-content

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In an upcoming book, I listed content that bloggers can use without even writing much, such as info-graphics, videos, images and also “curated content”.  It prompted a question what curated content means.
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News aggregation websites, for example, have been curating content from other news websites and from the wire since online news reporting began, and even before that, at newspapers and TV media. Almost every non-fiction guidebook, how-to-guide, and self-help title is an accumulation of curated content.

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What is Content Curation?
Content curation is finding information relevant to your audience from a variety of sources and then sharing it via your blog, website, social media and other communication channels.  You write a post based on a given subject and within that post you add snippets from other bloggers posts written on the same subject.  In layman’s words: You write about what others write, you comment and you create a summary of their articles.
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Important: Linking
However, you have to give full accreditation in the form of one or more links back to their blog post and other important sites of these authors, e.g. “about”, “bio” or other posts they have written about similar topics.  Whether you’re recommending a blog post, article, video, social media update or another online resource, always use the permalink (permanent link) for the specific item, rather than the general website address.
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Any Content can be Curated
As long as you include a link to the author, you can curate any kind of content, for example, you can curate written content, any video material which is shareable and can be embedded, such as YouTube and Vimeo videos, any video images, news from aggregation sites. However, always be aware of copyright issues and check if you are not sure.  If you want to engage your visitors you need to find specific and relevant content, whether it is text or images, video or audio.
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Content curation doesn’t include creating totally new content – it’s more about discovering, compiling, and sharing existing content with your online followers (from your blog or social media).

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Blog Post Planning
Set the scene for your subject with a couple of paragraphs and try to include quotes or mention other authoritative bloggers or experts in that field, and introduce other relevant content. There are even tools, such as Zemanta a free WordPress plugin which scans your page as you type and suggests images and content for you to use.
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An example of curated blog content is my former post from Monday this week: “Amazon Book Reviews Worldwide?”
https://www.savvybookwriters.com/amazon-book-reviews-worldwide/
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Accreditation
Keep your quotes brief – one or two sentences – to adhere to fair use guidelines. Simply by placing a link to the original article and a mention of the author will suffice.  Images are more mostly covered by copyright, so use your own ones or get them at free photo sites.

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Commentary
Without an engaging commentary, content curation will be no more than taking someone’s content and placing it on your blog page.  Give the reader quality content which is relevant to their search, if you can give your own take on the subject and then inject the curated snippets and content into your own thread then you are getting the reader to engage with you on your own ideas.

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Find Great New Content
List the best posts before moving on to the curation process, and check the page rank of the post.  A higher page rank will help your own page to rank higher.  Choose a part which is interesting to build the story you are writing, copy and paste it into your article and link back to the article that you are taking the snippet from.

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Add a Commentary

In an article ContentMasteryGuide.com suggests:

  • Do you agree with the premise of the article? Why or why not?
  • How does the content relate to your specific audience?
  • What points do you think were missing from the article?
  • What is your unique way of presenting a similar message?
  • Are there examples from your life or business that illustrate points from the article?

This is your opportunity to demonstrate your expertise by drawing on great work others have published.  Explain why the content you are sharing is relevant to your audience. You could for example start with an introduction to the subject, followed by a snippet taken from another blog, followed by more of your own words, then insert a video from YouTube or an image from your own files.  The great thing about curation is that you can use anything as long as it doesn’t affect the copyright, you even could use some text from Twitter or explanations from Wikipedia.
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By designing new interfaces, and making information more accessible, innovative companies have just begun creating the “Curated Web”.  With Google recently stating that it favors sharing news and information, it can only enhance your web presence.
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Read More About Curated Content:

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-curation-tools

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-collis/6-powerful-tips-to-effect_b_5901856.html

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or 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 / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also“Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

Amazon Book Reviews Worldwide?

