from the archives – Page 15 – Self Publishing Advisor

amazon, from the archives, Kelly Speaks, metadata

From the Archives: “Using Amazon Tags to Promote Your Book”

Welcome back to our new Tuesday segment, where we’ll be revisiting some of our most popular posts from the last few years. What’s stayed the same? And what’s changed? We’ll be updating you on the facts, and taking a new (and hopefully refreshing) angle on a few timeless classics of Self Publishing Advisor.

∗∗∗∗∗

[ Originally posted: March 4th, 2011 ]

Today’s post is by book marketing industry expert, Kelly Schuknecht.

A Tag on Amazon is a keyword or category label that customers can add. Tags can help customers find similar items on Amazon. For example, adding Tags to the listing for your book on Amazon can help customers find your book when they are searching the Tags for similar books.

You can find the Tag section within a listing on Amazon towards the bottom of the page. Here’s an example of the Tags associated with the book 33 Million People in the Room:

As a customer, you can click the existing Tags and add your own Tags, up to 15 per item. As you can see, customers have Tagged this book as “facebook,” “internet marketing,” “social media marketing,” “twitter,” and several other things. The first Tag, “facebook,” shows that this book has been Tagged “facebook” by 46 customers on Amazon.

After reading this book, a customer might be interested in reading more books about Facebook. Clicking on the “facebook” Tag will open up a new page of all products that have been Tagged “facebook” (currently 585 products).

On the left side the customer can narrow the search results by other popular Tags. For example, if the customer wanted to read more about marketing on Facebook, they could select “internet marketing” and narrow the results to 101 products. The results might give the customer a few ideas of books they might want to read, such as:

#1 – Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue by Jim F. Kukral

#5 – Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media by Liana Evans

# 11 – Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series) by C.C. Chapman

As an author, make sure your book is Tagged on Amazon with a number of keywords that will help potential readers locate your book. Look at the Tags for similar books to be sure you are using the same Tags, when appropriate.

I’ll cut to the chase: Amazon’s tagging system officially doesn’t exist anymore. The company released a statement as far back as 2013 that they were discontinuing the service. “Originally,” the statement goes, “the Tags feature allowed customers to tag products based on their interests and suggest a different organization of products on Amazon. We’ve since continued to innovate on our more popular features such as Wish Lists, Customer Reviews, and Improve Your Recommendations.” Which is all well and good (and we’ve even written about wish lists here, customer reviews here, and recommendations elsewhere) … but it doesn’t do much to soothe the burn of the original system’s absence, as these other features look and feel completely alien to tags, and deliver rather different benefits.

When I did a little digging into Amazon’s decision to ditch tagging, I discovered that there is, in fact, a consistent company-wide explanation for why they disappeared. While various (occasionally irate) Amazon customers speculated in the company forums that self-publishers were using the tagging system to drive traffic to their books (presumably at the expense of others), Amazon itself has remained calmly aloof from the fray and instead told curious authors, simply, that “Since the introduction of those features [mentioned above] the usage of Tags, and therefore their value to our customers, has declined. We have removed TAGS in favor of the replacement features. Tags that you created are still available under Your Profile page.” In other words, the time, energy, and money that Amazon had been pouring into maintaining the tagging system (at least in regards to software support) wasn’t drawing enough continued interest from authors to make it worthwhile. Again, that’s cold comfort for those who actually liked tags and were using it to good ends.

What should we take away from this story? Not despair in Amazon’s usefulness to the self-publishing author, I hope, but rather a realistic understanding of what the changing landscape of massive profit-driven enterprises can look like for end users. It’s not always a comfortable outlook, since, as this one example makes clear, Amazon must be willing to shed any of its features that no longer further the bottom line for investors, sellers, and customers alike. That’s how such international titans retain their hold on their various markets: through sheer force of will, and ruthless business (as well as programming) logic. We as indie and self-publishing authors have to be prepared to adapt to whatever opportunities are offered, and never stop striving to master new ones. The more diverse our skill sets and masteries, the more flexible our self-marketing strategies ultimately will be––and the more longevity they will attain. ♠

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.

Elise Speaks, from the archives, Kelly Speaks, Self-Publishing

From the Archives: “How Much Do Self-Published Authors Make Per Year?”

∗∗∗∗∗

[ Originally posted: July 13th, 2011 ]

You want to become a self-published author, but you also have bills to pay and a lifestyle to maintain. So you pull up Google (or your search engine of choice), and search for “average income for book authors” or “average income for self-published authors”. You skim the results but can’t find any solid statistics. There’s a good reason why. Ready for it? Authors aren’t paid a salary. They earn royalties based on the sales of their book. These royalties are paid to them on a set schedule – usually provided that they meet the agreed upon “minimum earning threshold”.

