Plug Your Book

HarperCollins to post free book content

2008-02-14T22:54:00.002-05:00

In a bid to boost book sales, HarperCollins Publishers will begin offering free electronic editions of some of its books on its Web site, including a novel by Paulo Coelho and a cookbook by the Food Network star Robert Irvine. Read more at the New York Times.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Amateur book reviews: Smart crowds or dumb mobs?

2008-02-11T19:49:00.000-05:00

National Public Radio carried a story today about online book reviews. It was relatively complimentary about the "democratization" of book reviews thanks to Amazon. I tend to agree, the more opinions that people are able to filter through before making a buying decision, the more likely they are to buy.

It's certainly true that online reviews can be gamed, but I think the vast majority of book buyers can see through to the truth.

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Feedback changes at eBay prompt seller revolt

2008-02-05T20:43:00.000-05:00

After the feedback changes announced this week at eBay, I wouldn't be surprised if there's an angry, torch-wielding mob beating down the front door of eBay's headquarters right now.

The new feedback policy prevents sellers from giving a bad buyer a neutral or negative feedback.

Huh? I've had about 5,000 transactions...

To continue reading, click here

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Amazon's BookSurge increases author royalties

2008-02-04T16:13:00.000-05:00

Amazon's self-publishing unit, BookSurge, announced Monday it would increase author "royalties" from 25 percent to 35 percent. The announcement came in an afternoon e-mail to the company's customers and prospects:

As a company focused on providing customers with the best possible publishing experience, we are pleased to announce that we are passing on cost savings to our customers in the form of increased royalties! Effective February 1, BookSurge increased the royalty rates authors receive on sales of trade paperback books through all retail channels from 25% to 35%; this includes sales coming through from Amazon.com, Alibris.com, Abebooks.com and the BookSurge online bookstore.

We are committed to helping you achieve your publishing goals; giving you a larger share of your book's sales is just one way we can help you succeed as an author. We hope you'll give us an opportunity to show you the BookSurge difference on your next publishing project. Don't hesitate to contact your publishing consultant if we can answer any questions or be of further assistance.

Happy Publishing!

David Symonds
General Manager
BookSurge

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Did Amazon's Kindle come 25 years too late?

2008-02-01T08:04:00.000-05:00

Amazon's move to digital content makes perfect sense. The more it can focus on e-content, the more profitable it will be.

Electronic books, though, have a long way to go. What will probably be a bigger success in the near term is audiobooks. After announcing nearly two years ago that it would develop its own digital audiobooks store, Amazon said yesterday it would buy Audible.com, which has sold downloadable audiobooks for years.

It won't be long before most people in the U.S. have an MP3 player built into their cellphone. Whether they'll know it's there is another matter.

What's holding back e-books? The conventional wisdom is that the reading public isn't quite ready for them. But maybe the problem is simply that not enough people read anymore.

At least one famous tech guru has declared the Kindle "dead on arrival" -- none other than Apple's Steve Jobs.

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Hey, what about the other 60 percent of us, Steve?

What's next? The New York Times' Bits column envisions a service allowing readers to seamlessly switch from a print book on an e-reader to listening to the same book while you're driving to work, then switching back to reading.

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Widget displays your Amazon Sales Rank

2008-01-17T17:32:00.000-05:00

If you're like me and can hardly wait until the next hour passes so you can check your Amazon Sales Ranks, you may want to download a new widget that lets you display real-time ranks on your Web site.

Here's what it looks like:

Amazon.com

Sales Rank

Sales
Rank Express

And here's a few words from Aaron Shepard, who created the widget:

Are you promoting a book, CD, or DVD online? Now your visitors can
see its up-to-the-second Amazon sales rank without ever leaving your
page.

Sales Rank Express makes it possible with its free S.R.E. Web Widget.
Installed on your blog or Web site, it shows Amazon sales rank,
customer rating, and other info for your book, CD, DVD, or anything
else. You can select the Amazon site you want to report from --
Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, or
Amazon.co.jp. And if you can't decide on just one item or site, you
can place multiple widgets on the same page.