Book-Reviews

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I never liked it how Amazon splits the world up into single countries, not as a book purchaser, nor as a reviewer.  Many times I was asked by authors from other countries to post a review on their “national” Amazon page too.  I did them the favor, yes, but I was not happy about the extra time effort.  Why on earth is Amazon doing this?  It’s the world wide web after all!  Why not linking automatically to all nations where this particular book is sold?  Some books might have hundreds of reviews on the US Amazon page and none at all on the UK site – both are English-speaking countries.  Not good for the book and its author!

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Jason Matthews’ Review Tips
Yesterday I found by chance an article from bestselling author Jason Matthews, who also created an easy to follow video how to post a book review to all Amazon country sites – minus Japan which is a bit difficult to navigate as it is not set up completely in English.

Jason Matthews advises: “If leaving a review is important, why not go the extra distance and post the review at all 13 Amazon nations?  It only takes about two minutes, not much longer than it takes to leave one review.”
What are the benefits?  It’s good for readers and even the book and author if you liked the book.  Plus having your link to a website for browsers to click.  Definitely worth investing a few minutes of effort.”

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His Video Shows in Detail:

  • Write the review in your files
  • copy the ASIN on the books Amazon page
  • click on “write a review link”
  • go to the book’s URL and delete everything after the ASIN
  • copy and paste this URL into a new tab
  • exchange the country identifier (“.com” with “.ca” or “.co.uk”)
  • open more tabs for all the countries you want to place a review
  • go back to your first tab, give the book the stars it should have
  • and copy / paste your review from your files to Amazon reviews
  • copy / paste the headline for each review
  • do the same to all Amazon country sites for this book by just copying / pasting the review, the headline, and giving it the star-rating

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Voila!  That’s all!  It doesn’t take much more time to place a book review in ten countries than it does take for one country.  And you make an author very happy.  Plus your own link to you and then subsequently to your website shows up on Amazon in several countries.  See in detail how to post your book reviews in the future worldwide with the help of screenshots on Jason Matthews YouTube video.

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or 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 / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

 

 

6,000 Canadian Dollar Prize for a Short Story

Short-Story-Prize

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Fantastic Prizes for Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada who s
ubmit an original, unpublished short story before November 1, 2015.
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Only one Author per Entry.

All works that have been published in print or on the Internet, including self-published works, as well as works that have been broadcast or delivered in front of a public audience, are considered previously published and are therefore not eligible for the short story competition.
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Length:
The word count must be between 1200 and 1500 words. Word count includes titles.  Submissions over or under the specified word count (including the titles) will be disqualified.  For works submitted by mail, an electronic version may be required in order to check the word count.
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Deadline:
The Short Story Competition runs from September 1 to November 1. Usually, the winners are announced about four months after the deadline.
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How to Submit:
While the competition is active, submit online by clicking the “submit” link or, if you wish to submit by mail, you can download the offline submission form.

A fee of $25.00 (taxes included) for administration purposes is required for each entry. Detailed info can be found at:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/literaryprizes/rules.html

Publication of the winner’s short story will be at Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and on CBCBooks.ca and there is also a 10-day writing residency at the Banff-Center in Alberta.

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Other Canadian Competitions:

Creative Nonfiction – Competition opens: January 1, 2016, Deadline: March 1, 2016
Poetry – Competition opens: April 1, 2016, Deadline: June 1, 2016

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For American Writers – and Everyone else:
Robert Lee Brewer, Senior Content Editor, Writer’s Digest Community, just released a “Call for Submissions” for the Writer’s Market 2017.
He announced: “Running October 31, 2015, I’ll be accepting pitches for articles in the Writer’s Market 2017. Sometime in November, I’ll start making assignments. The best way to figure that out is to read a recent edition or two of Writer’s Market. Learn more about the Writer’s Market 2016 here.  Anyone familiar with the book will know that I’m looking for articles that will help freelancers find more success from a business perspective.”
“Previous articles have tackled queries, book proposals, taxes, record keeping, business management, and more. If you’re an experienced source and can interview other sources, that is ideal.”
Read more details at Writersdigest.com

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or 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 / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

 

