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Aug 15
Love3

Marketing self-published books: There is no magic bullet

By Blog, Industry

A Lifehacker reader commenting on my recent How to Self-Publish a Book article had an interesting question: How do you advertise self-published books?

I believe his/her question actually had more to do with the entire spectrum of marketing, rather than just advertising. It’s a valid question, considering it will be nearly impossible to attract readers to a self-published work without a marketing plan in place.

Facebook ads books

However, there is no magic bullet for marketing self-published books. I have experimented with low-cost advertising, such as Facebook ads and Google AdWords. The results have been poor. Relatively few people click on the ads, and still fewer actually end up making a purchase. As for traditional advertising, I would never throw away money on expensive broadcast or print advertising — it’s simply not worth it, considering my sales channels are restricted to Amazon and other online stores, and the results are so hard to quantify.

There are other marketing activities that do not involve paid advertising, including social media, community websites (such as Goodreads), blogging, and media/press appearances. None will instantly transform a new title into a breakaway hit, but they can help build awareness of the value offered by your book, which can lead to additional sales or other positive results, such as user reviews and recommendations.

My own marketing efforts center around the following activities:

  1. Ensuring that the online product pages for IN 30 MINUTES titles have attractive, compelling copy that lets people know what information the titles contain.
  2. Creating websites that not only make it easy for potential readers to buy the titles, but also provides helpful “how-to” information for free that demonstrates the expertise of the authors. This can lead to additional sales.
  3. Encouraging existing readers to buy other IN 30 MINUTES titles, and leave honest reviews online.

I don’t waste a lot of time on activities that fail to generate results. For instance, I could spend many hours per week searching out and participating in media opportunities — interviews, guest blog posts, podcasts, “expert” quotes, etc. However, I’ve found the success rate is low and not all media appearances, interviews, and mentions lead to sales.

A corollary: I don’t do things that risk alienating readers. For instance, I see way too many new authors stuffing their twitter feeds with non-stop plugs. This is low-value content that is not authentic, has the potential to scare away new followers as well as existing followers/readers, and at the end of the day doesn’t deliver much in the way of sales. While social media can certainly help a marketing effort for a new book, there has to be more than links to Amazon product pages.

What do you think about marketing for self-published books? What works, and what doesn’t? Leave your comments below.

Jul 20
Love3

Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription plan screws self-published authors

By Blog, Industry

Amazon just announced its Kindle Unlimited subscription plan for ebooks, and boy, does it look great for readers and traditionally published authors. Readers get access to hundreds of thousands of titles for a low monthly price of $10. If you’re a big-name publisher, traditionally published author, or an author published through an Amazon imprint, the terms are great for you, too, according to Publisher’s Marketplace. As long as a reader reads just 10% of your book, you get 100% of what you would get as if the book were a standalone download . Competing subscription plans, such as the one offered by Scribd, don’t come close.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Wait a minute. What’s the payout for authors and publishers who are using Amazon’s exclusive self-publishing platform, KDP Select?

Well, you are out of luck, because Amazon’s terms aren’t nearly as generous. I quote from the email Amazon out to KDP members last week:

KDP authors and publishers who enroll their books with U.S. rights in KDP Select are automatically enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. Inclusion in Kindle Unlimited can help drive discovery of your book, and when your book is accessed and read past 10% you will earn a share of the KDP Select global fund. For the month of July we have added $800,000 to the KDP Select global fund bringing the total to $2 million.

In other words, self-published authors in KDP Select are getting paid … who knows? It’s certainly not the 100% enjoyed by traditional publishers and authors on Amazon imprints. It can’t even come close to the 70% that all KDP authors (including those who are not in KDP Select) normally get for a single digital purchase of their book, because the “global fund” simply isn’t big enough to cover subscription reads and the free reads that are part of other KDP Select promotions.

So we have a situation in which one group of authors is getting the gold standard — 100% of what they would get as if they sold the book individually. And then there are the self-published authors in KDP Select, who are providing the bulk of the current Kindle Unlimited catalogue. They are getting some lesser fraction and cannibalizing full-priced digital downloads to boot. On Kboards, some of them have begun to mildly object to this unfair treatment, which surprises me. Self-published authors are getting screwed and they should be vociferously protesting the second-class treatment and terrible terms offered by Amazon.