The widget can easily be installed with only minimal knowledge of
HTML, and its link to Amazon can be customized with your Associates
ID for commissioned sales. It uses no active scripting and will never
delay or slow down the rest of your page. For samples, code, and
instructions, visit Sales Rank Express at

http://www.salesrankexpress.com

Sales Rank Express is the premier sales rank tool for authors and
publishers, featuring quick access to real-time sales rank and other
market indicators, metadata snapshots, diagnostic tools, data repair
tools, Amazon resource links, and more -- all for free. The site is
developed and run by Aaron Shepard, author and publisher of several
Amazon bestsellers, including "Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of
Self Publishing."
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Will readers buy a hard copy of a free online book?

2007-12-18T16:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a great article from the New York Times on transforming online content into a book that people will actually pay for:

Since an edited form of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” was published as a traditional book in April by Amulet, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, it has sold 147,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks 50 percent to 70 percent of retail sales. The book, written and drawn by Jeff Kinney, has spent 33 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. This Sunday, it will be No. 1 on the Children’s Chapter Books list.

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Amazon widget lets you collect payments on your Web site

2007-12-12T16:00:00.000-05:00

If you sell books directly to readers who visit your Web site, Amazon has developed a "Pay Now" widget for its new Flexible Payment Service (FPS). It's probably good to have an alternative for people who don't want to use PayPal.

You receive an e-mail each time someone pays using FPS, and you can also retrieve your orders by logging into your Amazon Payments account.

Here's more information on the Amazon Web Services blog.

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Q&A: Should I send book buyers to Amazon, or sell to them on my Web site?

2007-12-04T10:08:00.000-05:00

QUESTION: Why do author Web sites send all their customers to Amazon? Intelligent authors sell books exclusively from their own sites. Why send your hard-won customer to Amazon, just so they can steal your customer data, take a big cut of your profit, and undermine your marketing effectiveness?

ANSWER: I agree that if the author or publisher wants to obtain contact information for the online book buyer, they won't get it if Amazon sells the book. So if it's essential to know who your buyers are, you've got to sell direct.

Of course, when your books are sold in a brick-and-mortar bookstore, you don't know who the buyers are. Barnes & Noble won't fork over customer data any faster than Amazon will.

However, the author or publisher can sell on Amazon Marketplace, give Amazon a 15 percent commission, and obtain the customer's name, address, and e-mail. Then you can ask the buyer to opt in to your mailing list.

It all boils down to whether you want to outsource fulfillment to Amazon or not. If you do, you won't get the customer information.

As to whether Amazon takes an unreasonably large share of the profit: Amazon does discount books aggressively. But no matter what price Amazon sells the book for, the publisher still gets their wholesale price. If the wholesale price doesn't leave the publisher enough profit, the publisher needs to raise the wholesale price -- either by giving Amazon a shorter wholesale discount, raising the wholesale/retail price, or a combination of these.

You're right, it is smart for authors and publishers to publicize their books on their own Web sites. And if you're willing to handle fulfillment, then you don't need to send customers to Amazon. But many (perhaps most) online book buyers prefer purchasing at Amazon. So if they're going to go there anyway, why not post an affiliate link so you can earn an additional 6 percent from the sale?

I also disagree with many of Amazon's policies and practices, but I appreciate how they provide free exposure for my books. Each sale you make at Amazon strengthens your position in their recommendations system, bringing you more exposure and more sales. And this prompts additional sales outside Amazon.

So as long as they bring in lots of sales, I'll keep trying to use Amazon to my advantage. If a better opportunity comes along, I'll welcome it.
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Amazon launches Kindle e-book reader

2007-11-19T13:20:00.000-05:00

Amazon has finally launched its long-rumored Kindle e-book reader. The gadget is getting hammered in Amazon's customer reviews.

I doubt that many of those negative reviewers have actually used the Kindle, but I think it's pretty easy to criticize it sight unseen. Who the heck is going to pay $399 so they can read a $25 book for $9.99 on a crummy little computer? Maybe three people, that's it.

Amazon also has a Digital Text Platform allowing publishers to upload content to sell in Amazon's Kindle Store. Publishers get a whopping 35 percent of the sales. Gee, that's almost as great a deal for publishers as Kindle's $399 pricetag for readers.

