Tip for Selling Ebooks on Amazon Kindle

    How does an unknown author with no following sell ebooks without a lot of costly, time-consuming promotion? How the heck do readers find her book? It ain’t easy, but I did pick up a useful tip at tonight’s meeting of Valley of the Sun Romance Writers.

Kris Tualla has been epubbing her historical romance novels for about a year and a half. Last time I talked to her, she had earned $214, “but it was going in the right direction.” I marveled at her tenacity. Then she happened on something that changed things. Last December, Amazon held a special promotion where you gave your book away free for a day. Kris did that with one of her novels, and over 16,000 people picked up her free book. For which she earned not one penny.

BUT–that day lifted her book in the search engines and made it noticeable. Since then, it has started selling and she has made $5,000 on it in about two months.

Interesting, hmmmm?

6 Easy Steps to E-pubbing on Amazon Kindle

   Do you have a book that you’ve written on your hard drive? Have you been putting off submitting it to a traditional publisher, or you’ve had it rejected? Or maybe you have a backlist of previously published books, and the rights have reverted to you?

You no longer have to be at the mercy of editors, agents, and long waits. There’s a whole new audience for published e-books on Amazon Kindle. It’s free to publish on Kindle, and Kindle owners are enthusiastically purchasing and downloading books to read on the go. (Note: these are not just for Kindle owners; the books can also be downloaded to any computer.)

My historical romance novel, Gilded Splendor, was first published as a paperback by Dorchester, but the rights have reverted to me–so it seemed like a no-brainer to put it on Kindle. Click here to see how it looks at the site: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006N0LASC   At first, the process seemed overwhelming and scary, but I found it to be surprisingly easy. Here are the steps:

(1) Assuming your book is written in Word, re-save it as a “Web Page.” This is really an HTML page, and it will ensure your formatting will be retained with indented paragraphs, etc. Do not put any headers, footers, or page numbers in your book.

(2) Choose a pretty cover photo that is not copyrighted. I went to a site, Shutterstock.com, and paid $19 for the picture shown above. My heroine has red-gold hair, and I thought the photo was eye-catching and captured the feel of the book. For use on Kindle, save it as: At least 500 x 800 pixels, not more than 2000 pixels. Ideal height-width ratio: 1.6. 72 dpi (dots per inch). RGB color mode.

(3) Add your name and book title to the cover. A free download at Picasa.Google.com will allow you to edit your photo and add any words you want to it.

(4) Write a blurb for your book–what it’s about. Make it catchy and compelling. For ideas, you can study back cover blurbs of books similar to yours at the bookstore.

(5) Go to Amazon.com, and then to KDP, the e-pubbing place. They will take you through all the steps, adding the materials you’ve chosen.

(6) Market your book on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, GoodReads.com, and anyplace else you can think of.

Voila! Enjoy a sense of accomplishment, knowing that you did it, and your “baby” is out there.

How did I find out all this? By reading a wonderful book by Jason Matthews: How to Make, Market, and Sell Ebooks–All for Free. Although the steps above were the main ones for me, Jason’s book contains hundreds of other useful tips. It is, of course, available as a Kindle book at Amazon! I highly recommend it.

I’ll be honest and say this is not a “get rich quick” scheme. But it’s a lot of fun, and a wonderfully fulfilling hobby. And who knows where it might lead?

Next up:  I’ll soon be posting on how to publish e-books on other sites, such as Nook and Smashwords. As the ad says:

“Write anything. Publish everything. Market everywhere.”

I’m e-pubbed on Kindle

   My historical romance novel, Gilded Splendor, is now available on Amazon Kindle. (Note: you don’t have to have a Kindle to purchase and read it–you can choose to download it to your laptop.)

Here’s the Amazon address:    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006N0LASC

It wasn’t too difficult to e-pub my book, but it was a learning experience, and I’m still learning. I did hit two snags:

The choices only let me price it at $2.99. I’d been hoping to sell it for less.

I uploaded it as a PDF file, and the indented paragraphs didn’t translate. Formatting e-books seems to be a problem for authors, and I can see why.

I’ll continue working on these problems, but, in the meantime, it’s fun to see it online!

Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: Okay, I figured out the formatting. For those of you who might want to publish on Kindle, you DON’T upload a PDF file. You save your Word manuscript as a “Web Page,” which means it is saved in HTML format, then upload it. This will give you the right formatting.

