Authors Beware! (part two) – The Secret Vanity Publishers Operating as Independents

I’ve been bitten a couple of times by unscrupulous publishers. The Strawberry Post gives good advice here, which is never to pay any money to Indie publishers. If they’ve published your book then they should be the ones paying you!

The Strawberry Post

Last week I spoke about what to do if you were thinking about getting your book published by an independent publisher.  I covered the positives and negatives of both the smaller and bigger indie publisers and gave tips on how to research a publisher before submitting your manuscript to them.

While explaining all this I touched on the indie publishers who aren’t so good.  As a book blogger alone, I’ve encountered a few indie publishers who really weren’t very good and speaking to some of the authors who signed on with them, the list of problems these publishers have range from the minor to the terrible.  For a start some don’t edit books very well at all, while others have poor ways of communicating with bloggers and authors.  One publisher I agreed to review for wouldn’t stop harassing me every other day for an update on whether I’d read…

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Authors Beware! (part one) – Not All Indie Publishers are Equal

Trying to find a good small publisher can be a bit of a nightmare. I know, because I’ve been bitten a few times. This excellent blog at The Strawberry Post explains what to look out for…

The Strawberry Post

I’ve been lucky and privileged enough to be given the chance to work with many publishers over the last few years. I’ve had the chance to read and review books for both traditional and independent publishers as well as work with them on guest posts and author interviews on my previous blogs as well as this one. But as a future author (hopefully!) who wants to go down the traditional publishing route, I’m keen on finding a publisher who will not only do a good job of producing and marketing my book but one who’s best interests are to help sell my book for both my benefit and theirs.

While working with publishers over the years, particularly independent ones, I’ve discovered that not all of these indie publishers are equal and while the far majority of them are very good and do have their authors best interests at heart, there…

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WordPress Search Terms

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#search terms

Have you ever looked at your WordPress search terms?  I had a look on my ‘Stats’ page over the past year today, and amongst many others found the following search terms that readers had used:

‘I’m a 62 year old unattractive man‘

‘Ageism in the workplace 2017‘.

‘Milkman at Glastonbury‘

and ‘What is a soap boiler’s arse?‘

The first two people (or was it the same one?) had been led to my blog, and read the blogs I’d written on these subjects  ‘A Rather Unattractive Man‘ and ‘Ageism in the Workplace‘.  Presumably the first person was less satisfied with the search result than the second.  However, I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t know what a soap boiler’s arse looks like!

This goes to show we authors must think of  titles suitable for our posts.  I hadn’t thought much about search terms before, but now I realise it’s quite important if we want our blogs to be found by the right readers.  Our posts are not only found by tags, but also by titles.

Readers had also searched for ‘Downsizing’, ‘Women’s Fiction Book Blogs’, ‘Blogs about Ageism’, ‘Tired all the Time’ and ‘The Good Old Days with Turner'(!).  Also I was quite happy to see my blog had came up in the search term ‘WordPress Blogs to Follow’.

One of my grandmother‘s sayings was ‘My mouth feels like a soap boiler’s arse turned inside out and whitewashed.’  I must have put this in a blog at some point, but the blog wasn’t actually pertaining to an actual soap boiler’s arse.

Hmm…

 

Grammar Check – using ellipses – are you doing it right?

Interesting! I always thought it was 3 dots….

Book Club Mom

I’ve always liked using ellipses in casual writing and I’m a big-time user in text messages when I want to show my thoughts trailing off.  But I haven’t written a research paper since college, so my need to use them in formal writing has dropped to zero. It’s always a good idea to stay current on the rules, however, because last week at work, I found myself in an intense conversation about the proper use of an ellipsis.

We were researching its use for a writer who’d called in with a very specific question: “If the ellipsis represents an omission, but it’s between two complete sentences, how many dots are there and are there spaces between them?”

Eeek! My coworker grabbed The Chicago Manual of Style, found the rule, marked the page and we waited for the writer to call back. He called back on my watch and that’s…

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Public Lending Right (UK)

ARE YOU A PUBLISHED UK AUTHOR WITH YOUR BOOKS IN LIBRARIES?

Don’t forget to register for your Public Lending Right.  If your printed books and audio-books are borrowed from UK public libraries you may be eligible for payment through the government-funded Public Lending Right scheme. All you have to do is apply to the PLR office for registration and provide details of your books.  Writers, illustrators, photographers, editors, translators, narrators, producers and abridgers can apply.  Where there is more than one contributor to a book the PLR is shared.  Anyone resident in the UK or in any of the other countries within the European Economic Area can apply.  The amount payable is based on the estimated number of times registered books are borrowed nationally during the PLR year (1 July – 30 June).  Payments are made annually each February. (There were over 22,000 recipients in 2018 of payments between £1 and £6,600.)  There are no joining or membership fees (you are not allowed to apply on behalf of a deceased author).

The website to apply for PLR is http://www.bl.uk/plr

Register for an account, add your bank details, and after a few days when your account has been verified (you’ll need to send 2 utility bills or a mortgage statement) you will be able to add your books.  Also, if you are a UK publisher, then the British Library needs to have one printed copy of your paperbacks within one month of publication.

KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited in 2019

Thanks to Chris McMullen for this interesting post. I’ve tried publishing without going through KU and also with KU. I find that I sell more books if they are registered with Kindle Unlimited. However, for the best of both worlds, I publish about half with KU and half without. Therefore if readers on sites other than Amazon see my books and read my total list of publications inside the front covers, then they’ll realise there’s more books available and then might hopefully look on Amazon. That’s my theory anyway!

chrismcmullen

Image from ShutterStock.

THE KDP SELECT DECISION

Years ago, Amazon introduced KDP Select to authors who publish with Kindle Direct Publishing.

The idea was to create a huge library of Kindle eBooks from which select customers could borrow books for free. Authors are paid a royalty, but not the same royalty as for an ordinary paid sale.

Although the nature of KDP Select has changed over the years, the program has grown tremendously.

Let’s reevaluate the KDP Select decision. Is enrolling your book in KDP Select worth it?

There really is only a single drawback to enrolling a book in KDP Select, but it’s a big one: You’re not allowed to publish the digital version of your book anywhere else (like Smashwords, Nook, or Kobo) while your book is enrolled in KDP Select.

It’s also an important decision because it comes with a commitment. If you change your mind, you…

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Not Everyone Will Like Your Story — That Doesn’t Mean It’s a Bad Story

Absolutely correct. What is awful to one person can be great to another. We writers cannot ever hope to please all readers all the time.

Novelty Revisions

One summer between college semesters, I wrote a book. I had only written several full-length novels before this, so it was not a publish-worthy book by any means. But I was proud of it. And after passing it around to a few friends who were genuinely interested in reading it (and did so — bless them!), I handed the book off to my mom.

She read it (bless her!) and gave it back to me. Of course I asked her what she thought of it, and because I was old enough at that point to handle the truth, she gave me her honest opinion.

“It’s not that I didn’t like it,” she said. “It was just too dark for me. Not my kind of book. But I’m proud of you.”

Aw. Thanks Mom.

This was the first — and certainly not the last — time I learned the difference between…

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Street Teams Revisited

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street team

While chatting to D.G Kaye regarding street teams, I mentioned to her that street teams don’t usually work because nobody (apart from family) in their right mind would want to promote our books day in and day out if there was nothing in it for them.  She agreed, but this got me thinking.  What if there was something in it for everyone who promoted our books?

With this in mind I have a fledgling idea, but wonder how many other authors would want to take part in a new Facebook street team group?  I say authors instead of readers, because it’s usually authors who read my blogs.  Here’s the new FB link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StreetsAheadTeam/

Depending on the number involved, each author would get a day’s promotion by the other authors who have joined up ( but no reviews, because this contravenes Amazon’s review policy).  Each member of the street team would promote the book and purchase links of whichever author’s turn it is on one of their social media sites.  They could promote on their website or blog, their Twitter and Facebook pages, Pinterest, LinkedIn or Instagram for instance.  It would probably help if different social media sites were used every time, to avoid spamming.  Authors would need to leave links in the Facebook comments as to where they’ve promoted the book.

As you can see by the link, I have now created a Facebook group for this, and would have specific days for promoting, so that authors don’t have to do this every day, just maybe three times a week.  Therefore 3 authors in the group would get their books promoted every week.  To make it fair I’d start off in alphabetical order.  Anybody who does not promote misses out on their turn until the next time their name comes around.

What do you think?  Is it a goer or a no-brainer?  Do you think it’s likely to fizzle out within a short time, or could those interested commit to promoting three times a week?

How Safe Is Your Online Data? (Infographic)

Thanks to Nicholas C. Rossis for this useful information.

Nicholas C. Rossis

I will conclude this special feature I started with my post, The Fight Against Fake News, with an infographic on online data, courtesy of TechJury. The infographic will show you how big companies that provide free service (read: social networks) get to know you better than your own parents and what they do with this knowledge. It will also help you learn more about the most common tactics used to get your data.

(Hint: if you can’t read the image below, please right-click on it and select “Open image in new tab,” then click on it to enlarge!)

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As an Indie Author – What are your challenges?

Originally posted on Author Don Massenzio:
As an author, there are significant challenges. Finding original ideas and turning them into something interesting…

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