Indie Book Collective discussion
The All Inclusive Amazon Promotion Page
Got you, Richard and Jenelle.1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005E7M8CW
2. Title - next to the title of the book, please click "Like"
http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Eyes-ebo...
http://www.amazon.com/Covert-Dreams-e...
3. Tags - please click like on all of the tags.
http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Eyes-ebo...
http://www.amazon.com/Covert-Dreams-e...
4. Reviews - please click "Yes" on "Was this review helpful to you?" the 5 and 4 four star reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Eyes-ebo...
http://www.amazon.com/Covert-Dreams-e...
1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.http://www.amazon.com/Tanya-Karen-Gou...
2. Title - next to the title of the book, please click "Like"
http://www.amazon.com/Root-Bound-Emma...
3. Tags - please click like on all of the tags.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tags...
4. Reviews - please click "Yes" on "Was this review helpful to you?" the 5 and 4 four star reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Root-Bound-Emma...
Got you guys, too. Thanks!
Hi all,Novice short story writer here, new to the group but looking forward to getting involved. I've liked all your links but for your reference UK author pages don't have a Like button yet (their books do) in case anyone from over the pond looks. I've added my US page instead.
Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.
http://www.amazon.com/author/rgrankine
Best wishes all,
Robert Rankine
www.thinkingplainly.com
I just went through and did as requested on everyone's pages. :) I have one strange request for anyone willing to do so. For some reason I have tags on mine that isn't supposed to be on there. ??? Fantasy, Magic, anilyia, kethril, dragons, adventure, high fantasy, and flower child. If anyone could be so kind as to vote against those tags I be so grateful. :) But please add votes to the others. Many thanks!1: Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Michelle-Lowe/e...
2:Title: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&r...
3: Tags: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tags...
4:Reviews: http://www.amazon.com/The-Warning-Mic...
Awesome idea, Richard! And thanks everyone!
Oh! If anyone has a book trailer, post it too and I'll click like. :)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNA01T...
Hi everyone,Already got Richard, Mike, Jenelle, Tanya, and J.R. on other threads.
Got yours R.G. - including your book Silent Spaces.
Got yours Michelle (though there are no tags for your paperback).
Here are mine:
1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.
amazon.com/author/milesgentry
2. Title - next to the title of the book, please click "Like"
http://www.amazon.com/Spontaneous-Com...
http://www.amazon.com/Spontaneous-Com...
3. Tags - please click like on all of the tags.
http://www.amazon.com/Spontaneous-Com...
http://www.amazon.com/Spontaneous-Com...
4. Reviews - please click "Yes" on "Was this review helpful to you?" the 5 and 4 four star reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Spontaneous-Com...
Thanks All
Miles Gentry
Hi all,I'm up to date too, thanks everyone. I haven't really spent time working on the tags, another task added to the list...!
This kind of phony promo (in that people aren't reading the books/authors they "like" on Amazon) -- has it helped anyone's book sales in a significant way?Uke Jackson
If you want to look at it from just a direct sales point of view then I don't expect the people I connect with here to go online and buy my ebook just because we have 'Liked' each other, I'm not doing it for that reason. I am doing it because networking with people is a way of learning, I may not think their book is for me or mine theirs but that doesn't mean I don't value the time and effort we all put in to produce it. What if I go to one persons site and connect with one of their friends and it helps me discover a writer I have an affinity for and I then become part of their network, their bloggers, their reviewers, their reading group, etc. It may not have added an immediate dollar to my sales figures but perhaps the next book will be exposed to a hundred more people than it otherwise would have done and the book after that a thousand, all because of a connection I made now. Supporting each other and giving confidence in such an enormous field is vital. You need reasons to believe in the work you are doing and having other people in the same field giving you their time and experience needs to be appreciated in a wider context than a handful of extra books sold. For my part just clicking the Like button has to be followed up by a friend request or a Facebook request or similar if you feel there is a cross over in the work i.e. same genre or something. I'll still 'Like' someone to encourage them even if there is no commonality in our work for the reasons I gave above, you don't know where a single connection will lead to. I have personally gained a huge amount of really useful ideas, websites and connections from the groups here that I know will benefit me in the long term. Best, Rob. (There are a couple of other discussion threads that argue about this question in far more detail with a common answer being if you go to a site that has a few dozen likes then it gives the visitor confidence in the ability of the writer)
1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.http://www.amazon.com/Hock-Guan-Tjoa/...
