Jonas Eriksson's Blog: Jonaswrites.com - official site of author and writer Jonas Eriksson, page 14

Clever newsletter marketing from BookDepository

Got some poetry and 10% off at Bookdepository in a nice effort of clever newsletter marketing. I really like how they focus on the offer and still keep a friendly, personal and original tone. This is a great weapon for getting the customer’s attention. Besides, 10% off is not bad!

Here are some other clever newsletter examples

The text of the Bookdepository newsletter in full:

“A poem and a 10% off voucher

Where have you been? I’ve missed you so much that I wrote you a poem…



In former days with us you shopped,

but something happened and

we’ve been dropped.

What did we do, what did we say,

what was it made you go away!?

We’re oh so sad, but shall not rest

till you return to our bookish nest.

What can we do, what can we say,

to win you back and make you stay?

We’ve tons of tomes to feed your mind

For every passion a book you’ll find

To get you back, we thought: a gesture!

So how’s about a money-off voucher?

We know our poems are not so hot,

but rhymes and puns aren’t all we’ve got.

Our offer’s sincere, the discount true,

So, please come back — we so miss you!

Hello,

Where have you been? What happened? Did I do something wrong?

I’ve missed you since you stopped shopping with us, and I don’t even know why you went. If it was something I did, I’m sorry. I hope the wounds have healed after all this time.

Actually, I’m so upset about not having heard from you that I’ve written you a poem. It’s not great but it does come straight from the heart!

So, if you use this voucher on your next purchase with us, we will give you 10% off! And, yes, that’s a 10% reduction on top of our existing great prices with free worldwide delivery…

10% off everything – terms and conditions and redemption details

Hope to see you soon,

Adam

Editor

P.S. If you did stop shopping with us because of something we did, please reply and let me know.

Offer ends 17th April 2013 at 12 noon BST.” (URGENCY – a great tool -JE)

You can write a book – this is how

Writing a book is easy. After all, I have written two and I’m no rocket scientist.

Of course, if you want to write a really good book, it might be more difficult. I always aim high, but I guess it will take a few books before I’m really, really satisfied with the result. But at least I’m writing and trying my best. (If you want to check out what I’ve written read the page called “My Books and Stories”

So how do you write a book? Well, first you put words together, then you put sentences together and then you put paragraphs together and then you put pages together and voila! you have a book.

It might suck, but at least it’s a pile of paper showing you have worked for hours.

Because even if writing a book is easy, it does take a lot of time. You have to really put the effort in. It’s like what Malcolm Gladwell says in his book Outliers: you need 10 000 hours to achieve mastery. For writing it seems like 10 000 hours isn’t a whole lot and definitely no guarantee for mastery. You might work on a book for 10 000 hours and it might still turn out to be complete crap, because writing a good book is difficult – writing any book is easy.

How can it be easy? Well, I suggest you take a look at the Kindle Store. There are millions of book there. Many of them self-published. Many of them shit. Still someone had to sit down, write for hours and days, put the book together, get a cover designed, set up the book in Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), decide on a price and click PUBLISH.

Some of the books that you might think are shit get thousands of downloads. Some even get decent reviews. This obviously means that you can write one too! Maybe even a good one!

You don’t need to be a genius to be an author, you just need a computer, heaps of time and a bucketful of determination (because self-doubt WILL haunt you like a hungry ghost).

After a lengthy introduction, here comes the steps towards getting a book published.

1. Have an idea of what to write. You can approach this in different ways. Here are a few:

Based on a situation – “What happens if a guy gets stuck in an elevator with convicted felon and they start talking about their past and it turns out they’re related?”

Based on a person – “What if you have a (on the surface) really dislikable guy who through the course of the book turns out to be quite likeable?

Based on a (historical) event – “How was it to grow up in Hiroshima in the aftermath of the atomic bomb?

Based on a strict plotline – “There is a murder on the Orient express and it’s obvious that one of the passengers is the murderer, but it’s a complete mystery who it is.”

2. When you have the idea you need to: Write, write, write. (This is an essential part of the process).

3. Don’t stop every other page and look at what you have written. This might work for some, but I find it to grow a lot of doubts around what you’re writing, which might lead to you never finishing anything. Which would be very sad.

4. Make sure you find time and space to write. Whether you prefer to write in a café or a hotel lobby (like me) or in your private office or in a cabin in the woods, is up to you – but make sure you’re able to focus a hundred percent on the writing.

