Doris-Maria Heilmann's Blog, page 80

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Tagged: Facebook Share, Google+, Show your book on Google+, Slideshare, social networking, spread the word about your book, use Goodreads to promote your book

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Published on July 17, 2013 05:53

Outsmart Thieves of Your Content – Part 2

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Does your book / website / blog contain your own images?

Photographer Jeremy Nicholl wrote a great blog post about his own experiences with copyright infringement and created a 10 point plan to follow. Anyone can register written words or images at the US Copyright office, and does not need to live in the States.

Jeremy lives in Moskau, Russia, but thank goodness registered his images in the USA – and it paid handsomely for him. He advises: “Register your images at the US Copyright Office. The country may be a Berne signatory, but in practice the USA has a dual copyright system: major protection and zero protection. Unregistered images get the latter: lacking the option for punitive damages and legal expenses it’s financially impractical to chase infringers, and they know it! Registered images carry the potential for $150,000 compensation per infringement plus legal costs: so what’s to think about?”

“Your small-time infringer may be a bigger player than you think. At a casual glance my infringer was a cuddly-looking blog: indeed its sister site was once caught heisting an image from Flickr, and when the owner complained people told him “lighten up, it’s just a blog”. But a few seconds research revealed that both sites are owned by one of the world’s largest media companies, which bought my infringer’s site a few years ago. The price? Ten million dollars. And that for a site so cheap that I caught it swiping images from iStock rather than pay the $1 asking price.” Read his great blog post (and some very useful comments) on his site jeremynicholl.com

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Photographers no longer need to heavily blemish their work out of fear of theft on the internet. The technology exists to find commercial infringements. Two website tools will help you – for free:

Google Images

You can find a preexisting copy of your image. Just select “Similar Images” to find other copies that may exist.

Tineye

It is also a handy tool but if shows more international websites/blogs, rather than commercial US infringements through their software.

It is very important to have at least one noticeable watermark on the image. Add a “© and your photographer name” in font size 10 in the lower right or left corner, which is non-invasive but still states clearly the copyright.

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Claims in US Courts:

Sure, your manuscript has copyright from the moment you put “pen to paper.” However, if you did not register your copyright officially – or after the infringement happened – you can only sue for “Actual Damages” – not so easy to demonstrate! Invest $35 in your book or photograph and obtain a registered copyright. You will then be able to command a higher claim from an infringer: you can collect “Statutory Damages” plus all your Attorney fees:

If you have registered your work before infringement, you can collect Statutory Damages plus attorney fees.
If you registered after infringement, but before filing suit, you can only sue for Actual Damages – which you have to demonstrate.

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Necessary Content of Copyright Notices in Your Book:

The symbol © or the word “Copyright”
The year of first publication of the work
The name of the owner or creator

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Where to Register?

Canada:

online to the Copyright Office, Canadian Intellectual Property Office

(fee Can $50)

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USA:

online to the U.S. Copyright Office,

via the Library of Congress (fee US $ 35)

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United Kingdom:

online UK Copyright Service

(online registration are £39.00 for 5 years or £64.00 for 10 years per work/package)

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An attorney is not necessary at all to register your manuscript. You can register on-line (which is cheaper) or by snail mail. Copyright registrations become effective the day on which application and payment are received at the office, but it may take months until you receive the certificate.

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Infringers might use “fair use” to their defense.

Are you familiar with the term fair use? Just because they provide attribution and/or a link back to the original doesn’t mean they are free and clear. Fair use has nothing to do with attribution.

A good example of fair use of an image to use online is product reviews. If you want to review a book, a new piece of technology, a food product or whatever widget, you will likely want to include a photo. Other reasons (e.g. for written content) could be for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.

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Fair use means one is allowed to infringe on someone’s copyright and you can’t do anything about it. If their use is covered by fair use, they even don’t have to provide attribution (although it would be nice). The question is:

Why are they using the image/text?
Did they transform the image/text?
Use for commercial or non-profit purposes?
How much of the image/text are they using?
Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

Read more about fair use at the SocialMediaExaminer

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 810 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: copyright law, copyright theft, fair use, Google Images, register copyright, TinEye, watermark on the image

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Published on July 15, 2013 20:54

Outsmart Thieves of Your Content – Part 1

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Outsmart the Thieves

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“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Well, you might not be very flattered when you find parts of your book, a blog post you wrote or an image you took, on somebody’s website or book. What can do to prevent it? And what can you do when this happens? Here is a brief overview, more details in part 2 of this series.

Copyright infringement can even be a source of income for you, if you charge the thieves : )

Find out:

How to find copyright infringements
How to track down the perpetrator
How to register your copyright
Where to find a copyright lawyer
How much can you charge
How to document the theft
How to use Google Cache and get Google to de-index

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How to find copyright infringements

This task can be done for free with the help of Copyscape.com, a program that searches for plagiarism online and identify content theft. Just type in the URL of your original content, and Copyscape shows you right away where your content can be found on the internet.

You can also pay Copyscape if you need even more advanced service.

You can also use Google Alerts to find your content on the Internet. Just type in your contents’ keywords. And get alerts via email.

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How to track down the perpetrator

Ever heard about the website inquiry “Who Is”, which shows you who owns or registered a website, for example the one from your contents thieve? Use www.Godaddy.com and type in the domain name and click on “Who Is”, which will show you the registrant, technical and administrative support of the website. Books show name or pen name and the publisher, sometimes even the printer, layout-er or editor. Infringements on e-books can be reported to retailers, such as Amazon.

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How to document the theft:

Make screen shots of the infringing site
download the actual page so you have the source code
make screen shots of your own website with the copyright information
make a screen shot of the Google search results
Was your image metadata on the infringing site removed:
that’s a further offence, and you should screen shot it for evidence.

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How to use Google Cache and get Google to de-index

Google’s cache can be used in copyright lawsuits since it’s cache content can serve as a proof of a website’s old content.

Whole websites or individual URL’s may also be de-indexed by Google as per US DMCA requirement in case anybody complains about illegal stuff infringing on somebody else’s copyright.

More details about Google’s de-index and cache. Google offers a support site for “Removing Content”

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How to register your copyright

It is not required for an author to register your work or even provide a notice. But… there are reasons to protect yourself and what you created. Proving your claim can be a very difficult matter without proper evidence. If anyone steals your manuscript, you will not only have proof of copyright ownership, but you are also able to sue for Statutory Damages and attorney fees. Find addresses where you can register (also online) in a former blog post “What Every Writer Needs to Know About Copyright“

In the United States the fee is only $35 and you can register a whole bunch of articles or photos in one shot. you have 90 days from the moment of publishing to register your work in order to not only get Statutory Damages, but also to recover your lawyer (and court) fees. An attorney is not at all necessary, to register your manuscript or photo. You can register on-line (which is cheaper) or by snail mail. Copyright registrations become effective the day on which application and payment are received at the office

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Where to find a copyright lawyer

Even if you could send a “Copyright Infringement Cease & Desist/Demand Letter” yourself to the thieve of your content, why should you do it? Why waste your time? Get a copyright lawyer who does it for you and who follows up on the case or brings it to the courts. One law firm that is specialized in copyright law is Hoffman in NYC, but you will find them in almost every state. There are websites, such as Findlaw.com that sort them by cities too. Some lawyers will even work for you on a contingency agreement for a percentage of any settlement; as long as you have registered your writing or your image correctly.

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How much can you charge:

“What’s An Infringement Worth?”

Attorney Carolyn E. Wright who is specialist in copyright law has a an interesting graphic on her website that shows the average amount of damages the perpetrator has to pay:

Actual Damages*
Statutory Damages
Ordinary Licence Fee
Profits
Fine
Attorneys fees & costs

* US copyright laws allows punishment for removal of copyright information a substantial statutory damage – $10,000 or more - for each instance.

Find out about Consequences of Copyright Infringement. Please see also a former blog post here about honest re-blogging that explains the difference between copy & paste (theft) and official re-blogging, where a link points to the original blog post.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on the website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 810 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: Consequences of Copyright Infringement, copyright infringement, de-index by Google, image metadata, list of copyright lawers, register your copyright

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Published on July 14, 2013 21:58

MUST READ for Parents and Teachers

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Fiza Pathan’s latest book Classics: Why we should encourage children to read them.

Reading is an adventure that begins early in a child’s life and should extend beyond the classroom. By encouraging children to read at home, parents too, can help their children establish a lifelong love of books, transforming reading from a basic skill to a pleasurable activity.

The book explains why children (and parents) should especially read classic books:

it lists favorite works by brilliant writers
how their work can influence reality
how reading these books improves language skills and vocabulary
how these classic works help to develop imagination
how they can further general knowledge and even morals
it shows skills one can develop by reading classic literature
how good fiction can make reality a lot more tolerable

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Fiza is a History and English teacher, and this is her third book that she wrote – beside many poems she has published and for which she has quite a following on her blog Insaneowl. Her goal is to channel everyone’s attention on the advantages of reading classic literature, the understanding of classics, and how it can influence a readers life positively.

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Fiza Pathan: “All the students and teachers mentioned in my handbook are real people whom I have known personally. The students mentioned in my book are the ones whom I tutor and I enjoy every bit of time spent with such wonderful pupils.”

“All the incidents that I have mentioned in my book are all true and based on the experiences shared by my students and by me. From their development to their love of reading, all the examples cited are true occurrences that have taken place over the past four years of my teaching experience.”

“If my reviewer/reader states that my handbook has aided them to know the importance of reading classics and has encouraged them to implement my suggestions of reading classics in their children’s lives to enhance their overall potential, I think that’s when I as a writer and teacher will feel that they have understood me. Saying so in words will not mean as much to me as their acting on my advice.”

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More retailers, such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Goodreads, Apple, Diesel, Sony etc. will follow in the next days.

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Tagged: Author Fiza Pathan, CLASSICS Why We Should Encourage Children to Read Them, Fiza Pathan's latest book, Fiza's Poems, InsaneOwl.com, Must Read for parents and teachers

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Published on July 13, 2013 09:43

5 Tips to Improve your Amazon Author Page

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One of the greatest benefits of selling your e-book (or paper book) through Amazon is the vast space they provide you to “advertise” your work. If you are a savvy author, take right away advantage of this marvelous opportunity of an author page and insert lots information about your writing and yourself as an author.

Look at it from the standpoint of a reader; which book would you buy: The one that shows just a boring cover, name of the author, and a very short introduction to the book – or the one which has:

a beautiful, appealing cover
an all-embracing editorial review
an interesting authors bio with a portrait
lots of customer reviews
a book trailer or interview video

So, what can you do to improve your appearance on Amazon and improve book sales? A lot!

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Create an appealing book cover

Rule # 1 for your book cover on Amazon is NEVER to use a white background! White on white is barely visible and your book will not stick out, especially when you chose to have the text in black.

Your book cover should be:

aesthetically appealing
targeted to the book’s intended audience
represent the book’s contents
use a clean, readable font
use bold or complementary colors
use light on dark for dramatic effects
visit a bookstore to research book cover designs
test the cover in thumbnail size to make sure it looks good even if it is only one inch high/wide and the title should still be readable

An appealing book cover can be done through the use of software, if you are computer-savvy and creative / artsy – if not, better hire a professional, who is experienced in designing book covers and can provide a portfolio with samples from earlier jobs.

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Write a great editorial review

Write as much about your book as possible and use all the space you get from Amazon:

Editorial Review—350 characters
From the Author, From the Inside Flap, and From the Back Cover—8000 characters !!!
About the Author—2000 characters
See the detailed information on Amazon.

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Set up your Author Page

Helping customers get to know you is an effective way to introduce your books. Information you add on the “Profile” tab in Author Central appears on the Amazon.com Author Page. On the Author Page you can display:

books you have written
biography and up to 8 photos!
up to 8 videos!
a calendar of events, such as book signings
Latest Tweets
Most Recent Blog Posts

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The Author Page is a good chance to tell readers something interesting about yourself, make sure you include any details about your (writers) background, awards, other books you have written and personal details customers might want to know. Your author photo should be a professional, high-resolution image for quality display.

At the Author Central page on Amazon you get lots of free marketing help. Click the “Profile” tab, where you will see all these sections to add – or to change the information later. It can take several days for the Author Page to appear on the Amazon, so start right now adding content to your Author Page. There are lots of features for you to choose from:

Your Profile and your Biography
Uploading Photos & Videos
Managing Your Blog Feeds & Your Events
Uploading Book Images
Managing Editorial Reviews
Customer Reviews

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Get lots of customer reviews

From Amazon’s Tips: “Anyone registered as an Amazon.com customer is entitled to write customer reviews, including fellow authors and journalists. Reader reviews don’t carry across borders, so ask your friends to copy and paste their reviews to all of your Amazon sites (Amazon.uk.co, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr or Amazon.de for example). Make it easy for them and provide all the direct links to your sites.

Customer reviews are in order from newest to oldest with the exception of “Spotlight Reviews” that are based on how well the review was written and how helpful it was deemed by our customers.”

(Hint: ask your friends to click on “helpful” at the best reviews of your book).

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Create a Book Trailer & Videos:

You can share your book trailer, video interviews, book signing videos or the new Google Search Story trailers with readers. Your video should focus on specific features of your book or your experience as an author. Hire a professional video maker to create your book promotion trailer and upload the video to YouTube and other video sites. To get an overview of the video production process and lots of tips and links for free images, free music and web sites where to upload and how to market your video, read: 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer.

Submit your video or book trailer to your own website, your blog or blogs of your friends, show it often on your Google+, Twitter, or your Goodreads site. Ask all your friends to spread the word and to re-tweet your video link or submit it to their Goodreads friends.

Amazon has more cool features to help an author get found. Use every bit of support you can get from Amazon, join the Kindle Forum to ask questions, get help and support from other authors and on blogs, and your book will be a success!

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 810 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: appealing book cover, Author Central, author portrait, authors bio, book trailer, editorial review, interview video, lots of customer reviews

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Published on July 11, 2013 19:04

Strategic Self-Publishing

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Guest blog by Timothy Jay Smith

I became a full-time writer nearly fifteen years ago. It took me a couple of years to complete my first novel. By then, the publishing industry was already in an upheaval over the rapidly mounting threat of e-retailers. Buy-outs and mergers were an effort to build a cost-competitive fortress against them. In other words, the industry was hunkering down and taking no risks.

The former President of the Book of the Month Club ‘discovered’ my novel and passed me along to one of New York’s leading boutique agencies. My new agent sent out my manuscript on a Thursday afternoon, and the first call she received on Monday morning was a leading publisher saying she loved the book. “Let’s get together and talk numbers,” she suggested, until three days later, she called back to say that the publishing house had been acquired by an even bigger publisher, and it had fallen off the new publisher’s list.

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No other offers came in.

My agent told me not to worry, it was a good book, it would eventually sell. Just keep writing. It wasn’t a good book—not that draft—but I did keep writing.

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Fast forward to today, and I have written four novels, five screenplays, and five stage plays. Along the way, I have won a dozen Grand Prizes or First Places in writing competitions, and placed in over 70 more. I never sold a novel, despite having prominent literary agents in both London and New York.

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My novels weren’t commercial enough, the publishers said. They were too literary to be a thriller but too thriller-ish to be literary. Bookstores wouldn’t know which shelf to put them on, and customers wouldn’t buy them because their genre wasn’t clear.

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I decided to prove them wrong.

I self-published Cooper’s Promise in January 2012 with the clear intention of wanting to get noticed and picked up by a traditional publisher. That meant I had to sell books and get reviews, and getting reviews as a self-published author is extremely tough. That’s understandable. The number of books are overwhelming, and there are few gatekeepers for weaning out the bad from the good.

So I approached the challenge strategically.

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I had two novels ready to go, and chose Cooper’s Promise over my actual first novel, A Vision of Angels, precisely because it had a gay protagonist. I knew the gay community would ‘forgive me’ for being a self-published author in the sense that it might take a look at my novel—and it did. Using the internet, I reached out to the gay community worldwide, and within weeks I had reviews, book posts, and sales on four continents. Straight press picked me up, too; and Kirkus Reviews, calling Cooper’s Promise “literary dynamite,” selected it as one of the Best Books of 2012.

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And I got noticed.

By spring, I had a two-book deal with Owl Canyon Press, a literary publisher out of Boulder, CO. We pulled the self-published edition of Cooper’s Promise from the market, and brought it back out as a new book six months later. A Vision of Angels was released this July.

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Self-publishing certainly changed my life as a writer. By spinning good reviews and sales, I worked my way to a place at the table. I did it by targeting an audience—in my case gay, and also human trafficking, which is part of Cooper’s story—but there are a number of large audiences that are well-organized on the internet and thus broadly accessible. Think issues. Think political causes. Think religion. Think sports. Think about anything big, and there’s a big audience for your books—if you spend nonstop hours courting them.

As to that original draft of A Vision of Angels that fell off the publisher’s list, I am sincerely glad that it was dropped. It wasn’t good. It was a sprawling 156,000-word epic filled with all the rambling back story and subplot errors of a first novel. The years in between gave me time to cut it to a fast-paced 82,000-word literary thriller (yes, it is still that). Along the way, it gave me time to learn how to write, or at least get a much better handle on the craft.

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So, sometimes rejection is not all that bad. It’s just how you spin it.

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BIO: Raised crisscrossing America pulling a small green trailer behind the family car, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that has taken him around the world many times. En route, he’s found the characters that people his work.

Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian chiefs and Indian tailors: he hung with them all in an unparalleled international career that saw him smuggle banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, maneuver through Occupied Territories, represent the U.S. at the highest levels of foreign governments, and stowaway aboard a ‘devil’s barge’ for a three-days crossing from Cape Verde that landed him in an African jail.

Tim brings the same energy to his writing that he brought to his distinguished career, and as a result, he’s won top honors for his screenplays, stage plays and novels in numerous international competitions; among them, contests sponsored by the American Screenwriters Association,StoryPros, WriteMovies, Houston WorldFest, and the Hollywood Screenwriting Institute. A Vision of Angels won the 2008 Paris Prize for Fiction (now the Paris Literary Prize), and his first stage play, which went on to a successful NYC production, won the prestigious Stanley Drama Award.

A Vision of Angels on Amazon: http://amzn.to/130y0hS

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 790 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

.

Tagged: A Vision of Angels, Cooper’s Promise, Kirkus Reviews, Owl Canyon Press, Timothy Jay Smith

The Art of Getting Retweets infographic

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Published on July 10, 2013 20:30

Twitter: Good Timing for Tweets & Re-Tweets?

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Ever wondered why no one re-tweeted? Or on the contrary: why you got so many re-tweets for something you did not expect to become viral? Dan Zarrella is a social media and “viral marketing scientist”. He studied what makes certain Tweets more viral than others and found several reasons:
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The number of followers
The semantic tweet content (timely, freebies, lists, blog posts, links)
Re-Tweet Timing – peaks between 12pm – 2pm – at least in North America, also not for Europe, Asia and Pacific Regions
Cascading Effect: The more times content is re-tweeted, the more likely it is to be further spread.
Re-Tweet others “”You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”
“Please ReTweet” or “Please RT”

Dan Zarrella writes a fantastic Social Media Marketing blog. Read his post: Examples of Viral Marketing Campaigns and his blog post about Re-Tweets.

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The Art of Getting Retweets

Credit: http://visual.ly/art-getting-retweets

Rachel Sprung listed 11 Guarantied Ways to Get Others to Re-Tweet Your Content:

Discuss Current Events
Nearly 80% of retweeted content is about news
Don’t Be Overly Self-Promotional
Include Links to Your Website
Content that is credible, intelligent, and valuable
Over 50% of retweeted content is entertainment-related
Ask Others to Retweet You
Consider the Timing of Your Tweets

Read the rest of the reasons for re-tweets in her blog post at Hubspot.com

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Timing of your tweets:

It seems Friday is the best day of the week, to get re-tweets. Tweet between 12 noon and 2pm to get a maximum of re-tweets for your Twitter content.

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If you have a WordPress blog: Did you already install the “Re-tweet” button? Just found a site

where they describe how to do it, both, automatically or manually: http://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-retweet/ Happy Tweeting!

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 790 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: best time to tweet, Dan Zarrella, Please re-tweet, pls RT, Rachel Sprung, Re-Tweet Etiquette, tweet about twitter, tweet links, viral, viral marketing scientist

Reblogged from David Gaughran:

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Published on July 09, 2013 21:44

The Author Exploitation Business

Writing is a glamorous occupation - at least from the outside. Popular depictions of our profession tend to leave out all the other stuff that comes with the territory: carpal tunnel syndrome, liver failure, penury, and madness.

Okay, okay, I jest. I love being a writer. Sharing stories with the world and getting paid for it is bloody brilliant. It's a dream job, and like any profession with a horde of neophytes seeking to break in, there are plenty of sharks waiting to chew them to bits.

FREE, Brilliant Book Marketing to a Million Audience

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Island Apart – Martha’s Vinyard

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One of the most savvy and clever marketing stunts by an author, I have seen in a very long time: Steven Raichlen is a food writer, known for his books: The Barbecue Bible and How to Grill, just wrote an article for Huffington Post 10 Great Places to Eat in Martha’s Vineyard. You might ask: fine, but what’s the point? Read on:

He also wrote a love story, which takes place in Martha’s Vinyard, MA, where he summers. His book in a nutshell: A New York book editor recovering from breast cancer, her diffident daughter, a self help guru, and the real life iconoclastic psychotherapist, Wilhelm Reich. Ultimately, it’s a story about love, loss, redemption — and a lot of really good food, that is mixed in the story. German readers might remember the bestseller: Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein, by Johannes Mario Simmel.

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Steven Raichlen’s brilliant coup:

He wrote an article for Huffington Post Foodie Paradise: 10 Great Places to Eat in Martha’s Vineyard. In a salute to some of Steven Raichlen’s favorite local restaurants, coffee shops, lobster shacks, and ice cream parlors on Martha’s Vineyard, he had his characters visit the same places which he usually patronizes with his wife.

He writes in this article: “I hope you’ll discover them by reading Island Apart. As my present to you and just in time for July 4th, here are 10 great places to eat in Martha’s Vineyard, who knows, maybe you’ll maybe run into Claire and the Hermit of Chappaquiddick …” And then he gives even a link to his book on Amazon, explaining that it is now available in paperback.

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Huffington Post: Blog empire and newspaper

Writing this article, Steven Raichlen was able to mention his book to a million readership FOR FREE, as the famous Huffington Post is a blog-empire, newspaper and online news aggregator, is also ranked the most powerful blog in the world by “The Observer” and is number 42 in “The Guardian‘s” Top 100 Media List. Their print version is available in eight major countries.

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Steven Raichlen’s book promotion

Writing about his new book takes up about as much space as the listing of his favorite restaurants (which are really good!) His Huffington Post article ends with: “For more information about Island Apart, photos, a video of the island, and exclusive recipes for dishes, mentioned in the book, visit http://www.stevenraichlen.com. To order “Island Apart” click here.”

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What can we learn from author Steven Raichlen?

Clever Marketing and reaching millions of people can be done totally free (other than your time). Just use your creativity and imagination!

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Be self-assured and don’t hesitate to pitch international newspapers / blogs. It takes as much time as to pitch your local neighborhood paper.

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Write something of value for readers – which is “by chance” part of your book, such as travel tips to the location of your books plot, museums, festivals or public transportation that are mentioned in your book.

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You have to do your research anyway, why not use the material you gather and write several articles that you can offer – always mentioning your book.

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As a writer you know how to write, just learn how to write online content by reading lots of online articles and how they are set-up

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Have a stunning photo on your books cover!

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The possibilities of marketing your books are endless:

A writer of romance, situated in a Western ambiance, could for sample write how to learn wrangling horses or write about guest ranches – and offer these articles to travel magazines or newspapers.

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A writer of historical novels could write many articles about fashion, way of life, recipes or interior decoration in the 19th century world.

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A writer of crime thrillers could elaborate in an article about weapons, psychological reasons behind crimes, or details about the police work.

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Writers of business thrillers could offer an article what hedge funds are, how banks and mortgage companies are working or portrait business tycoons.

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If any kind of animal is mentioned in your book – write about their habitat and their life cycle, you can even write about your own pet, if it is a character in your book.

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Got the idea??? You have thousands of nouns in your manuscript – which means you are able to write thousands of articles. As a writer you don’t lack fantasy, that’s for sure… Let this talent work for you!

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It is called CONTENT MARKETING

Content writing is the most fun and casual way of marketing your books and some newspapers and magazines even pay you a small amount for your article. Although NOT Huffington Post. However in any case, you have a fantastic and free marketing outlet for your books to a huge audience, and you can brag that you write for ….

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 790 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: 10 Great Places to Eat in Martha's Vineyard, clever marketing, content marketing, Huffington Post, Island Apart, Martha's Vineyard, nouns in books, Steven Raichlen, write for blogs and newspapers

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Published on July 07, 2013 19:58

Amazon in India, the World’s Most Avid Readers

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Who Spends the Most Time Reading in the World? INDIA It took the Western world a bit by surprise, that the most avid readers can be found in India. See the info-graphic by Publishing Perspectives. Canada is #21, Germany #22 and the USA #23 …

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David Gaughran wrote:”The Indian market has huge potential: a burgeoning middle class which speaks English and enjoys an increasing level of disposable income. Skeptics might point to high levels of poverty and low levels of internet connectivity, but with a population of 1.2 billion, only a very small percentage of the population needs to purchase devices (or read on existing devices such as lap tops or smartphones) before this is an extremely important market.”

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Forbes.com posted on July 2, 2013: Amazon’s Perfect Timing for India - Why Jeff Bezos’ late India entry will work to the company’s advantage. Business Today wrote: Amazon launches India website, begins with books and movies categories.

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Most popular in India: self-help books

Penguin India, for example, has sold 5,000 copies of The Ultimate Visual Dictionary. According to a report published in The Sunday Times, in small towns, encyclopedias and dictionaries are sold by travelling salesman and are often occupy pride of place as the sole book owned by a family.

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The strong market for educational books reflects the fierce competition faced by young Indians when applying for a job or a place in the university. Self-help books, how-to guides and textbooks are considered the quickest way to improve prosperity and social status. Every middle-class family dreams of having a doctor or engineer in the house.

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Reading for pleasure is considered less useful and a novel is a bestseller if it sells 2,000-3,000 copies, a tiny number in a country of more than one billion people. India seems to be almost a paradise for non-fiction authors!

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More readers

With literacy rising, there are also more reasons to pick up a book: Improving conversational skills, being ‘in the know’, and getting cheaper books.

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More publishers

Penguin India, is celebrating its 25th year in India. Plus there are other big publishing houses such as Random House and HarperCollins on the Sub-Continent. There are also independent publishers, for example Katha Press. And many writers are self-publishing, in print or digitally.

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More contests and prizes

Notable ones are the Hindu Literary Prize, the DSC Prize, Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, and many others.

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More Festivals

Mumbai has three literature fests, Goa, two. There are fests in Kerala, Kolkata, Hyderabad; and these are just the major ones. Many more literature events are taking place in other Indian cities.

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More authors

Goodreads Listopia presents a huge list of “Best Indian Books” – and readers can vote!

One more author from India: Fiza Pathan. Her books (short stories) as well as the new one

Classics: Why we should encourage children to read them (launch July 2013),

can be found on Amazon. Poetry lovers go to http://insaneowl.com to read more from Fiza.

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Amazon explains:

“Authors can track your book sales to customers in India with the new KDP sales reporting, detailed by country. Digital Books enrolled in KDP Select will be eligible to earn 70% royalty for sales to our customers in Brazil, Japan, and India. The List Price you set for Brazil, Japan, and India must also meet the 70% List Price requirements for sales to customers in these territories. If your Digital Book is not enrolled in KDP Select or you do not meet the 70% List Price requirements, you will earn 35% royalty.” Let me add this: Authors can enroll in KDP Select (which means their book can be borrowed by Prime Members, and which earns the author more than $2 per borrowed book) but they do not have to use the 5 free days, if they don’t want.

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 785 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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