2. Title - next to the title of the book, please click "Like"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Battle-Chib...
3. Tags - please click like on all of the tags.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Battle-Chib...
4. Reviews - please click "Yes" on "Was this review helpful to you?" the 5 and 4 four star reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Battle-Chib...
P.S. It was nice to run across a couple that I had "liked" before this.pps --For my book it was not necessary to go to three separate sites for book, reviews and tags--just scroll.
ppps --Those who have more than 6 tags (I'm guilty!) should probably not expect every one to be hit.
1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.http://www.amazon.com/Stacey-L.-Rech/...
2. Title - next to the title of the book, please click "Like"
http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Della-Webb...
3. Tags - please click like on all of the tags.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tags...
4. Reviews - please click "Yes" on "Was this review helpful to you?" the 5 and 4 four star reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Della-Webb...
I am excited to participate in this and happily went clicking through all of the above links! Thanks in advance to those that return the favor.
R.G wrote: "If you want to look at it from just a direct sales point of view then I don't expect the people I connect with here to go online and buy my ebook just because we have 'Liked' each other, I'm not do..."RG, There wasn't a suggestion on my part that everyone has to or should buy everyone else's books. And I understand the value of connections. I simply don't understand the value of "likes". As to people "gaining confidence in the ability of the writer" -- it would seem the sample pages of books do a better job of that. Amazon copies FaceBook and adds "Like" buttons and all this energy is being expended.
I do wish you all well with your writing. And thanks for the extensive consideration of the question, RG.
Uke Jackson
Hi, of course if we are being really honest then we have to admit that as per Google, Facebook, etc. Amazon are giving us the opportunity of telling them direct personalised marketing information so they can focus their strategic sales pitches at us. If we 'Like' something then we are bundled into their algorithms and seconds later presented with products that they think we like and will buy based on what we have told them. I think that's just a fact of life we all have to deal with and you are totally right to be dubious of the value of 'Likes' in that sense, it can be very helpful for the customer on occasion and I have bought off their recommended emails before but there is no doubt that it is a sales tool first and a customer experience tool second, however saying that, if we can get something out of it too, as per my first message, and I think for us it can be a very powerful gain, then I'm happy to deal with the targeted sales stuff. (I agree with the sample pages thing by the way, it's just one of those well tried and tested confidence tools that the majority of people who see two identical products where one has ten likes/recommendations/stars, etc. and the other has none, they'll go for the first one, we have to use that to our advantage!) Cheers, Rob.
Rob,"two identical products where one has ten likes/recommendations/stars, etc. and the other has none, they'll go for the first one,"
Are you seriously suggesting that 2 books could be identical? Maybe radios or trombones or bird seed, but certainly not books. Forget about novels. Even non fiction titles on the same subject are going to be quite different in a variety of ways.
And what if that book with no stars is one of the greatest works ever written but no one knows? Whose advantage is that?
Anyway, there's my take. Have at it.
Uke Jackson
Hello fellow indie writers. I am about to go thru all the URL's above to your author pages and will like away. Kindly like back athttp://www.amazon.com/Sherrie-Cronin/...
A million thanks!
Uke wrote: "This kind of phony promo (in that people aren't reading the books/authors they "like" on Amazon) -- has it helped anyone's book sales in a significant way?Uke Jackson"
Uke -- I get your cringe but I think of this more as all of us helping each other get a foot in the door -- the world of real publishing is full of much more phony promo done with much higher dollar efforts. What I am liking is that there are other people out there like me trying to write their books and share them with kindred spirits.