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

Why Authors Need Beta Readers

Beta-Readers.
… and where you can find them.
You might ask: “what’s the difference between a Beta Reader, manuscript editor and a proof reader?” or “Why should I give my manuscript to a Beta Reader instead of my trusted friends or family?”
Contrary to friends and family member, Beta Readers are often writers themselves.  Maybe even in the same genre and they ought to give you honest feedback, no sugar coating, but constructive critique – while your beloved ones are often afraid to hurt your feelings, and might not be objective.  Dealing with another writer you can easily exchange in beta-reading each other’s manuscripts.  And both of you can learn from the others’ weak points.  So, how can you find Beta Readers?  Some suggestions:

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Online Writer Forums
These forums provide ample opportunity for authors and readers alike to come together.  Authors can create a homepage on the site where they can blog, showcase their work, post audio or video, and often past reviews – and best of all: meet Beta Readers.
For writers looking for very specific feedback from knowledgeable readers, these forums are a great place to find them, because participants tend to cluster around particular topics of interest.
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Here are just a few of the online resources available that can help writers to connect.  The most popular one seems to be Wattpad which has now 24 million members.  Even celebrity authors, such as Margaret Atwood, post there from time to time.  As many as half of its writers are anonymous or pseudonymous.  The traditional publishing industry is watching Wattpad closely, not only as a source of new talent but also for techniques to increase reader engagement”, writes David Streitfeld in a New York Times article. Brittany Geragotelis has been “discovered” this way.

Join Writing Groups
Many creative writing groups focus on critique. While Beta Readers are working through your entire finished manuscript, that’s often not possible for writing groups as time often allows only a few pages. Try to find a beta reading exchange with other members – aside from the regular meetings of the group.
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Beta Readers at Goodreads
It’s a place with almost 6,000 members where writers can connect with Beta Readers on Goodreads.  Sometimes writers get so involved in the plot they can’t see the wood for the trees.

A cliche is just one of the things to look out for while writing.  They can slip in unnoticed and ruin an otherwise great paragraph.  Then there’s the passive voice, accents, misspelling, typos, incorrect data. The list is long.  Avid Beta Readers are not your editor or proof reader and don’t expect them to do the grunt work. That’s up to you. But they could have spotted a few flaws BEFORE you released the book and helped strengthen your story.  Post your genre and get a group of well-read writers/readers to offer their feedback.

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Beta Readers at Google+
Google+ offers a variety of fantastic communities for writers looking to connect with like-minded authors. Join these groups, and look out for new ones regularly.

  • Writers’ Critique Group
  • The Writer’s Discussion Group
  • Writers’ Corner
  • Poets of G+
  • JLB Creatives
  • Aspiring Authors
  • Writers, Authors, Bloggers
  • Authors – Blatant Promo 4 Writers, Blogs!

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Why not Establish your own Beta Reader Group? As more Beta Readers you have, as better!  Different people catch different errors.
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MeetUp Groups and Workshops
I recently attended quite a few manuscript critique / beta-reading author meetings and was impressed by the friendly, constructive suggestions of these Meetup members.  They can be mostly found in cities, and include a variety of groups for writers.  Some gatherings are dedicated to critique and to beta reading.  This is a great avenue for those writers who prefer face-to-face interaction, and who are also open to meet new writer friends.  Don’t find a beta reader meetup listed for your city?  Organize your own one!

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Once you’ve found a handful of Beta Readers to share your work with you, the result will be a manuscript, which is ready for the editor.  Beta Reading might save you a lot of money if the editor is charging by the hour. Beta Reading also helps to polish your book before the first reviewer or readers get their hand on your book.

