Reader
I like to imagine that’s how one of the bigwigs of the Big Six (which is how many of them there were back then) reacted upon being informed of this new thing called the Internet and how a tiny startup wanted to make a go at being a cyberspace bookstore. Heck, not really difficult to imagine ALL of them reacting in a similar fashion.
Yeah, laughter and likely mocking all around at all this silliness, and back to “business” controlling that good old distribution system, as usual.
I’m sure there wasn’t much laughter when they eventually realized later how screwed they were. They’d let some other now-not-so-small company totally dominate what they’ve figured out is an incredibly important, huge and growing market for their product. A market eating away huge chunks of their existing one. By a company founded and run by an “outsider.” Someone brilliant.
It sure didn’t help matters any the dude was working some weird-assed gameplan none of them could figure out, they couldn’t rattle the guy and he held and played all the right cards. In a game he was writing the rules for.
Basically the quintessential nightmare scenario for greedy rich old fogeys complacent in their greedy rich old fogeyness.
I’d like to think that at that instant of realization, the group of book publishing bigwigs uttered a collective, “Sh*t.”
Now, although it’s fun going through all this backstory, it’s not really giving answers to the question we’re tackling with this writing exercise. Which, if you’ll remember, is: Why expect industry sales reports for ebooks to be less than stellar?
So let’s fast forward to the age of the Kindle, aka the true modern ebook that can viably replace traditional books, not that crappy little-more-than-Xerox-copies-on-a-computer-screen PDF crapola (which, unfortunately, many Luddites still think is what ebooks are all about, by the way… sigh).
Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? The Big Five hates the ebook business. Obviously and understandably. Hell, if Luddites — who’ve got no skin in the game and have little in the way of sensible arguments save maybe for some fetish for the “smell” of old books — despise ebooks, what more the folks who’re cut completely out of that book distribution and control thing for the new marketplace? The one that’s chomping away at their old one with that convoluted archaic system they actually do control. Well, they know how to fix that. What do they do? They price their ebooks way too high.
Yes boys and girls, only a biased dimbulb can’t see that they’re sabotaging their own freaking ebook sales.
Check it out for yourselves. Quick checks through Amazon reveal Kindle pricing within just $2-3 of hardcovers, often even less. Are you kidding me? At those price points, screw the digital crap… I’m killing a tree. And getting a hardcover! For that kind of money, I’m going full hog with a total sense of book ownership instead of simply consuming content. (That, by the way, is the one clear thing that comes to mind that dead tree books give you that ebooks can’t, something I wrote about years ago in the old Wordpreneur, around 2010 to be exact.)
And here’s one that’s particularly interesting that will help drive the point home: As of this writing, near the top of the NYT bestsellers list is the James Patterson fiction factory’s The 17th Suspect. Hardcover price? $14.50. Paperback? $11.81. Kindle? $14.99.
Yeah, right, those industry ebook sales reports sure are legit. hahahaha
Sure, there are a lot more really fun tidbits on this particular topic I can share, but time and place, huh? This isn’t it. Let’s just say for our purposes, the integrity of those recurring industry ebook sales reports are, shall we say, highly questionable.
I will add this, however: If anything, all these reported ebook sales figures should actually rattle the bejeezus out of your dead tree book loving soul. No, not because the Big Five dingleberries are futzing around with the prices and sales figures — can’t really expect much better from those guys. It’s this: Do you realize that even with all that sabotaging, ebook sales are still significant? BOOM! Imagine what it’d be really like if the Big Five quit playing sneaky dirty. Tsk tsk tsk.
Next issue: The biggest reason why those industry ebook sales figures are about as reliable a picture of the truth as people’s social media profile portraits. In the meantime, here are today’s dozen to tide you over until then. Enjoy!
— EES
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Entrepreneur
![1+tip[1]](https://wordpreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/1tip1-167x130.jpg "1+tip[1]")
“Can’t you give me just 1 tip (for getting book reviews)?” she asked
“The other day a newly published author who had befriended me 5 minutes earlier asked me if I could give her just one tip how to get book reviews from Amazon top reviewers.
I told her to read my book.
She came back with, ‘Can’t you give me just 1 tip?’
Hmm… Apparently this author was not aware how much in demand these reviews are; on average Hall-of-Fame reviewers get 250+ review requests per month.
So, I told her that getting a book reviewed by an Amazon top reviewer isn’t a ‘1-tip thing,’ especially if the book did not have any reviews yet. Getting reviews is a challenging task that encompasses many steps; which is why my book has 100 pages.
She immediately un-friended me.
I guess that says it all. Just another wannabe author who does not really want to learn the trade. The indie author industry is overrun with people like that. The sooner they get out and make room for the people who really hone their craft and all skills, the better for all.
Of course, from experience I know that most indie authors work a lot harder than this one.
So, here is one tip for authors whose books received already a few reviews (including from top reviewers).
‘Like/find helpful’ the reviewers’ reviews!!!”
Continue reading @ Gisela’s Straightforward Blog »
“Self-Made” is a Myth; Here’s the Real Formula for Success
“[T]hat’s what most people get wrong. They never learn how to reach out. You’ve got to be willing to put yourself out there…”
» Medium
$4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book Only Spending $30 on Advertising
“I had a plan. A big plan. Heck, I had the plan of the universe — to sell thousands of copies of my new release Science Fiction book, Project Atlantis, during the first month I published it.
This plan started six months before I started writing the book. The plan entailed rapidly finishing three books in a series — Project Atlantis, Destination Atlantis, and Colony Atlantis — and once it had been edited, beta-read, and sent out to my ARC reviewers, I’d release Project Atlantis, then Destination Atlantis seven days later, and Colony Atlantis fourteen days after Destination Atlantis. Additionally, I’d have the fourth book, Beyond Atlantis, almost 100% written. Yet, I’d have Beyond Atlantis’s pre-order already up and running before Colony Atlantis was released, all the while dropping over $1500 dollars in Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads, and on Promo Sites, and whatever else I could get my greedy paws on.
Well, I did none of the above.
Here is what happened that led me to only spending $30 on Facebook and Amazon ads and how I was able to make $4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book.”
Continue reading @ Medium »
10 Actionable WordPress Security Tips for the Layman
“[T]he more popular something is, the more people want to leverage on it for nefarious means… Fortunately, WordPress is a platform that offers you a multitude of opportunity to defend yourself.”
» WHSR
Social Media
“Can’t you give me just 1 tip (for getting book reviews)?” she asked
“The other day a newly published author who had befriended me 5 minutes earlier asked me if I could give her just one tip how to get book reviews from Amazon top reviewers.
I told her to read my book.
She came back with, ‘Can’t you give me just 1 tip?’
Hmm… Apparently this author was not aware how much in demand these reviews are; on average Hall-of-Fame reviewers get 250+ review requests per month.
So, I told her that getting a book reviewed by an Amazon top reviewer isn’t a ‘1-tip thing,’ especially if the book did not have any reviews yet. Getting reviews is a challenging task that encompasses many steps; which is why my book has 100 pages.
She immediately un-friended me.
I guess that says it all. Just another wannabe author who does not really want to learn the trade. The indie author industry is overrun with people like that. The sooner they get out and make room for the people who really hone their craft and all skills, the better for all.
Of course, from experience I know that most indie authors work a lot harder than this one.
So, here is one tip for authors whose books received already a few reviews (including from top reviewers).
‘Like/find helpful’ the reviewers’ reviews!!!”
Continue reading @ Gisela’s Straightforward Blog »
“Self-Made” is a Myth; Here’s the Real Formula for Success
“[T]hat’s what most people get wrong. They never learn how to reach out. You’ve got to be willing to put yourself out there…”
» Medium
$4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book Only Spending $30 on Advertising
“I had a plan. A big plan. Heck, I had the plan of the universe — to sell thousands of copies of my new release Science Fiction book, Project Atlantis, during the first month I published it.
This plan started six months before I started writing the book. The plan entailed rapidly finishing three books in a series — Project Atlantis, Destination Atlantis, and Colony Atlantis — and once it had been edited, beta-read, and sent out to my ARC reviewers, I’d release Project Atlantis, then Destination Atlantis seven days later, and Colony Atlantis fourteen days after Destination Atlantis. Additionally, I’d have the fourth book, Beyond Atlantis, almost 100% written. Yet, I’d have Beyond Atlantis’s pre-order already up and running before Colony Atlantis was released, all the while dropping over $1500 dollars in Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads, and on Promo Sites, and whatever else I could get my greedy paws on.
Well, I did none of the above.
Here is what happened that led me to only spending $30 on Facebook and Amazon ads and how I was able to make $4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book.”
Continue reading @ Medium »
10 Actionable WordPress Security Tips for the Layman
“[T]he more popular something is, the more people want to leverage on it for nefarious means… Fortunately, WordPress is a platform that offers you a multitude of opportunity to defend yourself.”
» WHSR
Writing
“Can’t you give me just 1 tip (for getting book reviews)?” she asked
“The other day a newly published author who had befriended me 5 minutes earlier asked me if I could give her just one tip how to get book reviews from Amazon top reviewers.
I told her to read my book.
She came back with, ‘Can’t you give me just 1 tip?’
Hmm… Apparently this author was not aware how much in demand these reviews are; on average Hall-of-Fame reviewers get 250+ review requests per month.
So, I told her that getting a book reviewed by an Amazon top reviewer isn’t a ‘1-tip thing,’ especially if the book did not have any reviews yet. Getting reviews is a challenging task that encompasses many steps; which is why my book has 100 pages.
She immediately un-friended me.
I guess that says it all. Just another wannabe author who does not really want to learn the trade. The indie author industry is overrun with people like that. The sooner they get out and make room for the people who really hone their craft and all skills, the better for all.
Of course, from experience I know that most indie authors work a lot harder than this one.
So, here is one tip for authors whose books received already a few reviews (including from top reviewers).
‘Like/find helpful’ the reviewers’ reviews!!!”
Continue reading @ Gisela’s Straightforward Blog »
Free eBooks
peeps: CJ Lyons
CJ Lyons is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of eighteen novels. Her “Thrillers with Heart” crime fiction books have proven very popular, and maybe that shouldn’t be too surprising considering what she brings to the table: CJ is a former pediatric ER doctor and has literally “lived the life she writes about.” Or, as her website officially puts it:
“CJ Lyons has lived most of her life on the edge. Trained in Pediatric Emergency Medicine, CJ has assisted police and prosecutors with cases involving child abuse, rape, homicide and Munchausen by Proxy. She has worked in numerous trauma centers, on the Navajo reservation, as a crisis counselor, victim advocate, as well as a flight physician for Life Flight and Stat Medevac.”
Boom!
Now she’s a hell of a story-teller. She’s been called a “master within the genre” (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work praised as “breathtakingly fast-paced” and “riveting” (Publishers Weekly) with “characters with beating hearts and three dimensions” (Newsday).
One more thing we can call her today: self-publisher.
How CJ Got Started Self-Publishing
After CJ’s second book came out in 2009, her fans clamored for more. Although she already had several manuscripts in the editing and production pipeline, her publisher was only releasing them once a year. “When I heard about Kindle’s self publishing option,” she remembers, “I thought it was a great win/win: an easy way for me to get books into the hands of my readers faster and keep them happy until my next NYC book came out.”
She used her self-published books as giveaways to help promote her traditionally published books. She also used to them to help raise money for charity and to build a readership.
Then something clicked. “I soon realized that this was a valuable income stream and within a year I was making a living wage solely from my self-published books.”
Self-Publishing Tips
“It’s amazingly quick and easy to publish a book nowadays. But I caution you. Don’t. At least not right away. If you’re thinking of publishing and building a career as a writer, you need a clear vision beyond one book.
What’s your next book going to be about? How about the one after that? Are you reaching out to the same readers (business folks call this building your platform)? How are you going to keep them coming back for more? What about your books will so delight and excite them that they’ll tell their friends about them?
