Are Ebook subscription services good or bad for authors and publishers?

Here is an interesting article about Ebook subscription services. As an ebook self-publisher I haven't as yet decided if this model is going to be good or bad for writers and publishers.

Your thoughts?

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014/where-ebook-subscription-services-could-have-the-most-success/

Social media is the icing, not the cake!

 I recently chatted to a fellow writer, a former journalist working on a novel but simultaneously attempting to build a business-writing operation.

 "I've tried this social media nonsense and it doesn't work for me," he declared. "I set up a Facebook page opened a Twitter account and told the few people who decided to become friends what I'm doing, informed them of my skills and special offers and...nothing. Just a gigantic waste of time! Social media doesn't work for me as a marketing strategy."

 And he's right. Social media is not a marketing strategy. To use a baking cliche: social media is the icing on the top of the cake that is the marketing strategy.

 So what exactly is a marketing strategy? Naturally it varies from business to business and writer to writer but it's all the other stuff you do to help you get sales. That could include:

•  Advertising in mainstream media (Not recommended!)
•  Your online presence -- ensuring your website is the best it can possibly be.
•  Blogging
•  Presence on Pinterest 
•  Public relations
•  Networking -- online and in person 

 You get the idea. So where does social media fit in? Let's say you post a new blog entry. You would then share that fact across your social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and maybe Linkedin. The idea is not to sell anything on those channels but to inform people of the blog post that, if you've done your job properly, gets them to head on over to read it. If you provide content that is valuable they will likely share it with their friends, followers and colleagues and you are establishing relationships with new people who may become clients/readers and further recommend you.

 And that means social media is working for you. You are using it to grow traffic to your website and blog or possibly to grow your email and newsletter subscriber base. Then it's up to you to convert the increased traffic into sales.

 I am absolutely convinced you can sell nothing on Twitter or Facebook (don't ask me how I know that!!). Simply sending out "Buy me" type messages only irritates recipients and turns them away from you. (If your experience is different, I'd love to hear about it.)

 The role of social media is to build relationships, it is the icing. The selling comes from the cake!

SHAKESPEARE helped Matthew Mather sell over 200K books

 

 Matthew Mather is a self-publishing titan! After being rejected by over 100 publishers, he decided to self-publish and the rest, as they say in the movies, is history.

 Exactly one year after publishing his first novel, Atopia Chronicles, a science fiction epic that has to date sold over 70 000 copies (followed a half a year later by CyberStorm, a present day tech-thriller in the vein of Crichton) he's achieved remarkable success: 20th Century Fox purchased the film rights to CyberStorm, over 120,000 books sold and ten foreign language publishing deals were signed.

 How did he do it?

 "My background as an entrepreneur shaped my thinking in approaching self-publishing," he writes on his website. "In the past I’ve managed my own successful start-ups, as well as helping start many other companies get started – handling everything from writing business plans to raising venture capital. I applied that same structured way of think about starting a new business to the business of marketing a book."

 Some of his methods can only be described as innovative.

 "Craigslist and other free online classified ads are the secret weapon for a new authors," Mather says. "It is incredibly difficult to get outside feedback when you are a new writer. My solution? Post an ad saying you’ll pay someone $10 or $20 to read your book and give you honest feedback.

 "Get 20 people to read your book like this; these people will probably become your biggest promoters and will be happy to write reviews and Facebook and tweet your book when released."

 Mather calls his marketing and promotion method, the SHAKESPEARE system. Some of his advise is diametrically opposed to what I've come to regard as the conventional self-publishing truth but who am I to argue with success!

 For example, he advises authors to initially focus only on Amazon, as this results in reviews that get your book up in the rankings. 

 "By only going on Amazon, you force people to buy from one place and thus drive up your rankings in this one spot," he writes. "Once you have achieved some success there, expand to other platforms."

 Not surprisingly, Smashwords founder, Mark Coker, counsels differently in his free book "The Secrets to E-book Publishing Success."

 Mather also advises new authors to serialize, again completely opposite to much of the "accepted truths" that are out there.

 "As attention spans shorten in the online (and real) world, readers don’t trust a new author enough to read 400 pages to get the point," he writes. "For a new author, a winning approach is to serialize, to create your work as a set of progressively longer stories that connect together through cliffhangers to get a reader hooked."

 

 And so ladies and gentlemen...drum roll...here is SHAKESPEARE in Matthew Mather's own words:

Serialize

As attention spans shorten in the online (and real) world, readers don’t trust a new author enough to read 400 pages to get the point. For a new author, a winning approach is to serialize, to create your work as a set of progressively longer stories that connect together through cliffhangers to get a reader hooked. And speaking of that…

Hook

The first short story needs to be punchy and tell a complete story in itself while leaving the reader wanting to know more. Even more than that, you need to hook the reader on the first page somehow, create a mystery, a reason and need to keep reading.

Amazon

To start, focus only on Amazon. I’m not here to promote Amazon, but the first rule of entrepreneurism is to focus, focus, focus. The large majority of revenue in digital books comes from Amazon, with a small minority coming from all of the other players combined. So when you start, focus on Amazon by itself; getting reviews, getting up in the ranking. By only going on Amazon, you force people to buy from one place and thus drive up your rankings in this one spot. Once you have achieved some success there, expand to other platforms (FYI the easiest way to get on other platforms is just to use Smashwords).

