Tag Archives: Amazon

Direct Sales: the future for ebooks and more?

Joanna is trying to sort the facts from the hype on direct sales

A Kindle reader is propped up in front of a pile of 5 assorted books.

Bigstock: 93317477

A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a webinar about direct sales for books, led by the co-founder of a direct sales organisation in the USA. So I knew from the start that the webinar was bound to include a sales pitch.
Fine. But how much else of what he said do I believe?

First, a quick definition. What do I mean by direct sales?

Let me use an example. Not about books. There’s an organic dairy farm just up the road from where I live. They could sell their milk to supermarkets. In fact, they do. But, in addition, I can go to the farm and buy organic milk direct from them, from a chilled milk dispenser which is available to customers 24/7. If I do that, I’m buying direct. The farm gets all the cash from my purchase with no supermarket or other middleman taking a cut. I probably get a fresher product at a keener price. Win-win. Except for the supermarket, of course.

Direct sales of books : who benefits?

Continue reading →

Self-publishing in print: preparing text for uploading

print copies of The Duke and the Dubious Damsel by Joanna MaitlandJoanna again, still on self-publishing…

In my last blog, I explored the pros and cons of publishing print books with Amazon KDP, or Ingram Spark, or Draft2Digital. And it wasn’t all that straightforward as you may have seen. This blog is about preparing text for publishing in print. (A future blog may be about covers for print, since there isn’t space here.)

Self-publishing in print isn’t difficult, especially if you’ve already written your text using Styles, as I recommend. But it does involve more steps than ebook publishing and will require attention to detail if you want to produce a really professional-looking paperback.

But we writers can all do attention to detail, can’t we? Without that, our plot and character continuity would be shot. So, if you’re a writer, you can do this 😉

Print preparation : automatic formatting or do-it-yourself?

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Self-publishing in print: Amazon, Ingram, Draft2Digital?

Joanna is still self-publishing…Joanna Maitland print covers via Books2Read.com

A few weeks back, I published a blog about my experiences of self-publishing ebooks on Amazon KDP and Draft2Digital (D2D). I promised I’d write another blog about how I got on with publishing my books in print. There, my direct experience is with Ingram Spark and D2D, but I’ve had a look at KDP’s print requirements so I’m including some notes about that route, too. And if I’ve got any of it wrong, please tell me in the comments below.

The image shown here is of the D2D paperback of one of my recent Regency historical publications. I think the result is handsome. But do you, the buying public, agree? (The image, by the way, is generated automatically by D2D. I didn’t have to stack up copies to create it, which was a bonus, though I did add the link to the page at Books2Read.com where all my books appear. Do go and buy. Pretty please?)

Pricing: Print Cost, Discounts, Author’s Share

woman against background of questionmarksWhen you’re pricing your book, you have to take into account how much it costs to print it—which depends mostly on how many pages it has—and how much wholesale discount you have to give to a retailer or bookshop. Continue reading →

Self-publishing ebooks: Amazon KDP or Draft2Digital (D2D)?

Joanna’s experience and advice on using Amazon KDP and D2D for ebooks

Regular readers of this blog may remember my tale of woe when Amazon KDP terminated my publishing account. I eventually got it back but it was not a pleasant experience. Some of my ebooks are still available on KDP but I’ve been publishing most of the others on Draft2Digital (D2D). I’ve done enough of them now on D2D—as ebooks and also in print—to have some experience and lessons to share.

I’m not including print publishing choices in this blog because it would make it too long. Nor am I including Ingram Spark here, because my only experience with them is print publishing, not ebooks. I’ll include Ingram when I blog about print choices.

graphic figure with box on head, thumb downThere are upsides and downsides to publishing ebooks on Draft2Digital. Just as there are on KDP. Some of the downsides might not apply in every case, but I’ll explain what they are anyway. Then you can make up your own mind whether KDP or D2D is right for your ebooks.

Which platform wins the grinning yellow mug and which gets the down-in-the-mouth blue one? Your decision. Continue reading →

Reverted Books and Digital Publishing

Secondhand Books

Bigstock: 93317477

I have been a published author for thirty-two years. I’ve had bestseller stickers at Amazon and won a number of awards. It’s been a great career.

Sadly, though, my publisher’s business plan was to put up a book for a month and then it was gone. If a reader wanted to find a copy, they had to hunt it down in a library or look on secondhand bookshelves.

Then a publishing revolution occurred with the arrival of digital publishing and suddenly it was all about the eBook. Continue reading →

Promoting a book : tips from Liz Fielding

“One of my first bosses in the industry told me that publishing is a hits-based business. Publish enough books, the hits will buoy up the titles that don’t sell many copies. Now more than ever, it feels like there’s often a push from on high for more volume – throw more at the wall and more will stick – but often, it’s very much a case of more for less: more books without more marketing spend; more output but no more budget for quality editorial and design; more authors but no more resourcing to ensure good author management.”

From an article in The Bookseller, May 2nd(NB the link may not be accessible for everyone).

GOOD NEWS!

Murder among the Roses by Liz FieldingGood news for Liz Fielding fans!

She has a new book out!

This time she’s giving us a mystery set in one of her much-loved English country towns, Murder Among the Roses. I pre-ordered it and read it in one gulp, deep into the night. I can tell you, it has her signature tone of kindly humour, allied with a cracker of a mystery!

As a fellow writer who is pretty clueless about all things marketing, I wanted to ask Liz about the practicalities of promoting a book which is, for her, a new type of story.

Promoting a book: when to start and who does what

Q1  When did you start to tell people about Murder Among the Roses, Liz?
Has it set you any new challenges? Continue reading →

Novelists, Reviews and a Competition

Announcing PG Wodehouse essay Prize 2022

This week I have been thinking about how I read and write reviews and, in particular, a very special competition. The latter invites you to try something similar but a bit more substantial for my dear P G  Wodehouse. See below for details.

Now, there are many ways of appreciating a novel.

You can study it, dream about it, carry on the characters in your own story (or several) and talk about it until your friends beg you to stop.

writing tipsTo share your enthusiasm with the whole world, all you have to do is write a review and post it on a bookseller’s website. Writers, desperate to let readers know that their work exists, are pathetically grateful for these reviews. I know. I am one of them. Continue reading →

Day 7 of 12 Days of Christmas : 7 Swans a-Swimming & Company

swan and cygnets swimmingAt least our heroine’s True Love has shifted from domestic to wild birds with the Day 7 offering. And not just a wild bird but a truly beautiful one, with mythological and poetic pedigree to boot.

The swan is one of the creatures that mates for life, according to legend and, to some extent, ornithological observation. (Not 100%, apparently; but a significant percentage of couples stick together.)

Allegedly it also sings only once, at the point of death – hence the exquisitely mournful Orlando Gibbons motet 

So at last we have here a gift with real subtext: love, loyalty and death. Not that jolly maybe. But certainly romantic. Hmm. Possibly a bit late, given the bird shit that must be surrounding his lady love’s residence by now. Continue reading →

Is your Blurb boring? Add visual impact

skyrockets

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When potential readers look at your book on Amazon, does the blurb have impact?

Or do they ignore it because it looks boring?

If so, this is the blog for you — how to fill out that description box on KDP to give your blurb visual impact.

 Your Blurb Text

This guide is not about how to write your blurb text. You’re a writer. It’s what you do, isn’t it?

“True,” you reply, grimacing, “but I write novels, not 80-word blurbs. Blurb-writing is hell on wheels.”  Most writers would sympathise, so here’s a link to an excellent blog about writing back cover blurb by K J Charles who is both an accomplished writer and a professional editor.

For this blog, I’m concentrating on how to give your wonderful blurb visual impact.

Among other advice in the K J Charles blog is: “keep it short”. When potential buyers see your book on Amazon, they normally see only the start of your blurb. Unless your opening lines have visual impact, readers may not click to read the rest. And if they don’t read your blurb, they probably won’t buy your book, either.

Visual impact catches readers eye

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Catching the reader’s eye matters

Adding Visual Impact with HTML Codes : A Worked Example

For a How To guide like this, we need a real-life example. Continue reading →