The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
What a lovely idea! I was totally surprised … : )
Here’s an excerpt:
19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 100,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Click here to see the complete report.
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A big THANKS to everyone of my readers here on SavvyBookWriters . Today is the big day for this blog: The first 100,000 reader mark is reached. What a number! 100,000
Thank you for signing up, thank you for commenting on the blog and through social media, and thank you to the guest bloggers on this site!
I couldn’t imagine this in April 2011, just one and a half years ago, when SavvyBookWriters started very slowly. Sometimes, there where only five or ten blog readers a day, no wonder, as I had no social media presence whatsoever. And I must admit that English is not my mother language and I often struggle with my writing. But writing every day improved it – I hope.
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Two things helped, and they will help you as an author of books as well:
My goal for future blogs is to bring you fresh and valuable information. Take advantage of these free tips on publishing and marketing your books and subscribe, just click on FOLLOW. As a blogger feel free to re-post one of the 620 articles that you think are useful for your own readers. Yes, and interesting guest blogs are certainly always welcome!
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
or here:
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008Y15YYO
https://plus.google.com/113988101794370708359/posts
http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/111publishing
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/429942674
http://chime.in/user/ebooksinternational
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Create an event
While Facebook Events are geared towards getting people together, Google Plus seeks to help people plan beforehand as well as share their experiences during and after the event. Through its aesthetic design and prominent placement on profiles, Events promises to be a collection of group photo albums for commemorating special times, online and offline.
Through its aesthetic design and prominent placement on profiles, this Events feature is a great free tool to market your book launch or signing. But as always with Google+ : Your events success depends on the amount of people you can reach and this in turn depends on how many people you include into your circles.
Google Plus also automatically creates a new album for all of the photos you upload to an event. You can access these photos from your albums page and from the event page. If this is a yearly-recurring event or a regular gathering between a group of people, you can post pictures from the last time a similar event happened. Otherwise, it might be better to post photos from the event after the gathering has taken place.
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Other possibilities are:
Create an event from the calendar list
In the calendar list on the left, click on the down-arrow button next to the appropriate calendar. Then, select Create event on this calendar.
Create an event via SMS
Simply send a text message containing your event’s details to the shortcode “GVENT” (48368). For example, if you send a message with something like “Book Launch at Chapters 3pm on Saturday, November 24, 2012″ Google Calendar can figure out what you mean and pop the new event into your calendar.
Publish the Event
When you click the “Publish Event” link you will be given some code that you can use to link to your event. This is how you would share the event on your website so that users can click a button to add it to their calendar. Within this code is the link that will take users right to your event. Copy all of the code between a href=” and the next set of double quote marks.
As the creator of the Event, you can manage your guest list, add photos, share your Event with more people, edit Event details and delete an Event. How to add a Google map and give directions how your guests can reach you is shown in this video.
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Be smart and use this exiting, free Google+ tool to spread the word about your book and your event.
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 570 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Bestseller author Rayne Hall originally shared this post on Google+
Petition: “Amazon: Stop Arbitrarily Deleting Reviews!”
“I’m glad someone has taken the initiative and started a petition. Amazon deletes masses of customer reviews, without giving a reason. Presumably, this is to stop the mushrooming of fake reviews (the kind where you pay someone $5 and they leave a gushing 5* review without ever reading the book).
Unfortunately, many thoughtful, sincere reviews get deleted in the process, while the fake reviews from sock-puppet accounts continue to flourish. I have lost many thoughtful reviews from genuine readers.
Some readers have emailed me, deeply unhappy about the deletion of their reviews, not understanding what’s going on. Any requests to Amazon for explanations have yielded nothing but bot-generated unsympathetic uninformative brush-offs. Several readers emailed me to say they will no longer leave reviews at Amazon, because their time and effort has been wasted when Amazon deleted their previous reviews. I can understand their position.
This petition demands that Amazon provides clear criteria for what makes a review deletable, and when deleting a review, gives a reason why. I think this is a sensible, modest request.”
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The Petition organized by Author Derek Blass, Denver, CO Amazon: Stop Arbitrarily Removing Customer Reviews From Indie Author Books
He explains: “Amazon is currently removing customer reviews from books published by indie authors without any notice, and without any explanation. This petition demands that Amazon explain for every author that loses a review (good or bad) why that review was removed, and set forth clear guidelines as to what will and will not be removed in the future.”
“Hi all, I just sent the first email to Amazon, informing them regarding this petition, the success we have had in a short period of time with respect to this petition, and asking that they initiate contact to address the demands made in this petition. I wanted to paste the content of the email in this news update, but posts are restricted to 900 characters. Thus, I have posted the entire email on my blog which can be found at derekblass.wordpress.com
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My own advice: Best thing would be to copy your reviews as soon as posted (just in case) and then paste them in the author page as statements with date and name of the reviewer.
