What I’m reading: Sister, by Rosamund Lupton (Book Club); The Scent of Fear, by Tom Adair (bike)
I’m busy this week — Today and tomorrow, I’m blogging at Just Romantic Suspense (with a giveaway). Tomorrow is also my day at The Blood-Red Pencil. And Thursday evening, I’m over at Triangle Variety Radio for another interview.
Mark Coker of Smashwords gave a second presentation at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference. This one was about the Best Practices in ePublishing.
He opened with a simple truth. Publishing an ebook is easy. Reaching readers is not so easy. He’s written a book, THE SECRETS TO E-PUBLISHING SUCCESS, which is free at Smashwords. He touched on some of the more than 25 points he makes in his book, and I’m further touching on those, so this is a diluted report. Elaboration, and deeper explanations of all his points can be found here. These are some of his suggestions.
1. First, you have to have a great book.
2. Be careful choosing a pen name. This is not to say he recommends using a different name from your own, but you have to consider search engines. He says to avoid initials because there are too many ways to search, and you might get missed. For example, if you’re going to use the name J. D. Smith, people might leave out the spaces, or add or omit periods. So they could be looking for JD Smith, or J D Smith, or J.D. Smith, or J. D. Smith. Also, don’t use ‘cutesy’ names. If your name is Nate Forsyth, don’t spell it N8 4cyth.
3. Get a good cover. And make sure it looks good in thumbnail size, which is the first image a reader is going to see.
4. Publish another great book. If readers like your first book, they’re going to be looking for more. So don’t spend all your time marketing. Write.
5. Maximize your distribution. Coker suggests that most books are discovered while readers are looking for something else—something similar to your book. So, the more places your book is available, the greater your chances of someone finding it.
6. Patience. It takes time to be discovered by readers, who then tell other readers. (Sounds a lot like my “It’s a marathon, not a sprint” mantra)
NOOK Contest Question #2 (remember, use the Contact form, NOT the comments, to answer) In what state is WHEN DANGER CALLS set?
7. Don’t worry about piracy. DRM is counterproductive. Pirates can strip it in seconds, and it just irritates readers who might want to read the book on another device.
8. Platform building starts yesterday. Use the social media to build your name (but don’t get a reputation as someone who does nothing but tout your own books. It’s about sharing, not hounding.) Google gives Google+ preferential treatment in search engines, so it’s wise to get a presence over there.
9. Pinch Pennies. Don’t ever spend money that should be used for food and shelter on your book or marketing.
10. Think globally. Coker reports that 45% of Smashwords sales through the Apple iStore are outside of the US. And, he pointed out that other countries are about 2–7 years behind the US in e-books, so your market is just starting over there.
He also showed us, based on an informal survey, how readers find books. The biggest percentage of sales (29%) come from recommendations from others (4% are from personal friends and family). The next biggest percentage (18%) is sales of favorite authors. You can see the full breakdown, complete with a pretty pie chart, in Mark Coker’s blog post here.
Tomorrow, my guest is Peg Herring, talking about writing yourself into a corner. Her visit to Terry’s Place is one stop on her blog tour, and she’s going to be giving away prizes. Come back!
Excellent advice. With an estimated 15 million ISBNs being sold this year, I would say the trumpeting of titles is only just getting started. To me this means there will be a paradox of marketing. Writers will stand out by being quiet, at least about their own books. Write a great book, then write another, and another. But don’t write more or faster than your own pace allows–the key is a great book. Make friends on the internet and in person who will nourish you while you write, and whom you can nourish back. You might be surprised by how success follows.
Great advice, Jenny. Success in sales is so hard to measure, because you never know where your buyers come from, or when a particular marketing strategy takes effect. So it’s about being out there, and NOT screaming “buy my book” every time you appear on any of the social media.
Thanks Terry and Jenny for sharing some great advice here. Just getting started with my debut novella King’s Crossing (release date: 5/25/12; historical/paranormal romance) and haven’t spent too much time focused on the promo yet, waiting till it gets closer to the Big Day. Meantime, I’ve been working on the next one in the series and finishing up the screenplay that continues the story into the 21st century, as well as lining up some blog spots & my book signing/reading tour for later this summer. (Ch1 sample is up on my website if you want to take a looksie, no pressure tho–hope it’s ok to mention my good news with you here, if not my apologies)
Have a Faery Magickal week!
~Mari
“Timeless romance with a touch of Fae Magick…”
Thanks, Terry, for passing on Coker’s tips — he knows whereof he speaks and I listen when he speaks — I’m taking the DRM off some of my ebooks today (kicking myself for puting it off this long.
Jackie
Jackie — I think that’s a good idea. Let us know if you see any differences.
Good advice. Thanks for putting this up. I probably wouldn’t have looked at his book but now I think I will. As a PA I need all the help I can get. ROFL.
WendyK *NOOK contest*
Wendy — I looked at the book (it’s free, after all) and he does give a lot of support for his statements.
Mark’s first point is most important. Too many writers, anxious to get a book into print, do not take the time to have a good proofreader or editor look at it. The result is often one that should have stayed under the bed or a book that would have been much better for the extra effort. I guess it goes to the “be patient” section. Being in print does not guarantee you are a good writer or a successful career.
NOOK Contest.
Excellent post, Terry! Thanks so much for sharing this information. Hope you enjoyed the rest of the conference, too.
Joan — yes, I did enjoy the conference. Happy to share.
Great advice, here, Terry! Thanks for posting.
My pleasure, as always, Elizabeth.
Lots of good advice here. Thanks for sharing it with us!
My pleasure, Jacqueline
Some great tips here that more people should utilize
I ran right over and grabbed the book. Thank’s for posting the recap Terry.
NOOK CONTEST
Always happy to share. I’m learning along with everyone else.
Over and over I keep seeing the same advice, write a good book, then write another. It is so easy to get caught up in all the marketing possibilities, especially with social media, that we overlook that simple truth. So I am going to get offline and write. (smile) Thanks for the reminder.
Maryann — hope you got a lot of writing done!
Thanks for sharing the suggestions. They seem very helpful, especially the one about the pen names.
Nook contest
Glad you found them helpful, bn
I found this blog post informative & very interesting. A friend keeps urging me to write, she swears quite a few of my life experiences would make a good book. LOL
Nook Contest
Kay — the only way to find out is to write them!
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