Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 38

Solution to Stewing Over Graduate School Standardized Tests

The June 4th Wall Street Journal article “Q: What Is New and Scary? A: The Revised GMAT” by Melissa Korn caught my eye because, in the fall of 1977, I took the GMATs before applying to Wharton for my M.B.A.

At that time I took no GMAT preparation course but did spend a great deal of time practicing my multiplication tables as all calculations on the exam had to be done “by hand.”

Fast forward to 2012, and my interest was snagged by this:

Prospective students often put undue emphasis on their GMAT scores because it’s one of the few elements of an application they can control, certainly more than a college transcript from years earlier, a job title or a letter of recommendation, say admissions experts.

The reason this paragraph so interested me is that I do not agree with it. While changing one’s college transcript is probably not in the cards, students can have a lot of control over letters of recommendation and other pre-undergraduate or pre-graduate school activities.

This is why I wrote the three-ebook series HOW TO SUCCEED for teens and young adults — to help with those other elements that can, to a greater or lesser extent, be controlled by the college or grad school applicant.

This ability to control parts of one’s academic future is why the best time to read the first book in the series — HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE — is the summer before starting 9th grade. Decisions in all innocence made then can adversely affect a student’s college admission choices.

For the same reason, the best time to read the second book in the series — HOW TO SUCCEED IN COLLEGE AND PREP FOR BEYOND COLLEGE — is before starting freshman year of college. Then college students have four years of school plus possibly additional years beyond college before applying to grad schools to “get their ducks in order.”

And out soon will be the third book in the series — HOW TO SUCCEED BEYOND COLLEGE — for those coming late to the party but who are motivated to make up for lost time.



Get these books now for 8th grade and high school graduates on your gift list — and give these students a helping hand up.

P.S. I can even individually autograph the Kindle books via Kindlegraph.com

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M. B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company Miller Mosaic LLC. Besides her nonfiction books, she is also a fiction author.

Memorial Day, PTSD and Solomon’s Justice

I finished the first draft of the TV drama script for my proposed project “Solomon’s Justice” just before the Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. began.

The script channels the information and true stories I have heard in the four years in which I have been active online (BlogTalkRadio, websites, blog posts, etc.) supporting U.S. troops, their families and veterans, including focusing on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The May 26-27 Wall Street Journal carried the front-page article “One Taliban Bullet, Two Lives Lost” by Michael M. Phillips:

On Jan. 18, about halfway through his first combat tour and shortly before a scheduled home leave, the 27-year-old soldier sat in his room at an Army base in the snowy mountains near the Pakistan border. He held a 9mm pistol, the weapon medics carry to protect their patients in battle. He put the muzzle to his head and pulled the trigger.

He left behind a two-word note. “I’m sorry,” it said.

For many in the military, some of the toughest blows aren’t from battle but its aftermath. In the field and at home, many troops wrestle with depression, trauma, anxiety and substance abuse. Sometimes, combat veterans struggle to overcome the guilt of outliving their friends.

The article is a compelling story of one medic’s desperate attempt to save the life of a fellow soldier shot in a Taliban ambush — and of that medic’s suicide four months later.

As the Journal article reported, “self-inflicted deaths among active-duty Army personnel [21.8 per 100,000] … surpass[ed] the civilian rate in the U.S. for the first time in 2008.”

The May 24 Pasadena Weekly carried the article “Warrior Justice: State courts ease up to help war veterans in trouble readjust to life at home” by Logan Nakyanzi Pollard:

Started in Buffalo, NY, in 2008, veterans’ courts have been established in several states around the country, including California, which has nine such courts statewide, most located in Southern California.

There are approximately 23.4 million veterans, 1.7 million of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan. As much as one-third of the nation’s homeless population has served in the armed forces, according to estimates from the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Nearly half of all homeless vets suffer from some sort of mental illness, and 75 percent struggle with substance abuse.

But, unfortunately, many vets don’t know they have that option available to them, says Judge Michael Tynan, who presides over the veterans’ court established in the Los Angeles County Superior Court system.

According to this article, Judge Tynan is seeing many vets from earlier wars such as Vietnam rather than vets from Iraq and Afghanistan.

From what I have learned about PTSD, this may not be as surprising as it at first seems because PTSD can take a long time to manifest itself. (See info on PTSD and post about my visit to Judge Tynan’s veterans court.)

The proposed TV drama “Solomon’s Justice” is a long shot. But it is one possible way to help spread the word about the veterans court option as well as encourage the establishment of more such courts.

And there is much more that needs to be done to better understand PTSD and how to reduce its effects in combat veterans.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of nonfiction and fiction books, including the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT.

8th Grade and High School Graduation Gifts: HOW TO SUCCEED Books

If only years ago, for an 8th grade graduation gift, someone had given my older daughter the first book in the HOW TO SUCCEED series, she and her younger sister would have had an easier time in high school and applying to college.



I learned back then that a particular high school’s requirements for graduation may NOT be the application requirements for a particular college. And by the time my family learned this, the “die was cast,” as the saying goes.

Skip forward a few years and I began working with high school students and college students using marketing principles for applying to colleges and grad schools. It was then that I developed the overall framework for the 3-book HOW TO SUCCEED series for teens and young adults that I am just now self-publishing.

If you are planning to give a graduation gift to an 8th grader, consider HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE (available in paperback as well as ebook formats):

This first book in the series contains information specific to high school success and applying to colleges as well as information to help young people with interviewing, creating relationships with potential mentors, and following their passions. Exercises that build on the information are included.

If you are planning to give a graduation gift to a teen graduating from high school, consider HOW TO SUCCEED IN COLLEGE AND PREP FOR BEYOND COLLEGE (currently only available in Kindle format):

This second book contains information specific to college success and applying to graduate schools as well as information to help young people with interviewing, creating relationships with potential mentors, and following their passions. Exercises that build on the information are included.

And soon the third book – HOW TO SUCCEED BEYOND COLLEGE – will be available in Kindle format. (Get a sneak peek of the book cover now.)

Note: All three book covers created by Miller Mosaic LLC co-founder Yael K. Miller.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M. B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic LLC, an online marketing company. Besides her nonfiction books, she is also a fiction author.

Books of CreateSpace Self-Published Authors Can Be Sold in Europe

Amazing announcement from Amazon’s CreateSpace:

CreateSpace is excited to help you reach readers in Europe for free. In just a few minutes, you can distribute your book directly through Amazon’s European websites, including Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, and Amazon.it.

Plus, we’re now offering more flexible payment options for our industry-leading royalties. You can easily select direct deposit in the U.S. or Europe and get paid in U.S. dollars, British pounds, or Euro – your choice.

While this news is amazing in terms of opening up European distribution channels for books self-published via Amazon’s CreateSpace, it does leave open the question of “Why did it take so long to offer this?”

After all, we are talking about digital files. POD (Print on Demand) books such as those of CreateSpace can be printed digitally only when ordered. Digital files can be printed as easily in Europe as in the U.S.

Still, let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, as the saying goes. Better now than never.



Caution: This extra distribution channel is NOT automatic for CreateSpace authors. They must go into their account to update their payment information and make decisions on the prices of their books in Europe.

P.S. And this is a momentous “book day” for me for another reason:

With the help of my business partner Yael K. Miller, I had converted HOW TO SUCCEED IN COLLEGE AND PREP FOR BEYOND COLLEGE into a Kindle ebook (coding was complicated by my complex formatting for the book).

This morning I uploaded the mobi file to Kindle Direct Publishing and chose the Kindle Select option. Now I am looking forward to testing whether only putting the ebook on Kindle for 90 days (Kindle Select option) pays off.

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(c) 2012 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients with defining who they are and what they have to offer.