Key networks

Make sure to use your personal social networks to maximum effect. Post on Facebook and ask people to re-post your postings for free book offers. Make sure to email everyone at work on the “internal” email (ask your boss first, of course!) Use your LinkedIn network to mention that you have a book out. What other networks are you a part of?

Try emailing top-selling authors in your category when you release the first installments of your work. Ask them to read the first one (by starting with serialized shorts, it makes it easier for other authors to try reading your work), or just ask them to post on their blog or Facebook. When I released Atopia, I had about five or six top-selling authors who posted to their readers for me!

Empathize

It is critical to create a character that you introduce readers to right away that they can empathize with. People read still primarily because they want to feel an emotional involvement with a character they meet in your writing. Keep this front and center of your mind when writing.

Select Program on Amazon

Use the Amazon Select Program: You can offer your book for $0 (free) for 5 days each 3 months. Used effectively, this is an extremely potent tool for reaching an audience. There are at least 40 websites I use to promote a “free weekend” for my books (email me for a list) – these sites are mostly specific to books that go free on Amazon Select and are mostly free to use for promotion.

If you can plan it ahead of time, write out all of the parts of your serialized work ahead of time, and then each two weeks release one of them, promoting it on Amazon select for free and on the promotional websites. I can usually get 4000+ downloads of a free book when I do this.

Perceived Value

Create perceived value by offering a deal. For instance, try and divide your ‘whole’ work into 6 parts, and sell each for $0.99, and then offer the whole ‘collection’ at half price, e.g. $2.99 for all six. This creates perceived value on the part of the buyer when you start to sell the whole collection

Editing

If your work is not edited well, you will get killed in the reviews and in word of mouth. As a first pass, make sure to find some friends or family to have a look. If you can’t afford a professional editor, trying going on Craigslist and find some just-graduated English lit major to edit your book on the cheap. A “real” editor can be quite expensive, but there is no excuse to not get an external editor of some kind, and not getting one will kill your chances of success.

All free posting websites

Craigslist and other free online classified ads are the secret weapon for a new authors. It is incredibly difficult to get outside feedback when you are a new writer. My solution? Post an ad saying you’ll pay someone $10 or $20 to read your book and give you honest feedback. Note that this is not for line editing, but for high level feedback to make your story more engaging in an iterative process.

Bonus: Get 20 people to read your book like this; these people will probably become your biggest promoters and will be happy to write reviews and Facebook and tweet your book when released.

Free PR – When you release your book, create several press releases about different aspects of the book, what it is about, why people would like it. When you release each of the story segments, put these press releases up on the free press release websites. There are about a dozen high quality free release sites out there. Highlight that the short story that is free that week.

Reviews

It is critical to get reviews as this has a direct impact on the Amazon ranking and recommendation system. YOU CANNOT do fake reviews. Apart from the ethical issues, Amazon has an impressive array of technical tools to make this very difficult. Instead, be honest and creative; use friends, family, co-workers; and see my point regarding Craigslist and getting people ready to punt for your project.

Engage

Find any and all ways to engage with your audience once you start to get readers. Do a video blog on YouTube about the process, do a regular blog showing progress on next books and stories, get people to your Facebook page. Just get engaged with them somehow!

Be cool and share this.

Tablets bring new opportunities for authors and marketers

 Any business that ignores ebooks and tablets as part of its marketing efforts, does so at its own peril and will miss out on major marketing opportunities.
 That's essentially the message that can be drawn from a new study by the Pew Research Center.
 Back in September Pew reported 43 percent of people age 16 and up had either an e-reader or a tablet. Following the holidays, a survey of 1,005 consumers aged 18 and up, found 50% percent of the U.S. adult population now has one of the devices.
 After the gift-giving season, about 42 percent of adults now own tablet computers, up from the 34 percent reported in September. And the number of adults who own an e-book reading device like a Kindle or Nook rose from 24 percent in September to 32 percent after the holidays.


Opportunities for Writers

 This is good news for businesses involved in ebook and content-marketing and presents new opportunities to writers. It means maybe as many as half of the people in the US - more if mobile phones are included - are looking for content to read on these devices. Authors can make money money publishing and selling works online and business can increase brand-awareness and add value by offering free guides and ebooks.
 “The percentage of adults who read an e-book in the past year has risen to 28 percent, up from 23 percent at the end of 2012,” the researchers said in a press statement. “At the same time, about seven in ten Americans reported reading a book in print, up four percentage points after a slight dip in 2012, and 14 percent of adults listened to an audiobook.”
 This indicates that half of the people who own tablets use them to read ebooks and that number rises annually.
 Tablets will continue to grow in importance when it comes to internet marketing. Adobe reported tablets account for more traffic to global sites than smartphones. It also found 55 percent of tablet owners make purchases with their device, compared with 28 percent of smartphone users. And even with apps, only 38 percent of smartphone users employed an app to make a purchase, compared to 46 percent of tablet users.
 It is clear tablets are not just a passing fad and marketers and authors need to exploit and make their content available to this growing market.

Pew Research Center study
Adobe infographic

You can read my short stories free online at www.hiltonhamann.com