17 Tips How to Successful Run Book Giveaways

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Book giveaways are a powerful way to get a lot of exposure – and your book in the hands of new readers, who might even write reviews. The success of your book giveaway depends very much on how you promote this event – and also how you leverage the networking possibilities you gain with new followers and contacts.
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Print Book Giveaways on Goodreads
Goodreads allows ebooks and print books as Giveaways. They offer all members: “Be the first to read new books! Pre-release books are listed for the giveaway by publishers and authors, and members can enter to win. Winners are picked randomly at the end of the giveaway.”
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The idea is that many of the people who win a free book will be good enough to write a review of it on Goodreads (some people are so enthusiastic that they write reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, Shelfari etc).  Reviews help book sales, so publishers and authors are keen to do giveaways.  However, if your book is in digital format only: there are ways to print a handful of books, once you have an ISBN.  There are also some competitors to Goodreads, who offer e-Book Giveaways for members, such as:
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BookLikes Allows e-Book Giveaways
In terms of features and functionality, BookLikes is similar to Goodreads.  Of course, they don’t have nearly the traffic that Goodreads does, so you should not expect similar results if you have done a book giveaway there in the past.
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To list your book giveaway on BookLikes, sign up for a free account and click on the giveaways link when you are logged in.  On the next page, there should be a tab at the top of the page in the main navigation that says “Create Your Giveaway.”
You will be asked for the same info as the other sites in the form on the following page. Their rules seem to have been almost copied directly from Goodreads, as they appear to be identical.  For more questions go to their FAQ’s.  Best of all, you can choose to pick the winners of the giveaway yourself.  It is certainly less expensive then to donate print books and you can offer easily a dozen or more copies.  You can either send the winners a PDF or you can gift the e-book via Amazon and boost your sales ranking at the same time.
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Print and e-Book Giveaways Through Book Bloggers
Consider offering copies of your book to other bloggers you follow, or you have found through a Google search and have them host a giveaway.  Book bloggers often really appreciate being able to do giveaways, and this can extend your reach outside of your previous networking!

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Giveaway on Your Website
Your blog or website are great places too for giveaways, especially if you have thousands of followers/readers there or an extensive newsletter email list.  Use the same announcements and promotions as you would do for a Goodreads or BookLikes giveaway (see below).

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Do’s and Don’ts of Giveaways

Do: Enter your first giveaway 4-6 weeks before your book’s launch and then periodically every other month.  Schedule your giveaway at least three days in advance.

Do: Write a compelling giveaway description with snippets of reviews and mentioning any awards the book won.

Do: Offer always autographed books, when it is a printed version.

Do: Follow everyone who applied for the giveaway. On Goodreads, you can follow 25 people/day.  These are the people who are interested in your book.  Send a thank-you note to everyone who entered, and offer 2-3 chapters of your book to the not-so-lucky ones, and invite them to join your newsletter.

Do: Use the free event feature at Goodreads and Google+ and invite everyone there to participate in the Giveaway.

Do: Announce the giveaway at least once a day on your Google+ timeline and share it with: public, your circles and extended circles – as well use the function “Also send email to Your circles” next to the sharing button (for your first post and then towards the end of the giveaway period to remind them).

Do: Post your giveaway regularly to all the Social Media sites, don’t forget Pinterest or Flickr (use not only your cover photo, but anything that fits the theme of your book), and maybe create even a short video about this giveaway. Make arrangements for interviews in local newspapers, mentioning your giveaway (plan well in advance!)

Do: Write a blog about your giveaway – and post this blog article not only on Social Media but also on free e-Zines.
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Do: Announce your Book Blog Giveaways in these listings/blogs too:

• http://bookblogs.ning.com/group/bookbloggiveaways
• http://cuddlebuggery.com/previous-lbba-giveaways/
• http://www.iamareader.com/giveaway-hops
• http://bloggiveawaydirectory.com/tag/books/
• https://www.facebook.com/freebookgiveaways
• http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/2014/06/giveaway-book-of-life-by-deborah.html
• http://mostlyyabookobsessed.com/2012/09/blog-makeover-and-giveaway.html
• http://www.yabookscentral.com/info/10186-ya-and-kids-books-giveaways (YA and Kids)

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Do: Vary the giveaway time length: One giveaway only for a week, and later another one for three weeks.
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Don’t: start or end your giveaway on a holiday or the days before.  People are busy with other things around this time or they travel.

Don’t: limit your giveaways to your own country, offer it worldwide. It means more exposure and if your giveaway is only one to three copies it’s affordable, especially if you let it send as a gift through Amazon – this way it helps your ranking too. But always include a friendly note, even when you gift it via the online retailer.

Don’t: delay the delivery to the winner.  Send or let it send the same minute the giveaway ends or you receive the name of the winner.
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Conclusion:
Using best practices, planning well ahead and using every kind of promotion will deliver a successful campaign for your book.  And don’t forget the benefits of connecting with new followers and readers of your books. And here you can find tips for readers, how to win books on Goodreads.

Which additional giveaway possibilities did you use – and how did you promote your own giveaway?

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/
to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts on this blog (there are more than 1,100 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, Facebook, and Tumblr.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/
http://www.international-ebooks.com/
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Show Off Your Writing Skills: Write Guest Blogs

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Hi everyone : ) For the past 36 months I have written more than 1,060 blog posts for SavvyBookWriters.com/blog – which have been read by more than 450.000 individuals at
SavvyBookWriters. These posts are submitted several times to Google+, Twitter, Pinterest,
Facebook, Tumblr, StumpleUpon, dozens of Google+ Communities, Goodreads etc.
However, this blog would benefit from a variety of voices, additional advice and different points of view. I am now inviting guest posts on this blog.

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Guest Posting
It is a great way for your blog and your books sales page to get some fantastic exposure. You certainly can add links from your guest blog via the re-blog function to your website, your own blog or the online retailer where your book is sold.  At the same time you will be helping readers of this blog by providing them with useful and relevant information.  I welcome posts from writers or bloggers and others in the publishing industry, who know from their own experience what they are writing about.
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Here are Some Guidelines for You:

• Topics should be related to writing, publishing and book marketing only. It doesn’t have to be specific to e-books. Write about victories and … in your writing career, or great tips you can give other writers or small publishers.
• Your Guest Post must be original. It should be a new, original post, written entirely by you – No articles from article directories.
• Length: Your guest blog should be at a minimum of somewhere between 500 words to 700 words.
  Longer posts are certainly welcomed.
• Exclusivity will be for 30 days. By submitting a guest post to us, you agree not to post it anywhere else online for a period of 30 days after it first appears on this blog- re-blogging on your page is fine.
• Use examples and anecdotes to clarify your points
• Offer fresh content that has not been published before
• Send us a pitch only if you are a blogger with your own blog
• Ensure that your post does not violate any copyright laws
• Have a conclusion at the end of your article
• Have a call to action for readers after the conclusion

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Important: Learn to Write for the Web & Social Media
Writing for blogs is totally differently from writing a novel. Learn how to write the “inverted pyramid” from most important on top to less further on. Is your text easy to read? Eye-tracking studies have shown that readers SCAN text (in an F-shaped pattern), rather than to READ it. And: website visitors read more slowly on the screen than in print. So, how to you use this knowledge for your writing?

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Use bullet lists, such as this one:

• Create lots of short paragraphs, and give them all a headline
• Keep sentences short, they should never be longer than one line
• Use spell check and a beta reader / software
• Readers like to interact on the Web, so give them lots of links
• Illustrate your text, use lots of images
• Don’t let your readers scroll on the screen, keep it to one page
• Except prepositions and the words “and” and “the”, all major words in a headline should be capitalized

Online content is not just about words. When you write for the Internet, think “presentation”. Print content is formally written and a passively read. Online content is informally written, interactive and dynamic.
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Don’t Query or Inquire About Topics.
Just send your entire post to 111publishing *at* gmail . com – directly in the email-body – NO
Word or other attachments will be opened!!!
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Subject: Guest Post
Please include a short “About the Author” bio of approximately 70-80 words (not including the
link to your Web site. Include your Twitter, Google+ or FB ID with the post.
The link back to your blog or author sales page should be within the author bio, NOT within the
article itself. Your bio link must link to your own author site, writing- or publishing-related web
site or book sales page. No affiliate links and no links to unrelated sites.
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Please submit a polished post that you would be proud to have published. You will be contacted within three working days. Thank you for your interest and I do look forward to hearing from you!

Doris @111Publishing

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/  to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,060 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, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/
http://www.international-ebooks.com/
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Hyper Smash

Pingate

 

Opportunities for Freelance Writers

COLORADO EXPLORER
http://www.coloradoexplorer.com/submissions

Colorado Explorer Magazine is monthly magazine that promotes
travel and outdoor activities around the state of Colorado.
We publish photographs, and travel and adventure stories about
places, people, and things to do around Colorado. Colorado has
some of the most majestic scenery in the world and people want
to see photographs and read the accounts of others in these
areas. The maximum word length and fees paid for each feature
article is $0.15 a word. A feature article should be between
800 and 1,400 words. The maximum word length and fees paid for
department articles are $0.10 a word. The department articles
should be between 600 and 1,000 words. (from website – has been
known to pay more per other references)

COLUMBUS PARENT
http://www.columbusparent.com/content/pages/submissions.html

No longer accepting unsolicited material. However, if you are
a writer in central Ohio who is interested in being considered
for assignments, please submit your resume and three writing
samples which reflect our magazine’s writing style and content.
Articles run around 700 words and columns 300 words. Pays
up to 20 cents/word. Publication and website provides info
on raising children in the Columbus area. Topics include
education, health, child development, entertainment, and
recreation.

CONNECTICUT MAGAZINE
http://www.connecticutmag.com/Connecticut-Magazine/Contact-Us/

Connecticut Magazine is a general interest, service and
issue-oriented magazine that covers all aspects of life in
the state–arts, politics, travel, people, business, health,
environment and newsworthy issues. No fiction or poetry.
Deadline is two months prior to publication date. Pays 20%
kill fee. Pays $750 and up for features of 2,500+ words.
Short fillers up to 300 words pay up to $200. Departments
of 500 to 1,800 words pay up to $700.

 

Show the Heart and Soul of Your Work in Your Book Covers

Font Lucida

A book that is brilliantly written, but lacks a good quality cover design will sadly remain unnoticed and undiscovered.

Therefore it is absolutely crucial, especially if you are publishing your own book, to have a book cover that grabs attention.

Book Covers are often challenging to design as they should show the heart and the soul of the book in one single image and at the same time should be visually striking, appealing and represent the book’s contents.

Will your e-book cover get judged in the same way? Certainly! This is why you really need to focus on the visual design aspect of your cover, because most people will not give it a second glance if it just does not look professional.

Here are some topics you should discuss with your designer.

• Use bold or complementary colors
• Use light on dark for dramatic effects (if it fits to your book content)
• Test the cover in thumbnail size to make sure it looks good at Amazon’s website
• Use not more than different two fonts in total
• Your name and book title should be distinguished from each other by either size, color, or font
• Use not too wide vertical spaces between lines of text
• Use very few shadow, bevel, gradient or glow – keep it subtle
• Align the cover text – centre, left or right
• Place text on plain background to stand out
• Use the same fonts for all your books and readers will be able to identify them easily
• People read left to right, top to bottom. Position your elements in appropriate levels of importance.
• Never, ever, use a white background! White on white is barely visible and your book will not stick out.

Font Arial

You never get a second chance for a first good impression!

• Don’t use “flat” text – it is almost always better to add some shadow, bevel, gradient or glow.
• Using various colors, filters, and effects available in Illustrator and Photoshop, you or your book designer can create book titles that are both, original and effective. Remember always: Your title and its appearance is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader.

A great image on your e-book cover will undoubtedly catch your reader’s imagination, wondering what lies beyond the cover. It’s a great opportunity to draw people in.

 

 

Marketing by Writing Free Content for eZines?

e-Zines and all these content farms, such as 101, Answers.com, All About… are a really profitable business – alas not for the writers who create all the content, but for the owners of these websites. These content farms or eZines do not produce original content.

But why should you write for them?
Nevertheless you will profit too: Writing an article, using content from your book or blog and having a link to it, will result in traffic on your and/or on your Amazon page Author or Sales. Most e-Zines allow links, some are even up to three.

Here is a list of potential sites where you might submit your article:

http://www.amazines.com
http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit.php
http://www.articlealley.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.articlebase.com

http://www.articlesfactory.com
http://www.articlewarehouse.com
http://www.authorconnection.com
http://www.infojump.com
http://www.ezine-universe.com

http://www.buzzle.com
http://www.constant-content.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.freezineweb.com
http://www.bestzines.com

For writing articles AND get paid (albeit not much) have a look at this precious blog that provides lots of links for freelance writing sources. If you can use parts of your book content in writing articles, all the better!  http://www.absolutewrite.com/freelance_writing/writing_for_the_web.htm

 

What is Cloud Computing?

Image Vera Kratochvil

Not only for dummies:
Some people live and die by their email. The nice thing about your email is you do not have to log into your home computer to get your email. You can log into any computer, tablet, mobile device, anywhere in the world and get the contents of your email.

Your email is not stored just on your home PC. It is accessible anywhere, hosted by your service provider granting you access from a coffee shop or even the neighbors house. This is the basic premise of cloud computing.

In the past your writing could only be saved to the computer that created it. With cloud computing, you can access that document from any PC, tablet or mobile anywhere in the world.

Cloud security continues to be the number one concern with end users, but truthfully, Facebook releases more personal info then cloud storage does.

Just as you adapted to email services, you can adapt to cloud computing. There really is no difference. Now, it’s not just your email access, rather you have access to all of your documents and images anywhere, any time.

 

Why Throw Out Your Money?

Would you like to talk with business partners, friends or family members who live at the other end of the world or just in another state – for free? Yes? 

Why don’t you do it??? Why pay AT&T, Bell or Rogers a fortune if it is not necessary?  You are almost always in reach of a laptop, tablet or computer – why not use Skype, the FREE phone? 

Skype has 670 million registered users.  I am wondering why not more.  Almost everyone in the world could use it, technically speaking.

Sounds like I am a sales rep for Skype, right? 
NO, not at all, but I am using it for over ten years, when it often had a lousy connection, when it often sounded as you were sitting in a bath tub, when the connections broke down in the middle of your conversation. 

But it got better and better and now since it was bought by Microsoft in Spring of 2011, there are no problems anymore.  It sounds like calling from a regular landline, often even better than from a cell phone.  I have a landline too, which I should cancel as my phone lays in a drawer, not used since over a year, and faxes could be send over the internet as well.

What I like best on the VoIP system? 
Not to be interrupted by phone calls from sales persons when I am working, or from other silly, unnecessary calls that could be replaced by emails – which I open when it is convenient for me.  And sometimes it is good to have a message in writing, black on white for proof…

Users can download Skype for free, to use it on Windows, Mac, Blackberry or iPhone. Registered users of Skype are identified by a unique Skype Name.  Instead of a phone number you can choose a Skype name to use on these devices.

Skype is more than an Internet phone:
You can make conference calls to talk “face to face”. Why waste time and money, have all the inconvenience of international travel when you can “meet” up to five business partners in one conference call or through Skype audio conferences, currently supporting up to 25 people at a time, including the host?

Your Grandma has no computer or Blackberry? 
Call her on her landline!  For free in the United States and Canada.  And if she lives in China or Great Britain, it costs you 1.2 cents per minute, to India 2.2 cents.

Travelling a lot?
Use Skype for WiFI and pay only for the time you are online, not the amount you download.

Would you like to open a business branch in Europe? You don’t need to hire staff yet, just get a Skype “number” there and answer your phone calls while sitting on your computer in the States.

I am wondering why not all corporations and government agencies use Skype in favor of expensive landlines and save our tax money. Skype is claimed to be a secure communication, encryption cannot be disabled, and is invisible to the user. Skype reportedly uses publicly-documented, widely trusted encryption techniques.

The downside? 
911 Emergency calls  cannot be provided by Skype.

There are other possibilities to avoid the traditional phone system by “Voice of Internet Protocol”, such as Google Voice or iMessage from Apple. More of these and why phone numbers should be abandoned:
http://www.theverge.com/2011/06/09/google-voice-skype-imessage-and-the-death-of-the-phone-number/

 

 

Writing Contests: Read the Fine Print

 

Is it really worth to participate in Writing Contests?  For every offer I read, hear or get in person I always ask myself “who benefits?” and so I study always the “fine print”.  Here is an essay contest as example:

“An Essay Contest, 6 Winners Get Manuscript Critiques:
Pick one of the following stories from Book Wish Foundation’s new book, What You Wish For, and write an essay of no more than 500 words about how the wishes in the story relate to the Darfur refugees in eastern Chad. The stories were contributed for free by their authors so we could use the book’s proceeds to develop libraries in Darfur refugee camps. Essays will be judged on style, creativity, understanding of the story, and understanding of the refugees. (1)