So, will I be able to pay my bills if I become a self-published author? That’s an excellent question. Unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” answer to it. When you publish a book, you are essentially taking a “gamble” on yourself. Many authors keep their day jobs until they are able to earn enough to support themselves on their book sales alone. One dedicated Outskirts Press author made $100,000 in only 180 days (6 months). However, there are some authors who don’t earn anywhere near this amount in a year. Furthermore, there are some authors who may not sell even one book over the course of a year.

How do you know where you fall? Self-publishing is all about investing in yourself. Given that successfully publishing a book involves 20% writing and 80% marketing, you should naturally spend most of your time/money on promoting the book after you write it. If you need help, you may consider enlisting the services of a book marketing consultant.

The income of a self-publishing author is 100% in their own hands. No one can “predict” how much you will earn as that is only a result of two things: the quality of your book and substantial effort in marketing it to the right audience.

Back in 2011, Elise was so perfectly on point that it’s almost a crime to revisit her post and attempt to add a touch of 2015 to it–––but I’d like to deliver some good news. With the expansion and stabilization of the indie, hybrid, and self-publishing markets, greater numbers of authors than ever before are able to make bank at the end of the year. Exceptions like the one Elise mentioned remain exceptions, but now it’s not unheard of to stumble across authors like Mark Dawson, who reportedly put away some $450,000 after selling his book through Amazon Direct. And the very fact that we can now cast a skeptical eye toward Amazon shows just how far we’ve come, I think, in that we now have established parameters for what’s “acceptable practice” and “sound ethical behavior” in our self-publishing platforms. We have options, now, and we can afford to pick fights with industry supergiants if they act like the profit-driven corporations we know they are.

That said, we also have made progress in nailing down some of those “solid statistics” that Elise mentioned––another benefit of participating in a maturing market. In May 2015, AuthorEarnings put out its annual report. AuthorEarnings, a website which has made its purpose to “gather and share information so that writers can make informed decisions” also has a “secondary mission […] to call for change within the publishing community for better pay and fairer terms in all contracts”––which is pretty wonderful for self-publishing authors like you or me, who want to know where we fall on the spectrum of wage-earners in our industry. AuthorEarnings’ report shows, in great detail, how the profits from the sale of ebooks is divided up between authors, publishers, and Amazon. And in their longitudinal study, published in September of this year, they give us a few handy statistics. For example:

“5,643 authors in our longitudinal data set — or roughly 2.8% of the original 200,000 — whose Kindle best-selling ebooks appearing on Amazon best seller lists were consistently earning them $10K/year or better.”

And:

“[A]lmost half of these 5,600 authors — over 2,200 of them — are consistently making $25K/year or more on their Kindle bestsellers, and more than a fifth of them — over 1,200 authors in the data set — are making $50K/year or more on their Kindle best sellers alone.”

Keeping in mind that we’re talking about trends and percentages, not instruction much less guarantees, these numbers present a huge leap forward from what we had at our fingertips even just four years ago. They present lots of opportunity for hope (lots of self-publishing “midlisters” are making good money), but also groundwork for caution (lots of authors are not visible in the data at all). You certainly ought to keep Elise’s admonitions to self-promote carefully, often, and effectively. The best way to sell your books is to make sure that they’re readable, “findable,” and affordable!

In closing, I’m going to ask the same question now that Elise did in 2011: What level of success have you seen as a self-published (or traditionally-published) author? Have you been able to maintain your lifestyle on royalties alone? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below. And even more, we’d love to be on hand to cheer you on. You’re not alone in this endeavor! ♠

from the archives, karl schroeder, Kelly Speaks, Self-Publishing

From the Archives: “7 Reasons to Self-Publish, From the Top…”

∗∗∗∗∗

[ Originally posted: November 19th, 2009 ]

I’ve helped savvy authors transition their books away from traditional publishing houses, newly publishing authors make informed decisions to pursue other options, and even had personal experience publishing under my own traditional contract. Here are the top 7 or so reasons to re-consider holding out for that traditional contract and self-publish today…

7 – Traditional publishers lose money on over 85% of the books they publish, so they only accept 2% of those that are submitted.

6 – Traditional publishers typically accept manuscripts only from established authors who have already demonstrated a proven platform.

5 – Authors lose all control of their content during the editing process with a Traditional Publisher.

4 – Authors must still invest an enormous amount of time, energy, and money promoting a traditionally-published book.