Here's an idea, Amazon: Give away the reader for free. The razor blade business model has a chance. Otherwise we'll get along just fine growing beards and being illiterate.

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An interesting quandry for Amazon Vine reviewers

2007-11-19T09:49:00.000-05:00

If you really hate a book, should you review it? That's the dilemma facing some participants of the Amazon Vine reviewing program.

The program offers free advance reading copies in exchange for a review posted on Amazon's site. My friend Christine, a top reviewer at Amazon, is one-fifth of the way through a book she requested, only to discover she can't stand it.

I really would be torturing myself if I force myself to keep reading this book. Additionally, the book is full of stuff that is not so great to have rattling around in my brain, it has some offensive stuff in it that I just don’t even want to read anymore.

I have a personal policy of not reviewing books which I don’t read cover to cover. I don’t think it is fair to review a book if I haven’t actually read the whole thing, to see if the story gets good by the end or whatever.

The thing is, Amazon won't send Christine another book to review until she posts a review for the book she hates.

And what if she's honest and posts a one-star review? Will she be dumped from Amazon Vine? The publishers who are paying big bucks in exchange for prepublication reviews on Amazon won't be thrilled with negative reviews.

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An old song about books and the Internet

2007-11-13T15:08:00.000-05:00

The Internet is the best thing that's ever happened for authors. Tools such as blogs and social networks enable writers to promote their work directly to readers, generating free publicity. Authors are just now discovering what some underground musical groups began doing a few years ago: Promoting themselves and their work on the Internet instead of waiting for someone else to do it.

In the music business, the Internet's downside has been piracy. Too many music lovers have discovered that they can download the music they want online without paying for it. Sales of CDs are in freefall, and it's hard to deny that online music downloading is unrelated.

Or is that too simplistic? Perhaps the music industry just wasn't giving people the product they wanted -- or the way they wanted it. After all, most people just want songs, they don't want albums. Finally, listeners are able to download (and buy) just the music they want, and use it the way they want.

Many "experts" have predicted this same thing will happen to the nonfiction book market: Readers will surf the Web and get the nuggets of information they need for free. People will start buying books by the chapter, or even the page.

It's all a crock, according to John Makinson, Penguin Group chief executive and chairman:

Consumers don't want albums, they want tracks. And in publishing, people want books, not chapters.

I tend to agree with Makinson. I don't see people beating down any doors trying to buy books by the page or chapter. As a matter of fact, I remember in 2005, when Amazon announced its "Pages" program to allow customers to buy books for a few cents per page. Or at least that was the plan.

Here we are two years later, and Amazon Pages is apparently still on the drawing board. Or not.
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A Quick Guide to Marketing Your Book on the Internet

2007-11-05T16:39:00.001-05:00

Selling your book will be ten times easier as soon as you can accept this one, think-out-of-the-box strategy: your book doesn't have to be inside a bricks-and-mortar store to sell copies. Too many self-published authors get caught up in trying to figure out how to get distribution which will get their book into big box stores such as Borders and Barnes & Noble. The process can be expensive and daunting. But these days the best grass-roots marketing that can sell tons of books happens on the internet. Using a few tricks of the trade you could reach a wider audience, sell more books and do it while spending less money!

Create a Website That Does More Than Look Good

Nearly every author has a website these days, but not every site helps sell a book. Yes, it's great to have photos, calendar dates and an order button for your book. But a website can do a lot more. Put a sign up box on every page of your site and offer a free gift to people who fill it in. That will give you a great head start in building your mailing list. You can also use your site to showcase your talent: post clips, sample chapters, your resume and a way for editors looking for freelance writers to contact you. Give your readers reasons to come back to the site regularly. Some authors hold contests and showcase readers or book clubs that loved the author's book. Have a speakers kit on your site as well for easy downloading so you can direct inquiries for appearances there. You can even feature periodic sales on your site (perhaps during holidays or your birthday!) where readers can buy your book in bulk for gifts.

Enlist Others to Assemble a Special Offer Package

Everyone knows you have to get your book on Amazon.com. It's the easiest place for people to go to find your book. But how do you get them to go there and buy it? The key is to get other people (preferably with lists of their own) to help you put together a special offer package.