5. Cut out distractions. Linked to 4, but worth to be repeated. Unplug your internet cable or turn off your wifi if needed. Get a typewriter. Use a fountain pen. Whatever works for you.

6. Write every day. If you don’t, it’s easy to lose track or interest in the story and the characters. Better an hour a day, than two hours every other day in my experience. Writing every day will make you feel good about yourself too. Like you’re working towards something.

7. Seek inspiration from books, long walks, Internet, friends, overhearing conversations in the subway or cafés, newspapers, family and friends. Be a sponge!

8. Make sure you have fun while you write. (This is probably the most important tip of all). If it’s not fun, it won’t be good. And, not to forget, life is supposed to be fun.

9. When you’ve finished, let someone you trust and respect like your spouse or a best friend read your work. Let them be critical. Try to take it for what it is – constructive feedback. Don’t listen to everything if you feel strongly about something, but try to be open-minded.

10. Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite.

11. Let the material rest. Put it in a drawer. Don’t look at it for days or weeks. It’s important to look at your writing with fresh eyes.

12. Pick it up again and read it. It might even be worth to do it out loud to make sure the rhythm is right.

13. (PRO TIP) Hire an editor to give you input and properly proof your book. Can be expensive, but probably worth every penny if you want professional material.

14. Rewrite again.

15. When you’re happy with the material and you think the book is finished, you have two roads to go: pitch your material to an agent and hope to get a contract with a publishing house or self-publish your work. This is obviously up to you, but I have found self-publishing to be a quite friendly and far less frustrating route.

16. Publish. Below you will find some thoughts on where and how…

If you decide on traditional publishing you really need to scout for a suitable agent and make sure you have a good cover letter and a super neat manuscript. Since I haven’t really focused on this route myself (although I have acquired some 20 rejection slips), I feel I’m not the right person to give you advice on it, but there should be plenty of references online.

If self-publishing is the road for you, you have quite a few options of suppliers. Since publishing e-books is the cheapest and easiest way to reach out, I’d definitely suggest starting out with that channel.

Some players in self-publishing industry: Amazon KDP, Kobo, Nook, Smashwords (for print I found Createspace to be great)

What you need to self-publish properly:

A good writing software like Microsoft Word or Pages (for mac).
You might need an e-book file conversion software like Calibre.
You might like to check out a dedicated writing software like Scrivener.
You will need a cover designer or if you want to do it yourself a proper design software like Adobe Photoshop. IMPORTANT! The cover might be one of the most important marketing tools so spend extra time/money to get this really good. I used a good friend and a great designer, Etienne Bugeja, for The Wake-Up Call and Hollywood Ass and I have received lots of praise for the covers.
See to it that you write a good sales text for the back cover blurb, the description and for marketing to different book sites. Read this post on how to market your e-book.

A sentence to summarize…

MAKE SURE EVERYTHING YOU DO WITH YOUR BOOK BREATHE PROFESSIONALISM. FOR PEOPLE TO TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY, YOU HAVE TO TAKE YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING SERIOUSLY.

That’s it. The best of luck and remember: you can write and publish a book!

Listening to right now: The Lumineers

Thanks to Conan O’Brien’s talk show I found about a band called The Lumineers and a song called Ho Hey and then another song called Stubborn Love. It caught my attention and after listening to a couple more songs, I’m really hooked. (My personal favorite song is Submarines)

Since I’m lazy, I quote the Wikipedia article on the Lumineers:

“The Lumineers are an American folk rock band, based in Denver, Colorado. The two founding members and songwriters of the Lumineers are Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion). Schultz and Fraites began writing and performing together in New Jersey in 2005. Neyla Pekarek (cello, vocals) joined the band in 2010. Stelth Ulvang (piano), and Ben Wahamaki (bass), joined the band as full-time members in 2012.[1][2] Their self-titled debut album was released on Dualtone Records on April 3, 2012, eventually peaking at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart in January 2013. As of December 2012, their debut album has been certified gold in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and platinum in Ireland.”

I think the founder Jeremiah Fraites said it well about they’re take on music:

“We’re not reinventing the wheel or doing anything that different, the songs are super simple. The ideas themselves are very simple ideas. Anyone who can play an instrument can play a Lumineers song. I think there’s a certain cinematic aspect of our music that I really like.”

And to that I can only add: there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when you write good songs.

I know you want a piece of ass.

