Archive for Industry News
Attend 20 Workshops Free at the 4th Annual Digital Publishing Virtual Summit
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I’m extremely honored to be teaching with such an esteemed list of book marketing experts as D’vorah Lansky has gathered under her wing for this year’s 4th Annual Digital Publishing Summit.
You get to attend all 20 workshops for free, or choose those most pertinant from these categories:
- Promoting Your Message
- Book Creation Strategies (that’s where I’m teaching)
- Creating Multimedia Content
- Making Money with Your Message
Can’t make it live because of a conflicting schedule? No worries. Purchase the Full Access Pass and own them all.
But check it out for yourself to get all the details.
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Sign up now to reserve your virtual seat:
Digital Publishing Virtual Summit
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Apple Rejects Books Containing Links to Amazon
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Seth Godin’s book rejected by Apple’s iBookstore?!
They stand to make a tidy sum off Godin’s new book, Stop Stealing Dreams, if his past sales are any indication, and they are. So why would Apple reject it?
RESTRICTIONS OR CENSORSHIP?
Godin explains in his post, Who decides what gets sold in the bookstore? “…because inside the manifesto are links to buy the books I mention in the bibliography. Quoting here from their (Aooke;’) note to me, rejecting the book: “Multiple links to Amazon store. IE page 35, David Weinberger link.”
I hope you will read Godin’s post. As always he stands on the pulpit of principle and his sermons are not only inspiring but thought provoking. But my interest was mostly drawn, and prompted me to retweet his article, because my upcoming book also contains links to purchase at Amazon and elsewhere throughout the book and in the “Recommended” pages at the end.
Will my book also be rejected by the iBookstore? Apparently yes.
Godin wrote, “Apple, apparently, won’t carry an eBook that contains a link to buy a hardcover book from Amazon. That’s amazing to me. It must be a mistake, right?” I’m amazed too. I’m no publishing attorney, but this is disturbing news on many levels.
Godin put some of my own thoughts into words, “First, because the web, like your mind, works best when it’s open. Second, because once bookstores start to censor the books they carry (business reasons, personal taste, etc.) then the door is open for any interest group to work hard to block books with which they disagree. Where does the line get drawn? A key part of the argument about SOPA was that choke points and blacklists break a system that works best when information is allowed to flow freely.”
WORKAROUNDS TO RESTRICTIONS
Mr. Godin spoke of a workaround he provides at his Squidoo site if visited by iPhone or iPad, but one that shouldn’t be necessary because, “These stores can’t have it both ways. The web works because it’s open. The stores (all three of them) need to be too.”
Godin’s workaround is one he admits isn’t an option for all authors, and I would add; especially the technically challenged, like me. But once again twitter comes to the rescue.
There is a much better workaround. And like all great ideas, my reaction was, Duh, why didn’t I think of this myself. In response to my retweet, Mr. John Loughlin, technology prognosticator, replied:
“There’s a simple way around the problem that Seth encountered with his bibliographical links. Seth’s ‘solution’ is less than ideal. Bibliographical Internet links have long been an issue.”
Loughlin pointed me to his site, Ruby White, “Publish eBooks with any links you like!” The Ruby White article also points out other principles that come into play here, but right now because of my imminent publication date, I’m focused on the solution for the everyday how-to writer like me.
How do we circumvent this restriction, get our eBooks accepted by Apple, and still guide our readers to purchase links for resource books?
The Ruby White article points to this being a common problem for academic books for another reason, a problem that begs solutions. It cites broken and dead links. This is something we are all familiar with. As the Ruby White article says, “Files get lost, firewalls change, addresses get shuffled, and Internet resources die. This is known as link rot.”
My books are mostly how-to’s and so links are vital to additional education on the topic and sending my readers to people I recommend. Many of these links lead to purchasing a book, often at Amazon.
So, The Ruby White article says, “eBook authors, or their publishers, should use links they control and maintain.” It recommends creating our own page of links at our own site.