You ask people to donate services, a free download, or gift certificate (the idea is this helps them promote their businesses) and you bundle these goodies up into a bonus package that people receive when they buy your book. The offers should appeal to your target market. Then you set a launch day and everyone who contributed to the package sends an email blast to THEIR lists telling them of the great offer. So you not only have a great offer to entice people to buy, you also have the offer going out to A LOT more people!

I'll give you an example so you can see how this works. I recently participated in a special offer for Christine Martinello to promote her new book, The Momager Guide: Empowering Moms to Leave A Loving Legacy. You can see her offer, as well as the list of goodies she gave away, at http://www.christinemartinello.com/specialoffer. This offer was only supposed to last a week, but it's been so successful that Christine has allowed it to continue. She also went, in just a few days, from being ranked #2.4 million on the Amazon sales list to being ranked #13 on the parenting and families bestseller list and # 238 in overall book sales. A true bestseller!

Use Many Tools

A great website is just a start. To maximize your exposure, use more than one of the many internet tools available. Use a blog to increase your search engine visibility. If you're posting on a regular basis and on subject matter connected to current events, your blog could also become a source of free publicity. Just make sure your blog postings note you are "author of your book". Podcasts are another way of establishing credibility and getting the word out. An aspiring author recently asked me about how to create buzz around a book he's writing about a historic sports broadcaster. A podcast is a natural outlet for him. Not only can he produce shows about sports broadcasting that show off his expertise, he can also play old clips of his book's subject and stir up interest in him as well.

E-newsletters, like this one, are a great way of establishing rapport with your readers and keeping them up to date on what's coming next. I recently signed up for Stephen King's newsletter so I can see how this mega-selling author continues to put himself out there. (Note: King and his publisher sent out text messages this week to random cellphones to promote his latest work, Cell. A great use of a different marketing tool!)

Don't overlook your email signature. I still get people interested in my book just because they saw it mentioned in my email signature. Keep it simple: mention the title, a great review and tell them where to get it. Since you can set your email up to put your signature on everything you send out, this is marketing you can just "set it and forget it".

Show Up in Many Places

The internet is a big place and the people you're targeting to buy your book visit many sites. Your best bet is to figure out where they go and show up there in a variety of ways. For instance, you can design a banner ad for your book and get it posted on targeted sites. In some cases you may have to pay for the advertising, but if you have a site that someone wants to show up on themselves, they may be open to swapping ad space with you for free. Same thing goes for newsletters. Write articles for other newsletters, swap articles with other authors. Or, better yet, post articles to sites such as isnare.com or EzineArticles.com, and your writing will be sent all over the internet. You never know where your article will show up. One of my articles recently led to me being interviewed by Investors Business Daily. The reporter simply found it while doing a search on the topic of her story.

One last note: Because the internet is practically limitless in its reach, it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the marketing possibilities. Take a deep breath and map out your strategy. Not every tool will suit you, so don't try to do everything. It's better to choose two or three techniques and work those to success rather than do ten things, in a scattershot way, with poor results. Remember, technology is supposed to make life easier!

Author and Writing Coach Sophfronia Scott is "The Book Sistah" TM. Get her FREE REPORT, "The 5 Big Mistakes Most Writers Make When Trying to Get Published" and her FREE online writing and book publishing tips at http://www.TheBookSistah.com

Sophfonia is also author of the bestselling novel, All I Need to Get By. If you liked today's issue, stay tuned for more because The Book Sistah also offers FREE audio classes, FREE articles, workshops, and other resources to help aspiring authors get published and market their books successfully.

The Book Sistah
230 South Main St.
Ste. 319
Newtown, CT 06470
203-426-2036
Info@TheBookSistah.com
http://www.TheBookSistah.com

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Amazon's book recommendations increasingly plagued by brain farts

2007-10-31T12:43:00.000-04:00

I'm a big fan of Amazon's book recommendations. I buy at least a couple of new books every month based on an Amazon recommendation. And I know darned well that Amazon's recommendations sell a ton of the books I've authored on book marketing and bookselling.

