You want fans of its author. Yeah, you.
I bought a book yesterday. A book I know nothing about, except the author’s name.
And that was enough.
Category: Business
Amazon: Price-Matching
Cheryl Campbell
Continuing our conversation with author Cheryl Campbell
On Jul 29, 2013, at 7:48 AM, Cheryl Campbell <ccampbell.me@gmail.comwrote:Morning!
When reading the terms of service or whatever it’s called for Amazon, for you to get the 70% of sales profits, your Amazon book has to be priced at least 20% less than other distributors, like Smashwords, or they will cut you back to 35% instead of 70%.
That seems a bit unfair, but I guess I can’t really go up against Amazon on that. However I was thinking that if I marketed on fb a coupon for Smashwords that if used would get the price down to the same as Amazon, that might help level the playing field. Does Amazon troll for that kind of thing?… posting of coupons for other sites to get the prices the same as Amazon?
Do Smashwords coupons only work if purchased off Smashwords?* Or do they also distribute to iBook, Nook, etc? I’m thinking they’re probably only good for Smashwords purchases.
Have a great one! I’m off to Pittsburgh for work.
Cheryl
Brick & Mortar Local Celebrity
Cheryl Campbell
Continuing our conversation with author Cheryl Campbell
On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 9:04 AM, Cheryl Campbell <ccampbell.me@gmail.com> wrote:Hi Joel,
Hope you had a great weekend. It’s Monday and I’m armed with more questions, of course!
I got the book up on Amazon this weekend. That happened faster than I thought it would so that was exciting. I’m still working on the CreateSpace piece for printing, but I should have the proof review and all that done by the end of this week.
So my question…rather questions, are around taking the book to local brick and mortar stores. I can’t imagine just walking in with a handful of books and saying “Hi, I wrote this. Will you display and sell it for me?” is the way to go.
What do I need to bring with me when approaching a book store? A printed synopsis, flyers, something else?
I’m guessing I would talk to a manager?
Do I call ahead to speak with said manager before showing up?
Really quite clueless on this part. Figured I’d start asking now before I started this piece of the process.
Thanks!
Cheryl
Print-on-Demand Using CreateSpace: Some Beginning Questions
Cheryl Campbell
Continuing our conversation with author Cheryl Campbell
On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 3:09 PM, Cheryl Campbell <ccampbell.me@gmail.com> wrote:CreateSpace is cooking my brain. Not sure if I need to use this service or not.
I was going to list the ebook on Amazon KDB, and I thought I would do the POD print book here (please jump in if you have a different suggestion). But the pricing is looking really funky for a soft back book. A minimum price of $11.09 seems very steep to me.
And what is the Createspace eStore? How does this differ from Smashwords?
And down on the left side of the menu there is an option for Publish on Kindle...haven’t even gotten there. But if I was doing it on KDB, I wouldn’t need this extra piece, would I?
… more … “Print-on-Demand Using CreateSpace: Some Beginning Questions”
Blogging 101, the Short Version for Authors
Cheryl Campbell
Continuing our conversation with author Cheryl Campbell
On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 6:42 PM, Cheryl Campbell <ccampbell.me@gmail.com> wrote:Hi Joel,
I know you’ve been writing and blogging way longer than me, but when you work on topics to blog about, do you just write what you want? write based on others’ questions? have a theme/series in mind for topics? Or all of the above? Or maybe this goes back to your evil plot and you have a different tactic altogether? 🙂
What I’ve been trying to do is do short blogs about indie publishing and posting tidbits, links, books, etc, I found especially useful/helpful…including helpful people like you.
Your coaching is on getting the story out of “someday” mode and into real mode. And I have writer friends who were just like me and they play with writing on the side here and there. I had only finally cracked down a couple of years ago and decided I would go for it all. Turns out, I kinda have a passion for writing that I didn’t really know was there until I stopped dabbling with it and got serious.
So that’s a bit of babble to say that with my blogs, given I have friends in the same boat and knowing they’d be just as lost as I was starting out on this, I have been trying to post helpful info in case they do ever get their own stories out of the someday box too. Seems like a good place to start for me as a completely green blogger….I’m certainly learning a lot on the fly.
Thoughts? Any suggestions on how to make blogs more effective? Or is it more about who you’re trying to reach as a target audience and writing with them in mind?
Cheryl
I Will Never Adjust My Art to Suit You
Authors seem to think they need to please their fans, or Amazon, or a publisher. I know I’ll be the voice no one wants to hear, but I don’t change my art for anyone. And yeah, you’re gonna say that I’ll never be a best-seller; that if you don’t bend to the market, you’ll never get popular.
But I already have real-life experience which says otherwise.
… more … “I Will Never Adjust My Art to Suit You”
Barcodes: To Buy Or Not To Buy
Cheryl Campbell
Continuing our conversation with author Cheryl Campbell
On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 10:09 AM, Cheryl Campbell <ccampbell.me@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Joel,When you purchase your ISBNs, do you also purchase your bar codes at the same time, or just get the bar codes when you need them?
Hi Joel,When you purchase your ISBNs, do you also purchase your bar codes at the same time, or just get the bar codes when you need them?
I’m looking at the bulk 10 ISBNs deal from Bowker.
If I have 2 books and do them both in soft and hard cover, that’s 4 ISBNs right there. And I can’t imagine my writing will cease and desist after these 2 books.
I’m thinking I’ll use CreateSpace for the soft cover POD, and another printer for just hard backs more for use as gifts than anything else since I know hard backs are more expensive to produce than soft.
What are your thoughts on this plan?
… more … “Barcodes: To Buy Or Not To Buy”
Why Authors Must Have a Blog
I’ve been a web developer for almost 25 years, so this is not simply from the perspective of an author, though I have published 18 books so far and show no signs of stopping.
An author without a website and blog is like any other business without a website.
The first place people go for information these days is the web. If you’re considering a new mechanic, and this one has a good website and the other has nothing, don’t you lean toward the one you can find out about online?
… more … “Why Authors Must Have a Blog”
But I Just Want to Write
Authors tell me they don’t want to learn marketing, find an editor, arrange a cover design, fuss with technology.
“I just want to write!” they cry.
That’s what a blog is for.
… more … “But I Just Want to Write”
Marketing Your Books in the New Age of Publishing
A longer diatribe about marketing your self-published book. This is a year-long class, which I’d be glad to give if y’all are interested.
Publishing is in the greatest upheaval since Gutenberg. Supporters of traditional publishing will tell you it’s the only choice, or you’re not a real author.
I’ll take the opposing view: the only rational choice, from both the artistic and commercial perspectives, is to pick yourself, own the process, and reap the rewards. Here’s why:
… more … “Marketing Your Books in the New Age of Publishing”