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – 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 / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

Publishing / BookMarketing Intensive Course

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The coming weeks will be a very busy time for authors: they might even participate in NaNoWriMo, creating 50,000-word novels, spending long hours of writing and editing, or tinkering about self-publishing, starting pre-sales for their upcoming book on Amazon, or have finally their first book launch.
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Writing books and then self-publishing can turn into a full-time job – a business or profession that very few authors studied before.  So how can we help writers and self-publishers with publishing consulting and promoting their books?
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Take Advantage of Our Knowledge
Our experience in publishing spans more than 30 years, including e-publishing and writing for magazines.  During our popular three-month Online Seminar you will learn everything to build your platform and your author brand and find more readers – while at the same time we will promote your books for a couple of weeks.
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If you would study and research everything necessary to become a successful self-publisher it would take you years…
This is the most successful marketing service we offer, combining all the information and support an author needs to plan for a successful book release or to boost the exposure of an already published book – helpful to boost sales for the upcoming holiday season.  We certainly help you to promote your book during this time through our Social Media accounts and blogs.  The author interview and articles about your book will stay at our high-ranking blogs and websites forever.

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Individual Consulting – Tailored to Your Book
The first step at the Online Seminar will be for us to read your book to understand your writing and your potential audience, while you will fill out a detailed questionnaire.  This gives us an overview, identifying your specific strengths and opportunities.  One size does not fit all with book marketing, so each marketing plan is different, based on the project’s needs and timing.  We will thoroughly analyse your target audience and will help you to – among other things:

  • research your books marketability, your  possible competition
  • to find out the popularity of genres/positioning
  • to professionally write jacket copy, author bio, and taglines
  • create your author pages, e.g. on Amazon, Goodreads, Google+
  • personalize guidelines for your marketing strategy
  • specify steps and projects for your book launch
  • create publicity angles and press release topics,
  • show you how to pitch bookstores and libraries
  • learn how to find book bloggers and book reviewers
  • organise book giveaways, online campaigns, contests
  • use successfully social media networking and marketing and how to save time at your online activities

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One-on-One Crash Course
Not every channel is appropriate for every book marketing project, so we’ll recommend what will work best for you.  And: None of these activities we suggest for your book marketing will cost you an extra dime.  Important for your success at this Online Seminar is your willingness to learn and to work actively on your platform.
The package includes at least 3 hours of phone or Skype consultation to discuss the plan, answer questions, and help you determine your next steps.  Call it a one-on-one crash course in book marketing, targeted individually for your title and to your potential readers.

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That’s Not All…
There is way more what you get out of this Online Seminar: Exposure to hundred-thousands of readers at our online presentations, unlimited book marketing consultations via email for up to three months, an article / author-interview to introduce you and your book to readers, instructions / checklist / links for you to use for your book promotions.  Did I mention that this 3-months Online Seminar will be very affordable, less than US$2 a day?  All in all only US $179.

If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing: Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

 

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

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3 Most Important Media Platforms for Writers

3Penguins
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In some of my seminars and during publishing and book marketing consultations I meet authors that are not only new to writing, but also often have no “platform” – which means no blog or website and no Social Media presence, aside from some posts on Facebook to friends and family.

No problem, it’s all a matter of organizing it and not getting overwhelmed!  Here are some practical tips for online book marketers – no matter if they are independent writers or so-called “published” authors:
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Before You Start Posting on Your Social Media Sites

  • Make yourself familiar with each detail on these Social Media sites, all the functions and how people interact.
  • First set up folders and files for your images, posts, tweets – and most important for all your passwords, to have them always handy when you work online.
  • To find lots of free images for your blogs use either the “Commons” on Wikipedia or check out the fast inventory of photo-sharing sites.
  • List your posts and tweets neatly in a row on a notepad or word documents, so that you just need to copy and paste into your Google+ page.  Don’t forget to type all your passwords and log-ins immediately in your files!
  • Connect all your Social Media Accounts.  An essential step would be to open a Twitter account, and connect it with Google+, so that all your Google posts go automatically over to Twitter. Set up your Goodreads page, so that all your blog posts are automatically show up on your author page.
    Always type into the search function on top of each site: reader, reading, book lover, bookworm, reviewer, book blogger, avid reader etc. to find the right people to follow.
  • To shorten your links in posts and tweets, use a shortener, such as www.Bit.ly, which you can even use to tweet from their site. And later, if you want to post more on Twitter or Facebook and to be present “around the clock”, use a scheduling program, such as Hootsuite.com or FutureTweets. It will save you a lot of time – time you can use to interact directly with your followers.

