Archives for June 2016

Canadian Writers Celebrate!

Maple-Leafs

Very few countries in the world are offering such a welcoming and generous climate for authors and publishers than Canada.  Benefits for Canadian literature starts already with free ISBN’s in Canada:

The Government of Canada is committed to ensure that readers everywhere have opportunities to connect with a broad range of Canadian-authored books by providing funding and support to the Canadian book industry, professional writers, Canadian periodicals and small publishers (You!).
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Grants for Professional Writers: Creative Writing.
The Grants for Professional Writers program covers subsistence, project and travel expenses.  The Creative Writing Grants component gives Canadian authors (emerging, mid-career and established) time to write new literary works, including novels, short stories, poetry, children’s and young adults’ literature, graphic novels, exploratory writing and literary non-fiction.  Deadline October 1, 2016
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Emerging Writers:
Grants for emerging writers are intended for writers who have published one literary book with a professional publishing house or the minimum of past literary publications required, as detailed in the eligibility criteria. Grant Amount $3,000 – $12,000

Mid-Career Writers:
Mid-career writers must have published between two and five literary books (all genres included) with a professional publishing house. The grant amounts offered are from $3,000 to $25,000

Established Writers:
Established writers must have published at least six literary books (all genres included) with a professional publishing house. The grant amounts offered are from $3,000 to $25,000

Eligibility: To apply to the Canada Council for the Arts, you must be a Canadian citizen or have permanent resident status. You must also meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, which is an artist who:

  • has specialized training in the artistic field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
  • is recognized as a professional by his or her peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition), and
  • is committed to devoting more time to artistic activity, if possible financially.

To meet the definition of a professional creative writer, you must also have:

  • at least one literary book published by a professional publishing house, or
  • for fiction, a minimum of four texts of creative literary writing (e.g. short stories, excerpts from a novel) published on two separate occasions in literary magazines, recognized periodicals (including general interest magazines), or anthologies published by professional publishing houses, or
  • for poetry, a minimum of 10 published poems is required, or
    for literary non-fiction, a minimum of 40 pages (10,000 words) of literary articles published in literary magazines, recognized periodicals or anthologies published by professional publishing houses.

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Travel Grants for Canadian Writers.
Want to attend a Writing class in Iceland? Or you received an invitation to a writer’s residency in Canada? Apply: Travel Grants for Professional Writers – Grant amount $500 – $2,500
Travel Grants enable writers, translators, literary performers, spoken word artists and storytellers to:

  • respond to invitations to specific international literary events that are important to their artistic development and career or:
  • within Canada, participate in a writer’s residency.
    Deadline is anytime – until Nov 30, 2016 – travelling needs to be before January 31, 2017, as this program ends

Get all the details from the Canadian Council.
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Change in Policies: All existing programs will end by March 31, 2017
There is a new Funding Model: A considerable increase in the Canada Council’s financial resources confirmed in the federal budget announced on 22 March 2016, are the good news.
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Registering and Validating Eligibility:
Like any individual artist, artistic group or arts organization, the organizations that will be impacted by this assessment will need to register in the Council’s Web portal, which will be accessible as of December 2016.  Deadlines for core funding applications: July 1st 2017.
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Literary Publishers (Books and Magazines) will receive 2 years of core funding for the organization’s fiscal years beginning 2017 and 2018
An arts organization that is not currently receiving core funding, but wishes to, can also apply for a project grant under another component. However, if the project grant comes from a component that is not available to core grant recipients, the organization will be required to choose between the core grant or the project grant. Organizations that currently receive core funding can also opt to apply for project grants from now on.
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Writer’s Residencies.
“The Canada Council Author Residencies program goes to universities and public libraries, with community-run residencies at writers’ houses receiving proportionally less funding. This difference in funding is reflected in the honoraria paid to writers in residence at various types of residency hosts.  
University-based writer-in-residence appointments are well paid (the author appointed to McMaster University receives a stipend of $20,000 for a four-month term). Public library–based writer-in-residence appointments are also well paid (the author appointed to the Vancouver Public Library in 2008 received a stipend of $16,000 for a four-month term).  Writers in residence at community-run residencies at writers’ houses are somewhat less well paid (the 2010 writer in residence at Historic Joy Kogawa House received an honorarium of $7,500 for a three-month appointment, plus furnished accommodation valued at $1,500 per month, for a total of $12,000 over three months)” informs a web page.
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See in detail who get’s what in an article about the Canada Council Author Residencies Grant Awards by the Simon-Fraser-University in Vancouver, BC.
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The  (CBF) – Support for Publishers offers:
Publishing Support component strengthens the Canadian book industry by providing financial assistance to publishers for the ongoing production, marketing and distribution of Canadian-authored books. Supplementary funding based on export sales is also available as part of Publishing Support.

Who can apply: To be eligible for the Publishing Support component, a book publisher must be:

 

  • in operation for at least 12 months at the time of application;
    at least 75% Canadian-owned and -controlled;
  • headquartered in Canada with at least 75% of its employees in Canada;
  • a private-sector firm or university press;
  • financially viable; and
  • in good standing regarding the fulfillment of all contractual obligations with respect to author royalty payments or other method of payment to authors, from the beginning of the reference year through to the end of any contribution agreement.

More details on the Canada Heritage website.

If you want to see who and how much the grants were that Canadian publishers received, check out the Canada Heritage web page.

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Foreign Rights Marketing Assistance Program:
Eligible publishers may choose from a diverse range of conferences, industry events, book fairs and sales trips that best meet their export marketing needs. Learn more about this program, including eligibility criteria, check out their Livres Canada Books website.
To help Canadian publishers capitalize on these key networking opportunities, Livres Canada Books organizes collective stands at International book fairs, including the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the London Book Fair, and the Frankfurt Book Fair.

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Conclusion: Lots of Support!
The book publishing industry, as well as self-publishing authors in Canada enjoy industrial and cultural assistance directly to individual publishers through federally funded grant programs such as the Canada Book Fund, and through structural support such as copyright or the public lending right.  There is also an indirect support, in the form of financial awards to writers through grants, and in particular through writer-in-residence programs at universities, at public libraries, and at community-run arts organizations.

For sure, Canada, is THE best place
to be as a writer or as publisher!

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Author Interview with Samita Sarkar

Travelogue


Samita Sakar
, freelance writer and editor from Toronto, Canada, is today’s guest for an author interview.  We asked her about her debut travelogue:


Samita, how would you describe your book to someone who has not yet read it?

I Am the Ocean is a spiritual travel memoir about a solo trip I took along the east coast of the United States in my early twenties. Limited by budget, I travelled by bus, slept on couches, and stayed in hostels. I packed very light, bringing mostly just clothes, a travel journal, and a copy of the philosophical treasure The Bhagavad Gita. I saw many amazing sights and met fascinating people, but most importantly this journey was an important time of spiritual growth and personal development for me.
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Meeting people while traveling, are you sometimes tempted to write a story about them, and use them as a protagonist in a novel?

I met so many interesting characters, especially in my final destination, Miami. I spent most of my time around three European girls who all had very distinctive personalities, and I’ve gotten feedback from readers that it was fun to read about their character development. I also met a man who had been travelling for years, mostly around Latin America. It takes a special kind of person to do something like that, and a lot of people would want to read a book from the perspective of someone like that.

That trip inspired my writing so much. If I had never taken it, not only would I not have written this book, but I also wouldn’t have met all these amazing people or had all these great life experiences.
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If you would have to choose between traveling to big cities or to rural small towns, which would you choose?

In my youth, I used to love the bright lights. Now, I prefer the countryside. I love the smell of the air, the friendly people, the lack of traffic jams. I find rural areas better for relaxing getaways.
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Antique-Car

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Can you imagine to travel full-time, while writing as a digital nomad?

For a while, yes. For example I’d love to do a writer’s residency somewhere warm. As a freelance writer and editor, I have the liberty to work from anywhere; however one day I’d like to lay down roots and have somewhere to call home. Preferably somewhere in the country, where I can set up an animal sanctuary, have lots of fresh air and writing inspiration around me, and look after rescued animals. If I can make that a reality I can even offer a writer’s residency!
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What was your very best travel experience so far?

I left my heart in the South. I felt so comfortable with the slower pace of life, the warm weather, and the charming accents and people. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too difficult to find food as a vegetarian. Okra, grits, and lots of fruits.
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Did you take notes while traveling by hand (diary) or did you use a dictaphone or use the speech to type method in your laptop / iPad?

I brought a travel journal. Actually,  the cover art for my travel memoir features the same travel journal that I took on my trip. Now I never travel without one.

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Do you agree:  The Journey is the Destination?

Yes. A trip isn’t memorable unless there is something special about the journey. The purpose of my trip was to explore a new landscape while also finding time to introspect and develop spiritually. It was about far more than taking a vacation, although it was about that as well.
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What’s you next country / area you would like to travel to?

I want to see the east coast of Canada. I travelled around most of the country, including even remote parts of the Northwest Territories. But I’ve never been east of Quebec.
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Deep-South

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What is your favorite book?

The Bhagavad Gita. It’s a philosophical book spoken by the Lord that teaches us how to live our lives. The main message is to realize that we are souls, not our temporary physical bodies. Because life is so fleeting, this book is a reminder of how important it is to live in the present.
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Is there a message in your book that you want your readers to grasp?

I want my readers to know that it’s okay to not be in control. We get so caught up in living our lives a certain way and fulfilling expectations. One of my favourite quotes from The Bhagavad Gita is “to follow another’s path is dangerous” (3.35).
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Give us an excerpted quote from your favorite review of this book:

I love this review from fellow author John Findley, because it shows how someone with completely different life experiences related to the book:

“Samita’s book is more than a travelogue, from her home in Canada to several cities along the east coast of America. It’s also a look at a young lady’s life and the decisions she has made to shape her into the person she is today. The book she dedicated to The Supreme Controller, her friend and well-wisher, Lord Krishna. I am a seventy plus older man, a Christian, and I commenced reading with an open mind. As the chapters rolled by I enjoyed Samita’s stories about the people she met, her sight-seeing and I must admit I admired her outlook on life.”
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Samita-Sarkar

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Where can people learn more about your writing?

I Am the Ocean is available on Amazon.  Watch the book trailer at YouTube.  I am also currently working on a follow-up travel tale for I Am the Ocean and a non-fiction book on animal rights, and readers can stay updated through my blog, http://samitasarkar.com.  I post about all kinds of things, but mostly animal rights.  My day job is editing books and freelance writing.

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Watch Out for these Legal Contract Terms

No-Tempations

Copyright Lawyer Helen Sedwick, author of the Self-Publishers Legal Handbook wrote in an article at Bookworks

“What is the worst mistake an indie author can make?
A bad book cover? A poorly edited manuscript? A hokey website?  No.  It’s LOSING CONTROL over your work.”

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DO READ the Fine Print!
She explains that an author’s manuscript is a valuable asset, “just like your car or home. You wouldn’t hand over your car keys to a stranger you met on the internet. You wouldn’t let someone with a slick website move into your guest room.”

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And it is worrying that every day, writers accept contracts with Vanity / Self-publishing companies that take too much control over the author’s work.  Just as Helen Sedwick warns authors, I did it in many articles during the last years here on this blog (see the list below).  Sure, it is no fun to read the fine print, especially if it is written in “legalese” but these contract clauses may influence your writing career to an extent you cannot even imagine.

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Helen Sedwick Explains some of the Vocabulary:
“LICENSE:  When writers sign book contracts, they often say they “sold” their books.  That’s not entirely correct.  Authors grant publishers “licenses” to use their work, in other words, permission. Writers continue to own the underlying copyright.
Similarly, licenses may be exclusive or non-exclusive, world-wide or geographically-restricted, short-term or perpetual, royalty-free or royalty-paying, limited to a particular language or format, such as audio, print, or eBooks.  The permutations are endless.
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“EXCLUSIVE:  If you grant an exclusive license, then the licensee has the right to stop everyone else from using the licensed work, even you. Authors should retain the right to sell print books via CreateSpace, Ingram, bookstores, and their own sites, all at the same time. Ebooks should be distributable via KDP, eBookPartnership, Digital2Digital, and other sites.  If you are publishing through a traditional publisher, then you should expect to grant an exclusive license in return for the publisher’s investment in your work.  Limit the scope of the license to the language, format, region, or other category in which the publisher has the ability to market your work successfully.  For example, you would not want to grant an exclusive license to your work in all languages and formats to a small publisher that markets only English print or ebooks.”
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“ROYALTIES.  Your royalties are the portion of sale proceeds that will be paid to you.  Self-publishing companies have various ways of calculating royalties.  But it’s critical that you know what your royalties will be on a per copy basis before you sign on.  You should be able to calculate royalties assuming different trim sizes and page counts online.  If the company or its website says that royalties cannot be determined until your manuscript is reviewed or formatted (and typically after you have given them your credit card number and paid a non-refundable deposit), don’t work with that company.  Find one that provides more transparency and control.”

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These are just some examples of what could go wrong.  The best advice for authors is to never sign with a “self-publishing” / vanity company.  Finding out about all the legal implications of a contract is extremely important before you are signing any publishing agreement with a trade publisher.

Get the Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook, a step-by-step guide to the legal issues of self-publishing.  Attorney and self-published author Helen Sedwick uses 30 years of legal experience to show writers how to stay out of trouble and money-losing.

More Warnings here:

https://www.savvybookwriters.com/victims-of-vanity-publishers/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/stop-vanity-publishing-aka-subsidy-publishers/

https://www.savvybookwriters.com/real-publishing-vs-vanity-subsidy-publishing/

https://www.savvybookwriters.com/the-non-compete-clause-in-publishing-contracts/

https://www.savvybookwriters.com/the-traps-in-publishing-contracts/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/05/04/the-traps-in-publishing-contracts-2/

https://www.savvybookwriters.com/do-you-understand-your-publishing-contract/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/do-you-understand-your-publishing-contract-2/

https://www.savvybookwriters.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-in-publishing/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/comparison-of-trade-publishing-vanity-author-publishing/

 

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Amazon’s Crackdown on Book Influencers

Goodreads-Logo


Goodreads
, owned by Amazon, has recently started its own Discount eBook Service.  As Amazon hasn’t left any major e-book competitors – obviously the retailer has decided that it does not need the help of e-book ad campaign sites.  Websites such as Pixel of Ink helped in the past to drive sales through massive email lists and users who browse their sites.
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In 2013 Amazon discouraged these sites from promoting the download of free ebooks by not paying affiliate fees (which is somehow logic) – but now they discontinued affiliate fees for promoted books. Several ebook discovery sites have had their Amazon affiliate memberships revoked.
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Excerpt From Goodreads’ Site:
Get exceptional deals for ebooks on your “Want to Read” shelf or by authors you follow — delivered straight to your inbox! Choose your preferred genres to get daily emails.

Goodreads Deals are selected for you, because they are based on your individual Goodreads profile.  If there’s an exceptional ebook deal for a book on your “Want to Read” shelf, we will let you know.  It’s another great reason to keep your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads updated!  And, if one of the authors you follow has a not-to-be-missed promotion on an ebook, we’ll make sure you don’t miss out.

Sign up to get daily emails with the best deals on e-books that have rave reviews by the Goodreads community. To kick things off, we’re introducing daily deals in the most popular genres for Goodreads members. You can configure your Goodreads’ Deals settings to include links to purchase from Kindle Store, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble Nook, Google Play, and Kobo stores. Goodreads Deals is launching in the U.S.: We don’t have details to share on when Goodreads Deals will be available in other countries.
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Crackdown on Outside Book Influencers.
Publishers pay merchandising fees to get their books featured on bookstore displays.  The same thing happens online with book blasting sites, such as BookBub,BookGorilla, Pixel of Ink, Fussy Librarian, Bargain Booksy,  eReader iQ, BooksEnds, RobinReads etc.   See my article from two weeks ago about a review of these book promoting sites:  Who Offers the Best Value for Your Dollars.
Now Amazon wants to limit tools who could influence their storefront, cracking down outside promotional forces that have developed huge amounts of influence on their bestseller list – and certainly lots of promotion for the company.  Amazon thinks they will eventually make more money, having bestseller lists that are not altered by those outside book promoters.
The first to lose its affiliate status with Amazon was Fussy Librarian, just the week before Goodreads announced their program, followed by two more sites, Pixel of Ink and eReaderIQ.  And the next one who gets the boot could be BookBub, I assume.
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Bestseller author Hugh Howey : “It could be that Amazon wants in on the BookBub market.  It’s all about curation and having control over all the bestseller list rankings.”
And further: “The money angle just doesn’t make sense to me.  Nor is the idea that you get rid of these promo sites just to get rid of them.  They are all funneling sales into Amazon.  So it has to be about control.  And control of what?  Which books are given a jolt on the lists.”
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Another voice from author Maria Romana in the comments: “There’s no reason to believe their elimination of these book review / promo sites (via cutting off their primary source of income) is anything other than an attempt to remove competition from their new toy, Goodreads, and to gain control of the book promotion market.”   While another commenter says: “Amazon in its move to finally make a profit is done paying to promote its dominant Kindle ecosystem.  The goal now is to have an affiliate program with no one in it, giving Amazon the pretence of supporting a community without any need to pay people for what they will do anyway.”

Fussy Librarian continues to operate, plus for free books on their Reddit site are no book review requirements – but the fate of the other sites is less certain.  Pixel of Ink announced already that they have shut down…

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Secrets of Successful Author-Publishers

Success
Dreaming of becoming a successful writer?  In writing and publishing are certain steps that will help you to tremendously to improve your chances of success.

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Start With Maximizing Your Foreign Presence – For FREE.
To maximize your presence in overseas Amazon Kindle stores, set up an Author Central account in each of those country-specific sites where your book is available.  As Amazon divided the world in single countries, announce your Countdown Deals, new book launches or Free Kindle KDP Days in several languages: Order a short translation of 10 tweets in Spanish, French, German etc. for $5 / 200 words for example at Fiverr. Make sure they are done by native speakers of the languages.
The countries with the most usage of e-readers, according due to a survey of Bookboon are USA, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark etc.

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Write More Books!
Did you notice that all of your online book sites, be it Amazon.com and Apple’s book sales pages or those on BarnesandNoble.com (they show even several slots with books in the same genre), have a listing at the bottom of the screen that says “Customers also bought” or “People who bought this book also bought …” and then it shows all the books of your competition.  They are listed on print sites or e-book sites (or both).

If you write more books, say between three and nine books, and readers like what you do, guess whose books appear in this paragraph?  Yours!  If you only publish one book, then those slots get filled with books, written by other authors.  These book suggestions show that readers who liked not only, but also bought these books.  A great example of a very prolific writers with more than 20 books is Jan Scarbrough.  Just click on one of her books, scroll down and you will see lots of her other books shown under “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought…”

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Write More Short Stories.
Authors such as Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, George Saunders, James Joyce, Alice Munro…  They all write or wrote not only books, but short stories.  It might take years until you have written so many books that only yours show up as suggestions at online retailers.  An even better way to promote your writing is to write and sell short stories as e-books.

