I don’t know if this post has the right information (can’t always believe everything you read 😉 ). But if it is, it is a bit disturbing.
Source: (Michael Kozlowski of Good E Reader)Â Here are all the New Amazon Book Review Policies
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How Book Selling Really Works – Updated for 2016 | BooksGoSocial Book Marketing Blog
Laurence O’Bryan writes about some realities about book publishing – he has made some good points, especially at the end when he says, “Don’t underestimate the amount of work you will need to do to make your Alice-like dreams come true. I read again and again about writers whose fourth, tenth or fourteenth book hit the big time. Think about how many years those writers invested in their craft and in nurturing their readers.”
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If you’re a new author, traditionally or independently published, one of the problems that you face is that you may not understand how book selling really works. The publishing world in 2016 is similar to a Mad Hatter’s tea party.…
 How Book Selling Really Works – Updated for 2016 | BooksGoSocial Book Marketing Blog
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Warning Messages for Errors in Amazon Kindle e-BooksÂ
Chris McMullen has delved into the Amazon ebook mistakes issue for us, so if you want to know more, check out the link below. I’m wondering if they will flag bad grammar or problems with tense or POV. They are going off readers comments, so who knows.
Though I can’t believe they care that much about “the readers experience” to really police people’s writing that much. It would only make sense if it affected their bottom line somehow, and I can’t imagine keeping a poorly edited book up on their site that might not have that many sales can’t really be an issue for them. It hurts the author, but that is a whole different topic!
Source: Warning Messages for Errors in Amazon Kindle e-Books | chrismcmullen
Rites of Submission: Cover Letters and Query Letters
For those who are looking to publish with a big (traditional) publishing house, either while you’re self-publishing or instead of self-publishing (it doesn’t matter these days), Jacqueline has posted some information about the very important cover and query letters.
And it goes without saying (but it’s important so I’ll say it anyway), your manuscript has to be as best as you and your editor can make it.
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Sample cover letters, query letters, and comments on the art of writing them, by Jacqueline K. Ogburn, published as part of a WWW site dedicated to children’s books and the writing and illustrating of them.
Source: Rites of Submission: Cover Letters and Query Letters
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Thinking About Writing in Multiple Genres? Here’s What You Need to Know
Kimberley Grabas writes about genre hopping on Joel Friedlander’s “The Book Designer” site . I am about to do that for the first time and I would have to agree with her, it is probably not a smart move marketing and sales wise.
For those of you who don’t know me well, I have 5 books out in the historical fiction genre, one memoir (not mine) and I am about to publish my first MG (middle grade) adventure mystery story – “Intrigue in Istanbul – An Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure.”
Why switch genre’s (and age groups)?
I came upon the Flavia de Luce series of Allan Bradley and I was inspired. [If you haven’t read any of Allan Bradley’s books, I’d highly recommend them. They are well written and entertaining.] Because it is quite a jump from adult histfic, I have done more work on the front end to make sure I have the genre and age group down. I have had more readers (over 10) read it ahead of time, had MG readers (5) read it ahead of time and read a lot more in that same genre.
All this will not ensure I do well, but I think it is a good first step. Now I have to figure out how to market to that age group, since it is parents that have the checkbook, it will be an interesting genre to market to. I am told by other MG writers that I need to get into the schools. I happen to have two friends who are MG teachers, so I am going to start there. I am also going to join a children’s writers and illustrators group (Society of Book Writers and Illustrators – SCBWI) as well as talk to other MG writers who are willing to share their marketing wisdom.
Would I do better sticking to my genre? – Probably.
Would I be happy sticking to my genre? – No – to confining.
Do I care? – Not particularly. I still work a day job (helping other writers!) so writing and publishing for myself is the cream in my coffee (if I drank coffee :), that is). And I’m up for the challenge!
I’ll let you know how the jump turns out.
Source: Thinking About Writing in Multiple Genres? Here’s What You Need to Know – The Book Designer
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Disturbing Changes to Kindle Unlimited
Wow! This post by Mark Coker of Smashwords lets all us indie authors on some very disturbing news – basically the devaluation of an already inexpensive way to read your book.
Amazon is decreasing the fee needed for readers to get into their book subscription service: Kindle Unlimited. Now in India, it has cut the cost of this service from $9.99 to $3! with hints of doing the same in other countries.
Read Marks post and see how some readers are responding. It is sad but not to surprising. And Mark gives us all a way to change this. Please read on!
Source: Smashwords
How to Sell Books to Libraries
Keep in mind –
This is a post from Ingram Spark and Lauren Charles. I’m not sure it gives you much insight into getting into libraries other than trying to get reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus.
I haven’t checked these folks out lately but it used to be fairly costly to get a review from Kirkus. And Library Journal, which doesn’t charge for reviews, required you to send them a book three months before you were going to publish it. What indie author is going to wait three months to publish their book to the public to wait on the Library Journal maybe doing a review. I have not checked out Publishers Weekly review requirements, but I probably should. Kirkus and LJ rules may have also changed since indie authors are getting to be more main stream then they used to be.
Anyone out there have any updated information on getting reviews from the folks as an indie author?
[REALITY CHECK] The EU VAT (Sales Tax) Situation…and You by Jim Brown
If you wanted to know the details about the EU VAT (Sales Tax) then check out Jim Browns post on She Writes. Probably more than you want to know, but who knows. I tend to stay with big ebook publishers (Amazon, Smashwords – who publishes on ibookstore, kobo, B & N… for me) who take care of this, so it’s not an issue for me, but it might be for you. Always good to know what’s going on in the book world anyway!
[REALITY CHECK] The EU VAT (Sales Tax) Situation…and You by Jim Brown – She Writes.
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