Book Industry: An Interview with Expert Joanna Penn

Today I have an excerpt of a recent interview with industry expert and author Joanna Penn (J. F. Penn). She has one of the most popular blogs in the book writing, marketing and publishing industry. Joanna has written several business books highlighted below along with the Kindle bestselling ARKANE thrillers, Pentecost and Prophecy.

Author Genre: Action-Adventure Thriller

Author's Blog: The Creative Penn
Website: J. F. Penn, Ancient Mystery, Modern Thrill
Twitter: @thecreativepenn
E-Mail: joanna@TheCreativePenn.com
LinkedIn: Check Out LinkedIn
Facebook: Check Out Facebook
Pinterest: Check Out Pinterest


Author Description: Joanna Penn is the author of the ARKANE thrillers, Pentecost and Prophecy. Read more at www.JFPenn.com
Joanna is also an entrepreneur and professional speaker. Her site for writers www.TheCreativePenn.com has been voted one of the Top 10 sites for writers 2 years running and offers articles, audio and video on writing, publishing and book marketing. Connect with Joanna on twitter @thecreativepenn


Questions and Answers with the Author
We should start with the most important thing on the schedule. When will Exodus (ARKANE series #3) be released and can you give us a teaser about the plot?
Thanks for asking! Exodus is about the hunt for the Ark of the Covenant as the Middle East counts down to a religious war.

When a brutal murder in the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities draws Dr Morgan Sierra into the search for the Ark, it’s a race against time across Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan and Israel to keep the holy artifact from the hands of fundamentalists.

Can the Ark really be found, and does it possess the fabled powers of destruction? Join Morgan in December 2012 for the next ARKANE adventure.

Do you enjoy writing fiction or non-fiction the best? Does it give you a change of pace working back and forth between the two?
I have one non-fiction book on career change, How To Love Your Job Or Find A New One, based on my years of hating my job as an IT consultant. I had to write that book in order to change my own life, and fiction came after that when I had found my creative streak.

I definitely prefer writing fiction now as it helps me to explore interesting topics in religion and psychology (my passions) while also making up a fun story across global locations (travel is another passion of mine!).

I do want to write more non-fiction but that will come later I think - maybe a travel memoir or another self-help book. So I mainly write non-fiction when I write blog posts and articles, which I don’t count as important as producing books in the genre.

I watched as you put your last book cover through the design process soliciting your reader’s help. Great idea. Did your audience enjoy that? Did that give you an added satisfaction in producing the finished product?
Yes, I got people on the blog to vote on the book cover for Pentecost. I put up several versions and had people choose which they preferred as well as leaving comments on other suggestions.

Interestingly enough, the overall consensus was not what I would have chosen myself, but I went with the wisdom of the crowd.

It helped me because I was able to find the best image for sales purposes but also it made people feel more involved and some of them went on to purchase the book. Now I have a certain look and feel, a particular font etc so I don’t do that process anymore for my ARKANE series, but I would definitely repeat the experience for a new series.

I follow your industry blog religiously and I am seeing a trend that other authors are writing quality stuff also. As a marketing tool, have you seen a boost in sales of your books by providing quality information on your author blog? How does your blog fit in to your marketing plans?
I started out blogging 4 years ago before I had even written fiction in order to share my lessons learned along the way. So for me, blogging wasn’t about selling my fiction, it was a means to become part of a community and help others. Back then, self-publishing wasn’t so popular but now, it’s gone mainstream and so my main blog at the CreativePenn.com picked up readers.

I think the trend for blogging and sharing right now really does stem from an honest desire to share and help others. It is the Wild West right now for indie authors so people are sharing what works, or what doesn’t and the feedback helps others. There’s an authentic community feeling amongst these indie blogs, and I love being part of that!

In terms of how blogging fits with marketing, I have a business as well as writing fiction. The Creative Penn is more about selling products and my services but I now have a fiction blog www.JFPenn.com where I write articles based on my research for the novels.

However, mainly I see blogging for fiction more as a value add, not as a sales mechanism or for marketing. I write articles that my readers would enjoy, rather than trying to attract readers through blogging.

Living in the UK, how important is social media (almost 30K Twitter followers) to your marketing effort?
As a general question, I find social media brilliant for connecting with people, mainly my writing peers and people in the industry. I’m a public speaker so I get a lot of speaking engagements and business from social media. In terms of selling books, social is about getting attention in this noisy world and then having people follow back to your site and hopefully finding you interesting enough to join your email list. In that way, you can start having a relationship with them.

Here’s my breakdown of how social media can help sell books: Social Media blog
I don’t think social media has anything to do with where you live - and in fact, most of the people I network with are in the US. I tweet across timezones with scheduling so I appear in streams all over the world. I definitely love Twitter - so please connect with me there @thecreativepenn

I am in the middle of writing an industry blog on book trailers. I have to give you credit here. The blog I always go to as my base on this topic is the blog you wrote in 2008, ‘11 steps to make your own’. How did you create the trailer for Pentecost? The book trailer music is outstanding. Where did you get the sound and was it expensive to buy the license?
Basically, the process is this:
1) Plan your book trailer. It should be max 90 seconds really and make it capture people’s attention. Be catchy and use your shortened back blurb. You can plan voice over or just music with text on the screen. You will also need to decide on a budget because using stock video will cost you more than still images.

