Archives for November 2016

2 eBook Gifts Until Cyber Monday

 


Early Holiday Gift for My Readers: 3 for 1 eBook

From Nov 25 to 11:59 EST on Monday, Nov 28
Purchasing one of my books on Amazon, and sending the receipt by email,
will give you two more FREE ebooks that are listed below.
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Let all your writer friends know about this!
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Just take a copy or pic of your sales receipt, and attach it to your email,
sending it latest on Tuesday, Nov 29 to 111Publishing a t gmail d o t com

You will receive two more books of your choice for FREE.  Don’t forget to state in your email which of the books you would like.
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111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free: Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer

Book Marketing on a Shoestring: How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money

111 Tips to Get FREE Book Reviews: Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews

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Happy Cyber Monday : )

 

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All the Reasons to Write Prequels for Your Book

 

howtopublish-new_opt-1

Only a couple of days until you finish your 50,000+ word manuscript in this year’s NaNoWriMo – and what then?  

Editing, cover design, formatting and layout – it all will take not only weeks, but often months until your readers will find your book in stores or at online retail sites.  Don’t let them wait this long, give them a short (or even longer) story that is related to the content of your book, a “prequel”.
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Promote Your Future Book Through Short Stories.
Savvy authors are building excitement and attract readers to their upcoming books.  Editor Alan Rinzler describes them:
Back stories for the longer book to come.  Others are like outtakes from the novel, standalone narratives that add to our knowledge of the characters but don’t appear in the books themselves.
Prequels provide readers with the flavor and quality of the forthcoming book in a way that makes them yearn to read more.  This technique has had notable successes lately, like propelling a book from obscurity to six-figure advances, and building pre-publication buzz and momentum.”
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Rinzler mentions two authors, published by the “Big Five”: Brittany Geragotelis and thriller author Mark Sullivan.  One of the most talked about prequels was written by J.K. Rowling, she did it for Harry Potter.  Stephen King also often writes prequels in the form of short stories for his books. Just like these bestselling authors, every writer should create a prequel (or several) for their upcoming book.
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It’s Never too Early to Write a Prequel.
You might write it even before starting to write your book, using your research, character outlines or your first draft manuscript.  Often your novel has to be shortened to create a faster pace.  Don’t delete these text parts! Create your prequel out of it.  Or use locations where your novel takes place to elaborate and write in detail about it.
For example: If you write a thriller and your protagonist is an art dealer in Paris, you can write several prequels how and where in Paris your mystery unfolded, a comprehensive description of the main character and his dealings or a pre-story of the events.  Or you could even write a non-fiction prequel about all the restaurants and coffee shops that your protagonist patronizes.
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How to Publish and Promote Your Prequel?
Most important is that you post it in as many venues as possible, including your Social Media sites.  Even better are reader communities or forums, where people tend to spend more time, including sites, such as Google+, LinkedIn, Wattpad and Goodreads or FictionPress, and send an invitation to load it down to your readers on your mailing list.
It could also be a short story in form of a magazine or website / blog article, or a short (free or inexpensive) e-book or a guest blog, and even a video or a slideshow.  Promote it as much as you would promote a book.

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Show Off the Quality of Your Upcoming Book!
Build pre-publication buzz and momentum and create backstories for the longer book to come.  Don’t see prequels as a marketing gig, they are valuable parts of your author platform and brand.
Don’t forget: Promotion of your book must start long before you finish your manuscript, so that you do not lose sales and success!  Competition is growing by the day…  Do what you as a writer likes most: WRITE!  Not only 50,000 to 90.000-word-manuscripts, but also short stories and blog articles.

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Want to Get Hundred of Writing / Publishing Tips?
in Form of  T W O eBook Gifts Until Cyber Monday?

Valid Until 11:59 EST on Cyber-Monday, Nov 28, 2016
Purchasing one of my books on Amazon, and sending the receipt by email,
gets you two more FREE ebooks that are listed below.
http://bit.ly/2gvas32

Let all your writer friends know about this!

 

 

Christmas Gift Shopping in 15 Minutes?

