Before you enter a negotiation, talk yourself into success. It sounds like a cliché, but it has proven to work. The key is to not-only say the right things to yourself, but use your physical appearance to reinforce your self-confidence. Here are Ten Ways to Project a Winning Personality in a Sales Situation.
In the world of self-publishing, one critical component that's been missing has been reliable data about how self-published books are selling. Last week, the self-published author Hugh Howey released some data on 7,000 ebooks on the Amazon bestseller list, from the mystery/thriller, romance, and science fiction genres. He posts his report here:
The other eye-popper here is that indie authors are outselling the Big Five. That’s the entire Big Five. Combined. Indie and small-press books account for half of the e-book sales in the most popular and bestselling genres on Amazon.
Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller's Futurebook blog, provides the following caution here:
What do we mean by “metadata” and why is it so important?
Can it really make the difference in sales of your books?
In an eye-opening webinar on Wednesday, February 12, from 1-2:00 Eastern time, Rebecca Albani from Bowker will explain the basics of metadata, including the key things authors should be monitoring in their own data stream. You’ll learn why the tiniest details can make the biggest difference and why the metadata that you choose to upload about your book to distributors, retailers, and libraries dictates who discovers your work, when they find it, where, and how easily. Poor data can keep your book from ever being found by readers – even if you’ve written an award-worthy piece of work.
This webinar is sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and produced by Bowker.
If you price your book incorrectly you may reduce your short-term profitability and likelihood of long-term success. Here are ten tips to help you price your books profitably.
People make a lot of books with Lulu. In fact, thousands upon thousands of titles are published to Lulu.com every week. While that’s a few too many books for us to read, we do know there are three things a writer needs to keep in mind to ensure their book is one readers will want to buy. If you’re among the writers preparing to publish a book this year, these three tips will be key factors in your success.
1. Know who your ideal reader is before you even start writing.
One of my favorite parts of my job is speaking with independent authors and listening to the challenges they face on their paths to success. It’s interesting to hear their perspectives on the tools available to them and what they need to be more successful. One of the most common questions during these discussions is how can I sell more books? As the holidays approached, my colleagues and I began hearing it more regularly and began asking ourselves how can we help them sell more books?
To answer this question, we asked 4,000 of Lulu’s best-selling authors to share the best practices that they've learned on their path to book marketing and sales success. Both the eagerness with which the authors replied to our request and what their responses revealed were eye-opening.
As Smashwords joins with the Oyster ebook subscription service, Mark Coker offers his thoughts on ebook subscription models in general:
Once upon a time, self publishing print books was a costly and risky endeavor. Minimum orders, inventory risks, and lengthy lead times were not self-publisher friendly. Then, print on demand came along. POD creates one-off and entire print runs of bookstore-worthy hard copies from a “print-ready PDF” hours after an order is placed (i.e. when you place an order with the printer or when a customer purchases a copy on Amazon).
The ease and affordability of digital publishing makes for a great starting point for self publishers, but there are plenty of reasons to go print as well. To name a few...
Not everyone has an e-reader
Congratulations! You have written your book! That was a major achievement. Your next step will no doubt be to list your title with various website services to increase its exposure. You will be filling out forms with questions you may have never thought about before. Some guidelines about what to include would be beneficial about now. Here’s a list of best practices for formatting your title on the web:
1. Use mixed case for capitalizing your title, unless there is an acronym involved. For example, The Ocean at the End of the Lane would have mixed case but SEAL Team Six would have the acronym in all capital letters.