2) Source royalty free media, video, audio and images. It’s important that they are royalty free so you don’t pay per view/download. You can get this for free or you can buy it.
You’ll need to budget some time for this. It took me a couple of days to find the video, images and audio for my video. I used iStockphoto.com for video and images, and I used 300Monks.com for my audio as they have a great search for movie styles.

3) Put it all together with editing software. You can use free software like MovieMaker on the PC or iMovie on the Mac, or I now use ScreenFlow on the Mac. This takes a while too as you have to cut everything with the music and add the text.

4) Distribute it. You can load it to YouTube, Vimeo and other video sites, but you may also want to put it on your blog, your Amazon Author Central page, and anywhere else. You can use it in guest posts and anywhere you like really!

Here’s the final product:
Book Trailer YouTube Video
and here’s the updated blog post with the full process:
How to Create a Book Trailer blog

However, I would say that although I enjoyed making the video trailer, it’s not something I think is critical in a marketing plan. I do a lot of videos on YouTube but they are more interviews/talking heads. It’s about building relationships over time and one, trailer-style video won’t do that.

Joanna's Book List
Pentecost. An ARKANE Thriller

Amazon Buy Page -- Barnes and Noble Buy Page
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Prophecy. An ARKANE thriller

Amazon Buy Page -- Barnes and Noble Buy Page
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How To Love Your Job Or Find A New One

Amazon Buy Page
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Author 2.0 Blueprint
***** Free *****
Available at The Creative Penn, Joanna's website. http://www.TheCreativePenn.com
A Must Read for all beginning indie authors. ***

How to use Web 2.0 tools to write, publish, sell and promote your book using the Blueprint for your online author platform.

WRITING - EDITING - MARKETING YOUR BOOK




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From Book to Market: Internet Marketing, Sales and Promotion. . .For Your Book

Amazon Buy Page
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From Idea to Book: How To Write and Publish Your Book

Amazon Buy Page -- Smashwords Buy Page
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How to Enjoy Your Job

Amazon Buy Page
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What do you think of the idea of having your reader base involved in your cover design?

Do you think having a quality blog helps in developing relationships with fellow authors and readers?

Are book trailers an important part of your marketing effort?

If you have any questions about book trailers, Joanna is a great source of information. Her blog on trailers is a must read.

HBSystems Publications
Publisher of ebooks, writing industry blogger and the sponsor of the HBS Author's Spotlight plus the blog: eBook Author's Corner. From the Joanna Penn - HBS Author’s Spotlight

Author Blogs: Are You Hiding Your Contact Information From Your Readers?

I recently blogged about author’s lack of supplying contact information in their ebooks and how they missed the opportunity to connect with their readers.

Since then I have started a new blog to help authors get more attention focused on their books and their Internet presence. Much to my dismay most author blogs and websites are failing to supply their contact information to their audience. The goal should be to get interaction with readers and create an audience to communicate through social media and the Internet. RIGHT!

After reviewing several hundred author sites, in most cases, readers had to be a detective to find the author’s contact information. It was like it was a closely guarded secret.

Author’s Blogs and Websites

In over half the cases, they did not have a contact me link. Oh they had a Twitter bird or a Facebook link but no other contact points. They did have their books highlighted, sample chapters, giveaways and lots of beautiful covers. Surprisingly way over half the covers displayed did not have a buy link attached.

Some had blog links to other pages if they had both a website and a blog. The more cross-links the better say our SEO gurus.

The question I have to ask is: We are trying to build a reader/follower/buyer base, aren’t we?

HBS Author’s Spotlight

Like I mentioned before, my new blog requires lots of research of author sites and blogs. I am looking for interesting authors to blog about. One of my objectives is to give current contact information to readers so they can interact with the author. The blog will only be posted if the author approves the content including the contact information.

I have had one author so far go through the draft process of the blog and put it on hold when I required an email address to complete the Q/A section of the blog. (By the way, displaying any of the contact information is up to the author’s approval.)

I expected some resistance to some of the questions because I ask untraditional questions to make the blog more interesting.

Marketing Online vs. Traditional Marketing

Traditional signing, giveaways, events, conferences & book shows and personal appearances still are a part of the author’s strategy. But research is showing the Internet interaction shows more results for less cost.

On-line is the fastest way if you have a new book to announce. In fact with the relationships that are developed, the development of the plot, the cover and the characters can all be a part of the pre-publishing plan.

I have one author, Joanne Penn that I follow regularly because her website has a lot of good information for authors: The Creative Penn. She was quite successful at publishing her book, Pentacost, because she got her reader base involved in the book development process including picking the cover. With her online audience she was able to do what traditional marketing would have found impossible. If she hid her contact information, she wouldn’t have had a chance.

So you lead your audience along through book development, cover design, launch, reviews to the shelves but not without keeping in contact.

If you see a lot of reviews for a book, I’ll bet that most of them were keyed by the author’s contacts online.

Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest

Social media keeps the whole thing going. You must keep your followers in the loop. Write something meaningful in your tweets or posts if you’re going to use social media. If it is all ads, readers will skip right through it.

