Book Reviews

More on Getting your Self Published Book Reviewed

It’s no secret that getting great book reviews posted on Amazon is something you want to accomplish. But how do you do that?

You need a network of people willing to read your book and write a positive review. This requires a mailing list.

Fortunately, self-publishing advocate Dan Poynter already has such a network, and you can take advantage of it completely free. It’s called his Marketplace Newsletter, and you can post a “Review Request” in his newsletter, which is sent out to thousands and thousands of people.

IF YOU WANT YOUR BOOK REVIEWED on Amazon.com, B&N.com, etc, you must be willing to send a book and promotional materials (review-book package) to readers of Publishing Poynters Marketplace who contact you.

Send your request and description to DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com.

Draft your request so that Dan does not have to edit it. Make it SHORT (100 words max), no italics or bold type. Describe the book in a few words; do not send a lengthy review of it. Lengthy submissions will be returned for rewriting or ruthlessly cut.  Put “Review Wanted” in the subject line.

Reviewers only need enough information to see if they have expertise and an interest in your category. Supply full contact information including your email address so interested readers can contact you for a free review copy.  Be responsive to those indicating an interest in reviewing your book by sending them a copy and a sales sheet.

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
https://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com

Choosing a Publisher

4 Myths about Self-Publishing

There can be a lot of confusion about self publishing and print-on-demand. As you decide the best publishing path for you, I would like to clarify some misconceptions you may have heard.

 

1. MYTH: Whoever owns the ISBN owns the book.

FACT: This use to be true. Nowadays, not as much so. Most POD publishers assign an ISBN they own, and they do this for the authors’ convenience; in any case authors should ALWAYS keep all the rights to their book.

 

2. MYTH: Independent self-publishing is different from publishing with a POD publisher because the publisher owns the ISBN. 

FACT: It is true that the ISBN identifies the publisher of record. Look for a publisher that allows authors to supply their own ISBN at some level.

 

3.MYTH: New York publishers promote and market all their books.

FACT: New York publishers usually devote the lion’s share of their marketing budget to the top 1% (Harry Potter, for example) of the books they publish. The other books published during that season are victims of the sliced marketing budget. Most authors don’t get any support from their traditional publisher at all.

 

4.MYTH: Printing a book with an off-set printer is the same as publishing it.

FACT: Printing a book is one facet of publication. Before a book can be printed, it needs to be designed. Then it needs to be printed. Then it needs wholesale distribution through Ingram and availability online with retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Then it needs fulfillment of orders and invoicing.

 

Printing a book with an off-set printer accomplishes one of those steps. Publishing a book with a turn-key, custom self-publisher accomplishes all of them.  Some authors choose to do both; an on-demand edition complements an off-set print-run very nicely.

 

I hope you found this helpful.  Keep writing!

 

Sincerely,

Karl Schroeder

Choosing a Publisher

More Pricing Info for the Self-Publishing Author

Many options in the custom self-publishing world provide you with the unique freedom to set your own retail cover price.  Authors should have the control set their own trade discount and royalty they want to early in the publishing process.  In fact, some publisher’s websites even provide features that automatically calculate the necessary pricing information for you based on your book details right away.

 

That dynamic pricing calculation should also include your author copy base price—the price you can purchase your book at.  This is one detail to consider when selecting your publisher.  Upon close look you may notice that some publishers artificially inflate a book’s retail price and then offering to sell copies to the author for a “discount.”  Strangely, this scheme adopted by so many POD publishers is similar to what you’d find with off-set printers—providing a “bulk discount” only if the author orders a large number of books all at once.  That defeats one of the biggest advantages of print-on-demand.  All they have really done is inflated the low-quantity costs enough to allow a discount on higher quantities.  No wonder their retail prices can be so high.

 

Look for a publisher that offers the pricing flexibility to allow your book to retail at the best competitive rates possible, while also providing you the option to purchase your book at those below wholesales costs in low quantities to sell on your own.

 

Have fun and keep writing!

 

Sincerely,

Karl Schroeder

Book Promotion

Using Listmania to Promote your Self-Published Book

If your self published book is available on Amazon.com, there are a lot of ways to promote it.  Since Amazon sales should account for a large percentage of your overall book sales, this site is a good place to concentrate a lot of your efforts.

I’m going to tell you about creating a “listmania” list on Amazon. Have you ever noticed when you browse for something on Amazon, there are lists that are related to that subject that are mentioning other books and/or products?

By strategically listing products on your lists, (including YOURS of course), you can start to generate more traffic to your book listing.

Here’s how YOU can create just such a list:

Sign up for an Amazon Author Connect account if you don’t have one yet. Or sign-in to your current account.

Click on your personal “store” on the top tabs. Then select “Your Profile” from the sub-menu.

You will see lots of things you can personalize, including your bio and your online photograph.

But scroll down and you will see a section called “Listmania!” And this is where you create a listmania list.

Creating a Listmania List is a good way to increase exposure for your book.

Obviously, you want to ensure that your book is on your list.

But the real trick to a successful Listmania list depends upon the OTHER books you put on your list, the ones written by other people.

There are two ways to go about it.

1 – Adding books to your list that are applicable to your subject. The idea behind this concept is easy — if someone reads your list because they were browsing a similar book, they’ll be more apt to buy YOUR book because they’re interested in the subject.

2 – On the other hand, you can add very popular books to your list, since more people may have a chance of seeing it, even if fewer of them will be interested in your book.

I recommend creating multiple lists and trying different tactics to see which is more successful. Amazon lets you track the number of times your list was viewed. Use these numbers to create better lists in the future.

If you have more specific questions about creating a listmania list, the Amazon FAQ will help you.

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
https://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com

Book Reviews

Soliciting Book Reviews for your Self Published Book

If your self-published book is available for sale at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble (BN.com), and other sites, you want to be sure your online listings have book reviews. You can always be sure your book has at least 1 review by asking one very close friend or relative to write a review for your book.

Once you have one review, your job is to solicit others. Obviously, if you’ve given some of your books away to friends or families, you should ask them to write a review in exchange for the book. As you continue to give them away, suggest to your customers that it would be helpful to you if they took the time to write an honest online review.  People like to help people, but usually only do so if you ask.

BONUS: Once you have reviews, you can use them in quotes for further promotion. For example:

“Best Book Ever!” — Amazon.com review.

Your book detail page on Amazon and Barnes & Noble have links for writing reviews of your book. If you haven’t done that yet, do it right away.

Remember, in order to write a review for a book on Amazon, each reviewer must have an Amazon account with which they have purchased something. This is how Amazon verifies the identity of the reviewer. They don’t need to buy your book, per se, they just need to buy something, anything, from Amazon. But it is nice if they DO buy your book, so suggest that to your friends first.

Good luck and have fun!
Kelly Schuknecht
https://selfpublishingadvice.wordpress.com