I know, I know. It’s an absolutely ridiculous headline showcasing my very bad taste.

But it does look good though, doesn’t it? And by that I don’t mean any old ass, I mean the print edition of Hollywood Ass. as displayed in the picture above. The cover is designed by the excellent designer Etienne Bugeja who also designed The Wake-Up Call.

(By the way, Ass. is an abbreviation of assistant)

Print UK: http://amzn.to/12hWggM

Print US: http://amzn.to/XZcQLC

If you prefer e-books, Hollywood Ass. is actually FREE today.

Links for Hollywood Ass kindle version:

US: http://amzn.to/XZcQLC

UK: http://amzn.to/Z3jMHL

DE: http://amzn.to/XqZzkb

FR: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00BMU0GT2

ES: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B00BMU0GT2

IT: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B00BMU0GT2

JP: http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00BMU0GT2

CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00BMU0GT2

BR: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B00BMU0GT2

Here is the backside (ass) of the book:

 

 

 

 

 

Kindles – they’re good for you

Ever since I got my first Kindle I fell in love with it. What was most powerful about the whole experience was the e-ink screen which reminded me of my beloved Psion 3 series which I wrote my first short stories on. It’s just feels less intimidating for the eyes than for example an iPad or Samsung Galaxy tablet and I like that it only has one proper use for it – to read books on. This makes you less distracted than with tablets and lets you focus on the reading.

But not everybody believes in e-readers and e-books. Lenah was kind of hard to convince for example, but I think I have convinced her now that we have decided not to have so much clutter in our lives. We both love books, but they to take an awful lot of space and although they look nice in a bookshelf, you rarely read them twice.

And that’s where a Kindle comes in handy. You can store all your books in one space and when you travel, which you should if you’re a sensible person, you don’t need to run around bookstores when you’ve finished a book! Just go to the Kindle store and buy one or read the next one in your collection.

So although you miss the feeling of holding real paper, there are loads of advantages to owning a Kindle.

Since I’m a cheapskate when it comes to buying gadgets (I prefer spending my money on travel and food), I have the cheapest Kindle, which costs only 89 dollars. Although there are more fancy Kindles out there like the Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Fire, this is more than good enough for me (but I would rather buy a Kindle Fire than an iPad for example). Below you see why it’s so good:

Benefits of owning a Kindle (I ripped this off of Amazon.com)

Less than 6 ounces – lighter than a paperback, fits in your pocket
15% faster page turns
New darker, hand-tuned fonts for easier reading
Reads like paper with no glare, even in bright sunlight
Download books in 60 seconds with built-in Wi-Fi
Holds over 1,000 books – take your library wherever you go
Massive book selection. Lowest prices. Over a million titles less than $9.99
180,000 Kindle-exclusive titles that you won’t find anywhere else, including books by best-selling authors such as Kurt Vonnegut
Supports children’s books and includes new parental controls

Does owning a Kindle mean you have to stop reading printed books? No, you should obviously do both. But it’s a great complement to printed books and the ideal travel partner. And if I can get Lenah to want one, I’m sure you can find it useful too.

And remember, you don’t need a Kindle to read Kindle books. You can use whatever gadget you have, your computer, your iPad or your mobile phone. Just download your free Kindle app.

The power of free – tips on Amazon Kindle Select

Trying to “make it” as an indie author as taught me a lot about the power of the word FREE. The reason is that with Amazon Kindle Select you can run promotions where any of your self-published books are free for a set number of days. The idea is for the book to climb the many top lists on Amazon so that it gets maximum exposure. The “only” thing Amazon asks of you is that your book is exclusively published with Amazon for a three-month period.

I’ve tried free days on Amazon Kindle Select quite a few times now with some success and found it to be one of the most powerful marketing tools an indie author can find. When I’ve run it for The Wake-Up Call I’ve had up to 26 000 downloads in two days. This helped the book to climb the top lists and to my amazement it managed to reach #4 in Contemporary Fiction and #1 in Humor. Since the book stays for some hours on the top list even after the promotion is over, this will obviously net quite some sales as well.

That was the most successful Kindle Select Promotion I ever ran. Other times, it’s been decent to completely pointless. The success of your promotion depends on a number of things:

1. The days you choose. Weekends are rarely good, because people tend to do other things than browse for free e-books.

2. That the book has a decent rating. Less than 4 star reviews in average will be less effective.

3. That you do your homework and make sure to advertise the book everywhere you possibly can. There are loads of free book promotion websites out there. I will list some below.