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The 3 Essential Social Media Platforms for Writers

1. Your Blog:
The content you are writing can be split in short, single sentences and (together with your blog URL) posted on your Social Media sites. Why your blog sells your books is shown in a former post.  Invite your readers to sign-up for your blog posts, and eventually for your newsletter too. Thanks them for blog comments and interact like you would do on any other  social media site. Here are some key statistics about the benefit of blogging:

• 84 percent of people have bought products based on their description in blogs.

• 25 percent people (25-34 year olds) read blogs every day.

• 1 in 4 people buy something each month based on blog content.

• 18 – 34-year-olds valued blogs as the most important information source when making buying decisions.

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2. Goodreads:
With 26 Million English-speaking readers worldwide the largest pool of potential readers for your book – provided you are following eventually roughly 5000 of them. As more you reach out as greater is your success, and following readers or reviewers is done by a single mouse-click. How to open an author and a book page, to navigate Goodreads and how to start a Goodreads Giveaway is explained in these Slide Shares.

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3. Google+
The greatest benefit of Google+ and their communities is the fact that everything posted there is automatically on Google’s Search Engines and very high in rankings! As with Goodreads, Google+ also offers an author page, but for EVERY book a separate one, plus the possibility to open your own community (up to 50 separate sites). There are no strong limitations how often your book can be shown on Google+. However your followers (preferably readers, reviewers, book lovers etc. ) want to hear more from you than about your book only.
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There are certainly more Social Media sites than these three pillars, such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Pinterest – but your blog, plus Goodreads and Google+ should be your first choice.
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Why do you Need to be Visible as a Writer?
Readers need to find you and your book!  Your chances to be seen on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes &Noble or Waterstones is about 1 : 6 Million or more, almost as good as winning the lottery…

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What do you want to achieve?
Preferably show your best site to potential readers, reviewers and book buyers, interact with them, network and be sociable. Remember, there are two reasons people why people flock to Social Media: to learn / gain something or to be entertained.

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How do you Want to be Seen?
As a professional writer certainly, as someone to be taken seriously. That starts with your – not your cats’ or dogs’ – photo /avatar and your short bio.  Always remember:
You never get a second chance for a first good impression!

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – 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 / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

The Latests Stats About Author Earnings

Author-Earnings

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In their October findings AuthorEarnings.com gave the real numbers – which the media seems to cannot get right as their reporting on the industry almost always confuses the sales of only 1,200 traditional AAP publishers with those of the entire US e-book market!  Read more about these false numbers in a former blog.
And those 1,200 AAP publishers represent only LESS than half of the US e-book market – with their collapsing e-book sales, while everywhere else, including self-published e-books, are still growing.
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Details From the Report of AuthorEarnings.com:

  • Amazon accounts for 74% of all US ebook purchases and 71% of all US consumer dollars spent on e-books.
  • Outside of Amazon, four other major online retailers comprise nearly the entirety of the remaining 26% of the US e-book market: the Apple iBookstore, the Barnes & Noble Nook store, the Kobo US bookstore, and GooglePlay Books.  At those four other stores, self-published indie e-books make up 22% of all e-books purchases and take in 32% of all author income generated by e-book sales.
  • Between 14% and 25% of all e-books sold at Apple, Nook, and Kobo lack Bowker-issued International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs).
  • In total, more than 33% of all e-books sold in the US each year have no ISBN.
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    The true US ebook market, which includes non-ISBN sales, is at least 50% larger than ISBN-limited market statistics from Nielsen and Bowker are estimating. Their estimates are totally wrong as 37% of all e-books sold on Amazon do not use ISBNs!

