Derek Blass's Blog, page 4

How to Get Your Book Downloaded 5,141 Times in Two Days

Has anything shaken up the book industry as much as KDP Select in recent memory?  Low sales in December are being blamed almost entirely on the KDP Select program.  Despite admonitions regarding joining the Select program, I decided to roll the dice and see what good, and bad, would come from the program.  Here are the early results.

BRIEFLY, WHAT IS KDP SELECT?

I don't want to spend much time on this, because all the information is available on your KDP page.  Basically, the Select program is this: (1) you give up all rights to distribute your EBOOK anywhere but on Amazon (does not apply to paperbacks, doesn't apply to any ebooks which are not enrolled); (2) consumers with Amazon Prime and a Kindle device can borrow your book for free (has to be a Kindle device, not just a Kindle app); and (3) based upon the number of times your book is borrowed, you get a slice of the monthly pie, which is currently $500,000/month.

TIMING IS *ALMOST* EVERYTHING

Part of the Select program is the ability to choose dates on which you want to promote your book for free.  (As an aside, you can just change your price to $0.00 in KDP.  I believe the only difference is that you won't know, with exactitude, when the price change will take place).  I chose December 27-28 to have two free days.  Did I base my selection on extensive market research?  Wish I could say yes.  Rather, I picked those days because it seemed logical to me that people would have new reading devices from Christmas, and would want to download new books.  Call it prescience, call it dumb luck, but people downloaded Enemy in Blue like it was a new Grisham book.

Enemy in Blue had around 800 downloads as of 8am MST on the 27th.  Literally, every time I clicked the refresh page on my KDP monthly report, the number seemed to go up by around 100 downloads.  I can tell you it was a feeling like no other, and I envy the big time writers that are used to this type of success on a yearly basis!

I think this issue of timing begs the question of whether now is a good time to run your free days?  If push came to shove, I'd say hold off for a bit until people have had a chance to run through the books they just undoubtedly downloaded.  How long is that?  No idea, but my gut says that people's readers are loaded with books right now.

IF TIMING ISN'T EVERYTHING, WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

I honestly believe timing was not everything.  If my book had a big goose egg for reviews, I don't think people would have downloaded it, free or not.  If I hadn't started #AmazonLikes several months ago, Enemy in Blue wouldn't be liked and tagged as much as it is.  If I hadn't done the countless other things (blog tours, interviews, building a Twitter following, etc.) written about here on my blog in other posts, no 5,141 downloads.  Finally, one more thing because this post is just as much about me assuring myself that I had some part in this near-miracle, but if I hadn't taken optimization classes for every detail of my Amazon page, then "no go," my friends.

In short, way back when I started writing this blog, I analogized the writing process to building a house.  I started the analogy with a reference to putting in your foundation.  All those efforts listed in the last paragraph?  The foundation.  Without it, simply no way people would have downloaded Enemy in Blue so much.  Remember, even a free book costs time.

RESULTS SINCE THE TWO FREE DAYS

Obviously, a huge question is whether the success in those two free days has spilled over to the following paid days.  Short answer, it has.  Enemy in Blue was ranked #552 in paid books at its peak, which amounted to over 200 books/day.  Sales have slowly decreased each day thereafter, with some of that necessarily flowing from the New Year's break.  (I don't think many people wake up on January 1 with whiskey on their breath and say, "Durnit, I wanna read a book!").

It remains to be seen what impact all the downloads have on Enemy in Blue.  Hopefully, it will result in reviews, and word of mouth.  Seems like a given, with that number of downloads.  Also, I'm currently ranked #31 in Action and Adventure as a result of the whole effort, and peaked at #19.  I believe that a big list such as A&A can drive further sales, as opposed to some of the strange, extremely niche lists that I see next to other books.  I'm keeping track of sales on a daily basis, and will update the blog with that information in the future.

IS IT WORTH IT?

I'm frequently getting asked how Enemy in Blue shot up the charts, and whether Select has been worth it.  Obviously, for me, it was.  However, I would stick to my caution that without the proper elements (good cover, great reviews and not just 5 of them, likes and tags, best product description possible), I don't think you will see tremendous success with the Select program.  Plus, you will be limited selling on Amazon for 90 days.  My suggestion would be to build that foundation for your book, and once you get there, pick a couple weekdays to offer your book for free.  I have seen my best sales figures on Thursdays/Fridays.

