Posts tagged ‘Online’
2010 Call for Entries: Submit Your Published Titles
Attention all writers who have published in 2009 and 2010. If your book has an ISBN, submit your story to The National “Best Books 2010” Awards sponsored by USA Book News. The Best Books Awards is now celebrating their 7th Year of honoring outstanding independent and mainstream books.
Select from 130 categories, including first time author, specific genres and design. All submitted entries will receive online coverage (final deadline is August 31, 2010), and those submissions received by March 31, 2010 will receive a six-month full color listing on USABookNews.com, including your color book cover, a brief paragraph about your book title and a hyperlink to your web site.
“The National Best Books Awards are specifically designed to garner Media Coverage and Book Sales for the winners and finalists throughout the 2010 holiday season and 2011!” In addition, winner and finalist book titles will be promoted through USA Book News E-zine, sent to thousands of book buyers, along with instant coverage and immediate exposure to over 500,000+ subscribers to USA Book News online networks and media outlets. The award sticker is added to your book cover and you may continue to promote your book as Award-Winning.
Entry Fees and Deadlines:
$69 per title/per category
- Enter your book(s) on or before March 31, 2010 and receive a six-month full color listing on USABookNews.com. (All entries must be postmarked on or before March 31, 2010.)
- FINAL Entry Deadline is August 31, 2010. (All entries must be postmarked on or before August 31, 2010.)
- Winners and Finalists will be announced nationally in late October 2010.
- Eligible titles must have a 2010 or 2009 publication date and ISBN number.
- Galley copies are welcome.
- All sales are final. Books are donated to charity or discarded after the competition and will not be returned.
Submission Checklist
- ONE copy of your book per category entered (Galley copies are welcome)
- A completed Entry Form for each title.
- A past Press Release or Marketing Material for each title (if available)
- A check for the entry fees, payable to JPX Media (if paying by check) or
- Be sure to include your Online Payment Order number on your entry form.
You may find the entry form on www.USABookNews.com.
Remember that exposure is key to book marketing success. These kinds of chances are what take us places and it’s not too late to get on track to publishing your book through Wordclay — this could be the motivator you have been waiting on. Your book may be the award winning story we’re all looking for. Good luck!
–Melissa
Note: All entry information was taken directly from www.USABookNews.com/2010bestbooksawards.html
Wordclay and Smashwords: E-book Formatting Service in May
That’s right — Wordclay is offering fifty percent off their new Smashwords e-book formatting service, which not only helps authors market their books online, but sell additional copies to all types of gadget lovers who are investing in Kindle devices and Sony Readers.
- Reach new kinds of readers and different audiences.
- Join the growing digital market with your e-book.
- Offer your book in a variety of file formats for everyone.
- Promote your e-book, and earn royalties per download.
Wordclay will take your completed manuscript and format it per the recommended guidelines in the Smashwords Style Guide. Visit Wordclay’s site to view details about the service and frequently asked questions about how valuable e-book formatting can truly be.
Check out the Smashwords blog for more updates>>
Self-Branding: What Your Web Site Says about You and Your Book
Authors, and perhaps especially self-published authors, can have a difficult run after production of their books is complete, mostly because, just when you thought you were done, then comes the necessary marketing.
Simply put, in order to sell books, you have to sell yourself. Just like a book cover can catch a reader’s eye, so too, your Web site can attract new fans and audiences to your work, but what kind of Web site is going to attract the right people? It’s a good question, and one that has no easy answer, but the truth of the matter is: without a creative and straightforward Web site with compelling content, your book might go unnoticed for a time in various Internet circles.
There are, however, a few questions you can ask yourself when designing your own Web site (or hiring a third party to design one for you) that may help:
What type of book are you marketing? Fiction? Poetry? Inspirational? Christian? Perhaps a children’s book? Whatever type of book you’ve publish, the genre and content of it will definitely affect how you market and subsequently how you build your Web site. For that matter, you need to reveal the specifics of your book on your site right away–on the homepage–not only to keep visitors interested, but to increase your keywords for Internet searches as well.
What is the primary thrust of your marketing plan? Are you approaching the media with press release and follow-up calls? Are you planning a book tour in the near future? Are you selling your book in local or regional bookstores? Whatever the main push of your marketing strategy is, you’ll want to reflect its importance on the main page of your Web site.
What information do people need to know? Obviously, people coming to your site are interested in the content of your book; but if you’ve only posted vague information about the formats, prices or materials within your book, you might not convert a reader into a customer. Hence, the importance of drafting compelling copy that tells your visitors exactly why your book is so valuable and worthy of being purchased beyond all doubts.
How can readers get your book? Okay, so maybe you’ve convinced them to buy your book, but you still have to make the process of actually ordering a copy quick and easy for them. If ordering a book is too complicated or buried in other material, a potential customer may be dissuaded and leave your site. So be sure to post links to your Book Ordering page, or offer visitors a simple way to order your book on your site.