If you win, either the story’s author or the author’s literary agent will provide a one-page critique of the first 50 pages of a middle grade or young adult manuscript of your choosing. You will have six months to submit your manuscript and the agent or author will have six months from submission to provide the critique. Stories you may write about:

• “The Protectionist,” by Meg Cabot.
• “Pearl’s Fateful Wish,” by Jeanne DuPrau.
• “Nell,” by Karen Hesse.
• “The Lost Art of Letter Writing,” by Ann M. Martin.
• “The Rules for Wishing,” by Francisco X. Stork..
• “The Stepsister,” by Cynthia Voigt.

You may submit essays about more than one story for a chance to win more than one critique (2). Essays and winners’ manuscripts must be written in English.  To Enter:
Essays must be emailed to contest at …. no later than February 1, 2012, either pasted into the body of the email or attached as a Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, or PDF file. Essays must include the name and email address of the entrant. Book Wish Foundation staff will judge the initial round of the contest and recommend finalists to the agents or authors, who will select the winners. Winners will be notified by email and announced on bookwish.org on or about March 1, 2012. Winners’ manuscripts must be received by September 1, 2012. Manuscript critiques will be sent to winners within six months of receipt.

Essays may be published on bookwish.org (3). By submitting an essay, you grant to Book Wish Foundation the right to edit, publish, copy, display, and otherwise use your essay, and to further use your name, likeness, and biographical information in advertising and promotional materials, without further compensation or permission (4), except where prohibited by law. The preceding applies to the contest essays, not winners’ manuscripts. Winners retain all rights to the manuscripts they submit for critique.(5)”

My conclusions when reading this “offer”:
(1)     To understand the story and to understand refugee camps you will have to BUY the book, it is not easily available in libraries or bookstores.

(2)     If you really want a good chance to win, you might have to write several essays – this way “donating” all your essays that will not be considered a winner.

(3)     Essays may be published on bookwish.org. You can look at it as a donation or a way to get your name out (also bookwish.org is not a popular website per se) but it is not given that you have a link to your authors website.

(4)     You give them permission to alter, publish, copy the essay and use your name in ads and PR WITHOUT COMPENSATION.

(5)     Only winners retain all rights to their manuscript – also it does not specify if they are compensated in any way other then the critique.

A really clever roguish PR trick to get free content – for the agency – not for the authors.  What is really in for you as an author?  Or am I too critical?  Do you partizipate in writing contests, no matter how benefitial it is for the other party and no matter if they profit from your writing without compensatingyou?

 

 

Are you an Author from Canada?

 

BERTON HOUSE WRITERS RESIDENCY

Found in FundsforWritiers: The Writer’s Retreat offers writers time and a remote location to pursue their professional projects. The writer will be housed in the Berton House at no cost in rent or utilities.

A monthly honorarium is provided to help cover food and other living expenses. The writer is responsible for their own telephone bill. Travel costs to and from Dawson will be covered. 

The Berton House Writers’ Retreat is located in Dawson City, Yukon Territory.

Professional Canadian writers who have one published book and are established in any creative literary discipline(s) — fiction, non-fiction, poetry, playwriting, journalism — are all encouraged to apply.

The writer is also encouraged to:

* interface with the public and the local literary community
* feature their work in local newspapers and on local radio stations
* avail themselves for interviews with local media
* hold writing workshops in the community and/or at the schools and colleges

http://www.bertonhouse.ca/retreat.html

 

Writers and Artists in Residence

 

Seaplane Maine

Mount Desert Island Maine

Artist-In-Residence Program at Acadia
The Artist-in-Residence Program at Acadia National Park offers professional writers, composers, and all visual and performing artists the opportunity to pursue their particular art form while surrounded by the inspiring landscape of the park. In the spring and fall, the park provides housing to participants for two-week to four-week periods.

In return, participating artists are asked to donate to the park collection a piece of work representative of their style and their stay. These creative works will be displayed on a rotating schedule or shared with the public through other appropriate means during the upcoming seasons. Artists are also asked to participate in one public program per week of their residency such as demonstrations, talks, exploratory hikes, or performances. In the fall, artists will be working with fifth and sixth grade students. Programs can be tailored to your medium, interests, and experiences, and only consume a few hours of your stay.

