Reader
No shortage of information and instructions, either, for the things we can do ourselves. Take a quick look at this issue’s Indie Author/Publishing category selections for a good sampling.
Unfortunately, there’s no shortage of indies who didn’t get this memo: What you should never ever do is “make do.” Not if you want a chance to make some decent sales, at least.
Those of you who do this “make do” thing, what the hell are you thinking?
I mean, look at it this way. What we have here is a huge company with an overwhelmingly dominant share of a book market — well hell, they created it, so why is anyone surprised? — giving us the privilege to sell in this marketplace for free, no fees, not even a recurring annual fee, totally unheard of back in the day (yeah, I’ve been around a while). And to top it off, we do our jobs right, our stuff will be presented on the proverbial shelf right next to the Big Five’s titles. We’re being given the opportunity to compete head-to-head with the big boys for absolutely no $$$$.
So what do some of us do with this unheard of opp? We put some crappy homemade cover on some half-assed edited (if that) book and put it up for sale.
Are you effing kidding me?
I’d normally be a whole lot less riled up about this — as in, “I don’t care, it’s their funeral” — except for this one inescapable truth: Folks who do this are screwing the whole indie author community too. We have a difficult enough time fighting the market’s perception that indie work is, well, crap. Notice how I can’t even say it’s a misperception… a significant number of folks really ARE pumping out a bunch of crappy homemade stuff.
Sigh. Can’t really stop the selfish and inconsiderate from doing any of that. So rant off. Point is, though, try not to be one of those dweebs who squander this incredible opportunity and screw it up for everyone else as well by being lazy, or cheap, or lazy and cheap.
Do it smart. Reading helps. Enjoy today’s selection!
— EES
Please Share the Love!
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
Free eBooks
Profitable Self-Publishing: 4 Ways to Approach Distribution & Discounting
“Many new self-publishers don’t quite understand how discounting works in different parts of the book distribution system. This topic is vital to understand if you expect all your hard work to result in profitable self-publishing and a viable business enterprise.”
![how-these-9-best-romance-books-will-make-you-fall-for-rains-more[1]](https://wordpreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/how-these-9-best-romance-books-will-make-you-fall-for-rains-more1-167x130.jpg "how-these-9-best-romance-books-will-make-you-fall-for-rains-more[1]")
21 Romances in Smashwords Top 25 Self-Published Bestsellers (October 2016)
Looking through the Smashwords Self-Published Bestseller List, based on gross sales for the month of October 2016, you can’t help but notice that the top 5 — yes, very single one of them — are in the Romance genre.
Shocking? Not until you realize that among that list of 25 titles, a whopping 21 of them are all romances.
Food for thought if you want your writing to help you eat, huh?
Two Options
“There are only two options: Make progress or make excuses.” ~Tony Robbins
Put this design and message on your wall, wear it on your shirt, enjoy your coffee from it, and more!
BUY
peeps: Joel Friedlander
Award-winning book designer Joel Friedlander has helped launch the careers of self-publishers since 1994 and writes the popular blog, The Book Designer. Drawing from some of the most useful and informative of his blog posts, Joel published A Self-Publisher’s Companion, Expert Advice for Authors Who Want to Publish, which has been very well-received and highly regarded in indie publishing circles.
The man knows his stuff. He won the AIGA “50 Books of the Year Award” for his work at Aperture Publishing. And the Printing Industries of America Gold Award as well for his book design and production. Born in the Bronx, New York, and educated in Buffalo and Danbury, Connecticut, Joel now owns and runs Marin Bookworks in San Rafael, California.
How Joel Got Started Self-Publishing
Years ago, Joel and his wife, Jill, were studying the subject of an odd “ancient system of personality exploration” where how, just by looking at people, one could determine a lot about them, such as the kind of work they preferred and who they’d be attracted to. There were no books on the subject, so Joel wrote one. Being in the publishing industry, he “realized no publisher would touch it, since it was about a subject no one had ever heard of, by an author equally obscure.” So, they published it themselves.
With basic book marketing, they sold 10,000 copies of it. The book, Body Types, is still in print and selling every month, and do please note, this was first published over 27 years ago, way before the era of the Kindle and easy, very low cost KDP ebook publishing!
Today, besides the publishing blog and book mentioned previously, Joel is also the founder of the online training course, The Self-Publishing Roadmap.
Self-Publishing Tips
- “The most important thing for nonfiction authors is to get to know your readers, preferably before you write the book! Get into a conversation with them through presentations, blogging, social media, or whatever works for you. This will give you insight into their concerns and what exactly they want to know, and will help make your book way more successful than it might have been otherwise.”
- “For fiction authors, keep getting better at your craft and write and publish more books.”
- “Use good editors and cover designers and stick with it. You need the mind of a marathoner.“
Learn more about Joel and his work by visiting his Amazon author page and his blog, The Book Designer. You can also follow him on Twitter.
Originally published: May 14, 2013
Indie Author/Publishing
“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.”
