As Google gets more reinvested in its books, Amazon steps it up.
Amazon’s threat to it’s self-publishing division has seemed to inspire the company to add some new features to its author tools. Now with the ability to estimate projected royalty earnings, authors can invest their time more wisely. But how are these estimations measured? Are they reliable?
Author Rewards – Can you afford an elephant?
This week around the publishing blogosphere the chat was around author business.
Nate Hoffelder flagged that the new Amazon publishing dashboard has added a projected royalty earnings button. Things must be on the up. Markus Dohle CEO of Penguin Random seems to think so. Talk this industry up he says…
Every writer has struggled with rejection. Writing is subjective. Not everyone will love what you write. In fact, as a writer, you regularly go through rejection of your own words. Anne R Allen has a fabulous post on rejection and why it feels so awful…
Writer Unboxed came at rejection from another angle- Are you making writing harder than it needs to be?
Joanna Penn has been on fire recently with great podcasts that this blog post is in danger of becoming an exclusive ode to The Creative Penn. If you have yet to watch/ listen to a podcast you are missing out on one of the most valuable sources of knowledge about Indie publishing around. Joanna also transcribes her podcasts… so you can read all the great information. So check out Why you need to treat your writing like a business and Joanna’s great interview with Frances Caballo on Pinterest and Instagram. And if you look carefully there are two more links in Craft and Marketing – both Bookmarked!
Understanding metadata and SEO is important in marketing. Miral Satter besides being CEO of Bibliocrunch is also savvy on SEO. (Search Engine Optimisation.) Miral has a must-read post on ways to nail author SEO.
I often wish for a nice team of elves to take over social media marketing and asking for reviews. It is so hard as I hate to bother anyone… Ingram has got a great post on how to build a community and get a team of elves together. Penny Sansevieri has a good post on how to get review recommendations.
Have you often wondered if there was a secret writers club that the big players are members of? There is, it’s called NINC. They have amembers only newsletter but I recently came across a link to their article on crowdfunding for authors. This put me in mind of Kris Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smiths Crowdfunding campaign that is breaking all sorts of goals. If you donate even a little bit of money you get author workshops… books…courses… Seriously, seriously good prizes and there are only a few hours left…
In a Writer Beware moment – I often come across new writers in writing groups plaintively asking about publishers who want to publish their work if they would pay some money in first. Now there are Hybrid publishers who do a good job for authors and then there are the scammers who don’t. Here is a great article that lays out what you should be looking for to tell the difference. Pass it around- the more everybody knows the better for our industry.
In The Craft Section,
How to write with emotional truth– Bang2write- Bookmark
B speaks for A dialogue tricks- Stephen Pressfield
Using writing sprints– Paul Bonea- Bookmark
How to love self-editing – Hayley Milliman- Bookmark
Flawed characters= Great fiction – Kristen Lamb
9 weird ways to beat writer’s block
In The Marketing Section,
How to make the most of Goodreads– Joy Rancantore- Bookmark
Author entrepreneur ethos- Jarie Bolander- Bookmark
Testing Bookbub ads– Bookbub- Bookmark
Choosing a publicist– Jane Friedman
3 simple mistakes to avoid in marketing– Jeff Bullas
Book Hooks and Blurbs– Sacha Black
To Finish,
This little video of A Day In The Life Of An Author popped across my Twitter feed today. I was intrigued by the elephants in the garden… every author has them.
They will be first on the list when I make my millions in royalties… LOL.
Maureen
@craicer
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