Check out the HOW TO SUCCEED series for teens and young adults.

How Much Common Sense Do You Need to Participate on Social Media?

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The May 14th Wall Street Journal article “Facebook and Twitter Postings Cost CFO His Job” by Rachel Emma Silverman is a mind-blower:

Gene Morphis, chief financial officer of fashion retailer Francesca’s Holdings Corp., was fired him because he “improperly communicated company information through social media.”

The article reported that his Twitter username is @theoldcfo and gave as an example of his tweets one that he tweeted on March 6: “Dinner w/Board tonite. Used to be fun. Now one must be on guard every second.”

As the saying goes, how dumb do you have to be? You are the CFO of a company, presumably trusted with the company’s funds, and you do not know enough not to tweet this?

This faux pas by Morphis is not an example of not knowing the difference between private and personal. This is an example of not understanding what you do not disclose about your employer (or your business).

Social media should not be blamed for Morphis’ stupidity. That blame rests solely on Morphis’ own shoulders.

And while Morphis was appropriately fired, his stupidity should be a wake-up call for all of us to examine what we share on social media sites.



If you need help with knowing what not to share, here is the full-page warning posted at the beginning of all three books in my new series HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE AND BEYOND:

WARNING – READ THIS RIGHT NOW TO SAVE YOURSELF FROM MAJOR MISTAKES

No matter what – NEVER, EVER, EVER put anything online that could damage your future.

And NEVER believe that privacy controls will protect you. Even if you think no one except yourself can see that nude picture of you, do NOT put it online.

While I am a huge advocate of effectively using social media for your goals in life, I also know that sharing inappropriate information, photos or videos can really hurt you.

In case you are unsure what could be harmful to your college applications or beyond – here is a partial list:

Photos or videos of yourself with beer, alcohol or controlled substances in your hands
Photos or videos of yourself in lewd (or no) clothing
Photos or videos of yourself making vulgar hand gestures
Comments or videos with R-rated swear words
Hurtful comments or videos about others

Photos and comments can live on the Internet forever even if you have deleted these. Please do NOT shoot yourself in the foot by putting inappropriate photos, videos or comments online.

While the above tweet by Morphis can probably be included in the “hurtful comments” category, we will create another one just for him:

Anything that you should know better than to say publicly about your company or your business

After all, how much common sense is required to know this?

(c) 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients with effectively using social media to connect with prospective target audiences.

Visit her author site www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com to find out about the three-book series HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE AND BEYOND COLLEGE.

Let’s Talk About Amazon — Again

The topic of Amazon in relation to book authors and book publishers and book buyers is never ending. This is partly due to Amazon’s size of the marketplace and partly due to the innovations that Amazon and its competitors continually introduce.

I read with interest the Huffington Post May 14th article by Penny C. Sansevieri (@BookGal on Twitter) entitled “Cutting Out Amazon.com: Does It Still Make Sense to Sell There?”

Penn wrote an insightful post (link to it below) with ideas for authors who do not want to rely on Amazon to sell their books.

While I agree with Penny’s ideas (she always has great ones!), I do want to add my own opinion that authors who do NOT sell on Amazon are cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Especially telling is this anecdote Penny shared in the article:

Several years ago we had an author who sent his book to O Magazine, not thinking they’d feature it — it was just, well you know, wishful thinking.

As it happened O Magazine did run a blurb on the book which was great, yes? The problem was the author chose to not have his book on Amazon and his e-commerce system on his site wasn’t set up.

Consequently he didn’t sell a single book from the O Magazine mention. Lesson learned.

Leaving aside the question of why this author did not have his website already set up for e-commerce, there remains the question of why anyone would risk not having his/her book available on Amazon, an online book buying site that has such a huge percentage of the online book buyers.

In addition, as Amazon branches out into book publishing, movie making, TV series development and who knows what else is coming, authors should have an Author Central account on Amazon as one more way for book readers to find authors’ books. (See my Author Central account’s Phyllis Zimbler Miller Page.)

