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  4. Reader 06/22/18 Edition

June 22, 2018
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What say I pepper you with some quick-and-dirty online book marketing tips in this issue;s intro? Yeah, let’s do that.

Why all that anal fussing over your book cover design? It’s not supposed to win design awards… what you want is for it to look legit. To help with sales. What you don’t want is that crappy homemade DIY look (speaking of which, what’s up with that? Are you nuts?).

When was the last time you went to YouTube to check out book trailers when you wanted to find and buy a book to read? Oh please. Quit with the book trailer BS, unless you’ve got a specific book marketing job in mind. It sure isn’t discovery.

Why are you spending all that time hanging around other authors in online forums? Hang out with your readers.

You’re not just an author — you’re a reader. Think like one, and you’ll find where others just like you are hanging around online.

And here’s probably the most powerful book marketing tip ever, and it’s very old school: Go find an influencer and get them to do an honest-to-goodness review of your book on their blog, newspaper column, etc. None of this rinky dink ARCs for Amazon reviews you’re all screwing around with. Get ARCs in the hands of influencers.

That’ll do it for now. Enjoy today’s featured selections!

— EES

wp reader 062218

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Indie Author/Publishing

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 »
Spread the love
Elon Musk

“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
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$4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book Only Spending $30 on Advertising

$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 »
Spread the love
wp-admin

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
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Free

Life in Start-up Nation: Two Young French Entrepreneurs Speak Out | INSEAD Knowledge

Life in Start-up Nation: Two Young French Entrepreneurs Speak Out

“For start-up founders the world over, growth is often far from linear. But the fast-evolving French start-up ecosystem can be a real roller-coaster ride.”

INSEAD Knowledge »

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The Truth About Publishing

Inaccurate, of Course – Most Don’t Make It to the Shelves

The Truth About Publishing

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Wordpreneur Reader

The Importance of Publishing in Multiple Languages

“The world speaks English—or you would think so based on the marketing strategies of the overwhelming majority of independent authors where nearly all limit themselves to the English-speaking American market. Amazon.com and only Amazon.com is the focal point of their efforts. From a marketing standpoint, this is foolish. English ranks fourth globally behind Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish which altogether represent over 1.75 billion speakers compared to just 510 million English speakers worldwide. Of those 510 million English speakers across 63 countries, just 340 million speak a dialect of English natively (source: Vistawide).

Limiting yourself to English also makes little sense for the American book market. A 2015 study published in The Guardian shows that the United States is second in the world behind Mexico in the number of Spanish speakers with 52.6 million native and bilingual Spanish speaker in the USA.”

Continue reading @ BookDaily »
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Book Marketing

You’re NOT giving your books away for free!

Wordpreneur Notebook • June 14, 2020

You’re NOT giving your books away for free!

Browsing indie author discussion forums on social media makes me sad sometimes. Particularly when folks who have zero marketing sense (and hence, no experience worth talking about) give indie author newbies marketing “advice.” Usually witty enough (they’re writers, after all), the damage these can cause on impressionable, insecure minds borders on totally irresponsible.

The bit I’m focusing on now, since I just saw it yet again a few moments ago, revolves around the recurring discussion and argument over giving your books away for free. Almost always, it’s about the Kindle Select feature that lets you give your Kindle book away totally free for a few days.

The usual trying-hard-to-be-witty retorts from some “veterans” are along the lines of, “I don’t work for free; my work has value and I expect a fair price for my books.” Sounds like sensible wisdom doesn’t it? Principled too! And it’s bullcrap.

I’ve long learned not to participate in these kinds of discussions on the forums. Not that I lose them; I’m impatient and quite caustic with the arrogant, which often turn out to be the “vets” holding court (instead of actually writing) over their little online fiefdoms. Burning bridges all over the fracking place when I do that. Not that I care much about the pretenders on the thrones; all the silent lurkers now scared away, those are the real losses with uncomfortable socmed behavior. Keep that in mind whenever you’re about to embark on some inadvisable impulsive socmed activity. (Hey, that’s a sidetip right there!)

So now I mainly just monitor these author and writer forums quietly, only replying and participating periodically, usually to answer some technical question. Not that it’s easy to stay quiet; it does take a lot not to jump in when seeing this kind of misguiding arrogance in a fairly important discussion on the “to free or not to free” conundrum.

In this case, it’s a constant battle to fight the urge to reply with, “So, how’s that working out for you? How are sales? Oh, never mind, I can see that clearly for myself on Amazon.” The implication, of course, is that they typically have no sales worth talking about, and with Amazon’s public rankings (not to mention review counts), it isn’t something that can be hidden easily either. Many even sport crappy homemade book covers. Surprise!

Not that there aren’t any successful indie authors who moderate and/or participate in those forums. There sure are. But they’re also usually the ones who stay quiet in threads covering these types of topics. That should tell us something, huh?

OK, enough of that. Here’s the point: Giving books away via Kindle Select is no different from paying money for advertising. Zero to do with readers needing to “pay you for your work” on that book.

It’s an expense. It’s a marketing tool. It may even prove to be cost:benefit cheaper than straight up paying for advertising (especially if you don’t know what you’re doing in that arena either). And it most certainly is one of the very few marketing tools available to you with the potential for good to high returns if you have no cash to spend on book marketing.

That some of these vocal indie author “veterans” don’t comprehend that very basic business principle, well, that’s quite a reveal of what they really know and have actually done, isn’t it?

So, that means you should go right ahead and start giving your book away via Kindle Select, right?

Nonononono. And one more no for good measure. Just like everything else, you’ve got to do it right to reap its benefits. Or things can go south, really fast.

For one thing, it’s no magic pill. If no one knows your book exists and is on sale on Amazon, making it suddenly free for a few days won’t change that. They still won’t know it exists, which puts one heck of a damper on that getting them to download it for free thing. If you’ve already got a fragile ego, I’m not sure you really want a “no one wants it even if it’s free” punch to your ego’s throat. You’ve still got to promote it, get the word out that it’s free on those days.

Even if you do manage to get the word out and a good number of folks pick it up while it’s free, that doesn’t mean you’ll see a significant uptick in your sales numbers once it goes back to regular price, assuming you even get any upticks from what’s normal for your title.

Let’s plan to revisit these Kindle Select freebies in one or more future posts. Maybe, however, it’s enough for you to know and start wrapping your mind around the fact that giving your book away as part of a well-thought out book marketing plan can work, and work very well.

So, if you do manage to come across one of these “veterans” online spouting those silly soundbites, just chuckle and move on. You’ve got way more important things to do with your time, which, if you haven’t noticed, you really don’t have too much of to get where you want to go. None of us really do. 😉

Book Marketing
Book Marketing
Zero-Cost Book Publishing: Write, Publish & Sell Your Book Yourself… for Free!
Free Domain Names: Where to Get Them and How to Use Them
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Marketing

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 »
Spread the love
Elon Musk

“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
Spread the love
$4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book Only Spending $30 on Advertising

$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 »
Spread the love
wp-admin

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
Spread the love

Writing

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 »
Spread the love
Elon Musk

“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
Spread the love
$4,344.81 in 40 Days with my Fiction Book Only Spending $30 on Advertising

$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 »
Spread the love
wp-admin

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
Spread the love
Zero-Cost Book Publishing: Write, Publish & Sell Your Book Yourself… for Free!
Free Domain Names: Where to Get Them and How to Use Them
Spread the love
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