So exciting!

The sponsorships I booked a few months ago are starting. Please check out, SILENT INVASION it is Kindle Nation Daily’s ebook of the week for their new site devoted to kids and young adults. I'll post how well it worked after it is complete.

http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com/2013/02/announcing-a-brand-new-kids-corner-book-of-the-week-neil-ostroffs-silent-invasion-now-just-1-99-on-kindle-plus-find-links-to-hundreds-of-free-and-bargain-children-teen-titles/

Bound to become a classic

Please check out DROP OUT, which Kindle Fire Department.com calls; “Touching, romantic, and wonderfully told, this is a book that's bound to become a classic.”

It is their book of the day. Thank you.

http://fireapps.blogspot.com/2013/02/drop-out-kindle-book-of-day-213.html

All indie authors please read this

I woke up this morning, checked my books stats, and nearly retched at what I saw. My Amazon ‘likes’ which took me two years to build are gone on all my books. At first, I thought it was a mistake and then I delved further.

Seems Amazon has decided to get rid of all ‘like’ buttons and tags for books and products. Why, you ask? I have a theory.

The rise of indie publishing and authors self-publishing and selling their own work has skyrocketed. And not just in the publishing world, in all aspect of the entertainment industry. This last Grammy Awards is a perfect example of how independents are taking over. More than half the awards went to artists who published under their own labels. Even the song of the year has no major label backing.

So, why is Amazon so afraid of independents when they appear to be gaining popularity, respect, and success? They’re not. It’s the big publishers who are.

Independent authors are usually also marketing machines and spend hours promoting their own books. And one of the best ways was by encouraging readers and friends to ‘like’ and tag. Which book would grab your interest more, one published by Random House that has twenty ‘likes’ or an independent book that has 300 ‘likes’? That’s what scares the big three. Getting rid of the ‘likes’ and tags greatly diminish the opportunity for readers to stumble upon a book just by searching random keywords. What was once a level playing field between indies and the traditionally published author has become greatly skewed. And that only hurts the reader looking for a good story.

All my books had many more than 100 ‘likes’ each and I think that definitely drew attention to the content. Think about it, if you had two books side by side, both with great reviews, one book with ten ‘likes’ or one with a hundred, which would you take a look at?

My sales have dropped since Amazon incorporated these new “indie buffers” so the big publishers can sell more books. What puzzles me is why Amazon would continue to try and keep the independents from selling thousands of copies? After all, royalties is money no matter who is selling. It just doesn’t make good business sense to hamper a segment of profit.

Though Amazon gives traditionally published books precedence over indies, as the recent Grammy Awards showed, there is no stopping the rising tide of new age artists. The internet will allow us to sell our books worldwide forever with no limit on the possible audience. Whether on Amazon, Smashwords, Nook, Kobo, or any of the thousands of other bookselling sites, a good story will always find its readership.

That said, I bid farewell to the combined 2,500 + ‘likes’ my books used to have and I thank all those that took the time to check me out and hit the buttons. I ask that you re-tweet and repost this blog to as many sites and social media as you can to let Amazon know that the indie author is here to stay and we can all work together to share our stories with the world.

Interesting

I found this interesting. It was published yesterday.

Here is a profile of your average book reader, according to research recently released from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project:

·         25% of Americans 16 years and older did not read a single book in the past dozen months.

·         27% read 11 or more books in that time.

·         21% read 1-3 books.

·         27% read 4-10 books.

·         23% said they read at least one e-book in the last year.

·         67% said they read at least one printed book.

·         25% of 16+ Americans own tablets – up from 10% a year ago.

·         19% of 16+ Americans owned one book reading device at the end of 2012, whereas 10% did so at 2011’s conclusion.

·         The older one got the less likely they read books. 90% of 16-year-olds read books, but only 67% of those 65 or older do.

·         But the sweet spot for finding readers rests in those with college or graduate degrees, those who live in households earning more than $75,000, and those whose ages fall between 30 and 49.

·         81% of women vs. 70% of men read at least one book last year.

This sponsorship worked!

The KFD sponsorship for IMAGINATION http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ATFC3JM on Tuesday did fairly well and once again eclipsed all my other marketing efforts in return dollars to spent ratio. I got below the 5,000 rank for a bit on Amazon and sales did increase dramatically for a few hours. As usual, I would recommend KFD as a top return.

I’ve slowed marketing efforts on my other nine novels to focus more on the four-book dystopian series I’m working on. It seems no matter how hard I try to focus on marketing, I always quickly return to the creative process of the novel writing art form.

I envy those authors who have personal publicists who handle all the drudgery involved in getting your name out there. How nice would it be to focus solely on writing? I’m not complaining however, the internet has provided the average writer with worlds of exposure at the click of a mouse. The only problem is that world is getting more crowded.

I do have a few more sponsorships this month and I expect to see some good results, but then I think I’m going to stop spending money on them for a while. The whole sponsorship process has been polluted by writers who have more money than talent and can buy up all the sponsorship space. The result is that readers aren’t taking the ads seriously anymore because they’ve been burned by bad stories.

I believe this to be true because I’ve seen my results from paid sponsorships dwindle over the past two years. A well-placed sponsorship used to sell hundreds if not thousands of copies, now I think readers are way more wary of what’s being touted as the ‘day’s best read’, ‘or book of the day’.

I still believe the best way to hit it big is by word of mouth and the luck of going viral, but I also think the secret lies in posting long samples of your work on as many sites as possible. There’s no need to try and convince someone to buy your book when they’ve got several sample chapters already in front of them and are enjoying what they’re reading. I always end my sample chapters with a simple note and link to purchase the book. I find this much more effective than spending good money on ad space consumed by “vanity” writers.