4. That you use all your communication channel in getting out the message. Social media can be very effective and Twitter has done wonders for me in the past.

5. That your book has a good looking cover (people are very visual) and an interesting description.

6. That the first pages of your book (what readers usually sample) really hook the reader.

7. That your book is placed in the right category for it. Categories like Mystery and Thrillers is extremely competitive, but maybe you have a smaller niche that is easier to reach out through? This means it will be easier for you to climb to #1 on the Amazon top lists.

The reason I started writing this post is that I’m now trying two free days (3rd and 4th of April) on Amazon Kindle Select again to see if it can do any wonders for my recently published novel “Hollywood Ass.”

I have done some promotion, but sadly the book is yet to have a review so I’m not sure it will get enough downloads to make a difference. But as an indie author you have to try your best and see what works.

Sites where you can promote your books (to be updated):

Digital Book Today

The Kindle Book Review

World Literary Café

Freebooksy

Author Marketing Club

Bookbub

Back up your stuff

Today I managed to spill half a bottle of water on my Macbook Air. It shut itself off and I’m not sure if it will ever start again. I had pretty much everything on that computer: unfinished books, music I listen to daily, important work files, notes, e-mail archives, photos and other important things you might have on a computer. In short: I feel horrible.

But I would have felt worse if it I hadn’t had everything updated thanks to Dropbox, Wunderlist, Evernote, Appstore, and Google. Now I get all my important files back thanks to Dropbox, by bookmarks through Google, my notes through Evernote, and my apps and software through Appstore. The worst scenario becomes losing a computer, not losing priceless information.

It’s good to live in the 21st century sometimes.

The obvious lesson from my clumsiness is to back up your stuff. Back up your stuff. Back up your stuff.

And make sure not to throw your arms around when there are beverages near your electronics.

Recently consumed culture

Lately we’ve been watching loads of documentaries and I’ve also managed to finish a string of books. Here’s a list and a few words about them:

Broken Paradise by Cecilia Samartin

A fantastic book. Really deserving of the 5 star rating it has on Amazon.com. Samartin writes in a way that make you feel stupid for ever attempting to write something yourself. It’s beautiful and passionate writing about a topic she obviously feels very strongly about. The book description.

Cuba, 1956: Cousins Nora and Alicia are accustomed to living among Havana’s privileged class — but their lavish dinners, days at the beach, and extravagant dances come to an end after Castro’s rise to power. Food becomes scarce, religion is forbidden, and disease runs rampant. Although Alicia stays behind while Nora emigrates to the United States, both of their identities are challenged as they try to adapt to the changes forced upon them. As the situation in Cuba deteriorates, Alicia is beset by bad fortune, while Nora — whose heart is still in Cuba — painfully assimilates into middle-class U.S. culture. Letters between the cousins track their lives until Alicia’s situation becomes so difficult that Nora is forced to return and help. But what she finds in Cuba is like nothing she ever imagined.

Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky

Creative people are not the most productive and disciplined in the world – that’s at least what the stereotype tells us. The founder of Behance, Scott Belsky, tells us how it can be otherwise and how we can make sure to be both creative and productive at the same time. Very interesting and thought-provking.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

A brilliant book about thinking and specifically intuitive thinking. Book description: Intuition is not some magical property that arises unbidden from the depths of our mind. It is a product of long hours and intelligent design, of meaningful work environments and particular rules and principles. This book shows us how we can hone our instinctive ability to know in an instant, helping us to bring out the best in our thinking and become better decision-makers in our homes, offices and in everyday life. Just as he did with his revolutionary theory of the tipping point, Gladwell reveals how the power of ‘blink’ could fundamentally transform our relationships, the way we consume, create and communicate, how we run our businesses and even our societies.You’ll never think about thinking in the same way again.

The Queen of Versailles

A dark and upsetting documentary about a billionaire couple wanting to build the largest home in America. It really shows that money and intelligence aren’t linked. I got mostly amazed and pissed-off at the same time, but it was very entertaining viewing. IMDB description:

A documentary that follows a billionaire couple as they begin construction on a mansion inspired by Versailles. During the next two years, their empire, fueled by the real estate bubble and cheap money, falters due to the economic crisis.

Searching for Sugarman

Academy award winner and rightly so. Fantastic documentary about a forgotten musician who gets his just revival. IMDB description: Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock ‘n’ roller, Rodriguez.