Cyber Week Deal

 

Why spend time and money – and stress yourself out when heading to the mall?  I gave it up years ago and never looked back.  Christmas shopping this year took me exactly 10 minutes.  For the loved ones I will meet during the holidays I ordered wonderful books, and for those I can’t meet in person, I got Prime Membership cards, which will be send exactly on the days I chose – some via mail in gift wrapping, some via email.

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The Time I Saved…
Precious hours that I gained can be used for even more holiday pleasures: Visiting a Christmas Tree farm to cut my own tree, stopping by at friends or family members place for a cup of coffee, attending an artist tour or one of the many holiday markets and sipping a glass of mulled wine and sampling delicious Christmas cookies – or just reading, reading, and reading even more.

primemembership

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Making a list and checking it twice…
and then go to your favored online retailers and order – it’s the best way to get into the holiday mood without all the hassle that is usually associated with Christmas shopping sprees.
Don’t worry to forget any names on your holiday shopping list. You can even send marvelous ebooks or gift cards, Prime Memberships etc. on Christmas Day! Get more tips on time- and money-saving online shopping from Real Simple Magazine.
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And Here is a Holiday Gift for My Readers: 3 for 1 eBook
From December 23 to December 28
Purchasing one of my books on Amazon, and sending the receipt by email,
will give you two more FREE ebooks.
Just take a pic of your sales receipt, and add it to your email,
sending it latest on December 29 to 111Publishing a t gmail d o t com

You will receive two more books of your choice for FREE.  Don’t forget to state in your email which of the books you would like.
.

111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free: Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer

Book Marketing on a Shoestring: How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money

111 Tips to Get FREE Book Reviews: Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews

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Amazon Prime Membership $99 until December
You will receive free two-day shipping year-round, including right before the holidays.  Not a member?  You can still reap the benefits of the deal when you sign up for a free one-month trial.  Which means, as long as you order by December 22, your gifts should arrive in time.  Other perks are:

  • Free Two-Day Shipping
  • No-Rush Shipping Credit
  • Guaranteed Delivery (Which Can Result in Free Prime)
  • Same-Day Delivery (in certain areas)
  • Restaurant Delivery: Get FREE one-hour delivery
  • Prime Video: unlimited streaming of movies and TV episodes
  • Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: access to members in the U.S.
  • Free Audible Channels for Prime
  • Music and Video add-on Subscription
  • Streaming Music, Movies, and Television Shows
  • Unlimited Cloud Photo Storage
  • Free Kindle eBooks
  • Early Access to Deals
  • Prime-Only Prices and Coupons
  • Prime Pantry
  • Amazon Family
  • Amazon Household

Best of all about Prime is that you can share nearly all the perks with another member of your household. Stephen Slaybaugh wrote in great detail about all these Prime perks here.


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INDIES FIRST at Small Business Saturday

Independent-Bookstore


This Saturday, on November 26,  named the “Small Business Saturday”, independent booksellers will be celebrating INDIES FIRST for the third time.

The idea behind INDIES FIRST has quickly taken hold and bookstores in this and many other countries will be participating.  They will be organizing author events, flash storytimes, discounts, and coffee or cake as a way to offer their customers a relaxed alternative to the frenzied shopping experience of Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday countdown sales season.
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INDIES FIRST is the Brainchild of Sherman Alexie.
Alexie hired a party bus to take him and a group of authors to visit three local Seattle bookstores this year.  This year’s INDIES FIRST spokesperson, Lena Dunham, will be visiting Book Soup in Los Angeles. She touted independent bookstores as “places for learning, community-building, and falling in love with strangers.”
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Bookstore Events Planned for this Saturday:

  • Eso Won Books of Los Angeles is offering a special sale all day along with food from Marcus Samuelsson’s The Red Rooster Harlem.
  • New York City’s Books of Wonder will hold events with Caldecott medalist Jerry Pinkney and Caldecott Honor artists Melissa Sweet and Pamela Zagarenski, among others.
  • In Palmyra, N.Y., The Dog Eared Book is also participating in Candlelight Night, which will take place on the same day in its historic village. Carols and a hayride on Main Street are part of the festivities.
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To support the independent booksellers’ efforts, some of the publishers and book distributors made special offers around the INDIES FIRST day on November 26:

  • Distributor Baker & Taylor provides extra margins and faster shipping on all trade books this week and next.
  • Libro.fm, the digital audiobook provider, is working with 35 stores to give away a free audio-book on INDIES FIRST.  The goal is to drive traffic to independent bookstores.  Customers will get to select from more than nine digital audio-books, including  “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, the first young-adult fiction work by Sherman Alexie, a stand-up comedian, screenwriter, film producer, and songwriter who has previously written adult novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays.
  • Parnassus Books in Nashville is donating a portion of its day’s sales to two local charities: Book ‘em and Nashville Humane Association. The store is promising “a bevy” of local authors who will be hand-selling their work.
  • Get on the Indies First publicity map, which now features nearly 500 stores — with room for more!
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Why Buy Books in Your Local Independent Bookstore?

  • You’ll be shopping on your local main street
  • You’ll be helping create local jobs
  • You might just find a book you never knew existed
  • You’ll find great gifts for friends and family
  • You can talk to real people about books they know and love
  • You’ll be part of your local book-loving community
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More Than Book-Writing to Make Money

Freelance-Writing

Making money with your first book is not easy and it takes time.  From the second, third or fifth book on it’s getting better, but still it might take years – if ever – until you can make a living as an author.  Don’t get discouraged, there are lots of niches where you can earn faster money with very short writing pieces, compared to books:  Writing for magazines and professional blogs.
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IMPORTANT: Get to Know the Magazine and Their Audience!
The trick to writing for magazines and blogs is knowing the target audience.  For example when trying to break into the lucrative airline magazine market, research their articles of the past two years.  The vast majority of readers are frequent flyers – travelers and wealthy vacationers.  They are also savvy about technology and business trends, as well as travel and leisure pursuits.
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Upcoming Book: How to Make (More) Money with Writing.
Besides 111 tips how to succeed as a freelance writer, you will find hundreds of magazine and blogger addresses. While you wait until the first money comes in for your book(s), write short articles of 1,500 to 2,500 words max. and get paid between $0.30 – $1.00 per word.
Here is just a short excerpt where you can freelance writing gigs:
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SEATTLE MAGAZINE

Looking for those who write about juicy, newsy topics going on in the Seattle area. The average department length story (1,200 words) pays about $350 and the average feature length story (1,500-3,500 words) pays from $400-$1,000, depending on the story. Some very short pieces (200-300 words) pay $50-$100. These rates are not guaranteed and vary widely.
http://www.seattlemag.com/writer-guidelines
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ALASKA AIRLINES
Alaska Airlines Magazine is the monthly in-flight magazine for Alaska Airlines, reaching more than two million travelers each month in nearly 100 destinations, including Alaska, California, Washington, Oregon, Hawai‘i, Arizona, Nevada, Western Canada and Mexico. Additional cities added in recent years include Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, St. Louis and San Antonio. Rates begin at $150 to $250 for short articles in the Journal section (200 to 600 words); $150 for business shorts (500 words); $500 for columns (1,600 words); and $700 for features (2,000 to 2,500 words).
http://www.alaskaairlinesmagazine.com/contributor/guidelines/
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BABBLE

Babble’s mission is “to tell the truth about parenting” and “to explore the world of parenting with ruthless honesty, humor, and lyricism.” They’re looking for unconventional perspectives or counter-intuitive perspectives and service pieces on topics that haven’t been covered. Minimum Pay: $100 for essays. 
Highest Pay: $750+ for researched articles. 
Contributor Byline: Yes 
Rights: Buying all rights 
http://www.babble.com/write-for-babble/
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GREENPRINTS
GreenPrints lives because people like you, care about gardening, and about sharing with other gardeners. Without your garden writing, the magazine simply would not exist. Expressive, thoughtful, humorous, angry, contrite, flippant, searching, witty, observant, sad, inviting… whatever! Focus is on the human, not the how-to side of gardening. On the people as well as the plants. Pays $150 for articles for up to 2,000 words.
http://www.greenprints.com
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EXPLORE
Explore is a magazine for active outdoor enthusiasts. We cover a wide range of topics-hiking, mountain biking, climbing, canoeing, kayaking, winter sports and more. And as our tagline suggests, our content is largely Canadian.
THE EXPLORATA NEWS SECTION (100 to 600 words) reports on expeditions, competitions, trends, destinations, environmental issues, recreational controversies, weird new gear items, humorous spins on outdoor news items, and up-and-coming outdoor athletes and adventurers of interest to a national readership. Writers new to explore should consider Explorata the best section to break into.
IN-DEPTH FEATURES (2,500 to 5,000 words) include a mix of first-person adventure stories, investigative journalism, profiles of Canadian adventurers and events, and special guides to Canadian destinations. Looking for travelogues or trip journals. Payment depends on quality and length, and ranges from $1,500 upwards.
http://www.explore-mag.com/contributor-guidelines
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ADVENTURE CYCLIST

Adventure Cyclist is a bicycle-travel magazine published nine times yearly by Adventure Cycling Association, a nonprofit service organization for bicyclists. Adventure Cyclist is dedicated to publishing stories about bicycle travel and other recreational cycling subjects. Adventure Cyclist generally uses two types of stories from free-lancers: Feature-length stories. These should be about specific areas and must be accompanied by high-quality photos, both in terms of content, composition, and size. 
The Final Mile. These are essays less about locale than about a singular experience while on a bicycle trip. These run at 1,200-1,500 words and don’t require accompanying photos. What we pay is negotiable, but generally ranges from $.30 to $.50 per word.

https://adventurecyclist.submittable.com/submit/59795/adventure-cyclist-magazine-submissions-2016
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AMC OUTDOORS

AMC Outdoors inspires readers to get outside and get involved by providing high-quality coverage of outdoor recreation, education, and conservation topics throughout the Northern Appalachian region, from Maine to Virginia. Features range from 2,000 to 2,500 words and often include sidebars. Our editorial departments make up the front matter of AMC Outdoors. They are designed to be short, in-depth articles that provide readers with news and advice on a variety of outdoor recreation and conservation topics. We generally pay $500-$700 for features and $150 – $400 for department columns.
http://www.outdoors.org/about/newsroom/index.cfm
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THE GUARDIAN
Publishes contributions from all freelancers on their standard copyright terms and payment is at their normal rates, unless agreed otherwise before publication. Pays GBP 300 per 1,000 words and pro-rated thereafter. The Guardian is a UK national newspaper and online news service. Commissioned blog posts can pay GBP 87.
https://www.theguardian.com/info/2014/oct/22/the-guardian-us-team
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PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS
Accepts pitches for short tips and longer comprehensive tutorials, in a step-by-step walkthrough format with plenty of images to illustrate the technique. They also publish tutorials on photography and Photoshop Elements. You must use their Word document template (download it from the contributor information page) for your submission. 
Pays $50 for short tutorials, and $150 to $300 for full-length tutorials 
Contributor Byline: Yes 
Rights: Buying exclusive online publication rights
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/money-photoshop/
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WINES AND VINES

Wines & Vines Magazine is well-balanced to serve the entire wine and grape industry with comprehensive articles and relevant news. The magazine emphasizes industry-leading Boutique winery editorial coverage and spotlights the many thriving wine regions in North America. Wines & Vines is noted for its expert monthly columns and approachable “how-to” reporting on winemaking and grape growing techniques and trends. Pays $500 on acceptance for articles of 1,500 words. Seeking info, how-to, self-help, interviews, product info, personal experience and opinion pieces. Columns are up to 1,000 words.
http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=aboutus
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WRITER’S DIGEST MAGAZINE
Helps writers improve their skills, find means to publish,stay abreast of the industry, and promote.
Accepts email queries at wdsubmissions@fwmedia.com
Articles are 800 to 1,500 words. The Inkwell column is 800 words. Payment is 30-50 cents/word.

http://www.writersdigest.com/contact-us
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MONEY TALK NEWS
This blog covers everything money-related: business, retirement, investing, real estate, insurance, taxes, spending, and more. 
Pays $50 for a 300-700 word article, or $200 for a 90-second video clip. 
Contributor Byline: Yes 
Rights: Not stated, so check with them.

http://www.moneytalksnews.com/contribute/
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ALABAMA HERITAGE

Alabama Heritage, a nonprofit publication of the University of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Archives and History, is a quarterly historical magazine designed for a general audience, with published articles on local, state, and regional history, art, literature, language, archeology, music, religion, architecture, and natural history.  Most feature articles contain 2,000-4,500 words and include additional material such as sidebars and photographs.  We also consider short pieces, 250-1,200 words, for our departments. Pays around $350.
http://www.alabamaheritage.com/writers-guidelines-and-submissions.html
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Sure, the magazine and blogger market is competitive, although not impossible to crack.  Even if you don’t have a long list of publication credits or an impressive resume, you can still break into the well-paying market.  Important: Do your research – both about your topic and the publication you are pitching, rely on your particular expertise about a place or a subject matter, and produce insightful, error-free, professionally edited copy, aimed at a sophisticated audience.  And don’t forget: there are constantly writing contests where you can earn great cash prizes or free residences / fellowships for writers.

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Upcoming Writing Competitions

typewritera007
No, I am not talking about NaNoWriMo – even so you might be able to use some of what you already wrote for this yearly NaNoWriMo competition – if it fits into the following categories of the upcoming writing competitions.  Your manuscript will certainly need to be edited, maybe even slightly re-written before you enter it into the contest. Best of all: these competitions require no entry fees!
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The Writer Short Story Contest – Deadline November 30, 2016
Write a 2,000-word fictional short story using any nuance, definition or understanding of the word “dark.” Grand prize $1,000 and publication in the magazine.
http://www.writermag.com/writing-resources/contests/
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Dreams and coincidences – Deadline November 30,2016
Chicken Soup explains: “Sometimes magic happens in your life. You have a dream that reveals a truth or a course of action to you. You have a premonition that changes your behavior and saves you or a loved one from disaster. You meet someone at just the right time and you can’t believe the coincidence. We’re collecting stories for a second book on this topic. Up to 1,200 words.  Pays $200 and ten free copies of the upcoming book.
http://www.chickensoup.com/story-submissions/possible-book-topics
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Somerset Maugham Awards – Deadline: November 30, 2016
Open to writers under the age of 35.  Genre: Published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry. Prize: 2,500 British Pounds apiece to four winners. Prize money must be used for travel.
http://www.societyofauthors.org/somerset-maugham
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Betty Trask Prize – Deadline: November 30, 2016
Restrictions: Author must be a Commonwealth citizen. Genre: First novels, published or unpublished, written by authors under the age of 35 in a “traditional or romantic, but not experimental, style.” Top prize 10,000 pounds. The prize money must be used for foreign travel. 
http://www.societyofauthors.org/Prizes/Fiction/Betty-Trask

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Stories about Dogs – Deadline January 31, 2017
Chicken Soup explains: “We are working on and collecting stories and poems for another wonderful book about our dogs. The focus of this book will be on rescued dogs that were adopted from shelters or rescue organizations and who luckily found their forever homes. We are looking for true stories of no more than 1,200 words.” 
Pays $200 and ten free copies of the upcoming book.
http://www.chickensoup.com/story-submissions/possible-book-topics

dog-waiting

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111 Tips to Get FREE Book Reviews

111 Tips to Get FREE Book Reviews
e-Book, covering the best strategies for getting lots of great reviews – including over 1,200 direct links (clickable links to each website!) to reviewers and book bloggers.

Book-Launch

THE most valuable guide to gather book reviews

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Book Bloggers and Reviewer contact addresses can be found at the end of each chapter.  And if you send us an email, using our contact form at 111Publishing.com, you will receive twice a year the latest reviewer contacts.
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Even More Benefits for REVIEWERS:
Send us a link to your review at Amazon or Goodreads of our latest book 111 Tips to Get FREE Book Reviews  o r  for:  111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free and we will refund you an Amazon gift card for two book purchases.
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Table of Contents

  • WHY ARE REVIEWS SO IMPORTANT
  • HOW TO GET FREE REVIEWS?
  • THE IMPORTANT LAST PAGES
  • WHERE ELSE TO FIND REVIEWERS
  • VIRTUAL BLOG TOURS TO GET REVIEWERS
  • WHAT BOOK REVIEWERS LIKE
  • EXAMPLES OF REVIEWER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
  • HOW TO CONNECT WITH INFLUENTIAL BOOK BLOGGERS
  • HOW TO PITCH TO BOOK BLOGGERS / REVIEWERS
  • PLANING YOUR PITCH TO BLOGGERS / REVIEWERS
  • PAID BOOK REVIEWS
  • EXAMPLES OF PAID REVIEW SITES
  • NEWSLETTER MAILING PROMOTION SERVICES
  • PAID BOOK REVIEW CONNECTING SERVICES
  • PAID REVIEWS FOR TRADE PUBLISHERS
  • GOODREADS REVIEWS
  • AIM FOR AMAZON TOP REVIEWERS
  • EDITORIAL REVIEWS
  • AMAZON READER REVIEWS
  • UNCOVERING FAKE REVIEWS
  • APPLE iBOOK REVIEWS
  • AUDIO BOOK REVIEWS
  • HOW TO PREPARE YOUR BOOK FOR REVIEWS
  • ADVANCE REVIEW COPIES (ARC)
  • REVIEWS READ BY LIBRARIANS
  • WHY STAMP YOUR BOOK “REVIEW COPY”?
  • IMPORTANCE OF PRESS KITS / MEDIA KITS
  • ENDORSEMENTS FOR YOUR BOOK
  • MEDIA BOOK REVIEWS
  • TIPS ON HOW TO GET MEDIA BOOK REVIEWS
  • READER WEBSITES / FORUMS / COMMUNITIES
  • BOOK GIVEAWAYS at READER COMMUNITIES
  • JOIN GOOGLE+ REVIEWER COMMUNITIES
  • JOIN THESE GROUPS TOO
  • HOW TO WRITE BOOK REVIEWS
  • HOW TO DEAL WITH NEGATIVE BOOK REVIEWS
  • WHY READERS – YOU – SHOULD WRITE REVIEWS
  • CAUTION: DON’T LOSE YOUR REVIEWS
  • HOW TO LEVERAGE YOUR BOOK REVIEWS
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Getting your book reviewed is the direct outcome of these three factors combined: Preparation – Presentation – Luck of the Draw.

You can at least totally influence the first two! For the last one, I cross fingers for you!

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Page Count for eBooks and Print

 

page-count

 

Confusion among authors of digital and print books on several writer forums and discussion boards show that page count is a mystery to many authors.

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Question at the KBoards:
“I’m a little confused about the Amazon page count for Kindle. I published my first book with a word count of 19,000 and it’s listed as being 71 pages.
A year later I published a second book with a word count of 25,000 and it’s listed as being 65 pages. I thought the formula Amazon used for page count was approx. 250 words a page, but this doesn’t seem to be the case…”
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A Seasoned Author Explains:
“Once a print edition is made, the Kindle version description will display the count for the print version.  Until then, it’s an estimate on Amazon’s part.”

“What I’ve found over time, however, is that Amazon seems to be doing more than just counting the number of words; they’re also checking out page breaks. Amazon is probably taking the file content and runs it through a formatter to come up with an estimate that comes out close to a real-world print book.  Tellingly, my first book’s print edition has a page count almost identical to what Amazon estimated for the non-print edition, and they did that estimate before the print edition was ever uploaded to CreateSpace.”

“Based on my print layout matching the results so closely, Amazon’s estimates might use a template of 4.75″ x 7.5″ after margins, factor in page count, and either respect the original font sizes you picked or else use 11pt for the base and scale everything else appropriately.  In print my first book uses those exact dimensions (next book I’ll give the gutter a full inch; here it was 3/4) and has 11pt Cardo for the body font.”
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“We have no firm idea what actual algorithm Amazon is using, except it’s obviously not merely dividing words by a fixed Word-Per-Page.”
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Check the Page Count.
Author Lewis Carroll: “I published print first, then e-book.  Unfortunately, Amazon never carried the page count over to the e-book and continued to display an estimated page count for weeks.  But a quick e-mail solved that problem and within a couple of hours they updated it.”
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Find a useful counting tool / page calculator at TranslatorsBase.com that shows you word count, pages, lines, characters, etc.
Paste the text of your book (after formatting or layout) into the field, click “calculate” and voila! you receive all the numbers.
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Readers Are Wondering Too…
Questions like these are appearing: “How do I view real page numbers on my Kindle?” or “Why doesn’t my Kindle book have real page numbers?”
Answer: “The page number update is only for the kindle 3.  If there are page numbers odder for the book (the publisher has to do it), then you’d simply press the menu key while reading the book and you will see the numbers. The numbers are not viewable without pressing menu, they do not remain on screen.”
“On your Kindle, you will tend to have many more screens of text than there are pages in the book – make the type bigger or smaller, and you’ll have that many more or fewer screens – so it’s completely fluid.  Thus it’s not really what people tend to use for navigation – you use software bookmarks and the table of contents and the percentage of the book you’ve read.”

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How to Get Your First 100K Twitter Followers

I am just helping a new author to navigate her way through the Twitter-sphere, and to find her first followers.  Searching through my extensive archive, I came up this great info-graphic.  QuickSprout, the creator of this helpful tool offers even a free 100-point checklist.
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How to Get Your First 100 Twitter Followers
Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

From running contests and writing guest posts to reaching out to influencers, you can use at least 10 different tactics to grow your follower count.

Avoiding Your Readers? Really?

visibility

Publishing is as much business as art. It can be tough to switch hats, but those I see succeeding, have found ways to do both things well. Or as I wrote once: Writing is an Art – Publishing is a Business!

An Author who had already two well-written books out, however, unfortunately with a vanity publisher, who did NOTHING to promote these wonderful books, contracted with us.  Part of our agreement was that we fully market his new book, but that he has to have at least a small platform, e.g. social media accounts at Twitter, Goodreads, Google+ and a current author website. We also needed these accounts to send our huge follower-ship towards this author, and to increase his visibility, which was almost zero.

We set up two Skype sessions to help him to set up these accounts properly (less than two hours in total) and also created 30 – 50 posts and tweets for him. This way, he did not even need to think about what to post, just copy and paste.  My advice to him was to open two folders, create files with all posts in order to be able to copy / paste them onto social media, and another one to store all book marketing images. Just basics …

His Answer to me in an Email:

“I can either be an author who is able to create and write OR I can go to school to learn another subject, ie., computer technology. I cannot do both, because my personal headset doesn’t permit room for anything Stressful VS. Writing. I’m of a highly creative personality, very high strung and full of anxiety to keep up with all of this.
So, I guess the choice is yours to either take the pressure of the social media off me or abandon me. Twenty minutes is enough time to put me over the edge and destroy my ability or eagerness to write. I’m sorry I cannot be all you need me to be. All I can do is what I’m good at: writing.”
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My Polite and Patient Answer:
“As I said, it is a one-time-job to set up these accounts. But we need to do it now, before the book launch. Don’t worry, I help as much as I can. We were so short to have finished the necessary steps of your platform. Google was the last of the social media sites… we have to set up, before connecting them all to save time. Let’s have a break until early next week – and write to your hearts content.”

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But I Was Certainly Not Amused:
Well, can you imagine that any of the big publishers has the knowledge to help their writers with platform building – or is investing time (read: money) to help their authors with social media?  Certainly not!

The opposite!  First thing when you pitch a book to an agent or trade publisher, they will ask you: ”What’s your platform?”

And if you, as a writer, don’t have at least 2,000 followers on Twitter / Facebook, and a website / blog, not to speak about an email newsletter list with hundreds of addresses, a publishing contract will be out of the picture – no matter how good you write.  They are looking for someone with visibility and authority, who has a proven outreach to a target audience. Why? The short answer is: The book’s success.
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Appreciate Every Opportunity to Learn!
… especially if you receive free training from a marketing professional. Writers are also well-suited to write blogs articles. After all, writing is what they like to do, and in order to produce a blog post, they have to write. Web content and blog posts are the substance from which social media posts can be drawn. And they can be writing examples for future readers.
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Don’t be Arrogant to Your Readers!
If you like writing so much: it is a wonderful hobby and for sure very satisfying to create with words your own masterpieces.  However if you want to make lots of money with your books, and you want to have them published, invest a little bit effort to meet your readers.
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Meet Your Readers – Either in Person or Online.
Don’t be the equivalent of a store sales clerk who tries very hard to avoid eye contact with customers, or doesn’t answer the customers friendly greeting. If you are a shy person, write prequels, short stories, blog posts and sample chapters of your books and publish them on your website and on social media.
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Every Business has to Start with a Plan.
If you want to sell your book after writing it, answers to these questions could partially substitute a “business plan”. And if you want to find a publisher or a literary agent – answering these questions before your first meeting is even more important:
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  • Is there a need for your book? Does it fill a void?
  • Why would someone buy your book? What’s their benefit?
  • Will your book always be interesting in the future?
  • How big is your market and what is the demographic of your readers?
  • Who will buy and read your book? How many people?
  • Could your book idea be turned into series?
  • Would your book have a regional or international audience?
  • Who is your competition and how well did their books sell?
  • Where and exactly how will you market your book?
  • How easy can you reach your readership and how large will it be?
  • How many (real) friends / followers do you have on Social Media?
  • Do you have an opt-in email list on your website/blog or already an email newsletter?
  • Could your book be sold in bulk to a company/organization to promote another product or service?
  • In what magazines or newspapers articles, TV shows, radio shows, websites and newsletters could your book be marketed?

Publishing houses can only sell a considerable amount of books and make money when lots of people know about the author and his or her work – provided the author is able to spread the word about the book to a huge audience.
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***Why should someone consider to publish your book when you, the writer, didn’t even think about the future of this book, and who will be its readers?***
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What is an Author Platform?
…. which is not only important for authors who want to sell their manuscript to a trade publisher, but equally or even more important for independent writers who want to author-publish:

Authority: What other articles or books, blogs or articles for newspapers or magazines have you written previously? What’s your credibility? What are your credentials?
Proven reach: For example the size of your e-mail newsletter list, your website traffic, blog comments, high-profile reviews, testimonials or references for your writing from bestseller authors in your genre.
Visibility: What communities are you a part of? Who knows you? Who is aware of your work? Where does your work regularly appear? How many people see it? Who do you influence?
Target audience: Being visible to the right audience for the book you are publishing. For example, if you wrote a book how career women can combine work and parenthood, you should have a large target audience of parents, career women, mommy-bloggers, maybe even kindergarten teachers or psychologists.
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How Can You Grow Your Platform:
Publishing or distributing quality work online, on blogs, newsletters or websites, or articles in magazines and newspapers, taking part at social networks, producing podcasts, webinars or videos for your target audience. Speaking at and/or attending events where you meet new people and extend your network of contacts and your visibility.
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Don’t Give Up – it All Takes Time:
Write content and reach out: Building your author platform belongs to the same project as the book you write.  Use your creativity , and again: write lots of content, such as guest posts, blogs and short stories for weblogs, websites, magazines, and newspapers. Reach out to potential fans of your writing – one reader at a time.
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Bestselling Author Russel Blake:
“Nobody with a brain goes into business with no money, no research, no plan, and no time or effort. That’s the harsh truth. Book selling is a retail business, and retail businesses are promotions intensive. Promotions are a necessary fact of life in book publishing. You have to generate noise – the product won’t do it by itself. There are millions of books out there. Yours are just more books.”

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Have Fun Meeting Your Readers.
Becoming an author-publisher is a long term commitment and requires hundreds of small steps on the path to success! Read more about author platforms, how to establish it and become a successful author, no matter how you publish:

Don’t Give Up! It Just Takes Time!

How to Create Your Author Platform

A “NEW” Way of Book Marketing

 

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