Building Trust – in self publishing companies

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Ray Robinson

A quick post – really a ‘re-post’ / link to a Seth Godin blog post about building trust back on the 19th…

Seth talks about a recent purchase experience – and what it took for the companies to earn his trust.

I’m paraphrasing his comments into my own thoughts below…

Clean and professional web sites, no bait-and-switch tactics, clearly advertised pricing for all parts of the transaction… how many times have you tried to get complete answers from a self publishing company to find that the conversation never seemed to end – because there was always another price to ask about, or that you couldn’t get a solid answer?

The ability to speak with someone who has an investment in you as a customer and in the reputation of the business… ever tried to speak to someone who has authority or actually an active investment in the success and reputation of the business?

When you choose a self publisher,  you should be able to have both items above – and it will create a feeling of trust with the company. Rock solid answers, and working with someone who actually cares about the customer. Godin said it best in his closing paragraph:

“One reason that so many hard sell businesses fail is that they are neither. They aren’t (or don’t appear to be) trustworthy institutions, nor are they trustworthy humans. So we move on. You do 95% of it right, then use cheesy fonts or lie a bit or try too hard and boom, that’s it.”

Think about that as you make your choice, and suddenly the path may seem much more clear.

Filed under: Self Publishing Companies, Self Publishing Company Comparisons, self publishing | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Google Book Search – new features for the self published author

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Ray Robinson

I’ve written before about the power of Google Book Search for authors and the self publishing industry as a whole. I think it’s an amazing service and never really understood the complaints… but, that’s not the point of the post.

This is all about the new goodies for Google Book Search that Google unveiled on the blog – and I think there are some amazing ones that can help indie authors grow their book sales. Every self publishing company should be including Google Book Search in their service offerings (some, like Dog Ear Publishing, offer Google Book Search as part of  all self publishing packages). Doesn’t add too much to a WordPress.com hosted blog – but if you have a site or Blogger account – check out the Preview Wizard to create some cool code – check it out on my A Day in the Life of a Dog blog.

  1. Embeds and links – how completely cool is this? Check out the embedded reference to a Tour de France book over here at Blogger … (though it seems to work much more easily in Blogger than here in WordPress) Think how you could direct traffic to your book via your blog, site, etc
  2. Improvement for search – to me the search feature for content in the book was already pretty good. Now it even tells you the exact page.
  3. Thumbnail view - of all the pages available for preview.
  4. Contents drop-down menu – There is now a table-of-contents drop down that lets you to navigate to chapters within the book.
  5. Page Turn Button and Animation – I’m not sure this qualifies as anything other than a ‘hmm, that’s nice…’ (because I can’t really see any way it matters unless you are using an e-book) but you can now click a little icon to turn the page, it’s animated, and it has a track bar to show your  relative location within the book.
  6. Improved Book Overview Page – Another very cool feature – on your overview page there is now more data about the book, including reviews, ratings, summaries, related books, key words and phrases, references from the web, places mentioned in the book, publisher information, etc. This is a good place to see exactly what Google is seeing about your book…

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What is Self Publishing 2.0?

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Ray Robinson

A new set of terms have been floating around the publishing world lately – though the ‘core’ term seems to have been invented way back in 2006 (an eternity, I know…) by Scott Karp at his blog Publishing 2.0 – the (r)evolution of media…

Morris Rosenthal appears to have recently coined Self-Publishing 2.0 – and we add both these terms on top of  “web 2.0″ … So what? Is there anything really relevent for an author interested in self publishing a book?

You bet -

I like to call ‘publishing 2.0′ the democratization of the published word. Really, “Publishing 2.0″ (with the capital) can refer to anything that is impacting the print media world – and is often used to refer to newspapers and their changing model… (online news sources, fewer print readers, etc). For the book publishing world, I’d expect “Publishing 2.0″ (again with the capital) to focus on the phenom of self publishing – while the traditional world of book publishing was sleeping, tens of thousands of authors took matters into their own hands and brought their books to market all by themselves. Granted, many of these self published books had / have very limited market opportunity – but a striking number seemed to have worked just wonderfully for everyone involved…

So is that it? Is publishing 2.0 just the advent of the self published author? No – nor is self-publishing 2.0 just the advent of blogs, Scribd, or the Espresso Book Machine…

Self Publishing 2.0 is the utilization of technology, by an author, to produce and promote written content across a diverse set of delivery and marketing platforms.