How to Apply
Applications for the program are accepted beginning October 1 and must be received by January 7 for consideration for the following season.

http://www.nps.gov/acad/supportyourpark/artistinresidence.htm

Catoctin Mountain Artist-In-Residence

This program offers visual, literary, and performing artists an opportunity to work in a natural and historic setting to advance art, nature, and history education and appreciation.

The Artist-In-Residence will spend two weeks immersed in the natural and cultural resources of the Catoctin Mountains. During this residency, the artist will produce a novel work and share the artistic process with the public.

The Catoctin Forest Alliance conservation area (namely: Catoctin Mountain and areas within two miles of its base, from the Pennsylvania border to the edge of Frederick) boasts many compelling subjects. Here the artist may find many historic sites, farms, quaint villages, rivers and streams, waterfalls, lakes, and other scenic views.

Accommodations
There are three residencies each year in May, August, and October.
Spring and Fall accommodations are in a historic log cabin in the woods of Catoctin Mountain Park. The cabin is rustic, but includes fully equipped kitchen and bath. Laundry facilities are available for the artist.
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Application
Amateur and professional artists of two- and three-dimensional arts, photographers, videographers, writers, and poets are encouraged to apply. In the future, we expect to open the program to musicians and other performing artists.

The Catoctin Forest Alliance will accept applications no later than January 15 for spring and summer residencies, and no later than June 15 for fall residencies.

http://www.nps.gov/cato/supportyourpark/artist-in-residence.htm

 

 

Bravo ! Amazon ! Finally !

Kindle Fire

Suddenly e-books are much better looking…

Amazon released its Kindle Fire, and the company is already working on tweaking its vast collection of eBooks for maximum compatibility with the Kindle Fire. 

Amazon is retiring its MOBI format in favour of the new .KF8 format (or Kindle Format 8), including support for 150 new formatting tags, which include HTML5 and CSS support.

The eCommerce giant had in the past used and supported Mobi 7. 

HTML5 is quickly becoming the new web standard so it is not a total surprise to hear that Amazon is moving in this direction.  Amazon will convert all existing content into the .KF8 format, and users also have the option of updating existing titles they have on their Kindle ebook readers and Kindle readers on other mobile platforms.

Amazon is also releasing a new set of Kindle Publishing Guidelines, which ebook authors and publishers should take into consideration when building their content for distribution via Amazon!

This is where a professional formatting / conversion company gives helpful support to authors and self-publishers. Publishers will also need to update their titles in order to use the new format.

The new Amazon Kindle format will ideally support a wider array of devices, and not just Amazon’s proprietary Kindle ebook reader. The new format also allows for more versatile formatting, as well as a more portable format. The company is said to be looking for a replacement for its .MOBI format, and this seems to be it.

 

 

 

Try this: Chime.In

UberMedia CEO Bill Gross has launched his new content-based social network, Chime.in. The serial entrepreneur said in an interview with gigaom.com that he is an avid user of all other social media services.  But existing social networks have two problems: relevance and monetization. What he has created is a new interest-based network that doesn’t compete with existing social networks, and where partizipants can monetize.

“Gross: The fundamental unit of conversation in this new network is called a “chime,” and it is 250 characters and an image (or more) plus links and polls. You can also tag it with interests or topics.  We want to focus more on niches of interest.

We also have an API that allows developers to extend the range of things that can be included in a chime, so you can run an auction inside a chime — you can actually do e-commerce right within the platform, so if you have two tickets for the game you can sell them right there. We are opening up those abilities to developers, which I think will be a big driver of monetization.

You can see what we call a “chime-line”, which you can sort by time or by the number of “likes” or the number of comments. That way, the good stuff rises to the top. You can also follow people — but instead of just following everything, you can do what we call a “selective follow,” and choose just the topics you want to follow in their stream.

I think the only way we are going to have good communities is if someone puts work into them — and the only way someone is going to do that is either because it’s a labor of love or because there is an economic incentive. So we are trying to help give them that. And if people create great communities then that will draw people to the network.

We allow anyone — individuals, celebrities, brands — to create a rich-media page and monetize that themselves. If someone wants to sell ads on their page, 100 percent of the revenue from those ad sales goes to him or her. If she/he wants us to sell the ads for her/him, then it’s a 50-percent revenue share “  – unlike all the other social media where the site cashes 100%, and then cashes again when the enterprise is sold for millions…

Have a look at interests in http://Chime.in
such as book writing, photography, e-books, self-publishing, Book Design & Layout etc. among hundreds of others.