Again, Duh Aggie! I have created a companion website for my upcoming book, Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers, where contests, blog visits from professionals and much more are exclusive to my readers. It makes perfect sense for me to add one more page called “Links From Book.”
And now I am headed, before publication is finalized, back to my manuscript to change every URL in the book to just one permanent link where I can update all URLs in the future without publishing an updated book edition. I now have full control over link rot, without ebook store censorship.
As the Ruby White article summarizes, “Apple may prefer Uniform links and Seth may prefer Universal links but more important is a Persistent or Permanent link that is under the control of the creative owner of the work.”
Amen.
UPDATE: Victory Against More Censorship
Most of us have been watching and even participating in the fight against PayPal and other credit cards censoring the sale of legal fiction in the erotica genre.
I don’t read erotica, actually not much fiction of any kind anymore, but in light of iBookstore’s censorship, I’m so happy to add this note. Mark Coker, owner of Smashwords, met with Paypal in San Jose this week and as a result Paypal reversed their censorship decision. I can hear your cheers.
You can read the full details at Smashword’s blog.
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The Rewritten Word, by Aggie Villanueva, Wins 2011 Global eBook Award
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Great book news to share!
I’ve been humbled and grateful to readers by how well my last how-to book has done. The Rewritten Word: How to Sculpt Literary Art no Matter the Genre, earned three Kindle category bestsellers just a few weeks after I published it, and has stayed constant with at least two category bestselling statuses the entire year since.
And now I’m equally honored that it earned the 2011 Dan Poynter Global eBook Award in the Writing/Publishing category and pleased to share their video announcement with you.
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Stay tuned for my upcoming interactive eBook teaching authors how to choose their categories wisely to earn Amazon category bestsellers. It’s jamm packed with information about categories and much more, the fun interactive learning way.
Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers,
another source making author marketing an open book
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See also Awards Are Free Publicity Gold, an excerpt from Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s 2nd edition of The Frugal Book Promoter.
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Book Alert Tool for Finding FREE Kindle Books
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NOW FIND FREE KINDLE BOOKS BY GENRE AT KINDLE NATION
Kindle Nation just launched a new Kindle Free Book Alert Tool with category search and sorting of over 500 free contemporary titles!
Use the drop-down menu (in red caps next to the menu bar near the top left of the page) to search for free Kindle books by genre or category, then sort the list just the way you want it.
This tool allows you to:
- Do multiple category searches by our most popular categories, with more to come, as well as a complete list that shows all free contemporary titles
- Sort by these categories: Suspense, Romance, Kids, Horror, Nonfiction, Business, How-To, Fantasy, Erotica and more to come.
- The ability to sort any of these category or complete lists in ascending or descending order, by Bestselling, Reader Review Ratings, or Date Added. But there’s no need to sort by price — because they’re all free!
Don’t Miss the Aggie & Nanci April Promotional Confab Show
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You won’t want to miss this
This month Aggie & Nanci discuss hot topics and the many new and astounding happenings here at Promotion a la Carte, our Blog and Radio Show. Happenings such as how affordable and accessible it has become for the average writer to create their own highly interactive ebook, and so much more!
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If your browser doesn’t interpret the widget, click here to listen!
Become Your Own World Wide Publicist at CNN
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It was only the day before the 8.9 Richter scale earthquake hit Japan, followed only minutes later by 30 foot tsunami waves wiping away whole communities.
It was just the day before that I discovered iCNN, a world community of reporters like “i”, er, I mean “me” and you. As soon as I learned of a friend whose book release was reported there I signed up to be an iReporter too.
But my focus was quickly absorbed by the Japanese catastrophe. At CNN I followed along with the world while numerous iReports broadcasted as soon as the sun rose on the disaster.
These iReports contained eye witness video news with which no official reporter could compete, even 20 hours later. iReports showed explosions as they happened, the earthquake filmed within buildings and on the streets; all this 20 hours before the first reporter made it “almost” to the tsunami’s ground zero. All “official” reporting was done from high above and via helicopter which made for remote visuals.