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Important Online Retailers
More findings from AuthorEarnings:

  • 35 percent of traditionally published ebook sales occur outside Amazon, at online retailers such as Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo Book, Google Play, and others.
  • For independently published e-books, Amazon is the main retailer with 74% of sales, then Apple iBooks with roughly 11-12% in average, B&N with approx. 9%, Kobo with 4%, and with Google and other retailers taking up the slim rest.
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AuthorEarning writes:
“At least 28% of the total income received by authors from iBookstore sales is going to indie authors.” – I might add: even with the mostly lower prices, this fact is astonishing.
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They elaborate more on selling indie books through Apple’s iBook store: “With indies capturing well over a quarter of the author earnings generated by the iBookstore, it’s pretty safe to say that a healthy market for indie books exists at Apple.”
Apple iBook Distribution and Sales.
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Distributing to iBooks can certainly done by every independent author directly, using a Mac computer (or rent space online via Macincloud or through distributors, such as eBookPartnership, Draft2Digital or Smashwords.
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eBookPartnership
charges a small fee per year for their full program, not only for distribution to iBooks! and authors receive 100% of their revenue from online retailers, while the other middleman distributors charge the author about 15% of the net royalties commission for every book sold.
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An amazing fact is that the ebooks performing the best are the ones distributed directly by indie authors themselves — selling on average 3.5 times as many copies as those distributed by aggregators.  See the interesting graphic in the AuthorEarnings report.

The AuthorEarnings report shows all the stats through graphics for Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Google and certainly Amazon – and the debate: “Should you “go wide” and ensure that your books are available for sale across ALL the US retailers, or should you focus your business on Amazon.com and take advantage of the enhanced earnings opportunities that come with Kindle Unlimited?”
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You have the choice and the opportunities!
Let’s end with these AuthorEarnings statement: “At each of the remaining three largest e-book retailers outside of Amazon, between a fifth and a quarter of all e-books purchased each day are self-published indie books.  
And at Amazon, 34% of the e-book sales are from indie publishers, and 33% from the Big Five Publishers.  In 2014, the US e-book market consisted of roughly 514 million e-book units purchased, and just under $3 billion in consumer spending.”

Find even more details in their October report.

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or 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 / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

 

Giving THANKS on Thanksgiving

Gratitude

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Writers are blessed with wonderful talents that make them unique among average folks.  Giving thanks for such wonderful creative abilities on Thanksgiving is the spirit of celebrating – and also giving to the less fortune in your community!   This day (as every day should) is all about showing gratitude for every little gift one receives in life.

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Writers Gratitude
In the lives of writers there is this amazing gift of creating, of being (physically) able to write down the stories that comes from your wonderful imagination, and last but not least: to publish these stories however you want to have it published.
At no time since Johannes Gutenberg was it so easy for writers to find an audience for their craft, never before could they choose between selling their manuscript or becoming a self-publishing author.
A recent survey of writers found that 25 percent of authors had self-published a book and 86 percent of them said they would self-publish again.  So, keep writing: stay busy and produce more articles and books, use writing tools that increase your productivity – exercises that kickstart your novel.  Establish a writing routine: keep a regular time and place that is dedicated to your writing process.  Sit down and start writing!
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Lots of Choices
Despite the upfront costs, self-publishing has become an increasingly successful option for authors, with revenues up to 70 to 95 percent, using a variety of online retailers, brick-and-mortar stores and even sell their books from their own website.
If a writer is able to attract the business with a trade publisher, then most initial costs are paid for in return for a tiny slice of the profit from their books.  There is also the “possibility” of an advance, which will hold against royalty payments.
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Is this You?
There are lots of forums where writers complain about the hardship of writing, their constant procrastination and how difficult it is to write two or three thousand words per day.  However, a real writer wants to write day and night!  Think about it as a paid hobby and have fun exercising your god-given talent.  Appreciation will focus your mind on the positive things.  And it will for sure shift your thoughts away from what you don’t have to what you do have.
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Recipes for Happiness
Did you know – or tried this out already: One of the “recipes” for happiness is to be thankful every day, writing down what you are thankful for on this very day before going to bed.  Gratitude is an act which we ever so often forget – but need to keep as a part of our daily life.  Write down every time you have been published or praised. Napoleon Hill advised: “Cherish your vision and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”
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Reward yourself when you are able to keep on track – it will increase your writers motivation.  You cannot think about good things and feel miserable. And you cannot be deeply grateful and unhappy at the same time.
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I am very thankful for all our readers, followers and the subscribers of our blogs, and for the many clients of our marketing services and purchasers of our books.

