A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Chasing Publishing Trends

Panzer was woken up from his after dinner nap by laughing and guffawing coming from the Catosphere. Hopping into the Panzermobile our kitty boy followed all the noise to J.A. Konrath's blog.

There he found a post about adult coloring books. Reading the post, it didn't take long and he fell out of the pilot's seat and was rolling on the floor laughing.

Panzer says, "Tee hee hee!"

Note: This is a short post. DO NOT drink tea while you are reading today's selection. You don't want to get your keyboard wet.

To read the post, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Chasing Publishing Trends:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Freedom of Expression?

Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere just enjoying the day. Then our kitty's sensitive hearing was bombarded by a bunch of laughing and guffawing. Following all the noise took him to J. A. Konrath's blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. There he found a post by Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath. The post deals with an upcoming event to demonize Amazon.

Watch them run around like mice.

According to the post, the group New America is holding an event called Amazon's Book Monopoly: A Threat to Freedom of Speech? The group believes Amazon is somehow capable of stopping the dissemination of books and information from reaching the public. The fact that Amazon's KDP service lets anyone publish anything they want seems to have escaped the group's notice. Of course, the group does include in the event Douglas Preston and Scott Turow who are both well known Amazon detractors.

Panzer says, "How can this New America group say Amazon stops the flow of information to them? Amazon let me (a cat) publish my book Cat Wisdom for humans there. Oh ... Wait a minute ... It's a group of humans ... and ... They think Amazon won't let anybody publish there. That explains everything. My book isn't really there."

Note: This is a h-u-m-o-n-g-o-u-s post with lots of links. You'll need two thermoses of tea, a dozen muffins and a sleeping bag for a nap part way through your reading today.

Warning: This post has some bad words and bad actions in it. Not recommended for those under 18 years old or those easily offended.

To read this post, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Freedom of Expression?:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Guest Post by Andrea Pearson

She did a lot of work.

Panzer made a trip over to J.A.  Konrath's blog today. Our adventuresome kitty found a guest post by YA fantasy author Andrea Pearson there.

Ms. Pearson begins by giving us a view of how she got started in indie publishing her writing. We then learn how she built her career over the years. She divides the post into six sections: newsletter preparation, reviews, more books, book covers, social media, and marketing. This is a mini-course on how to become a successful indie author.

Panzer says, "Surprise! There's no traditional publishing bashing in this post."

This is a h-u-g-e post, so bring an e-x-t-r-a l-a-r-g-e thermos of tea and a couple of muffins for while you're reading.

To read the post, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Guest Post by Andrea Pearson:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Douglas Preston's Fail-A-Thon Continues

I need to rest.

Panzer made a trip over to author J.A. Konrath's Blog today. He hasn't been there for quite a while now. Our big bad kitty boy found a post there addressing author Douglas Preston's newest attack on the evil Amazon empire.

Mr. Konrath's post is in the form of an imaginary interview which is where some his best posts shine. He can be funny and acerbic at the same time in them. The post is based on an interview Mr. Preston did with the American Book Sellers Association. Apparently Mr. Preston and his friends have sent another letter to the Dept. of Justice.  Mr. Konrath takes Mr. Preston and his friends to task for statements made about and against Amazon and the letter itself. But the post addresses other issues as well. Mr. Konrath also includes quotes from Mr. Preston spotlighting his disrespect for readers in general and those who use Amazon in particular "for their sense of entitlement" and wanting low book prices. There's much more included this post.

Panzer says, "I only have a limited amount of awake time and I have to put it to good use. So I'm letting Mr. Konrath and others duke it out in the Catosphere arena without my expertise."

Note: This is a v-e-r-y l-o-n-g post and needs a v-e-r-y l-a-r-g-e cup of tea, but it's worth your time.

To read the post, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Douglas Preston's Fail-A-Thon Continues:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

You made how much?

Panzer stopped in at Joe Konrath's blog today to see how his ebook sales are doing.  Joe has always been very open about his sales and income.

Joe explains how his backlist has added to his sales and his income. This is an informative post even for those who don't have a backlist to put up on Amazon. Joe includes how much his advances were for his traditionally published books and it's a real shocker how little it actually was. By comparing his sales and income from his traditionally publish books and his sales and income from his ebook publishing, you can see why he (and all of us) are much better served as our own indie publishers.

So, if you want to know how a big cat is doing, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

One Million? I wish!

Okay, Panzer and I admit we haven"t been to J.A. Konrath's blog for a while. Like us, he hasn't been posting as often as before. But he has a new post up about how to boost your ebook sales. And he should know since he just hit the one million ebooks sold number.

He includes some good information about his sales experiences with Amazon, Kobo, and Pubit. Like Panzer and I he's had good sales figures with Smashwords.

He does have the same old standard sales recommendations everybody else has about a good cover, good editing and good storytelling.

But, all in all, he's got some interesting information for increasing our sales numbers.

So, if your interested in reading how to sell a million ebooks, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Panzer is rolling on the floor he's laughing so hard! He can't believe Joe Konrath did this.

As you may have read, some pretty heavy weight writers got outted (by themselves) for buying fake reviews for their ebooks on Amazon. There's been quite a storm raging over these reviews.

So, Konrath got to thinking Why not? 

 And ... he wrote some fake product reviews.

Go to Konrath's blog  A Newbie's Guide to Publishing  and read why he did it. You decide if you agree with him.

The Big 6, the Agency Model and A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Panzer sent me over to J.A. Konrath's blog to have me check out Joe Konrath's take on the Big 6 and the Justice Department's little dustup.

Joe does a great job of giving you a complete layout of what's going on between the Big 6 and the JD with an aside about Amazon. He explains the Agency Model, the Big 6's take on it, and an Author's rate on an ebook sale under both.

Whether you're a Konrath fan or not, Panzer wants you to tootle over to  A Newbie's Guide to Publishing and read Joe's opinion on the issue.

Come on back and let Panzer know what you think.

J.A. Konrath, Barry Eisler and Scott Turow. Oh my!

Over at J.A. Konrath's blog he and Barry Eidler have joined the goings on about Scott Turow's recent blog posting. You've probably heard or read about the DoJ's threat to sue traditional publishers over their agency pricing model. Scott Turow's post pushed Joe and Barry's hot buttons. To read their opinions on the post go to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing then make up your own mind. This is a very long post, so you've been warned.

You know what Panzer says:  more purring and less hissing, guys!

JA Konrath's Ebook Predictions

I had a dentist's appointment today (ouch, ouch, ouch!) so this is a short post.

Now that Amazon has lit a Fire under the Tablet market with the new Kindle, Joe Konrath is blogging about his prediction back in 2009 about the ebooks and ereaders. He's also got some predictions for the coming year in the e-marketplace.

Come on! you've got to admit, you either think the guy is a visionary or you hate him. Either way, he's a fun read most of the time. Head over to Joe's place A Newbie's Guide to Publishing.

Pie and Cream at Joe Konrath's Place

Joe Konrath is blogging about the often repeated argument by detractors of the indie publishing world that the e-market place is becoming glutted with ebooks. Along with that argument, detractors also say you might as well not even get into the marketplace. There isn't enough pie to go around for everybody so you can't possibly make money ebooks.

I totally agree with Konrath's rebuttal to these arguments. The ebook marketplace can't become glutted, just like the traditional book world marketplace didn't/hasn't become glutted with books.  As long as people keep buying ereaders the market can't become glutted no matter how many ebooks there are. Each new ereader bought is increasing the size of the reading market. It follows that of course you can make money in the marketplace as it expands.

His rebuttal is so obvious to me,  I have a hard time believing he has to even blog about it.

To read Joe Konrath's rebuttal to the detractors' arguments against indie publishing, check out today's A Newbie's Guide to Publishing.

Panzer says Joe has got a lively comment section there, so be sure to read it, too.

Enjoy!

Bella Andre Guest Post at A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Ebook author Bella Andre (aka Lucy Kevin)(aka Bella Riley) is guest posting at Joe Konrath's blog.

Bella Andre is posting about her success writing in two sub-genres of the romance genre. As Bella Andre she writes sexy, contemporary romances. And as Lucy Kevin she writes sweet romances. She has had 12 ebooks published in the past 18 months. This diversification has helped her be in the top ten sales rankings at Barnes & Noble. (Yes, you read that right. Barnes & Noble not Amazon.)

I found Bella's post to be interesting. Those of you who have read my scribblings in both paper form (magazines) and e-form (online) know I write in two sub-genres of the mystery genre.

Hmmm ... I didn't think about picking another name to use when writing for one of the sub-genres. Any suggestions?

If you're interested in reading about Bella's writing success, visit A Newbie's Guide to Publishing.

Panzer and I are going to see if we can make up another name. He's pretty adamant about not wanting to change his name, so that just leaves me.

J.A. Konrath Joins Benefit For L.A Banks

Author L.A. Banks is in urgent need of everyone's help. She has been diagnosed with cancer. Her insurance is inadequate to cover her medical expenses. We all need to pull together on this one and help her out.

J.A. Konrath is helping with the benefit to raise funds for Leslie Banks at this critical time. The last thing Leslie needs to worry about now is how to pay her medical bills. 

Go to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing to see how you can help.

Panzer is counting on your help on this.

Another Nail in Traditional Publishing's Coffin?

Joe Konrath is giving his take (again) on the future of publishing, print and ebooks, and bookstores.

Bookstores are liquidating in bankruptcy. Amazon has lowered Kindle's price. Ebook sales are going up and print book sales are going down. Need I say more?

Read what Joe has to say to enlighten you today at A Newbie's Guide to Publishing .

Do you agree or disagree?

Increasing Your Ebook Sales

Have you ever thought about using the sale of your ebook to help you sell your other  ebooks? Today, Joe Konrath is blogging about changing the layout of your ebook to help increase your sales.

If you're having trouble making a sale after a sample is downloaded from Amazon, Joe suggests moving the blurb describing what your ebook is about from the back cover to the very front of your ebook. He also suggests moving the copyright page to the back. The aim of these rearrangements is to remind your ebook readers why they downloaded your sample in the first place. I know from my own experience that I've forgotten why I downloaded a sample and didn't bother to go back and read it.

Also in the end matter, Konrath suggests including clickable links for your other ebooks and your blog. He also suggests trading excerpts with other authors in your genre.

Although there are a lot of comments following this blog post, you'll want to read them for their suggestions, too.

Visit A Newbie's Guide to Publishing  for some of Joe's interesting suggestion to increase your sales potential.

Whether you agree or not, there are some interesting ideas here. Thank Panzer sooner rather than later because he's getting low on Kitty Treats.

J.K. Rowling is Self-Publishing Ebooks

Everybody is blogging and tweeting about Pottermore today. J.K. Rowling has decided to join the self-publishing ranks with the ebooks of her Harry Potter books.

This news shouldn't surprise anybody. John Locke just sold over a million self-pubbed books at Amazon. Joe Konrath and crew have been selling at Amazon for the last couple of years. So, J.K. Rowling did the smartest thing she could. She decided to self-pub the ebooks

You can read Passive Guy's take at  J.K. Rowling is Self-Publishing.

Ebook Covers

I've read on J.A. Konrath's blog (and others) that the ebook cover is one of the most important selling tools on Amazon. Recently, I've been checking out different imaging software programs to see how hard it really is to do my own covers.

I began by using Irfanview. It's an easy little program that allows you to turn out an ebook cover in twenty minutes. The program allows you to resize, crop and/or rotate your image. You also have limited color enhancement. The text portions are added directly to the image. All in all, it's a nice program for a simple ebook cover. The ebook cover image on the right was done using Irfanview.

Last month I blogged about learning another imaging program called Paint.NET to see how it would work for my ebook covers. The blog header image above was done using Paint.NET. In addition to all of the features found in Irfanview Paint.NET software allows you to change or sharpen colors as I did with the image above. It also allows you to layer over the image. This can be useful when adding text to the image. This software is much more useful than Irfanview for a more complicated ebook cover.

For a simple cover download  Irfanview Software. For a more complicate cover download Paint.NET Software. 

You can't beat the price. Both are free!

Buy my Ebook - Part Two

 On April 29, I pointed you to  Vincent Zandri's blog where he posted about how he managed to sell 100,000 ebooks. He told you all of his marketing secrets.

Did you put any of those secrets into your marketing plan? Did they work for you, or are you still trying to figure out how to market your ebook and get into Amazon's Top 100? Top 50? Top 10?

Well, here are some more marketing ideas for you from a different perspective. Today, J.A. Konrath is blogging about how he's managed to make all of his sales.

Read J. A. Konrath's advice here: A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Help First Book

First Book is a charity which donates books to children. J.A. Konrath says on his blog here today that he will donate $500.00 to First Book if his book Origin breaks into the top 100 at the Kindle Store.

So, let's all help First Book by buying a copy (or two) of Origin.

J.A. Konrath's Blog Today

If you have some extra time tonight, go to J.A. Konrath's Blog http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ and read the interview with Mark Coker from Smashwords on March 28. Interesting information about Smashwords and indie publishing.

While there are a lot of questions for Mark Coker about Smashwords, I think he does a good job of responding to them. It's worth reading not only the interview but the comments as well.