Just the day before I was hit by the enormity of CNN’s user-generated section, and its value, which hopefully doesn’t always include bringing us inside world tragedy. Just the day before I had been excited by the enormity of this opportunity for book publicity.
Book marketing is not world-changing or life-saving like those iReports at ground zero Japan, but for the business end of our writing world it may be just as earth shaking. I wish, as we all do, none of us ever had the chance to utilize this program for a catastrophe. I’m so glad it was in place for us to help each other in this way, but I’m also struck by the more mundane possibilities inherent in an existing CNN market of millions so I immediately posted a test pre-press release about my upcoming book, Amazon Categories Create Best Sellers. It was a success so I posted a press release for our client Barbara Forte Abate’s, new book The Secret of Lies.
Everything you see on iReport starts with someone in the CNN audience. The stories are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they post. But you still have a chance at the big time. CNN’s producers will check out some of the most compelling, important and urgent iReports and, once they’re cleared for CNN, make them a part of CNN’s main news coverage. (Look for the red “CNN iReport” stamp to see which stories have been vetted for CNN.)
Registering is as simple as subscribing to a newsletter. Go to CNN iReports to register. They have some help pages too such as the Assignment Desk where you’ll find suggestions to their hottest topics that have a chance of showing up on the main CNN news. And check out iReport Toolkit where you learn the ingredients of a good story and tips for good photos, videos and audio.
I especially like the iReport Blog where you can “follow along with iReport staffers as they build a new kind of news site.”
Hey fellow publicity reporters!
I’ll see you and your stories on CNN’s iReport!
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Authors Spin Your Own Single With Kindle Singles, a New “Shorts” Publishing Platform
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Killer Idea: Kindle Singles
Just like in their music store, now you don’t have to buy the written whole record, get (or write) the single. Until recently authors had two choices, write it short enough to fit into a magazine/newspaper/blog or long enough for a whole book. Kindle Singles changes all that. It’s a store unto itself now.
Amazon pointed out in their news release October 12, 2010, “…in many cases, 5,000 to 30,000 words (roughly 30 to 90 pages) might be the perfect, natural length to lay out a single killer idea, well researched, well argued and well illustrated — whether it’s a business lesson, a political point of view, a scientific argument, or a beautifully crafted essay on a current event (or literary short fiction). Today’s announcement is a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world.”
Kindle is the First
Kindle is the first of the e-readers (but not of the mobile publishers) to implement this short publishing form. They most likely established this to keep pace with the vanguard success of mobile publishing — publishing short stories and non-fiction installments for downloading to mobile devices such as the iPhone. If I were Kindle I wouldn’t want my eBooks left out of this colossal market either.
The rapid ascension and near domination of mobile devices probably birthed the Kindle Singles concept of reading things at their “natural length.” I’ve checked into using this type of serialized publication myself, through mobile publishers, since my how-to type writing fits the mold. And now, with the launch of Kindle Singles I’ll definitely be checking into publishing there too.
And “Like all Kindle content, Kindle Singles will be “Buy Once, Read Everywhere”–customers will be able to read them on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices.” Are they trying to replace the small mobile publishers just getting off the ground?
Amazon goes on, “In addition, with the Kindle Worry-Free Archive, Kindle Singles will be automatically backed up online in your Kindle library on Amazon where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime.”
DTP Newly Renamed to Accommodate New Platform
Amazon’s Digital Text Platform is now Kindle Direct Publishing and allows us to publish Kindle Singles also, but you must submit your Singles once you’ve published it to Kindle Direct and wait for acceptance.
Speaking of the changeover of DTP to Kindle Direct Publishing, you’ll notice that no longer will you have the choice of five categories for your book. Now you get the same two category choices allowed as for the print books. When I asked them about this, and would this affect my previously published five-category Kindle titles, they answered:
“The number of browse categories allowed for Kindle titles was changed from five to two in order to provide our customers with a more relevant searching experience and achieve parity with our guidelines for physical books.
