Nick Vulich's Blog, page 9

Is there any audiobook in your future?

What’s that you say? You never heard of Audible? They’re an Amazon company that makes your book available for readers to download and listen to.
After you’ve signed up with Audible, you can go to your dashboard and start adding projects (Books that you want to have audio versions made of).
I uploaded four titles last night, and received offers to record all four of them.
One of the parties who contacted me did an amazing job. He uploaded 10 minutes of spoken content overnight, included a great narrator bio, and called me to discuss the project. It was just amazing for having the project posted for less than twelve hours.
The other three offers, I’m not so sure of. They sent me a two minute audition, with no emotion in the voice, no pauses, just blah reading. I’ve read enough Audible reviews, and one thing I know is a bad narrator can hurt your rankings. That’s why I’m especially happy with the one offer I accepted. He did an amazing job, but what else could I expect. He has close to forty years in the business, trained under the great Mel Blanc (of Bugs Bunny fame), and has a knack for anticipating what readers expect. His name is Chuck McKibben, and I’m excited to have him on my team.
I’m not sure what to expect from Audible, but I’m really pumped up waiting to hear the final book.
Another great thing about Audible, it’s free to get started. When you request auditions for projects you have the option to pay the audio producer outright, or split royalties fifty-fifty with them. Being the cheap ass I am I chose the fifty-fifty split. That gives me the chance to try my first book out for the cost of a book cover.
How cool is that?
When I talked to Chuck about the project I told him this was entirely new territory for me. When I posted my first book on Kindle, I thought it might sell twenty-five copies the first year. My bad! It went on to sell thousands of copies on Kindle, and in paperback. I’m going into audiobooks the same way. I would be happy with any sales, but I can’t help hoping it will sell thousands of copies too.
How about you? Want to learn more about selling on Audible? Click this link.

An easy way to add video to your author repertoire

Ever checkout all of those links on Facebook and Twitter? Most of them link to some cute video of cats playing, awesomely stupid people, or short instructive videos on how to solve a pressing problem. Only problem is, shooting video takes time, money, and something else I don't have - talent.

So what't a guy like me supposed to do?
Fiverr seems to be my answer to everything these days. I had designers there create two videos for me. The  first was a an introduction to my book, Freaking Idiots Guide to Writing a Kindle Bestseller. I had Fiverr's premiere puppeteer, Professor Hans Von Puppet introduce my book. It was unique, funny, and the really great thing at the time was, I was able to show it on my Kindle book page. I'm sure it helped sell a lot of books. Those were the good old days. Amazon doesn't let you do that anymore unless you're a big name author. Doesn't matter. I've still got that video on my Amazon Author Central page. you can check it out there.
You can check out that video here.


I also had another Fiverr seller create a white board video for me. It's got a little music, some cool graphics and a short description of several of my books, along with pictures of their covers.
You can check it out here.


The really great thing is I was able to snag some great promotional videos for under twenty-five bucks each. How can you go wrong?
Give Fiverr a try. It will help spice up your author page and writer blog or website.

Have you tried Babelcube?

Do you want to sell more books? Are you trying to reach a larger market? Would your books sell more copies in foreign markets if you had them translated into that language?

Babelcube could be the answer to all of these questions, and the great thing is - It's free!
Babelcube connects writers with translators. It's easy to use. Just post your profile, upload information about your books, and wait for independent translators to contact you. For authors, there's no cost up front. Babel cube handles all of the details and splits the profits between you, the translator, and of course, a small cut for the house.
Commissions are based on how much revenue your books take in. Babelcube receives 15% for brokering the deal. Your split ranges from 30% to 75% depending upon how many copies your book sells and the revenue generated. You receive 30% of revenues for sales under $2,000, and 75% for sales over $8,000. To view the complete royalty schedule, click here.
They currently offer translation services into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portugese, Japanese, and Chinese. 
I uploaded my profiles today, and posted five books that I would like to see translated. I will keep you updated on how things progress.

Review: Show Don’t Tell, The Ultimate Writer’s Guide By Robyn Opie Parnell

 This isn’t the first time you’ve heard it. If you want to draw your readers into the action and make them care about your characters, you’ve got to show, not tell.The only question is what does it mean?Showing means engaging your reader’s senses. What are they feeling? Don’t say George felt cold. Show him shivering. Talk about the freezing wet snow seeping through his socks. What are they seeing? Don’t just say he saw a beautiful girl. Show your readers what caught his eye. Was it her golden blond hair? Her firm, warm breasts? Her long slender legs? How about smells? Does your character smell fresh cut grass, burning leaves, or wet dog smell? Make sure your readers smell it too. How do your characters feel? Don’t say they’re scared. Show your main character cringing when the doors in a spooky old house are creaking. Make them jump when thunder crashes, or a lightning bolt flashes nearby.Are you beginning to get the idea? Don’t tell your readers what to think. Give them clues about what your characters are seeing, feeling, or thinking; then leave it up to your reader’s imaginations to fill in the gaps.



Telling is reciting the plain dull facts. See Dick run. See Jane throw the ball. See Spot chase the stick. Telling dumps information on your reader and tells them what to think. It has its place to occasionally slow the action down, or to fill in the details. The thing to remember is telling is boring. It doesn’t engage readers or make them root for your character.

What I really like about this book is it’s easy to read. It’s loaded with examples of what showing is, and what telling is. That way you aren’t left guessing what the difference is.The examples are all fresh from current authors such as Stephen King, Dan Brown, and Stephenie Meyer. This way you get to see how the pros do it. In some cases the author rewrites the passage the way it would be if the writer told rather than showed. The same information comes across. It’s just that you don’t identify as much with the character when it’s told. Point taken.The part that really stood out for me focused on the TV show Murder She Wrote. Every scene in the show was there for only one reason, because it advanced the plot. It helped readers follow the plot, and made it easier for them to pick out clues. That way they could play detective along with Jessica Fletcher.Your book needs to be written the same way. Only include details if they advance the plot, or further the action. Ambiguous or unnecessary details only confuse your readers, and make them want to stop reading.One final takeaway: Description, setting, everything about your story needs to be viewed through the eyes of your main character. It makes readers more interested in your character, and draws them further into the story.Another related book is Show or Tell? A Powerful Lesson on a Critical Writing Skill by James Thayer.Similar to Robyn Parnell’s book, Thayer uses lots of examples to clarify what he’s teaching. It’s a short easy to read book. You can get through it in under an hour. The entire book can be summed up in these four words. “Showing reveals, telling explains.” The point both books drive home is we’re an image driven society. We are a society raised on movies. We have short attention spans. We’re used to movies flashing from scene to scene, and that’s the way your book needs to read. You need to write short, concise action filled scenes that advance your plot. Readers won’t stick around for pages of flowery description or explanations.
Give them clues about what’s happening, and let their imaginations fill in the gaps.

Review: How to Get Reviews so You Can Sell More Books on Amazon by E. T. Barton

I was on the line about this book, bouncing back and forth between giving it a four and five star review.



It’s well written, hast great content, and a lot of actionable info that authors can put to use as soon as they finish reading. So, why was I so wishy-washy about it then? As the author says, a lot of her ideas border on being unethical.

Let’s talk about the good things first.

We all know that books need reviews to sell better and move up through the ranks at Amazon. We also know that getting readers to review books is a lot like getting a kid to go to the dentist voluntarily. It’s not going to happen. When they finish reading your book, more like, if they finish reading your book, most readers figure they’re done. They completed the bargain they made with you. They downloaded your free book, maybe some of them even paid for it. They read it or skimmed through the juicy parts, now they want to move on. And, you’re asking for a review. What nerve?


The author suggests putting a review request at the end of your book. She even shows you what several successful Kindle authors do. They thank readers for hanging in there until the end, and explain to them how important reviews are to their careers on Amazon. It makes sense. If you’re not doing this now I’d jump in and add a similar page to each of your books.

She also talks about contacting Amazon’s top reviewers. Nothing new there, every basic writing book I’ve laid hands on suggest you do this. I’ve tried it, and it does work, especially if you target reviewers who’ve reviewed other books in your genre. Another tip is to target people who’ve reviewed your other books. Been there, done that, and it really does work.

These are a few of the tips Mrs. Barton lays out in her book. Most of them are solid and will work for any author if you give them a shot.

Here’s where it gets a little dicey.

Some of the ideas she suggests used to work, but what the gods at Amazon give, they also take away. One of the suggestions was to add a signature line to all of your reviews. I did that for years with all of my books, I was Nicholas L. Vulich, Author of Killing the Presidents. It was really cool because anytime someone took the time to read one of my reviews there was a mini advertisement for my book. Well, one morning I woke up, and all of my reviews were changed to simply An Amazon Customer. Amazon decided they had enough and in one fell swoop, the review signatures were gone. It happens.

Another suggestion, for authors willing to try it, is to pay for honest reviews at sites like Fiverr and such. Ooh! If Amazon discovers any of that, the least they will do is take down the fake reviews. If they’re in a really pissy mood that day, they could take down your whole account. Don’t play that way. It’s going to cause you problems over the long haul.

Again, most of the ideas will work, if you give them a shot. It’s a well written book, and easily worth the price of admission – 99 cents.

How many times do you rewrite your book descriptions?

Normally when I put together a description for one of my books I go on a search and explore mission. I’ll grab a couple clips here, a couple of lines here, and then I will write a few sentences to tie them altogether.
In the past it’s been a pretty good strategy for me, and it’s sold a lot of books. When it came time to release my newest book, I Wish I Had Never Been Born: Rediscovering Abraham Lincoln, I did the same thing. 
But, after about twelve hours I began to have second thoughts. One of the major ones concerned my title. It’s an obscure quip from Abraham Lincoln, and one I was pretty sure readers would have a hard time understanding. After all, Lincoln is known as one of our greatest war Presidents. He was quick witted, and more often than not humorous, so many readers probably would find their selves asking what my title was all about.
With that thought in mind I decided to scrap everything I had so far, and use my introduction to frame the background behind my title. I think by doing that it answered a lot of reader’s questions, and helped them decide to maybe read this book, if for no other reason than to see what else they could learn about this man named Abraham Lincoln.

July 21st, 1861. Bull Run, Virginia. 

It was a fine day for a battle. Hundreds of spectators decided to tag after the army. They came in buggies and on horseback, riding seven long hours in the hot Virginia sun. Mostly men, a few women, and a host of politicians – among them Ohio Senator Ben Wade, New York Congressman Alfred Ely, and Illinois Congressman Elihu Washburne. 

English war correspondent William Howard Russell reported, “The spectators were all excited, and a lady with an opera glass who was quite beside herself when an unusually heavy discharge roused the current of her blood…’that is splendid, oh my, is not that first rate? I guess we will be in Richmond to-morrow,’ she exclaimed.” An officer told the onlookers, “We are whipping them good!” and a cheer went through the crowd.

Later that afternoon many of the spectators were caught in the wild frenzy of Union troops stampeding their way back to Washington in a disorganized unruly retreat. 

For Abraham Lincoln the defeat at Bull Run meant only one thing. It was going to be a long war, with no quick end in sight. He told A. G. Riddle, “I am the President of one part of this divided country at least, but look at me! I wish I had never been born! I’ve a white elephant on my hands, one hard to manage. With a fire in my front and rear, having to contend with the jealousies of military commanders and not receiving that cordial cooperation and support from Congress that could reasonably be expected, with an active and formidable enemy in the field threatening the very life blood of the Government, my position is anything but a bed of roses.” 

I Wish I Had Never Born is a quick easy read following the life of Abraham Lincoln. You’ll learn about his early days, his loves, his disappointments, his rise to power, and his assassination. And, yes, we will talk about that annoying rumor of Lincoln being gay. Say it isn’t so Abe? 


Read the book. Learn all you need to know about Abraham Lincoln in short, illustrated bites.

Have you made the move to Nook?

Have you made the move to Nook?
I moved several of my books to Nook last week and was pleasantly surprised by the results. No. I’m not getting rich, but one or two sales are trickling in every day. One of my Bundle books that normally sells one copy per month on Amazon, has sold five copies this week on Nook.
I’ve got five books listed on Smashwords now; three of them are in the premium catalog. No sales yet, but I’m hoping for good things once they get pushed out to Kobo, the iStore, and more.
Just curious more than anything else, how many of you have made the move off of Amazon? What were the results?
Nookpress made the move to Barnes and Noble quick and easy. There were no files to convert, and no magic voodoo I had to perform to get my books set up. I copied my description, keywords, and everything from Amazon into Nook and it worked fine.
Smashwords was a whole other animal, but that’s another post. For now I would like to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly about other author’s experiences with Barnes and Noble.

Did your Amazon sales go down after you made the move? Did you make enough sales on Barnes and Noble to cover the loans you forfeited using KDP Select?

Percival Lowell, The Canals of Mars, and Creating New Worlds

Do you ever wonder where people pick up crazy ideas? You know what I’m talking about - the man on the moon, the canals of Mars, and little green men from outer space.
Back in the late 1890’s to early 1900’s there was an amateur astronomer named Percival Lowell. He read the works of Camille Flammarion and Giovanni Schiaparelli, and became convinced there was life on Mars. Most guys would’ve read a book or two on the subject and let it go at that. Lowell had some extra money jingling around in his pocket and built a full-fledged astronomical observatory to support his obsession.
He searched out the perfect location for it which just happened to be on a hill outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. He named the spot Mars Hill, and over time it developed into the largest private observatory in the world.
Over the years Lowell penned three books: Mars, 1895; Mars and Its Canals, 1906; and Mars as the Abode of Life, 1908. He mapped out a whole series of canals crisscrossing the planet. Not satisfied with that Lowell developed a theory about an entire civilization forced to the point of extinction on their dying planet.
He rushed to get his observatory completed before 1894. That was when the two planets would draw closest together and he expected to enjoy a front row seat for the expected Martian invasion.
When the impending invasion didn’t materialize Lowell continued his studies. He gave lectures and spread his message about the strange civilization he had discovered on Mars.
The scientific world vehemently disagreed arguing Lowell was deranged or at the very least that his observations were half-baked. Other astronomers couldn’t see the canals. “The atmosphere was too thin to support life,” they said. “There’s not enough gravity.”
None of these criticisms deterred Lowell. He responded the reason they couldn’t see the elaborate system of canals was the ability to see them depended upon atmospheric conditions. They happened to be just right at his observatory. Life on Mars was different he argued. The rules of gravity and atmosphere that existed on Earth didn’t apply to beings from Mars.
Lowell continued his astronomical studies until his death in 1916. When he died he endowed his observatory with a tidy sum of money, and entrusted them to find what he called the missing planet – “Planet X.”

In 1930 “Planet X” known today as Pluto was discovered by the team at the Lowell Observatory located on Mars Hill.

What does all this have to do with writing?
As writers each of us create entirely new worlds in our heads. We cling stubbornly to them adding facts, sometimes changing the laws of physics or commonsense to support our creations.
In a way we’re no different than scientist. We start with a hypothesis (or a simple question) … we ask ourselves what if the world is square, or what would the world be like if Hitler won World War II, or why do good things have to be so bad for us?
Sometimes we know the worlds we’re creating contradict the laws of commonsense and physics, but that’s half the fun of it.
When you’re writing about something you’ve got to make it so real you and everyone else just has to believe it, no matter what!
How else can you explain Hobbits and such?


Or if you really can’t think of anything to write about, you may just want to take a gander back through history and study the works of misunderstood geniuses like Percival Lowell.

Book Review: Indie Publishing Essentials by Camille Picott

I just finished reading Indie Publishing Essentials by Camille Picott.

It is a short interesting read that covers nine points she feels are essential to developing your career as an author. First on her list is developing your author or brand statement. You can read more about that in my previous post, click here.
Put simply this requires boiling what you are all about down to one simple sentence. You need to give readers the essence of your brand in less than ten words.
Can you do it?
Hers is “Science fiction and fantasy with Asian influence.” Mine is “Short easy to read solutions to your ecommerce problems.”
If you haven’t written your author statement yet you need to do it – Now.
She also talks about getting to know your audience before you begin to write.
How do you do that? Immerse yourself in their world for a while. Read the books they read; watch the TV shows and movies they’re into; follow blogs targeted to your potential readers.
Hell, if you’re the daring type you may even want to go out and talk to some of them. See what they’re all about.
Let’s say you write about middle school kids in poor run-down neighborhoods. Volunteer to work in some intercity schools, connect with the kids, listen to how they react to different situations, and how they talk to each other. Does your next murder mystery thriller take place during the Civil War? Join a group of Civil War re-enactors and figure out what they’re all about.
Other topics covered in the book include cover design 101, finding editors to take your writing to the next level, developing an internet presence, setting up writing goals to make sure you complete your projects, and setting up a budget to ensure you have the money necessary to produce a quality product.

It’s a short book. You can easily read it in under a half hour, and there are lots of great tips to help you advance your career to the next level.

What's Your Brand Statement?

As authors we’re always trying to promote ourselves, and do what we can to put our works in front of a new group of readers.
The problem is a lot of authors take the shotgun approach. They blast their message out there to everyone hoping a few people will act on it. It’s possible one or two people will take a peek and maybe even drop $2.99 to buy your work, but odds are it’s going to miss its mark with most of the people you broadcast your message to.
The thing is you’re casting too wide of a net. When you target everyone you’re likely to miss the folks who would be most interested in purchasing your book.
What you need to do is develop a brand statement. You should to be able to sum up what you’re all about in one sentence.
In my case I write short easy to implement solutions designed to help my readers with ecommerce problems related to selling online – specifically on eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and Fiverr. That’s a good start at my brand statement. Overtime I've narrowed it down even further. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for readers to understand what I’m all about.
Here’s what I finally came up with –

Short easy to read solutions to your ecommerce problems.

That’s my entire brand statement. Nine easy words tell readers all they need to know to decide if I’m the guy they're looking for or not.
How about you? Can you sum up your brand in less than ten words? If not you need to take a really good look at what you’re doing, because if you can’t easily define yourself, neither can the potential readers you’re trying to reach.
Defining your brand this way is going to do one other thing for your writing. It’s going to help you focus on what’s important to your readers. In my case each of my books needs to be short, easy to understand, and focus on solving one particular ecommerce problem. If each book does that I fulfill the promise I made to my readers.
_______________
My brand statement is the opening line to my author biography for most of my ecommerce books. After it I add a sentence or two to fill it out so readers can get a little better idea of what my books are all about.
Here’s the long version.

Short easy to read solutions to your ecommerce problems.

Most of my books can be read in under an hour. The information in them can be put to work immediately to help you sell more products on eBay and Amazon, services on Fiverr, or eBooks and books an Amazon and Kindle.

Let me ask you again. What is your short and long brand statement?