Long story short, your Web site is an important aspect of your marketing campaign, and as such, it requires a great deal of forethought and planning when developing if you’re looking to keep target readers interested and convert them into customers.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
Amazon Content: Rank and Restriction, Finding GLBT Books Online
Obviously Amazon.com knows how to direct online activity. Over the past several years we have seen Amazon rise to dominance in the online retail market. The likelihood is that they have the best price for the book you need and for the backpack, school clothes, vehicles — pretty much anything you want.
In fact, Amazon is so big and powerful that it might be easy to forget that they are as free as anyone else to make decisions regarding what materials are listed in what way on their site. This is offset by the idea that if Amazon or any company behaves in a way that the overall society sees as unethical or irresponsible, the offending party will not see continued support from the markets that they may have angered.
On Amazon’s site we are able to understand the success of products by their rank. GLBT books suddenly found themselves dropped from ranking recently. This is clearly a step that can limit the success of the titles in question. If the buying public cannot find referential information about the behavior of the competing products in our free-market, then many of those products are effectively invisible.
One problem with electronic information is that it can be vulnerable to attacks and errors. There are several theories regarding the change in status for these titles. One man claims to have caused the issue himself using the complaint function within Amazon and a line of code that would basically cause that same complaint to be registered repeatedly. It has also been suggested that the issue was the result of a minor error made when adjusting the code on Amazon’s French site.
I find that most enterprises that are extremely successful listen very closely to the dominant voices in their markets and shape the customer experience on a day-to-day basis in response to feedback. It is likely that if Amazon suddenly removes a certain type of book from prominent promotion, they are responding directly to more vocal voices within the market. In the case of disagreements, I assume they would try to find the most suitable compromise. Considering the variables, however, it seems that before forming an opinion, we might want to consult the IT crowd to see if there is another explanation.
-1000 Chimps
Author Giveaways and Contests: How to Host Contests for Book Promotion
If you’re a published or self-published author, you already know the importance of promoting your book online, creating a buzz around your new title and recruiting new readers on a daily basis. What might elude you are the common methods of achieving those goals. Luckily, the Wordclay team has provided some handy author giveaway tips and contest basics, which you can easily implement in order to reach thousands of potential book buyers.
Tip #1: Consider launching your own Web site or blog. Posting regularly on topics of interest and generating useful content or free previews of your book will help to solidify your credibility in the eyes of readers. You can use your site to establish a strong Internet presence, loaded with valuable keywords which could lead Internet surfers to your page. Remember that securing a memorable, unique domain name will help readers find you again whenever they have time.
Tip #2: Offer a limited-time book giveaway. You could offer a free e-book download whenever a person registers with your mailing list and verifies their e-mail address. Any portion of your book can be given-away for free and serve as an enticement to readers, from your book’s first chapter to a complete printed copy to a PDF. You’ll not only establish immediate trust between author and audience, but you’re also supplying interesting and useful content to the world.
Tip #3: Host a review contest. Invite readers to buy your book, read your work and submit a review to win cash prizes, not unlike Bryan Hutchingson for his book One Boy’s Struggle: A Memoir. And if you don’t have the means to offer cash prizes, a copy of your book in exchange for a brief testimonial or even an e-book to winners of a random drawing just might be enough to earn you a following of devoted fans.
However you decide to market your book online, don’t be afraid to get creative with your promotions by launching contests as well as giveaways, but no matter what, you always want to offer a practical, useful incentive to your Internet visitors to keep them interested.
Wordclay Launches New, Improved Cover Design Wizard: Take the Poll & Provide Helpful Feedback on Our Online Publishing Program
That’s right! Wordclay has given the cover design wizard a complete overhaul, so our authors can now layout their covers as well as test different styles and themes with even better, more accessible online design tools.
But building and maintaining a free self-publishing company is work that is never completely finished, and that’s the reason we need your help. By simply logging in to your account, uploading a manuscript and testing our cover wizard, you can submit the informative feedback that keeps our company evolving.
Remember too, if you don’t have an account with Wordclay, registration is easy in addition to being free, and we never distributed your contract information to any other company, so you can be certain annoying spam and unwanted e-mails are never a problem.
So if you can spare 15 minutes and help us reshape the future of publishing, log in to your account and test any many design tools, themes and cover layouts as you desire. Once you’ve formed an opinion, take our simple poll (located below) and perhaps even submit a comment about your experience.
We’re always looking to improve our program and services, and here’s your chance to ensure that our company grows to meet your specific publishing needs and desires. Thanks again for your participation!
The Wovel: Choose Your Own Adventure Novels & Literary Fusion
Recently discussed in a NPR segment called The Wovel: Literary Alternative To Browsing Blogs, the wovel (or the Web novel) is now inching its way into the public eye. Instead of surfing the Internet for blogs and news, readers are now turning to this new form of choose-your-own-adventure writing, where users can actually decide the direction of the next installment by simply utilizing the binary vote feature located at the end of each chapter post.
For example, perhaps a character is torn between traveling north to rescue a princess from an evil tyrant, or traveling south instead, in order to meet with a wizard who may know the meaning of life itself. Either one of these scenarios can be played out, pending a majority vote, which readers can submit each week.
