Tag: from the archives

from the archives, Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized

From the Archives: A Reader Views Book Awards Retrospective (#2)

Welcome back to our 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.

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[ Originally posted: April 5th, 2016 ]

This week we will be leaping off of the platform we set last week, in which we took a look back in our archives at a number of posts related to the Reader Views Literary Awards.  As of last week, the Reader Views Awards committee had revealed its finalists, and this week they have released the winning titles for the 2015-2016 round to their website.  We will not rehash last week’s post, but we will build upon it:

 

readerviews

Last week, I wrote about how the Reader Views Literary Awards are not just for authors, but for readers, too–and this week, with the announcement of not just its finalists but its winners, I can’t help but think how right I was.  (I’m working on humility, too, I promise!)

The award categories are as follows:

  • Children, from toddlers through 5 years of age
  • Children, from 6 to 8 years of age
  • Children, from 8 to 12 years of age
  • Teens, from 12 to 16 years of age
  • Teens, from 16 to 18 years of age
  • Body, Mind, & Spirit
  • Business, Sales & Economics
  • Fantasy
  • Gay, Lesbian & Erotic Novels
  • General Fiction Novels
  • Graphic Novels & Short Stories
  • Health & Fitness
  • Historical Fiction
  • Humor
  • Ebooks
  • Memoir, Autobiography & Biography
  • Mystery, Thriller, Suspense & Horror
  • Poetry
  • Religion
  • Romance
  • Science Fiction
  • Self Help
  • Societal Issues & Spirituality
  • Travel
  • Classics
  • Regional
  • Global

And if that wasn’t enough reading for the awards committee to knock out, there are also fourteen (fourteen!) special individual awards.  If I had to pick five of the books that particularly pique my interest, they would be:

As Executive VP for Outskirts Press, I’m always excited to see so many of our books in the winner’s list.  This year, there are twelve.  (Twelve!)  But really, I’m mostly just honored that my company has attracted people of such talent, and I’m equally excited to pick up the other award winners to get a peek at what great company they keep.  The Reader Views Literary Awards just keep getting better and better, year by year.  Kudos to you, Reader Views!  (I promise to stop fangirling now.  Just for a minute or two.)10:00 AM

Thanks for reading.  If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

KellyABOUT 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.
Advocacy in Self-Publishing, from the archives, Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized

From the Archives: A Reader Views Book Awards Retrospective

Welcome back to our 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.

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[ Originally posted: March 16th, 2009 ]

Last week Reader Views announced the official winners of their 2008 Literary Awards and just in time for National Reading Month.

The Reader Views annual literary awards were established to honor writers whoself-published or had their books published by a subsidy publisher, small press, university press, or independent book publisher geared for the North American reading audience.

If you’re looking for something good to read this month, why not try one of these award winning books: Click here to view Reader Views winners.

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[ Originally posted: November 14th, 2012 ]

As a self-publishing author, it is important to constantly market your book and improve your credibility. One of the best ways to accomplish both of those tasks is entering your book into contests. Winning awards shows potential readers that your book is worthwhile and that you are a serious author, and it often results in great publicity as well. One of my favorite book award contests for self publishing authors is the Reader Views Literary Book Award. Here are all of the details.

What is the Reader Views Literary Book Award?

The annual literary awards were established to honor writers who self-publishedor who had their books published by a subsidy publisher, small press, university press, or independent book publisher.  POD books are accepted.

Who is eligible?

Reader Views Literary Awards are open to all authors  regardless of residency; however, the books must be published in the English language and targeted for the North American market. Works published by major book publishers are not eligible.  Books must  have a 2012 copyright date.  Submission for more than one category or more than one title is acceptable.  Books that have racist themes will be not be accepted.

Three finalists will be chosen in each fiction and non-fiction category. First and second place winners will be awarded in each category. Third place will receive an honorable mention. One finalist, the top score in each area, will be chosen in each regional and global category. Each winner will receive a certificate.