Here is a footnote in the middle of the blog. I am writing a blog for author David Bain @davidbainaa. Like Joanna Penn above, he also has a blog that helps authors. One post that he has that I found real interesting: For Writers, Social Media Should Be Little More Than Playtime. David has over 30K Twitter followers. He came to an interesting conclusion after doing a quick tweet study.

There is a lot of noise out there. I turned off a couple of followers because of all the tweets.

I can just imagine the number of tweets David goes through to filter out the meat.

One author I have in the Author’s Spotlight is M. R. Mathias. He has over 87K Twitter followers. (@dahgmahn)

Besides being an award-winning, best-selling Fantasy author, he has written a must read book for author who want to use social media to market; The First Ten Steps. It is a great source if you’re just getting started in social media marketing.

Goodreads + Linkedin + Retailers

A brief note on two other groups that author should engage. Goodreads and Linkedin are good author sources to interact with other authors and readers. They present great profile opportunities. You should include their links on your blog or website.

Email

I saved this one for last. You know sometimes 140 characters are just not enough? In my author research one of the most glaring things missing from the contact information was the email address. Almost no one had an email address published. (Reviewed over 300 sites.) They just left it up to Twitter and Facebook.

Oh some had email forms with CAPTCHA security to prevent spam and hacking. The first question I ask when I fill a form out is: Did they get the message? Then when I don’t get a reply, I have no clue what has happened. (Most regular email systems report undelivered mail.)

I understand keeping your personal/favorite email account to yourself. Try getting another free email account to communicate with your followers. It keeps the mail separated. I have three email accounts. (2 are free) One I have with my website. The others are Gmail and Mail.com and I use them for different purposes.

There are many free email services available. Get a free account somewhere and try it out. I just did a search: free email accounts and got a list of 18 freebies.

Conclusion

So you write a book, you notify your audience and the downloads start happening. That is not really how it works but it is a plan. You must make it easier for your audience to communicate. Don’t make them have to be a detective to communicate with you.

First question to ask yourself: Can your readers easily find your contact information?

Remember your goal should be to develop a following that will buy your book.

I feel authors miss the same opportunity in their ebooks. Check out my blog:

eBookMarketing: Include Live Contact Information in Your eBook

For an example, check out how I think contact information should be presented.

HBS Author’s Spotlights – View the Author’s contact information and some interesting Q/A sessions.

Amy Metz - HBS Author's Spotlight

Anne Allen - HBS Author's Spotlight
Henry Baum - Author Spotlight
James Moushon - Author Spotlight
Kelly Abell - HBS Author's Spotlight
Monica Mathis-Stowe - HBS Author's Spotlight
Ron Fritsch - Author Spotlight

Follow me as I try to keep up with the eBook Experience. Do you think we should ONLY give the reader access to our Facebook or Twitter account? Should your email address be published? If not, why not?

Follow Me on Twitter: @jimhbs

Or EMAIL at: jim@jamesmoushon.com
Or visit my blog: The eBook Author Corner
Take a look at my Author’s blog: HBS Author’s Spotlight
Check out the Jonathon Stone Mystery Novel: Call Off The Dogs

eBook Marketing: How Do You Target Your Reading Audience?

One of the first questions a new indie author must ask is what audience will buy my book? The second question is how will I market to this audience? Both questions should be asked way before you get to the publishing stage of your book.

In the old days, there was a very standard set of rules and procedures. If you were fortunate enough to get picked up by a publisher, you got the finished product to the editors and off your book went into the market place.

On the other side, if you had to do the publishing yourself that added a lot of extra action points to get your book to the reader and getting your book into bookstores was a major component in determining whether your book was a success or not.

Well the whole process has turned upside down. Now the marketing targets are all different and the bookstore is no longer the primary focus in marketing your book. It is a turkey shoot, as they say.

Marketing using social media and the Internet are becoming the top choices for marketing for self-publishing authors.

The author must determine their audience, what they read and where to find them all online.

Knowing your audience will be the key in how you approach the marketing of your book.

Multiple Reader Audiences
The first thing you must realize is that there are multiple audiences to address and each will require a different approach. I view audiences in three distinct groups, all separated by experience with online media.

1. Mature (55+)
Most of this group is new to electronics. Ebook readers and tablets are all new to them. They are accustomed to paper reading. Some have adapted but still fall back to paper. They look for the Deal of the Day or a low priced ebook. Their first selection maybe by genre or an author they like. They have no real online community involvement. Reaching them will take a more direct approach.

2. Working/Family Group (30-55)
These are readers that are established adults. They grew up reading traditional books but they are more computer-savvy than the mature group. They have adapted to ebooks because of the time and convenience factor. An online approach could work with this group but they will seek advice from more than online sources.

3. Mobile, on the Move Youth
They make quicker decisions. They can’t go anywhere and do anything without their cell phone or their iPad or some electronic device at the ready. They would rely almost entirely on online communications to make their buying decision.

They won’t read a book on their iPad but they may use the ebook for an information source. You see this in the resistance to accept e-textbooks. About 60% of this group does all their communication via cell phones exclusively.

In contrast, only 25% of the mature group use cell phones exclusively (No landline phone). (34% overall)

It’s like being in the right place at the right time to be successful. In this case, you need to be in the right genre and target the right audience.

Shooting at the wrong target
Let me share with you the experience I had with my first novel, Call Off the Dogs. This is a story about the JFK Assassination and now Jonathon Stone, my pragmatist, found another shooter from that day in Dallas and the adventure begins.