E-pub Decisions

    Many decisions to make about putting my novel, Gilded Splendor, up on Kindle:

Publishing books on Kindle is absolutely free, so that’s a no-brainer. Why not?

I’ve decided to keep the same title because I’ve always liked it. I first chose the title because of Barbara Dawson’s Smith Silver Splendor, which I loved–and my novel is set in the Gilded Age, so the title sounded appropriately “romancey.” Plus, I’m doing this mostly just to keep the work available, so it will help if people can easily find it in a search.

I own the rights to the book, but Dorchester owns the right to the cover art, so I’ve chosen the new photo shown here for the cover. I got it for $19 on Shutterstock, a photo stock web site. Would you be interested in a historical romance novel with this cover? Hope So! I also hope her hair looks red enough, because my heroine has red hair!

Pricing on Kindle varies, but I’m choosing the 70% option. I’ll price the book at $1.49, so I’ll earn $1.04 for each copy sold. Lots of historical romances appear on Amazon for higher prices (like $5.99), but there are also lots cheaper (like 99 cents). I figured I’d chose something in between, but on the low side.

Now I’m making the final touches on the formatting.

E-gad! This all seems a little scary. E-pubbing is new to me. What if I *gasp* make a mistake?

I keep reminding myself of something Susan Perry said in her book, Writing in Flow:

“A risk in writing is not a real risk. I have nothing concrete to lose and everything exciting to gain by taking chances in writing.”

Plus, it’s fun!

A Break-through!

   Remember a month ago, when I blogged that I was going to re-type my novel, Gilded Splendor, so I can re-publish it on Kindle and Nook? Well, I began typing, but it was going sooooo slowly. It’s been hard editing all day and then sitting back down at the computer to type some more.

I mentioned it to one of my P.E.O. sisters today, and she has special software. She offered to scan my book and hand it to me on a flash-drive, all formatted and ready to go–for free! Wow. I’m going to have to give her a nice gift–perhaps some flowers or bath products.

I feel just like Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire:

         MITCH [drawing her slowly into his arms]:   “You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be–you and me, Blanche?”

         BLANCHE:   “Sometimes–there’s God–so quickly!”

Publishing Buzzwords, Cliches, and Euphemisms Decoded

  This was sent to me by a publishing friend. We don’t know who the “I” is, but it’s hilarious:

Ever wonder what editors, publishers and critics mean when they describe books as “lyrical,” “provocative” or “ripped from the headlines”? Let industry veterans explain it to you. I asked experts on Twitter to decode common publishing terms. Here are some of their answers:

“absorbing”: “makes a great coaster”

“accessible”: “not too many big words”

“acclaimed”: “selling poorly”

“breakout book”: “Hail Mary pass”

“brilliantly defies categorization”: “even the author has no clue what he’s turned in”

“captures the times we live in”: “captures the times we were living in two years ago”

“classroom-friendly”: “kids won’t read it unless they have to”

“continues in the proud tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien”: “this book has a dwarf in it”

“definitive”: “could have used an editor”

“an eBook original”: “still no proofreading and bad formatting”

“edgy”: “contains no adult voices of reason”

“epic”: “very long”

“erotic”: “porn”

“ethnic literature”: “stuff written by nonwhite people”

“frothy romp”: “funny book by lady” “Funny = funny book by a man”

“gripping”: “I turned the pages fast but didn’t read them”

“I’ve been a fan of Author X for a long time”: “I slept with him, regrettably, in
MFA school.”

“lapidary prose”: “I did not know what half of these words meant”

“literary”: “plotless”

“long-awaited”: “late”

“luminous” or “lyrical”: “not much happens”

“magisterial”: “long”

“meticulously researched”: “overloaded with footnotes”

“memoir”: “nonfiction until proven otherwise”

“the next Elmore Leonard”: “This book has criminals or Detroit or maybe Florida in it”

“novella”: “short story with large font”

“a real tear-jerker”: “writing so bad it makes you cry”

“ripped from the headlines”: “no original plot line”

“rollicking”: “chaotic”

“sensual”: “soft porn”

“stunning”: “major character dies”

“provocative”: “about race/religion”

“promising debut”: “many flaws, but not unforgivably bad”

“unflinching”: “has a lot of bad words”

“visionary”: “can’t be proved wrong yet”

“voice of a generation”: “instantly dated”

“weighty”: “I had to lug this dense historical monster all over town and I still can’t bring myself to finish it”

“wildly imaginative”: “wrote book high on mescaline”

“a writer to watch”: “as opposed to one you are actually going to want to read”

Typing, typing, typing

   It has begun. I’m retyping my entire historical romance novel of 400 pages, Gilded Splendor, to re-publish it as an e-book on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. The rights have reversed to me, so I might as well get in on the newest publishing craze–especially since it costs me nothing and has the potential to earn more money.

It’s possible to have a company, such as ebookprep, scan and prepare the book for around $250, and I had been quaking at the thought of all that typing–but it’s turning out to be rather fun. I hadn’t re-read my book in years, and I’m enjoying it once again.

I’m also taking the opportunity to do a little editing. Not much is needed, since the book went through a rigorous editing process when it was first published by Dorchester. But a word deleted here and there–a little tightening–never hurts.

I want to follow and take part in the new e-book phenomenon. It’s fascinating–changing the face of publishing–and there’s a lot to learn. Next will come marketing on the internet and getting out some new books. There is never any rejection in this venue–only having fun and moving forward.

As one e-book company states it:

Write Anything

Publish Everything

Market Everywhere

E-Pub?

  Author Jennifer Ashley spoke at tonight’s meeting of “Valley of the Sun” Romance Writers, and what she said was enlightening. She’s a multi-published, New York Times best-selling author of over thirty-one print books with houses like Berkeley and Dorchester. But she also publishes her own e-books with Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

Now, in the past, I’ve pooh-poohed e-books–I guess because they’ve seemed so ephemeral. There are no pages to turn! No physical books you can hold and put on the bookshelf! And yet–Jennifer made me start to think about e-books in a whole new way tonight. Here are some points I learned from Jennifer:

E-publishing is a vast new untapped market for writers. There are no rejections, so you can jump into the game, write whatever you want, see it published, and (hopefully) make some money.

E-publishing is especially helpful for authors to re-publish their older backlist books after they’ve gotten the rights back. (I once asked Barbara Dawson Smith where I could find an old romance novel of hers, and even she didn’t have one! After a month on bookstore shelves, they just disappeared.) Now when someone asks, “Where can I get that older book of yours?” an author can cheerfully say, “It’s on Kindle!”

E-books are gaining respectability. They now appear on the New York Times best-seller lists.

Most readers today are pretty adamant–they read either e-books or print books, but not both. So why not multiply potential readers by targeting both audiences?

It’s free to put a book onto Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords. Jennifer uses all three. Then the author sets the price of the book. E-book readers like cheaper reads at 99 cents, and they can get pretty nasty online about e-books being priced at $14.95. So it’s best to build readership by offering a cheaper price (at least, to begin with).

These books receive no editing, so you have to be able to edit, format, and turn out a professional product if you want readers to keep buying your books.

E-books can be published fast. No longer do you have to wait a year or more from selling your book to seeing it appear. In her series of Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries, Jennifer has a new book out every month in 2011! So e-books can accommodate a prolific writer.

The author chooses her own book cover. She can use stock photos or purchase special covers from a company called hotdamndesigns.com.

Readers choose books that look interesting, but it helps sales if (1) you have a recognizable name like Jennifer Ashley,  and/or  (2) you promote your books.

E-books have made writing fun again. Whenever I go to Valley of the Sun meetings, I’m amazed. Instead of the long faces and hopeless laments of “I got rejected–again,” members are piping up with “I have a new book out, and it’s getting great reviews!”

Many print houses are now going to both print and e-books, and it’s driving them crazy. This is such a new phenomenon that print houses aren’t quite sure how best to handle their e-books. But e-books aren’t a fad–they’re here to stay, and exploding! It’s a new industry out there, and it changes almost daily. So it’s very interesting to watch.

Well–I’ll never give up my print books. I still have the first paperback I ever bought as a child–Little Women. But tonight’s program made me look at the e-book phenomenon in a whole new light. Will I buy a Kindle or Nook? Will I re-publish my romance novel? E-pub new ones? It all remains to be seen, but I feel inspired. It puts a whole new spin on writing/publishing that seems kind of exciting and fun.

Thank you, Jennifer!