One more tip from my time spent analyzing all this–having multiple books is another catalyst to success in using free days.  Point in case?  J.A. Konrath.  The guy is a beast of an author.  He has nearly written more damn books than I have on my bookshelves!  A couple of his books were free at the same time as Enemy in Blue.  I watched all of his books, free and paid, rise to the tops of their various bestselling lists.  And, they've stayed there.  So, if you can use the free days to help promote multiple books in a series, for example, then Select absolutely seems worth it.

LINGERING QUESTIONS

I would be remiss if I sat here, writing this post, and failed to disclose that I'm hesitant to even publish it.  I mean, I've just experienced success, but who's to say that wasn't a flash in the pan?  Some cosmic alignment.  I'm certainly not sitting here with any notion that "I've made it."  In fact, if anything, I've got more of a knot in my stomach now, as I watch my ranking oscillate.

That disclosure aside, here are some of my unanswered questions:

(1)  How do you get the initial "burst" of downloads when your book goes free?  This is the burst that puts you on a bestseller's list, and being on those lists undoubtedly builds your momentum.

(2)  How often should the free "tool" be used?  As a part of the Select program, you can schedule five (5) free days in a 90-day period.  Should that be your limit of free days in a quarter?  At what point is more not better?  I'll be testing this in the next few months to further hone the results.

(3)  The critical question–what is my royalty going to be calculated at for the borrowed books?  If I'm making 40%, instead of 70%, is it worth it?  Will it just result in a way for Amazon to pay lower royalty rates, while at the same time locking up its monopoly?  Call me neurotic, but businesses exist to maximize their own profits.

WRAPPIN' IT UP

If you came here looking for an easy answer and now hate me, don't forget your New Year's resolution was to go easy on other people, k?  Bottom line though, and we always know it, is that hard work underlies nearly all success.  Take some time to read the other blog posts on here, put some sweat and blood into your foundation, and then give Select a shot.  If you have any questions/additions/comments, please add them to this blog post, and I'll try to respond as quickly as possible!

Here's to our mutual success in 2012!

Kindle Sales on Fire

Amazon is reporting sales of at least 1 million Kindles per week.  Where are you at to get your book on those new devices?  CNET article here: http://m.cnet.com/Article.rbml?nid=57349658&cid=null&bcid=&bid=-266

Pricing Your Book to Sell

This question is difficult.  What do I price my ebook at so that it will sell?  I'm sure some math whiz could reduce the answer to probabilities, statistics, and formulas…but, that's not me, so I did what I do best.  Trial and error.  I was the first one to jump out of the plane.  I swam in shark-infested waters for you.  I was the damn penguin!  Enough of the pity party–here's what I found.  (As an aside, the following is all about pricing of ebooks.  I think pricing of paperbacks is much more nebulous, and gets into word count which I don't want to fret about in this post).

YOU NEED TO BE REALISTIC WITH YOUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

Perhaps you're about to release your first book, and you're looking at authors selling copies of their ebooks for $7.99, $8.99, $9.99!  You put that price into your royalty calculator, and by God, you would earn a chunk of money  just by selling a thousand books.  You smile to yourself and say, "What's so hard about this author gig?"  Wipe that smile away, mon frere.  If you price your book in that neighborhood, I GUAR-UN-TEE you'll soon be looking at the bottom side of the 400,000′s in your sales rank.  You're new, and even if you aren't new, you probably aren't well known enough to command those prices.  That gets me to our first rule:

ANY PRICE $3.99 AND ABOVE IS FOR WELL KNOWN AUTHORS

People simply are not going to pay more than $3.99 for an ebook from an unknown author.  Shoot, even people that know you may hesitate to pay that much.  Why?  The biggest reason is that your universe, the universe of the unknown author, the independent author, the grinder (and make no mistake about it, I'm in there too) is very, very big.  And, what's it full of?  Many, many books by other, similarly situated authors, at prices well below $3.99.  Supply and demand, Watson.