Sorry Uke, I think I'll have to leave the discussion with this post because I don't want to annoy the other people visiting here, I'd be happy to discuss over email if you would like. Yes, to the eyes of a new customer two books (as well as trombones, radios and whatever else) can be identical, you walk into a shop with ten thousand titles staring at you and you have no idea what is going on. If you happen to have an interest in books like you and I do then that wouldn't be the case but that's because we have invested ourselves into it, if I went into a guitar shop like I did around ten years to teach myself to play for the first time, then the fifty guitars hanging on the wall all looked the same to me (replace with trombones and radios) but that's because I was just the average customer looking for a guitar, ten years later if someone said to me two guitars are identical then I'd be just as upset as you are on books, a trombone virtuoso on his instrument and a mechanical engineer on radios, and so on. Google, Amazon and Facebook aren't some of the biggest companies in the world because they treat us all like experts, it's because they treat us all like simpletons, and that's where marketing and promotion comes in. There are countless examples of masterpieces of work whether it be books, art, music, being left aside untouched and unloved for many years before someone discovers it. All we are trying here to do is a simple exercise in helping each other out in avoiding that scenario and a bit of positivity on pressing a "like' button isn't going to kill anyone. Anyway, that's me done, sorry for the rant all. Best, Rob.
Rob and Sherrie, I get the mutual support angle. And the cringe-worthy factor is undeniable, to me anyway.
However, Rob, you hit on something here, almost: " Google, Amazon and Facebook aren't some of the biggest companies in the world because they treat us all like experts, it's because they treat us all like simpletons, "
I agree but don't think you go far enough -- the tech overlords treat us like simple-minded serfs. They own the platforms, we supply the content for free and they profit off it, while the serfs go happily along clicking whatever new button the tech geeks put on their screens.
Even here at GoodReads, there are moderators and reviewers and nobody gets paid -- except the folks who own GoodReads. Then, someday in the not-too-distant future, the site will get gobbled up by Google or FaceBook or some slimy billionaire. The founders of GR will pocket their hundreds or tens of millions of dollars apiece -- all on the backs of their happy little serfs.
Then the new guys will change things so they can wring some money out of us, because our efforts as reviewers/writers/ free content providers/ givers of free books isn't enough.
I'm not sure what the answer is, or how to break thru, but having been round the internet block a few times now, clicking Like buttons is not the answer.
If you want to market your books, which we all do, then its going to take more than following along the path set by the copycat tech geeks.
If we really want to help each other, we would expend this energy brainstorming and finding a way to take the web by storm, to get our titles in front of readers.
30 yrs ago I was associate publisher and exec veep of a publishing house in NYC and London. Even then marketing books was tough. The company went out of business because the owner/publisher was a coke head and always looking for the easy way around the hard work.
I'm not suggesting anyone here is into cocaine (and I could care less if you are -- as long as I don't have to be in the same room with you when you're high). However, clicking a button on Amazon does seem to be the easy way around the hard work.
Not being a tech geek, it is beyond me how to facilitate web brainstorming. But if half the energy that goes into manic clicking of screen buttons went into creating a new marketing model, based on the ideas and efforts of a group of individuals intelligent enough and driven enough to write their own books, my bet is we'd have something humongous.
That's all. I've said my piece. I'm off to practice (ukulele and trombone) then I've got 5 gigs in 4 days with my band @ MusikFest -- where I plan to sell a wagonload of paperbacks, right along with my CDs.
So, I too, shall stop belaboring this. If anyo0ne wants to discuss this further, please send me a message or email or contact me thru my website. http://www.ukejackson.com.
Everybody sell lots of books!
Uke Jackson
Here's my author page...http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Jared/e...
1st book to "like"...
http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Jungle-Lio...
and tag...
http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Jungle-Lio...
2nd book to "like"... and you can check the tags here too...
http://www.amazon.com/Ten-A-Week-Stea...
I'll go back now and click through on everyone else's. As to Uke, I do think the idea of this being the "easy way around the hard work" does not give people here enough credit. This is one small additional tool that can be helpful. I want to see my books turn up in columns that say, "customers who liked this, also liked..." The tags can help with that. It's not a magic wand that will put a million bucks in your pocket, but if it helps, why not?
Stephen Jared
www.stephenjared.com
Uke wrote: "This kind of phony promo (in that people aren't reading the books/authors they "like" on Amazon) -- has it helped anyone's book sales in a significant way?Uke Jackson"
Yes.
Got you Hock, Kristin, Sherrie, and Stephen.Thanks in advance for reciprocating.
[see message 12 for my links]
I got you, J.R., Miles, Richard, Kristin, Hock, and those of you before them. -- Thanks! - Stephen Jared
Hello everyone, I am working my way through liking all of your links, here are mine.1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.
http://www.amazon.com/Lauryn-April/e/...
2. Title - next to the title of the book, please click "Like"
http://www.amazon.com/Into-the-Deep-e...
3. Tags - please click like on all of the tags.
http://www.amazon.com/Into-the-Deep-e...
4. Reviews - please click "Yes" on "Was this review helpful to you?" the 5 and 4 four star reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R325QJGA...
Alright, I'm all caught up. Congrats to everyone on being published.
Got everyone's author page --- will now start in on liking all of your books :)Mine is at
http://www.amazon.com/x0-ebook/dp/B00...
and thanks so much!
Thank you :) The effort is very much appreciated.
Hello everyone,I'd like to ask a favor from all the experienced taggers. Would you please agree with the tag: Young Adult for my book. It's only visible by clicking on the "See All 19 tags". But here is the direct link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tags...
Thanks! And if I can do something similar for you please let me know :)
Got you Lauryn (author, title, tags, reviews).Grant, agreed with your Young Adult tag, and the other three YA related tags.
I am new to this and am not sure where to find all the other linds asked for in the beginning.I will visit and like all of your pages during this day.
http://www.amazon.com/A-Hairdressers-...
Stephan,Florence,J,R,, Sherrie, Lauryn done
Thanks everyone for your support here. As for Uke's contribution. I understand the point you are making and perhaps the validity to some of it. For me it registers as simply complaining as you did not have any better alternatives to offer. This at least offers some form of advancement through Amazon which I have found difficult to do thus far. If anyone has advice on Amazon ranking I would appreciate it.Thanks all.
J. R. wrote: "Kristin wrote: "1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.http://www.amazon.com/Stacey-L.-Rech/...
2. Title - next to the ..."
I corrected it. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
J. R. wrote: "Christine wrote: "I am new to this and am not sure where to find all the other linds asked for in the beginning.I will visit and like all of your pages during this day.
http://www.amazon.com/A-Ha..."
Thank you so much
Kristin wrote: "Thanks everyone for your support here. As for Uke's contribution. I understand the point you are making and perhaps the validity to some of it. For me it registers as simply complaining as you did..."I just liked your page Kristin
lemme know if you`re interested in this,http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos...
A twenty-something-year-old runaway searches for "home" down the yellow brick road's underworld of crime bosses, strippers, and a warped lover who wears a stitched-up happy face mask in this transgressive road trip down third-eye theology, drugs 101, and dangerous philosophy.
Autumn is bottoming out in the great below while working as a call girl who accompanies lonely customers and entertains married men. Her self-imposed black dress code and colour spectrum of wigs contrasts her optimistic taupe cardigan friend, April, and prescription meds addict, Valerie Valley, who debate their tao whether hope is a hoax if God is dead.
Every day bleeds into tomorrow as her next client is another man further down Darwin's evolutionary chart, until she meets Dylan, a stalky client who cuts above the rest and shows her the young sexy stupid secrets of a very strange new world. - yours cruelly
If you want to participate, copy and paste this into your post and provide the links.
1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.
2. Title - next to the title of the book, please click "Like"
3. Tags - please click like on all of the tags.
4. Reviews - please click "Yes" on "Was this review helpful to you?" the 5 and 4 four star reviews.
Confused? Mine will be the first example.
1. Author page - please click "Like" on the right of the page.
http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Stephen...
2. Title - next to the title of the book, please click "Like"
http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-New-Am...
3. Tags - please click like on all of the tags.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tags...
4. Reviews - please click "Yes" on "Was this review helpful to you?" the 5 and 4 four star reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-New-Am...
Once you have posted this, do the same for others in the thread and check back periodically to catch up.
Thanks!