“Books published before this change will retain their original category assignments of up to five. However, if a publisher chooses to change their category assignments after this change was implemented, their title will be restricted to two categories.”
70% Royalties Option Enabled for Singles
Amazon used to give the 70 percent royalty option for books priced between $2.99 and $9.99. They’ve changed that royalty option now to include Singles so the authors can get 70 percent even for books priced between 99 cents and $4.99.
A few Questions
Short non-fiction such as I write needs updating when technology changes/enhances our options. I had two question for Kindle Singles:
- Can I easily remove the title and replace it with updated versions?
- Can I change my Singles title price after it’s published?
Here is Kindle’s answer:
“The answer to both your questions is yes. Once you submit your titles they will become unavailable while they go through a review and publishing process. Once this process is complete (usually 24-48 hours) you book will become live. When your books is live you will be able to adjust your price and or title names as you see fit.
“Please keep in mind that once you submit these changes your title will go through the publishing process again and will be unavailable for edits. However it will remain available for purchase.”
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What are your thoughts and questions?
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To be considered for Kindle Single digital-publications@amazon.com
You can also email your pitch & outline to kindle-singles@amazon.com
Check out Kindle Singles page
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Resource Articles Concerning Kindle Singles
Not a Full-Length Book? Write a Kindle Single Instead by Debbie Weil
Publishing with Kindle Single for not quite full length Books by Rebecca Lacko at The Written Word
Finally Publishers Weekly to Review Indie Books, But at What Price?
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Most of us have heard the August announcement that starting this December Publishers Weekly Select will select the 25 best indie books to review in each new quarterly listing.
It About Time
Self publishing authors have been taking the rogue road in droves for ages now, slowly getting recognition from places like Amazon Encore, being included in a few national best-selling lists, and even people like Obama’s brother and traditional publishing industry’s own employees turning to self-publishing. A Publishing Person Self-Publishes.
Traditional publishers are beginning to listen to bloggers’ books reviews, whether traditional or indie. The list goes on, and we can now addPublishers Weekly to it.
“In recognition of the boom in self-publishing and as an acknowledgment that valuable works are being published outside traditional publishing, PW is giving self-published authors a chance to present their titles to the publishing trade. Call it what you will–self-published, DIY, POD, author-financed, micro-titles, or relationship publishing–the phenomenon is upending the publishing world.” Welcome to PW Select, at Publishers Weekly.
PW President George Slowik Jr. posted The New PW Select: A Quarterly Service for the Self-Published , saying, “We are returning to our earliest roots. PW dates to 1872, when it was first known as Trade Circular Weekly and listed all titles published that week in what was then a nascent industry.
“We have decided to embrace the self-publishing phenomenon in a similar spirit. Call it what you will—self-publishing, DIY, POD, author-financed, relationship publishing, or vanity fare. They are books and that is what PW cares about. And we aim to inform the trade.”
So this December we’ll have in our lil’ author paws the first ever traditional-industry-created list of indie books and PW reviews of “at least” the 25 best. Indie authors with a finished book can register to be listed in the seasonal supplement that will be bound into issues of Publishers Weekly.
Overprints will be available for purchase and a digital edition and online database made available. All titles published during 2010 are eligible for inclusion in the first PW Select this December. “We will also focus on the opportunities that the self-pub world offers. A resource directory will accompany the section offering names of companies providing services in the DIY space.”
Great news but with a price: a processing fee of $149.
The announcement of this fee caused comments ranging from mild to stern disagreement, to tirades against “one of the cheapest and most blatantly idiotic, unethical ploys since…” You get the picture.
How do I see it? I’m signing up as soon as my new how-to book, The Rewritten Word, has a purchase link.
Is this because I’m in full agreement? Not at all. But I must admit it’s one of the cheaper advertising fees I’ve come across. Is it fair to have to pay for inclusion that is free to traditionally published authors? Of course not. Baby steps.
I’ve stuck with and nurtured the indie publishing revolutions this far. I won’t be left out of any of the cracks that open to me. How ‘bout you?
