Recent chatroom wisdom tends to dismiss the Amazon KDP marketing tools Countdown and Free Books as less than effective for eBook marketing. The reasoning is all about numbers - there are simply too many free books at any one time, too many books offering countdown prices, too many authors altogether. I disagree For those who … Continue reading Is the Amazon Kindle Countdown Effective?
ePub authors
A Conference just for Indie Writers
The free on-line conference for indie writers and publishers, Indie Fringe, is coming around again. It happens at ten Saturday morning March 18. This is one of the best resources you never heard of. Again, it's absolutely free. You do need to register, but that takes seconds. They just want your name and Email. Did … Continue reading A Conference just for Indie Writers
The Sky Is Falling
Several respected bloggers have begun to back away from self publishing books. They have crunched numbers, which most recently suggest an increase in the percentage of traditionally published books along with a decrease in self published Ebooks this past year. There is a rise in hybrid publishers (authors who do both) and an increase in … Continue reading The Sky Is Falling
Are You Reading The Author You Expected?
It came to me after reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code first, his preceding novel Angels and Demons second––this awareness of author growth. I found both books enormously entertaining, yet the greater sophistication of the former in contrast to the latter was clear. I suppose I had not previously thought in terms of author … Continue reading Are You Reading The Author You Expected?
What Works in Book Marketing: Part Deux
There’s been a lot of scuttlebutt on the digital wires (so to speak) about what works, and what doesn’t work in book marketing. By and large, the substance of what I have read suggests that much of the social media we were once encouraged to use is no longer seen as useful. There are exceptions. … Continue reading What Works in Book Marketing: Part Deux
What A Publisher Wants
I recently received an inquiry from a publisher asking that I write a proposal for a book they’d like me to write. This publisher deals in strictly formatted, non fiction books. There is not a lot of opportunity for creativity, nor is there a pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow. … Continue reading What A Publisher Wants
The Automobile And The Horse
I was intrigued by Penny Sansevieri’s latest bulletin post in which she suggests that The Emperor (read New York Publishers) Has No Clothes (still don’t realize that their existence is in jeopardy). And as she goes on to surmise; perhaps they won't go away altogether. To draw an analogy, when the automobile arrived, the horse … Continue reading The Automobile And The Horse
Free for a Fee
Yes, from Google and others of the same ilk comes the sales concept of "free". Give away meaningful things in a forthright manner and people will remember; you will store up their good will, excite their curiosity, and eventually, there will be a payday. It works. Everything about the publication and marketing of my novel … Continue reading Free for a Fee
The ISBN Puzzle
Every book for sale needs a specific reference number called an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). While theoretically any book can be researched by this number, I have found that this is not always the case. Some eBook authors do not use ISBN numbers. This limits distribution, as some retailers (Apple, Sony) will not display … Continue reading The ISBN Puzzle
R Lawson Gamble 