 

 

The UGLY Duckling

 

 

Book Store

 

I just read a marvelous book on self-publishing and I would have given it a 5-star review for its content, but it was – against the own advice of the authors – not copy-edited, not even spell-checked – and the layout was not done professionally. While reading these errors were so disturbing, that I will give it not more than a 3 or 4-star review.

“It doesn’t cost any more to produce a good-looking book than it does to produce a bad-looking one” Joel Friedlander wrote in his great blog about sloppy, self-published books:

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/10/theres-something-odd-about-self-publishing-books/

This is true for both, paper books and e-books that are often shambles from a book design point of view.

But not only that, these self-published books often lack the basics, such as putting them through word spelling, copy editing, beta-reading and having done a professional layout (and converting, if it is an e-book), rather than just smash-word it on the cheap.

Another blogger http://conversationalreading.com wrote:
“Needless to say, poor quality e-books are becoming something of an embarrassment for publishers trying to convince readers to pay a premium for downloads (as Kassia Kroszer recently pointed out in Publishing Perspectives: it is hard to justify higher e-book prices when the product simply isn’t up to scratch), and clearly it’s an issue publishers need to address sooner rather than later if they want win this argument.

The problem of substandard e-books partially stems from the fact that many publishers currently lack the means and expertise (and, to some extent, the will) to produce high quality e-book editions themselves. Their workflow and production process are set up for print, so the quickest way to create e-book files has been to outsource the job to third parties, inevitably with very little quality control.”

If self-published authors want to be taken seriously, and compete with paper books (both, hard and soft cover) from commercial publishers, they need to offer seriously edited book content and also a professional book layout.

 

 

Your e-Book on Flickr

 

Traumberuf Pilot?

Sign up at the Flickr website and open an account (free). 
www.Flickr.com

Take the cover of your e-book in several versions and sizes and load them up at the Flickr website.  Write lots! of good tags to describe these photos of your e-book. Flickr  allows you to up to 75 tags to each photo. Which means: 75 possibilities for people to find, and learn about your e-book.

Tags for e-book photos could be for sample: E-Reading, Kindle, Sony, Kobo, Nook, ereading, e-books, ebooks, ebook online, book cover, digital display, electronic book, information medium, publishing, reading, text, textbook, internet, author, technology, books, education, literature, paper, media, writer, self-publishing, e-Reader, writing news, tablet computer, iPad, e-book conversion,  … and most important: the title of your book and content words (tags) in various versions.

For even more exposure of your e-book photos (but only if the cover is really professionally designed and in high-resolution) join the FotoVotr.com Amber Group.

A free and easy way to show your e-book to the world!

P.S. The book cover image above is a (German) title that I wrote years ago and very successfully self-published and marketed. I will publish it as an e-book next month.

 

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Hyper Smash

 

The Very Short History of e-Books

E-Readers were not exactly a hit when they were introduced in the 1990s – maybe to a general skepticism about the technology, maybe to their high prices and clumsy technology?

Only after the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader with their more book-like appearance thanks to e-ink technology, were launched in 2007, that the device and subsequently with it, e-books really took off.

 

Kindle and Hardcover Book

From then on sales of e-books rocketed more than 1,000 percent over the next  years, from only $32 million in 2006 to $441 million in 2010, to more than $1 billion, prognosed for 2011. If it would not be for some of the big publishing houses with their reluctance to e-books and fixed-price requirements in countries like Japan or Germany, the numbers could be double already.

Now book stores and publishers are going to have to reinvent themselves, as every book ever written being stored at virtually no cost and delivered instantly on demand. Why would consumers need all the hassle of limited store hours, crowded parking lots and out-of-stock titles.  And why should stores return almost half of new books, just because they are not sold in big numbers within a few months? Imagine the impact on resources and the environment that was caused by this practice within the last 60 years.

Why do authors need a publisher? Why don’t they just sign directly with Amazon, cutting out the middlemen – as more and more bestseller authors are doing –  and receiving ten times the royalty? Or even one step further as J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series does, offering the e-books on her own website, yielding 100% of the e-book proceeds.