In the past six months, though, I've been getting some truly bizarre recommendations for books from authors I've never heard of and topics I never buy.

It's not just me. Here's a forwarded e-mail I just received from an Amazon customer who bought one of my bookselling books. If Amazon continues sending out junk like this ...

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Steve Weber have also purchased Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George C. Wallace (Modern South) by Jeffrey Frederick. For this reason, you might like to know that Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George C. Wallace (Modern South) will be released on November 11, 2007. You can pre-order yours by following the link below.

Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George C. Wallace (Modern South)
Jeffrey Frederick
Price:$47.50

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Sell more books on Amazon.com

2007-10-29T11:30:00.000-04:00

By Cathy Stucker

Why Should Your Book Be on Amazon.com?

Credibility. If your book is important, it should be available at the world’s biggest book store.

Visibility. People (including members of the media) will find your book and learn about you through your appearance on Amazon. (That’s how I got into Woman’s Day magazine.)

Money. You will sell books you wouldn’t have sold otherwise. Many buyers won’t buy from your Web site or other sources, but will buy at Amazon. And, Amazon pays like clockwork.

Get Your Book Listed on Amazon.com
Your publisher or distributor will handle getting your book into the Amazon catalog. If you are self-published and don’t have a distributor, join Amazon Advantage at http://www.Amazon.com/advantage

To participate in Advantage, you must have distribution rights, and your book must have a scannable barcode of the ISBN.

Amazon Marketplace
Once your book is listed, you can also sell it directly to consumers through Amazon Marketplace. You will find more information about this on the Advantage information page listed above.

Amazon Associates
Once your book is listed on Amazon, join the Associates program http://www.Amazon.com/associates

As an Associate, you get a commission on book sales referred from your Web site. Why send people to Amazon from your Web site? Some people won’t buy from you. They don’t know you and they don’t trust you. But they do trust Amazon. Or, maybe they want to qualify for free shipping.

Enhance Your Book’s Detail Page
Add cover art, book description, editorial reviews, table of contents, excerpts, author information and more. Make your book’s listing just as complete and impressive as the latest from Stephen King, John Grisham and other major authors. For more information, see Bookseller Services at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/catalog-guide/guide/-/372286/ or log in to your Advantage account. Amazon will generally not allow URLs in your content, so don't try to slip your Web site in.

Search Inside the Book
This is controversial, but many publishers say they sell more books as a result of SITB. My sales seemed to go up after my book was in. You send Amazon a copy of your book, they scan it and make the entire book searchable. It increases the chances your book will come up during searches on the Amazon.com web site. You’ll find information on the Advantage page.

Use the tools Amazon.com provides to bring book buyers to your page and sell more books.

Copyright Cathy Stucker. As the IdeaLady, Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous. To learn more about publishing and get free marketing tips, visit Cathy at http://www.IdeaLady.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cathy_Stucker

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Q&A: Should I print Advance Review Copies of my book?

2007-10-17T13:22:00.000-04:00

QUESTION: I want to submit Advance Review Copies (ARCs) of an upcoming book to the review journals such as Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. Soon I'll have copies of the finished book, but I don't have any copies marked "ARC."

I've gotten quotes for printing ARCs, and the cost seems astronomical. Is this really necessary? One self-published author told me you can submit finished copies of the book with a cover sticker indicating it's an ARC.

Is a sticker good enough? I really need the big reviewers to mention this book, and I can't take a chance that they will refuse the book because of the sticker.

ANSWER: A sticker might work, and it might not. Just consider the way things works at the review journals: Envelopes containing review copies are opened by low-level employees, perhaps unpaid interns. They're inundated with books, most of them unacceptable. So they're looking for any reason to reject as many books as possible, as quickly as possible. They've probably all been told contradictory or arbitrary things. If it's not from a "trade" publisher, it goes in the trash ... if it's not four months before publication, it goes in the trash. These young people don't have the time to consider the books on their merits. And besides, most of them wouldn't know a great book if it fell on their head.