Who are you recruiting to be on your team? An agent? A traditional publisher? If you’re going indy it might be a group of editors (I use three on every book) and graphic designers, maybe formatters and web gurus.
Yes, that first draft is for you, you, you. But as soon as you decide to publish it, you’re making the leap from artist to businessperson. Your focus must switch from being all about you to being all about your readers. Look before you leap and grab a parachute while you’re at it!”
Got all that? Especially that “three editors” bit? Talk about food for thought… Thanks CJ!
Learn more about CJ Lyons and her work by visiting her Amazon author page, and checking out her websites CJ Lyons and Thrillers with Heart. You can also learn everything she knows about being a bestseller and selling a million books at No Rules Just WRITE!
Originally published: February 7, 2013
Agatha Christie on Planning a Book
11 of the Best Social Media Management and Reporting Tools to Consider
11 of the Best Social Media Management and Reporting Tools to Consider
SOURCE: Social Media Today
This list should prove a valuable reference for the readers, too. Each vendor represented below helps brands, agencies and marketers scale, schedule and report on social media.”
[bookmark]
4 Pillars of Successful Book Marketing
4 Pillars of Successful Book Marketing
SOURCE: IngramSpark
LINK: http://www.ingramspark.com/blog/4-pillars-of-successful-book-marketing
Writing 2
“Self-Made” is a Myth; Here’s the Real Formula for Success
“[T]hat’s what most people get wrong. They never learn how to reach out. You’ve got to be willing to put yourself out there…”
» Medium
Marketing
“Can’t you give me just 1 tip (for getting book reviews)?” she asked
“The other day a newly published author who had befriended me 5 minutes earlier asked me if I could give her just one tip how to get book reviews from Amazon top reviewers.
I told her to read my book.
She came back with, ‘Can’t you give me just 1 tip?’
Hmm… Apparently this author was not aware how much in demand these reviews are; on average Hall-of-Fame reviewers get 250+ review requests per month.
So, I told her that getting a book reviewed by an Amazon top reviewer isn’t a ‘1-tip thing,’ especially if the book did not have any reviews yet. Getting reviews is a challenging task that encompasses many steps; which is why my book has 100 pages.
She immediately un-friended me.
I guess that says it all. Just another wannabe author who does not really want to learn the trade. The indie author industry is overrun with people like that. The sooner they get out and make room for the people who really hone their craft and all skills, the better for all.
Of course, from experience I know that most indie authors work a lot harder than this one.
So, here is one tip for authors whose books received already a few reviews (including from top reviewers).
‘Like/find helpful’ the reviewers’ reviews!!!”
Continue reading @ Gisela’s Straightforward Blog »
“Self-Made” is a Myth; Here’s the Real Formula for Success
“[T]hat’s what most people get wrong. They never learn how to reach out. You’ve got to be willing to put yourself out there…”
» Medium
$4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book Only Spending $30 on Advertising
“I had a plan. A big plan. Heck, I had the plan of the universe — to sell thousands of copies of my new release Science Fiction book, Project Atlantis, during the first month I published it.
This plan started six months before I started writing the book. The plan entailed rapidly finishing three books in a series — Project Atlantis, Destination Atlantis, and Colony Atlantis — and once it had been edited, beta-read, and sent out to my ARC reviewers, I’d release Project Atlantis, then Destination Atlantis seven days later, and Colony Atlantis fourteen days after Destination Atlantis. Additionally, I’d have the fourth book, Beyond Atlantis, almost 100% written. Yet, I’d have Beyond Atlantis’s pre-order already up and running before Colony Atlantis was released, all the while dropping over $1500 dollars in Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads, and on Promo Sites, and whatever else I could get my greedy paws on.
Well, I did none of the above.
Here is what happened that led me to only spending $30 on Facebook and Amazon ads and how I was able to make $4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book.”
Continue reading @ Medium »
10 Actionable WordPress Security Tips for the Layman
“[T]he more popular something is, the more people want to leverage on it for nefarious means… Fortunately, WordPress is a platform that offers you a multitude of opportunity to defend yourself.”
