Scott Nicholson's Blog, page 28

Indiereader.com

My first post in my regular blogging gig at Indiereader.com is now live. I will be doing most of my "indie commentary" there, much of it geared toward the opportunities of the new era in connecting readers and writers. The "make fun of New York" phase is pretty much over for everyone, and already things are settling out so that everyone goes on with their lives as best they can. Smart writers will adapt and smart publishers will adapt. Many, if not most, will fail. Every evolutionary phase is met with waves of extinction.

Since wiser bloggers are talking about indie writing and indie publishing, I will not be providing much nuts-and-bolts information or industry analysis. You already know the drill if you're a writer: Be as professional as possible in every single phase of your cottage industry. And if you signed with a publisher, hold it to that standard, or else get your rights back as soon as you can, and then do it right.

I'll also be doing some teasers for my April 1 launch (note: see that subtle teaser alert!) in the weeks ahead, as I frantically race toward deadline. It's going to the wire. Luckily, the book is about fear, so I should well be in the mood.
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Tweet Scott & Win

Scott's Tweet Team
 If you follow me much, you know I like to share the wealth (such as it is) and reward the people who help spread the word. This month, I am launching a sustained advertising campaign in various venues and each day an ad runs, I'd like you to boost it with your tweets. Every day of the campaign, I will be giving away a $10 gift certificate to Amazon or BN.com. All you have to do to enter is tweet the book that specific day. I will select a winner at random the next afternoon (in case you're running late, you can tweet that morning), and you may tweet up to five times a day, but please spread them out at least an hour so you don't annoy your followers.

If you want me to DM you a reminder the day of each contest, email me at hauntedcomputer AT yahoo.com, DM me in advance at hauntedcomputer on Twitter, or post your twitter handle below. (I don't automatically follow everyone on Twitter, but if you enter, I follow). That's it. No more, no less.

Sunday, Feb. 6: AshesAshes by Scott Nicholson #supernatural #ghost stories #kindle http://amzn.to/fSIEfS #nook http://bit.ly/htFLtx 99 cents (RT to win)
Monday, Feb. 7: Disintegration#mystery bestseller Disintegration by Scott Nicholson for #kindle http://amzn.to/dBEesM and #nook http://bit.ly/huQGD0 99 cents
Tuesday, Feb. 15: The Skull Ring#mystery The Skull Ring by Scott Nicholson for #kindle http://amzn.to/9Ii8kC and #nook http://bit.ly/hzGa5Y $2.99 #books
Wednesday, Feb. 16: Crime Beat#mystery Crime Beat by Scott Nicholson for #kindle http://amzn.to/e5tGqB and #nook http://bit.ly/f3w9Pj 99 cents #books
Thursday, Feb. 17: Crime Beat#mystery Crime Beat by Scott Nicholson for #kindle http://amzn.to/e5tGqB and #nook http://bit.ly/f3w9Pj 99 cents #books
Sunday, Feb. 20: FlowersFlowers by Scott Nicholson:#fantasy, magic, and ghost stories #kindle http://amzn.to/eX05dM #nook http://bit.ly/huQGD0 99 cents
Tuesday, Feb. 22: October Girls#paranormal romance October Girls by Scott Nicholson #kindle http://amzn.to/aB9pNU and #nook http://bit.ly/hMkA1u $2.99 #fantasy
And, if any book breaks the Top 100 during the month, I throw in a bonus $100 gift certificate!###

Join Scott's Tweet Team and Win Prizes

Scott's Tweet Team
 If you follow me much, you know I like to share the wealth (such as it is) and reward the people who help spread the word. This month, I am launching a sustained advertising campaign in various venues and each day an ad runs, I'd like you to boost it with your tweets. Every day of the campaign, I will be giving away a $10 gift certificate to Amazon or BN.com. All you have to do to enter is tweet the book that specific day. I will select a winner at random the next afternoon (in case you're running late, you can tweet that morning), and you may tweet up to five times a day, but please spread them out at least an hour so you don't annoy your followers.

If you want me to DM you a reminder the day of each contest, email me at hauntedcomputer AT yahoo.com, DM me in advance at hauntedcomputer on Twitter, or post your twitter handle below.  That's it. No more, no less.

Sunday, Feb. 6: AshesAshes by Scott Nicholson:#supernatural and #ghost stories #kindle: http://amzn.to/fSIEfS #nook: http://bit.ly/htFLtx 99 cents
Monday, Feb. 7: Disintegration#mystery bestseller Disintegration by Scott Nicholson for #kindle http://amzn.to/dBEesM and #nook http://bit.ly/huQGD0 99 cents
Tuesday, Feb. 15: The Skull Ring#mystery The Skull Ring by Scott Nicholson for #kindle http://amzn.to/9Ii8kC and #nook http://bit.ly/hzGa5Y $2.99 #books
Wednesday, Feb. 16: Crime Beat#mystery Crime Beat by Scott Nicholson for #kindle http://amzn.to/e5tGqB and #nook http://bit.ly/f3w9Pj 99 cents #books
Thursday, Feb. 17: Crime Beat#mystery Crime Beat by Scott Nicholson for #kindle http://amzn.to/e5tGqB and #nook http://bit.ly/f3w9Pj 99 cents #books
Sunday, Feb. 20: FlowersFlowers by Scott Nicholson:#fantasy, magic, and ghost stories #kindle http://amzn.to/eX05dM #nook http://bit.ly/huQGD0 99 cents
Tuesday, Feb. 22: October Girls#paranormal romance October Girls by Scott Nicholson #kindle http://amzn.to/aB9pNU and #nook http://bit.ly/hMkA1u $2.99 #fantasy
And, if any book breaks the Top 100 during the month, I throw in a bonus $100 gift certificate!###

Mystery Dance by Scott Nicholson

If you've read Crime Beat, The Skull Ring, and Disintegration (and if you haven't, you're running out of excuses), I hope you'll consider writing a review for Mystery Dance. I have a Goodreads ad campaign running on mysterious mechanisms of clicks and my Visa card, meaning I'll probably spend a thousand bucks and sell three books. So a review is most appreciated: http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Dance-Omnibus-ebook/dp/B004I8WNEQ

And, yes, a nod to Elvis Costello...


Jim McLeod gives treat as host of Ginger Nuts of Horror

Leisha is gracious enough to feature me as her first-ever interview at A Tale of Many Reviews. Thanks, Leisha!
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Disintegration signed copies with FREE e-book!

Disintegration is now available in paper, and you can get your signed copy for $8.95 (plus $3 shipping) at Haunted Computer PLUS you get a free e-book version in the format of your choice. The free e-book offer is good for any of my available paper books, and I sell them cheaper than anyone. Also still running the Big Buy Three, Get One Free offer on my paper books.

E-book of the Day is The Red Church: 
If you care to tweet: The Red Church. A boy, a sheriff, a haunted church. #kindle http://amzn.to/d0Lsa6 #nook http://bit.ly/gaVlOW

Thanks! 
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How NY is Fueling Its Own Demise

I don't like to talk sales numbers, because it inevitably sounds like whining or bragging, but since Jan. 4, I have sold more books than Snooki, according to this article.

I know the major publishing industry is desperate and that's part of the reason they have been tossing real writers overboard while others are fleeing like rats from a burning ship. Every "sure bet" deal for Snooki or George Bush or Sarah Palin or Madonna sends 100 real writers to the soup kitchen.What's stunning is how New York is so actively and willfully tossing gasoline on the flames of its immolation. By failing to recognize the tastes of readers or developing the literary talents of tomorrow while engaging in a wholesale denial of what people want to pay and how they want their books delivered, their ship will soon be a smoking cinder slipping beneath the waves.

Not coincidentally at all, those writers look for their audience elsewhere, and the largest, hungriest audience in the world is sitting next to their Kindles as we speak. The Kindle/Nook phenomenon is not just a tech craze or a groovy new consumption model. It's a release valve for the pent-up desires of so many people craving a wealth and diversity of reading material. Your average public book display will have 20 copies of the same 20 books all across America. Those books are the top 20 on the bestseller lists for obvious reasons.

People now have a choice. Nearly a million choices, really. And it's only the beginning.
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The Widget World

After some research, I've finally cracked the arcane secrets to having my very own Amazon Kindle widget, which you can see here to the right. I look forward to exploring more ways to use these and I'm also getting my Barnes & Noble affiliate account.

if you want your own Scott Nicholson Amazon Kindle, I'd be happy to send you the code, and if you're an Amazon affiliate, you can easily set it up to earn 4 to 6 percent commission on sales of my books. Money earned while sitting at home in dirty sweat pants, just like me. Who says I don't love you?

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Published at 72

In all the hype, numbers, and money a lot of people are throwing around in the digital era, it's good to remember the basic act of communication that the entire dream is built around.

Case in point is Elizabeth Egerton Wilder's Spruce Gum Box, which she released on her 72nd birthday as her first novel. The work of historical fiction took her several years, and in the "old days" she might never have been able to fulfill her dream so easily. Sure, it doesn't appear to be tearing up the charts, but visualize the power of her work finding even one reader, much less several, much less more.

And that book should be online in perpetuity, finding the audience it needs and deserves. I haven't read it and can't speak to quality, and "quality" is a matter of great debate as writers chase some arbitrary "professional" standard. Is direct emulation of major publishing even valid and worthwhile anymore?

The only standard to which one should aspire is to tell your story as best you can, and then turn it over to whatever readers you are fortunate enough to find. Way to go, Mrs. Wilder.
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Choose the cover-- Transparent Lovers

This is one of those difficult choices but i hope you will help make it simpler, as you did in helping us select the cover for the children's book "If I Were Your Monster." (Which turned out very well, thank you!)

Today's mission is to help select the cover for my supernatural mystery novella. Maybe it's more of a paranormal noir, or an afterlife romance with guns and vindictive ex-lovers, or a love story with dead people in it. I get easily confused these days. At any rate, feel free to weigh in. There may be a prize in it for you, such as an advance copy of Transparent Lovers!

(Top cover image via Simon Howden. Bottom cover image via Graur Codrin.

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Book Piracy. Five reasons not to worry.

There's a little debate going around in which writers are calculating the millions of dollars they've lost, as well as that wonderful, lofty perch on the bestseller list, because of all those meany pirates out there dumping their book files into torrents. I tweeted last week that 10,000 illegal downloads doesn't mean 10,000 lost sales, it means maybe five lost sales. And I'll bet it was because the book was overpriced to begin with. (Which almost universally means either someone else is setting your price who has their own agenda instead of the writer's best performance and income in mind, or else you have not paid one bit of attention to the digital market in the past two years. Or, in the case of New York publishing, both).

My books have been stolen for years. Ironically, it's only my corporate books that are illegally shared; my DRM-free ebooks don't show up there, yet they could easily be shared, swapped, ripped, and even rewritten. I only even notice the piracy when I do Google alerts of my name and see them in the rapidshare and torrent streams. I don't even know what those streams do, or how they work, and I don't care. It would be like sticking my thumb in a river to try to plug a dam six miles downstream. It would be a full-time job and all I would get is a wet finger. And the pirates would never even notice.

Why do I not care? It's stealing, and stealing is wrong. Anybody who says it's not stealing is wrong. I don't even make cassettes or copies of my own CDs, not even for personal use. But I am not casting stones, because I've conducted other illegal or immoral acts. None of us are without sin.

But I'm a writer, not the world's morality cop. And I have plenty of my own shortcomings. Anyway, the author has many antidotes to piracy:

1. Quit freaking out--stealing or not, this is how people communicate in the modern age. They share. They mutually create content and their shared experiences. They aren't as hung up on "ownership."

2. Take control of your content (from a corporation) and make it cheap. If your book is a buck or two, all but the most ardent thieves (who are spending their time stealing instead of reading anyway) would rather just buy the book and save the hassle. And you'll make the same amount of money, anyway. Actually, far more.

3. Find your own translators. Even if you gave up control of your English rights to a corporation, you can still seek translators on your own. If somebody cracks your book, translates it, and puts it out, that's an incredible homage--many hours of their life. This way, you can make a little money and pay them a royalty.

4. Use it as a positive. In five years, you'll be "selling" your download stats to sponsors and advertisers. And getting ripped off big-time then becomes an asset. Think of them as your future shares in the new market.

5. Why do we write in the first place? If you had told someone 100 years ago you could widely spread your ideas to millions of people at no cost, they would have said you've gone to writer heaven. Or you've gone insane. Which, when you look at it, is basically the same thing.

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