What are YOU thankful for?

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or 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 / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing,
please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.

Want Books Permanently FREE on Amazon?

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Free-Books

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There are lots of pro’s and con’s regarding free books and authors are discussing this topic since years, just look at the KDP forums, this thread for example: “Do not give your book away free! EVER”.  Do you feel you are subsidizing the reading habits of a small portion of the American public?
If you wrote only one book so far, it does not make any sense at all to set it up for free.  But after the third or fourth book or a series, offering one book, maybe the first in the series, as a permanently free book on Amazon will help to introduce many new readers. Read more how you can arrange this without opting for KDP Select exclusivity!
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Free via KDP Select
Paying members of KU can ‘borrow’ books as part of their membership.  Authors can give their book away for free, as a 5-day-promotion, during a 90-day KDP-Select period.  The rest of the time, it remains paid for people who aren’t part of this lending club.
The catch: your book must be exclusively sold on Amazon. No Apple iBooks, no Barnes & Noble, no Kobo, no website sales. Exclusivity! Exclusivity is great for Amazon, but it’s not so great for indie authors who want to maintain their independence and build a readership across all online retailers.
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Permanently Free eBook
The only official method of pricing an ebook for free in the Kindle store is for authors to enroll their books in KDP Select, an optional program that requires exclusivity.  Amazon likes to offer books at rock-bottom prices, but on the other hand Amazon is the only online retailer who restricts the ability of authors and publishers to price their books permanently for FREE.
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How it Works:
There’s another, better way, to have an e-book permanently free on Amazon and it doesn’t require exclusivity. Self-publishing authors have been using Smashwords and other online retailers to get permanently free e-books into Amazon without exclusivity. It’s a way to trick Amazon’s price-matching.  They just price their books on Amazon for $.99 – and offer it at Smashwords for free.  Soon Apple iBooks will pick up the new free price, and B&N and Kobo will follow soon.
Now it’s your turn to let Amazon know about your free book.  Click the link under the “Product Details” where it says, “tell us about a lower price” to report that your book is available for free at another retailer.  Provide Amazon with a direct hyperlink to one or all of the retailers.  You need to report the book separately at their other stores in different countries as well, in order to encourage price matching in each store.  Amazon will then “price-match” – not always right away, but most likely eventually.

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Series and Prequels Profit Most
So, if you write series, price your series starter as a perma-free book. The reason: It is proven that series with free series starters earn more overall sales than series without free series starters. iBooks does more to promote free than any other retailer with their regular “First in Series Free” promotions.  Free books can build higher readership (provided they are as good as the paid ones) and can help you establish your first reviews.  However free doesn’t mean the reader will read it or finish it, they’re probably less likely to finish a free book if it doesn’t keep their attention.  A great way to introduce a new book is also to write a short prequel and set it up for free – with lots of info and links to your upcoming new book.

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Conclusion
If you have a standalone book on pre-order, you can price another standalone book at free to drive up readership, and then use the last pages of the free book (and not only those) to advertise your pre-order.  At the end of every book, you should provide a listing of all your other books with sales links anyway. Bestselling author Derek Haines: “I had a perma-free ebook for a couple of years using this method, and it did wonders for my other e-books.  As long as you have enough books published to allow you to use one as a loss leader, it is well worth trying.”
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Really Smart Authors use “Pay-with-a-Tweet”
The only disadvantage of giving away your book on Amazon for free: You will never know who downloaded your title.  To learn more who is interested in your writing: give away the e-book from your own website and let readers “pay-with-a-tweet“.   The benefit will not only be that you get to know your audience, but they also automatically spread the word about your book to all their  Twitter followers, and those may re-tweet it too.  You get the idea!

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or 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 / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

Our email newsletters with free insider tips are sent out once a month. To sign up, just go to the form on the right site of each blog post.