P.S. Just read an article, the Guardian wrote now too: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/05/amazon-removes-book-reviews
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 590 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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PART TWO “Advertise” your Book for FREE
See the first 50 websites here
Forums / Networks / Book Communities / Book Bloggers – all this means free Promotion for your book!
For your book to sell, you need to create the demand. You need an audience, a platform – which you will get when your book is showing up on many websites and forums, visible to readers.
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More Websites and hundreds of tips how to promote your book in the upcoming book “Book Marketing on a Shoestring”. It will be launched at the end of November.
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 570 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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From useful blogs and articles I found on the Internet:
iBookstore now in 17 Latin-American countries
Christian Zibreg wrote in idownloadblog.com:
“Apple has rolled out paid iBookstore content in a slew of new countries. Paid electronic books first surfaced this morning over in the New Zealand iBookstore, but subsequent reports confirmed that paid content is now live – or in the process of going live – in as much as seventeen Latin American markets such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.”
One more reason to sell your books on Apple’s iPad.
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/10/22/ibookstore-paid-content-new-countires/
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Sad News: Timely.is will shut down on November 16th
Timely.is started as a fun side project back in 2010. Since then it has grown to help tens of thousands of people publish millions of Tweets and Facebook updates. Starting November 16th you will no longer be able to access your Timely.is account.
They explained:
“When we launched Timely almost 2 years ago there were no other tools that would automatically figure out the best time for a Tweet to go out. Thankfully there are some great alternatives today such as Buffer or Hootsuite.”
Well, not as conveniently and easy to use as Timely was… I will miss it.
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Book Blogger Directory
The Book Blogger Directory is a comprehensive listing of Book Blogs, separated by genre and listed alphabetically. The goal of the Book Blogger Directory is to not only to organize book blogs for users to easily find your blog, it is also there to create a link exchange for search engine optimization. Their mission: To cross promote book bloggers, provide listings by genre and increase links to increase page rank. The benefits of listing on the Book Blogger Directory: As cross promotion occurs from one blog to the next, your Google Page Rank can increase, higher Google Page Rank means higher search engine rankings! Higher keyword saturation on the Directory can have your listing show up on search engines.
Requirements to be on the Book Blogger Directory:
Your blog is primarily used to talk about books (8 out of 10 posts are book related). The Book Blogger Directory will not search out book blogs, it is up to users to enter their listings
http://bookbloggerdirectory.wordpress.com/
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Google+ (Author) Pages FREE
What more can you wish for? An authors pages that tremendously increases your Search Engine Optimization! A great tool no one should omit, at least not if you want to sell more books…
Google explains: “Differences between Google+ Pages and Google+ Profiles
http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713824
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 570 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Porter Anderson wrote in Jane Friedman’s blog a post about – I guess you can call it: Scandal of the Year. Here are some snippets from his article, make sure to read the complete post, including the NY Times article and comments.
“Potential reviewers were told that if they felt they could not give a book a five-star review, they should say so and would still be paid half their fee…As you might guess, this hardly ever happened.” Quote from a NYT article “The best reviews money can buy“.
Mr. Locke was secure enough in his talents to say that he did not care what the reviews said. “If someone doesn’t like my book,” he instructed, “they should feel free to say so.” But additionally: He also asked that the reviewers make their book purchases directly from Amazon, which would then show up as an “Amazon verified purchase” and increase the review’s credibility.
Locke appears to have been a happy customer of Rutherford. Having e-mailed Rutherford in 2010 that he was “ready to roll” with the false reviews he bought, he seems unapologetic now for using such a mechanism to build his now-discredited “success.” He confessed in the NY Times to contravening Amazon policy.
This NYT article got a wide range of responses:
“This is fraud! This guy, along with John Locke and his ilk, should be banned by Amazon for defrauding their clients http://t.co/xmDb4Pxx”
“It’s hard to overstate how angry I am with shysters like John Locke for taking the easy way out.” http://t.co/rTUk65kZ #selfpubauthorsspeak
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Jason Boog at GalleyCat pulls off an entertaining twist on the issue, creating a list of “Major Bestsellers with More Than 150 One-Star Reviews”:
When you read Porter Anderson’s blog post, don’t miss to scroll down and read all the comments, both authors and readers are pretty mad.
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I must say, I bought Locke’s book “How I sold 1 Million books in 5 months” – without paying any attention to reviews – and read /scanned it about three times to find out how he really did it. I wanted to learn from him how he achieved this enormous success in such a short time. But essentially he said he used only contacts through social media, especially Twitter to achieve those bestseller numbers. My feeling was: “he hides something”. Now I know…
It would be interesting to find out how all the other commercial reviewers, such as Kirkus (charges over $400) or Book Rooster (less than $100) handle this. Do their reviewers get the books for free or do they have to buy it on Amazon? Are their reviewers really free to use the whole range of stars? One can also ask: Are 1-star reviews written undercover by the competition? Or an honest valuation of the books content?
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Market for Free on Google+
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Would you like to have your book cover and description seen by millions on the internet?
If your answer is YES, then sign up with Google plus – Google+ and use one of the best ways on the whole internet to announce your book for FREE – several times a day!
Once you are signed up with Google+, write a compelling “Profile” and add images of you and your books to it. Start building circles and adding potential readers of your book into these circles. Unlike Twitter you can build circles with thousands of followers in a very short time. No 2,000 limit here…
No need to “hand-pick” these followers, just start out by adding already existing circles to your own. Type in: readers, writers, literary agents, publishers, librarians, book reviewers, book worms etc. or keywords of your books to find the right circles. Don’t forget your personal interests, sports and hobbies to have well-mixed community. Select the audience or the parts of your list that will be receiving your message according to your choosen topic of circles.
Create also a Google+ Business Account for each of your books – easy and free again. Google+ allows every business to act as an individual in many forms.
Like with any other social media, comment on postings of others, ask questions, give a “1+” on their postings and “share” them (same as “re-tweet” on Twitter). After some partizipating days, start your own posts, write short articles about anything your Audience might be interested in. After all it is called “Social Media”…
Add lots of photos and snippets from your blog or website. Post your book trailer – see 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer how to do this. And add links to Amazon or other book sales pages.
Place images of your books and a short description along with your author bio – several times a day! Place your book trailer in separate posts to achieve even more buzz. Write at least five unique descriptions of each of your books, to avoid this “spamming look” on your posts and change the headline as well.
You can use Google Talk to chat with friends, potential customers and readers. In your sidebar, you have an option to connect with people in through chats. Again: As larger your audience on Google+ is, as more people you added to your circles, as more potential readers you will get and as better the result will be.
Best of all: Your Search Engine ranking increases exceptionally when participating on Google+. Submit each of your blog post to your Google+ account. Google treats the information on its own platforms, aka Google Search Engine, pretty high. This means your SEO-ranking for your website or blog improves tremendously.
Take advantage of Google+, one of the best ways to market books or e-books which authors and publishers yet have to discover. Let me know about your Google+ presence and I will add you into my circles too. Mine is:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/108229068198031646389/posts
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Misspelling, formatting errors, grammar flaws – are self-publishers AND the big traditional publishing houses not editing anymore?
Joel Friedlander wrote a great blog about the the whole editing process.
Read what readers / customers say on the Kindle Forum about these issues:
Carol H. writes:
“I, too, have discovered numerous misspelled words, punctuation, hyphenation, special character errors, and missing text in many Kindle books. And I’m not talking the little self-published books, either — I’m talking professionally published books from the major book houses! I have no idea why this is happening, but I’ve left feedback on some books’ pages about the errors. There’s no excuse for it in this electronic age. What I hope is that when these errors are fixed, if they ever are, will Amazon automatically download the revised version since our purchase is on record?”
jh writes:
“I’ve bought a couple of books that had particularly frequent and glaring errors, hinting at poor OCR* rather than human error. Things like “1″ turning up in the middle of a word instead of “l” or “I”, which a human wouldn’t accidentally type. But yes, plenty of poorly proof-read copy in titles that aren’t by big-name authors. Though you do see that in physical books too, especially early editions. Misspellings, funky punctuation, even the old “there/their/they’re” issue…
*OCR = optical character recognition, in case anyone’s not sure what that meant. Basically a computer scanning the page of a physical book/manuscript, recognizing the letters as best it can, and digitizing it. I have downloaded several “free” books, unfortunately, they were not free of misspellings , missing words, and other errors. I just overlook them since they didn’t cost me anything. I haven’t had that problem with the books I’ve paid for. Guess the old saying is true, ” You get what you pay for”!”
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Santo de Vaca writes:
“@Carol Hannon: I bought a book with some really terrible formatting issues. In the physical book the first letter of each chapter was elaborately drawn and this didn’t transfer well to the electronic version. They fixed it a few weeks after publication and I had the option of downloading a fixed version of the book, which I did. I’m not sure if this is the norm or not for corrections.”
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Granny Daisy says:
“As an avid reader, I often find errors in print and kindle books. Even in established authors you find misspelled or miss used words, or incomplete sentences. I am beginning to think publishers are saving money by not paying proof readers.”
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J. Robertson writes:
“I have found spelling and grammar errors in many paper books as well. So I think its all about the proof reading being done.”
Publish your book the professional way. Well, if you want to be recognized as an author and if you want to publish a professional book, worth the years you worked on it and to be proud of – let it edit. And no, you can’t do this yourself!
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Writers Residency & Grant
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Among the country’s largest grant makers, in average one proposal in three is typically funded. Read in a recent post of this blog: How to Apply for Funding. Study their requirements carefully, ask for copies of grant proposals they have been previously funded. Some samples can even be found on websites or other resources available online. Write your proposal in a positive manner and language and proof-read it carefully. Create a good cover letter template and an application template and keep it in your computer files, then customize those files to fit specific grants and contest applications.
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Illinois Arts Council
The Illinois Arts Council recognizes that individual artists are the keystone to the creation of art. Individual Artist Professional Development (IA-PD) seeks to support professional development opportunities related to an individual artist’s career. Grant amounts for IA-PD are $500 or $750 Individual Artist Support funds will help Illinois artists realize career goals, take advantage of professional opportunities, and/or produce projects or bodies of work for public viewing. The IAS program represents the Arts Council’s commitment to continuing to support the work of individual artists. Deadline September 14, 2012. If sending via USPS or other mailing service: postmarked September 14, 2012
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs009/1101975251935/archive/1110682278125.html
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Residency at Chateau de La Napoule, Mandelieu-La Napoule, France
LNAF’s General Residency offers up to ten artists a four week period to live and work at the Château de La Napoule. At its core is a belief in the value of the shared experience of personal, professional and artistic discovery that takes place within a supportive environment of peers.
Group Residency: This residency offers up to ten artists a five week period to live and work at the Château de La Napoule. At its core is a belief in the value of the shared experience of personal, professional and artistic discovery that takes place within a supportive environment of peers. This program promotes opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue and artistic exchange. This residency is open to all artistic genres and artists from across the globe. Selected artists receive housing and most meals. Deadline: September 30, 2012. Contact LNAF@clews.org
http://www.LNAF.org
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ART342 Residences
ART342 hosts local, national and international artists for 14-week and 6-week sessions during the spring summer and fall. We are able to accommodate most visual artists, including creative writers, and composers. Free studio space, a modest weekly stipend and living arrangements are awarded to select residents. We restrict the sessions to the artist only without pets, children, companions, visitors or local interruptions. Location Fort Collins, CO. Application deadline: October 1. There are no fees for housing or studio facilities. However, the residents are responsible for their own groceries, supplies and spending money. $100/week for out-of-town residents.
http://www.art342.org
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Massachusetts Artist Fellowship Program
We are pleased to announce the launch of the 2013 Artist Fellowships Program. The Artist Fellowships provide direct, unrestricted support to Massachusetts artists in recognition of exceptional original work. MCC’s Artist Fellowships are competitive, anonymously-judged grants for individual artists, with awards based solely on the artistic excellence of the original work submitted. The 2013 Artist Fellowships Program accepts applications among others in the following categories: Dramatic Writing, and Sculpture/Installation. Online applications available now. Application deadline: October 1, 2012
http://www.massculturalcouncil.org/applications/fellows_guidelines.asp
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Pine Manor College Fellowships
The Solstice MFA in Creative Writing offers four fellowships for students starting the program during the winter residency/spring semester: the Michael Steinberg Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction, the Dennis Lehane Fellowship for Fiction, the Jacqueline Woodson Fellowship for a Young People’s Writer of African or Caribbean Descent, and the Sharon Olds.
Fellowship for Poetry: These Fellowships provide $1000 toward first-semester tuition for four students who begin the program during the winter residency/spring semester. Applicants who want to be considered for a genre-based fellowship should submit a general application form no later than October 15, 2012.
http://www.pmc.edu/mfa-financial-aid
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The Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University
A fellowship will be given to writers and other artists of exceptional promise to pursue independent projects at Princeton University during the 2013-2014 academic year. Hodder Fellows may be writers, composers, choreographers, visual artists and performance artists who have “much more than ordinary intellectual and literary gifts;” they are selected more “for promise than for performance.” Given the strength of the applicant pool, most successful Fellows have published a first book or have similar achievements in their own fields; the
Hodder is designed to provide Fellows with the “studious leisure” to undertake significant new work. Hodder Fellows spend an academic year at Princeton, but no formal teaching is involved. A $68,000 stipend is provided! Fellowships cannot fund work leading to the Ph.D. One need not be a U.S. citizen to apply. Apply by November 1, 2012 through the Princeton Human Resources website – www.princeton.edu/jobs; search Open Positions and enter key word “Hodder Fellows.”
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Nevada Go Artist Grants
Professional Development Grant (PDG) promotes the continuing education of Nevada’s nonprofit arts industry to advance their work and careers through attendance at regional or national conferences, workshops, or seminars for skills training. For artists, educators, board members, and arts administrators, PDG funds cover costs associated with professional development activities on a reimbursement basis. Must demonstrate travel of at least 100 miles round-trip to qualify. Up to $650 for out-of-state activities, up to $500 for in-state opportunities and up to $350 to attend NAC sponsored activities. Individual artists of all disciplines, including fold and traditional artists and community scholars, teaching artists, arts educators.
New: Jackpot Grants will support arts education projects (previously funded through BETA Grants) that are designed and implemented by teaching artists, nonprofit arts and non-arts organizations, schools or public institutions. Examples of eligible projects include: art exhibitions, performances, readings and concerts, sponsoring of arts-related workshops and conferences, marketing and promotional activities, planning, implementation, and/or evaluation of arts education programs for school-aged students or other target participants. Grant Amount: up to $1,000. Available on a first-come, first-served and reimbursement basis throughout the year while funds are available.
http://nac.nevadaculture.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1043&Itemid=412
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Check out these websites to find more writers residencies, grants and fellowships:
Mira’s List or Res Artis A database of world-wide residencies, which you can search by discipline, keyword or country.
If you are willing to take a little time and have a bit of courage, you will be able to reap the fruits of your labor. It is a myth that you have to be famous in order to get a grant. Truth is, most people who are awarded grants are on their way up, not already there. Fear of being rejected prevents a lot of people from applying for opportunities that are out there. Fear is your worst enemy. You really have nothing to lose when applying. The best remedy for fearing rejection is to apply for five to ten things at the same time.
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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In Part 1 of her article Guest Blogger Theresa Braun explained the possibilities to find reviewers and get book reviews.
Here are some tips when soliciting reviews.
Keep in mind that these wonderful people are taking the time to read and write up a review. Many of them are donating their precious time, and sometimes money, to you and your book. Look at their website and find out what genres they are willing to read. That is very important. Don’t waste your time or theirs. Then, include the information in your email that they request. It varies slightly. I think you should always offer to gift them your book through Amazon. Some will be okay with a PDF file or will want to buy your book, but let them insist on it.
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An important thing is to be patient.
Each reviewer probably has a long list of books they are already reading and may not respond to your email right away—or ever. I’m still waiting for a few replies. When you do get a response, some will be honest with you and say that they will get to your book a few months out. So, again, patience is key.
I’ve been trying to thank all my reviewers personally.
If you can, that should be on your list of things to do. This seems to differ from traditional publishing where there is a distance between author and reviewer. I’ve noticed that in the land of self-publishing that it’s a more of a warm community filled with authors trying their best to be gracious. One thing to do to when possible, if you are on Twitter, is to tweet and retweet your reviews and the reviewer’s blog. Lastly, if you are better organized than I am, you should probably keep a list of places you have already asked for reviews. You don’t want to solicit someone twice.
In the end if you plant a bunch of seeds, eventually you should have a list of reviews on your book’s page. Helpful sites to find book reviewers:
www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/
http://pippajay.blogspot.com/p/book-reviewers-list.html
http://mariefostino.weebly.com/
http://laurelosterkamp.blogspot.com/
http://lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspot.com/
http://lauries-interviews.blogspot.com/
http://conniesbrother.blogspot.com/
http://honestindiebookreviews.wordpress.com/
http://www.authorgeriahearnsbookreviews.blogspot.com/
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/reviewsguidelines.html
http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Pages/ReviewRequest.aspx
http://www.facebook.com/groups/reviewseekers/
http://www.authorgeriahearnsbookreviews.blogspot.com/
http://joeypinkney.com/
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Theresa Braun has always been intrigued by authors and writing, which led her to an almost obsessive study of literature. Spontaneous poems, story ideas, and observational rants were always scrawled in her notebooks. She started a few novels; but it wasn’t until her Greek wedding that her passion and focus produced her first finished novel, Groom and Doom: A Greek Love Story, based on a true story and self-published on Amazon in 2012. Now she’s squirreling time away to pen her second novel set in Renaissance England, the first in a series.
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Next year an estimated ten to fifteen million books will be published. How will you make your book standing out among them? Plus, authors are more and more under pressure from their publishers to promote their own books.
The good news: Help is on the way – and it doesn’t even cost you anything, other than your time. Nowadays authors have more opportunities to promote their book’s sales than ever before. Social media and the Internet allow authors to communicate directly with their audience.
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5 Tips for non-fiction authors to sell more books:
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Start planning publicity for your book nine months in advance
Just like preparing for a child, the birth of a book needs preparation time. Some authors tend not to think about marketing their book until it’s on Amazon already or in store shelves, which is way too late. Speak about your book, build awareness and excitement; start blogging about it or mention it in your newsletters.
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Smart writers are sharing sample content months in advance, collecting testimonials and getting blurbs from other writers and authorities in your field. Don’t assume any publisher will come up with a great marketing strategy. If you are not self-publishing your book, approach your publisher’s marketing team with lots of your own marketing ideas. Think and plan what you can bring to your publishers’ table.
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Never tell someone what your book is about
Rather tell your potential readers what’s in it for them and how it will help them to resolve problems and also overcome obstacles. Non-fiction book authors often get caught up in their idea, but customers only care about the results the book will produce for them. When talking about your book, tell them what is in it for them, share some tid bits from the book and explain: “if you are interested in the rest of this and in other stories, just read my new book.”
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Create a book trailer
Any smartphone these days has a built-in high definition video camera, so you don’t have to hire a professional company. You can bring in extra lights, put your smartphone on a tripod, and you can have a video running on YouTube, TubeMogul and other video sharing sites the same day. Create a powerful marketing tool on a budget with a good quality book trailer, and it can go viral really fast. Engage viewers by explaining the reason why the book is an important help for them, explain why they should trust your expertise and which results your book can create for your readers. Video content in web pages or in emails increases click-through rates by NINETY-SIX (96) percent! Find links to tutorials and listings of video sharing sites.
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Don’t over-estimate social media
Finally, resist the urge to go crazy with social media. Though it provides a good opportunity to reach readers, balance social media with public speaking e.g. at writers conferences, publishing lots of articles or being quoted in the media, or sending out regular newsletters. Sure, to get 5,000 followers or 25,000 email addresses, social media is invaluable. However, when you’re searching for a core group of committed partners for your book launch, a co-author for your next project, or in-depth feedback on your manuscript, your online followers are not your only best bet. Even “shy” or “introverted” authors are often naturals at networking, when placed in the right environment, such as writers conferences.
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Leverage the power of free
Giving resources away allows skeptical readers to get enough content to talk about your book – and to make it easy for them to share content with their friends. Sample chapters, quizzes, special reports, and how-to articles are all good giveaway possibilities. If you haven’t yet landed on the radar of most people, you need an entirely different strategy. If this is your first work, give away as many books as you can. Ask your publisher for a lower price on promotional copies and get your words out there.
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As an author of hopefully soon, several books, you are a brand. Start thinking and acting like one, and create a serious marketing strategy.
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Dreaming of writing full time, but just don’t have the money to make the writer’s life a reality? Grants for aspiring writers might offer the aid to supplement your income until you will get established. Many organizations offer grants for writers to help them to complete their projects or help even during emergencies.
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Stephen King’s “The Haven Foundation”
He writes: “I was struck by a careless driver and nearly killed while taking my daily walk. It was ten months before I was able to work productively again. My friend Frank Muller, suffered terrible head injuries as a result of a motorcycle accident. My response to this has been the creation of The Haven Foundation.”
Applications and all supporting documentation for the current round of grants must be received no later than November 23rd, 2012. All applications received after that date will be held for the next round of grants.
http://www.thehavenfdn.org/
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California Writers Award
The California Writers Exchange contest introduces emerging writers from California to the New York literary community and provides them a network for professional advancement. Every third year, writers in California are invited to submit manuscripts. Judges review the entries and select a winning poet and fiction writer. Winners are flown to New York City for an all-expenses-paid, weeklong trip to meet with literary agents, editors, publishers, and writers, and to give a public reading. Includes $500 stipend.
Deadline August 31, 2012
http://www.pw.org/about-us/california_writers_exchange_award
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Louisiana Cultural Grants
The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation Economic Opportunity Fund (EOF) is designed to increase the entrepreneurial capacity and economic health of cultural economy producers. These funds are targeted to unique opportunities to earn income that are not a part of the applicant’s regular work or programming. Louisiana’s cultural economy is defined as the people, enterprises, and communities that transform cultural skills, knowledge, and ideas into economically productive goods, services, and places. It includes: visual arts and crafts, performing arts, film, digital media, music, culinary arts, design, traditional culture bearers, entertainment, LITERARY ARTS and humanities, architecture and historic preservation.
Deadline August 31, 2012
http://culturaleconomy.org/
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Sustainable Arts Grant
Our program focuses on awards to individual artists and writers with families. Specifically, the applicant must have at least one child under the age of 18. We welcome applicants from anywhere, but will give some preference to residents of the San Francisco Bay area. Sustainable Arts Foundation Writing Award: $6,000. There will be multiple winners for each award. Additionally, we will be awarding a number of smaller $1,000 Promise Awards to those applicants whose work may not qualify for the main awards, but nonetheless demonstrates both skill and potential. The foundation offers awards in two major categories: visual arts and writing. We encourage writers working in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to apply.
Deadline September 1, 2012
http://www.sustainableartsfoundation.org/apply
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Helen McCloy MWA Scholarship
The Helen McCloy/MWA Scholarship for Mystery Writing seeks to nurture talent in mystery writing—in fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and screenwriting. The scholarship ($500) shall be used to offset tuition and fees for writing workshops, writing seminars, or university/college-level writing programs taking place in the U.S. in summer, fall or winter of 2013 or early spring 2014. Applicants must select a specific writing class/workshop/seminar to which scholarship funds would be applied.
Deadline: February 28, 2013
http://www.mysterywriters.org/?q=AwardsPrograms-McCloy
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Funding for workshops by Poets & Writers
To support as many literary events as possible, we generally grant no more than $1,500 to organizations in New York State and California, and $500 to organizations in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle, Tucson, and Washington, D.C., during the course of our fiscal year (July 1 to June 30). Decisions on maximum grant amounts are based on the availability of funds and are made at the discretion of Poets & Writers. Grants for readings or spoken word performances range from $50 to $350. Grants for workshops range from $100 to $200 per session. We encourage organizations to match our payments to writers, but this requirement may be waived if there are extenuating circumstances.
http://www.pw.org/content/funding_readingsworkshops
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newARTS Wiscounsin
newARTS can act as a fiscal receiver for Brown County-based arts initiatives. Most independent artists and small or new arts organizations lack the important 501(c)(3) tax status that makes public grants and private donations legal and desirable. newARTS welcomes applications from either short-term but impactful projects as well as new initiatives seeking their own non-profit status, as a way to support the creation of new projects, until there are financial and structural plans in place for the initiatives to sustain their own non-profit status.
http://www.newartscouncil.org/FiscalReceivership.html
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National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships
Through Literature Fellowships to published creative writers and translators of exceptional talent in the areas of prose and poetry, the Arts Endowment advances its goal of encouraging and supporting artistic creativity and preserving our diverse cultural heritage. Creative Writing Fellowships enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Grants are for $25,000. Deadline in March.The next awards will be for fiction or creative nonfiction. Translation Projects enable recipients to translate work from other languages into English. Grants are for $12,500 or $25,000, depending upon the artistic excellence and merit of the project. Deadline is January 2013.
http://arts.endow.gov/grants/apply/Lit.html
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The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation
The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation awards yearly grants to playwrights who submit full-length plays, screenplays, musicals or operas. All works submitted must present the gay and lesbian lifestyle in a positive manner and be based on, or inspired by, a historic person, culture, event, or work of art. Writing contests close on November 30th of each year. Grants are $1,000 and are not limited to a single winner. The Foundation also offers grants (usually of $1,000) to production companies to offset expenses in producing gay-positive theatrical works based on history. Submission deadline is November 30, 2012.
http://aabbfoundation.org/
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Library of Virginia
The Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry, founded in 2005, is given each year to a poet with strong connections to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The $10,000 annual prize recognizes significant recent contributions to the art of poetry and is awarded on the basis of a range of achievements in the field of poetry. Also awarded at the Celebration are the Annual People’s Choice Awards for the best works of fiction and nonfiction by a Virginia author and the Whitney and Scott Cardozo Award for Children’s Literature. Voting for this year’s People’s Choice Awards has closed. Finalists for the 2012 Library of Virginia Literary Awards have been announced. The winner in each category will be announced at the Awards Celebration on October 20, 2012. Nominations are now being accepted for the 2013 awards.
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/litawards/nominate.asp
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Follow on Twitter: @111publishing
And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful.
Thanks, Doris
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I want to tell you about how I found an intellectually stimulating challenge in freelance writing.
Not too long ago I was working as a copywriter for an advertising firm. I had studied journalism and advertising in college, and I was one of the lucky few among my graduating class that found a job almost immediately after finishing school. After the endless all-nighters, study sessions, and project deadlines that typified my college experience, I was glad to be part of the “normal” workforce. A desk job seemed like just the right fit for me.
Unfortunately I discovered very quickly that the advertising world wasn’t something that brought me any happiness personally or professionally. Worse yet, I found myself at the mercy of superiors who had me working hours even worse than those I worked in college although my official hours were 8-5. The work was neither rewarding nor inspiring, and most of the people in my office seemed jaded on a daily basis.
After over a year at the advertising firm, I decided to quit my job and start a new career as a self-employed freelance writer.
I won’t lie to you reader: those first few months out on my own were very tough. I assumed that I’d hit the ground running with my modest connections in the writing industry and my formidable copywriting skills. But it turns out that freelancing is a much more feasible career option in theory than it is in practice. I had to work hard just to get free gigs, writing assignments that I needed if just to add more content to my still small writing portfolio. Luckily I had amassed a small amount of savings just in case, so my finances were not as tight as they could have been. But those first few months of freelancing were among the most humbling and instructive periods of my life.
When I did finally start to make money from freelancing, the feeling was like none other. I was struggling to land decent writing gigs one day, and then the next I was juggling multiple clients at a time, writing copy at all hours of the night and trying to keep track of the numerous projects going on. My hard work and persistence was starting to pay off—quite literally.
Of course, in order to make ends meet I had to veer slightly from my initial plans as a freelancer. I couldn’t only sustain myself by writing copy—I also wrote as a guest blogger for a number of sights (as I am now!) to get my name out there. I also wrote on behalf of clients who wanted stronger content on their websites, regardless of the industry that they worked in. In other words, I had to diversify my approach to freelancing. I had to adapt with the market needs if I wanted to survive.
The point of my little anecdote here is to encourage you to set out to achieve your own writing ambitions, no matter how outlandish they may seem. Perhaps you want to write the next great American novel, or maybe you just want to work for yourself as a freelancer like me. Whatever the case may be, I wholeheartedly encourage you to follow your dreams and make them happen, even if it’s a scary option to consider. If I made it, you certainly can too.
This guest post is brought to you by Mariana Ashley, a prolific blogger who provides web content to a number of blogs and websites. She’s most interested in providing guidance to prospective college students who wish to attend online colleges in Montana. When she’s not writing or researching online education trends, she enjoys riding her horse, George, and spending quality time with her four nieces. Mariana welcomes your questions and comments at mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.
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6 Social Media Sites, Essential for Writers
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Going through my list of tweets for the day, I paused at this one:
1. Why engage in yet another social media when I am already on Twitter, Pinterest & Facebook ?
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It reminded me of other statements from new writers, I hear on a daily basis:
2. None of my friends is on Google+ …
3. I have a website, why should I additionally have a blog?
4. Writing my book, I don’t have time for all these Social Media…
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Answer for question 1 and 2 – Google+
This says it all: Google+ = Google, the famous Search Engine… You don’t join Google+ to meet your friends and family as you do on Facebook! You join to improve your Search Engine Ranking: As the main search engine, Google indexes and ranks its own site much higher than any other content. Google+ posts – with a main keyword in the first sentence / title – will rank well in Google search and often show up on the first page, for a long time. And now Google+ outranks Twitter as no. 2 social network, having more active users than Twitter!
On Google+ authors can create a separate page for each of their books. You have immense space to show images, such as your books cover, even if it has 36 MB and you can show your book as often as you want. More reasons to be on Google+ can be found in a former article: “7 Reasons Why Google+ is Perfect for Writers“
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Answer to question 3 – Why should I have a blog?
Your website is something very static. You usually don’t do many changes or new content writing. A blog – either on your website – which would increase SEO – or on WordPress or BlogSpot is adding constantly new content. This means search engines index your blog site higher.
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Writing is fun – why else would you have written this novel! As a writer, it is only a matter of minutes to write a blog post. And you don’t need much fantasy to come up with topics. You can write about, well, writing, your writers life, the publishing process, what you have learned about marketing your book… the subjects you can write about are endless.
An important reason for a blog is that you can use snippets from the content to fill your social media sites. For sample: use one sentence and a link to your blog and post it as a tweet. Readers see your post and click on your blog or website – and voila! they learn about your book. Here are two samples from the blog page you are just reading:
Author of “The Wolf’s Moon” Patrick Jones, in an Interview, talking about the characters in his book http://wp.me/p1uIFg-1il
9 Compelling Reasons to Get Marketing Help, Boosting Your Books Success
bit.ly/X3rwul
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Readers and fans have a reason to come back to your blog, as often as you write a new post, and will re-tweet your blogs and spread the message about your book. Plug-ins and share buttons automatically send your blog posts to all your social media sites.
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Answer to statement 4:
What you are just reading here, was automatically send to Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Tumblr, Reddit, Triberr, Yahoo and Goodreads – at the same moment I hit the “publish” button! I don’t need to go to all these sites to fill them with content. What more could you wish for? Writing one blog post, it can be as short as 300 – 500 words an it will be found all over the internet! You certainly can add more Social Media sites to your blogs sharing button, to spread the word even more.
Your post is yet sent more often among Social Media sites:
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SUMMARY: To have maximum exposure for your book and you, as an author, and to save lots of time, join:
How to get more followers on your social media sites is explained in one of last months’ blogs, and also at How to Get More Followers on Google+
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Be very selective when choosing followers:
You want READERS and REVIEWERS as followers. NOT your friends. Type into the search functions on top of these pages: readers, book lovers, book worms, reading, love to read etc. to find the right people as your following.
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One last tip: Set up a second page on Google+, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest – only for your book. Separate it from your existing private presence.
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Part of our Book Marketing package we offer, is dedicated to help you to create or improve your reader community platform, such as:
Find out how else we can help you to have more success for your books and more fun in marketing.
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:
@111publishing
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+
Don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks
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Posted by ebooksinternational on February 15, 2013 in Blogging, comment on posts, googling social, Marketing, post to public, Self-Publishing, Social Media Book Marketing, Social Networks
Tags: Facebook, GoodReads, Google+, http://pinterest.com/111publishing/, Pinterest, savvybookwriters.wordpress.com, Search Engine Optimization, social media, Twitter, www.111Publishing.com/seminar