Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 27
April 24, 2013
Book Marketing Tips: Amazon, Goodreads, Pinterest, Google Plus
Amazon:
In working with a client to optimize her book’s Amazon page, I checked various Kindle ebook categories. And I noticed that there are no longer the indication of how many books are in each category. (Gone as are the “likes” at the top of a book page.)
I assume this is to prevent authors from “gaming” the system — in other words, putting their books in categories with less books even though the categories are not right for their books. (Being in a category with less books gives your book a better chance of ranking higher in the category.)
But for those of us authors who used the information legitimately and NOT to game the system, it is an unwelcome change.
(To see these categories, put “Kindle Store” in search bar and hit GO and then click on “Kindle ebooks.” On the left you will see the categories and you can click on these to drill down.)
Goodreads:
Today is the last day of the Goodsreads giveaway of 10 paperback copies of my teen book HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE. Although I did not think the Goodreads audience would be particularly interested in this giveaway, more than 450 people have signed up.
Whether this interest will translate into sales of the paperback or Kindle ebook when the giveaway is completed tonight is to be determined. (I’m on Goodreads at www.goodreads.com/pzmiller and welcome Goodreads “friends.”)
Pinterest:
Thanks to author Carolyn Howard-Johnson‘s Google Plus update, I watched author Shelley Hitz‘s YouTube video about tips for Pinterest. I immediately followed the video recommendation of re-arranging the boards on my Pinterest account — see http://pinterest.com/ZimblerMiller — to put the most important ones in the top row.
The weird thing about doing this is that I had to return to the old format in order to do this. I could not find this option on the new format.
Click here to watch Shelley’s video.
Google Plus:
Digital strategist Michele Jennae interviewed me via a Google hangout, one of the Google Plus functions. This turned out to be a great experience, and click here to see the resulting interview on YouTube.
Again, I want to give a special thanks to AuthorShout.com for choosing me as the April author of the month — click here to see this honor now with the new cover of MRS. LIEUTENANT clearly displayed.
And if you enjoyed the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT, I hope you will read the YA short story PINKY SWEAR. Click here to buy it on Kindle.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
April 19, 2013
Ready for LA Times Book Festival
Our commitment to inspiring a love of reading is why we are giving away these ebooks. And the LA Times Book Festival is the perfect venue to do this.
Here are the links for the three FREE downloads:
YA short story ebook PINKY SWEAR
Middle Grade ebook JACK STROM AND NEW ORLEANS HOODOO
Children’s picture book TOO MANY VISITORS FOR ONE LITTLE HOUSE
Booksicals’ founder Susan Chodakiewitz and I will be giving out flyers for the free ebooks on Sunday at the festival. If you spot us at the festival, do introduce yourself.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
April 18, 2013
PINKY SWEAR: A YA Short Story Prequel to Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT
One paragraph in a flashback scene from the point of view of Puerto Rican Donna led me to write a short story set in the fall of 1964 when Donna enters 10th grade at the Ft. Knox post high school.
This time period of the fall of 1964 is an interesting historical period because it is right after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed by Congress. (This resolution gave President Johnson the right to send more troops to Vietnam without a formal declaration of war by Congress.)
Donna and her classmates are not immune to the U.S. fighting in Vietnam. And it is against this backdrop that the short story deals with teen concerns.
If you enjoyed the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT, I hope you will read the YA short story PINKY SWEAR. Click here to buy it on Kindle.
Again, I want to give a special thanks to AuthorShout.com for choosing me as the April author of the month — click here to see this honor now with the new cover of MRS. LIEUTENANT clearly displayed.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
April 14, 2013
Looking for Fiction Material on Jury Duty
As my cozy mystery character Rebecca Stone is a Los Angeles newspaper reporter (see CAST THE FIRST STONE and TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE), perhaps she could be called to serve on a jury.
Would it be an interesting mystery plot if she serves on a jury that acquits someone and, angered over what she perceives as a miscarriage of justice, she sets off to find out the truth?
Or maybe something happens to one of the jurors.
Years ago my husband was inside a courtroom (he’s a lawyer) when, in the hallway outside, a man shot and killed his divorcing wife in front of their young child over the question of a car. (Someone I worked with at the time was actually in the courthouse hallway when this happened.)