I know what the protest may be.  "$3.99 is nothing!  It's less than a drink at a bar!  It's less than a hot dog at a baseball game!"  I know.  I agree.  It's mildly ridiculous.  However, it's reality, and that trumps.  To prove this reality, I toyed with the price of my book over the course of several weeks.  From $0.99 to $3.99.  Anything over that was so clearly a graveyard even I dared not tread that ground.  I used a nifty Google Adwords coupon, and drove traffic to my book's Amazon site.  The result?  A significant drop off in sales when priced at $3.99.  Probably a magnitude of around 100-200% less sales.  Why?  I'm no psychiatrist, but in addition to the universe argument set forth above, I think people start comparing your book to what they can get for $3.99.  They can get that latte.  They can rent a movie, or two.  They can buy used books for cheaper.

Still, I wasn't quite persuaded.  I thought, maybe I don't have enough reviews.  Or, maybe my Amazon page wasn't luring enough people in to buy the book.  So, I went and took a look at the Amazon Top 100 lists, in conjunction with some successful authors I have come across on Twitter.  Lo and behold, all of their books were priced at $2.99 or below.  The vast majority of them were priced at $0.99.  Leads us to the second rule:

JOHN LOCKE, YOU ARE MY FATHER

First, if you don't know who John Locke is, Google is your friend (okay, one hint, add "author" to your search).  Second, that heading sounded like Darth Vader in my head–hope that puts it in perspective.  John Locke is the king of independent publishing.  John Locke sells all of his fiction for $0.99.  John Locke has one book with 469 reviews, which is flippin' mind boggling.  He has reached a pinnacle of writing where his name is so well known that he could price his books higher, if he wanted to.  And, they would still sell.  Why hasn't he?  No clue, but that's irrelevant.  If John Locke prices his books at $0.99, where do you think you should price yours?

Depends on who you are, but definitely not higher than $3.99.  The answer also depends on what you want.  When my book was priced at $0.99, I had a month where I sold just about 150 copies.  All of a sudden, I had a moment of panic and said to myself, shit, what if 75 of those 150 don't like it, and write bad reviews?  I wanted to turn the flow of water down a bit to see some of those reviews come through, and to continue to feel out the market for whether my book was well-received.  You may have other reasons to price your book above $0.99.  What if you have a $0.99 event coming up?  May want to keep that price at a normal list price until just before the event, so that the participants get a great deal.  This leads to my final rule:

BEING ABLE TO CONTROL PRICE IS A BENEFIT OF PUBLISHING INDEPENDENTLY

I thank the damn stars every day that I'm able to control the price of my book.  If, for instance, Enemy in Blue had been traditionally published, that would not have been the case.  And, the book would have been priced much, much too high for a first-time author.  I also wouldn't have had enough control to throttle sales up or down.  From one control freak to another–relish fact that you can change price whenever you want.

A couple of miscellaneous notes on pricing.  First, it seems that Amazon has gotten much better at changing prices in a timely fashion, after you make the change in KDP.  In Smashwords, it is instantaneous, which is brilliant.  In Amazon, what used to take 24-48 hours now takes less than 12, and sometimes less than that.  I tried one other thing that didn't seem to work, at least not yet.  I priced my Amazon book at $2.99, and priced my book on Smashwords at $1.99.  I wanted Amazon to match the lower price, thereby displaying a percentage off of my list price.  The thought process is that people like to see they are getting a deal.  After about 5 days, Amazon still has not matched the price, so this doesn't seem to be a reliable method of lowering the price of your book.

The conclusion?  Remember what universe you reside in, don't price more than $3.99, and if you really want to expand your readership, $0.99 is your key.

Gifting an Ebook–a Great Way to Give and Save this Holiday Season

This one'll be short and sweet.  Sales of tablets and e-readers are through the roof this year, and with the release of the Kindle Fire, that is only expected to continue into the holiday season and beyond.  Amazon has, for all intents and purposes, given readers and authors a mechanism to gift on the cheap.  How?  Gifting a person's favorite ebooks.

Now, for some of the major published authors, their ebooks may not be much less than their traditional paperbacks.  This is a quasi-travesty, since the cost of putting together an ebook is much less (i.e. nearly no cost, other than upfront formatting costs) than doing the same with a paperback.  Indie authors have capitalized on the inability of traditionally published authors to set reasonable prices by doing just that–setting reasonable prices.  You can literally find, and gift, books by indie authors for $0.99-$3.99.  Or, if you're a numbers/figures guy or gal, for about 60-90% less than traditionally published authors.

How do you make sure you aren't gifting crap?  First, there are a lot of traditionally published books that are crap.  Just harken back to high school and college, where you were forced to read a  bunch of 'em.  Second, rely on reviews.  Once you get 15, 20, 50, 100 people saying a book is good–that's a fairly reliable indicator.

Finally, on to the actual gifting process.  It's easy as 1, 2, 3:

(1) On Amazon, when you search for a book and then click on the ebook version, you will see a button on the top right called "Give as a gift."

(2) For the technology impaired, click on that button.

(3) You will be directed to a screen where all you have to do is enter the email address of the person to send the gift to.  Boom, you're done, and you did it for cheap.

A couple more awesome perks.  You can do all your ebook shopping now, and set your delivery date for whenever you want, such as 12/25/2011.  Your loved one will get a host of books to fill his/her new reader on the day they get the reader.  What's cooler than that?  You can add a personalized message to your gift.  Finally, you're doing the environment a favor by not having a book printed, boxed up, and then shipped on some gas guzzling vehicle.

*IMPORTANT NOTE* Okay, this has all been important, but this is super important.  The recipient of your gift does not have to have a Kindle to get the ebook.  Amazon has a Kindle app that can be used on basically any platform, as far as I know.  So, even if the person has a Droid phone, for instance, all they have to do is download the Kindle app, and voila, their gift will be readable.

This is a frontier of book consumption.  If you're a reader, I can't imagine a better way to gift this holiday season.  If you're an author, well, you better start spreading the word about this!

Finally, a shameless plug for my book, Enemy in Blue, which fits the bill as a great gift.  38 awesome reviews, $2.99, and available in Kindle/Nook versions.  If you liked the post, support the author

 

"Penguin moves into self publishing" at The Guardian

So, a few of my own thoughts from the article.  First, screw a major publisher that is now trying to profit from INDIE published authors.  I may be alone in this sentiment, but one of the great parts of being indie is that it feels like a movement, like a frontier.  It feels like major corporations are having to adjust because of what we are doing on a daily basis.  The last thing to do, in that case, is to assimilate with them.   If they want to pick up indie authors to publish them through traditional means, by all means.  Second, take a look at the comments to see how much of a farce the service is.  That 70% royalty to authors?  Only if you sell through "Book Country."  WTF is that anyway? 

Sorry, but other services such as Createspace and Lulu have been there for indies since before the beginning.  My experience with Createspace/Amazon has been nearly flawless, they have my loyalty.

Okay, on to the article.  What do you all think?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/16/penguin-self-publishing?newsfeed=true

You and Your Book Will Succeed–With Patience

This…will…not…be…easy.  I'm going to admit something to you all.  I didn't think it'd be this hard.  Call it naivete.  Call it optimism.  Call it the sheer ridiculousness of thinking, dammit, that what I wrote would take off, like a rocket ship to Planet Lottery Ticket.  Anddddd, yeah. Four months after the release of Enemy in Blue, let me give ya some thoughts and insights into what this process entails.  The hope is that this will help some understand what's coming their way if they publish, and help others who have done so realize, "I'm not alone."

Writing was the easy part.  Huh?  I just finished 80k, 90, 120k words!  It took me 2 years to write my baby.  What you mean that was the easy part?  Writing is a joy, in my opinion.  I hardly ever had a day where I cussed and wished I was doing something else.  And, if those days came along, I just didn't write.  No sense forcing something crappy onto paper.  On the other hand, once you're published (by whatever means), the marketing, sales and promotion begins.  And, I can assure you of one thing–once you start those ghastly machines up, they don't allow breaks.  You'll be tweeting, updating your website, updating your status on Facebook, trying to get signings, trying to get your books on brick and mortar shelves, etc. etc. etc., NONSTOP.  Be prepared to work your ass off  in the name of promotion.
This will undoubtedly be a long, strange trip.  Do a Wikipedia on your favorite band.  Most likely, they spent years toiling in small venues.  They pumped out album after album before one hit song took off.  Realize that your journey will probably be the same–with the superstar ending, we all hope.
There are tens of thousands of people trying to do what we're doing.  Okay, not trying to be Captain Downer here, but this post is a small dose of reality, if anything.  Look at the sheer number of books on Amazon.  Look at all the authors Tweeting about their books on a daily basis.  This is a SEA, not a stream.  You've got to tread water, then build a super attractive yacht for people to hop onto.
The hard work will make it worth it.  Growth does not come through constant success.  When you get the first review of your book from someone you don't know, and it's a positive review, you will glow.  When someone asks you for a signature on their copy of your book, you'll glow.  When you see your book on a bookshelf in a bookstore, you'll glow.  But, each one of those things will take a tremendous amount of effort to achieve.
Patience is a virtue…and will be key to your sanity.  Seemingly, nothing in the book publishing world moves quicker than a snail's pace.  You building your empire of words isn't gonna be any different.  Just like when you wrote your book, do your best to recognize the small steps, otherwise the pace of the whole venture will make you mad!

In short, if you're just starting out, please, please recognize that your success is commensurate with your effort.  And, if you've been playing the game, know that you aren't alone!  Success has started to come to me and Enemy in Blue, but only with a tremendous amount of hard work. Best wishes to you and your fantastic book!

[image error]

A Charged Meeting with Robert White–Denver's New Police Chief

There is no dispute that there have been several, violent and unfortunate incidents of police brutality in Denver over the last five years.  In fact, as I have described in many interviews, my first novel, Enemy in Blue, was written only because I came to Denver approximately ten years ago.  Without the incidents here, the story simply would not have manifested.  Many of the incidents of police brutality have been high-profile, and have correspondingly received plenty of media attention.  Chief Gerry Whitman presided over the department for the last twelve years, and several groups in the Denver community are fine with the end of his tenure.

A large group of community members met with the new police chief, Robert White, last night in North/West Denver.  There is an inherent optimism that comes with a new hire.  You expect that they are energized, that they were chosen from the best candidates, and that they have the best interests of your community in mind.  There was also a general happiness that Chief White agreed to attend this community meeting, especially since he is not yet on the job in Denver, and this was just days after the announcement of his selection to be the Chief.

In all, Chief White performed well.  He faced many difficult questions, and did not appear to be "coached."  His responses were direct, non-evasive.  He made several commitments, including increased transparency and communication–two enormous issues with his predecessor.  He also committed to engendering a culture in the Department where it was understood that the officers served the community, at the community's pleasure.  That it is the community's money which pays their salaries, and that respect must flow from that fact.

Chief White was asked questions regarding his transition from a community with a low percentage of Latino citizens, to one with a high percentage of the same.  He was also asked questions regarding his beliefs on how protests should be handled (i.e. OccupyDenver), and one participant made the savvy remark that the City could save plenty of money by reserving use of SWAT and riot police to break up what has been a peaceful protest in Denver.  Finally, he was asked questions regarding how he planned on changing leadership and front-line officers in the Department, to hopefully change the philosophy of the Department itself.  Emotions remained relatively calm, although they certainly reached the boiling point on a couple of occasions.

In all, I believe most of the participants in the meeting left cautiously optimistic.  There is too much history for it to be swept under the rug after a single meeting, but Chief White showed good effort, and said plenty of the right things.  We shall see.

The following are some links to articles regarding Chief White, that give some insight into his background:

"Incoming Denver police chief vows to build success on mutual trust, respect."  http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19225281

 

"Career of Robert White, next Denver Police Chief, marked by controversy." http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_19236550?source=commented-

"Robert White will be Denver's next police chief, and Gerry Whitman will not be his PIO."  http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/10/robert_white_denver_police_chief.php

[image error] [image error]

"Amazon Signs up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal"

If you're an independent author, and are focused solely on getting to traditional publishing houses someday, you may be missing a BIG BOAT.  (I tried to write that like John Candy says, "Big…big bear!" in "The Great Outdoors.")  Here's an article with some background on the shifting landscape of publishing industry:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html?_r=1

[image error] [image error]

(Un)Warranted Attack on Authors Helping Other Authors?

Background first.  I started the Twitter hashtag #AmazonLikes in late September when sitting in a hotel room brainstorming how authors could help other authors.  Little did I know it would result in almost more headaches than benefits.  The latest is an attack by a blogger with a post entitled "Are Reviews Useful?"

http://www.livinglearninglovinglife.com/2011/10/are-reviews-useful.html

Ostensibly, the post should have been about book reviews, right?  Sure, to a certain extent it is.  And, naturally, the blogger who is a book reviewer concludes that reviews are useful.  But, the blogger also slips in a dig at the #AmazonLikes hashtag and likens it to "cheating."  Let's take that apart for a moment.

First, an implied assumption of the blogger's post is what "liking" a book's Amazon page means.  She doesn't address this in any fashion, even superficially.  She simply assumes that people see a "like" and they believe it means, "I like the content of the book and would give it a high rating."  But, what are the customer reviews for then?  Going deeper, what exactly does "liking" mean?   Can't you like a cover?  A book description?  The sample?  The price?  The genre?  Any other hundred of things?  If you like the content, won't you potentially write a review, instead of just clicking the "like" button?  I would posit that the "like" button on the Amazon page actually ranks much lower in a reader's decision to purchase the book or not because it is such an amorphous and vague little thing.

Second, what about asking people to like your book's Facebook page, or your Facebook author page?  Is this "cheating" too?  Should your Facebook likes simply grow "organically"?

Third, organic growth?  Eh, come again?  I'm pretty sure that as an indie author, with little to no following, nothing comes organically.  It comes through poking, prodding, asking, giving away, and some reciprocation from other people in the same position.  And, with that in mind, should we stop all giveaways that ask for readers to like a Facebook page, or hopefully write a review after they read the book?

Fourth, the blogger concludes that "tagging" a book is okay, but liking it is not.  Yet, as far as I know, tagging has A LOT more to do with search results on Amazon than liking does.  In fact, your tags can qualify you for other subgenres in which you can be highly ranked.  And, the high ranking books REALLY sell.  So, why isn't tagging cheating, Ms. Blogger?

Fifth, because I like round numbers and I'm feelin' particularly ornery, what about the other mutual-help author programs that would constitute "cheating."  #Melissa_Foster has done a tremendous job of helping other authors, including her #sharethelove4authors tag, where authors can post everything from webpages, to Amazon pages, to Facebook pages to Twitter links.  Is she cheating?  Nope.  There's the #TagNLike hashtag–did all those people cheat?  Nope.

Then, regarding authors, let me say this.  This blogger is essentially taking the picked on and disadvantaged kid who sits in the back of the bus (us indie authors) and throwing him/her out the window.  Really–is there a need to preclude those of us that have what amounts to the most uphill climb imaginable from helping one another?  We have no marketing department, oftentimes no agent, no money, no traditional publisher, no editor…can't you let us have one another?  And, regarding readers, the blogger goes on about "protecting" or "saving" readers.  I give my potential readers more credit.  I am fairly certain that they can discern what they want to purchase, and whether something they see is a quality product.  I don't think they are so feeble minded that they are unnecessarily swayed by a "like" button.

In short, rubbish.  #AmazonLikes has helped the "like" total for my book, Enemy in Blue, and I hope it has helped the other authors involved.  I'll go on helping other authors as much as I can, and maybe, just maybe, one of us indies will make it out of the pile.

Build Your Twitter Following–Quickly!

You've got an account, you've chosen a background, and you're ready to start telling the world your DAMN thoughts!  Eh, the world looks like that egg in your profile picture, right?  Zero followers.  I remember when I started my account, I was like, what the hay, who am I tweeting to?  Even at about 25-50 followers, I still felt sheepish about it.  The following tips are designed to help you build your following.  Or, if you've already got a decent start, to help you augment the foundation you already have!

A QUICK NOTE ON TWITTER ETIQUETTE

This has got to go first, because some people just dun get it.  Bullet point style, just in case you forget how to be a nice guy/gal in the future:

Try to thank every person that retweets your tweets, or that mentions you in a positive way.  Seriously, people don't have to click that retweet button for you.  And, when they do, they are amplifying the scope of your tweet by hundreds or thousands of people!  For free!  You can't get exposure like that anywhere else, that I know of.   If I retweet for someone and they don't take the time to say thanks, guess what?  No mas retweets. So, make sure you give a gra-cee-as to those people, and try to do it shortly after they retweet, because people forget what they've done.
Be positive.  No one likes a downer.  Try to keep your conversations with people upbeat and try to engage in content that is helpful to others.  Now, I'm not suggesting that you become a lackey to happiness.  Sometimes this world can get a bit dark.  But, snap out of it and bring some exclamation points and smileys back to your tweets, aight?
Do NOT DM (direct message) people with a link to your book, blog, website, personal bank account (I will accept the bank account info) right after you meet them.  I've never clicked on one of those links, find it highly annoying, and tend to put those people on quasi-ignore.
Respond to your DMs in a timely fashion.  Again, people have taken the time to reach out to you, so take the time to engage in a little conversation with 'em!
FOLLOW BACK.  This is probably the quickest way to get unfollowed.  You aren't Alyssa Milano, you aren't "Ocho Cinco," you aren't Ashton Kutcher.  Remember then, people are following you to hear your tweets, but they also expect to get some reciprocation.  I follow almost everyone back that follows me…common sense and a little humility.

FOLLOW 25-50 PEOPLE/DAY

On to the meat of building those followers!  I've gained about 500 new followers in the last two weeks simply by performing this daily task.  Where to find 'em, you ask.  Hashtag searches.  Assuming we're all authors here, search things like #authors, #amwriting, #writing, #amreading, #thrillers (or your respective genre, or not), #books.  Then, you can search some of the more specific writing handles such as #IBCBookCollective or #IAN1.  Obviously, there are hundreds if not thousands of handles you can search, and I couldn't possibly list them all.

Once you get into the search results for the respective hashtag, start clicking on people's names to pull up their profiles.  If people have a lot of tweets but not many followers, may not want to follow them, as they are not taking the time to engage new people.  And, quite honestly, you want people with networks.  If people have the opposite, i.e. a lot of followers and not many tweets, again, that's a reason not to follow them.  Finally, if the people have a lot of followers, but aren't following as many people, then you may want to skip them.  There are some exceptions (i.e. high profile people in publishing, agents, etc.), but not too many.

Stick to this discipline as if you were training for a marathon, and I guarantee you'll see results in times as short as 1-2 weeks.

POST THINGS THAT MATTER

Your book matters…to you.  Yeah, yeah, it will matter to some people, but NEVER as much as you.  So, if that's all you tweet about, guess how much people are gonna care about your tweets?  Instead, take the time to read articles and post the helpful ones up.  Read blogs and direct your followers to them.  Start programs that help build other authors up.  For instance, I started the #AmazonLikes hashtag, where an author can tweet their book's Amazon link and get free likes/tags on their Amazon page.  This has helped many authors build up their book's stats, and has correspondingly helped me form many new relationships.

You can connect with someone like @RachelintheOC (an excellent author and very helpful one, at that) about your content to promotion ratio.  In a nutshell though, you want to be tweeting more about content than promo, because people get sick of nonstop promo.  More on @RachelintheOC below!

YOU CAN UNFOLLOW PEOPLE, TOO

When I first started using Twitter, I would try to compare my "following" and "followers" lists, manually, to see who was not following me back.  Apparently, I like using the abacus for math as well.  There's a simple service at www.justunfollow.com which will analyze your account for you, and identify the people who have not followed you back.  Depends on your tolerance for jerks (kidding, kinda), but you may give people anywhere from 3-7 days to follow you back.  At that point, consider giving 'em the boot!

TAKE SOME CLASSES ON FURTHER TWITTER DEVELOPMENT

The most helpful class I've taken on this topic yet is one led by @RachelintheOC of the Indie Book Collective.  It's called the "Social Media for Writers" workshop, it's free, and Rachel is cool as all heck.  Here's the direct link: http://indiebookcollective.com/IndieBookCollective/Workshops.html.  She will literally walk you through, step-by-step, how to set up your account, pick a background, optimize your profile, start working with hashtags, and start setting up lists (something I intentionally did not address in this blog post, because lists are their own demon and may be addressed separately in the future).  In short, take an hour and a half of your time, and avail yourself of this great workshop.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and/or successes on Twitter, so comment or contact me if you are so inclined