KDP Select has other issues, too. As described in “Is KDP Select worth it?”, I dropped out of KDP Select after running some experiments and finding paltry sales and reimbursements, and a negligible rankings boost. I also object to the monopolistic exclusivity requirements — authors in KDP Select cannot publish their book on any other platform thereby limiting the ability of their books to reach audiences on those other platforms. The new subscription plan and its lopsided reimbursement plan gives me another reason to steer clear of the plan — and warn other self-published authors to consider doing the same.

Image: The email I received from Amazon about the Kindle Unlimited subscription program:

Kindle Unlimited terms for authors

Jun 26
Love2

How to renew a Blogger custom domain through Google Apps

By Blog

Blogger, the blogging service offered by Google, used to have a really neat feature: The ability to reserve and pay for a custom domain through the Blogger interface to replace the default blogspot.com domain that Google provides. For reasons that are not clear, Google removed this feature in 2013. It’s still possible to get a custom domain, but users have to do it on their own through registrars such as GoDaddy or eNom and then point the domain to Google’s Blogger servers (if anyone is interested in setting up a simple business website using this method, consider Google Blogger For Small Businesses In 30 Minutes).

When Google turned off custom domains registration in Blogger, however, they didn’t think through an important process: How existing customers could renew their custom domains. Because customers never dealt directly with the registrars when they set up the domains, the renewal process is supposed to take place through Google Apps. This is a big problem, because many users never registered their Google Apps account or were never assigned an email address associated with their accounts. So, when the renewal email is sent to the backup email address, it’s not clear how to get into the Google Apps account to update billing information or perform other important functions. Fortunately, I found a partial solution for some users, which I will share below.

First, here’s what the renewal email looks like:

How to renew a Blogger custom domain through Google Apps

While my Dropbox guide is currently associated with a new URL, the old Blogger-based book website still gets a fair amount of traffic so I definitely wanted to renew the domain to prevent it from expiring. I clicked the button in the email, but was brought through a hellish runaround. I knew the default email address for the Blogger domains is bloggeradmin@domain.com, but no password combination worked to access it, and the only account recovery method the help screens said I could use involved changing the c name record at the registrar (eNom) so Google could verify that I owned the domain. But this was impossible, because I never dealt directly with eNom — all of the administration took place through the Blogger interface, and Google Wallet/Google Checkout.

Eventually, by following another set of help links, I was able to fill out a Google Apps help form that let me tell Google Apps what the problem was. Here’s what I wrote:

Subject: Unable to get into my Google Apps account which I registered as a Blogger custom domain

I received a warning via email (via my backup email address) that my domain will not be renewed. It is impossible using normal methods for me to get into the Google Apps domain management panel for the Dropbox In 30 Minutes domain. I used my backup email address, the bloggeradmin@ email address, and every password I could remember but nothing works. I am also unable to use the c name method because Google/Blogger custom domains do not allow me to log into the registrar’s management panel (enom).

Please help.

The help form said I would need to wait for up to 7 days, but I received a reply in about 1 hour. Here’s what it said:

Thank you for your message. I understand you have no access to your account Admin interface to renew your domain registration. I will be more than happy to help you with that.

Please note that at this time, all Google customers for any product are being moved to a new Billing system. In order to comply with its requirements, they need to manage their account through a Google Apps Admin console. You must have received an email message with this information. However, if you haven’t or didn’t go through the information to get access to it, you can use the following link to reset the password and gain access https://admin.google.com/xxxxxx/ForgotAdminAccountInfo (where xxxxxx is the name of the domain in question).

The reset link should be coming to this Gmail. Once you login, it will take you through setting up Billing to enable the auto renew option for your domain registration.

Sure enough, I was able to send a new password to my backup gmail account (thank goodness I had set that up) and get into the domain control panel to update the billing information. Mission accomplished!

Now, I know there are lots of other people with similar problems, but I don’t want to guarantee this method. For instance, if you never set up a backup email recovery account or waited too long to take care of the problem, you may be out of luck. But if any other readers try this method and it works, please share your story (and tips) below!