This differs from ’self publishing 1.0′ in which indie authors simply paid a company (or hired resources) to mimic the traditional publishing industry, right down to the offset printing of large quantities of product.

It doesn’t mean that an author can’t hire resources to still perform some (in open disclosure,  I own the author services company, Dog Ear Publishing) It does not matter who performs which task k- or even who holds the ISBN – it’s HOW the tasks are performed that really matters. Utilizing both the best talent for each task and the best technology is very important.

Today, Self Publishing 2.0 represents opportunities in the market for authors at a fraction of the financial risk assumed by indie authors just three or four years ago…

This is an evolving post – would love feedback on creating a more defined list of what self publishing 2.0 happens to be – it seems easier to define the ’self publishing 1.0′ world…

Here’s my initial categorical thoughts:

- content origin – the origin of written content

- content production – MS Word manuscript, blog scrape, software based audio transcription

- content design – not required, highly designed, both… but all completed digitally and in most cases with the design to be fluid based upon the intended delivery channel

- content delivery – e-book, chapter download, print on demand per order, inventory-based printed product…

- monetization of content – open book (no monetization – perhaps ancillary benefit), chapter based, full book, advertising based (Google BookSearch, etc)

- marketing of content – search marketing, blog marketing, ‘old school’ print / media,

It’s a brave new world!

Filed under: Self Publishing 2.0, book marketing, book publishing, self publishing | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

101 Best Websites for Writers – list releasing today

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Ray Robinson

I just received my email from Writer’s Digest for their 101 Best Websites for Writers – a very different list from past years. For those of you in the world of self publising that don’t follow the Writer’s Digest list, this venerable magazine puts together a list of what they feel are the absolute best-of-the-best sites for aspiring writers and self publishers.

“This year we sifted through more than 2,700 nominations and pulled the best of the bunch. The list, which features more blogs and free market listings than in years past, has been divided into eight sections: Creativity and Challenges, General Resources, Agent Blogs, Publishing Resources, Jobs and Markets, Writing Communities, Genres/Niches and Fun for Writers. We’ve also included symbols… with each listing so you can quickly scan to see if the site offers what you’re seeking: blogs, chatting, critiques, classes/workshops, contests, forums, jobs, markets, e-newsletters, podcasts and content for young writers.” writes editor Brian A. Klems.
I found the list interesting this year in that many more ‘non-commercial’ sites were listed – and a number of the ‘commercial’ sites didn’t make the list. (the 2008 list is currently not linked – at least in any way I could find it – on the Writer’s Digest site… though they show links they don’t go the the ‘old’ list)

My favorite in this years list -and for many years – has been Angela Hoy’s Writers Weekly. While Ms. Hoy owns a self-publishing company, BookLocker, her articles and advice are pretty much spot-on. I was disappointed to see that Dog Ear Publishing didn’t make the list -but if you don’t nominate, you can’t get chosen… I’ll keep that in mind for next years list. I thought Dog Ear Publishing might have made list after being described in Jane Friedman’s artcle in the April issue, Straight Expectations, as “…offer[ing] excellent information to help you compare various [self publishing] services.”

A great list – full of value – though for those interested in self publishing a bunch of sites were left out:

Morris Rosenthal’s Self Publishing 2.0 – this guy is brilliant… about just about everything…

Writing-World.com – the site is courtesy of author Moira Allen – and I’ve linked to her self publishing resource page

Midwest Book Review – they have a great section of advice – not just on self publishing, but also writing

Book Publishers Compared – the site of Mark Levine’s book that reviews self publishing companies

Publetariat – people who publish… very cool site / indie author / indie publisher community

Weber Books – Steve Weber’s ideas on marketing and selling books

Send me your thoughts and sites  / lists – maybe it’s time I created one here!

