Jennifer Lancaster

February 21, 2017

5-Minute Book Marketing for Authors – by Penny Sansevieria

As a harried author/editor, I appreciate that ‘5-Minute Book Marketing for Authors’ uses a simple and fast-read format. Penny explains how to get great reviews, legal ones, on Amazon. If you have no email list at all, the first part of her advice might leave you despondent, however there are other options laid out for the intrepid author. I do feel that Penny, having been a multiple top-selling marketing author for many years, gives the depth of advice and honest opinions which novices seek. The book’s content is quite heavily biased to Amazon, which suits many, but I need an all-round approach. That’s why I enjoyed the chapters on author website, social media and newsletters. (I’m the kind of idiot that designs my own website, against the advice of Penny). I don’t do free eBook promotions as a rule, but after…

August 11, 2020

Blogging Strategy, Book Marketing

Why Create an Author Blog?

There are so many claims on your time as an author, including marketing, speaking, possibly organising book production, and researching future books. So why would you commit to running an author blog as well? Many writers, including those writers at Blog Chicks, share their daily joys and trials freely in their blog, as well as engage with their book readers. But for us authorpreneurs, we want to give great value and attract really specific readers to our message. The message behind your books is important; it goes beyond just one book at one time. Your people are looking for information that will answer a query and put their minds at rest, or fill them with hope to achieve their dreams. Your main aim may be to make your book a success. But in order to do that, you first need an audience. An audience can…

March 25, 2021

Self-Publishing, Selling eBooks and Media

Connecting your Book Titles to You for Better Google Visibility

This post is about Google’s ‘Knowledge Graph’, aka beautiful author and book plates that show up in title searches. Yes, us authors always moan about having to buy an ISBN. Relax, you are going to love this secret I found out. Multiple book authors with ISBNs get the Google star treatment! The benefits of having your own ISBN at Thorpe Bowker: It is yours to keep up to date (not a publisher you can’t get hold of), you get to inform library suppliers and so help along sales, You can assign a library discount, discounts to retail, and You may be assigned a section by Google which matches your ISBNs to you and brings up a special box with all your books in it when someone does an exact title search on Google. I love that bit the most! Find below…

February 4, 2017

Self-Publishing, Selling eBooks and Media

Security for your eBooks

An enquiry came in today about ‘how do I keep my eBook secure?’ Let’s look at the various ways to help increase its security. The answer depends on whether your ebook is hosted by a retailer, e.g. Amazon or iBooks or Smashwords, or is in PDF form on your own website. The retailers, although letting buyers lend their ebook to friends for one week in the case of Amazon (optional), have digital security in place as much as possible. After all, they want their cut as well as giving you yours. You can also put a message in the front of the ebook, along the lines of “This book was distributed at Amazon, if you received a copy for free, this is not authorised by the publisher, so please return to Amazon to buy a copy”. Or some such. But… you may…

December 13, 2016

Self-Publishing, Selling eBooks and Media

Returns on your Book Publishing Enterprise

Writing a book is no mean feat. It’s easy to get carried away with paying for this and that for its success, to help your business revenue. Regardless, my motto is: “Only spend (on your book) what you can feasibly get back (as a return on marketing).” A higher cash-flow business might put all the costs of a book under marketing — which isn’t a bad idea for direct incentives or in-book bonus offers. What are the Potential Earnings? As a micro publisher, the incomings could include: royalties — see IngramSpark compensation calculator higher lead to client conversions from prospects reading the book/s new leads and JV opportunities greater access to media spots and blogger reviews Since you have to keep your end goals in mind, you may decide to forgo the small royalties from traditional ebook sales to place a higher value on the…

December 5, 2016

Self-Publishing

Choosing a Self-Publishing Platform Ain’t Easy

If you’re in the process of finishing a book and wondering how to self-publish your book or eBook, you might have started doing some research online. Soon you realised that there are so many self-publishing author services, vanity presses, and Print on Demand that you cannot possibly make a clear decision. So it comes back to finding out the opinion of self-published authors who have been through it. CNet’s David Carnoy says: “Royalties are better (with an author services company e.g. CreateSpace) than what “real” publishers offer, but there are caveats, and true self-publishing pros prefer to cut out the subsidy press (which takes a cut) and go straight to a POD printer like Lightning Source to maximize profits.” Note that David chose BookSurge (now CreateSpace) and then shortly after securing an agent (and publicity), went on to get a traditional publisher to…