Jun 23
Love0

How to spend 30 minutes on a LinkedIn Summer Makeover

By Blog

STUMBLERS — Thanks for visiting! Special offer: Visit this link to receive 50% off the PDF of LinkedIn In 30 Minutes!

One of our most successful titles is LinkedIn In 30 Minutes, by Melanie Pinola. This summer, we’re planning to share some LinkedIn love with a special promotion aimed at helping you give your LinkedIn profile a much-needed makeover!

LinkedIn User Guide

Why would your LinkedIn profile need a makeover? Maybe it’s because the last time you updated it was when George W. Bush was still president. Or, maybe you’re left key elements out. Even if you regularly update it with new job titles and summaries, you are probably missing out on some opportunities to really make it shine. This is not only useful for people actively searching for new positions, but also for so-called “passive” candidates who are satisfied with their current job but would respond if the right offer popped up.

LinkedIn In 30 Minutes is a quick summer read that will give you lots of practical advice on how to get your profile optimized. It includes sections about:

  • LinkedIn registration and basic profile setup
  • How building a LinkedIn profile is different than creating a resume
  • How to find the right keywords to include in your profile
  • Three things your LinkedIn profile must communicate
  • Real-world examples of successful profiles and keywords

LinkedIn In 30 Minutes also has lots of tips about how to effectively network using LinkedIn. Having the right set of connections can make a huge difference when it comes time to look for a new job or advance your career, and Melanie’s guide has got you covered with explanations of the following topics:

  • How to find people to connect with
  • Crafting personalized connection invitations
  • How to address unemployment, résumé gaps, or a career change
  • LinkedIn Groups: Pros, cons, and participation strategies

Finally, she covers the LinkedIn job market, from how to find job listings to tactics for accessing the “hidden” job market on LinkedIn.

So, how can you get started with your LinkedIn Summer Makeover? We’ve already given away free copies of the paperback edition on Goodreads, and will also have giveaways for the iTunes and PDF editions — keep an eye on the @in30minutes Twitter account for announcements, which will take place throughout the summer. But if you don’t want to wait, we’ve dropped the price of the Kindle and all other ebook editions to just $4.99 (a savings of nearly 30%!). Load it up on your Kindle/iPad/Nook or Android e-reader today, so you can have it ready, whether you’re at the beach or lounging at your favorite vacation spot!

Jun 02
Love1

Why I like the KBoards publishing community

By Blog

Angela Bole, the executive director of the Independent Book Publishers Association, recently asked readers of the IBPA Independent magazine about how communities have helped connect them with other authors and independent publishers. It’s a great question, and prompted me to write this post about the KBoards online community.

Soon after I began self-publishing in the summer of 2012, I discovered the KBoards forum (then called “Kindle Boards”). I liked the forum, in particular the subsection called “Writers’ Cafe”, because it seemed very inclusive toward newcomers such as myself, yet included some obviously extremely experienced self-publishers, including those who had/have been published “traditionally”, as well as people offering specific services such as editing or cover design. Smashwords founder Mark Coker even drops in from time to time.

Kboards was and still is very easy for anyone to ask a question about “how to do X” or “this is my experience with Y” and get some great feedback. I’ve been the beneficiary of advice about how to handle certain issues (such as a thread I started about publishing a 2nd edition on Amazon KDP) and regularly turn to a helpful guide that another KBer wrote about setting prices in Google Play, after she reverse-engineered Google’s automatic “discount”! Conversely, I’ve helped others with questions about ISBNs, WordPress themes, POD image quality, iBooks Author, and many other issues. That sense of wanting to “help each other out” is what makes KBoards such a valuable community.

One other aspect of KBoards that I enjoy is that it doesn’t exclude people by genre or personal background. I publish the In 30 Minutes series of how-to guides and can share advice and opinions with writers from all over the world and from all kinds of genres. It’s very eye-opening in that respect — for instance, I had no idea about the troubles some foreign authors have encountered when it comes to using U.S.-based publishing services.

The other type of community that I would like to interact with is the community of readers. I have been able to do this to a limited extent through Twitter and online reviews, but it’s very fleeting. At some point I may start an online community on in30minutes.com (for instance, a place where readers can share tips or ask questions) but that’s a product for later this year.