Finalists will be announced in Reader Views’ weekly e-mail newsletter on March 4, 2013 and the winners on March 25, 2013.

For more information, visit http://readerviews.com/Awards.html.

I’d love to know, have you entered your book into the Reader Views Literary Awards before or are you planning to do so this year? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Well, it’s that time of year: Reader Views have released their list of finalists for their 2015/16 Literary Book Awards, with winners and placements to be announced in upcoming weeks.

readerviews

We’ve been following Reader Views and the awards in question for some time, as you’ll see in the first post above, which ran on Self-Publishing Advisor back in 2009.  We’ve kept up with them, too, and in 2012 I took a moment to break down what, exactly, the awards are all about.  (Hint: You.)  And the good news is, in the interim Reader Views has kept up its good work, delivering year after year of high-quality indie finalists for their subscribers to discover and enjoy.  Books appearing in the final rounds of competition see, as a matter of course, spikes in popularity and sales–and this is exactly the kind of exposure that you should pursue as a part of your holistic marketing strategy!

It’s for Authors

Luckily, submitting your book for consideration remains as easy in 2016 as it was in 2009 and 2012, and all the information you might need to do so can be found at the Reader Views website, under the “Literary Awards” tab.  Submission dates change from year to year, of course, so it’s always worth double-checking what this year’s requirements are (particularly if you’re a time-traveler and stumble across this in some other year than 2016)!

It’s for Readers, Too

That’s right!  As I’ve already mentioned, the exposure finalists and winners alike receive throughout the submission and consideration process reaps all sorts of rewards for authors–but it has a wonderful side-effect of benefiting readers of indie and self-published works in equal share.  How?  First and foremost, the competition generates lists.  Several lists!  Lists of nominees, lists of finalists, and lists of winners and their placements.  Each list serves as a siren call to readers looking for something new to add to their to-read bookshelves and to their Amazon shopping carts. By raising awareness about such a carefully curated list of high-quality indie works, Reader Views broadens the discerning reader’s horizons.

It’s Worth a Look

A lot of book awards are the province of institutionalized hierarchies enforced and policed by the traditional publishing industry–but Reader Views is something else altogether.  In the spirit of discovering the undiscovered, recognizing the unrecognized, and treasuring the undervalued, the Reader Views Literary Book Awards filter through the noise of a crowded self-publishing market to find the very best of the best–and then they present their findings to the public, free of charge and free of any agenda other than celebrating the good work done by good authors.  That’s an agenda I can get behind–and I think you can, too!

Thanks for reading.  If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

KellyABOUT 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.
Book Reviews, from the archives, Kelly Speaks

From the Archives: “Should You Pay for a Book Review?”

Welcome back to our 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.

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[ Originally posted: April 15th, 2011 ]

As an author in the self-publishing industry, reviews for your book are very important.  A book published by an unknown author has little chance of gaining attention, while the same book (and the same “unknown” author) with a number of positive reviews can begin to gain momentum.  Those positive reviews can help persuade potential new readers to buy the book and the word-of-mouth continues.

You may have already received reviews from some of your friends or colleagues, so what next?  There are some free review services where you can send a copy of your book.  These services are a great resource; however, because they are free, the reviewers get inundated with books and can’t review every book they receive.  Their services can also take several months and the reviews are not guaranteed to be good.

In addition to free review services, there are some services available where you can pay to be guaranteed a review.  That said, the review is still not guaranteed to be good, but if you are confident in your book (which you should be, after all you wrote and published it!), you shouldn’t need to worry about that.

Here are three pay-for-review services you can start with:

BLUE INK REVIEW

A Standard Review is $395 for the review to be completed in 7-9 weeks.

A Fast Track Review is $495 for the review to be completed in 4-5 weeks.

BlueInk considers for review any book that has been published (self-published and indie published).  They review e-books, on-demand books, printed books in any format, English translations and English-language submissions from outside the United States, as well as galleys. They do not review manuscripts pre-publication.

FOREWORD CLARION REVIEW

The cost is $305 $499* and turnaround time is 6-8 4-6* weeks.

Open to all books and publishers, Clarion promises an objective 400 – 500 word review/critique with a quick six to eight week turnaround. The review will be posted on the ForeWord website (if the publisher desires), licensed to the three top wholesale databases, and made available to the book’s publisher. This service is ideal for books that haven’t received review attention elsewhere.

KIRKUS INDIE REVIEW

 

Standard review is completed in 7-9 weeks for $425.

Express review is completed in 3-4 weeks for $575.

The Kirkus Indie program gives independent authors a chance to obtain an unbiased, professional review of their work, written in the same format as a traditional Kirkus review. A book review can be an essential and powerful tool for promoting your book to literary agents, traditional publishing houses, booksellers, and, most importantly, potential readers.

– by Kelly Schuknecht

When it comes to reviews, there’s so much to say that it’s almost inevitable that I would have to update and expand upon what I wrote back in 2011–after all, the world doesn’t hold still for anyone, and that’s certainly true of both the internet and the publishing industry, as well!  You will note that I have already made note of several changes in regards to pricing and timing for the ForeWords Clarion review options (marked with an * each time), but what about the larger picture?  Can we still mount a defense for paid reviews in a world where Amazon and Goodreads are king, where product pages provide ream after ream of short, easy-to-digest reviews from laypeople like you and me–and FREE reviews at that?

national review book reviews

If you suspected I might have a simple and short answer for you, I’m sorry to let you down.  Saying “yes” casts aside all of my many thoughts about the value of those unpaid product reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and saying “no” discounts the ongoing benefits that longform paid reviews still offer.

Let’s start with Amazon and Goodreads.

I’ve written in detail about the virtues of garnering lots of good reviews on Amazon and Goodreads before, specifically in my series on Self-Publishing and Merchandising from May of 2015, where I broke down the distinctions between these kinds of reviews and blog-based reviews.  And the statistics speak with resounding and repeated certainty that readers use the metrics provided by Amazon and Goodreads as one of their first and most important decision-making tools.  If readers search for a title they’re fairly certain they’re going to like, only to find that it has lots of poor reviews on Goodreads or a low star rating on Amazon, they’re not likely to follow through and buy it, no matter what else they’ve read that’s positive.  And if readers stumble across a title by accident that they weren’t actually looking for, but it ends up having fabulous reviews, they’re actually fairly likely to pay money to purchase it!  Search engines like Google have tweaked their algorithms to push books that are rated highly on Goodreads and Amazon to the top of their index, so you should never, never discount the importance of asking friends, family members, and other members of the public to post a positive review to these sites.

And what about paid reviews?

While longform essay book reviews have largely become the province of periodicals with paid subscription models like the London Review of Books or the New York Review of Books, they are far from dying out in terms of popularity–they’ve merely found their niche readership, and a powerful one at that.  It’s hard to estimate the exact impact of one positive longform review, but collectively, consider: the discerning reader needs an evaluation of content, of structure, of tone, and of many other aspects of a book’s nature than what can be provided in a brief burst of opinion on Amazon.  The discerning reader wants to know: what do the experts think?  Not everyone is looking for the lowest common denominator of shared public opinion (or so one of my college professors once opined) … sometimes they want to hear from one learnéd voice, in detail, the full warp and weft of a book.  This is why paid reviews are still worth their money–they reach the discerning reader.  And guess what?  Discerning readers are very likely to be a go-to resource to their friends and families, access points for dozens upon dozens of other new readers.  Discerning readers are amplifiers, advocates, and arbiters of your book’s larger footprint.  So yes, we shouldn’t forget about the paid review.  It has a place in the larger scheme of things, the larger framework of reviews and marketing.

They do not determine or reflect the actual value of your book, but good reviews–both paid and unpaid–do determine who is likely to buy it next.

 

If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

KellyABOUT 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.
from the archives, Kelly Speaks, self publishing news, Uncategorized

From the Archives: “Statistics Suggest Good News for the Self-Publishing Author”

Welcome back to our 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.

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[ Originally posted: December 17th, 2008 ]

Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management, recently released 2007 book publishing statistics compiled from its Books In Print database. Based on figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker is projecting that U.S. title output  last year increased slightly from 2006 to almost 300,000 books. That’s over a quarter of a million books published in one year alone.

Here’s another interesting statistic, while traditional book publishing was basically flat last year, there was a staggering rise in the reported number of on-demand and short-run books to 134,773, pushing the grand total for projected 2007 U.S. book output to 411,422 books. In fact, Bowker has planned to separate this particular output from its traditional reporting and has begun tracking the On Demand industry segment separately.

What does this mean for you? To begin, your book may not stock in every bookstore. Or any bookstore. And it’s entirely possible that you may not want it to.

As a self-publishing author, these statistics undoubtedly suggest your sales opportunities will continue to grow and become more profitable. Sales are shifting from offline to online. More and more people are becoming comfortable with (and even accustomed to) shopping online. Selling books online is more cost-effective than selling through a typical bookstore, and that means more money in your pocket. It’s no coincidence that Amazon’s book sales numbers mirror the same increases on an annual bases. That’s good news.

It’s been said before on this blog, make sure your self-publishing choice lets you set your own retail price, royalty, and discount to take maximum advantage of shifting consumer trends.

Something to keep in mind as you wrap up your writing and begin the publishing process.

Have fun and keep writing.

– by Karl Schroeder

While in many ways the e-book and digital book industries have stabilized, reaching a kind of balance with print publishing in the wake of Hachette’s price-fixing settlement with Amazon, much has changed.  Nielson, for example, is reporting that “in 2014, US publishers sold almost 142.5 million adult fiction titles in the three major print formats (hardback, trade paperback and mass market paperback) and 132 million ebooks (across all platforms).”  To put that in the context of Karl’s original statistics, Publisher’s Weekly and Bowker both reported that earlier, in 2013, “the number of self-published titles rose [by] 16.5%, to 458,564. The increase was due entirely to the release of new print books which rose 28.8% to 302,622 offsetting a decline in self-published e-books which fell 1.6%, to 155,942.”  In less than a decade, then, the number of self-published books outpaced the total number of books of ALL kinds published in the United States in 2007.  Not only that, but there are now more self-published print books alone being published each yer than there were traditionally published books in 2007.
bowker

But what does this mean for you, the indie author, in 2016?

First of all, it means you’re not just on the cutting edge any more–you’re part of a phenomenon.  And because self-publishing is in some ways the new normal, that presents both some very good and some very hard news.  Good news first: there are loads more resources out there and available to you now than there were a decade ago.  You can probably find a “how-to” step-by-step guide for each and every aspect of self-publishing just by hopping on Google and typing in a few keywords.  Need to convert your book to a new format or launch a fresh marketing campaign?  There are entire companies out there that specialize in such things, now.

The hard news is this: self-publishing has more or less lost its novelty.  It’s a stable market niche that has gained a lot of attention and a fair bit of respect over the years, and it’s clearly not going anywhere.  Libraries have policies in place as to whether they can add self-published books to their collections, and bookstores like the Tattered Cover in Denver and the Amazon Bookstores now dedicate entire shelves to self-published titles.  Algorithms have been tweaked.  News has been made.  And all of this presents a bit of a challenge to you, the indie author.  How to stand out in such a crowded marketplace–and for the right reasons?

Luckily, I have one last bit of good news.  Well, I guess it’s more a statement that comes full circle.  If you take care with your book, and give it the time and energy and focused attention that it deserves–or rely upon the assistance and advice of paid professionals to do so–then your book will stand out.  It has always been the case that readers can recognize a well put-together title from across the bookstore, library, and even airport.  A beautiful cover, a polished jacket, a carefully managed marketing campaign: all of these things are within your reach, thanks to the hard work of many who have gone before.  And if you stick around on Self-Publishing Advisor, you just might stumble across the exact insight you need in my Wednesday marketing strategies posts, Elizabeth’s Thursday reflections as a longtime industry expert, Royalene’s Friday perspectives as a successful self-publishing author, and our other posts throughout the week.

If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

KellyABOUT 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.

 

 

from the archives, Kelly Speaks

From the Archives: “How to Promote Your Self Published Book Using Video”

Welcome back to our 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.

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[ Originally posted: February 27th, 2013 ]

Video is one of the hottest tools in advertising and marketing right now. Thanks to YouTube and smart devices, people are watching tons of videos, and this tool offers great marketing opportunities for self publishing authors. Here are three ways you can use the power of video to market your book.

Create a book trailer

Book trailers are a hot marketing tool right now. They are like commercials for your book. They are a great item to include on your website and social media pages, and they often increase exposure because readers can easily share videos they enjoy with their friends, family and social media followers.

Record yourself

Video isn’t just used to sell your book; it can also be used to sell yourself as the author. This is especially useful if you write about a topic you are an expert in. For instance, if you wrote a book about weight loss, you could create videos sharing weight loss tips with your readers.

Make it funny

Many of the online videos that go viral include humor. While this technique isn’t appropriate for all books and authors, most people can improve their video ratings by including some humor in their videos. Don’t be afraid to look silly.

I’d love to know, how do you use video to promote your self published book?

– by Kelly Schuknecht

We’ve come a long way in three years!  Even in 2013, however, there was abundant evidence that video was rapidly becoming ubiquitous––becoming more than just another tool in the self-publishing author’s toolbox––and that authors like myself needed to catch up.  We now have an entire generation of megastars whose sole platform and original source of popularity was YouTube: Adam Montoya, Amber Lee Ettinger, Bethany Mota, Caspar Lee, and hundreds of others have now become household names in large part due to their savvy use of this one video platform.  If you needed proof that video really did kill the radio star, you have it.

Video is so ubiquitous, in fact, that you can now find embedded YouTube, Vimeo, and Instagram clips on every other social media site.  It’s easy to forget that YouTube is its own fully viable social media platform (for more on that, see my entry for YouTube in last year’s social media primer) because it is so fully conversant with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and so on.  Videos can even be embedded into your Amazon author page, your email signature, and your personal website.  Basically, they can go everywhere and be everything to everyone.

youtube video illustration

In a sense, my original points remain relevant untouched.  They are not, however, entirely complete.  The world of video marketing for self-publishing authors has evolved well beyond where it was three years ago, and while to a certain extent it will always continue to be a moving target, I think it well worth a little time and care to catch up, and cultivate a video presence online.  In fact, I think I’ll make that one of my goals for 2016: in some way, shape, or form, I will boost my engagement with online video marketing.  And of course, I’ll update you on my progress here at Self Publishing Advisor!

In closing, I think the most important tip that I left out of my original list is this:

Marketing your book is all about human connection, and video marketing is no different.  Many of video’s greatest assets––its immediacy, its ability to convey a lot of information very succinctly and sometimes entirely through context––tap into the our deepest emotional centers.  Video has the power to move people.  It has the power to capture your readers’ attention but it must do so quickly, in the first few seconds, or else they will move on to other content.  Human communication is almost entirely non-verbal, and within seconds of clicking your YouTube or Vimeo link, people will decide whether they like and trust you.

That’s a lot of pressure, if you approach video marketing this way.  And while I certainly advocate for keeping these facts in mind, I don’t think fear should serve as your primary motivation.  Instead, think about video as a backstage pass into what you do as a writer, an all-access ticket to the theme park of your book’s greater universe.  No single video will make or break your online presence, so make as many as possible, catapulting off of the energy and enthusiasm you feel for our work, and share them across as many social media platforms as you feel comfortable using.  If posting a video clip feels as quick and simple as posting a Facebook update, you’re doing it right!

If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.  ♠

KellyABOUT 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.