I was so anxious to get the book out the door, I didn’t do my homework.

Where did the book fit in? Was it a mystery, a detective story, a historical novel or what?

My primary audience was the mature group mentioned above. They lived through that period and all the conflicts and conspiracy theories. I choose to take a ebook only approach and targeted my audience online.

I made all the wrong moves to sell my ebook to my target audience. It probably didn’t help that Stephen King released his book, ‘11/22/63’ in the same week so all my pre-publishing marketing was written over.

Shooting at the right target
Let’s discuss some authors that know how to target their audience. First there is M.R. Mathias, a fantasy writer, who has been quite successful with his online approach to his target audience. He focuses his marketing at the younger audience through Twitter and Facebook. At last count, his twitter followers were in excess of 87,000.

His main asset is he writes quality books. Lots of them. Next he feeds them to his followers like Halloween candy and they buy it. Sounds like a plan to me.

Another example is Amanda Hocking and a group of young writers who are writing to the young adult genre and targeting them through social media. Amanda has over 17,000 followers on Twitter and her Facebook audience is huge. Just send them a tweet and she is off and running. It is like having a barrel full of 140 word bullets.

Let’s take a test to see if you’re following me
Let’s say you write a book about an old biker who wants to take one last trip across the country. The book would highlight his conflicts between the way he approached the trip when he was young and full of adventure. And then compare that to the current old man who has declined in health and aggressiveness going down memory lane.

So do you have a family saga going here? Or is my biggest target group all the bikers across the country? How do I target them? Oh yeah. Do you start tweeting the world about your biker book or do you try a more conventional approach and get involved in the biker community? I believe you are looking at the mature group not the mobile one.

My first move would be to get involved with the Harley-Davidson audience. We are talking over a million people in this group. I’d try to get into their stores, sell at their events across the country, get a book display in their museum and get an endorsement from their owner's group.

I’d let my beard grow, get me some nice looking leathers, buy a good looking Harley and hit the road.

Social networking and publishing an eBook exclusively would be my last choice in selling to this audience.

Are you off target?
Where is your audience and how do you get to them? Tweet to tweet or do you hit the pavement and do it the old fashion way?

You must answer right up front, who is going to buy your type of book and define the genre? And then concentrate on marketing to them where ever they are.

Some good sources
Jason Boog
If want to keep up with who the top indie authors are and what they are writing about a good source is Mediabistro – Galleycat by Jason Boog. @jasonboog
Amazon Self-Published Bestsellers for the Week of Monday, September 17, 2012 by Jason Boog

Judith Briles
The Book Shepherd blog is another good source written by Dr. Judith Briles
"Publishing is riddled with obstacles. Sometimes nightmares for the author. You don’t need problems … you want solutions." She will shepherd you through the maze and chaos.
She also manages AuthorU.org which is for authors who want to be seriously successful.
Dr. Briles can be found on Twitter: @mybookshepherd

M.R. Mathias
M.R. Mathias Fantasy Author is in the HBS Author’s Spotlight this month.
He can be found on Twitter: @ dahgmahn or at his website: http://www.mrmathias.com
Also Mr. Mathias has written a must read book for indie authors about social networking and marketing books. The First Ten Steps - Ten proven steps to build a solid foundation for your ebook using free social networking.

Follow Me on Twitter: @jimhbs
Or EMAIL at: mailto:jim@jamesmoushon.com
View my website: James Moushon – Mystery Writer
Take a look at my NEW blog: HBS Author’s Spotlight
Check out the Jonathon Stone Mystery Novel: Call Off The Dogs

eBook Marketing: Is Buying a Great Book Review Your Cup of Tea?

With the huge controversy brewing in the Book Publishing Industry over book reviews and how they’re obtained and used, I thought I would jump in on this.

We have exposed a problem in the trust of one of the decision points buyers have. Is the ebook as good as the review says it is? How much do readers/buyers rely on reviews? Could this start the end of a time-old tradition? Are there professional reviewers still out there that have strong ethics and do the job honestly?

Reviews are Part of the Game

Indie authors are easy to point the finger at. They already have an uphill battle against the traditional publishing and their large marketing machines. So if they buy a good review, is it gaming the system? What happens if they get a bad review? Do they bury it?

On the other side, traditional publishers call it a marketing plan. It’s the same thing, they just do it differently. It is just an investment in marketing. They sent out review copies to all the high powered media groups and get their feedback and then cherry pick the best reviews. The buying public has never called it a conflict of interest. Think back. Have you ever seen a bad review on a dust cover? I don’t think so. You’ll see the bad ones only online, where they are from customers or the reviews aren’t paid for.

Decision Making
So how important are book reviews to the buying decision? Will an author’s success depend on good reviews?

My first move was to review a study conducted by Mark Coker from Smashwords through Mobileread and posted on his blog. The study question was: “Select the single most common criterion you, the reader, follow to discover your next read.” The result was different than I expected but it should help guide indie authors in focusing their marketing effort.

The first item that caught my eye was: Reviews are considered first in the decision process only 7% of the time. I guess you can get used to reading words like: spell-binding, a real thriller, engaging, etc. after a while.

My pick for top method was second in his survey: 18% picked the ebook because it was one of their favorite authors.

That gets me to the survey’s top pick: 29% indicated that online recommendations from fellow readers, forums, blogs and message boards were first. That tells me that online communities are what readers are using the most to guide their decisions. The 7% may put this problem in perspective.

Do bookstores still fit into the process?

Remember the good old days when there were one or two bookstores in every mall. You could browse a store, make eye contact with the book cover, read the dust cover and the prominent reviews and that would close the deal right there.

Bookstores are slowly moving out of the equation. That touch and feel is not part of the process anymore. They are becoming more of a showroom.

Not the Internet. It has a massive number of books online and it’s really only starting. The reader has started to change their selection process and indie author must take notes. Ebooks will stay on the virtual Internet shelves of online retailers for a very long time without a space issue and so will all their reviews.

Time Management

As most indie authors know by now, time management is the key to their productivity. If you’re writing a novel, doing your marketing thing and trying to handle 1,000 followers on your twitter account, you have to manage your minutes.

Buyers and readers have the same problems. That is why the successful indie author must target their readers online. Your audience/reader’s attention span is getting shorter. As Coker’s study suggests, you must rely on online communications to get to your customers.

Remember you are dealing with a community of unorganized people talking about what books they like and don’t like. The question is: How much will they rely on reviews to make their buying decision and should you invest in them?

Are Buying Reviews your Cup of Tea?

An indie author has a big decision to make about buying reviews to sell their ebook. Some marketing experts say that word of mouth is the best way to promote your book. Whether it is word of mouth or tweet to tweet or by cultivating Facebook friends, the process will be online.

I am always doing a little study here and there trying to figure out what is going on in this crazy industry. Here is a quick one I will share. This is a very limited one involving reviews and success.

I choose a prominent indie author for the study who has had major success in the ebook market place. I took one of the author’s latest books and looked at the reviews versus success.

Source: Amazon buy page: contained the usual book description, a book trailer, editorial reviews, online reviews from major outlets, individual reviews and a brief question and answer session with the author.

Priced: $9.99 (not a cheap one).

Reviews: This book had over 350 reviews from verified customers and top ranking reviewers with lots of comments. (Would anyone ever read 350 reviews to make a buying decision? People have a hard time going to the second page of a Google search.)

Results: A 3 star overall rating (not one of the author’s better books)

Kicker: the ebook is 35^th in sales in the Kindle Store.

Conclusion: The quantity of reviews gave the buyers a good indication of the quality of the ebook and they didn’t care. They purchased it anyway. In this case, the reviews really didn’t matter. The downside to the author is that the mediocre reviews will stay online forever.

So how important are book reviews and should you pay for them?

The goal is to get readers to go to your buy page, charm and convince them this book is for them and then buy the book. Right. If paying for book reviews is not your cup of tea, you must come up with another plan of attack.

You need to understand how the buying process works and study your audience. Where are they? How can I get to them?

The author sighted above has developed a following through social media and has written to a popular genre. The author is not relying on reviews to sell books.

The Internet has lots of noise in the social media area but that is still becoming a popular method of marketing and communications.

Independent Book Reviews

I hate to see the individual review services take the heat on this. Many are honest, reputable, long standing people. Some of them do the reviews because they love to read. Just a few cross the line.

The Internet has changed the way we look at book reviews because of the quantity of them available to readers. No more does the reader rely on quick-snapshots on the dust cover or a glowing review in a major magazine or newspaper. Now we have real live readers giving their opinions. I think one of the reasons only 7% use the reviews to make the buying decision is that there so many book reviews, which in some cases are not reliable, they look for information.

The tea party is not over.

Some of the big hitters are trying to add credibility to the process. For example, Amazon has had their own accredited review system called Vine for several years now.

It is an invitation-only review program that allows manufacturers and publishers to receive reviews for books that have been offered on Amazon.com. Companies that use this service pay for access. Some receive a free book in exchange for the review.

The criteria for picking the reviewers is based on trust, whatever that means. The reviewers are not paid and the review will be published regardless whether the review is good or bad.

Another player in the review game is LibraryThing. They call their program Early Reviewers. They are more focused on publishers who furnish free advanced copies to readers in exchange for reviews.

They do have a program for self-published authors called Member Giveaways. The authors list their book in the program to give free to prospective reviewers. The reviewers are picked randomly. The catch here is they are not required to review the book.

Our host here, SPR provides a book review service. For a very small fee, the author gets his book reviewed by an expert and the review gets posted by SPR and with on-line retailers.

From reviewing SPR’s reviews they have posted, they do a good and fair job in reviewing the books.

There are other good review services that also show professionalism in their approach to the review process. Those are the reviews we need to get in front of the readers.

Maybe we can have some sort of industry accreditation system for reviewers put into place; a review that will give the readers a better idea of the quality of the book. You know, one that raises the flag when the book doesn’t match the reader’s expectations.

A big question I have is: If only 7% of readers use reviews to make the buy decision, do you need to buy 5 star reviews to sell your ebook?

That’s your decision. Before proceeding, check out some of the most popular online communities. There is a lot more to marketing than the book reviews.

Some sources

Some of the forums I follow are: Mobilereads, Kindleboards, Goodreads, Nookboards and LibraryThing.

A great blog discussion on the book review topic is: Should Authors Pay for Book Reviews? by Joel Friedlander on August 29, 2012

Another great blog that can help indie authors in the right direction is:

How To Get Amazon’s Top Customer Reviewers To Review Your Book by Joanna Penn on September 16, 2012. 

So do you have any ideas on how to improve the practice of paid book reviews?

How does buying your way in, benefit you in the long run?

Let’s build a list of forums through your comments that will help indie authors get exposure to there readers.

Follow Me on Twitter: @jimhbs

Or EMAIL at: jim@jamesmoushon.com
View my website: James Moushon – Mystery Writer

Or visit my blog: The eBook Author Corner
Take a look at my NEW blog: HBS Author’s Spotlight

Check out the Jonathon Stone Mystery Novel: Call Off The Dogs

 

 

 

eBook Marketing: Include Live Contact Information in Your eBook

One of the most important things you can do in this ebook world is to provide your reader with your current contact information. I monitor over 50 authors and ebook experts blogs on a regular basis and finding their contact links is quite a challenge.

Surprisingly, I find the same problem in the current ebooks that are being published. If they do include link information, rarely is it a live link.

I feel the authors are missing a large marketing opportunity. Here are some ideas you may want to consider.

Different Products

One of the things I have been harping on for the last several years is that a traditional paper book is a different product then the ebook version, especially the pre-content information.

In fact, this information should be different between your retailers. Yes, you should have a different version of your ebook for each vendor. Whether it is Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Smashwords, they should have a different version of the ebook. Not the story or the major content but the front end of the ebook.

In other words, the ebook should not be just a copy of the paper version.

Contact Page

An easy way to keep in touch with your reader is to include a Contact Page in the front of the ebook. You know, one the reader can use to access your major contact points. The continuing communications with your followers should be a major part of your marketing effort.

Here is an example of the one I have in my novel, “Call Off The Dogs.”

Your Ebook can be updated

Your ebook lives on the fast moving Internet. Internet addresses and links included in ebooks will change and new communication points will definitely come along. In fact with the long life of an ebook, it is a reality. Wait a minute. Your ebook can be updated anytime you want. Just make the change and re-publish.

In contrast, once the paper book hits the shelves, any link to the Internet is cast in concrete. That’s not the case with your ebook.

Ask for a review, twice

You might ask me the following question after looking at the example above. I see a link to help my reader enter a review of my ebook. What is that all about?

You should give your reader easy access to your buy page to let them review your book. Just include it on your contact page.

Once the buy is done, most readers don’t go back to the buy page. Add this link to the contact information in the front of your book. Give them an easy way to write about your ebook.

To top it all off, ask them again for a review at the end of your ebook.

In a lot of cases, authors are still not providing live links to the outside world to help the readers keep in touch.

Don’t miss this marketing opportunity. Keep your contact information up-to-date in all your ebooks. It is just an upload away.

What do you think about adding a Contact Page to the front of your ebook? Will publishers buy into this concept? Have I missed anything you would like to add to the Contact Page?

Follow Me on Twitter: @jimhbs

Or EMAIL at: jim@jamesmoushon.com

Or visit my blog: The eBook Author Corner

Check out my Jonathon Stone Mystery Novel: Call Off The Dogs

NOTE: The examples in this blog are displayed as an image (to keep borders to resemble a book page) and do not have live link to accommodate the blogging software.

Indie Authors: Your Copyright Page Needs Work

One of the first things an indie author should realize is that the printed version of their book does not have the same content as the ebook version and the differences start right in the front of the book.

 

It starts with the Copyright Page.

The first area that jumps out is the copyright page should be different. In fact, the copyright page should be different between the various ebook versions, i.e. Amazon vs. Barnes and Noble vs. Smashwords, etc.

After reviewing a couple dozen recent ebooks from indie authors, the first item that should be added to the copyright page is the paper source of the ebook. Not having that information now doesn’t seem to be a major problem. But ask me that question in three years when I still have that same ebook on my e-reader and the hardcover book has a new edition. This could be a major problem with non-fiction ebooks. Not so much with fiction.

Amazon has seen the need to add the source information in their on-line product description to help. They have added a line: Page Number Source ISBN. But the ebooks that I reviewed didn’t have a clue to the original source document.

Here is where the train leaves the tracks. With the missing source information, there was no indication where the book’s content originated from or how we got to the digital format.

Certain information is required.

Somebody must have missed the memo about what information is required and what format the information should be presented in because we had a wide variety of formats and information, to say the least. Almost none of them matched.

The copyright page should have the basics. They should have the copyright notice, the Publisher and publishing information, a disclaimer, the edition data, the Library of Congress information and the ISBN.

Although it is not required, some gave credit to the basic book formatting and design people. Things like cover photograph, cover image/art, interior design and edited by information.

The ebooks did have some direct information about the ebook. One had ‘First Kindle Edition’. Another said ‘Epub edition © with a date and eISBN 978- number’.

I don’t know if ‘eISBN’ is official but its meaning is obvious. One ebook even had ‘Mobipocket reader format’ mentioned.

Only one of the ebooks had any information at all about the source. (“Simon & Schuster hardcover edition June 2010”) Maybe it should have included the ISBN of the paper version.

Adding more information to the ebook copyright page goes along with the same concept we use for an accurate bibliography, footnotes and appendix.

Here is My Wish List.

We are missing the boat with the copyright page. It’s like seeing Original Source: Undisclosed on the copyright page. That just doesn’t work. The ebook is a different product than the paper version. We need to provide more information.

 1.      We need the ISBN number and the hardcover edition on the copyright page like Amazon is providing on their ebook Product Production page. Of course, they are including this to help sync the page numbers with the hard copy but it should have been required in an ebook by publishers before Amazon added the feature.

2.      We need different copyright pages for each version of an ebook. We need a unique copyright page for the Kindle, Nook and Kobo, etc. Smashwords has its own copyright page format which is the same with each version (epub, mobi, txt, etc.) they sell. I don’t know whether that is good enough in the long run.

3.      I would like to see a reference on the copyright page about the ebook conversion process used. Is this an ebook only version? Is the source document from the original book’s source file or was it a scanned /OCR version to a digital file. This will give the reader some idea of the accuracy of the conversion.

4.      If you have web addresses and contact information on this page, the links should be live links. Make it easy for readers to form a relationship with you by taking advantage of the opportunity to get the information to them. Never pass up a chance to keep in touch with your reader base. Remember unlike the traditional book that is cast in stone, the eBook can be edited easily and republished if the upfront information changes.

Here are two examples that I found.

Kindle Version

Original Source: How to Create Copyright Pages Right – by Jim Satire

Hardcover Edition March 2011 (ISBN: 978-9-9999-9999-8)
Kindle Edition – 1.5.1 – Build 11/7/2011
Original Process: Direct from Digital Source File
Created by: Amazon DTP
Conversion Services by: HBSystems Publications
Rendered by: James Moushon

Nook Version

Original Source: How to Create Copyright Pages Right – by Jim Satire
Hardcover Edition March 2011 (ISBN: 978-9-9999-9999-9)
Nook Edition – 1.6.1 – Build 11/23/2011
Original Process: Direct from Digital Source File
Created by: BN Pubit
Conversion Services by: HBSystems Publications
Rendered by: James Moushon

Traditional publishers and self-publishers are responsible for this additional information. Sometimes publishers get caught up in trying to get the ebook out the door at the lowest cost rather than doing their own due-diligence. The Indie author does not have that luxury. You must stay out in front of this information and marketing opportunity.

Your ebook can’t be just a copy of the hardcover. It all starts with the copyright page and the definition of the sources of the ebook. Right now it appears that this is missing information in most ebooks.

 

A Great Source of Information on this is from Joel Friedlander

Joel is an expert in this area. He blogged ‘Self-Publishing Basics: The Copyright Page’.

Use it as a starting point.

Are you including this information in your ebook? Does the Indie publisher have the responsibility to provide this information to the reader?

View my website: James Moushon – Mystery Writer

Or EMAIL at: jim@jamesmoushon.com

Follow Me on Twitter

Check out my Jonathon Stone Mystery Novel: Call Off The Dogs

 

My next blog will discuss your ebook and the Contact Information Page that should be added.

eBook Industry: Does Amazon Have a Winning Hand or a Dead Man’s Hand?

Does Amazon have a winning hand or do they need to draw more cards to stay ahead in the game? Amazon is the dominate player in the ebook industry, hands down. In fact, they are so strong that they can sell some products at a loss and still win the hand.

They can do this because ebooks have a very high profit margin. Check this hand out. I can buy an ebook from Amazon and it’s never touched by human hands. No shipping. No warehousing unless you want to count their file servers. The first physical action is when I pay with my credit card and that can be automated if I chose. So the overhead is very low.

Amazon has attacked the ebook industry with a very aggressive marketing strategy. They have chased away bookstore chains and changed publisher’s ways of doing business. In a few words, they have played their hand perfectly by bluffing the other players into thinking that they can’t be beat.

But as most gamblers know the hand is not over until the last card is dealt. Can someone out draw Amazon by coming up with a better strategy or change the game itself?

The Strengths of Amazon’s Hand

So what is the strength of their hand?

Organization: They have setup an organization and internal software system to effectively manage an online business. A customer can buy an ebook online with immediate download and access the ebook, all at a reasonable price.

They approached the industry with deep pockets by leveraging their ebook products with their large pbook distributing system and a wealth of other products all sold online.

Marketing: They have successfully marketed the Kindle eReader and Kindle Fire as a lower than cost device. Readers have rushed to get the affordable devices not realizing they were committing to a controlled, lasting relationship.

Devices: The eReaders are tied to the Amazon format which allows Amazon to control the user and create a captive audience for their ebooks.

Software: Amazon created a software system to sell ebooks electronically and gather information for marketing at the same time.

Sales Tax: I feel the number one advantage Amazon used to defeat bookstores was the lack of sales tax on their products. This translated into a discount in price for all customer purchases. Customers were going to bookstores and reviewing the book. Then they would access the Internet and purchase the pbook or ebook online avoiding the sales tax.

They are starting to lose this winning hand as States across the country are attacking the free lunch tax advantage Amazon has over physical bookstores.

Self-Publishing: They developed an easy to use self-publishing system for would-be authors with a good royalty package. Now established authors are catching on to the added revenue they can earn and are moving their ebooks to the Amazon game.

Amazon Select: They have developed a program called Amazon Select. This program connects publishers who publish exclusively on Kindle to enter the ebook Lending Library. They will then share in Amazon funding, based on the borrowing of their title. Again EXCLUSIVELY is the key word.

Amazon Exclusives: Their Exclusives program is aimed at securing a captive author’s team. Successful authors can opt-in to sell their titles only at the Amazon publishing venture and avoid Apple and other competitors selling them. It is rumored that Amazon’s new retail store venture will handle only Amazon Exclusive titles.

The Weaknesses of Amazon’s Hand

We can see Amazon’s cards. They have a strong hand but the deal isn’t over. Other players will start to play at the ebook table. Here is the ‘tell’ as they say in the gambling world.

Control: Amazon doesn’t control or own the content. They are the distributor of the products but they don’t create it. The publishers and the authors control the ebooks and they can do anything they want to with it. The Amazon Exclusives program is another move to gain control of the marketplace. There is a good chance that the next big superstar author could start in the ebook self-publishing ranks and they are betting on it.

Single Device: One of the weaknesses is Amazon is betting on their own eReader to capture the market. The Kindle and the Fire are not the best or the fastest eReaders on the market. They have tried to buy the market on price and have done so up to this time. But what stands in their way is they will need to move from their proprietary ebook format to more accessible ebook strategy.

Internet Only: Amazon has no physical presence. They have recognized this and have started to setup a bookstore model in Seattle with only the books they publish and their Kindle devices available; again a closed product offering.

Publishers: Their continuing struggle with publishers is another major problem. For example, the problems have put a major hurdle in front of Amazon’s Lending program.

Prime: Amazon has initiated the Prime program with free shipping, movie streaming and ebook lending but there is no apparent ebook advantage or discount to the program unless you count the ebook exposure through lending.

Search Engine: They have developed a product search engine for ebooks that is becoming unwieldy. Amazon will need to limit their ebook selections at some point. My first novel was about President John F. Kennedy’s Assassination. A search for ebooks about JFK found 238 entries and 74 for the assassination. Would anyone look past entry number 50 on the lists? I doubt it.

Reviews: Self-entered reviews have little or no monitoring. Buyers don’t really know if they are true reviews or a friend of the family. Amazon will need a gatekeeper on ebook entries at some point in time to keep up the quality of their product offering.

Can Another Player Draw a Competitive Hand or Change the way the game is played?

If I could pick my hand from the rest of the deck, what cards would I select? Remember this is not like real poker. I wouldn’t have to leave it up to chance.

Multiple eReaders: First, I would sell multiple eReaders and tablets with multiple formats like Best Buy’s selection. I would pick the best devices for the price including Kindle, Nook (while still available) and the iPad because of the popularity.

Physical Stores: Next I would create stores in high density locations with a showroom of products using a physical, hands on approach. The Apple store model appears to be a winning model for this type of marketing.

On-line Marketplace: I would back this up with an on-line marketplace being fed information from surveys and professional reviews. Software is the key to the winning hand here. Software development is not an exclusive talent.

Franchise: I would franchise locations establishing a brand of quality and knowledge. The franchise would sell ebooks, accessories, author’s presentation, some pbooks and apps on site with a Club membership. The members would receive discounts and rewards for purchases.

Meeting and Classrooms: Each store would have in-store classrooms for special events, meetings, readings and guest presentations. The ebooks selection would be organized by genres. Possible one group would discuss Romance novels while another group would meet and discuss Science Fiction. The store would have demos of products on a continuing bases.

Personal Support: In-store product support would be one of the keys to the venture. The goal would be to provide unique hands on service. The staff would be knowledgeable, first in technology, and then the book sales environment.

Workshops: Author’s workshops would be provided for a fee to assist new authors in entering the ebook arena. The workshops would emphasis ebook concepts, formatting, cover design, where and how to sell and where to get professional help. Consulting workshops with experts in the ebook development process would be regularly scheduled.

Vertical Marketing: The new venture would use a vertical marketing approach to the type of ebooks sold. Each location would get access to local authors and seek out local ebooks for its customers. A key here is creating a human interaction using customer recommendations and selection advice. It would be like developing reading centers for groups of readers to share information. This would be backed up by blogging and social networking.

BN lost their chance. They drew to an inside straight so to speak. How BN has announced Sterling Publishing is for sale and are hunting for a buyer for their Nook product line. Their member’s program has failed in the ebook marketplace.

Know When to Hold Them and When to Draw New Cards

In the ebook industry, anyone can repeat what Amazon has done. There are no trade secrets here just aggressive marketing strategies and now deep pockets.

Like Wild Bill Hickok thought that fateful day in 1876 in Saloon No. 10; just when you think you have the winning hand, someone can come along and outdraw you. He had the Dead Man’s hand and he didn’t realize it until it was too late.

Amazon has the winning hand right now but the level of entry in this game has a relative low ante.  Can someone come up with a better solution or can they change the game by improving the products and services? Are there other things you would add this game to create a winning hand?

View my website: HBSystems Publications
Specializing in the ebook experience

Or EMAIL at: jrm@hbspub.com
Or go to my blog: The eBook Author’s Corner

LinkedIn Profile: James Moushon
Author: Call Off The Dogs, a rendered eBook