While this scenario presumably could not happen today due to the security checks upon entering the courthouse, something else might happen among the hundreds of jurors, lawyers, court officials, defendants, etc. milling around.
In fact, the elevators in this particular criminal court building are so crammed with people trying to get up and down (renovation on the elevators has limited the available number), that something easily could happen accidentally or intentionally in the elevator.
As a writer, when you step outside of yourself and look around, you realize that everyone probably has an interesting story that could possibly be used in a work of fiction.
I made friends with a woman about my age who has lived in interesting places. I started talking to her because I wanted to know what book she was reading. (Gillian Flynn’s novel GONE GIRL, borrowed from a library. And, yes, I told her if she likes to read mysteries and thrillers that I have written some of these and I gave her the link to my Amazon Author Central profile — www.ZimblerMillerbooks.com)
UPDATE: I wrote this post in the morning in the juror assembly room. The woman I met and I had lunch at the cafeteria of Disney Hall and then spent the afternoon in the assembly room and we were never called to go to a courtroom. At 4 p.m. we were released from jury duty.
Again, I want to give a special thanks to AuthorShout.com for choosing me as the April author of the month — click here to see this honor now with the new cover of MRS. LIEUTENANT clearly displayed.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
April 11, 2013
Amazon and Goodreads Widgets
On a Facebook group I learned about adding an Amazon widget that can rotate all an author’s books. I found the link to setting up this widget and followed the instructions, including choosing how I wanted the books to display.
I like this widget because it displays all my books without taking up too much home page space. BUT … I am not sure that people know they can click on the picture of a book to go directly to its page on Amazon.
(Because several of my books have both paperback and Kindle versions, I added a comment on those books to clarify that there was another version.)
Goodreads giveaway for HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE:
Thanks to the advice in Michelle Campbell-Scott’s ebook Goodreads For Authors: How To Use Goodreads To Promote Your Books, I am doing my first Goodreads giveaway. And as part of this, I have added the giveaway widget to this site.
Now I am having some issues with my books listed on Goodreads — there is a jumble of information with, for example, the description for MRS. LIEUTENANT and HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE on each other’s Goodreads page instead of the correct Goodreads page.
Although I came across a “combine editions” option on Goodreads, I am still trying to get my books listed correctly. And I have not been able to find a way to contact Goodreads about this issue as authors can contact Amazon via Author Central.
Still, I think these two widgets are cool. What do you think?
P.S. If you are a Goodreads member, click on the Goodreads widget to sign up for the giveaway of 10 paperback copies of HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE or click here to buy the Kindle format now. The book makes a terrific 8th grade graduation gift!
Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at budurl.com/freeKindleapp
Again, I want to give a special thanks to AuthorShout.com for choosing me as the April author of the month — click here to see this honor now with the new cover of MRS. LIEUTENANT clearly displayed.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
April 9, 2013
Subtitles on Fiction Books
While this may seem a simple statement, it is actually very important. Let me explain:
A prospective Miller Mosaic client contacted me for social media marketing for his book on Amazon. I looked at the book’s Amazon page and had no idea what the book was about. Yes, the title was interesting but who was the audience for the book?
I started to read the description and learned that the protagonist is 11 years old. Probably this book’s audience is what’s called Middle Grade. But with the adult-looking book cover and no subtitle, who the book should appeal to is very unclear.
Why is this important?
Because most of us are very fast to click away if we don’t think what we are looking at online is of interest to us. And we may actually be clicking away from things that would interest us if we instantly understood this.
The problem is that because we authors know what our books are about, it may not occur to us that others may not “catch on” as quickly. In a way, this prospective client is shooting himself in the foot by implementing social media efforts that lead back to an unclear Amazon book page.
As I said in my blog post “Happy Birthday to Women’s Friendship Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT,” I realized that the original cover of the novel may have been offputting for readers. And I also knew that the original subtitle — “A Sharon Gold Novel” — while making it clear the book was a novel may not have been a very helpful subtitle.
Thus at the same time I changed the cover I changed the subtitle on Amazon to “A Women’s Friendship Novel” to “telegraph” what the novel is about. (The new cover image only has “A Novel” to keep the wording from appearing cluttered at the small size shown on Amazon.)
If you do not currently have a subtitle on your fiction book on Amazon, consider adding this. You may be helping your prospective readers know they are at the right place when looking at your book’s Amazon page.
(Warning: If you add a subtitle via the KDP dashboard, your Kindle ebook is automatically reconverted. This reconversion can mess up the ebook’s content depending on how the conversion was originally done. The same thing can happen when you add a new cover via the KDP dashboard.)
Again, I want to give a special thanks to AuthorShout.com for choosing me as the April author of the month — click here to see this honor now with the new cover of MRS. LIEUTENANT clearly displayed.
Buy MRS. LIEUTENANT on Kindle now!
Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at budurl.com/freeKindleapp
Or buy MRS. LIEUTENANT in paperback on Amazon.
P.S. Click here to read my April Ask PZM guest post on the question of the impact on authors of Amazon acquiring Goodreads. (I’m increasing my Goodreads presence — connect with me at www.goodreads.com/pzmiller)
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
April 7, 2013
Happy Birthday to Women’s Friendship Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT
In honor of this, my business partner Yael K. Miller has designed a new cover for the novel. Although at the moment the cover is only on the Kindle version, the new paperback cover will be out soon (with a cool wraparound of the cover photo).
Sharp-eyed author Laura Dobbins (@penabook on Twitter) also noticed that I changed the subtitle from “A Sharon Gold Novel” to “A Women’s Friendship Novel.”
I made this change because I learned that women who would enjoy this story of women’s friendship might be “put off” by the novel’s time period of the Vietnam War. As the central theme of the story is truly women’s friendship, I decided to emphasize this theme.
I love this new cover that Yael created — and I hope you like it too.
Thanks to the two other members of the experience-based fiction triad — Bonnie B. Latino and Kathleen Rodgers — for their enthusiastic support of the new cover.
And special thanks to AuthorShout.com for choosing me as the April author of the month — click here to see this honor now.
Buy MRS. LIEUTENANT on Kindle now!
Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at budurl.com/freeKindleapp
P.S. Click here to read my April Ask PZM guest post on the question of the impact on authors of Amazon acquiring Goodreads. (I’m increasing my Goodreads presence — connect with me at www.goodreads.com/pzmiller)
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 28, 2013
Best Way for Authors to Tweet on Twitter?
(Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. You can get a FREE Kindle app for your iPhone, iPad, Android, PC or Mac at budurl.com/freeKindleapp)
I got the following email from children’s mystery author Jerrye Sumrall (see her books on Amazon at http://amzn.to/RaJev3 ):
What is the best way to word a tweet to get the most exposure? I’ve been trying different variations with @JerryeSumrall and #Amazon or # something else but am confused about exactly what’s needed and what’s not. Are the @ and # really necessary?
Here’s one for promoting the whole series:
The Bayshore Mysteries http://amzn.to/RaJev3 Kid’s Mystery/ Scary Adventure/ Vivid Scenes/ Friendship/ Courage
What do you suggest that I add?
Here is what I replied to Jerrye:
I’m not an “expert” in the best way to word tweets for authors. In fact, I’d be surprised if anyone is an expert given the different parameters
That said, I don’t “respond well” to how you have worded yours. I don’t like [tweets with] words with all initial caps — too hard to read. Try writing a “story” that entices me to click on the link.
I think in your case I would start with “Kids’ #mystery THE BAYSHORE MYSTERIES …” My personal preference is to put the book title in all caps to make it stand out from the description in the tweet.
Re hashtags: I like to use them although I have read negative comments recently so don’t worry too much — just use as you feel.
Answer: Hashtags are not necessary and you do not have to put your username in the tweet.
I do like that Jerrye put the link near the beginning of the tweet. I have read recommendations to do that (although I admit I rarely do).
And, of course, she appropriately used bit.ly to shorten the long URL of the page on Amazon that features all three of The Bayshore Mysteries.
(She could also have used the URL of her Amazon Author Central profile. I have now created www.ZimblerMillerbooks.com to go to my Amazon Author Central profile where all my books are listed.)
Here is an example of a tweet I did — note that I used the shorten URL service budurl:
Cozy #mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE featured on @WestofMars blog http://budurl.com/Castmystery (book incl kosher recipes)
Do you think this is a good author tweet?
If you have an example of a tweet you think is especially effective for authors, do leave it below in the comments.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 21, 2013
Online Book Marketing Strategies
I was reminded of this when I read Steve Scott’s book 61 WAYS TO SELL MORE NONFICTION KINDLE BOOKS. Scott’s ideas are excellent — and I admit I should have thought of some of them myself.
I didn’t, so I’m implementing these ideas now.
One such idea is putting an excerpt (not just a link) to another of your books at the end of each of your books. This is an excellent strategy for both fiction and nonfiction authors. (Scott’s book is equally valuable for fiction Kindle books.)
I have just put an excerpt from my cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE on my romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY.
(While I have another thriller — LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS — that I could have excerpted, I felt the particular story of CAST went better with CIA FALL GUY.)
Another one of Steve Scott’s ideas is to use a redirected URL to your Amazon Author Central profile. Yes, I have a customized URL for this profile from Amazon — www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller, but it is long and includes my first name, which many people find hard to correctly spell.
A third idea of his (that I am in the process of doing) is to add at the end of a book’s Amazon description a call-to-action of scrolling up to buy the book. Another “obvious” idea I needed to learn from this book.
In fact, reading Steve Scott’s book is a reminder to authors that we have to keep learning — we rarely can know everything ourselves.
Besides this book, I would also like to recommend the new book GOODREADS FOR AUTHORS: HOW TO USE GOODREADS TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS by Michelle Campbell-Scott. (I do not know whether these two authors are related.)
I have been a member of Goodsreads for close to five years, and I will admit that I am not taking advantage of the opportunities. In fact, I find the site difficult to navigate.
With Campbell-Scott’s book as my guide, I hope to participate more effectively on Goodreads. (I have finally managed to get the new cover of CIA FALL GUY on the site.)
As she points out, Goodreads is a site for book readers, so book authors should want to be active on this site. One advantage of getting an author account on Goodreads is that you can bring in your blog feed to your Goodreads author profile. (For an example of this, see http://www.goodreads.com/pzmiller)
And there are book reader groups in many, many genres. The only problem is finding the time to be active on these groups!
Now I’m off to work on implementing more of the ideas of the above two books.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
March 15, 2013
The Case Against “Oz the Great and Powerful”
What is especially interesting is Rappe explains that this prejudice goes against the beliefs of L. Frank Baum, the author of 17 Oz books.
Rappe says:
… Baum was a feminist. He was an avid supporter of women’s suffrage, and was happily married to the outspoken, intelligent, and energetic Maud Gage Baum, who had gone to Cornell, and sacrificed dreams of degrees to marry him. Their marriage was an unusual one for the time, as Frank happily let her wear the pants, assert her authority, and rule the house.
Baum’s mother-in-law was none other than famous activist and suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage. She was a frequent visitor at their house, as were many other suffragettes of the time, including Susan B. Anthony.
Baum was not only sympathetic to their cause, but active towards it, serving as the secretary for Aberdeen Women’s Suffrage Club, and writing editorials for the “Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer,” urging citizens to vote for women’s suffrage.
I know the self-fulfilling prophecy that female action characters cannot “open” a movie. Why do I say self-fulfilling? Because if you make very few of these, and even one or two do not do well at the box office, this “proves” the prejudice.
Of course, many, many male action characters’ movies do not do well at the box office, but that’s just laid down to the fickle taste of the public (or whatever other excuse can be pulled out of a hat).
If you want to see the two-sided prejudice operating in the realm of fiction books, check out the reviews for my military thriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS that I wrote with my husband, a member of the U.S. Naval Institute. Some negative reviews attacked LCDR Sanders for doing things in a fictional story for which a male fictional character would never be attacked.
As a long-time feminist I know that women have made large strides in the real world, but curiously they are behind in the fictional realm.
Click here to read the entire Rappe article now.
© 2013 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
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