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Textbook publishing – a changing model

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Ray Robinson

I’ve blogged about textbook publishing before  – and the ‘broken’ model that costs college students (or their parents) often thousands of dollars for product that barely (if at all) meets their needs. Professor Textbook is an indie textbook publishing model that we created out of our Dog Ear Publishing experience – and a great post at one of the blogs I follow on the state of the publishing industry discusses exactly the topic that is near-and-dear to anyone following the industry.

I believe that textbooks would even benefit from a more ‘distributed’ approach – with more control centered with those providing the instruction, and less ‘teach what we publish’ mentality.  More and more professors are taking on the publication of their own textbook – and feel they are providing a more focused and quality learning experience for each of their students. Dona J. Young – a professor at Indiana University Northwest – did just that, producing two writing textbooks in less than a year. Her reasons were simple, “As a teacher, I am most effective when I develop my own materials tailored to my students’ needs.” and “What is most important, though, is that Professor Textbook helps teachers give students access to high quality books that are cost effective.”

Check out what Seth Godin had to say about the topic (thanks to Joe for putting this link in his blog) of textbook publishing. He goes far further than most would dare… but he makes all sorts of great points, even down to stating that textbooks should be free (not that I entirely agree with that point – I believe they are way too expensive, but I can’t quite wrap my head around free… unfortunately very few models actually support that – the biggest one being just normal human motivation…)

The independent publishing / self publishing route isn’t the only angle – as I discussed previously a number of organizations are pursuing a truly ‘open’ model of textbook publishing that really IS free. Check out the effort by Rice University, Connexions, and the Make Textbooks Affordable campaign.

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TitleZ is down… but other ‘track your Amazon sales rank’ tool exist

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Ray Robinson

I’ve been dismayed that over the past week or so the no-cost service that allow self published authors to track their Amazon.com sales rank is no longer online (www.titlez.com – I wrote an article on tracking your amazon sales rank last August in which I discussed the site). I placed a call to the company that owns TitleZ, and was assured that they were working on getting the service back online – and still at no cost.

However, like anything on which we begin to rely for book marketing feedback, it’s good to have some alternatives – and author and general publishing guru Steve Weber wrote an article on his blog giving some options – here’s my comments on each and a few other suggestions, ranked by what I think works best…

#1 RankForest.com, pretty much TitleZ in a prettier shell and with cool (though not all that critical for an author) tools thrown in… PLUS – it tracks B&N.com sales. You can chart and track your book’s rank over time – but you can only track one book for free and you can’ t see any others in the tracking library. Still – a great tool, and the costs aren’t too prohibitive.

#2 – RankTracer.com, again – much like TitleZ, but with widgets you can add to your site or page. Has a cost if you want to track books inside an account.

#3 -  Sales Rank Express, created by author Aaron Shepard: it’s a bit ‘clunky’ but very effective for listing several books at once. It doesn’t have the ‘over time’ charting feature that TitleZ so cleverly provides – so it’s really only good for an immediate snapshot – it does add functionality that allows you to check ranks on Amazon international sites.

#4 -  TicTap.com, could be interesting – it’s free and shows a bar graph of sales over time… but, and most problematic, is that all of the books I surveyed weren’t showing current sales data (most recent was from November of ‘08…) I’m not sure the site is still receiving sales data from Amazon – and it certainly makes it useless for measuring the impact of your book marketing efforts. Not that it really means anything, but the copyright on the site hasn’t even been updated since 2007…

And that, folks, appears to be about it… there isn’t much out there – other than some deveoloper materials or sites. If you find any, please by all means post ‘em here!

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Self-Publishing or Self Publishing: A Lesson in Style, Consistency, and how Google has ruined our grammar

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Ray Robinson

It’s been a long dry spell here in blog-land for Self Publishing Today – I often suffer from working ‘in’ the business instead of working ‘on’ the business…

So – to start back into getting information out, I thought I’d start with a lighter post…

Here is a little lesson authors can learn from a grammar issue in the self-publishing industry.  The issue—a lack of consistency in the spelling of self-publishing (or is that self publishing?).  Here are the facts:

Most books by big, traditional publishers use the hyphen.  They do this because The Chicago Manual of Style recommends it.

  • Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary: 11th Edition lists the verb “self-publish” as hyphenated
  • The Chicago Manual of Style: 15th Edition (the most frequently used style manual for the publishing industry) recommends in 7.90 (page 303) that a noun + gerund requires a hyphen when precedes a noun, but should be open when it stands alone
    • In this case, it should be self-publishing company (hyphen) and self publishing (no hyphen)
  • Additionally, 7.90 (page 306) recommends that “self” should have a hyphen in  with other words, unless “self- is followed by a suffix or preceded by un.”
    • Because this is the most specific guideline, this should probably be the guideline authors and editors use (if they choose to follow Chicago)

Whew… I think I followed all of that…

But wait, there’s more

Self-publishing websites rarely hyphenate. Those that do, don’t usually do it very consistently.

So if the hyphen is recommended by The Chicago Manual of Style, why is it so hit and miss on the web?

The answer to that is really quite simple: search engines. Websites are designed to draw readers in.  Dog Ear Publishing, AuthorHouse, and other self-publishing companies want people to find their websites by typing in key terms. Search engines, like Google, don’t use the hyphen.  If websites used the hyphen, they may be more difficult to find through these search engines.  You’ll notice the title of this blog is not hyphenated—that helps to ensure that web surfers like you can find the page. Now, most search engine experts say that hyphens don’t matter – the search engines discard them or use them as a ‘null’ space… but… Sure seems most ‘natural’ listings don’t contain either hyphens or underscores.

This hyphen issue might seem trivial, but it offers an important lesson to authors.  It is a good idea to use a style manual like Chicago, but it is also important to remember that style manuals offer “guidelines” more than “rules.”  You can choose to do something different.  If you want to spell “color” with the British spelling “colour,” you can.  Just be consistent and have a reason for deviating from your chosen style manual.

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How Self-Published Authors can Help the Environment

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Ray Robinson

Earth Day is a good time to reflect on how we can all do more to help the environment. For self-published authors, that might mean taking a closer look at your options for publishing your manuscript. Print-On-Demand (POD) publishing and e-book publishing are both great alternatives to traditional offset printing.

POD publishing allows authors to print only the books they need, at any time they need them. Not only is this incredibly convenient, it is a great way to reduce the amount of wasted paper an author might accumulate with unused books. Some publishing companies have also taken steps to be environmentally friendly self-publishers by using only recycled paper and paper sourced from Sustainable Reforestation Programs.

E-books’ digital formats are a great way to save paper and trees. Consider all the paper sitting on your bookshelf right now—e-books eliminate the necessity for all of that. And e-books are starting to become desirable for reasons beyond just the fact that they help the environment:

First of all, it is easier than ever to access an e-book. Technology such as Amazon’s Kindle 2 and Sony’s Reader make reading an e-book just as portable as reading a printed book. These e-book readers can store dozens of books, and the Kindle 2 can actually read an e-book aloud to you.

E-books also offer readers advantages over printed books, as long as e-book producers put the effort into these endeavors. E-books are capable of having features like a clickable index that will take you right to the page number you are looking for. Linking books together that reference one another is another helpful attribute that could be added to e-books. Some industry leaders even think it is possible that e-books will be able to be sold chapter by chapter in the future, just like iTunes sells songs individually. Allowing readers to only pay for the information they need might be a great benefit of e-books.

Although e-books appear to be the logical progression of books in our digitized age, a few obstacles prevent e-books from catching on as quickly as other forms of digital media. Compare the speed of the e-book transition to the iTunes phenomenon or the DVD revolution. iTunes and DVDs caught on so quickly because listening to a digital song or watching a DVD are the same experiences digitally as they are on tape. But reading a book digitally is not the same experience as reading a printed book. We love the feel of a book in our hands, the pages on our fingertips, and being able to mark up pages with our own notes and comments. We’re going to have to ease into the transition of reading a book on a screen.

To make that transition easier, e-book reader devices are going to have to be tweaked a little more. As Joshua Topolsky writes on engadget.com, there are improvements in Amazon’s Kindle 2 that make it easier to use than it’s predecessor, but the changes might not be enough for the general population to give up their paperbacks.

And the improvements don’t stop with the Kindle 2. Japanese company Fujitsu just launched the first color e-book reader, which should be a big draw for people once hesitant to convert to digital books because of their gray-scale only text and images. However, Fujitsu’s reader, “The FLEPia,” is around $12,000, so it’s probably not a feasible option for most of the population.

As the experience of reading an e-book becomes more realistic and affordable, the popularity of the e-book will continue to grow; but e-books are not yet the most common book format for readers. What does this mean for environmentally concerned self-publishing authors? It means that for now, you should keep taking advantage of Print-On-Demand services that allow you to use only the amount of paper you need. Also, make sure your publishing company uses only recycled paper and paper from Sustainable Reforestation Programs. For some self-published authors, pioneering the e-book territory might be an exciting challenge. Ask your publishing company to submit your book content to Amazon for the creation of a Kindle version of the book.

If you are interested in the past, present, and future of e-books, I suggest you check out this article by e-book visionary John Siracusa. Another great blog on the state of the Kindle is the Kindleville blog produced by publishing veteran Joe Wikert.

Happy Earth Day! Celebrate by doing something good for the environment.

Filed under: Current events | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

What is Twitter and Can it Help Market Your Book?

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Ray Robinson

Here is the general idea of Twitter:

It’s a social networking site where a user answers the question “What are you doing?” to make a status update. Then, “followers” of this user (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) receive an update on their own Twitter pages informing them of the user’s status.

Twitter is similar to Facebook status updates or AIM Away Messages, if you are familiar with those. It is instant communication, and in this technological age, that’s important. For some people, even email has too long of a “send and response” period.

Twitter is a unique way to network because you can reach so many people—even some you don’t know. This is possible because your followers’ friends can see your updates if they follow your friend. Therefore, you are able to reach people that might be more interested in you because you have a mutual connection. And when you are marketing your book, it is very good to have a lot of friends who can help promote you by word of mouth (or “Tweets,” as the status updates are called on Twitter).

So how exactly can you promote your book on Twitter? Well, there are a plethora of websites devoted to tips and tricks of Twitter Marketing—just try typing “Twitter Marketing” into your favorite search engine. I’ll outline a few relevant tips, but I recommend taking a look at these websites as well:

1. Don’t worry about making every post a reference to your book. This will help you be more authentic and build networking relationships while you are marketing your book. For example, John Kremer only references his product in about 1 of every 10 posts.

2. Reach your target audience by finding users with similar interests. John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing recommends using a site called “Twellow.” Twellow acts as a directory to connect you with other Twitter users who have similar interests.

3. Make sure your profile is up-to-date. After all, Twitter is a social-networking site: users are interested in you! Shoestring Branding sees Twitter as a great way to market your “personal brand.” As a self-published author, you certainly have something interesting to say about why you wrote your book, who you are, and what makes you different.

Now, here’s the real question to ask yourself: is Twitter right for your book marketing strategy? I recommend that you don’t make a Twitter marketing campaign the main aspect of your marketing plan. After all, you can take advantage of many other different strategies—which might better suit your personality or your target audience’s tech-savvyness—while also participating in Twitter. Consider checking out the post I’ve written about blog-writing to market your book, because linking your Twitter updates in your blog can be affective cross-media marketing.

I’ve written about book marketing plans and book marketing ideas on the Dog Ear site. Check those out to find a good starting place for your marketing strategy. And remember, whatever you choose to do, the key is commitment: Create a plan and follow through!

Filed under: Current events, book marketing, self publishing | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Ben MacKinnon Shares Book Marketing Insights

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Ray Robinson

One continual hot topic of self-publishing is how to market your book. Book marketing is arguably the most important part of the self-publishing process. After all, you might have written the best book in the world, but if you don’t market it, nobody will know about it! While I often provide book marketing suggestions on here (almost always focusing on the first step – writing a book marketing plan), I thought it might be nice to hear from someone “in the trenches” of the book marketing game. Ben MacKinnon is a young author (one of the youngest to ever self-publish with Dog Ear) who has a lot of energy and drive—both for marketing his book and for life in general. I conducted an interview with him to get some of his insights on marketing his self-published book, Green Bean Spirituality. I hope his advice is helpful to those of you who need a little more direction in your own marketing strategy.

Please tell us a little about yourself.

Currently, I am in my forth year of college at the University of Delaware. I am studying to get a B.A. in Secondary Mathematics Education and will hopefully be graduating next spring. I am a part-time student currently, because I am paying my way through school and can’t afford to go full time. I am twenty-one years old, and was published shortly after my twenty-first birthday. I have been a Christian for six years or so, and constantly find myself challenged and encouraged by the truths of the Christian gospel.

Why did you decide to self-publish?

I decided to self-publish because I couldn’t afford the route necessary to traditional publishing. Literary agents were too expensive, and the process too involving considering my studies at the University. I also wanted complete control of the artistic portions of my manuscript and knew I couldn’t get that if I were to be traditionally published.

What marketing strategies have you implemented?

For the most part, I have been working the college-campus angle. I live in a 2×2 mile block with 26,000+ people, so I stuck primarily to local audiences. I did this through using campus newspapers/news programs to slowly raise awareness of my publication. Naturally, twenty-somethings and younger could find themselves interested in literature composed by a twenty-something, so I did what I could there.

I also made certain to distribute as many as I could to those I knew in other countries to open up more markets.

Which marketing tactic has brought you the most success?

I found the most success with my website. I created a website to accrue donations for the publication. I posted my other essays/creative pieces up on the site in order to “woo” people into feeling comfortable donating. Then, when I gained enough money to publish (I paid a shade under 50$ of my own money for my publication; I got TONS of donations as time went on.). This created an awareness of my work as well, which naturally set me up for immediate online sales. With the help of a personal blog promoting the site, I gained considerable worldwide traffic.

I also found incredible success with social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, and etc. People pay attention to that stuff, and I made certain that I people could access my work from my profiles in these sites. That really blew up my traffic (in a good way!)!

Are there any marketing tactics that you wouldn’t try again?

I would steer clear of book festivals. I almost dropped a ton of money on a book festival that I thought would help me get sales, but I didn’t have the resources necessary to participate, so I didn’t end up going to sell. I did go to the festival to gauge the success of other independent authors; I was glad I didn’t get a booth!

You are the owner of the blog somedaypublished.com. What are your
thoughts on blogging?

Blogging is incredible! It is the most personal form of writing I can imagine. It bolsters regularity of reader involvement, and it’s a great place to practice. You don’t need to have a grammatically perfected blog post, where you do need to iron out your p’s and q’s in essay writing and etc. One thing that is important to blogging is to stay true to a theme of posts (personal reflection, comedy, etc.) and to really commit to posting at least bi-weekly.

Do you have any future plans for the marketing of your book?

The future of my book is something I don’t think so much about. I am focused on the present with the piece. For me to sell ANY books is a dream come true, and I don’t want to become encumbered with the need to hit the NY Time Bestsellers list. I am just taking this whole thing one step at a time. I trust the people I have at Dog Ear Publishing to keep me in the loop as to what they think should happen next.

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    Thanks to Ben for the interview. You can find more information about Ben and his book here. If you want more about marketing, check out this page about book marketing strategies on the Dog Ear website.

    Filed under: Blogging, book marketing, self published | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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