New book marketing experiment:

I have just started an experiment with THE EDNALOR MYSTERIES written by 93-year-old author Shirley Windward. I self-published this book as a paperback through CreateSpace several months ago.

Now I converted the book to ebook format (mobi) and entered it in the Kindle Select program. This means that for 90 days the ebook can only be sold as a Kindle ebook on Amazon and not on any other site. (The paperback can be sold elsewhere.)

I plan to watch how this ebook does with the benefit of Kindle Select before considering putting the ebook format on other sites. (At this time an author on Kindle Select can have five days in which the ebook is offered for free. I have been researching which combination of five days might be the best strategy.)

Please weigh in below with your comments about Amazon.

And consider buying THE EDNALOR MYSTERIES now available on Kindle.

Plus read Penny’s article now.

P.S. Did you see my U.S., U.K. and Germany Amazon stores on my author Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/PhyllisZimblerMillerAuthor?

I am also trying out a free Facebook app that allows a sample chapter to be included.

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(c) 2012 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients with defining who they are and what they have to offer.

Tips About Using Facebook More Effectively

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As Facebook continually makes changes – adding features and taking away features, it can sometimes be difficult to do even “simple” things you have done before.

For example, I really liked the way previously I could choose to participate on Facebook in the name of a Page of which I am an admin. Now I have to do this one of two different ways, depending on which Page I want to participate as.

If I want to function as a Page that I “own” (set up via my own Facebook profile account), I can simply click on the little dropdown arrow next to the “Home” on the top nav bar. Then I can choose to “Use Facebook as:” and click on the Page name.

But, if I am admin of a Page set up through a client’s Facebook profile account, I have to:

1. Start from my own profile

2. Go to Page that I want to participate on Facebook as

3. Click on “Manage Page”

4. Click on “Use Facebook as [name of Page]”

On the other hand, here is a new feature that I learned about from Facebook guru Mari Smith:

When you are on your newsfeed for your profile (the “Home” locale), look down on the left-hand side of the screen and click on the dropdown arrow next to “More.”

You will then see the heading “Interests” and you can click on “Add Interests” to come to www.facebook.com/addlist/ where you can “subscribe to interest lists or create your own.”

What I found most interesting is that a list can contain people and Pages. Of course, you can choose “public,” “friends” or “only me” for who can see the list.

(Remember, though, nothing online is ever truly private. I would highly recommend NOT creating a private list that, if it became public, could embarrass you.)

For an example of a list, see Mari Smith’s “Facebook Experts and Resources” at www.facebook.com/lists/10150585382860868



And, finally, I want to give a shoutout to the thumbnail images that Yael created for my three Amazon country stores on my author Facebook Page – see these now at www.facebook.com/PhyllisZimblerMillerauthor

(I did have to remember to go back to the Amazon U.S. store app and manually add the just-released paperback format of HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE because the Amazon store app on Facebook will not automatically update.)

(c) 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients with effectively using social media to connect with prospective target audiences.

Phyllis is also the author of fiction and nonfiction books and ebooks. For more info see www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com

Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave: Self-Publishing

Self-publishing has more and more options and therefore more and more confusion for authors.

In my new “Ask PZM” for Joylene Butler’s blog I talk about ebook publishing options.

Yet as I sit at my computer juggling my social media marketing for clients with the writing and online marketing of my own books, I can only shake my head at some of the decisions I have made.

In retrospect, for me it was a mistake to choose BookBaby over my trusty ebook converter Chris O’Byrne (www.ebook-editor.com). Getting expanded distribution from BookBaby (and it takes WEEKS for most of these expanded sites to start carrying an ebook from BookBaby!) is not worth giving up having Chris upload a well-converted ebook to Smashwords and thus onto making the ebook available on the iPad.



In addition, I have been rethinking my position on ebooks. While I think all new books should be available in ebooks, I have decided that it is foolish not to also make these ebooks available in paperback.

Therefore this week I have used a formatted template from Amazon’s POD publisher CreateSpace to turn both the technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS and HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE into paperbacks.

I already had the book covers for these books (both created by my business partner Yael K. Miller), so the actual cost of publishing each book is only the $25 I invested in expanded distribution.

LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS is already available in paperback on Amazon, and HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL should be available on Amazon in a few days.

I have determined that, this time around, I will first publish the second and third books in the HOW TO SUCCEED series in paperback, then turn these into ebooks.

As I said in the “Ask PZM” post mentioned above, there is probably no right answer in terms of self-publishing that applies to everyone. There are better answers for each author, although it can be a lot of work to find those better answers.



NEWS FLASH: This week Amazon Studios expanded from being in the film business to being in the TV comedy and children’s TV series business.

I have already uploaded two TV scripts, although the TV script written with Susan Chodakiewitz has to await her approval of the submission (and there is a glitch in her Amazon Studios accounts).

You can download for free DR. SOAPY as a TV comedy series on Amazon Studios.

You can also download for free KARATE MOMS as a TV comedy series on Amazon Studios.

(c) 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients with defining who they are and what they have to offer.

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Often Overlooked Amazon Opportunities for Authors

(Reprinted from www.MillerMosaicLLC.com blog)

I have been working on marketing self-published books and ebooks, and here are some often overlooked Amazon opportunities:

Amazon store on a Facebook Page:

You can have an Amazon store on your Facebook Page. (See the Phyllis Zimbler Miller author Facebook Page Amazon store as an example.) Kudos go to Yael K. Miller for figuring out how to do this.

The basic steps are:

1. Sign up for an Amazon associate account — https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

2. Go to Associates Central — https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/main.html

3. On nav bar – click “aStore”

4. Click on “Add a Category Page”

5. Change category name, such as to: My Books on Amazon

6. “Add products” (you can rearrange the order manually)

7. The return to “Create aStore Pages” and click “Continue” to “Color and Design” to choose options for your Amazon store.

8. Click “Continue” to “Sidebar Widgets” and choose your options.

9. Click “Finish & Get Link” and choose “Embed my store using an inline frame”

10. Then copy link (change width to 100%) and go to your Facebook Page and use the “Static HTML: iFrame Tabs” app to create a customized Facebook Page tab.

Adding a book or ebook to your Amazon Author Central account:



As you add books on Amazon – whether physical or in the Kindle format – you must tell Amazon that these are your books.

You need to go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com and “Add a book to your bibliography” and claim the book as yours.

While the book may be added, what may not happen automatically is that, if you are adding a Kindle edition after the physical book is on Amazon (or the other way round), these two formats may not automatically be linked.

I learned about this issue when my father asked why his second book of short stories – BLOSSOM WINTERS IS DRIVING ON THE LOS ANGELES FREEWAYS AND OTHER SHORT STORIES – did not show both formats in one listing as Amazon did for his first book of short stories – THE LOVE LIFE OF HOWARD HANDSOME AND OTHER SHORT STORIES.

The answer is that often an author must contact Author Central to ask that this be done, and it can take one to three days to show on Amazon after the request is made. (This is especially important in order to ensure that the reviews of the same book are shared between both formats.)

Plus you want to check that all your books on Amazon, whether physical or ebook, have the “Look Inside” feature. (You can contact the Amazon team responsible for this at insidethebook-submission@amazon.com )

And then there is Amazon Studios, as Amazon has now entered the film business and screenwriters can upload their screenplays after carefully reading and considering the agreement.

(If you are interested in reading screenplays, check out my screenplays that you can download for free at Amazon studios.)

CreateSpace Kindle conversion note:

I had learned that $69 was the base price for a Kindle conversion by Amazon’s POD publisher CreateSpace of a book published in physical format via CreateSpace. I then asked for a quote for conversion of Shirley Windward’s THE EDNALOR MYSTERIES and was given the price of $165.

When I asked why so much higher, I was told by a support rep:

All books with a trim size that exceed 7 x 10 are considered a complex conversion and require more time for our Kindle Conversion team to perform the necessary steps to adapt your book to Kindle compatible format.

If you are publishing a book through CreateSpace and deciding on the trim size, keep this information in mind. You may want to choose a size smaller than 7 x 10 if you plan to have CreateSpace do the Kindle conversion.

And please add in the comments below any other Amazon opportunities for authors that may not be well-known.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients with defining who they are and what they have to offer.

Amazon Opportunities for Book Authors

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I have been working on marketing self-published books and ebooks, and here are some often overlooked Amazon opportunities:

Amazon store on a Facebook Page:

You can have an Amazon store on your Facebook Page. (See the Phyllis Zimbler Miller author Facebook Page Amazon store as an example.) Kudos go to Yael K. Miller for figuring out how to do this.

The basic steps are:

1. Sign up for an Amazon associate account — https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

2. Go to Associates Central — https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/main.html

3. On nav bar – click “aStore”

4. Click on “Add a Category Page”

5. Change category name, such as to: My Books on Amazon

6. “Add products” (you can rearrange the order manually)

7. The return to “Create aStore Pages” and click “Continue” to “Color and Design” to choose options for your Amazon store.

8. Click “Continue” to “Sidebar Widgets” and choose your options.

9. Click “Finish & Get Link” and choose “Embed my store using an inline frame”

10. Then copy link (change width to 100%) and go to your Facebook Page and use the “Static HTML: iFrame Tabs” app to create a customized Facebook Page tab.

Adding a book or ebook to your Amazon Author Central account:



As you add books on Amazon – whether physical or in the Kindle format – you must tell Amazon that these are your books.

You need to go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com and “Add a book to your bibliography” and claim the book as yours.

While the book may be added, what may not happen automatically is that, if you are adding a Kindle edition after the physical book is on Amazon (or the other way round), these two formats may not automatically be linked.

I learned about this issue when my father asked why his second book of short stories – BLOSSOM WINTERS IS DRIVING ON THE LOS ANGELES FREEWAYS AND OTHER SHORT STORIES – did not show both formats in one listing as Amazon did for his first book of short stories – THE LOVE LIFE OF HOWARD HANDSOME AND OTHER SHORT STORIES.

The answer is that often an author must contact Author Central to ask that this be done, and it can take one to three days to show on Amazon after the request is made. (This is especially important in order to ensure that the reviews of the same book are shared between both formats.)

Plus you want to check that all your books on Amazon, whether physical or ebook, have the “Look Inside” feature. (You can contact the Amazon team responsible for this at insidethebook-submission@amazon.com )

And then there is Amazon Studios, as Amazon has now entered the film business and screenwriters can upload their screenplays after carefully reading and considering the agreement.

(If you are interested in reading screenplays, check out my screenplays that you can download for free at Amazon studios.)

CreateSpace Kindle conversion note:

I had learned that $69 was the base price for a Kindle conversion by Amazon’s POD publisher CreateSpace of a book published in physical format via CreateSpace. I then asked for a quote for conversion of Shirley Windward’s THE EDNALOR MYSTERIES and was given the price of $165.

When I asked why so much higher, I was told by a support rep:

All books with a trim size that exceed 7 x 10 are considered a complex conversion and require more time for our Kindle Conversion team to perform the necessary steps to adapt your book to Kindle compatible format.

If you are publishing a book through CreateSpace and deciding on the trim size, keep this information in mind. You may want to choose a size smaller than 7 x 10 if you plan to have CreateSpace do the Kindle conversion.

And please add in the comments below any other Amazon opportunities for authors that may not be well-known.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients with defining who they are and what they have to offer.