3- Traditional Publishing: Authors typically receive 5-10% royalty on the wholesale price of the book, and from that have to give 15-25% to their agent. Do the math.

2 – The majority of books published by Traditional publishers go out of print within 3 years. Many books that are stocked on book shelves remain stocked for as little as five weeks before being returned, unsold, to the publisher.

1- Traditional publishers acquire all rights to your book and keep them, even when the book goes out of print or the publisher goes out of business!

– Karl Schroeder

.

If you happened to read Karl’s original post six years ago and if you happened also to keep up with current affairs in the self-publishing and traditional publishing industries, you’ll know that very little–if anything–has changed. Many authors turn to indie, hybrid, and self-publishing platforms because they’re driven away from the Big Five, either by the industry professionals themselves (i.e. outright rejections of book proposals) or by ideological differences and a desire to remain at the helm of their own publishing experiences. This is what I call “white space thinking,” in which the predominant motivation is to define our choices by what they are not (“I am not going to publish traditionally because of x, y, or z”) or by what they want to steer clear of (“I don’t want to align myself with x, y, or z trend I see at Hachette, or HarperCollins, or some other Big Five publisher”). What’s left outside of the margins, in the so-called “white space,” can be loosely described as “independent” publishing.

You don’t have to be running from traditional publishing to choose an alternate method, however. There are a lot of reasons to run to self-publishing, without reference to the ills and crimes of a more traditional path. While the reasons Karl states above remain accurate and true, I’d like to thicken out his list with a few additions that illustrate how positivity can actually be one of the foundational motivating factors for indie authors today. And so, without any further ado, here are my additional 7 reasons to self-publish:

You get to create your own timeline, from start to finish. Your book might take two months, or two years, or two decades, but it will ultimately turn out true to your vision if you get to define your own benchmarks, deadlines, and so on.
The process is simple, and not even “simpler than….” It’s just plain streamlined, start to finish, because you are your own middleman, and you are a marketing, design, and decision-making committee of one. There will always be some fine print to wade through, but on the whole it’s not uncommon to panic at the sheer ease with which you can click your way into self-publication.
The time is right. There’s a whole slew of options to choose from in terms of indie, hybrid, and self-publishing platforms–and they’re all pretty good, and they’re all continually pushing themselves to do better, since the competition between developers and software designers is fierce. We’ve crossed a kind of rubicon when it comes to forward momentum in the industry: companies have all the motivation they need to keep improving the user experience. Self-publishing has gained the luster of a successful niche market, and is rapidly leaving stigma behind in the dust, while commercially successful self-published books rake in the film options and substantial net profits. You can now make a name for yourself as an indie author!
You can actually break new ground. Without the checks and balances that tie up any big industry or company, you can quite literally strike out into uncharted waters and be at the forefront of a conversation, putting out timely book after timely book that reaches people where they’re at, while this or that specific issue is at the peak of popular interest. You can write a book that future readers will call “prescient,” simply because you’re on the cutting edge, predicting and creating new paradigms–and perhaps even new genres!
You can revise your book on the fly, at will. You created this book, you own all of the rights to it, and you can re-release it if something about it strikes you as needing a little more work later on down the line. This falls in line with other matters of creative control, as you get to call the shots on every detail that you want to … and you can offload the minutiae to a hybrid publishing company to free up your valuable time to do more of what you really love. Which is, of course, writing.
You can write responsively, because you have at your disposal some of the finest analytics tools ever designed for authors. You can watch, in real time, what readers respond to–and tweak your writing process to deliver more of the same, or, alternatively, to make an unexpected turn and give them something they never knew that they wanted, something that isn’t pandering to popular acclaim. You see everything, and you can make decisions in response to reader interactions that no one in the history of publishing–of any kind, period–has been able to make before!
You’re a believer. You don’t just own the rights to your self-published book, you own the vision for its totality, from the first splash of ink to the last burst of pixels. You don’t need a team to tell you what’s what or how good a writer you are; you already know. You already know that you have something to say that others need to hear, or see, but above all encounter. And with that kind of conviction, you can cut through all the white noise and baffling criticisms and bureaucracy and simply do what you were born to do: write your book, and publish it on your own terms. You believe in yourself and your book, and I do to. All of us here at Self Publishing Advisor do! ♠

Advocacy in Self-Publishing, distribution, from the archives, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Self-Publishing

From the Archives: “The Importance of Distribution in Self Publishing”

∗∗∗∗∗

[ Originally posted: April 6th, 2010 ]

If a publisher focuses on discounts to an author who buys their own book in bulk, that often communicates two things. 1) That publisher is more concerned with selling to you than to other readers. 2) The publisher is charging you too much for lower quantities. Do you really want to be forced to buy 100 books at a time just to get a fair price? “Bulk” discounts simply trick the author into buying more books than they need, which defeats the whole advantage of on-demand printing.