So follow the submission guidelines as closely as possible. Otherwise you're gambling unnecessarily. If the ARC sticker looks good, then the book might avoid the trash heap at three out of four places, but ultimately not selected for review by any of those three. And perhaps the one publication where the book was tossed was the one place where it might have been reviewed. You'd never know.

One option is to keep your costs down by using print on demand for your ARCs for trade publications like Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. You could probably get by with the ARC stickers for postpublication reviews at newspapers, magazines, etc., where there the submission guidelines aren't set in stone. Also, in these situations, the package would likely be opened personally by the reviewer or columnist, who would make an informed decision on whether to review the book.

You're right, a prominent review can make all the difference. On the other hand, the chances of any book getting reviewed aren't too great, and increasingly, trade reviews have less and less bearing on which books really succeed in the marketplace.
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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Q&A: How much will it cost to market my self-published book?

2007-10-16T13:32:00.000-04:00

QUESTION: My self-published book will be available soon. How much should I plan to spend on marketing? Are there any free or low-cost ways to market my book?

ANSWER: Keep your marketing budget as close to zero as possible.

“Free” and very low-cost Internet publicity is much more effective than paid advertising when it comes to books and online marketing in particular. We're talking about publicity, not advertising.

When people discover your content organically (through search results, social networking, etc.) they tend to be much more involved with your content and more likely to buy your book. With my own books, I have tested the performance of many different banner advertisements and Google and Yahoo pay-per-click ads. They are not sufficiently cost-effective, and it's easy to spend $50 in ads to sell at $15 book. You’re paying $1 or $2 per visitor, and the people leave your site within a few seconds. By contrast, the people who befriend you on MySpace or discover your blog are much more likely to stay on your site longer, consume more content, and buy your book. So the “free” route results in real word of mouth and, of course, the price is unbeatable.

So, what specific techniques do I recommend?

1. Writing a blog or maintaining a Web site where you post updated material at least once a week. Often people need to be exposed to a book title five or six times before they decide to buy. Readers can get comfortable with you at your Web site.

2. Participating in social networks such as MySpace, Facebook or Gather.com. Connect with some like-minded friends and they will help spread the word about you. You can also start your own social network using a service like Ning.com.

3. Recruit book reviewers (professional and amateur) to review your book on Amazon.com. The share of books sold online is growing, and many consumers who buy in local bookstores make their purchasing decisions online – with the help of Amazon reviews.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Online video seen as the future of book marketing

2007-10-15T12:45:00.000-04:00

Here's an online video that does a pretty good job of selling a book. In this case, Tim Sykes is pitching his book An American Hedge Fund to Amazon shoppers.

At first glance, you might be skeptical of this book -- or any other book that promises a ton of money. But seeing a pitch directly from the author adds credibility. If I were shopping for a book like this and trying to choose between this one and a competing book, everything else being equal, I'd probably buy this one -- based on the strength of the video and the connection it provides to the author.

Sykes, who self-published the book, says Amazon charged him $2,500 to display the video on his book's detail page. (Of course that doesn't include the costs of producing the video.) But there's speculation Amazon will soon allow authors to post videos for free using its Connect author blogging tool. In a recent survey, Amazon asked Connect participants whether adding videos to the program would be a good idea. Videos are already permitted in Amazon book reviews.

The great thing about Sykes' video is it's obvious he's talking to you -- the person shopping on Amazon. It's intimate, unlike most book videos, which resemble anything from a bad movie preview to a C-SPAN clip. I don't expect most author videos will be this good. Many will be generic crud from PR departments of big publishers -- the exact opposite of this one.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Shelfari offers 'power widget' for bloggers

2007-10-09T13:30:00.000-04:00

Shelfari, the social-networking book site connected with Amazon, is providing an easy way for bloggers to display lists of favorite books. The "power widget" is customizable and compatible with Amazon wish lists and most blogging software.

Bloggers can add their Amazon Associates affiliate IDs to the widget to earn commissions. You can test-drive the Shelfari widget here, no account necessary.
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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Home-made videos: The new tool for self-published authors

2007-10-09T12:25:00.000-04:00

It's pretty clear that online video is booming. Here's the audience growth at YouTube:

That, my friends, is a trend.

Videos are starting to pop up on Amazon book detail pages -- in both reviews and descriptive content. Cameras have gotten so cheap and simple, there's no big financial or technological hurdles to producing promotional videos anymore. So some authors are taking advantage.

Here's how one creative author is promoting his book. Now playing on YouTube: HOW TO MAKE A KILLING IN THE BOOK WORLD

The author, Eric Meeks, used an old Canon camera that had sat idle for two years. This summer, when he got the inspiration for the video, he finally read the owner's manual and taught himself to use its editing software.

Video-making is key to Eric's marketing plan for the book. He has an appearance lined up at a local bookstore, and to generate publicity, he's promising that everyone who attends the signing will get to witness a "real live author murder."

"Somebody from the crowd will get to 'kill' me with a retractable blade knife," Eric says. "At least I hope the blade retracts. Otherwise I'll be doing only one signing."
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Q&A: Will article syndication hurt my site's search rankings?

2007-10-02T23:36:00.001-04:00

QUESTION: I've heard of a "duplicate content penalty" if articles from my site appear elsewhere. Does this mean when I submit articles to www.ezinearticles.com that the sites downloading and displaying my articles are actually lowering my stats in search engines such as Google?

I want to promote my book's Web site more, but I certainly don't want to harm it by doing the wrong thing.

ANSWER: There's no one-size-fits-all answer here. It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. And there are a lot of moving parts: Google and the other search engines are constantly changing their business practices.

Some search-engine optimization experts believe article syndication indeed results in a duplicate content penalty, while other experts insist that the "penalty" is a myth. Only you will be able to decide which applies in your case.

There's nothing inherently wrong with submitting articles to ezinarticles.com and the similar content sites (or blogs). Generally, online content syndication is a good form of free advertising. Remember, though, if the content you syndicate is substantially the same as something that appears on your site, Google may put your page into its "supplemental" index. And then, most searchers won't find that content on your site, they'll find it elsewhere.

So, what's the problem? Maybe nothing. But depending on your situation, here are a few potential pitfalls:

The reader won't be able to easily discover the other content that appears on your site. (Your syndicated article may have a link back to your domain, but there is no guarantee that the reader will follow it. They may be distracted by the advertising or other content on ezinearticles.com or elsewhere.)

Perhaps you have advertising or affiliate programs on your site that generate revenue. If your online readers are consuming your content elsewhere, they won't be exposed to the advertising and other marketing that you control.

A reader who comes to your site is much more likely to subscribe to your RSS feed or e-mail newsletter than someone who consumes your content elsewhere. For some publishers, capturing that repeat reader or registering the e-mail address may be crucial to their business. Having that regular readership enables you to continually introduce new books or advertising programs, and benefit more from the effort put into creating content for your site.

Now, on the other hand, certain publishers might not mind the duplicate content "penalty" at all. Here's one example I can imagine: Let's say next month "ABC Books Inc." releases a biography of a singing star popular with teens. ABC Books is the first to market with a product about the singer. The book will probably sell strongly for a year or two. After that, there will probably be more competing books or (more likely) the singer will have faded from public view. In this case, ABC Books would be smart to hype the book now in every possible way, including content syndication. Teens who were interested in the book would likely purchase it, regardless of how they learned about it. Whether they discover ABC Books' Web site is inconsequential.

So it's a balancing act: How likely is it that you can prompt the reader of your online content to take the desired action with the words in your article alone? Is capturing their attention for a few moments and mentioning your title sufficient? Then you can probably accomplish this with article syndication.

But let's imagine another case. "Author X" is an author and a business consultant. People pay good money to hear this author speak at conferences, and they're willing to buy the author's other products, like audiotapes and DVDs. Readers might even be interested in hiring the author for one-on-one consulting. This author really benefits from being able to initiate a relationship with new readers. That's hard to do with an article syndication site. Sure, your syndicated article will have a link back to your site. But how do you know the reader is going to follow the link? It's just as likely they'll be distracted by other competing content or advertising on that other site.

Personally, I take a middle-of-the-road approach. I recycle some of the articles I put on my blog at other places -- such as MySpace, Gather.com, and ezinearticles.com. And then (where possible) I have a signup procedure on my syndicated articles with this language "If you like my articles, sign up here to receive them via e-mail." So, with some of my content, I'm degrading the SEO for my site. But at the same time I'm adding regular readers who might not have discovered my site otherwise.

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Amazon offers same-day delivery for $5.99 to Prime members

2007-10-02T11:45:00.000-04:00

I buy lots of books and videos, so I'm already a heavy user of Amazon Prime, which offers free two-day shipping and discounted overnight delivery for $80 a year. It just takes all the friction away from online buying when you can take shipping fees out of the equation.

Now Amazon is launching same-day delivery to Prime customers for $5.99. Apparently they're rolling it out now in the Northeast, and only certain items in the catalog are available. Here's the e-mail I just received (click to enlarge):

"Local Express Delivery" is what they're calling it. They started it in Seattle in August.

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Q&A: How can I promote my book with a press release?

2007-09-28T14:11:00.000-04:00

QUESTION: I'd like to alert the media to my book using a press release, but am unsure who should write it. I may be an expert on my book's subject, but not on writing press releases.

I've heard that you get one chance to make an impression with the media, and if the press release is not written just so, they will trash it and not read anything from you again.

ANSWER: You're absolutely right, it's crucial to have a professionally prepared news release for your book launch. I think it's possible for you to do it yourself, or at least to guide whoever writes the release with ideas you've generated.

Your major challenge is demonstrating how your book is compelling to its target audience. What current issue does your book address? What problem does it solve? Almost every press release announcing a new book is dreadfully dull, saying simply "Author X" or "Publisher X" releases a new book titled "XXX" and it's wonderful read, blah blah blah... These materials go straight into the trash cans of writers and reviewers.

Don't sell your book. Sell its benefits. Find a hook or gimmick to get people's attention, THEN mention the book. Want to see some great examples of this? Here's a link to a great little (free) booklet on writing "Trash-proof" news releases. The book is a few years old but the principles are valid as ever. I think the book would be very helpful for you to read -- whether you end up doing the release yourself, or as a guide to evaluating the work if you hire a publicist to write the news releases.

You might also contact the author of the book for a quote on writing your release, Paul Krupin. He's one of the folks recommended by Dan Poynter in the "Self Publishing Manual." I've read many of Paul's postings on discussion boards and it's pretty evident that he's a very experienced and hardworking publicist.

So yes, you *could* do your own release, but should definitely have it reviewed by someone (or a few people) without a personal interest in the book. You could have a publicist do it, or someone who's an avid reader. The one big advantage of having a publicist do your release is that it will be on a letterhead of a publicity firm, which might add some credibility in the eyes of some people.

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Seth Godin: Authors should build their own Web page

2007-09-27T13:15:00.000-04:00

Interesting post on Seth Godin's blog today. He's warning authors that publicizing your book on a Web page owned by your publisher is a waste of time:

Publishers, like many organizations, want to control the conversation, want to own the web page, want to be sure that people come to them, as opposed to going where people are.

Seth's solution? Authors should build their page on Seth's Web site, Squidwho.

Take a quick look around Squidwho and you'll see biographies such as this one on Paul McCartney. But if you look closely, you'll realize that the bio has actually been pulled from Wikipedia.

For do-it-yourself authors, the difference between Squidwho and Wikipedia is that Squidwho has no prohibitions against vanity profiles, so authors are perfectly free to write their own page. On the other hand, authors must surrender part of their affiliate commissions made on book sales.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors

Getting readers involved with your new book

2007-09-25T11:06:00.000-04:00

After looking at some of his publisher's paperwork for his upcoming second novel, author Josh Kilmer-Purcell realized that two slightly different titles were being used:

Candy Everyone Wants, and

Candy Everybody Wants

Which one should it be?

Kilmer-Purcell decided to let his MySpace friends decide by voting on his blog.

Vote below, and then add your best literary argument for your decision in the comments section. i know most of you (like me) were English majors in college cause you couldn't settle on a real vocation. so here's your chance to pull out your best bullshit deconstructionismaries ...

The winner gets a mention in the book's acknowledgments and a free advance copy.
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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors