Lincoln Cole's Blog, page 34

Kindle Scout Ongoing Results, Part 1 (Day 3)

Hey, everyone! So my Kindle Scout entry is up and running and I've been trying to get it off to a good start. I've been monitoring it occasionally to see if it is still hot and trending and asking basically everyone I know to check it out.

Speaking of which! If you haven't yet, please check it out. 

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/30UGNBVYVCL7W

I have been asking for people to look at it and nominate if interested instead of just blindly nominating. I think it's a great story with a great cover, and I'm pretty sure that anyone who looks at it will agree, and if it gets picked by Amazon for publication they will get a free copy.

This time around, I've focused a lot more on pushing the book on facebook and twitter. I built a post and share it on timelines and groups for facebook and scheduled seven daily tweets on twitter using miscellaneous hashtags. It's a lot more than I normally tweet, but it is only a month long campaign. I've also posted in a lot of different locations on goodreads and reached out to a lot of people I know to ask them for nominations.

Here are the ongoing results:

Basically, Amazon gives you access to two stats: Hours in hot and trending and campaign views. The campaign views are already more than my entire previous campaign got.

They also show you how your campaign traffic is mixed (external and internal) so you know if it is only people outside of kindle scout looking at your book or if your cover and blurb are generating interest from people browsing as well. The external links can give you an idea of where traffic is coming from and where I'm trying to promote.

I plan to continue pushing the book on facebook and twitter for now, and then I'll start trying some other things as the campaign goes on. I'm expecting it to do well in the last week with only minimal effort as people jump on the last day nominations, so I'm going to really focus heavily on the middle days when it's harder to generate interest.

Thanks for your support! And, if anyone has any questions about the campaign or any of my books feel free to reach out to me directly at LincolnJCole@gmail.com 

I'm not 100% sure when I'll post another update, but I'll try to do one at least once a week (or more) to let you know how it's going.

Kindle Scout - Raven's Peak!

Finally, the campaign for Raven's Peak has started! It's live as of this morning (April 14th) and will run for 30 days! I'm super excited to see how it goes, so I would love if you would be willing to nominate and promote it to anyone and everyone you know!

Thanks so much for all of your support and here's to hoping it gets picked.

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/30UGNBVYVCL7W

Please tell anyone you know who has an amazon account to check it out, and if they like the beginning, to nominate it! If it gets picked after you left a nomination, you get a free copy from Amazon a week before it's released!

Raven's Peak Final Drafting

It's done and now I'm just putting on the final touches. It will be up on Kindle Scout within two weeks I hope and then I'll be asking everyone for their support in getting it selected! It's really come together, and now after months it'll finally be done!

In other news, we got back from the Literary Classics Book Award in LA a couple of days ago! It was a lot of fun and I'm hoping to have some pictures posted soon! There were tons taken, I got my medal and banner, and we had a lot of fun!

Aside from that, I've started working on the second book in the Graveyard of Empires series. It's got a long way to go and I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of summer or in the fall. The plus side is that once I finish it I'll be able to start putting book three together as well and it shouldn't be out much later. 

Just a lot of rewriting. Thank you all for your support!

Second Chances a Finalist in the Beverly Hills Book Awards!

Second Chances was selected as a finalist in the Beverly Hills Book Awards! It was selected a few days ago and I just got the email! That's another piece of good news for the novel, and now I'm just waiting to hear back from more competitions.

In other news, Raven's Peak is going to be posted on Kindle Scout in a couple of weeks. I'm shooting for the middle of April, so expect to see a pretty big media blitz, and I would really appreciate anyone who is willing to choose the book on Kindle Scout. You'll get a free copy when you do, provided it is picked!

Here's the new cover!

Four Book Festival Honorable Mentions, Second Chances

Second Chances has been honored in four different Book Festivals now as an honorable mention.

Great SouthwestGreat SoutheastGreat NorthwestPacific Rim

It has also won two awards (New Apple and Regional Excellence) and is a finalist in another award. By early April I should hear back from 1-2 more contests, and hopefully with good news to keep this progress going!

Thanks!

Honorable Mention Great Southwest Book Festival

Second Chances is now also an honorable mention in the Great Southwest Book Festival of 2016!

Pacific Rim Book Festival, Honorable Mention

Second Chances was given the distinction of honorable mention at the Pacific Rim Book Festival, and will be honored on April 9th! That's the second contest to honor it as one of its entries! It's also on sale for 99 cents starting today through the 26th of March!

Jason Zandri, RRBC Author

For the third and final entry into this Pay it Forward Week, I would like to introduce you to Jason Zandri! 

Author of the "I, Hero" series - TOP RANKING

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > 

#1 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > 

Jason Zandri is the best-selling author of the "I, Hero" Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Superhero series of books.

His second series of books, the "As Life Goes" series are winning him additional acclaim, marking him one the only male author showcased in the "10 Indie Chick-Lit Authors You Should Be Reading in 2016" review. 

Jason lives in Wallingford, Connecticut, with his wife Renata. He is the father to four children.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jzandri

Twitter: @GUNDERSTONE https://twitter.com/gunderstone

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+JasonZandri/ 

Blog: THE GUNDERSTONE REVIEW at https://gunderstone.wordpress.com/ 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonzandri

He is the author of a lot of different books and has earned a high ranking on Amazon! Everyone should check out his work and follow him on social media!

Self Publishing, the basics

This is how I published my books, so it isn't a one-size-fits-all model. There are a lot of companies out there willing to help you along the way. I did a lot of things wrong and learned some important lessons about the process, so hopefully I can help you avoid some of the pitfalls in the process.

So you wrote your amazing book and you are ready to publish! Awesome! Here is a general rundown of what you're going to need. Let's start with a little general philosophy about what you want to achieve.

Do you want to spend any money? If the answer is no, then here is what you're going to need:

Amazon accounthttps://www.amazon.comhttps://www.cre... Previewer (Optional)http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html... Word (or any other file software)Adobe Photoshop (or any other cover creation software)

Make your amazon account if you don't have one, then build a KDP account and a Createspace account. Download Kindle Previewer. When you are building your files, I recommend downloading a template from Createspace and formatting your book inside of it. A few notes:

6 x 9 is an awesome size. You don't need to use it, but it looks really goodStart chapters on odd pages (it looks tacky to start a chapter on the left page)Mirror margins and make page numbers on the outsideCreatespace has a cover builder. If you have a cool image you can make your cover there

The same word file is fine for Amazon and Kindle. Put some back matter in. Make a CALL to ACTION page that says something like: "Thanks for reading! If you want to check out my other books or follow me on social media, you can do so here:" and then include links to anything and everything. If you are really creative, you can get images to put that people can click. You can also include links to take people directly to your amazon page to write a review, which can help get reviews, which are the lifeblood of an author.

Save the file as a PDF for Createspace, and save it as a HTML file filtered for KDP. Then, open the cool little kindle previewer, click to open a book, and open the html file. It will build you a mobi file, and it's going to look a lot nicer on KDP than using either the html file or the docx file. It'll take some playing around to do this right, but it's worth learning how to do this.

The mobi file is what you'll load onto Amazon. The pdf is the interior for your Createspace book. If you want to create an awesome cover, use photoshop or hire someone, or make friends with someone who can help. Otherwise, Createspace will help you build a cover (front and back) to use with your book. Load your file, fill in the details, and submit. You'll want to preview it well to make sure you did it right, but if you mess up Createspace will let you change the files at no cost, just time. After about a day, your book will be approved, and in like 2 days it'll be on Amazon and ready to go! 

Similarly, for KDP, you just create a new title, fill in the details, and voila in like 2 days your book will be for sale.

This is when you claim your author central account and associate your books. It will take no time at all to do this, and it gives you huge and important customization. You can add editorial reviews, information about the book, etc. Note, an editorial review is a paid review or from an established company or service (Kirkus, Self-Published Review, Reader's Favorite) whereas actual reviews are unpaid reviews people post on Amazon. Big reviews can sell books, but they won't be allowed to be posted on Amazon as a customer review. So this section is built for your editorial reviews.

If you're willing to spend a little money, then the entire process above can be a lot friendlier. I would recommend an editor and a cover designer as your top purchases. An editor can build up your credibility as an author, and a good cover is the first (and sometimes only) impression your book gets to make.

Aside from that, you might want to work with Ingram.

So, Amazon is a huge company and they sell tons of books. You have to use Amazon, and you should use Createspace even if you decide to use Ingram, because Createspace is Amazon's preferred supplier. What this means is your book will always show up as 'IN STOCK' and ship immediately, which makes it look and feel like this isn't a PoD book. This is huge, because people will often decline products if it takes extra time to deliver it out (and sometimes Ingram books will say 2-4 weeks).

Createspace also offers free (or cheap) ISBN numbers, and it has this cool thing called expanded distribution to make your book available everywhere.

Which is great if you just want to do things as easy and cheap as possible and accept that there are flaws in the system. This is fine for a lot of people, and having the Createspace Imprint means nothing for selling your books on Amazon.

However, if you want to sell your books somewhere else, and especially if you want to sell to bookstores, this is a death sentence. Let's say you want a bookstore to carry your book. They make a decision to buy books based on its ratings, reviews, and other information, but the biggest two decisions are cost and availability of returns.

Let's say your book is 10 dollars. Ideally, a bookstore would be able to purchase at a 55% discount, so they pay 4.50 for your book and they make 5.50 in profit. But, let's say they want to try your book, but if it doesn't sell, they want to send it back. So, they want it to be returnable as well. Less risk for them.

They might be willing to take your book and stock it for as low as a 40% discount (and still make a good profit) but returnable is still really important. Why buy books that don't have insurance when you can get the ones that do?

The scary secret with Createspace Expanded Distribution is they sell your book at about a 35% discount to booksellers (and charge you as if it's a 60% discount for your royalties) and the books are non-returnable. Worse, even the books that you paid 10 bucks for with your own imprint can be spotted as part of Createspace Distribution, and bookstores don't like Amazon and Amazon companies very much. They might not carry it just out of spite, and added to the fact that it's already a terrible deal, this can kill any chance you have of them carrying it.

In comes IngramSpark.

It costs 49 bucks to set up a title on IngramSpark. You can use the same files you have for your Createspace books and then pay an initial setup fee. But, you also get to choose your discount percent and if the book is returnable and how. It also means your books can be printed all around the world through Ingram Distribution and will be available in a lot of places. Createspace actually uses Ingram if you use Expanded Distribution, so the only difference is you are taking control of your own system.

The way to set this up is to go directly to Bowker and buy ISBNs. They aren't cheap, but it's usually worth having your own anyway. Then, you build the same book (trim, cover, etc) on both Createspace and Ingram and let them both distribute. Amazon will source from Createspace, always keeping your book in stock, and everyone else will get their books from Ingram. The added benefit is, since you can set your discount as low as 30% on Ingram, you actually can get more money per copy with books sold through Ingram than through Createspace.

You also have the ability to sell to bookstores more effectively, but it could be dangerous. The problem with returns is that you might get 2 dollars royalty for a book, but it costs 4 dollars to print, so if a bookstore returns your book you actually owe 2 dollars for the cost of the original print. It might not be worth selling to bookstores until you get some credibility, or at least not allow returns and just offer a huge discount.

Or, another option is to set up your book on Createspace, but offer a hardcover version from Ingram. It's nice having multiple formats for a book so readers can choose their preference, and the Ingram hard copies are amazing. They look and feel beautiful and if you get a professional cover designed for the sleeve you will be incredibly impressed.

This was a super long depiction of how to get a book self-published, as well as a little bit of help on what kind of decisions you will need to make. When I did things, I started off with Createspace and was thrilled, and then with a second edition I released my books through both Ingram and Createspace. I love the control and resources they offer, and I can't complain in the slightest about working with either.

You just have to decide what is right for you and go from there. If you're only willing to spend money on one thing, make it the cover. It's often the primary thing people use to decide whether to buy a book or not.

I hope this helps, and if you have any questions you can contact me directly through the site!

A Guide to Author Resources

When I started writing I did it because I enjoyed telling stories. Everyone told me that it was important to write for myself, but I think to a large extent anyone who writes assumes they have something worth saying and a story worth telling.

Once you've written your story, you're going to need to get it into the hands of readers, and that's one of the trickiest processes in becoming an author. There are a lot of people out there doing the same thing you are, and sometimes it feels like your shouting into the void to get people's attention. Once you have their attention you might earn a fan for life, but getting people to pick up that first copy can be a real nightmare.

So here are a couple of notes on my experiences, as well as mistakes I've made along the way.

First off, it takes a lot of legwork to get your book out there, and it's going to take giving away a lot of free copies along the way. Amazon offers a great service for this where you can give copies as gifts on your landing page, and you can either save up codes to give people directly or email a free copy to a potential reviewer. A lot of people won't post reviews because people are busy and life gets in the way, but a lot of times when people accept a free copy they will do their best to get you a review.

Giveaways:Amazon -

Amazon allows you to host a giveaway, and a recent addition to this process is that you can give E-Books away. You choose how many copies you want to give, how frequently you want winners to be chosen, and how long you want the giveaway to run.

Running it for a long time isn't always beneficial. A week is usually enough.1 in 25 will go too fast. 1 in 500 will go too slow. 1 in 250 is ideal.People can follow on twitter, watch videos, or follow on amazonOn twitter a lot of people follow and unfollow immediatelyAmazon sends emails for you, so you have no controlVideos are great, but people will skim them.I bounce between twitter and Amazon follow if I do these.Goodreads -

You can host Goodreads giveaways and people follow you on their site. These can generate a lot of interest and support, and a lot of regular readers look to Goodreads as a primary review website. You post your book a week before the giveaway starts, and then people select it if interested. Don't freak out when you don't generate a lot of interest until the last day. It happens.

Email Newsletters

It's worth keeping your own email list (MailChimp is a great place to build a free list and send emails) but one of the best ways to get your book into the hands of readers is through companies that send your book to their lists in exchange for a fee.

This list is in no way complete, and companies are constantly changing their terms, prices, and everything else in how they do business so the real trick is to find out how they are doing now and decide if they are worth following-up with.

Here is a broken down list, and keep in mind it's all just my opinion on how some of this stuff works.

Top Companies

Getting into these can be ideal and really generate some positive sales. BookBub is crazy expensive, but they have the results to back it up. The other's aren't as costly and can get you some good sales, though maybe not always enough to make up their cost.

BookBubeReader News TodayBookSendsOHFBOther Companies

These are great for exposure, but they aren't going to be as awesome as the ones listed above. Kindle Nation Daily is expensive, and can definitely be worth it and used to belong in the category above, but it isn't quite as impressive now. Many of these websites have free options available where you can send your book for consideration, and it's always worthwhile giving it a try.

Fussy LibrarianHotZippyBook ScreamMasquerade SalesEBook HoundsRead CheaplyKindle Nation DailyBook GorillaJust Kindle BooksFiverr BKnightsBooks ButterflyChoosy BookwormBookZioReading DealsBook HippoBook Lover's HeavenCountless others, just search for them!Contests

Contests are great, but there are so many of them that it's impossible to tell exactly where to begin with them. I'm only going to list a few here, but winning or placing in a contest can lend credibility to your work because it stood above the rest. Here are some of the ones I've had the best luck working with in the past. I'm not a fan of the ones that just post a list of winners on their website and aren't author friendly.

The Wishing Shelf 

Great guy who runs it. They give feedback and he is very easy to communicate with. A panel reads and judges each book and they are very passionate.

Reader's Favorite

Great company for a lot of things (Reviews, meeting new people). You can post for free reviews from them, though it usually takes a few months to hear back.

Literary Classics

Awesome company to work with, they review books for children and young adults primarily. You can earn a Seal of Approval and their contest is a great way to meet new people and interact with the writing community.

There are tons of others out there, you will simply need to search around and vet each independently. Look them over, see what they offer and how much it costs, and decide for yourself if it's worth following up.

Reviews

Reviews are the hardest and most important thing for author's to get. Reaching out to bloggers is an incredibly important piece of the puzzle:

Use that list, find people, and email them. Send out mass emails to anyone and everyone. Many aren't taking books right now, so check back later; others will tell you no thanks but that doesn't mean stop trying. Send, send, send.

There are companies that promote books to readers for free in exchange for reviews. You pay the company, they find the reviewers, and the reviewers get a free copy of the book in exchange for a review. Note, for Amazon you cannot pay a reviewer for a review in their ToC, but you can give them free copies.

Blogger List

Here are some companies you can look into for getting free reviews:

Reader's FavoriteUnderground Book ReviewsOnline Book ClubBookLife

Choosy Bookworm has a program to put your book in front of readers. You send them a copy, they read it and post a review, but for the reader's they are just selecting a book to read. ReadCheaply has a similar program that is much cheaper. 

These are options, but often the better option is to find people directly instead of paying a middleman to connect you to readers. In either case, never stop trying to get reviews for you work, and always try to build connections with other people.

On that note, another place you might look into for finding like-minded individuals is Rave Reviews Book Club. It's a group of authors and readers who are all about cross-promotion. You get out of it what you put in, and people there are always willing to help out in any way they can. I've found them to be a great group of people, though it does have an annual fee.

Additional Information

There are lots of other things you can do. For reviews, there are a lot of services out there you can pay for reviews, such as Self-Published Review, Kirkus, Blue Ink, and many more. Some are worth more than others, so you have to decide what you want to do. Also, things like Kindle Scout can be hugely beneficial in generating buzz about a book even if you aren't chosen.

This industry, at least for Indie authors, isn't a sprint. You aren't going to get discovered out of nowhere, because if people aren't reading your book they can't discover it. The stuff I've included here are just some options to lay the groundwork. Keep writing, do it because you love it, and just put a little bit of effort into the other parts of the process.