I’ve seen many authors go down that road, and then end up with lots of books sitting in their garage or basement that no one knows about, because the distribution piece is missing. The power of the on-demand printing and EDI distribution offered in custom self-publishing take advantage of wholesale availability via multiple sales channels including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Baker and Taylor, and Ingram—North America’s largest distributor. Look also to see that your book is available through I-Page, the book ordering system available at over 25,000 bookstores and retail chains world-wide.

Do look also for a publisher that will sell your book to you at a special author discounted price as well. It’s never a bad idea to have access to an inventory to compliment your virtually endless on-demand inventory.

The power of distribution when paired with flexible pricing creates an advantageous sales combination for the self-publishing author.

There’s no easy way to sell books, but as this post back in 2010 points out, there’s no point to purchasing in bulk if you can’t actually move the copies into the hands of your readers. And as the original post expounds, an effective means of distribution remains absolutely essential in order to steer clear of stocking your basement and not those same readers’ bookshelves.

So how do you distribute books? Word-of-mouth can work, certainly, as is illustrated by the extraordinary case of Christopher Paolini, although one might argue that his case is only extraordinary because it was eventually “discovered” by the traditional publishing industry and afterwards became a massive hit. Paolini only relied on word-of-mouth and his own ardent self-marketing methods for a short while, when looking at the total “life cycle” of his Inheritance series.

It seems that selling through an online distributer is perhaps the way to go, especially when those distributers (namely, Amazon and Barnes & Noble) come with all of the might and power of a massive international company. There are certainly some extraordinary benefits to taking advantage of their systems, toward which end many hybrid publishing companies (such as Outskirts Press) provide packages geared specifically to exploit. And their digital distribution platforms, while perhaps too bulky to be truly “cutting edge,” do have all of the perquisite customer support and technical maintenance that you could wish for. There’s always an upside to walking down a path that many others are also walking down. (I’m thinking specifically of user how-to guides and FAQ forums, here––since I take advantage of those, and often.)

The ultimate point is, however, not to rely on making bulk purchases of your own book as an author, even with the possibility of an author discount. You want readers to be connecting some of the dots themselves, and buying through these (socially networked and easily findable) ecommerce platforms instead of only through you. If you are the only person who is selling your book, then that creates a kind of bottleneck for sales. Diversifying who sells your book and where it can be found is a vital component of any effective self-marketing strategy. ♠

Advocacy in Self-Publishing, brent sampson, from the archives, outskirts press

From the Archives: “SELF-PUBLISHING: THE NEW AMERICAN IDOL”

∗∗∗∗∗

[ Originally posted: February 4th, 2009 ]

Seeing Jennifer Hudson sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl reminded me of the recent article in the New York Times about the self-publishing industry, which received a lot of attention and has sparked ongoing controversy.

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, it appears conventionally published authors (and those striving to become such) still view self-publishing services with contempt because they feel authors are “cheating” somehow. After all, getting a book published traditionally is “hard work.” Those who have done it (or long to) perhaps feel as if self-published authors haven’t paid their dues.

But are they really cheating, or are they simply taking advantage of wide-spread changes occurring throughout the entertainment and business worlds?

Let’s examine other industries: The same Do-it-Yourself (DIY) fever is sweeping through the music industry. Or, to be more accurate, has already swept through the music industry. Talented musicians are no longer waiting for acceptance from the “establishment” and instead, are distributing their music through iTunes, finding their audiences through Myspace, and broadcasting their music videos via YouTube.   It is safe to say the music industry has irrevocably changed. Musicians no longer give 95% of their royalties to the “industry” and customers no longer buy CDs from brick-and-mortar music stores.

Are these musicians cheating? No. They are still paying their dues, but now the invoice comes after their music has already become available. They still must market aggressively to obtain listeners, but at least they have something to market.   The audience determines which of those musicians succeed and which of them fail.

This is no different from the self-publishing book industry.

I think it is safe to say that “becoming a rock star” is a dream that almost everyone can acknowledge, if not personally identify with; although if the ratings for American Idol are any indication, it might actually be a dream nearly everyone can identify with, too.

Other common dreams are “becoming an actor,” “becoming a model,” “becoming a professional athlete,” and yes, even “becoming a published author.”

