Publish Direct to Kobo

Panzer is a happy kitty today! He parked the Panzermobile in the Catosphere at author Molly Greene's blog. She has a terrific post about indie publishing on Kobo.
 
I'll admit (as everybody knows), I'm a huge fan of Smashwords. But ... I have to admit, Greene has some serious Cons not to use Smashwords (meow, meow!) to distribute to Kobo.

Greene includes links to the Kobo guidelines as well as account setup instructions and upload instructions. She makes it look so easy Panzer might give it a try himself!

So ... if you want to explore uploading direct to Kobo, check out Molly Greene: Writer .

Book Review: The Faery Stone: The Cats of Merryweather Meadows

Panzer is doing the happy cat dance. He found a CAT ebook to have me read to him!

We've been reading The Faery Stone: The Cats of Merryweather Meadows by Maggie Gil.

The ebook has got quite a cast of cat characters. There's Nick the silver gray 13 year old head of farm security. There's Dusty the 3 year old foodie tabby and Queenie his calico sister. And finally, there's Patches the 9 year old tortoiseshell.

There's trouble at the farm. There are yellow butterflies everywhere ... and ... everyone knows that means there's something wrong in the Faerie realm. If there's trouble in the Faerie realm in the meadow, there's trouble at the farm.

And ... the pixie army is after farm owners Sam and Jeff's toddler son Cade. Panzer has been hiding his eyes and covering his ears! This is a scary book even for my bad boy!

Even so, Panzer gives the ebook four paws up.

The ebook is available from Amazon for the Kindle.

Thanksgiving

Panzer on Empathy:

You must open your heart to feel
As you must open your eyes to see.

It takes practice.

Usually, I just want to jump on anything that moves and rip it apart.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Karen Woodward: Amazon Ranks Authors In Terms Of Their Book Sales

Panzer parked the Panzermobile at Karen Woodward's blog today. Panzer loves stopping in at Karen's blog. She always has such interesting posts!

This post is about Amazon's Author Ranking system. Karen does a great job of explaining how the system works. It looks like Amazon is going to be pitting author against author now.

So ... it looks like Panzer and I better start writing faster ... so we can have more books on Amazon ... so we can rack up more sales ... so we can rank higher ... so we can write faster ... so we can ...  or ... so we can just forget about Author Ranking and go back to writing the best books we can however long it takes.

Tootle over to Karen Woodward: Amazon Ranks Authors In Terms Of Their Book Sales: Amazon's Top 100 Authors It used to be that only books were ranked against one another but now Amazon is doing it to authors. The quest...

Fictionwise is Now on Life Support – They’re Pulling the Plug in 3 Weeks’ Time

I don't feel good.

Panzer is still sick. So short post again today.

Fictionwise is shutting down their business so, if you bought ebooks from them and they're still there, you need to tootle on over and get the ebooks downloaded.

Read about it at Fictionwise is Now on Life Support – They’re Pulling the Plug in 3 Weeks’ Time

Facebook Pages vs Profiles

Panzer and I are still not feeling 100%, but we managed a short trip into the Catosphere today.

We parked the Panzermobile at author Nathan Bransford's blog. He has an informative post about whether as an author you should use Facebook's Pages option or Profiles option. He's got the pros and cons of each listed for you. You can study each and make your own decision about which is right for you.

Tootle on over to Author Nathan Bransford's Blog.

No More Excuses—Write That Novel

Short post today. Panzer and I have been sick for the last few days. We're starting to feel better today!

Panzer and I stopped in at The Editor's Blog. Panzer found a great post to get you working on your novel. You'll have no more excuses because they're all addressed and disposed of here.

Tootle over to  No More Excuses—Write That Novel  and, when you finish there, get to work on that novel.

Karen Woodward: What Is A Writer's Platform?

Panzer likes stopping in at Karen Woodward's blog every once in a while to see what she's up to.

Karen is writing a series about building your writer platform. This post centers on what your platform is made up of. It includes the usual, Facebook, Twitter, etc; but also includes audio and video. As you already know, Panzer plans to add audio and video to his platform. You'll also find some useful links included in this post.

So ... tootle on over to  Karen Woodward: What Is A Writer's Platform?: This is the first post in a series on the subject of creating a writing platform.  This is how I think of a writer's platform: A writ...

InkSpot: Murder, Mayhem, and... Romance???

Panzer parked the Panzermobile at the Inkspot blog today. Who could resist a post title like Murder, Mayhem, and...Romance???? Not us. Remember our friend Fiona L. Webber? (Hint, hint.)

Turns out poster Liz Lipperman started out as a romance author until one day her agent told her she was a mystery author. Liz took a look at her books and decided a little romance never hurt a good mystery. From then on her career as a mystery author took off. 

Read about cozy mystery author Liz Lipperman's story here InkSpot: Murder, Mayhem, and... Romance???: Romance in Mysteries By Liz Lipperman Since this is my first post, I'll introduce myself to those who don't yet know me. I am a retired ...

Aaron Patterson's Blog: The Art of Branding and Rebranding: Guest post by ...

Panzer and I stopped in at Aaron Patterson's blog The Worst Book Ever.

He has Cory Clubb as a guest this time. Clubb is posting about branding yourself. This is an information dense post. Panzer's favorite part is about using the covers of your ebook series as part of your brand. Clubb advocates using similar covers for each of the books in your series. In this way your readers will recognize your books by sight. Panzer says, "That makes total sense."

To see what other trick's Cory Clubb has for you, tootle on over to  Aaron Patterson's Blog: The Art of Branding and Rebranding: Guest post by ...: The Art of Branding and Rebranding. Finding Your Brand. Books last a very long time, now maybe forever with the i...

Smashwords: How to Sell Ebooks at the Apple iBookstore

Panzer and I parked the Panzermobile over at Smashwords to see what the latest news is about ebook distribution.

Smashwords' Mark Koker has some great tips about how to increase your sales at the Apple iBookstore.  A lot of the information is about romance ebooks because the iBookstore has been doing a romance promotion. However, you'll find all the information can be applied no matter what your genre.

Be sure to read all of the post. There are also links for downloading the Apple widget for your website or blog.

So, tootle on over to our good friends at Smashwords: How to Sell Ebooks at the Apple iBookstore: R.L. Mathewson tops Apple iBookstore charts for second day running The Apple iBookstore, which last week expanded its global reach to 50...

How To Add Subtitles To Your Book Trailer On YouTube - GalleyCat

Panzer and I told you a few days ago that we are working on a book trailer for Cats and Crime. So, we've been out scouting the Catosphere looking for tips on putting it together.

One of our favorite stops when we're looking for information is Galley CAT. And ... once again they delivered. Panzer found a post that explains how to add subtitles to YouTube book trailers.

So ... if you've been searching like we have, tootle over to  How To Add Subtitles To Your Book Trailer On YouTube - GalleyCat  and then get to work on your book trailer.

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Amazon Removes Reviews

Don't do it!

Panzer and I were traveling around the Catosphere and we parked the Panzermobile at Joe Konrath's blog.

Konrath's most recent blog post deals with the fallout from the news a few weeks ago about the Amazon authors who were using fake reviews by paying for good reviews of their ebooks, writing good reviews for their own ebooks and writing bad reviews for their "competitors" ebooks.

As a result of the situation with these few authors, Amazon has instituted new review policies. Because of these new policies a multitude of reviews have been removed from ebooks not even involved in the original situation. This has resulted in some ebooks even getting their rankings lowered because their "stars" have been lowered.

You can read Konrath's take on the situation at  A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Amazon Removes Reviews .

Panzer says, "Don't post fake reviews!"

The 2012 Petties: trophy and acceptance speech

Woo Hoo!

Woo Hoo! Panzer is doing the happy cat dance.

His friends at The Conscious CAT blog won the 2012 Petties Trophy.

Read all about it and see a photo of the trophy at  The 2012 Petties: trophy and acceptance speech

Smashwords: Barnes & Noble Opens U.K. Ebook Store Supported by...

Panzer stopped in at the Smashwords blog to see what's happening at our favorite global distributor.

Smashwords just announced that Barnes & Noble has finally opened their ebook store in the UK.  This will mean a whole new distribution channel for authors of Smashwords ebooks. Now, Nook users will have direct access to 114,000 Smashwords titles.

To find out what this wiil mean for your ebook sales in the UK, tootle over to  Smashwords: Barnes & Noble Opens U.K. Ebook Store Supported by...:

Free Teleseminar "Marketing Your Book on Amazon"

Free is good.

Panzer found you a free ticket to an informational teleseminar about marketing your ebook on Amazon.

The teleseminar is on November 8 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (United States). The teleseminar leader Shelley Hitz is an ebook author and marketing expert. Print out the information page at the login site so you don't forget.

Tootle over to  Welcome to the Event  to get information about the seminar.