Unlike book publishers, short story publishers only hold onto exclusive rights to the story for a limited period of time.  After that period of time, either the rights revert to you or they become non-exclusive.  Read more about book contracts and rights in former blog posts.
You license your copyright for a certain period of time.  After that – specified by your publishing contract – you can then put your short story up as an e-book or put it in an e-book collection of your own (or both), without having to remove that story from the place of first publication.
One more reason to never sign a contract for life, or as long as a “book is in print” – with e-books and POD, a book will never go out of print these days.  If you self-publish your short stories you can do whatever you want and don’t need to wait until your publishing contract expires.  Short story markets will allow new readers to sample your work. Readers, you would never ever reach without…

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Sampling is the Best Way to Hook a Reader.
Retail businesses known the importance of sampling. Sampling in grocery stores work. I almost always buy these food novelties after I can try them.  Then there are the many samples arriving in the weekly flyers, and personal products, such as shampoo or body lotions get promoted through hotels to their guests.  In the past some publishers would offer the he first chapter of each book in their new book listings, but they only handed these reading samples out at book fairs or to bookstore owners. However, barely anyone read them.  Now, readers can download samples of any book published electronically.  If you like the writing sample, you will most likely buy the book.

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Write FREE e-Books.
It doesn’t need to be a full-length novel, just a bit more than a short story.  You certainly can implement all your other book’s sales page links, your Social Media links and even ready-to-click tweets about your book. Readers want to know more and interact with the author who’s book they are buying – not only see ads with the message: Buy my book, buy my book, buy my book … Readers rather want to see samples of your writing before they purchase more of your books.

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Make sure that not only your books, blogs and short stories, but also your social media content has substance, and that it adds real value for your audience.  Write interesting blog content, real-time social media engagement, great images and videos, interesting info-graphics to increase visitor loyalty.

The most important trait for a writers is perseverance: content, communication, and commitment.  Having courage, a plan, patience, discipline, faith in yourself, a long-term perspective.  Success will flourish as long as you nurture it.

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Who Offers the Best Value for Your Dollars?

promotion-service-reviews

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Fantastic Tool for Authors: Promotion Service Reviews.
Ever wondered where to advertise your KDP free days or any other book promotion?  John Doppler from SelfPublishingAdvice compared mailing lists, readership numbers, and the cost for e-book discovery services: “Free and discounted e-books can be a powerful tool for increasing sales, but only if readers know about the deal.  We have gathered the data on eight popular services so you can compare pricing, audience, and features to find the right platform for promoting your free and discounted books.”
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The mailing lists of ebook discovery services can (not necessarily always will) place free or discounted books (or those at regular prices) in front of thousands of interested readers, potential book purchasers and reviewers.

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How to Use this Tool:
First, choose your category and sub-category and click on the price button (free and up to $2.99 and over).  You will be provided with a list of the services from best to worst value, determined by the cost to reach 1,000 subscribers (CPM).  The higher on the list an option is, the better its value.
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For example in the thriller category “Fussy Librarian” offers the best value at only $0.17 to reach 1,000 subscribers, while BookBub is at the lowest ranking with $0.69 to reach 1,000 readers.

Here is a random example from the category Mystery, sub genre Thriller for books $2.99 and over:

Free Books
$0.99 Books
$1.99 Books
$2.99 Books (and over)
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Service Category Reach Cost CPM (cost to reach 1.000 subscribers)
Fussy Librarian Thrillers 96,109 $ 16.00 $ 0.17
Bargain Booksy Thriller 124,200 $ 50.00 $ 0.40
BookGorilla Thrillers   185,500 $ 100.00 $ 0.54
BookBub Thrillers 2,760,000 $ 1,900.00 $ 0.69

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Conclusion by SelfPublishingAdvice:
“Books priced at $2.99 and over, the clear champion is The Fussy Librarian.  Fussy Librarian has a smaller membership, but their correspondingly lower fees do not vary with the price of the book.  Fussy Librarian has approximately 121,000 subscribers.  Authors can promote their book to a second genre list at half price!  With superior CPM for higher-priced books and the best CPM across nearly every fiction category, Fussy Librarian presents an outstanding value for a surprisingly low price.”

Bargain Booksy ranks moderately well in fiction genres, particularly in the higher price brackets.  However, Bargain Booksy really shines in nonfiction categories, where it sits at the top of most rankings.

Freebooksy does not fare quite as well as its sister site, generally resting in the lower half of its genres.  The popular categories of Mystery, Cozy Mystery, and Thrillers are a notable exception.
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Affiliate Programs:
Almost all these services are affiliated with online book retailers and receive a tiny percentage (around 4 per cent) of each book sale, unless it is free. If you are an affiliate yourself, the percentage will go to the book promoter, not to your account. But this is a negligible detail, just wanted to let you know.
The only service who is not disclosing their affiliate connection is BookBub.  In their very detailed privacy page, they disclose: “We may share some or all of your personal information in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution transaction or proceeding involving sale, transfer, divestiture, or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets….”
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SelfPublishingAdvice Provided a Great Free Service.
Thanks to John Doppler, who analyzed the strength and weakness of each promotion service in this review, lists the requirements (mostly at least ten! book reviews, better than 4-Stars), the most popular categories, and lots of other important information, such as the return on investment (ROI), including the websites of the promo services.
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Don’t miss to bookmark this terrific resource and work with the information, provided by John Doppler.

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Why Blog as a Writer? And Why Not:

Blogginh

I love blogging, and would like to have a 48-hour-day, so that I can pursue it more often. My blogs include not only publishing and book marketing topics, but aviation topics, gardening, travel in Canada and worldwide.  They are also my basis of posts and tweets on social media – and even for my non-fiction books.

A blog is one of the most valuable tools to show you and your work to readers. Your blog is part of your platform and your author brand.  Your blog has endless benefits, such as higher “Search Engine Ranking” on Google, better visibility, and to separate you from mainstream writers. Several Blog reader surveys found that blogs are building trust, and are influencing buying decisions.
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Blogs are an essential tool of any writer.  Not only does it get you writing on a regular schedule, it lubricates your writer’s brain, eases the fear of putting yourself out there in the world.
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1. Top Authors are Blogging
Top author blogs include those of fantasy authors Neil Gaiman or J.A. Konrath, spirituals Paulo Coelho, Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra, and business authors Tim Ferriss and Malcolm Gladwell.  They all have sold millions of copies, yet they still blog for fun and in order to sell their books, then we should definitely do the same!
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2. Blogging is Your Exercise in Writing
Every artist needs to practice, practice, practice…  Musicians need to play hundreds – if not thousands – of pieces, before they can even think about playing in front of an audience.  Same is true for any other kind of art, and also sport.  Athletes who want to attend a competition, let alone the Olympics, need to exercise 40 to 80 hours a week (often beside their work or studies).  Blogging is an author’s “training”, actually an easy one, as the book’s content or experiences of their writing or new things they learned can go into their articles.
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3. A Blog is Not Only Pure Writing
New blog posts do not necessarily be a written articles, as explained in: Why Blogging Sells Your Book.

  • Photos, Videos, Podcasts,
  • Snippets from your book
  • Slide-Shares, info-Graphics, lists
  • Polls / Surveys
  • Re-blogging, curating other blog posts
  • Introductions or single chapters of your upcoming books
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4. Your Blog: A Marketing Essential
Your blog, along with a newsletter and website, are the best ways to build a list of online followers, you can introduce your work to an ever-widening circle of readers.  Not only is blogging great for updating contacts about new events and what you are currently writing, but they are also perfect for helping your website rank higher.
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5. More Visitors With New Content
With constantly updated content, you will for sure receive more visitors to your blog than a website.  These visitors can easily be lead to visit your actual website with a link at the top left “Visit my Author Site”.  Blogging increases excitement about your future books, and enlists “your fans” to help spread the word.
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6. You Need a Blog to Support Your Book.
Last, but not least: Your blog facilitates networking with your peers and readers, and makes you focus on your author brand and how you want your work to be known.  Blogging is content writing  and content marketing, and much better than advertising.
Why You Should Not Blog:

  • The “make money blogging” dream is one that rarely works out.  Ads and affiliate revenue are not coming easily-  and not fast.  In most cases you need first several hundreds of blog posts and have a name in a niche, and a huge audience that supports you.
  • Don’t expect that writing a blog has a significant immediate impact on your book sales, or your freelancing revenue.

Trust is a rare and valuable commodity on the Internet. You can’t buy trust or a reputation as a writer.  It has to be earned by demonstrating your commitment to your readers – for example by blogging.

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