Claude Forthomme's Blog, page 33
February 17, 2014
Is Amazon Supremacy in eBooks Threatened?
Wow, super star Bella Andre has given full confidence to, no...Not Amazon Kindle Select but
Kobo
!
See here:
For me, this is surprising news. I've always thought of Amazon as the giant e-retailer whose supremacy could not be threatened - not yet and not for a long time. I guess I was wrong.
What we have here is a David vs. Goliath fight, who will win?
As the savvy chaps at Ebook Bargains UK write (see here), the deal is "only for three months, and it’s for five French-translated titles, but she could just as easily have gone into Select and gone exclusive for three months with Amazon France. This is very a big-selling indie author. One of the indie super-stars. The fact that she’s gone exclusive with Kobo when she could take her pick of any of the big retailers and get similar terms is worth pondering."
What they suggest is that "if you spend 90% of your time promoting Amazon listings, are in and out of Select, and all your links on your blog, website, email header, etc, etc, are to Amazon then you have only yourself to blame for the readers you are not reaching." (highlight added)
Right so. Are you linking to other places than Amazon? I know I'm guilty of relying on Amazon up to 90%, and in some cases 100%.
How about you?
Post-scriptum: I was wondering why Bella Andre might have signed up that exclusive with Kobo and a little check on the Net turned up some very interesting facts (see here, an illuminating Jeremy Greenfield article in Forbes.com dated August 2013).
In the US, Kobo is minuscule (around 3% of the ebook market) but abroad it's doing well, particularly in Canada and Japan but also Brazil and India, both fast-growing huge markets. But, compared to Amazon, what Kobo is doing that is different is:
1. establish a physical on-the-ground presence (it has just signed up with 500 American booksellers and it is certainly present in bookstores here where I live, Italy).
2. focus on readers and e-readers - the reader experience is at the heart of their ethos, or so they say, whereas, as we all know, Amazon sells all sorts of things besides books.
Whatever...Kobo must be doing something right! I have no doubts that in France a lot of people read books on Kobo devices - no question, that is probably the bet Bella Andre made when she signed up with them.
Related articles
Kobo is Expanding in All Directions - Drops Hints of a Russian Kobo Store & Signs New Bookstore Partner in Spain(the-digital-reader.com)
See here:
For me, this is surprising news. I've always thought of Amazon as the giant e-retailer whose supremacy could not be threatened - not yet and not for a long time. I guess I was wrong.
What we have here is a David vs. Goliath fight, who will win?
As the savvy chaps at Ebook Bargains UK write (see here), the deal is "only for three months, and it’s for five French-translated titles, but she could just as easily have gone into Select and gone exclusive for three months with Amazon France. This is very a big-selling indie author. One of the indie super-stars. The fact that she’s gone exclusive with Kobo when she could take her pick of any of the big retailers and get similar terms is worth pondering."
What they suggest is that "if you spend 90% of your time promoting Amazon listings, are in and out of Select, and all your links on your blog, website, email header, etc, etc, are to Amazon then you have only yourself to blame for the readers you are not reaching." (highlight added)
Right so. Are you linking to other places than Amazon? I know I'm guilty of relying on Amazon up to 90%, and in some cases 100%.
How about you?
Post-scriptum: I was wondering why Bella Andre might have signed up that exclusive with Kobo and a little check on the Net turned up some very interesting facts (see here, an illuminating Jeremy Greenfield article in Forbes.com dated August 2013).
In the US, Kobo is minuscule (around 3% of the ebook market) but abroad it's doing well, particularly in Canada and Japan but also Brazil and India, both fast-growing huge markets. But, compared to Amazon, what Kobo is doing that is different is:
1. establish a physical on-the-ground presence (it has just signed up with 500 American booksellers and it is certainly present in bookstores here where I live, Italy).
2. focus on readers and e-readers - the reader experience is at the heart of their ethos, or so they say, whereas, as we all know, Amazon sells all sorts of things besides books.
Whatever...Kobo must be doing something right! I have no doubts that in France a lot of people read books on Kobo devices - no question, that is probably the bet Bella Andre made when she signed up with them.
Related articles
Kobo is Expanding in All Directions - Drops Hints of a Russian Kobo Store & Signs New Bookstore Partner in Spain(the-digital-reader.com)
February 13, 2014
The Digital Revolution: What Published Authors Really Want
Best selling author Hugh Howey has set up a really cool website to encourage authors, both traditionally and self-published, to come together and (eventually) form a "guild" - or some sort of association to defend authors' rights against publishers and e-distributors.
To visit, click here. To reade his latest report on author earnings and the state of publishing, click here. Inter alia, it raises an interesting question: are trad publishers losing customers by charging the highest prices in the industry?
Here are the services offered on the home page:
In my (modest) view, it's about time too and I'm very grateful to Hugh Howey for daring to come out and call people together.
Writers of the World Unite!
I've answered the survey and signed the petition (you can see it here). It makes a lot of sense to me. And look at the analysis of early responses (the day I signed it was 331and 96% of them writers, both published and aspiring):
Clicking 5 means full support, 1 means little/no support. Fascinating, go take a look at the requests!
What I do like about his approach is that he is calling on both traditionally and self-published authors. That's really the right approach, we are all in this boat together...
Your views? Do go take a look and if you feel like it, please sign the petition. It is also opened to readers and I think that it is right that it should be so. It is in the readers' interest that their favorite writers should be treated right and make a decent living...
Related articles
Hugh Howey explodes your view of publishing with author earnings report(teleread.com)
Go Read This | Hugh Howey's Report On Author Earnings(eoinpurcellsblog.com)
This chart ought to make the publishing industry very nervous(io9.com)
To visit, click here. To reade his latest report on author earnings and the state of publishing, click here. Inter alia, it raises an interesting question: are trad publishers losing customers by charging the highest prices in the industry?
Here are the services offered on the home page:
In my (modest) view, it's about time too and I'm very grateful to Hugh Howey for daring to come out and call people together.
Writers of the World Unite!
I've answered the survey and signed the petition (you can see it here). It makes a lot of sense to me. And look at the analysis of early responses (the day I signed it was 331and 96% of them writers, both published and aspiring):
Clicking 5 means full support, 1 means little/no support. Fascinating, go take a look at the requests!
What I do like about his approach is that he is calling on both traditionally and self-published authors. That's really the right approach, we are all in this boat together...
Your views? Do go take a look and if you feel like it, please sign the petition. It is also opened to readers and I think that it is right that it should be so. It is in the readers' interest that their favorite writers should be treated right and make a decent living...
Related articles
Hugh Howey explodes your view of publishing with author earnings report(teleread.com)
Go Read This | Hugh Howey's Report On Author Earnings(eoinpurcellsblog.com)
This chart ought to make the publishing industry very nervous(io9.com)
February 12, 2014
Are Mammograms Useless in Screening for Breast Cancer?
This morning the New York Times trumpeted the news that "mammograms fail to cut risk of death and causes overdiagnosis", apparently the result of a major Canadian study involving 90,000 women over 25 years (to read the article, click here). For women like me who've been undergoing mammograms ever since we turned 40, this is nothing short of astonishing. Now we find we've been taken for a ride all these years, really?
Not quite. It is a little more complicated than that.
First, let me be honest about this and tell you on which side I fall. I've had my doubts about the usefulness of mammograms for a long time, ever since I had a surgical intervention back in the 1980s, with the removal of an 8cm tumor from a breast - a tumor that resulted benign and the whole operation could easily have been skipped with a simple biopsy (but in those days in Italy, and with the conservative MD I had, a biopsy was not considered as reliable as total removal). What really annoyed me at the time was the obvious fact that the mammogram hadn't revealed anything more than what was already known via a simple palpation.
So why do it at all? Anyone who's gone through a mammography knows how unpleasant it is, a machine that squeezes you flat in order to supposedly "photograph" better what's under the skin. Machines have improved since early days and are no longer so invasively painful, but it is still a deeply unpleasant experience.
Now my doubts are confirmed. It is an unnecessary experience. What the Canadian study shows without a shadow of a doubt are two things:
1. early detection of "lumps" do not change ultimate results in terms of number of lives saved because many of those super tiny lumps that only a mammogram shows actually disappear of themselves or never evolve to a cancerous stage; hence the overdiagnosis and "false positives".
2. what has changed are recent improvements in medical cures (e.g. drugs like tamoxifen) that have improved the survival rate for women (and men) with breast cancer.
So should we abandon mammograms? As I said earlier, not quite. They are still a useful adjunct after a normal palpation exam by your doctor has shown a problematic lump. But don't expect wonders from it. Just a confirmation of your doctor's exam.
I honestly believe that mammography, once touted as a fantastic means to "catch" cancer at an early stage, thus improving chances of survival, has done its time and is ready to be shelved in historic medical libraries. Even if it never really did anything more than a simple palpation could do, it still served a historic role in drawing women's attention to the problem of breast cancer.
Your views?
Mammography in process: Shown is a drawing of a female having a mammogram. A mammogram is a picture of the breast that is made by using low-dose x-rays. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Related articles
Vast Study Casts Doubts on Value of Mammograms - New York Times(nytimes.com)
Mammograms Do Not Reduce Breast Cancer Deaths(livescience.com)
Cancer - Delayed or Misdiagnosed | eLocal(elocallawyers.com)
New doubts over mammograms(smh.com.au)
Not quite. It is a little more complicated than that.
First, let me be honest about this and tell you on which side I fall. I've had my doubts about the usefulness of mammograms for a long time, ever since I had a surgical intervention back in the 1980s, with the removal of an 8cm tumor from a breast - a tumor that resulted benign and the whole operation could easily have been skipped with a simple biopsy (but in those days in Italy, and with the conservative MD I had, a biopsy was not considered as reliable as total removal). What really annoyed me at the time was the obvious fact that the mammogram hadn't revealed anything more than what was already known via a simple palpation.
So why do it at all? Anyone who's gone through a mammography knows how unpleasant it is, a machine that squeezes you flat in order to supposedly "photograph" better what's under the skin. Machines have improved since early days and are no longer so invasively painful, but it is still a deeply unpleasant experience.
Now my doubts are confirmed. It is an unnecessary experience. What the Canadian study shows without a shadow of a doubt are two things:
1. early detection of "lumps" do not change ultimate results in terms of number of lives saved because many of those super tiny lumps that only a mammogram shows actually disappear of themselves or never evolve to a cancerous stage; hence the overdiagnosis and "false positives".
2. what has changed are recent improvements in medical cures (e.g. drugs like tamoxifen) that have improved the survival rate for women (and men) with breast cancer.
So should we abandon mammograms? As I said earlier, not quite. They are still a useful adjunct after a normal palpation exam by your doctor has shown a problematic lump. But don't expect wonders from it. Just a confirmation of your doctor's exam.
I honestly believe that mammography, once touted as a fantastic means to "catch" cancer at an early stage, thus improving chances of survival, has done its time and is ready to be shelved in historic medical libraries. Even if it never really did anything more than a simple palpation could do, it still served a historic role in drawing women's attention to the problem of breast cancer.
Your views?
Mammography in process: Shown is a drawing of a female having a mammogram. A mammogram is a picture of the breast that is made by using low-dose x-rays. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Related articles
Vast Study Casts Doubts on Value of Mammograms - New York Times(nytimes.com)
Mammograms Do Not Reduce Breast Cancer Deaths(livescience.com)
Cancer - Delayed or Misdiagnosed | eLocal(elocallawyers.com)
New doubts over mammograms(smh.com.au)
February 7, 2014
When an Audio Clip Turns Into a Radio Show
Fantastic job done by the Director of the HighRock Institute Joel Scott and his partner Angela Castonguay. This is a fiery dialogue taken from CRIMSON CLOUDS, my just released romance. What was going to be a sample audio clip was suddenly turned into something quite different, like a radio drama show, with two beautiful voices, male and female, screaming at each other...You can hear it directly on Sound Cloud here , or click below:
Congrats to Joel and Angela! I highly recommend them, they did a superb job, don't you agree? If you want to use their services, click here to contact them, you can read their latest blog post on audiobooks, "does an audiobook make sense for you?", click here.
Listening to that dialogue, think of Robert looking like (ideally!) George Clooney:
And Natasha like Julianne Moore:
Are you wondering what happens next? Is Robert going to get back to Natasha or will other women enter his life? And what about his wife? If you're curious, you can get the book here.
Looking at the future of audiobooks: the dialogue you just heard was extracted from Chapter 16 and of course, in the novel, it's embedded in the text that describes the reaction of each character. However, using more than one voice to read from a book opens up the possibility of theater-like dialogue that, in my opinion, is far more effective and lively than a straightforward reading of the book.
I wonder whether audio-books could be systematically done that way...though it would require extra editing from the author because of the need to turn the dialogues into self-standing pieces and of course, it would require a high level professional reading perfomance.
This suggests that novels re-formatted that way would stand half-way between theater and straight fiction.
What do you think, would that editing effort be worthwhile? I could launch yet another format for telling a story...
Congrats to Joel and Angela! I highly recommend them, they did a superb job, don't you agree? If you want to use their services, click here to contact them, you can read their latest blog post on audiobooks, "does an audiobook make sense for you?", click here.
Listening to that dialogue, think of Robert looking like (ideally!) George Clooney:
And Natasha like Julianne Moore:
Are you wondering what happens next? Is Robert going to get back to Natasha or will other women enter his life? And what about his wife? If you're curious, you can get the book here.
Looking at the future of audiobooks: the dialogue you just heard was extracted from Chapter 16 and of course, in the novel, it's embedded in the text that describes the reaction of each character. However, using more than one voice to read from a book opens up the possibility of theater-like dialogue that, in my opinion, is far more effective and lively than a straightforward reading of the book.
I wonder whether audio-books could be systematically done that way...though it would require extra editing from the author because of the need to turn the dialogues into self-standing pieces and of course, it would require a high level professional reading perfomance.
This suggests that novels re-formatted that way would stand half-way between theater and straight fiction.
What do you think, would that editing effort be worthwhile? I could launch yet another format for telling a story...
February 5, 2014
Two Good Reasons Why You Should Do Audiobooks
Should you do audio books of your titles? The answer is YES! And there are two very good reasons for doing so, but before I get to them, here's a little introduction to the world of audiobooks.It's a new aspect of the digital publishing industry, now worth $1.6 billion (still peanuts) but growing fast. If you're considering doing an audiobook, I highly recommend the following article by Michael Kozlowski on Good E Reader's blog, click here. You will see that in addition to Amazon's services, there are several excellent alternatives you might want to investigate.
Audio titles so far are relatively few (13,255 titles came out in 2012, up from 4,602 in 2009 - compare that to the millions of ebooks). Audiobooks seem to be the province of affirmed writers with a proven market, like, for example Elizabeth Spann Craig, a successful "hybrid" author ("hybrid" means she has both traditionally published books and self-published titles). She has a hefty number of published books under her belt and writes 3 to 4 books a year, making sure they're available in ALL formats. See here for her own summing up of her experience in 2013.
What is remarkable about her is that she spends (next to) zero $$$ on marketing, does just a little blogging and facebooking and tweeting (plus a couple of giveaways on Goodreads/year) - in short, she doesn't relate directly to her readers as an author. They are more interested in her books than in her, they're fans of her book characters, not of her as a writer or even as a person! This is what she calls "book-centric reader engagement" (and she is engagingly shy and modest about herself). All that means she has to write more books every year to keep it up rather than waste time on book promotion campaigns.
This is where audio-books come in, a format with a rapidly rising audience as more and more people are engaged in activities that preclude reading (for example, all the time wasted driving your car). We've all heard of Audible (acquired by Amazon in 2008), ACX and Podiobooks and I won't go into it here. One of my fellow author friends, Bert Carson, who's just dived into turning all his titles into audio-books, waxes enthusiastic, check him out here. He's got a lot to say about making them (see his "lessons learned" sections).
What I do think is that before you make that extra effort of producing an audio-book you should consider whether it is really worth your while. Which gets me to the reasons for doing audiobooks:
Reason #1: You should definitely do an audio book if you are in Spann Craig's position, where you've "saturated" your corner of the market. If not, you'll find that your audio-books face the same marketing hurdles as all your other formats (ebooks and printed versions) and are in need of selling boosts. Are you ready for that extra-marketing?
But there may be alternatives. For example, producing audio-clips of portions of your book, say a particularly breathtaking passage that could help in marketing your book, though the places to upload your clips are still essentially limited to soundcloud.com, click here to visit. You can set up your "sound" page there and share your clips - also very useful to embed your clips on your blog or website.
Reason #2: with the advent of Amazon's "Whispersync For Voice", it makes total sense. Your readers are able to move from reading to listening and back again without losing the place they stopped reading (or listening). Check it out here. The cool thing is that Amazon provides readers with a discounted audio copy if they buy the ebook first. So what you've got here is a built-in marketing tool. See here author Stephen Woodfin's experience that he very kindly shares on the Venture Galleries blog, an eye-opener.
If you've had any experience with recording your book, please share!
Latest News about my publications:
Crimson Clouds, (new edition) romance the second-time-around (on Amazon, click here for ebook and here for printed version) Just garnered new three 5 star reviews!
Beware of the offer of a printed first version of the book, under the title "A Hook in the Sky", see here. It looks nice and cheap ($10.80!) but it's no longer in print and I have retired it. It's just that the Amazon system is slow to register change...
Luna Rising, the full saga (new edition, 3 volumes) one young man's battle to rebuild the family name (on Amazon, click here for ebook and here for the printed version)
Again, beware of the printed version presented here, it's cheaper BUT that is the first edition (originally called "Fear of the Past") and unless you are a collector of rare editions, don't buy it!
Note: ebook is 40% off compared to buying each e-volume of the saga separately.
February 2, 2014
Would You Risk Your Life in the Cause of Art?
Some people did, remarkable people, courageous scholars and art lovers, the famous "Monuments Men" that George Clooney is celebrating in a film coming out this month. Here's the official movie trailer:
Great cast, that's one movie I don't want to miss!
Did you notice Cate Blantchett in there? She's Rose Valland in the movie, an amazing French woman, a French art historian and member of the French Resistance, who worked as an assistant in the Louvre's Jeu de Paume where Goring had based himself and his team to systematically steal all the art in there. She pretended she didn't speak German and listened to everything they said, carefully writing down the list with full descriptions of every piece of art they stole, week after week, and passing it on to the Resistence. That takes amazing courage! She died in 1980, aged 81.
And some of the Monuments Men died, two of them, paying with their lives in trying to save what is most important in any civilization: its culture. But they did manage to save huge numbers of masterpieces, they prevented the useless bombing of historic monasteries in Italy (and eleswhere) - they had become sharply aware of how important this was after the tragic and totally uless devastation wrought by the battle of Monte Cassino, that tragically stood in the way of the Allies's march on Rome. It had left the incomparable thousand years old Abbey in ruins:
From WorldWarPhotoFind blog, for more amazing photos visit here
Yes, because all of this is true. And fully documented. And beautifully chronicled in Robert M. Edsel's book, The Monuments Men (I'm currently reading it, fascinating, I highly recommend it):
Available on Amazon:
ebook here
printed version here
Curious about Rose Valland? Edsel just wrote a foreword to Corinne Bouchoux's new book about her that just came out last October:
Available on Amazon (ebook) here
Another must-read on the topic is Lynn Nicholas' scholarly work, the "Rape of Europa", first published a few years ago and now available as an ebook (click here):
Printed version here (same price as ebook)With the movie coming out this week-end, there are many interesting related articles:
Not All Monuments Men Were Men(nytimes.com)
The Background on 'Monuments Men' Opening In Theatres This Weekend:(k1047.cbslocal.com)
Film Review: 'The Monuments Men'(variety.com)
History, Yes, but Movie History(nytimes.com)
Latest News about my publications:
Crimson Clouds, (new edition) romance the second-time-around (on Amazon, click here for ebook and here for printed version)
Just garnered new three 5 star reviews!
Luna Rising, the full saga (new edition, 3 volumes) one young man's battle to rebuild the family name (on Amazon, click here for ebook, and here for printed version)
Note: ebook is 40% off compared to buying each e-volume of the saga separately:
Great cast, that's one movie I don't want to miss!
Did you notice Cate Blantchett in there? She's Rose Valland in the movie, an amazing French woman, a French art historian and member of the French Resistance, who worked as an assistant in the Louvre's Jeu de Paume where Goring had based himself and his team to systematically steal all the art in there. She pretended she didn't speak German and listened to everything they said, carefully writing down the list with full descriptions of every piece of art they stole, week after week, and passing it on to the Resistence. That takes amazing courage! She died in 1980, aged 81.
And some of the Monuments Men died, two of them, paying with their lives in trying to save what is most important in any civilization: its culture. But they did manage to save huge numbers of masterpieces, they prevented the useless bombing of historic monasteries in Italy (and eleswhere) - they had become sharply aware of how important this was after the tragic and totally uless devastation wrought by the battle of Monte Cassino, that tragically stood in the way of the Allies's march on Rome. It had left the incomparable thousand years old Abbey in ruins:
From WorldWarPhotoFind blog, for more amazing photos visit hereYes, because all of this is true. And fully documented. And beautifully chronicled in Robert M. Edsel's book, The Monuments Men (I'm currently reading it, fascinating, I highly recommend it):
Available on Amazon: ebook here
printed version here
Curious about Rose Valland? Edsel just wrote a foreword to Corinne Bouchoux's new book about her that just came out last October:
Available on Amazon (ebook) hereAnother must-read on the topic is Lynn Nicholas' scholarly work, the "Rape of Europa", first published a few years ago and now available as an ebook (click here):
Printed version here (same price as ebook)With the movie coming out this week-end, there are many interesting related articles:
Not All Monuments Men Were Men(nytimes.com)
The Background on 'Monuments Men' Opening In Theatres This Weekend:(k1047.cbslocal.com)
Film Review: 'The Monuments Men'(variety.com)
History, Yes, but Movie History(nytimes.com)Latest News about my publications:
Crimson Clouds, (new edition) romance the second-time-around (on Amazon, click here for ebook and here for printed version)
Just garnered new three 5 star reviews! Luna Rising, the full saga (new edition, 3 volumes) one young man's battle to rebuild the family name (on Amazon, click here for ebook, and here for printed version)
Note: ebook is 40% off compared to buying each e-volume of the saga separately:
January 30, 2014
Book Trailers: 4 Tips to Turn Them Into a Successful Marketing Tool
To turn a book trailer into a successful marketing tool, you need to make it jump through many loopholes and overcome some serious challenges.
Think of it as a steeple chase.
I'm assuming you've done your research and know all about making book trailers. If you haven't, here's an excellent introduction to book trailer production, it dates back to 2010, but it's still totally relevant:
Click here to read the article
However, to boost your sales with your book trailer, you need to pay attention to four essential principles:
1. Make it short. The CEO of Bookmovies.TV recently mentions 20 seconds in his interesting article on Publishing Perspectives that explains how book trailers help in book discovery (to read, click here). That might be a little too short, though some people even speak of 6 seconds videos (see first article below, using the Vine app). Take a look:
Click here to see trailer
It's humorous and super short. Still, in my opinion, 50 seconds would be about right.
2. Make it fun to watch. Easier said than done. If your budget is unlimited, make it look like a movie trailer, with snippets of action and real actors. For most authors, that's unthinkable. There are low-cost options using any material you may have a right to (like your own photographs or drawings/paintings) and/or expanding and playing with your book cover. Or, if you live in the right place where there are acting schools in your community or college kids studying video production, you can do what author Terry King did for his book "Silent Partner" - it's a long one, over 3 minutes, but it was meant to attract the attention of agents and publishers:
But then, when the book was published a year later, he produced an "official" book trailer, 56 seconds long (confirming my hunch that 50 seconds is about right):
But please do not do a video of yourself reading from your book! There is quite literally nothing more boring for your future readers unless of course, you've just written your biography and you're a celeb, or you are George Clooney or Julia Roberts.
One possibility I haven't explored but there might be something to it, is to make book trailers in the shape of book reviews, like this one:
Sweet and short. What do you think of it? Of course, it would require cooperation from an important book reviewer or... make one up (grin!) and use the humor lever.
3. Make it pleasing to hear. The music is essential, it has to be catchy but it also needs to reflect the mood of your book and to pick the right tune is an art onto itself. Also, remember not all music is free and credits must be given.
4. Upload it to the right places where people will see it. This is the real problem. Bookmovies.tv mentioned above is a Spanish site and it makes sense to do something with them only if you are writing in Spanish - furthermore, their rank on Alexa is not all that high (around 55,000th in Spain) so don't expect crowds of salivating visitors and miracles.
The challenge is always the same one, the conversion between the moment the video is viewed and the click on that "buy" button. That "between moment" needs to be as short as possible.
As of now, there are only two viable options to make the most of your book trailer (and not let it sit gathering digital dust).
Make it go viral on YouTube: a Google ad will help, but again don't expect miracles. My experience with this video I did for A Hook in the Sky (the first version of CRIMSON CLOUDS) was disappointing:
Not that bad, right? But it did not lead to any boost in sales even though the ad I set up for a week or so moved the number of views from 50 to almost 3,000.
Put the book trailer on your book detail page on Amazon: that's the most logical place, right on the Amazon page where your book sells the most. The "between moment" is reduced to almost zero, cool! But there's a problem. Amazon lets you upload any video you like on your author page, but who visits your author page? Only your fans! You want to reach out to more people, right? If you've got your metadata right (the right genre selected for your book and the right keywords to direct readers to your book) you need that last little kick to convert them and convince them to buy your book. That's what a book trailer is for, but there's a catch. The only way you can upload a booktrailer on that book page is to use Amazon's Create Space team. They will make a booktrailer for you, see here for conditions and prices.
Yes, around $2,000, it's not cheap - but it's professional, they work closely with you and it takes from 7 to 8 weeks for the standard trailer (30 seconds, no voice-over, only music).
I know, it's not fair, you may have the best book trailer in the world, but Amazon won't let you upload it to their site. But what can you say? This is their site, not yours! I'm seriously thinking about producing a book trailer...the only thing that stops me is the amount of $$$ it requires!
How about you, what has worked for you? Any and all advice welcome!
Related articles
Vine Book Trailer Brings Characters to Life(mediabistro.com)
Here's My Teacher Model For Instagram Video "Book Trailers" Students Will Be Making(teacherlingo.com)
Booktrailers - Be Careful(terrenceking.wordpress.com)
Three Tips for a Successfull Book Trailer(claudenougat.blogspot.com)
Think of it as a steeple chase.
I'm assuming you've done your research and know all about making book trailers. If you haven't, here's an excellent introduction to book trailer production, it dates back to 2010, but it's still totally relevant:
Click here to read the articleHowever, to boost your sales with your book trailer, you need to pay attention to four essential principles:
1. Make it short. The CEO of Bookmovies.TV recently mentions 20 seconds in his interesting article on Publishing Perspectives that explains how book trailers help in book discovery (to read, click here). That might be a little too short, though some people even speak of 6 seconds videos (see first article below, using the Vine app). Take a look:
Click here to see trailerIt's humorous and super short. Still, in my opinion, 50 seconds would be about right.
2. Make it fun to watch. Easier said than done. If your budget is unlimited, make it look like a movie trailer, with snippets of action and real actors. For most authors, that's unthinkable. There are low-cost options using any material you may have a right to (like your own photographs or drawings/paintings) and/or expanding and playing with your book cover. Or, if you live in the right place where there are acting schools in your community or college kids studying video production, you can do what author Terry King did for his book "Silent Partner" - it's a long one, over 3 minutes, but it was meant to attract the attention of agents and publishers:
But then, when the book was published a year later, he produced an "official" book trailer, 56 seconds long (confirming my hunch that 50 seconds is about right):
But please do not do a video of yourself reading from your book! There is quite literally nothing more boring for your future readers unless of course, you've just written your biography and you're a celeb, or you are George Clooney or Julia Roberts.
One possibility I haven't explored but there might be something to it, is to make book trailers in the shape of book reviews, like this one:
Sweet and short. What do you think of it? Of course, it would require cooperation from an important book reviewer or... make one up (grin!) and use the humor lever.
3. Make it pleasing to hear. The music is essential, it has to be catchy but it also needs to reflect the mood of your book and to pick the right tune is an art onto itself. Also, remember not all music is free and credits must be given.
4. Upload it to the right places where people will see it. This is the real problem. Bookmovies.tv mentioned above is a Spanish site and it makes sense to do something with them only if you are writing in Spanish - furthermore, their rank on Alexa is not all that high (around 55,000th in Spain) so don't expect crowds of salivating visitors and miracles.
The challenge is always the same one, the conversion between the moment the video is viewed and the click on that "buy" button. That "between moment" needs to be as short as possible.
As of now, there are only two viable options to make the most of your book trailer (and not let it sit gathering digital dust).
Make it go viral on YouTube: a Google ad will help, but again don't expect miracles. My experience with this video I did for A Hook in the Sky (the first version of CRIMSON CLOUDS) was disappointing:
Not that bad, right? But it did not lead to any boost in sales even though the ad I set up for a week or so moved the number of views from 50 to almost 3,000.
Put the book trailer on your book detail page on Amazon: that's the most logical place, right on the Amazon page where your book sells the most. The "between moment" is reduced to almost zero, cool! But there's a problem. Amazon lets you upload any video you like on your author page, but who visits your author page? Only your fans! You want to reach out to more people, right? If you've got your metadata right (the right genre selected for your book and the right keywords to direct readers to your book) you need that last little kick to convert them and convince them to buy your book. That's what a book trailer is for, but there's a catch. The only way you can upload a booktrailer on that book page is to use Amazon's Create Space team. They will make a booktrailer for you, see here for conditions and prices.
Yes, around $2,000, it's not cheap - but it's professional, they work closely with you and it takes from 7 to 8 weeks for the standard trailer (30 seconds, no voice-over, only music).
I know, it's not fair, you may have the best book trailer in the world, but Amazon won't let you upload it to their site. But what can you say? This is their site, not yours! I'm seriously thinking about producing a book trailer...the only thing that stops me is the amount of $$$ it requires!
How about you, what has worked for you? Any and all advice welcome!
Related articles
Vine Book Trailer Brings Characters to Life(mediabistro.com)
Here's My Teacher Model For Instagram Video "Book Trailers" Students Will Be Making(teacherlingo.com)
Booktrailers - Be Careful(terrenceking.wordpress.com)
Three Tips for a Successfull Book Trailer(claudenougat.blogspot.com)
January 27, 2014
Author Interview on Smashwords: A Cool Marketing Tool
Smashwords is probably the friendliest site for writers seeking to publish their books, with all sorts of goodies, including automatic upload of your book to all major platforms (except the Kindle Store - that one you need to do yourself) and a coupon functionality that allows you to easily gift books to reviewers. And I just discovered there's another cool marketing tool available: the author interview!
When you upload your books to Smashwords, you can respond to a Smashwords' generated interview, with dozens of questions that you can choose to respond to or pass up. Once you've answered 10 questions, they publish the interview instantly, letting you make any corrections you need. It looks very professional, you can read mine here. Note the way they list all the books below the interview, clever!
And this is what the interview page looks like to me when I log into their site - as you can see, I can edit it and share it as needed, very useful:
I decided to answer 10 of their questions (actually, that's considered a minimum). Is there any other question you feel I should have included? Please let me know, I'd really appreciate comments and suggestions. Hey, this is a moving feast, it can always be improved!
Here's the interview:
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
A bloody murder story! Actually blood and gore was ubiquitous in my early work...When I turned 15, I wrote my first novel about a band of thugs in the wilds of Colombia. I've moved on since...
What is your writing process?
Filling notepads with random observations. Overtime, the notes grow and something emerges. It can take up to two years before a fully-formed idea is born. Then I plunge into a first draft, writing at top speed to "catch" in words the film that I see in my mind's eye. After that, at least another year of revision upon revision is required, tough work! Anyone who thinks that writing is easy is vastly mistaken. But I would never want to do anything else, I love it!
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
The first story was in French, "Les Malheurs de Sophie", a delightful tale for children written by the Comtesse de Ségur, a russian who had married a Frenchman. Poor Sophie, everything goes wrong for her, until in the end, she emerges victorious. That is the kind of story arc I still love (and love to write): everything goes wrong for the main character, catastrophes pile up, the tunnel gets darker and deeper but in the end he or she makes it out of the tunnel!
How do you approach cover design?
Covers for me are all important. A successful cover visually encapsulates the book, showing at a glance not only what it is about but the atmosphere - certainly the genre - but beyond that, the kind of emotions you can expect from reading the book. So it has to work on several levels, that is what is so hard to do! I've always had a hand at designing my book covers or at least in participating in the process, providing pictures or giving my opinion.
Describe your desk
A mess! Bits of papers floating about, pictures piled up here and there.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in many different countries: first Sweden until I was 6, next Egypt, France, Russia, Colombia, New York where I arrived (with my parents) when I was 17. I stayed in America until I was 30, all the formative years, a crucial time that shaped my tastes and values. Result? A very cosmopolitan approach to life and writing. I think of myself as a world citizen and I often feature that kind of person in my novels...
What's the story behind your latest book?
Living through my own retirement inspired me to write "Crimson Clouds" - the first edition (called "A Hook in the Sky") gathered a lot of praise (dozens of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads) and was called "quintessential Boomer Lit". In spite of this, I wanted to re-write it, feeling that the book did not fully express the way I felt about this second phase in life. This said, the book is in no way autobiographical. I'm not a man (!) and my marriage is not on the rocks, thank God, even though, like Robert, the protagonist, I paint and my paintings, like his, are figurative and probably lovers of Contemporary Art would find them painfully academic exactly as Robert's wife does (she hates them)...
What motivated you to become an indie author?
I was first traditionally published, here where I live (in Italy) and I've only become an indie author when I attempted to "cross over" in the American market. The digital revolution had just started (it was back in 2010) and it was clear that for the first time in History, the shame attached to self-publishing was disappearing. Ebooks provided authors willing to take risks the benefit of having full control over the production process, including book covers. I couldn't resist that!
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
When a reader connects and tells me he or she loved my book! I write to share the way I feel about life, but the emphasis in this sentence is on "share". I'm not out to make money, I want readers to enjoy what I write, so I write first and foremost with them in mind. So when the contact is made, I'm really happy.
What are you working on next?
I'm working on "Forever Young", an exploration of the future. The first part is already out, there are two more already written and several more planned. I'm deep into the revision process now and will publish on all platforms only when I'm fully satisfied...The book started with a short story called "Programmed to Die" that got an enthusiastic response on ReadWave when it was published . The response encouraged me to explore the subject further.
Imagine what will happen 200 years from now when all the social trends and innovations we see around us have finally come to fruition! The world is very likely to be divided between the One Percent that will enjoy all the benefits of technical progress and the rest of us that won't. Expect Earth to be headed for disaster. Have I gone dark and dystopian? Yes, but I see a silver lining. In "Forever Young", an exoplanet, green and virgin the way Earth used to be before the Industrial Revolution is waiting to be settled...That's what I like about futuristic Science Fiction, it's a way to ask pointed questions about the Here and Now and try to see where we - all of us humans - are going. I suppose one could write a non-fiction essay about this, but fiction is so much more fun!
Who are your favorite authors?
I love the classics, especially the Russians - Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoievsky. Among modern writers there are so many that I don't know where to start, from Khaled Hosseini to Carlos Ruiz Zafòn, the choice is huge!
Thanks for reading. Do let me know if you have any additional question, I'll be happy to answer in the comments!
Related articles
Uploading to Smashwords(moveablewriter.wordpress.com)
Migrating to Smashwords(publishedindieauthors.wordpress.com)
Smashwords gets a major redesign(jmhardinwrites.wordpress.com)
When you upload your books to Smashwords, you can respond to a Smashwords' generated interview, with dozens of questions that you can choose to respond to or pass up. Once you've answered 10 questions, they publish the interview instantly, letting you make any corrections you need. It looks very professional, you can read mine here. Note the way they list all the books below the interview, clever!
And this is what the interview page looks like to me when I log into their site - as you can see, I can edit it and share it as needed, very useful:
I decided to answer 10 of their questions (actually, that's considered a minimum). Is there any other question you feel I should have included? Please let me know, I'd really appreciate comments and suggestions. Hey, this is a moving feast, it can always be improved!
Here's the interview:
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
A bloody murder story! Actually blood and gore was ubiquitous in my early work...When I turned 15, I wrote my first novel about a band of thugs in the wilds of Colombia. I've moved on since...
What is your writing process?
Filling notepads with random observations. Overtime, the notes grow and something emerges. It can take up to two years before a fully-formed idea is born. Then I plunge into a first draft, writing at top speed to "catch" in words the film that I see in my mind's eye. After that, at least another year of revision upon revision is required, tough work! Anyone who thinks that writing is easy is vastly mistaken. But I would never want to do anything else, I love it!
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
The first story was in French, "Les Malheurs de Sophie", a delightful tale for children written by the Comtesse de Ségur, a russian who had married a Frenchman. Poor Sophie, everything goes wrong for her, until in the end, she emerges victorious. That is the kind of story arc I still love (and love to write): everything goes wrong for the main character, catastrophes pile up, the tunnel gets darker and deeper but in the end he or she makes it out of the tunnel!
How do you approach cover design?
Covers for me are all important. A successful cover visually encapsulates the book, showing at a glance not only what it is about but the atmosphere - certainly the genre - but beyond that, the kind of emotions you can expect from reading the book. So it has to work on several levels, that is what is so hard to do! I've always had a hand at designing my book covers or at least in participating in the process, providing pictures or giving my opinion.
Describe your desk
A mess! Bits of papers floating about, pictures piled up here and there.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in many different countries: first Sweden until I was 6, next Egypt, France, Russia, Colombia, New York where I arrived (with my parents) when I was 17. I stayed in America until I was 30, all the formative years, a crucial time that shaped my tastes and values. Result? A very cosmopolitan approach to life and writing. I think of myself as a world citizen and I often feature that kind of person in my novels...
What's the story behind your latest book?
Living through my own retirement inspired me to write "Crimson Clouds" - the first edition (called "A Hook in the Sky") gathered a lot of praise (dozens of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads) and was called "quintessential Boomer Lit". In spite of this, I wanted to re-write it, feeling that the book did not fully express the way I felt about this second phase in life. This said, the book is in no way autobiographical. I'm not a man (!) and my marriage is not on the rocks, thank God, even though, like Robert, the protagonist, I paint and my paintings, like his, are figurative and probably lovers of Contemporary Art would find them painfully academic exactly as Robert's wife does (she hates them)...
What motivated you to become an indie author?
I was first traditionally published, here where I live (in Italy) and I've only become an indie author when I attempted to "cross over" in the American market. The digital revolution had just started (it was back in 2010) and it was clear that for the first time in History, the shame attached to self-publishing was disappearing. Ebooks provided authors willing to take risks the benefit of having full control over the production process, including book covers. I couldn't resist that!
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
When a reader connects and tells me he or she loved my book! I write to share the way I feel about life, but the emphasis in this sentence is on "share". I'm not out to make money, I want readers to enjoy what I write, so I write first and foremost with them in mind. So when the contact is made, I'm really happy.
What are you working on next?
I'm working on "Forever Young", an exploration of the future. The first part is already out, there are two more already written and several more planned. I'm deep into the revision process now and will publish on all platforms only when I'm fully satisfied...The book started with a short story called "Programmed to Die" that got an enthusiastic response on ReadWave when it was published . The response encouraged me to explore the subject further.
Imagine what will happen 200 years from now when all the social trends and innovations we see around us have finally come to fruition! The world is very likely to be divided between the One Percent that will enjoy all the benefits of technical progress and the rest of us that won't. Expect Earth to be headed for disaster. Have I gone dark and dystopian? Yes, but I see a silver lining. In "Forever Young", an exoplanet, green and virgin the way Earth used to be before the Industrial Revolution is waiting to be settled...That's what I like about futuristic Science Fiction, it's a way to ask pointed questions about the Here and Now and try to see where we - all of us humans - are going. I suppose one could write a non-fiction essay about this, but fiction is so much more fun!
Who are your favorite authors?
I love the classics, especially the Russians - Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoievsky. Among modern writers there are so many that I don't know where to start, from Khaled Hosseini to Carlos Ruiz Zafòn, the choice is huge!
Thanks for reading. Do let me know if you have any additional question, I'll be happy to answer in the comments!
Related articles
Uploading to Smashwords(moveablewriter.wordpress.com)
Migrating to Smashwords(publishedindieauthors.wordpress.com)
Smashwords gets a major redesign(jmhardinwrites.wordpress.com)
January 25, 2014
How Come Used Books Fetch Such High Prices on Amazon?
Having just uploaded Crimson Clouds on Amazon, I keep my book page site under close observation these days, and I noticed something really odd: the printed book version sells for $10.80 and there's a "used" version that sells for...$169.98! See my screenshot (for 25 January):
By the way, that $10.80 is not for the printed version of Crimson Clouds, it's the price for the first edition of the book called A Hook in the Sky and it's not available anymore. I retired it from publication the moment I put up Crimson Clouds on Create Space. I had set up the price at $18 for that printed version, but Amazon has already slashed the price down to $14.99, see here and here's the screenshot:
But wait! The price slashing on Amazon doesn't stop there: within an hour, I noticed yet another change, the price for the printed version had dropped to...$13.18! See the screenshot:
To sum up: you can get a brand new edition of the latest, revised text for some $14 yet some people are willing to pay $170 for the used edition of a previous out-of-print book that was, let's face it, well-received by readers (it got 29 customer reviews on Amazon in its short 18 month life, and over 60 ratings on Goodreads) but it certainly didn't make it in the NYT best selling list!
I clicked on that price to see exactly who was selling and what version of A Hook was being sold at that price - because it has 2 covers, one with the "Hook", i.e. a pile of ladders reaching up to a hook, and one with a naked woman - guess which one is selling for $170...(grin - look at the upper left corner):
No doubt the book cover makes it a juicy collectible. The seller is from Texas and, wow, he's doing well, he's got almost 32,000 ratings and 93% positive. A brisk business! He has a professional-looking "store front", Amazon is good at setting up such pages, look here:
Want to become an "Amazon seller"? The "professional" status which lets you sell more than 40 items will cost you $39.99/month (first month free). Or you go "individual" (for less than 40 items) and have to pay a fee per item sold. See here and here's the landing page:
And here are some links to interesting articles about this little-known world of trade in book "collectibles":
"How to get the Most Money Selling Your Used Stuff on Amazon", full of tips and read the comments too, very useful:
from Life Hacker, click here.
"Can You Make $5,000/Month Selling Books on Amazon?", the experience of one who's been selling books for 2 years:
from B!ZOPY, click here
"How to make $750 a Month Selling Used Books", another slew of useful tips:
from the "Penny Hoarder", click here
Have you ever tried selling your used books? What is your advice? And if you're an author, have you noticed whether your books were selling in the used book collectible market? I'd love to hear about your experience!
By the way, that $10.80 is not for the printed version of Crimson Clouds, it's the price for the first edition of the book called A Hook in the Sky and it's not available anymore. I retired it from publication the moment I put up Crimson Clouds on Create Space. I had set up the price at $18 for that printed version, but Amazon has already slashed the price down to $14.99, see here and here's the screenshot:
But wait! The price slashing on Amazon doesn't stop there: within an hour, I noticed yet another change, the price for the printed version had dropped to...$13.18! See the screenshot:
To sum up: you can get a brand new edition of the latest, revised text for some $14 yet some people are willing to pay $170 for the used edition of a previous out-of-print book that was, let's face it, well-received by readers (it got 29 customer reviews on Amazon in its short 18 month life, and over 60 ratings on Goodreads) but it certainly didn't make it in the NYT best selling list!
I clicked on that price to see exactly who was selling and what version of A Hook was being sold at that price - because it has 2 covers, one with the "Hook", i.e. a pile of ladders reaching up to a hook, and one with a naked woman - guess which one is selling for $170...(grin - look at the upper left corner):
.jpg)
No doubt the book cover makes it a juicy collectible. The seller is from Texas and, wow, he's doing well, he's got almost 32,000 ratings and 93% positive. A brisk business! He has a professional-looking "store front", Amazon is good at setting up such pages, look here:
Want to become an "Amazon seller"? The "professional" status which lets you sell more than 40 items will cost you $39.99/month (first month free). Or you go "individual" (for less than 40 items) and have to pay a fee per item sold. See here and here's the landing page:
And here are some links to interesting articles about this little-known world of trade in book "collectibles":
"How to get the Most Money Selling Your Used Stuff on Amazon", full of tips and read the comments too, very useful:
from Life Hacker, click here.
"Can You Make $5,000/Month Selling Books on Amazon?", the experience of one who's been selling books for 2 years:
from B!ZOPY, click here
"How to make $750 a Month Selling Used Books", another slew of useful tips:
from the "Penny Hoarder", click hereHave you ever tried selling your used books? What is your advice? And if you're an author, have you noticed whether your books were selling in the used book collectible market? I'd love to hear about your experience!
January 22, 2014
Best Advice from Amazon on Marketing Your Book
Amazon is famous for its marketing savvy and it is generously sharing it with writers if only you know where to look for it. Yes, because it's where you wouldn't think of looking, on their CreateSpace platform. I recently stumbled upon it as I was uploading files for my newly released Luna Rising, the Full Saga. And they have one surprising tip...
Before I get to it, take a look at their "marketing central" page here:
Tons of articles and videos, you could spend a whole week roaming in there!
And now let me get to the one piece of advice that floored me: use your book's dedication to target your readers!
Usually we think of dedicating our books to family or friends, that's the accepted, standard form. But Amazon - don't we know it? - loves to break all the rules. And their advice is to dedicate your book to the people who should be interested in reading your book!
Brilliant.
That's exactly what one Amazon-published author, Maria Murnane, did and she reports in detail how she did it for her novel and with what surprising results, read here.
In a nutshell, the steps required:
1. identify your primary reader; in Murnane's case a young, single, professional urban woman who can't figure out what to do with her life;
2. encourage your primary reader to read the novel by dedicating it to her; here's the dedication she used: "to any woman who has ever been on a really bad date or realized halfway through the workday that her skirt is on backward." Humorous and it works!
3. follow through with all the usual steps of online marketing, including Facebook and Twitter; she did that in the name of her protagonist - thus attracting flocks of young, single, urban women who identified with the novel's main character.
So I thought I'd try the same approach for my novel A Hook in the Sky that I have just totally revised and augmented (20% more) with new material and a new title. Now it's called Crimson Clouds (a contemporary romance, as the new cover shows).
I rewrote the dedication - originally it was only to my husband. Now, it makes clear who the book is intended for (hey, a touch of humor doesn't hurt):
Dedication:
To any woman who has ever had a retired husband moaning at home and to any man who’s discovered the charm of Love the second time around.
And to Giuseppe who makes everything possible for me - with all my love.
PS. Giuseppe is my husband - without his unrelenting support, I would never find the time or the energy to write!
I. Latest news about my books:
Crimson Clouds, a totally revamped version of Hook in the Sky, with new material is now available on Amazon, in printed version here :
(Note: the cover photo is a sunset over Lake Trasimeno, a major setting in the book - though it also takes place in New York, London, Rome and Paris)
in ebook here in the Kindle Store...but you're in for a surprise! If you go there, you'll see a paradoxical announcement, the cover does not correspond to the book title even though I uploaded the right book cover 5 days ago! (I'm in touch with Amazon and their engineers are still working on it):
Yes, that's the old cover - but if you click the "look inside" button, you'll see the inside text is new and correctly uploaded, starting with the right cover image:
So, don't worry, you can safely get the ebook for your Kindle and be sure you are getting the new, fully revised edition!
Update (as of 22 Jan, 6 pm Rome time), the new cover is at last up! Look here:
Wow! That's good to see!
Luna Rising , the Full Saga, (volumes 1-3) now available in print:
From Amazon's CreateSpace, here, for $18.00 - the price further reduced by Amazon to $15.72, a fantastic deal for a 450 page book!
Luna Rising, volume 1, The Circle of Conversation: the ebook is perma free on Smashwords and all major e-platforms (except Amazon so far):
To get your free copy, click here.
II. Recent Blog Posts I really liked and found useful:From Anne R. Allen's blog: The Rules of Writing...and Why Not to Follow Them, to read click here; at last, a breath of freedom and common sense!
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog: A Paradygm Shift (Discoverability Kinda) To read click here; good tips on how to crack marketing's biggest challenge;
From Kristen Lamb's blog: Are Some Humans Born to Bully? Born to be Victims? Can it Be Changed? To read, click here; it's no surprise that I was particularly intrigued, my whole Luna Rising series is focused on the weight of heredity and genetic memory, i.e. the role of DNA according to this new branch of science, epigenetics...
From William Petrocelli (author, attorney and bookseller) on the Huffington Post: Some High-Tech Firms Say Writers Gain from Seeing Readers' E-book Files. They're Wrong. To read, click here; fascinating stuff about reading habits that websites such as Scribd, Oyster and Entitle can mine from their subscribers...very little of any real use!
From Alexis C. Madrigal on the Atlantic: How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood - To understand how people look for movies, the video service created 76,897 micro-genres. Let's face it, this matters because Netflix is a powerhouse in the home entertainment industry. To read article, click here. It would be amazing if Amazon ever applied Netflix's algorithms to books! And by the way, you'll learn the power of tagging - it was an eye-opener for me. III. New, related blog posts brought by Zemanta:
Writer Beware: Oyster, Scribd and Smashwords(writingishardwork.com)
Why Is Amazon Hiding This Author's Book?(slog.thestranger.com)
A Not so Crazy Idea: Amazon Has a POD Machine in the Works(the-digital-reader.com)
Before I get to it, take a look at their "marketing central" page here:
Tons of articles and videos, you could spend a whole week roaming in there!
And now let me get to the one piece of advice that floored me: use your book's dedication to target your readers!
Usually we think of dedicating our books to family or friends, that's the accepted, standard form. But Amazon - don't we know it? - loves to break all the rules. And their advice is to dedicate your book to the people who should be interested in reading your book!
Brilliant.
That's exactly what one Amazon-published author, Maria Murnane, did and she reports in detail how she did it for her novel and with what surprising results, read here.
In a nutshell, the steps required:
1. identify your primary reader; in Murnane's case a young, single, professional urban woman who can't figure out what to do with her life;
2. encourage your primary reader to read the novel by dedicating it to her; here's the dedication she used: "to any woman who has ever been on a really bad date or realized halfway through the workday that her skirt is on backward." Humorous and it works!
3. follow through with all the usual steps of online marketing, including Facebook and Twitter; she did that in the name of her protagonist - thus attracting flocks of young, single, urban women who identified with the novel's main character.
So I thought I'd try the same approach for my novel A Hook in the Sky that I have just totally revised and augmented (20% more) with new material and a new title. Now it's called Crimson Clouds (a contemporary romance, as the new cover shows).
I rewrote the dedication - originally it was only to my husband. Now, it makes clear who the book is intended for (hey, a touch of humor doesn't hurt):
Dedication:
To any woman who has ever had a retired husband moaning at home and to any man who’s discovered the charm of Love the second time around.
And to Giuseppe who makes everything possible for me - with all my love.
PS. Giuseppe is my husband - without his unrelenting support, I would never find the time or the energy to write!
I. Latest news about my books:
Crimson Clouds, a totally revamped version of Hook in the Sky, with new material is now available on Amazon, in printed version here :
(Note: the cover photo is a sunset over Lake Trasimeno, a major setting in the book - though it also takes place in New York, London, Rome and Paris)
in ebook here in the Kindle Store...but you're in for a surprise! If you go there, you'll see a paradoxical announcement, the cover does not correspond to the book title even though I uploaded the right book cover 5 days ago! (I'm in touch with Amazon and their engineers are still working on it):
Yes, that's the old cover - but if you click the "look inside" button, you'll see the inside text is new and correctly uploaded, starting with the right cover image:
So, don't worry, you can safely get the ebook for your Kindle and be sure you are getting the new, fully revised edition!
Update (as of 22 Jan, 6 pm Rome time), the new cover is at last up! Look here:
Wow! That's good to see!
Luna Rising , the Full Saga, (volumes 1-3) now available in print:
From Amazon's CreateSpace, here, for $18.00 - the price further reduced by Amazon to $15.72, a fantastic deal for a 450 page book! Luna Rising, volume 1, The Circle of Conversation: the ebook is perma free on Smashwords and all major e-platforms (except Amazon so far):
To get your free copy, click here.
II. Recent Blog Posts I really liked and found useful:From Anne R. Allen's blog: The Rules of Writing...and Why Not to Follow Them, to read click here; at last, a breath of freedom and common sense!
From Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog: A Paradygm Shift (Discoverability Kinda) To read click here; good tips on how to crack marketing's biggest challenge;
From Kristen Lamb's blog: Are Some Humans Born to Bully? Born to be Victims? Can it Be Changed? To read, click here; it's no surprise that I was particularly intrigued, my whole Luna Rising series is focused on the weight of heredity and genetic memory, i.e. the role of DNA according to this new branch of science, epigenetics...
From William Petrocelli (author, attorney and bookseller) on the Huffington Post: Some High-Tech Firms Say Writers Gain from Seeing Readers' E-book Files. They're Wrong. To read, click here; fascinating stuff about reading habits that websites such as Scribd, Oyster and Entitle can mine from their subscribers...very little of any real use!
From Alexis C. Madrigal on the Atlantic: How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood - To understand how people look for movies, the video service created 76,897 micro-genres. Let's face it, this matters because Netflix is a powerhouse in the home entertainment industry. To read article, click here. It would be amazing if Amazon ever applied Netflix's algorithms to books! And by the way, you'll learn the power of tagging - it was an eye-opener for me. III. New, related blog posts brought by Zemanta:
Writer Beware: Oyster, Scribd and Smashwords(writingishardwork.com)
Why Is Amazon Hiding This Author's Book?(slog.thestranger.com)
A Not so Crazy Idea: Amazon Has a POD Machine in the Works(the-digital-reader.com)