“The way we read is changing,” as Rick Kleffel of NPR said, and it’s true. Many individuals read in bursts nowadays, their only opportunity to enjoy writing on breaks from work or between family pursuits. Say you’re taking your 15-minute break from the office, so you jump online, check your e-mail, and afterwards, when you’re looking for something to fill the next 10 minutes, you might not want to start such a lengthy pursuit as a novel. Instead, you may turn to the breezy nature of the wovel, whose serial installments might satisfy your literary itch in whatever short time you have to spare.
As an integrated, online and traditional print publisher advocating the wovel, Underland Press has recently started publishing this new genre. Underland Press’s Founder Victoria Blake wanted to offer exciting, edgy fiction with a touch of the fantastic, and the wovel seemed like a natural approach. Combining the serial novel format with the pace of journalism and the latest in Web technology, Blake has adapted to the ever-changing literary sphere, appealing to people who love to read and actively engage writing, but those who perhaps only have time to read a chapter every now and again.
Some readers are a little wary of the wovel’s implication, suggesting that bursts of reading might cheapen the literary experience. Of course, we need to maintain the novel — Blake isn’t suggesting otherwise — but what do you think? You’re the one reading this blog burst, perhaps on your lunch break, so your opinion is the one that could make or break the wovel’s presence within the online literary marketplace. Join our discussion, submit your opinion, and keep the ideas coming.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
TheAuthorsEdge.com: Online Book Marketing Tips & Blog
Back from temporary holiday hiatus, the Wordclay team would like to inform authors of invaluable book marketing resource, TheAuthorsEdge.com, where you can learn how to effectively promote your books on the Web and earn significant royalties as sales increase.
Marketing your book online may seem like a daunting task — you may not even know what terms like SEO or Web crawling or organic traffic mean — but Chris Simeral of TheAuthorsEdge.com can definitely help you turn your published book into a success story with his straightforward, simply online marketing strategies.
For starters, his numerous free video tutorials not only explain the importance of various online marketing techniques, but also show you, the author, how to easily implement these Internet techniques. From the very basics of book promotion to seemingly more complicated publicity issues, Simeral explains all.
Find more of his tutorials on his website or YouTube.com.
But that’s not all. Simeral also provides podcast interviews with other marketers, who provide different perspectives and even more tips. Additionally, he manages an Online Book Marketing blog, which is consistently updated with a wealth of publishing news and insights that are sure to help any emerging writer sell more books.
Take five minutes, subscribe to his blog today, download one of his many informative author promotion packets for free, and enact a simple, foolproof book marketing plan that’s bound to increase your Internet visibility.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
Free Book Promotions: Generate Book Buzz with Giveaways & Incentive Offers
Free stuff, sign me up. Truth is, everyone loves a chance to get a book for free, especially if the book in question might be one these folks actually like or use. The more honest and accessible your content, the more tempted Internet surfers will become by your book. And it don’t get much better than free!
For that matter, asking for an e-mail address to send them information or even suggesting they subscribe to your blog is usually safe. What’s the worst that could happen? They simply unsubscribe? But that won’t happen if you keep them interested with new content and previews of your book that actually keep their attention. Running promotions and distributing free copies of your book are both great strategies for luring new readers to your site and ensuring they stick around to see what you’re all about.
You can run an annual giveaway for your book, or you might want to invest time and money into a monthly contest, to cull even more readers within your target audience. The choice is yours. One things for certain, limiting the risk and investment to readers will not only keep them interested in your book, but increase the likelihood they’ll discuss the book online within forums or offline with friends.
Plus, free book giveaways are quite simple to implement. Say you maintain an author Web site, you can easily promise a free ebook or perhaps a PDF of chapter 1 to all those who subscribe to your newsletter or mailing list. Then, hold a monthly drawing, and send a free copy of your book to whomever you select from the pool of e-mails.
Even if a subscriber only gets your first chapter of your book, that may be enough to pique their interest and buy your book, or talk about the content with friend, which can only help your promotion. Once people get talking, it’s only a matter of time before your subscription base grows, and you can start sending info about discounts you’re offering on books. The possibilities are endless.
The Point: Remember, people love free stuff, and subscribers are less hesitant to invest an e-mail address for a chance to get some free, quality information. Giveaways not only keep you in touch with your target audience, but provide an opportunity to intrigue new readers and generate book buzz both online and beyond.
Blerp: Start a Coversation about Books & Comics
Registration is free, and your profile takes about five minutes to complete. Then, you can start your own conversation on interesting topics or add to the blerps (or comment threads) of others. Make friends who share similar opinions, and start a conversation about whatever you want, any day you want, easy-peazy.
Really, the flexibility and interactivity of Blerp.com offers almost endless possibilities, so explore their Web site, register for free, post a few comments whenever you want and start discussing some topics about which you’re passionate. You never know who’s listening and who feels the same way.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
April 9, 2009 at 11:34 am jdimos Leave a comment