This World – Cuba with Simon Reeve

This documentary about the mystical and enticing country of Cuba goes well with Broken Paradise. Simon Reeve is a good presenter and you really get an understanding of how Cuba has been run over the years.

Romes Lost Empire

An interesting watch for Rome junkies such as Lenah and myself. It shows how new technology can change the way we learn about history.

Rome – a history of the eternal city

A more dry take on the history of Rome, but still very interesting. With such a fascinating history you really understand why it’s called The Eternal City.

Jiro – Dreams of Sushi

If David Siegel (the billionaire in The Queen of Versailles) is the time-share king, then Jiro is for sure the king of sushi. Endearing documentary about passion for your craft and really believing in what you do.

Canada – Richard Ford

The latest novel from one of my favorite writers. I loved The Bascombe Trilogy, and liked this one too, but it was definitely a slower read. If you have patience with reading fine, but lingering writing, check it out. From the back cover:

When fifteen-year-old Del Parsons’ parents rob a North Dakota bank, his normal life is altered forever, and a threshold is crossed that can never be uncrossed. His parents’ imprisonment threatens a turbulent and uncertain future for Del and his twin sister, Berner. Fierce with resentment, Berner flees their Montana home for California. But Del is not completely abandoned. A family friend spirits him across the Canadian border toward safety and a better life. There, afloat on the Saskatchewan prairie, Del finds only cold refuge from Arthur Remlinger, an enigmatic and alluring American fugitive with a dark and violent past.

Undone by the calamity of his parents’ robbery, Del struggles to remake himself. But his search for grace only moves him nearer to a harrowing and murderous collision with the forces of darkness that shadow us all.

Inside the Saudi Kingdom

Interesting documentary following the Prince Saud Bin Al-Mohsen Bin Abdul Aziz. It gives you a glimpse of life in a country governed by the slightly terrifying Sharia Law, but doesn’t really go as deep as you would like it to. There were probably quite tough restrictions on the film team for this one.

 

Spirit House by Mark Dapin

My friends at The Book Depository sent me Spirit House by Mark Dapin today. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

Spirit House is about a POW (prisoner of war) on the Thai-Burma railway who drinks too much trying to escape the horrors of his past. But when his thirteen-year-old grandson comes to visit him, the stories of what happened in the days of the war comes back to him. The story is about “the bonds of a life-long friendship and the bonds of grief, and of a young boy making sense of his future while old men try to live with their past.”

It was published 2011 in Australia (author Mark Dapin is called a “major new voice in Australian fiction” after Spirit House and his previous novel King of the Cross) and has been called “Best Australian novel of the year” and been longlisted for Miles Frank Award 2011, shortlisted for The Age Book of the year Award, commended for the Christina Stead Prize and featured in four Australian “Books of the Year 2011” roundups. ABC said this about Spirit House: “This is a book destined for classic status in every sense of the word. It is powerful, poignant, moving, tragic and intensely distressing. It is a feast of a story which will almost simultaneously move you to tears and bring a smile to your face.”

It’s hard not to be curious about Spirit House. Will keep you posted on my progress.

 

A personal update

It was a long time since I posted on the blog so I thought, what the hell…

As you all know by now, Hollywood Ass. is out. So far it’s just a soft-launch, meaning I haven’t really done any marketing around the book. We will see what happens once I do, I’m curious about this book and not really sure what to think of it myself to be honest.

Besides Hollywood Ass. promotions, I’m working on a couple of short stories in parallell to have a collection out in a few weeks. Writing short stories is challenging but interesting and the main focus now is finding a red thread through the collection so it makes sense. If you want to read a sample of my short story writing, check out A Killer Date or The Development Talk.

This weekend is being spent relaxing because my work has been murder lately. I’ve been working on two projects concerning our major brands simultaneously and although it’s been going reasonably well, I’m reaching the end of my energy reserves. Luckily, Easter gives us a three-day weekend to get some of that strength back.

Yesterday we went to President’s Kitchen Garden with Bea and Nevada. It was a nice spring day and we all got some well-needed rest. Afterwards Aiden and I headed for the park to play some football and in the evening Lenah and I went to the always excellent restaurant Meat and Co.

A nice, full day. Today we’re going to Valletta and then we’re painting eggs in the Jonsson Easter tradition.

Maybe I will write a few lines too.

Keep well and prioritise life.

/JE