Can you imagine the uproar that would ensue if all that was required to start playing for the New York Knicks was writing a check for $1000 to some internet company? Can you imagine the fervor if all that was required to obtain a recording contract was standing in line at some reality show try-out? Wait a minute! That’s already happening. Reality television has altered the search for “talent” and now, in rare instances, getting “discovered” is no harder than filling out an application. Nowadays, instead of submitting audition tapes to countless producers, lyricists stand in line and face the possibility of public humiliation at the hands of Simon, Paula, and Randy.

This is no different from the self-publishing book industry.

Is this “cheating,” per se, or has the do-it-yourself mentality simply removed unnecessary hurdles that prevented talent from being discovered faster? You see, talent is the one common denominator and talent cannot be purchased. Cast members of Survivor have their fifteen minutes of fame and then disappear back into the abyss. The try-outs for American Idol feature thousands upon thousands of “hopefuls” standing in lines around city blocks and yet the main competition is comprised of just a handful. Most had their opportunity to shine, and their audience rejected them. But at least they received a shot.

As the New York Times article states, self-publishing companies are thriving, and that is because we give writers their shot, their fifteen minutes, their chance. We are American Idol for writers. We make it easy to publish a book. If “publishing a book” is your dream, you’re going to be happy with the result. And if your dream is to be successful, famous, rich, or a combination of the three, you’re going to receive your chance, but just like everyone else who is successful, famous, or rich, you are going to need to bring something special to the table.

Most reasonable people recognize this. Those who don’t may become disillusioned, but listen – if it were easy to become a bestselling author, a multi-platinum recording artist, a player for the New York Knicks, or a highly-sought-after runway model, then everyone would do it.

Just because iTunes makes the distribution of music easy doesn’t mean every artist is going to become a success overnight. And just because standing in line for American Idol is easy doesn’t mean all those people are going to win an Oscar and sing the National Anthem for the Super Bowl.   Lord knows there is only one Jennifer Hudson. American Idol didn’t make her a success; talent pours from her soul. She would have found success tripping through the dark blindfolded. But American Idol shined a light on her, and she reflected back.

Self-publishing companies shine a light on writers. It is the writer’s job to shine back. Some authors do, like Gang Chen, who earned over $39,000 in royalties from Outskirts Press in the 4^th quarter of 2008. That’s $13,000 a month. Has his book sold a million copies? No. Is he making a lot of money as a self-published author? Yes. By any reasonable benchmark, Gang Chen is a successful self-published author who has given specific permission to have his successes shared.

And this brings me to my last point. All publishing companies are different, just like all writers are different, and just like all contestants on American Idol are different. Success is never guaranteed. But if you are going to self-publish your book, you’re better off publishing with a company where your chances for success increase. Above all, you have to believe in yourself and you have to work hard. Success rarely comes easily for anyone, but now, thanks to self-publishing companies, everyone has an equal chance. We’ll shine the light on you. What you do with that light is up to you.

Six years on, Brent’s words still hold true. As with many other career fields and endeavors in life, indie and self-publishing authors often suffer from what psychologists call “Imposter Syndrome.” In an excellent piece (“Imposter Syndrome, and What it Means to be an Adult”) for the journal Humanist back in 2014, Greta Christina defines imposter syndrome as “a condition where accomplished people see themselves as frauds, as not deserving of success or recognition, despite significant evidence to the contrary. I think imposter syndrome can apply to more than just career accomplishments. I think imposter syndrome can apply to every aspect of life, and our ability to navigate it as adults.” She goes on to discuss the importance of rites of passage and rituals as signposts on our way to self-acceptance and self-realization. Now, Greta Christina is approaching imposter syndrome as a humanist and not as someone specifically interested in self-publishing, but her words resonate. Indie, hybrid, and self-publishing authors are often (still) perceived as or perceive themselves as newcomers, aliens, or interlopers in the grand publishing sphere. And yet–and yet–the data shows that self-publishing is a fully respectable and increasingly respected niche. It’s so pervasively utilized by authors and readers alike that I even struggle to call it a niche.

So how do we change perspectives on self-publishing? How do we change the interior experience, the actual inhabited day-to-day emotions of being a self-publishing author? Well, if we listen to experts like Greta Christina, we invent ourselves some rites and rituals. Recognizing an unhealthy line of thought (such as, “I’m not a real author,” or “I’m only a self-published author”) and then combating it actively with positive (and true) rebuttals (“I am absolutely a real author!” or “I’m so excited to be a self-published author!”) is not just a ritual … it’s a necessity, like breaking any other bad habit.

So here, at the end of this archival revisitation, is my suggestion for a new daily ritual–

Repeat after me: I have to believe in myself and I have to work hard.

Say it again and again, until you believe in it. I believe in you. ♠

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: