Write to Publish

The prognosis is positive...back to normal schedules soon

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 11:44:00 +0000

First, I would like to thank everyone for all your concern over the last few weeks. Robin is done with her battery of tests, and the good news is there's been no damage to her heart...or mine as one would have led to the other. It's obviously been a huge distraction, so things are not 100% back to normal around the Sullivan household, but there are signs of progress. Give me a few more days and I'll start digging out of the backlog and get back into the swing with full vigor. Thanks again for all the kind wishes. Your concern has helped in a very troubling time.

Amazon flexes its muscle...authors caught in the squeeze.

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:17:00 +0000

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I've been in publishing only a short while, but I've been around it enough to have seen some of the big brew-ha-has involving Amazon. The first was when Amazon yanked all print-on-demand titles not produced through their print-on-demand arm. The second was when all MacMillan ebook titles were pulled during the great agency debate. Well it's happening again.

Independent Publishers Group, a large distributor for independent presses and authors has had all 5,000 of their ebooks pulled from the Amazon kindle. The print versions of their books are still for sale.

The reason, is that their ebook contract was up for renewal and IPG wanted the same terms, and Amazon wanted a deeper discount. When they couldn't agree, Amazon pulled the titles.

What does this mean to me
For most authors to this board, not a whole lot...except to point out that you should put some things in place.

A publisher (or author) should have an alternate means by which readers can get books in ALL formats. For instance, my press sells ebooks directly through my website (www.ridanpublishing.com). So even if Amazon yanked my titles (which would be a disaster) I could still fulfill orders by people buying direct from me.

If you are an author who is pursuing publication through a publisher, try to get language inserted into the contract that allows you to directly sell your titles when they are unavailable for sale on other venues. This may be difficult to get - but you can use this example, and the MacMillan exmaple as cases as to why you need such a provision. Without it, you your fans will have NO MEANS to get your books. At a minimum, choose a publisher that sells all formats directly on their website so that you can keep the sales flowing.

If you are an indie author, going direct through DTP is your best chance of not having his happen to you. You can use a distributor for your print books, but keep the ebook rights in your control.

What about those using DTP?
Actually, it shouldn't effect you, other than a possible bellwether sign that Amazon may start squeezing you a bit more for a bigger piece of the pie. Don't get me wrong, I love Amazon, they have made me and my authors hundreds of thousands of dollars, but being the market leade means you have a big stick and from time to time they will swing it. Keep your eyes open and be prepared to make adjustments as necessary.

Also...it may be possible that you'll see a hit on our sales. Moves like this will generate huge anti-Amazon sentiment (which is already pretty high these days, because of recent exclusivity moves) there will be people who will boycott all Amazon sales as a sign of displeasure - so for those in the Select program (and exclusive) you might have a little rougher time for awhile. Those not in the program, may see higher sales from other venues.

In Summary
Once again, it is proof that this business changes at the speed of light - and you have to keep abreast of what is going on. Only those who are watching and are willing to adjust will survive.

Learn More
If you would like to learn more about the incident in question. You can go to any of the following sites but they all pretty much say the same thing:

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The Continually Changing Face of Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:15:00 +0000

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I so miss my blog. There is so much going on and I want to be out here talking and sharing with you all but life sometimes gets in the way. As you already know I lost my dad and that completely disrupted my entire life from Thanksgiving through late January and upon returning home I became ill. Not…I’m not feeling too well ill…but coughing up a lung…sleeping all day…near death kind of sick. I think it was a combination of forcing myself to be well while dealing with dad (as I had no choice but to), and cleaning out his place (that contained a lot of dust, dirt, and mold) not to mention a lot of lifting and carrying on a back that has already endured two surgeries…well that’s a long way of saying that it completely disrupted everything but at least…as of yesterday I was well and “back in the saddle”.

That being said…my poor authors have been gravely neglected in all of this. I feel bad that I’ve delayed several releases so yes, until I get these done I can’t spend time on blogging so I’m sneaking in very quick drive by post to just bring up something very important.

Okay enough prologue let’s have at it.

I’ve talked a lot about the changing face of publishing. For those that haven’t followed my old posts it stems from changes in technology that has self-publishing and small press publishing viable from a financial stand point. So for the past few years I’ve been dividing publishing down three lines: big-six, self-published, and small-press. I now have to revise this grouping by adding two new classifications.

Amazon-published
One the surface of things you might say, “Robin, isn’t Amazon just another publisher like Penguin so it should be treated as such?” Well a while ago I would agree with you (and why I didn’t break it out separately but several major developments have made so that we really have to treat this classification differently.

First, Amazon is unique in that it has access to the biggest reader database in existence. Not only do they know buying habits, but they have millions of email addresses. As proven by their recent invention “deal of the day” they can place any title in the top 10 anytime they want to and this can mean a pretty big spotlight at any time. This is a good thing for Amazon-published authors.
Second, they have instituted exclusivity practices that limit the distribution of their author’s titles. In particular, if you are published through Amazon your ebooks won’t show up in the ibookstore or Barnes and Noble or anywhere else. To maximize sales you want to make it easy for people to buy your books and cutting out entire segments of the marketplace doesn’t help the author. I realize why Amazon is doing this…and it might turn out the best thing for their authors (high concentration in one place rather than diluted sales) but all in all I think this is very bad for the author.
Third, no bookstore presence. Yeah, I know…bookstores are closing…they aren’t as important as they once was…I get it. But the fact remains there are still a ton of sales sold through stores and for some authors they won’t consider themselves a “real author” until they see the books on a shelf at their local B&N. Originally it was the indie bookstores that banned Amazon produced books. But now Barnes and Noble and Books-a-Million have instituted similar bans. Originally my thought was… “If a book is a bestseller they’ll have it for sale.” Now I’m not so sure. They are drawing battle lines and I don’t think exceptions will be made. This is terrible for authors who signed on with Amazon with the promise that they’ll have both print and ebooks. Sure, they’ll still sell books online…and that is a large number of books but in many respects I think the selling point of going with a publisher is widespread distribution. Since Amazon authors don’t get this it helps to put them in a different category.

At one time I looked at signing with Amazon as an innovative publisher in the pack of many companies that fall between small-press and big-six. Now I see them as a completely different beast, and to sign with them may be more like “publishing light”

Hybrid-published
Okay, this really isn’t a different publishing model, but rather recognition that authors that do more than one type of publishing simultaneously. Joe Konrath is a great example of a hybrid author as he has self-published titles, big-six titles, and amazon titles. Nathan Lowell is a Ridan author who is also a hybrid as he has his Trader Tales books done through us but has self-published shorter works as well as his fantasy series.

But why should I break out a Hybrid-published author? Because if you plan on being one…you need to pay particular attention to you contract details…or you won’t be able to be a hybrid author. When my husband (author Michael J. Sullivan for those new to my blog) went to sign with big-six Hachette we shocked to discover that we weren’t signing up to just one series, but there were clauses that could affect publication of OTHER yet to be written works. This wasn’t Hachette trying to “put the screws” to Michael…as we learned the clauses are standard and exist in virtually every contract especially offered by the big-six…but that’s exactly the point and why I’m bringing it up. Michael’s original contract could be a career killer. It has stipulations like he couldn’t publish ANYTHING until six months after the book was released but they had up to two years to bring it to market. Seriously? He can’t publish anything for possibly two and a half years? What’s more he could also be prevented from writing fantasy books, so no possibility of sequels or prequels. We considered these restrictions “career killers” and almost didn’t sign. After four months of negotiation, we finally got the clauses adjusted so that both sides were satisfied but I wanted to ensure that he “could” become hybrid if that is a choice he wants to make. Nathan is fortunate that he is signed with Ridan as we place no restrictions on other works…none whatsoever…so becoming a hybrid was an opportunity he could avail himself of.

In summary
My goal with this blog is to help to keep authors a breast on changes in the industry. But with greater choices requires the author to take more responsibility for knowing what is going on and what the implications are. Things change quickly in the business. I’m amazed that nary a month goes by without some “really big” new announcement. I applaud authors that think about the business side of their writing, and especially for those that think about these things before they are actually finished. As always I stand by my “no right choice” just a choice that “best suits” the goals of the author. There are now more choices so more to think about, but in the long run a well educated author will be way ahead of the pack.

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Main stream publishing catching up on ebooks

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:16:00 +0000

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I've said it many times before but ebook revolution really started in November 2010 but the principal players were indies. People like my husband Michael J. Sullivan, Ridan author's Nathan Lowell, Marshall S. Thomas, Leslie Ann Moore, and fellow indie authors like David Dalglish and H.P. Mallory really saw a jump in their sales that was down right mind blowing.

From trying to piece together information from articles and blogs it would have appeared that that big publishing houses weren't seeing the types of huge increases at that time - and in fact many of the top spots in the genre Amazon Bestseller lists were held by the indies attracting the ebook reading population with their free, $0.99 and $2.99 books.

But I knew that would not always be the case the big-six would eventually see a large percentage of their sales moving digitally. I was astonished that each time I saw an industry report with findings from "the big boys" that their numbers were in the 10% - 25% range with regards to percentage of ebook sales.

But I think we are finally starting to see a major shift in this regard. A good way to gauge what is going on at the big houses is to watch the bestseller's lists. After all the vast majority of the titles on lists such as NYT and USA Today are generally published by the large houses although an incredible breakout indie will show up from time to time.

So to me this graph really tells the full story. USA Today aggregates sales of all formats when determining their best sellers. So they'll lump together ebook, paperback, and hardcover sales...but...they also report of those three formats, which sold the most copies. Well below is some fascinating data about the number of titles where the ebooks are outselling print.

If you find this graph hard to read let's give you a blow-up of the important part 2011 - 2012. So what can we see. About 20% of the USA Today Titles were selling more ebooks for most of 2011 and in some cases that raised to as high as 40%. As the Christmas buying season started, paper came back in a big way as physical books were bought for presents. But there was more under the tree then just book. eReaders were also given and the people receiving them flocked to the "big names."

So what does this mean for indie authors? Well I think it's safe to say that your exclusive hold on that portion of the market is getting encroached upon by the big boys. I also noticed that Orbit, Harper Voyager and Angry Robot all offered $0.99 - $2.99 pricing of popular titles over the holidays. More on this particular environment over the next few days.

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Quick Take on B&N News

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:37:00 +0000

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Saw that Barnes and Noble is thinking of spinning off the Nook Unit from this article. I've been waiting for such an announcement as a possible Harbinger that B&N will head the way of Borders. Borders and Kobo were separate such that it remained even after Border's demise. It later was bought for a very tidy sum by a huge Japanese eCommerce company.

Despite the fact that the nook side of the house is losing rather than making money, it is the only thing that has potential as print sales continue to decline. I think it is a smart move to have a valuable asset protected as the future continues to unfold. Interesting times indeed.

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A New Year and Some New Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:18:00 +0000

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Hello all,
I'm sure there are some who are wondering...what the hell has happened to Robin. Has she dropped off the face of the planet? Well sort of.
In November through mid-December I was hard at work getting some releases out for Ridan and I didn't want my blogging to distract from that focus. I was literally working around the clock and sleeping very few hours a day and I did manage to get a lot accomplished...but not all that I wanted as tragedy stuck.
I don't want to go into all the details but the long and the short of it is my dad passed away. He has had problems with his heart over the past few years and has had angioplasty and an imbedded defibrillator for some time now. His health started to deteriorate at Thanksgiving which made us wonder if his time was getting short. But then he rebounded and it looked like a bullet was dodged. We were wrong.
Dad passed between Christmas and New Years and I’ve been working on final arrangements, complicated by the fact that he lived alone and 3,000 miles away. This of course has made it difficult to anything and once again puts me behind on the Ridan projects I had ongoing.
So, I may continue to be scarce for awhile yet. But I will try to bop in at least once in a while with some helpful marketing tips or my opinions on the constantly changing publishing landscape. There is much I want to share with you all over the next few weeks.

• My opinions on Amazon Select and what it means to indies and publishing as a whole.
• The fact that 42 of the top 50 USA Today titles now sell more in ebook then print
• How Michael’s release with Orbit has gone

I also want to start doing podcasting and even some video posts as I can get more content out there in a short period of time. Santa brought me some nice equipment for just this purpose and hopefully I shall be integrating that soon.
I hope I still have a few fans that are still interested in what I have to say. I’m sure many of you have gone on to other blogs to get your “fix” but hopefully I’ll still be able to contribute something meaningful to this whole wacky world that writing and publishing has become.

Here's hoping that I'll be back with you soon.

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What's wrong with traditional publishing and how to save it

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:49:00 +0000

So as you no doubt can tell from my lack of posts I'm REALLY REALLY busy with some projects I'm trying to get out for X-mas buying. But posts elsewhere on the web is making me weigh in on something.

I've found myself in the unique position of defending traditional publishing lately. Mainly because of the absolutely wonderful job that Orbit has done rolling out my husband's Riyria Revelations books. I'll admit I expected the worst (too many war-weary veterans whispered in my ear to tell me to "be afraid...be very very afraid"), but my pleasure is not just a matter of them jumping over a low expectation bar. They are smart, savvy, hardworking and I'm such a perfectionist that I'm usually very critical so if I say they are doing "things right" they are exceptional.

I do want to circle back to what they have done someday as there are things I've learned from them that other authors can benefit from but that's for another day.

The real reason I'm here has to do with a comment made by Barry Eisler on Joe's Blog. He asked...

"If there's a better way than Amazon to reform New York’s previously unassailable quasi-monopoly and all the suboptimal business practices the monopoly has enabled, what is it?"

And later went on to say

"But if you accept my "Suboptimal New York business practices are the result of a lack of competition" premise, then what I'd like to hear is your solution for getting New York to improve."

Well since I run a publishing company and I have a MUCH different model than any of the others I would like to address Barry's Question.

The problem with the current model is not one of of "lack of competition" it is because it is based on a "venture-capital" model. I talked about this a bit in my previous post but let me explain further.

In venture capital the "investor" is taking a HUGE risk. They are putting a great deal of money on the line and know that there is a pretty good chance that they will lose some or all of it. They usually will do several projects expecting some percentage to fail and will take a large cut on the ones that succeed to help offset. I don't begrudge the "bigger cut" after all he who bears the greatest risk should get the greatest reward.

Personally, from a business perspective I believe in a partnership model. Both parties invest something (sometimes it's money, sometimes it's time) and they each bring their talents, intelligence, experience to try apply these attributes to make the project as successful as possible. If they are good at what they do - there is profit and they both win. If not, there is failure and they each share the pain.

In the "old book business" with no ebooks, brick and mortar stores, large print runs, high advances, warehousing fees the only system available was venture-capital. But in the "new book business" we have print-on-demand and ebooks and companies, like mine, are being run out of people's homes rather than high priced New York offices. (I think many people working in those offfice would prefer to telecommute rather than brave the traffic/subway but that's another story).

Each book I put out from Ridan costs me a ton in "sweat equity" (my time, intelligence, and experience) but very little in out of pocket money (Create Space setup fees, ISBN purchase). Covers are done by my husband, editing and formatting by myself, interns, and relatively inexpensive freelancers. A Ridan book is profitable after just a few sales. And from that point out it's all "gravy" as it were.

Ridan pays higher than average royalty fees. The standard contract is a 70/30 share (70% to author 30% to Ridan) since I consider the author has more "sweat equity" put into the project than I will.

I don't "lock in" my authors. They can leave anytime they want...because I don't have that big capital investment this is possible. My thought process is if they like what I'm doing - they'll stay and not begrudge me my cut. If they don't then they have every right to find a better way to go. Could I put in a lot of work just to have someone leave and then I'm left with nothing? Sure...but it's a risk I'm willing to take. And so far no author has ever left Ridan so it is a moot point.

I don't offer advances. This would seem like a negative from the author's perspective but if I did then I would have to change the split % and force them to stay with me until the advance is paid back - it breaks the model so I don't do it.

Ridan's model is good for me, good for the authors, and ultimately good for readers as I can bring in new talent with little fear of failure. I can also bring back their favorite out of print titles such as Joe Haldeman's Forever War or A.C. Crispin's Starbridge series because of the large width of virtual shelf space.

So there you have it - my solution to how to save publishing. If more presses adopted such a model I think it would benefit all parties involved.

What do you think?

Change is never easy...but usually a good thing

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Sorry, I've been so "quiet" lately guys. There have been several contributing factors: Extended tax return due on Oct 15. Trips to New York for Self Publishing Business Expo and to San Diego for World Fantasy Convention. End of the quarter and having to get royalty statements and checks out (some VERY nice income coming to Ridan author's - yeah that makes me happy). And most importantly being heads down on trying to get a number of titles out for the X-mas season. But there is a topic that is flaming hot right now so I'll take just a few minutes to comment on it.

There have been a number of recent posts about authors and the choices they are making. In general it arises from the push/pull between those staying with traditional publishing and those who evangelize self-publishing. In particular there were these posts:

Barry Eisler on Joe Konrath's site: Where he speaks about the Stockholm Syndrome.
Michael Stackpole's House Slaves vs. Spartacus post: Published back in May but mentioned in Barry's post so it's getting some recent notice.
Micheal Stackpole's Degrees of Slavery post: which discusses how current industry practices and contract clauses put authors into a life of indentured servitude as they are compensated on "future earning potential"
K.W. Jeter's: Mike Stackpole knows what he's talking about post: Where he speaks about how his eyes have been opened.

The best thing that happened to me while at WFC was a patio conversation with industry legends such as Stackpole and Jeter discussing the advent of ebooks and the changes occurring in the publishing business. It was not overlooked by anyone at WFC that while NONE of the programming covered either of these topics it seemed to be the subject of every hallway exchange or dinner conversation where authors gathered.

It was a surreal experience to be "the veteran," having been involved in indie publishing since 2007, (a lifetime in the compressed world of the fast moving changes) when surrounded famous authors who have sold millions of books, been on the New York Times Bestsellers list and are regarded as founders of movements (such as Jeter is to Steampunk). Both Stackpole and Jeter have put up some self-publishing titles, but my little unknowns (Nathan Lowell, Marshall Thomas, Leslie Ann Moore, Michael J. Sullivan) have pulled in impressive sales that (I would venture to guess) have eclipsed their sales. And my one peer of theirs, Joe Haldeman's Forever war sold 7,100 copies in October and as it is is ranked #1 and #2 on the Amazon bestseller lists I'll believe Jeter when he says that The Forever War is the poster child for "backlists done right".

As has happened in the past...and will happen again. The rhetoric is getting pretty heated. I actually like that. It shows passion, and those without passion are missing out on both the joy and the pain that strong emotions brings.

As frequent visitors to this site know...I'm a proponent of authors...all authors and helping them to choose the path that is right for them. Like Michael Stackpole, I want first and foremost for them to be educated on the choices and make informed decisions...and that's the beauty of the time we are living in now...there ARE CHOICES!!

Draconian publishing contracts are nothing new...and I'll even defend the publishers a bit here by saying they are not done in an Snidely Whiplash, evil-for-evil's sake. They are a result of a flawed system. The traditional publishing model mimics that of venture capital investing. The publishers pony up huge sums of cash (for advances, print runs), and have high overhead costs (large corporate offices, well paid professionals, warehousing fees, money set aside for returns) and must make additional investments for promotion (co-op fees, catalog printing, ARC distribution). In such an environment they impose "controls" to help ensure a profit and they must take a proportionally larger cut because most venture capital ventures fail so the "winners" have to "cover" the losers.

But change is coming...the free market will win out. Even those that are published traditionally will see better contracts because publishers will have to change in order to keep and retain top talent. Don't believe me? Well I can offer up my husband's own contract as living proof. He would never have signed the first contract we received, and because he was already making good money in self-publishing he had the freedom to walk away if it wasn't changed. This is an option that would not have existed for him 3 - 5 years ago...and guess what...it was changed and as I said to many at the WFC convention - I can find no fault with how Michael has been treated by his big-six publisher.

Want another example? Look at all the people being signed by Amazon's new publishing companies: Thomas and Mercer, 47 North, Amazon Encore, Montlake, and on and on. Many who are going that route have their eyes wide open to the pluses and minuses of both paradigm (traditional and self) and by putting pen to paper are endorsing a "new model". I only wish that Amazon would be more transparent about their contracts - they have a very restrictive NDA and I don't see why there shouldn't be transparency. These must be more "author friendly" for the people who are signing them to do so.

So, I guess my message for today is the same I've said many times before. There has never been a better time than now to be an author. Choices abound...opportunities exist. Go out and grab hold of your future - you have more power now than you ever had when traditional publishing was the only game in town.

Goodreads 201: Part 4 - Introduction emails (content)

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:50:00 +0000

Okay, today I'm going to wrap up how to direct message people who have joined a group that you are also a member of. This presupposes a few things (covered in past posts)

You've updated your profile to make it look good
You've worked on your headline and short blurb
You've participated (in a friendly - not look at me look at me) way on the forum so you don't look like a drive buy shooter.
You have a place for people to read samples (preferably your website - so you can get them to it as well.
You have some nice covers and an image that you can put in the message (i.e. the images is on the internet somewhere such that you can get a URL link to it.

As I mentioned in Part 3 I have different messages in a file that I copy/paste from. Now...even though you are copy/pasting you still want to make it personal. At a minimum you should start by typing: Hey person's name, before the paste. But I like to go further and if possible mention something they said in their welcome post - usually they'll mention some authors they like so you can either a) agree that xyz is one of your favorites or b) say I've never tried xyz thanks for letting me know I'll check them out. Other topics that are could to use is comments on nice Avatars, or if they live somewhere you've always wanted to visit (my hot spot is Australia / New Zealand) you can work that in to.

The next important thing...don't sound needy...or desperate...don't beg...don't whimper. Here is what you have to think of as you are crafting your message. You are on a reader site. These people WANT to find new authors to fall in love with. Your attitude should be one of confidence (but not arrogance). You are here to help them. If you've come from the "query world" think about how you would approach an agent to look at your work.

Okay...so you are in the "welcome thread" you see someone introducing themselves - Click on their picture. Then click on "compare books" to see if they have any of your books on their shelves. You'll see one of 4 things:

No books - this will happen a lot in the beginning.
Books - unread (now's your chance to get them to "move it up on their TBR pile)
Books - read and rated (Respond to anyone with a 3 or better) 1's and 2's you can just move on - or try an advanced technique that I'll cover another day
Books - read, rated, and reviewed (3 or better)

NO BOOKS
A typical post I suggest for someone with no books on the shelf:

Hey Susan,
I saw your post in the fantasy group. It's always good to meet people who like reading fantasy! I'm glad you like Rothfuss, I've really enjoyed the first two books. I'm also an author, but don't worry I'm not here to pressure you to buy my books. I just wanted to introduce them and you can decide for yourself if you are interested in finding out more.
RIYRIA REVELATIONS: Unlikely Heroes...Classic Adventure
There's no ancient evil to destroy or orphan destined for greatness, just two thieves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a cynical thief, and his ex-mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a living performing dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they are framed for the murder of the king.

I've been very happy with the reception the series has received here on goodreads (2300+ ratings and 500+ reviews) and, if you do get a chance to "check them out", I would love to know what you think...good, bad, or indifferent any and all feedback is welcome (much preferable to the crickets chirp).

Well I've rambled enough. Again, welcome to the group - it's a great place to find new things to read.

Michael: [book:Theft of Swords|10790290] | [book:Rise of Empire|11773712] | [book:Heir of Novron|11100431] | [book:The Viscount and the Witch|12746970]

So let's break it down:

Personal introduction by name
Welcome to the group
Something personal about their post
A disclaimer about being an author - but no pressure
Book Section: Headline, Blurb, Covers, Sample button
Some form of "validation" - The idea here is to give people a reason to believe you are "worth their time.
Invitation for them to reach out to you - VERY important remember you want to make connections - make it two-way.
Closing bringing it back to your welcome
Signature that has links to your books in it. (I used the "no cover" version as the graphics are already in the message.

UNREAD BOOK
Goodreads people have HUGE TBR piles. But they are usually easily swayed by interaction to move your book up on the list - especially when in competition with some "big guy" that will never have that "personal touch" with them. Use this to your advantage.

Hey Susan,
I saw your post in the fantasy group. It's always good to meet people who like reading fantasy! I'm glad you like Rothfuss, I've really enjoyed the first two books. I hope you don't mind but I took a peek on your shelves and was happy to find out you already have my book listed--how cool is that! I'm not here to pressure you to buy my books (that's just not my style). I just wanted to thank you for your interest and to give you a link where you can read a sample.

If you're like me your TBR is large (and growing all the time but that's a good thing about goodreads) so here's a bit about my book as a reminder:

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: Unlikely Heroes...Classic Adventure
There's no ancient evil to destroy or orphan destined for greatness, just two thieves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a cynical thief, and his ex-mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a living performing dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they are framed for the murder of the king.

Well I've rambled enough if you do get a chance to "check them out", I would love to know what you think...good, bad, or indifferent any and all feedback is welcome (much preferable to the crickets chirp). Again, thanks for the interest in my book and welcome to the group - it's a great place to find new things to read.

Michael
[bookcover:Theft of Swords|10790290] [bookcover:Rise of Empire|11773712] [bookcover:Heir of Novron|11100431] [bookcover:The Viscount and the Witch|12746970]

READ BOOK - RATING BUT NO REVIEW
You've found someone you want to keep a hold of and get a direct connection with them. I would send them a message and immediately after do a "friend request" and in the message of the friend request say something like:I'm so glad you read and liked my book, Theft of Swords.

If they friend you back (which they usually will) you'll have their email address (if they have made it public) - PURE GOLD. Respond back when you see the "friend accepted" notice and ask them if you could add them to your email distribution list to notify them of upcoming releases or giveaways. Again they'll usually say yes - now you have a way to connect them and as long as you keep writing well, they'll buy each time you come out with a new book. -- Plus you can get them to buy direct from you where you get to keep most of the profit. Okay this whole email and direct buying is a whole post in and of itself, which we'll cover more later but getting back to the intro email: Here's how I word it:

Hey Susan,
I saw your post in the fantasy group. It's always good to meet people who like reading fantasy! I'm glad you like Rothfuss, I've really enjoyed the first two books. I hope you don't mind but I took a peek on your shelves and was happy to find that you read my book, Theft of Swords--how cool is that!

I'm dying for a little detail about your impressions. Would you mind adding a little review to your rating to let me know what you thought? It doesn't have to be a full blown review just a few sentences would be great. And feel free to tell me the good and the bad (this business makes tough skins and all I ask if is honest feedback). Writing can be such solitary work sometimes so hearing from people is what I live for. If you are uncomfortable doing this publicly, then just send me a message.

Well I've rambled enough. Again, thanks for the interest in my book and welcome to the group - it's a great place to find new things to read.

Michael
[bookcover:Theft of Swords|10790290] [bookcover:Rise of Empire|11773712] [bookcover:Heir of Novron|11100431] [bookcover:The Viscount and the Witch|12746970]

P.S. As you can see from my signature I've written some other books as well. If you would like to learn more about any of them and/or read a sample you can from here.

I think about goodreads as levels. First you want them to shelve you, then read, then rate, and finally review. The more reviews you have the more credibility you'll get so this is a way to turn a rate into a review. Not to mention...many readers will be so thrilled that an author took time to reach out to them that they'll talk about you with their other goodreads friends = word of mouth which is the end game.

The P.S. at the bottom is optional of course depending on whether they know (as evidence by their shelf) you can personalize this a bit as well. Such as...I saw that you read the first two books in the Riyria Revelations did you know I've released another 3? You can find out more..blah blah blah.

READ BOOK - RATING AND REVIEW
Okay this is the mother load. You don't have to sell this person anything. What you need to do is make a good impression on them and hope to turn them into a word-of-mouth generating machine. This is a time to express gratitude and let them get to know you a bit.

Goodreads has an ability for people to post on other's reviews so the first thing you should do is go out and thank them for the review. Also, just as before be sure to send them a friend request after you send the intro email.

Hey Susan,
I saw your post in the fantasy group. It's always good to meet people who like reading fantasy! I'm glad you like Rothfuss, I've really enjoyed the first two books. I hope you don't mind but I took a peek on your shelves and was happy to find that you reviewed my book, Theft of Swords.

I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this. It's difficult sometimes when you are like me and just starting out and no one knows who I am, so by providing some independent feedback, others will be more likely to take a chance.

Writing is not something I do for the money...I do it because I can't stop the stories from filling my head and sharing them with others is how I get rewarded. I don't know if readers really know just how much of a kick we get out of reading reviews. It makes the long nights worth it and can take the sting off of the inevitable bad review.

Well I've rambled enough. Again, thank you for letting me know that my writing is not going out to a vacuum. I'm glad you've found he group - it's a great place to find new things to read.

Michael
[bookcover:Theft of Swords|10790290] [bookcover:Rise of Empire|11773712] [bookcover:Heir of Novron|11100431] [bookcover:The Viscount and the Witch|12746970]

P.S. If you'd like to be added to my email distribution list to be notified of future releases and/or giveaways please send me your email.

Something I should note about all of these messages. My goal is to turn these people from a casual reader into a fan - and the way you know you've done this is that they have provided you their email (for future notifications) and by having ongoing dialogs with them (both personally and through the group). Again I'll discuss this more in future posts - we've already covered a lot today.

Whew, this is a long post but I think you'll find it helpful.

It's all about distribution...stupid

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Okay, so I'm sorry to be so harsh in my intro but I get angry when I see author's setting themselves up to fail. I just ran into two people on facebook and neither of them were in any of the main distribution networks. How is this possible? I know (or hope) that most people here already know all that I'm about to tell them. But in case there are a few people here that are just getting started please listen up.

The first guy mentioned "I just hired a publicist for my book xyz just the latest attempt in getting my writing noticed." My first thought was...did this guy just attempt to run before walking...So I went to Amazon with an intent to find what his ranking was...and it wasn't there. Nor was it on B&N! Further research showed in ONLY available on LuLu and for $17.99. Really? Seriously? So you've spent money to HIRE a publicist and your books aren't even available for purchase (lulu is not enough) and your price is WAY TO HIGH!!

The second guy announced "I've finally taken the plunge and released an ebook". Again I went out to the usual suspects and nothing...so I wrote to him (Maybe my search wasn't very good). "Are you on Amazon, B&N, ibookstore?" His response ... "Should be; I know Smashwords distributes to Amazon, B&N, Sony and Apple, among others." My thougths...So you're making an announcement before you have verified live links? UGHH!! Work with me people.

Okay rant over lets get some real information going.

#1 - If you do nothing else put a kindle version of your book up. It is free. Formatting takes just a little bit of time to learn and if you're not here - you're not really publishing your work. If you don't know how to format...there are many books on this (some free some $0.99 - $2.99) It really is not rocket science.

#2 - Once you have the kindle formatted use Calibre (free software) and make an .epub from it. Post it to B&N using PubIt...Also free and easy to do.

#3 - Open your kindle version in a browser (it is essentially just .html which is read by browsers and copy paste into word (don't use your original word file -as it will have lots of "overhead" you don't want or need for it's own formatting. Then follow the layout guidelines at Smashwords to format it the way their "meat grinder' wants it.

#4 - Post to Smashwords and go to their distribution area and turn off: Kindle, B&N (since you'll do direct) and turn on ibookstore, kobo, diesel, etc.

#5 - Watch your smashwords to see if it gets kicked out by their meatgrinder - if so make the changes they recommend then resubmit.

#6 - Wait until you see links available for your books at Kindle & B&N and then...you can announce to people.

Okay I'm back to work on other things. I plan to continue the "Goodreads thing" tomorrow. This just got me hot enough under the collar that I had to post.

Goodreads 201: Part 3 - Introducing yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:11:00 +0000

Welcome back to this third installment on Goodreads. You'll notice that it is now 201 instead of 101 because we're graduating to more advanced techniques. If you've not read the other two posts in this series you need to as it will get you setup before you take this next step.

So you have your profile setup, you've found some groups that are specific to your genre now it's time to start interacting. Almost every group has an "introduce yourself post". Read the guidelines of the post carefully then...well...introduce yourself. Some frown upon writers putting links to their books in their introductions so make sure you know the rules. Personally, I think your introduction should only "graze" the fact that you write - as you'll see as we go on there will be plenty of other opportunities to discuss that. So I usually recommend a recommendation such as this:

Hello my name is Michael, and I've been a fan of fantasy since I first read The Hobbit at age 12. Prior to that I had little interest in reading and it opened up a whole new world for me that I'm forever grateful for. I'm also a writer, I was originally self-published but recently was picked up by a big-six publisher (Orbit, the fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group). I'm really glad I found this group and I'm looking forward to finding a ton of new books to add to my tbr pile.

If the group allows for links I'll make a signature like this (the text has links to the books):
Michael: Theft of Swords | Rise of Empire | Heir of Novron | The Viscount and the Witch

If they don't mind graphics (some will some wont then I make the signature two lines with my name on the first and the small thumbnails on the next line separated with a single space.

Now that you have officially announced yourself to the group its time for....well participation. And if you start by saying "buy my book, buy my book" in every interaction you have, I'm gonna have to slap you up the side of your head!! This is the biggest way to ruin what can be a valuable resource for you. If you haven't read my past threads on participation in social networks please do so now!

Okay, so how should you interact. Go out to the threads - make some comments. (We'll cover starting threads another day, you'll have enough to do just by responding to others) Again - don't mention your books strongly. You can hint about your writing for instance a post about the "size of fantasy novels" I might have Michael respond like this:

I know many fantasy reader love big, thick books. For whatever reason it seems like every time I sit down to write, they always come out to be about 100,000 words, which is 300 pages and relatively short by fantasy standards. My new publisher has released my six-book Riyria Revelations series as a trilogy so now each "book" has two of my stories and that puts them in the 600 - 900 page range!! I guess I get the best of both worlds.

Notice the subtly. The post is:

On point - and contributes to the topic at hand
Mentions the title of Michael's series but no "buy me buy me"
Let's those that read short works know he might be interesting to them, and those that read long works that they'll "get their moneys worth.

If you just joined the group. I suggest you only respond to 3 - 4 posts on the first day. Then visit back on a regular basis and participate more. This will "spread out" your posts - many people subscribe to groups as a digest feed and if you have 20 posts all to the same group in the same period of time you'll look like a spammer. The secret is a continual flow of interactions sprinkled here and there.

Now...for the big step....Sending direct messages to people in the group. This is where you can either totally blow it or be very successful. It's all in the approach. Here is my recommendations.

Start by sending introductions to people who just joined the group. I check the "introduction" post on a regular basis and send a direct (and private message) to people as they join. The process I go through is this:

Click on their picture to get to their profile
Do a "compare books" to see if they have any of your books on their shelves
If they told you a bit about themselves in their intro post - be prepared to use it. If not check out their profile to see some tidbit.

Okay so here goes I have 4 "welcome to the group" messages in a file that I've given Michael. They are:

No books on the shelf
Books on the shelf but not read
Books on the shelf and read and reviewed
Books on the shelf read and rated

I'll share the "content" of each of these in the next installment but you'll find they have the same things in common.

Starts with using their name: Hey Susan, blah blah blah
Welcome them to the group
Mention something personal about them. (Can comment on their avatar, a shared favorite author, a comment on where they live -- Oh I've always wanted to visit Australia, etc)
Tell them you're a writer but not going to "pressure them to buy"
Thank them if they already know about the books, introduce them if they have not
Provide a link where they can read samples
Tell them you're looking forward to seeing them "around the group

I suggest you write your four separate intros before the next post (probably will be a few days as I'm swamped with some stuff). Then we can compare/contrast between yours and mine.

Good Reads 101 - Part 2 Tell me about your book...

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

There are many opportunities on goodreads to tell people about your book. The most common is an "authors promotion folder" they exists in just about every group and this is an open invitation to tell others about what you've written. Other possibilities are threads to announce book signing, new releases, etc.

I cringe when I see how poorly these are executed by most writers. They usually look something like this:

Hey guys I have a just finished a book called Me and Rover and I'd love for you to check it out. It's about a boy and his dog and the adventures they go on. Thanks!

What a wasted opportunity!! Here are some pointers for your post:

Subject of post : Title of book/series and your short (4 word tagline

Make it easy on them. For god's sake your post MUST have goodreads links to your book/books and to your author page. More about this in a minute.

Have covers of your book

Tell them about your book - make it "just right" not too long or too short
Samples - every post should have a place where they can read samples of your work

Establish credibility

SUBJECT
Some groups have a folder where an author has a post per book/series etc. As mentioned above this has to have your title (book or series) and your VERY SHORT tagline. This way even if people don't click into the link, you at least had an impression. I see so many people's posts that say something like: New fantasy adventure or my latest book. Here are some examples I've used:

Basic - The Riyria Revelations: Unlikely Heroes...Classic Adventure
Freebie - The Viscount and the Witch: FREE Riyria Short Story
Announcement: The Heir of Novron: Named #2 Most Anticipated Release of Q1 2012 by Fantasy Book Critic

NOTE: Sometimes you don't get a "post just for you" in which case this becomes the "headline" before you describe your book/series. But if you are allowed a post all to yourself you need to get the name out there and an enticement.

GOODREAD LINKS
Every book and every author has a goodreads link that looks something like this:

[author:Michael J. Sullivan|2063919]
[book:Heir of Novron|11100431] or [bookcover:Heir of Novron|11100431]

I keep a separate file with these links in them for quick reference when I'm creating a post. How do you find the link specific to you? It's easy...Just start a message, and just above the body of the message you'll see a link to "add book author" Use that to do a search to find your books then copy/paste the results into a file for future use. NOTE: if you use [book: it will put just the title of your book with a link (good for in-line discussion) If you use [bookcover: it will put a small thumbnail of your book.

COVERS
Just having a picture of your books really elevates your product listing. I suggest if you have a series you put all of them in single image (Maximum width = 430). Don't forget to link these to a meaninful page (either your author page on goodreads or your "book" page on your website.) Also don't forget to use bitly so you know how many times the image is seen.

BOOK DESCRIPTION
As in the above example, the person didn't say enough. But more often than not people ramble on longer than they should. You need ONE paragaraph of hopefully no more than 200 words. If you have multiple books in a series, then have one "overview" paragraph for the series and one paragraph for each book.

CREDIBILITY
This section should be updated frequently as you gain more and more credentials. In the beginning it may just be some quotes of others (bloggers or readers). If you get awards or high acclaim then add them in as well. If you start to get some serious numbers on Amazon or goodreads - use those. Basically what you use this section for is to give people a reason to "trust" that your books are worth looking at. Make sure that if you are using a quote provide a links so they can "see for themselves.

Okay, now each situation is going to be different but let's look at the post I use for Michael's books:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello all, I'm Michel J. Sullivan and I want to thank you for the opportunity to tell you a bit about my books. For those that don't know the original books in the Riyria Revelations are now out of print as the series is being re-released by Orbit (Fantasy Imprint of #2 Publisher Hachette Book Group).

RIYRIA REVELATIONS: Unlikely Heroes...Classic Adventure
There's no orphan destined for greatness or ancient evil to destroy…just two rogues in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a cynical thief, and his ex-mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, make a profitable living performing dangerous assignments for petty nobles…until a simple job to steal a sword finds them framed for the murder of the king. And so begins this simple tale that uncovers a conspiracy far greater than the mere overthrow of a tiny kingdom.

I wrote all six books before releasing the first, and five of them were published by a small imprint run by my wife. They did well...I sold 70,000+ copies, and have 2300+ ratings and 500+ reviews here on goodreads. Now, they are being re-released as a trilogy in 3 consecutive months: Nov, Dec, and Jan. The "older" books that you might be more familiar with are here:

REVIEWS
"Filled with adventure and clever dialog and featuring a pair of not-quite-heroes whose loyalties to each other provide them with their greatest strength, this epic fantasy showcases the arrival of a master storyteller." -- Library Journal

Hair-raising escapes, flashy sword fights, and faithful friendship complete the formula for good old-fashioned escapist fun." -- Publisher's Weekly

"Wintertide (A++) is the second top-rated combo (with The Emerald Storm) of 2010 for me and establish the series as one of the best traditional epic fantasies currently being published and a top 10 novel of mine." — Fantasy Book Critic

Please consider adding one (or all) of the following to your shelves and let me know what you think of them, good, bad, or indifferent all I ask is for honest opinions....thanks!

Michael J. Sullivan: Theft of Swords | Heir of Novron | Rise of Empire

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's look at this post and why I did what I did:

You need at least a two-line introduction to your post (as you're picture will be to the left of it and it is good to use your name AND a link to your goodreads author profile.
Series name and headline followed by a SHORT description (168 words)
Covers of the book that goes to Michael's book blog page
The next paragraph/set of pictures is specfic for Mihael's situation. You of course wouldn't have this. The reason I have it in here is most people on Goodreads are already familiar with these books. Also Michael has a LOT of reviews and book sold. I say once you get above 5,000 books you can start bragging with that and 500+ ratings and 100+ reviews are worth mentioning
A button that takes them to a page to read samples. I'll talk more about how to "construct" this page in the future but this is essential.
Reviews to establish - third party validation notice I'm using the "big names" in the industry and the genre.
Closing: Quick access to GOODREADS links to his author page and the books. This makes it easy for them to add them to their shelves.

This was not developed "overnight" It took me years of experimentation to get it "just right" and as your writing career expands you'll have to update these postings. Again I suggest having a separate file with all your "author links" so that each time one needs updating you can copy/paste to all the others.

Goodreads 101 - Part 1: Seting up your profile

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:11:00 +0000

I know a lot of authors would like to make the most out of goodreads...and for good reason. This is the perfect social networking site as it has exactly what you are looking for...readers. But it is also a potential mine field so in today's post I'm going to clue you in on some of the most important aspects of goodreads.

Many authors abuse the readers on this forum and so they are 'wary' you need to be very delicate in how you go about your interactions.
The "bigger you are" the more anxious people are to hear from you.
There are many different ways to interact.
You should optimize your goodreads external appearance

I'd actually like to focus on #4 because you have to first get your house in order than worry about inviting people to visit. So let's start here.

ARE ALL YOUR BOOKS LISTED?
First and foremost you should make sure that all your books (and only your books) are associated with your author's profile page. Follow these steps:

Login (make sure this is the login associated with the author page)
Click on Visit your Dashboard
Just below your "Stats" you'll find a My Books Section
If one or more of your books is not showing up...then check to see if it is "found" on Goodreads at all - do this by performing a search. If the book is not there - you can addi t by using the "manual add" feature (Click on My Books >> add books >> manually add book) and fill out the form.

REMOVING BOOKS
Sometimes (especially if you have a popular name) you might find books that are not yours. For instance there is more than one Michael J. Sullivan and in many sites this person's book Necessary Heartbreak is attributed to my Michael even though he did not write it. If you find this to be the case then go to GoodReads Librarian group and tell them what the problem is and they can get it fixed up.

COMBINING BOOKS
One of the things I'm always on the lookout for is multiple copies of the same book. Goodreads does a nice job of being able to group related books such that they share stats. It doesn't make sense to have 2 reviews for your hardcover, 5 reviews for your paperback, and 30 reviews for your ebook all spread around - instead you want 37 reviews all in one place - right?

Multiple copies come from different venues adding books to Goodreads. For instance in Michael's case his upcoming Theft of Swords as the following versions:

US Paperback
Kindle Edition
UK Paperback
ebook

I'm a librarian on goodreads so I have the ability to "combine" books. You can send me an email at robin(dot)sullivan(dot)dc(at)gmail.com with the URL's of both books and I'll combine them for you .... or make a posting to the GoodReads Librarian group and they'll fix you up.

BASIC PROFILE INFORMATION
Make sure that your profile has the URL to your website/blog (you want to make it easy for people to find you yes?). Also mention what genres you write in, and who your work is influenced by. Then make sure you're using your best "long form bio". I did a post awhile back on writing bios - refer to that if you haven't gone through the exercise already. Here is an example of the bio on Michael's Good reads Page:

After finding a manual typewriter in the basement of a friend's house, Michael J. Sullivan inserted a blank piece of paper and typed: It was a dark and stormy night, and a shot rang out. He was just eight. Still, the desire to fill the blank page and see where the keys would take him next wouldn't let go. For ten years Michael developed his writing craft by studying authors such as Stephen King, Ayn Rand, and John Steinbeck, to name a few. He wrote thirteen novels, and after finding no traction in publishing he quit, vowing to never write creatively again.

His hiatus from writing lasted nearly ten years. The itch returned when he decided to write books for his then thirteen-year-old daughter, who was struggling because of dyslexia. Intrigued by the idea of a series with an overarching story line told through individual, self-contained episodes, he created the Riyria Revelations. He wrote the series with no intention of publishing and presented his book in manuscript form to his daughter. An inability to read large amounts of text in that format prompted her to ask for a "real" book, bound and formatted.

So began his second adventure on the road to publication that included drafting his wife to be his business manager, signing with a small independent press, and creating his own publishing company. He sold more than sixty thousand books as a self-published author and leveraged this success to achieve mainstream publication though Orbit (the fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group) as well as foreign translation rights for France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Michael presently lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with his wife and three children and continues to fill the blank pages with three projects under development: a modern fantasy novel, a literary fiction piece, and a prequel to his best-selling Riyria Revelations.

AWARDS
2010 Fantasy Book Critic's Top 25 (Wintertide & The Emerald Storm)
2010 Iceberg Ink Review's Best Fantasy Novel (The Crown Conspiracy)
2010 Fantasy Book Critic Top Independent Novels (The Emerald Storm & Wintertide)
2010 Bookworm Blues Best Overall Read (Avempartha)
2010 Top 15 Goodreads Choice Nominee for Fantasy (The Emerald Storm)
2009 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist (Avempartha)
2009 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist (Nyphron Rising)
2009 Bookspot Central Tournament of Books Winner (Avempartha)
2009 Dark Wolf Award Top 10 Fantasy Books (Crown, Avempartha, Nyphron)
2009 National Indie Book Award Finalist (Crown Conspiracy)
2008 ReaderViews Annual Literary Award Finalist (Crown Consiracy)
2007 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Finalist (Crown Conspiracy)

BOOKS OF THE RIYRIA REVELATIONS
Orbit Versions
Theft of Swords (Novmeber 2011)
Rise of Empire (December 2011)
Heir of Novron (January 2012)

Ridan Versions (out of print)
The Crown Conspiracy (October 2008)
Avempartha (April 2009)
Nyphron Rising (October 2009)
The Emerald Storm (April 2010)
Wintertide (October 2010)
Percepliquis* (January 2012)

*Will be released simultaneously with Heir of Novron

CONTACTING MICHAEL
Michael's Website | Michael's Blog | Michael's twitter | Michael's publisher
Michael's Email: michael.sullivan.dc@gmail.com

Notice a few things about this.

A bio that gives you insight into Michael and his love for writing (little story about when he was a boy)
A list of awards (which I notice is out of date - sigh need to update that)
A list of his books (also out of date - shame on me)
Contact information (I've recently added a newsletter and facebook page - so I need to update that.

As you can see, even someone who is very active can let things slip. It's difficult to remember all the places you should be updating information. I think I've given you enough to do for today so I'll pick this up tomorrow.

Measuring your goodreads results

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:33:00 +0000

As regular people to this site already know, I try to give you tools to help you be successful as writers. The most difficult task for people is marketing. For me, it is something that comes like second nature, but for others, it's as big a mystery as the origin of the universe.

In my prior life (i.e. before spending full time activities in publishing) I was a Software Engineer, a Product Manager, and yes a Marketing Manager, among other things. When I came into new organizations I was amazed at how they would make decisions "from their gut" rather than from "data". Well I'm a data kind of gal so I've always paid particular attention to numbers and you should to.

If you don't track your results, how do you know what is working and what isn't? The good news is that there are many ways to track even for those that don't have access to sales data except during royalty statement time. I'm going to discuss social networking stats (tweets, klout scores, face book likes, etc) as well as Amazon tracking...and cover that another day. Instead I'm going to focus on a site that has been very good for Michael and other Ridan authors...Goodreads.

First and foremost if you are an author and not a member of Goodreads...go sign up now. I'll wait...done? Good. Now did you sign up as just a member or did you claim your author author profile? No? Well it's pretty simple - follow the directions here.

Okay now when you login, in the upper right of the screen you'll see a link to the "author dashboard". While there is a lot on this page, the thing we're going to concentrate on is the stats which can be found right at the top left. Here is what Michael's stats look like:

You should open a spread sheet and record this data. I do it by having the following columns: date, num books, total add, total rating, total reviews, on shelf, unique, fans, friends.

From looking at Michael's data you can see we've focused on getting books on the shelves, and ratings/reviews and really haven't spent much time collecting friends or fans. We'll discuss how you effect these numbers (i.e. make them grow) but for now let's focus on data measurement so that once we start doing things, we can decide if our activities were successful.

Now, at some regular interval (daily, weekly, monthly) you should add a new row to your spreadsheet. I've been off goodreads for many many moons, and recently I've pushed Michael to spend a bit of his day interacting with people on this site (because he has a new release coming out in November) so I've resumed my tracking to see how well he's doing. I try to collect the data daily but sometimes there will be a few days between data captures so I always "normalize my data" by looking at the information on a per day basis. Let's use some of Michael's data to help illustrate this.

Date	Books on Shel	Days	Change	Per Day
09/9/26/2011	5,475	1	13	13
09/9/28/2011	5,496	2	21	10.5
09/9/29/2011	5,525	1	29	29
09/9/30/2011	5,552	1	27	27

The "change" column if found by subtracting the data from this row with the previous row. Then the Per Day is Change divided by number of days. You could of course eliminate the change column and just do a single calculation by using a formula such as: =(D24-D23)/M24 but I don't want to turn this into a spreadsheet tutorial.

Okay...So let's look at the data I've been collecting for Michael from 8/11/2011 to 10/7/2011 for Books that are on the shelves.

From 1 - 12 we had no new promotions, and Michael hadn't yet started back up participating on goodreads so we get about 3 - 15 (avg 8.4) adds per day if we aren't doing anything.
Starting at 13 Michael started participating a bit each day on Goodreads and low and behold the number of book adds increased.
At point 18 we released a free short story so we got a spike that day of 24 new books added
At point 21 we added a "free giveaway" and not surprisingly we got a huge jump, but not as big as I would have liked...so guess what...I'm going to be working that a bit more in the future.
Past 21 the only "different thing" we've done is allocate a bit of Michael's day to go out on goodreads and interact (again I'll show you what that interaction looks like in a future post) but the books added per day went up to 11 - 51 with an average of 23.8) which is a 277% increase. But of course we are also seeing results of the short story and free giveaway, but still, I think that I can determine the following from this data.

There is more potential to exploit in the free giveaway and I'll do some promotion to that end.
Not enough people know about the free giveaway so I'll need to promote that more
Being more active on the site (and 1 & 2) have produced results but there is still more potential.

Once you have the data, you can start doing initiatives to see how each one effects your baseline. and the ideal situation is that the baseline (the level when you are doing nothing) increases on it's own even without promotion (via word of mouth etc). But without tracking data of this kind you'll have no clue as to where you are and how to get you to where you want to go.

I want to make something perfectly clear...

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:27:00 +0000

Hello blogosphere, I'm sorry if I sound a little grumpy today but I just got back from a trip to New York (good trip but traveling always takes a lot out of me) and I visited a post I shouldn't have that got me a bit upset. One of the things mentioned on this post was:

One thing I've always found peculiar is that Robin, owner of a small press, spends all her time on the Internet gushing about the glories of self-publishing. That would certainly cross Ridan off my list if I wrote SF/F. I would want a publisher who was giddy about the glories of going with a small press, not one who seemed to feel I was foolish for not going it on my own.

Because of this attitude, I've always had the impression that Ridan was all about Michael Sullivan's work, not about publishing SF/F books in general. If the other authors' sales are as great as claimed, that's wonderful, but I take Robin's assertions with a great deal of salt.

While I doubt the person writing that post reads my blog, and of course being banned from the site in question makes it impossible to respond there. I thought I would at least talk about it here as there may be others that are curious or think similarly.

I thought I've said this numerous times before, and therefore my feelings on the subject were well known, but it appears that this may not be the case so let me try once again to explain how I feel.

There are three very legitimate paths to publishing: self, small press, big-six. None is "better" than the other. They all have their positive aspects and their challenges. Each author must align themselves with the path that is "right for them" and what is right for them may change as their goals and the market change.

Do I gush about the benefits of self-publishing? Yes, and why shouldn't I? I want authors...all authors...to earn a living doing what they love to do. And unlike 2 years ago (when there were very few people making good money self-publishing) I know many who are making five and six digit incomes. This is worth celebrating. It's worth letting others know that it can be done. why should I NOT?

Am I giddy about the glories of going with a small press? Well that depends on what small press we are talking about, doesn't it? There are many who are doing an excellent job. I recently wrote a post on Bell Bridge Books and another publisher who I like what I see is Dark Quest Books. The bottom line is that the new model of print-on-demand and ebooks is making small press publishing a viable business model. But not every small press is a good choice. Someone recently sent me a link to a contract from a small press they were considering and I told this particular author to run as fast as they can because the contract would have allowed the publisher to do some things with the author's work that the author did not intend. I'm pleased that with so many small presses who can now make money, that provides more opportunities for authors. So yes I'm giddy about the glories of going with a "good" small press, I just ask that you do your research before signing on the dotted line.

As for the statement that I imply people are "foolish for not going on their own" see my above statement about there being 3 legitimate paths and you need to align with what is best for you.

As to what books Ridan "pushes" like any publisher the most "visible" attention is paid to new releases and hot sellers and at one time that was Michael's books (he averaged 10,000 books a month for Nov 2011 - Feb 2012) but his sales have subsequently been dwarfed by stats such as:

Joe Haldeman selling 1,000 copies of Forever War in just 4 1/2 days
Nathan Lowell selling 3,600 copies of Full Share in 1 week
Leslie Ann Moore selling 5,500 copies in a single month across 2 titles
Marshall Thomas selling 9,500 books one month followed by 19,500 the following month across 6 titles

These kinds of numbers don't happen by "accident" it is because Ridan selects outstanding books by talented authors and we work hard to get the word out to help them find an audience. A tremendous amount of work goes into every title we produce and I don't "get" how we not about selling SF/F "in general".

I don't know how else to interpret the last statement about "my claims" and "grain of salt" other than to conclude that this person says that I'm a liar. I believe in sharing sales numbers like above as it helps authors to know what is possible and my Amazon rankings when I post the numbers will provide proof as to whether they are real or not.

I work very hard to try to be a resource for the writing community as a whole and provide the best information that I can. It takes a great deal of time, and in general is very rewarding work but today I feel beaten and bruised and wondering why I should even bother.

Sorry if I'm not my usual upbeat self but I'm batter, bruised, and well just plain bummed.

Another Indie breaks the glass ceiling

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:24:00 +0000

Many of my followers know that I watch the Amazon Top 100 pretty religiously. For the past few days I've been watching Rick Mercer's third book, Emerald Moon, flirt with the top 100 and today he's become the second indie author to break the Top 100 with a book priced higher than $2.99.

Emerald Moon is the third in the Manny William's Thriller series and is selling for $3.49. The only other person I've seen do this with a fiction book (John Locke did it with his non-fiction book)was J.R. Rain who hit top 100 with her third book in the American Vampire series. I'll have to look at my records but I believe she was priced at $3.99.

This just goes to show that writing multiple books really is a key to making a career with writing. Some people may recall that I interviewed Rick for this blog a few weeks ago when he first hit the scene and I'm glad to see he is still doing so well.

Congratulations Rick!

ebook signing

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 01:35:00 +0000

I love signed books and know it's just a matter of time until one company becomes dominant in this area. To date I only know of two. (If you know of others PLEASE let me know).

AUTOGRAPHY
As far as I can tell this still isn't live. I first learned about this company from a New York Times Article in April of this year. I quickly sent off an email and at that time they said they were about 1 month from being "finished". I checked back in to the site today and it doesn't look like they are live yet - but I've sent another email and will keep you updated on what they say.

KINDLEGRAPH
Is up and running, and is remarkably simple and straightforward in their approach. Although not ideal, (it actually doesn't sign your ebook it makes a separate document) it is live and very easy to use.

If you would like to check it out. You can request a signature for my short on the changing face of publishing or for any of Michael's books. You don't have to have actually purchased the books to get us to sign them (both a positive and a negative).

How it works (reader - note you must have a twitter account)

The reader goes to the kindlegraph site
Signs in with their twitter handle
Searches for the book
Clicks on Request a kindlegraph
Makes sure that the kindlegraph email is an "approved" email address (one time only)
Enters the email for their kindle
In a short while a pdf shows up on the kindle (one per book)

How it works for the author (also must have a twitter account)

Sign in with your twitter handle
Add books to the system by specifying the AISN
When requests for signatures are made you'll get an email.
You'll need to sign (I suggest doing this from a touch screen device like an iphone or ipad (you'll only sign once - it will keep the signature on file)
Login to kindlegraph, pull up the requests and process each one by typing a message and hitting send.

SUMMARY
Ideally, I would like a system by which the reader could send the book to the author, they could sign it and send it back to the reader and the signature would be "inside" the book . I think the authography will be close to this (although unidirectional - from author to reader). The kindlegraph doesn't allow for this but given that it is up and running (and free) I'm not going to complain the creator has taken a very simple and straight forward approach and it does the job.

If you would like to try this out for yourself feel free to go to Kindle Graph and request signatures from either myself or Michael's books. Oh, and if you've heard of any other ebook signing systems/products please let me know and I'll research and update this post.

Connecting with readers...

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Many times I'm on a blog or a writer's webpage and am amazed that I can't easily find out how to get in touch with them. Some have forms where you can leave a message, but to be honest I'm put off by them. Why can't I just send them an email? I don't understand why authors put a barrier between themselves and others. So today I'm going to mention some tips to make sure you are easy to reach.

You may notice a series of buttons at the top of this post. They are "quick links" to all the important places that are relevant for me: The Ridan Publishing site, a link to send me email, the "first page" of my blog, twitter, facebook, my inperson meetup group, and a link so they can sign up for my newsletter. These "button bars" ideally should show up at the top and bottom of every post you make. That way if someone is reading your post and like it and want to reach you, they are just one click away. This is something I should have been doing (even I am neglectful of good practices sometime) so you'll see them from now on.
Contact page - Every blog should have a "contact page" If you've used up all your tabs then make your "About me" also your contact page. When someone arrives at the page then don't present them with a form, instead give them a table of ways to reach you (see my contact page for an example)
List all your platforms. Think about all the places you interact do you have a goodreads group? Then you should add that as well. What about a forum? Better get a link for that one as well.
Do you have a link to your contact information as a signature line when you post to someone else's blog? No? If you are out there interacting and people like what you're saying why are you making it difficult for them to find you?

HOW TO MAKE A BUTTON BAR
For those who would like to make a button bar similar to the one I'm using I'll give you a helping hand.

Getting buttons to line up is really quite easy if you use a table. I'll show you how in a minute
Sometimes making the graphics can be a challenge - So I'll let you use mine. If you want to make ones of your own make the "colored portion" 41 x 41 and then but a 1 pixel white border around them so that they are 43 x 43 and then all your buttons will be the same size.
You'll need to know how to add .html code to your site or your blog. I use blogger and as I type there are two tabs "compose" that shows how the post will look and "edit html" which shows the "code" that is a combination of commands (enclosed by <> symbols) and the text.

Let's look at the code to make the button bars. NOTE: If I put the code in "exactly" then you'd see the "results rather than the code" so in the example below I'm going to use square brackets ([ ]) as a replacement for the pointy brackets (< >). If you copy/paste this code be sure to do a global search and replace first.

[p][table align="left" border="0"][tbody][tr][td][a href="mailto:robin.sullivan.dc@gmail.com" target="_blank"][img src="http://bitly.com/niWSgk" border="0" /][/a][/td][td][a href="http://bitly.com/lQljrE" target="_blank"][img src="http://bitly.com/nbG62a" border="0" /][/a][/td][td][a href="http://bitly.com/qmx8sX" target="_blank"][img src="http://bitly.com/rmHYzV" border="0" /][/a][/td][td][a href="http://on.fb.me/pfDtfW" target="_blank"][img src="http://bitly.com/nbCQSL" border="0" /][/a][/td][td][a href="http://bitly.com/nIF63x" target="_blank"][img src="http://bitly.com/nvJnGg" border="0" /][/a][/td][/tr][/tbody][/table][/p][br/][br/]

Don't worry if this looks like complete nonsense, we'll be going through it step by step.

The first thing to realize about .html is most commands have a start and stop. The stop is designated by and the stop by . These will always appear in pairs.
In some cases a command may have a start and stop in a single command and that is shown by

Let's look at the various commands used in this snippet.

p - is used to denote paragraph begin/end
table - is used to indicate the start/end of a table
tbody - is used to indicate the body of a table
tr - is used to denote the start/end of a table's row
td - is used to denote the start/end of a table's cells
a href - is used to indicate the URL of a link (the start/end shows what will be hyperlinked)
img src - is used to indicate a graphic - and only one is needed
mailto: - is used to indicate that an email should be started rather than a webpage
br - is used to inicate a new line - and only one is needed

Note that in html codes nest, such that a table with two rows that have words one, two, and three in separate cells on the first row and four, five, and six in the second row would look something like this (but would need < replaced for [ and > replaced for >:

[table][tbody][tr][td]one[/td][td]two[/td][td]three[/td][/tr][tr][td]four[/td][td]five[/td][td]six[/td][/tr][/tbody][/table]

In our html example I'm using bitly urls (so that I can track them) but it makes it harder to understand - You can highlight any of the urls and paste them into a browser to see what they go to but I'll also explain them here:

http://bitly.com/niWSgk - email graphic
http://bitly.com/nbG62a - blogger graphic
http://bitly.com/rmHYzV - twitter graphic
http://bitly.com/nbCQSL - facebook graphic
http://bitly.com/nvJnGg - newsletter graphic

You can use these same URL's so that you don't have to worry about posting your own images or uploading them to your blog.

What you will also need are URL's for where you want each button to go to - why you don't have to use bit.ly you should as it will track results for your.

Okay, now we can explain the code snippet

We start out with codes to: start a paragraph [p], start a table that is left aligned and has no board [table], start the body of the table, start a row, start a cell
Then we use an [a href] command to indicate where to send an email to - you can replace the address with your email. The target="a_blank" indicates whether a new window should be used or not. This does not always work for emails but it will for webpages.
Then we have the email graphic, with no border [img src=]
then we close the hyperlink [/a], then the cell [/td], then start a new cell [td]
Then we have a link for the URL for my blog, followed by the blogger graphic, then closing the hyperlink, cell, and starting a new cell
Then we have a link for the URL for my twitter account, followed by the twitter graphic, then closing the hyperlink, cell and starting a new cell
Then we have a link for the URL for my facebook account, followed by the facebook graphic, then closing the hyperlink, cell and starting a new cell
Then we have a link for the URL for to sign up for my newsletter (I'll explain how to do newsletters in the future), followed by the newsletter graphic, then closing the hyperlink, cell
Finally we close the row, the table body, the table, and the pararaph
Then we add a few blank lines so that the "text" of our post will show up below the buttons

And that's it. What I suggest is that you make this once by using notepad and save the file. Then each time you start a blog do the following:

Switch to Edit HTML tab
Paste your code (top of post)
Skip down a line and type some text like: xxx
Paste your code (bottom of post)
Switch to compose mode

And there you have it. Having links right at people's finger tips makes it easy for them to get in touch with you. If you have any questions or problems be sure to let me know.

Branding #4...taglines

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:17:00 +0000

Today I'd like to talk about taglines. A tagline is used to provide a very quick, snappy summation of your books or series. The secret to a tagline is making it short and sweet. The shorter the better. Personally I think a tagline should never exceed 10 words and my preferred number is 4 words.

I know what you're thinking...that's not enough space to do anything. Well it is if you think about things properly. Let's look at a tagline that I recently came up with for my husband's Riyria Revelation Series. To understand the tagline let's tell you a bit about the series. Here is some marketing copy for the first book that I wrote:

They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.

There's no ancient evil to defeat, no destined orphan, just two guys in the wrong place at the wrong time...Royce Melborn, a cynical thief, and ex-mercenary Hadrian Blackwater make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in a plot to murder the king. Caught, imprisoned, and sentenced to death they have only one way out. And so begins this epic tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.

Okay so now I need to try and describe the books so I'll describe it with the following keywords:

Genre: classic medieval fantasy
Main character(s): cynical thief & mercenary
Theme: Heroes rise to the occasion
Writing style: Light, fast-paced, fun

The tag line I eventually came up was:

Unlikely Heroes...Classic Adventure

These 4 little words actually sum up the series quite nicely. Let me go though the thought process.

Notice that I didn't use fantasy (even though this is the genre) the reason is because fantasy has many connotations (fantasy football, phone sex, erotica) so instead I used the words "Heroes" and "Adventure" which both conjure the concept of medieval fantasy
I wanted to point out that the book has more than one character and that character wasn't what you usually find (kings, knights, wizards, orphans) hence "unlikely heroes".
I wanted to position the book as "a classic" because many reviews have noted that this book reminds them of the fantasy of their youth that made them fall in love with the genre in the first place.

So how should you go about this...

First, start listing words that describe your book - each one can't be more than 2 words.
Try to determine a word or words that actually cover multiple ideas at once for instance "hero" has the notion of "good" "virtuous" "chivalrous" "winning" "strong"
Don't try to make a sentence...try to have two ideas and play one against another.

One you have a tagline where do you use it?

Any advertisement: web banner, print, goodreads, facebook, google
Any swag material (bookmarks, key rings, pens, coffee mugs, tshirts)
Emails to potential reviewers
Book descriptions on forums
Book descriptions when publishing your books

The best taglines sometimes take a long time to come up with. I suggest you make a few and then just let some time pass while you "noodle" each one - and one will usually bubble to the top.

Feel free to share your taglines here as you develop them for your own books.

Guest Post: Sage advice from Julie Ann Dawson

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:43:00 +0000

As regular readers of this post know, I spend some time over at Kindle Board's Writer's Cafe (a great place of very knowledgeable supportive people btw). One of the people who "tells it like it is" is Julie, who like me, runs a small publishing company (Bards and Sages). She had a post the other day that I really liked so I asked her permission to guest blog it and she agreed...so here it is.

WHY YOUR SALES HAVE DROPPED

There have been a lot of threads lately about sales dropping, and many of them are pointing the finger at Amazon. It isn’t Amazon’s fault. Some of this may apply to you.

What you’ve done wrong.
You have depended too much on Amazon to find customers for you. Too many authors are 100% dependent on Amazon to do the heavy lifting. Your sales depend on Amazon algorithms in order for Amazon’s customers to find you, instead of you going out and finding your own customers.

How you can fix it.
Go find your own target market. Visit sites that cater to the type of people who would be interested in your book and start promoting there. Take advantage of services like Project Wonderful that allow you to place low-cost, highly targeted ads on sites frequented by the exact type of reader you are looking for. Use Facebook ads to build your author fan page using the demographic data they have available.

What you’ve done wrong.
You have kept all your eggs in one basket for too long. Your fixation on Amazon sales rank has led you to put all your efforts into generating sales at Amazon at the expense of other outlets. I’ve always said I would rather sell 50 books a month each on 20 different sites than sell 1,000 books on just Amazon. Spreading out your sales volume reduces your risk, so when sales slow in one location your entire business doesn’t crumble.

How you can fix it.
Get your books up on other sites. Smashwords makes it easy to get your book into wider distribution. Seek out smaller niche retailers that cater to your specific genre. Get your book available in print using a service like Createspace or directly with LSI so that you have print distribution through a variety of retailers outside on Amazon. Then people who learn about your book can shop and the stores they are comfortable with, instead of having to shop where you tell them to.

What you’ve done wrong.
99 cents doesn’t mean anything anymore. The race to the bottom has finally bottomed out. When most books were listed on Amazon at $9.99, selling a book for 99 cents seemed like a great deal to consumers who were not yet aware of the difference between indie books and traditionally published books. But with the surge in 99 cent books and the increased reader awareness that 99 cents = self-published, the only people buying 99 cent books these days are value shoppers that buy everything at 99 cents.

How you can fix it.
Raising your price may cause a temporary drop in sales, but will increase your overall profit. Particularly with genre fiction, the price has historically been between $4.99-$7.99. Pricing your book at the same level as your small press peers in the industry creates the impression that you are in the mainstream of your genre.

What you’ve done wrong.
You have spent too much time commiserating with other writers and not enough time looking for readers. Your blog, website, and sales pitches are all geared toward “indie writers” and use jargon the average reader doesn’t know about or care about. You spend too much time promoting “indie books” and not enough time selling YOUR books to readers, readers who could care less whether or not a book is indie or trad.

How you can fix it.
Take DOWN the bright neon sign that screams “self-published author” and just be an “author.” Readers don’t care or have any desire to actively support self-publishers. They just want good books. Your fixation on being indie means that the only people who will find your books are people who actively search for indies, which are usually other indies looking for places to promote. Rewire your presentation to think about what is going to interest the average readers without shoving in their faces your self-published status.

What you’ve done wrong.
You have spent too much time blaming “the industry” for your problems. It is Amazon’s fault your sales have slipped. The trads are up to no good. Nobody will give you a chance. Yada yada yada. While you may not realize it, your daily, public whining is seem by casual readers, who are put off by it.

How you can fix it.
There is an old saying in sales that goes “Fake it until you make it.” That doesn’t mean to lie. What it means is to stop placing blame and engaging in public baiting and start focusing on the positive in your business. Customers want to buy from people they believe are successful. The appearance of success gives a certain confidence to consumers that you know what you are doing and are producing quality books. Stop referring to yourself as an “unknown author,” which simply reinforces the idea that you are nobody important. Stop referring to people in the traditional industry as “the enemy” and refer to them as “peers.”

What you’ve done wrong.
Stop thinking “Outside the box” and look what is actually in the box first. You jump around from marketing gimmick to marketing gimmick without a clear plan or goal, hoping to reproduce someone else’s success without understanding all of the nuances and factors that went into that success. Further, people are so busy recreating the wheel that they have forgotten what the wheel looks like.

How you can fix it.
Any marketing plan takes time. It can take years to build a strong fan base. Like the cliché goes, it is a marathon, not a sprint. Think small and then slowly expand so that you not only gain readers, but retain them for the long haul. A strong marketing plan requires a consistent message and repetition. Instead of jumping from place to place, focus your efforts on two or three sites to start that are frequented by the type of reader you want, and then use the existing tools to read those people on a regular basis. Most marketing professionals will tell you that the average consumer needs to see something seven times before they even remember it, let alone act on it. So your goal is to focus on repeating your message to a regular audience in order to build your base, and then expand out from there.

MY TAKE
Julie makes a good point about an over dependence on the Amazon algortihms. Many authors (mine included) have benefited from getting some good numbers and having Amazon recommend their books. This is not a substitute for other marketing efforts, and it's getting harder and harder to make the big lists. The number of sales that used to get you on the top 100 won't get you in the top 300 these days - there are just many more books out there and the $0.99 ones that get some legs do take up a lot of the top spots. She's giving us a good kick in the pants to do good solid marketing elsewhere and I agree.

I also love that she gives specific recommendations to how to fix it. We don't agree on all points (I'm less likely to use paid advertising) but I love that she's not just pointing at the problem but giving good real world solutions for how to solve it.

I also love that she is another voice trying to get people out of the $0.99 ghetto. I agree that it creates an impression that you are mainstream in the genre it is the same strategy I've used with Ridan authors.

I also love that she encourages a thought out plan and giving it time to work. Reactionary thinking just ties you up in knots - yes you need to be flexible and adjust but don't chase too many things in too many directions.

I want to thank Julie for her great words of advice and allowing me to share it here. You can find out more about her in the short bio below.

ABOUT JULIE
Julie Ann Dawson earned a degree in English, Liberal Arts from Rowan University in 1993. While there, she also studied marketing, public relations, and sociology. Upon graduation, she worked as a Public Relations Assistant for the City of Bridgeton’s Department of Recreation and Public Affairs, writing press releases, creating marketing literature, and assisting with organizing special events. She honed her sales and marketing skills while working for a South Jersey Kirby vacuum distributor, first as a sales representative and then as a team leader and finally as a recruiter. While with Kirby, her sales efforts won five paid vacations, including trips to Hawaii and Montreal.

Her work has appeared in a variety of print and digital media, including such diverse publications as the New Jersey Review of Literature, Lucidity, Black Bough, Poetry Magazine, Gareth Blackmore’s Unusual Tales, Demonground, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and others. In 2002 she started her own publishing company, Bards and Sages. The company has gone from having two titles to over one hundred titles between their print and digital products.

Books and libraries...a few things to keep in mind

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:12:00 +0000

A few days ago Michael's Theft of Swords got a starred review from Library Journal and even better was picked as the scifi/fantasy "Debut of the month". Congrats Michael!

When I posted this on kindle boards some responses reminded me of some things that some indie authors might not be aware of so I thought I would bring them up here. Call it some "tips" about libraries.

worldcat.org: can be used to see which libraries are carrying your books. Libraries that participate in the program have their book orders show up on this site. So put in your ISBN and you can see if your book is being carried anywhere.
Recommendations: Whenever you see a post, or get a piece of fan mail that says "too bad your book isn't in the library" or some thing to that effect...write back and tell them to make a request. Libraries will often order books when a patron makes the recommendation - they have a library card in that municipality so their request has more weight.
Recommend it yourself: I know an indie author who sold about 400 books and 350 of them were to libraries. This was a main goal of his so he would spend a bit of each day sending off an email to libraries. He compiled a huge list of libraries and kept track of those who carried the books by watching worldcat.org
Reviews...Most libraries do make their selections based off of the big reviews. These include Library Journal, BookList, Romantic Times, Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal). As an indie author you are not "forbidden" from these lists but it can be pretty daunting as there is only so many slots and your chances of making them are not all that great. If you make a go of it - make sure of a few things: a) You have your own publishing company as the imprint (not CreateSpace, iUniverse, Lulu, or any other organization which will immediately brand you "self-pubbed". b) set a "publication date" far enough out in advance to meet their deadlines - usually most of these places want to get a ARC 3-4 months prior to release so that means keeping your book off the market for a while so that your live date does not coincide with the date they received the book. c) Follow their submission requirements carefully.
Usually you can make some inroads into "local libraries" through recommendations of card carrying fans or your own emails - if you do get selected...go down to the library and introduce yourself in person. Talk to a few of the librarians telling them about your book and that they carry it. Ask if you could leave some free bookmarks for people to pickup at the checkout counter. Ask to give them a free copy to read in the hopes they'll like it and recommend to people who come in. You can even find out if you can do a "in library event" where you talk about your book, or being a writer, or getting published. Libraries love to have events to get people to come in and sometimes they don't have enough resources to pull from.
If you have bookmarks...or business cards...place one of them in a library book of a similar genre books. Choose the "hot title" and someone might stumble upon your book when reading another.

Don't rely on the publisher alone...My hope is that Michael's traditionally published books (Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, Heir of Novron) will be in many libraries once they are released. But...I'm not going to count on it. I'm going to use worldcat to see where they "get in" then do my own promotion to other libraries to increase the exposure.

Just a few things to keep in mind with regards to libraries and using them effectively. I'd love to hear other ideas as well.

Branding #3...product vs. author brand

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:43:00 +0000

I think part of the reason that authors get a bit stumped when it comes to branding is they don't realize the difference between product branding and author branding and only consider one or the other. I'll propose you have to think about both.

Product Brand
Most people understand branding a product - Campbell's Soup, Coca-Cola. When developing the brand for a product you have a few things:

Consistency of design
Consistency of tag line/messaging
Ability for easy classification
Ability for easy recognition

One of the panelists at dragoncon kept mentioning that big, traditional publishers don't do author branding, they only understand product branding and I'd have to agree with this. A lot of the marketing activities are centered around activities such as:

Cover design (product)
Title of book (product)
Tag lines (product)

These are all important activities that need to be done, and done well. If you are self-published you'll have to take over this side of things, but if you are published through another organization they'll take care of this for you.

Author Brand
Is what I've been focusing on in my other posts: Branding where to begin & Branding Part 2 The Basics and we'll have more on this important topic but for now I just want people to realize that there is a distinction between the two so let's get back to product branding.

Covers
Everyone will tell you that a good cover is a key to success and I couldn't agree more. I'll actually do a lot more on covers but today I want to focus on one thing in particular...series. If you are responsible for the covers (self-publishing) the cover is going to be your MOST important branding signal and if they are in a series you have to spend more time planning them out.

I'm going to pick on A.P. Stevens for just a minute. I bumped into him on facebook (which reminds me...please "like me on facebook" as I need to get to 25 likes to add a username (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Robin-Sullivan/177995785609073). In any case he was speaking about his books and a promotion he did and I asked him for a link. here are A.P.'s first two books in his "White Wolf Series":

I gave A.P. a ton of advice about these covers, and I won't repeat it all here except to illustrate one particular point which is I would never think that these two book are book 1 and book 2 of a series.

Messing up the "in a series" branding is not limited to self-published titles. I publish, through Ridan, a great set of books by Leslie Ann Moore. Originally the first two books were published through a company called Avari Press. Here are their covers:

Again, I would never think these are the same two books. Even though the publisher used the same fonts for the titles and author's name the graphics are so different that I can't make any connection. Moreover, the first book looks like some kind of young adult book and the second looks like a Gothic vampire novel.

Now let's look at what Ridan did when we re-released this title.

Now these, not surprisingly are reflecting a single product brand. My litmus test on branding is that if a table was filled with 25 stacks of books could you tell which ones went together. I think people would pretty easily pick these out as "together". They would struggle a bit with the ones from Avari, but because both books start with Griffin and the fonts are the same they might eventually figure it out. In the case of AP's books. I'm not sure I could ever connect the two.

We'll be looking more at covers in future posts but for now these are the points I want you to walk away with:

Your author branding is all about "you" - who you are, what you believe in
Your product brand is separate and you need to present consistent visual cues to the brand
If you have a series of books you have to apply additional care to make sure that your cover design can be coordinated across all the books.

More to come....

Author's Business Cards...Get Them...Use them

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:28:00 +0000

If you don't have business cards for yourself you really should. You can get free cards from VistaPrint (they charge you just for the shipping and put their promotional text on the back), but I recommend Gotprint.com some example pricing from them:

$9.55 - 1,000 cards - 4 color front no back
$11.00 - 1,000 cards - 4 color front and back
$33.50 - 5,000 cards - 4 color front no back
$38.70 - 5,000 cards - 4 color front and back

As you can see there is virtually no difference between doing two sided so splurge. Here are some of my business card recommendations:

Have a picture of your book(s) - This is as high of a priority as your name
Use a QR code - if you don't know what that is see my blog post about them
Use your publishers logo - even if you've made your own publishing company putting a logo on the card will give you some added credibility (people won't know it's your own company)
Don't give out your phone number - as a writer you need to control when/how you are interrupted
Make it easy for them to identify your genre. Your book's graphic should do this for you but if someone (your or your publisher) dropped the ball on this then make sure they know your genre
Have a tagline that differentiates your book from others
Include your twitter, blog, and email - these are all acceptable ways to reach you.

To illustrate good business card design, let's look at Michael's cards:

BACK

Let's analyze what we have here starting with the back:

Michael has three books so putting all of them on the back makes the most sense. If he had two, I'd still use the back but put the QR code next to them. With one, I might be inclined to put the cover on the front and the QR code alone on the back
From the covers there is no mistaking these books from being in the fantasy genre. But we can augment this with a simple tagline which we did. I'll explain this particular tagline in my next post on branding.
I included the URL and the twitter just to round out the back so that it looks like a little standalone ad.

Now the front

Notice both the QR code and his current publisher's logo
The three pieces of information to reach him
A good, well balanced design (feel free to copy it for your own cards)

Once you have the cards here's the important point...get them out there. Here's some tips:

Every time you pay a bill at a restaurant include your card - and tip well!!
Drop them in every "free lunch" drawing you find - someone goes through those cards and just might go - hey this looks interesting. (After all how many times do they meet an author)
See someone on a computer train or bus reading a novel in your genre talk to them for a few seconds and leave your card with them
If you have any casual conversation where you happen to mention that you write don't leave without passing out a card
Are you a speaker at a panel of a conference, tell people to come up afterward and get your card
Going out to dinner with a friend and a bunch of their friends you don't know - given them a card when they ask you "what do you do"

For such a small expense, you really need to get yourself business cards. Make them attractive, and use them often. Besides, on those days when you're feeling kinda blue take out a card and remind yourself what you are in this for.

Branding - Part 2 - The basics

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:08:00 +0000

So, based on some emails from my last post on branding (Branding...where to begin) as well as comments in that post it seems that people struggle with "branding" so let's take a step back.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."

The important part here is distinct. Let's break that down a bit...

Adjective: distinct

(often followed by 'from') not alike; different in nature or quality
Easy to perceive; especially clearly outlined
Constituting a separate entity or part
Recognizable; marked
Clearly or sharply defined to the mind

Starting out this way shows a few things that really resonate with me.

Uniqueness
Just like snowflakes no two people are alike. We are all different from one another. Some conventional wisdom says "align yourself with something people already know". You've heard people pitch their books this way:

It's like Mad Max meets Jaws
A combination of Aliens, Driving Ms Daisy and Benji.
and so on.

While I understand the need to "classify" yourself I think it's better to stand out to spend your limited words on letting people know what about you is different. If we try to brand ourselves by following the brands of others we are "followers" not "leaders.

Easy to perceive; especially clearly outlined
Have you ever watched a television commercial and said to yourself .... I have no idea what they were selling (was it the jeans of the hot guy, the car, his glasses?) This is an example of a message working against what you are attempting. Does it meet the first requirement (unique) probably - but to me this is marketing gone astray. It's done so some big ad exec can put it in their portfolio - look how cutting edge I was...but ultimately did was it effective. Which means did people embrace the product or the idea...nope because they had no idea what you were talking about.

Recognizable; marked
Ah..here's a nice concept. You want to be easy to recognize. You want people to immediately - go - Hey that's from Robin or Michael or whoever. Once you start to become "known" then people will gravitate to you when they see (recognize you).

Clearly or sharply defined in your mind.
This is the final goal...(not sales btw - those are results not goals - thank you Simon Sinek). Your brand is going to give people an impression about you (and later your work). Your goal is to show them what you are.

Some people shudder at the concept of branding...."I don't want to brand I just want to be me" they wail. Well guess what....you're way ahead of the game because that's what branding is ... showing the world who you are and what you're about.

Branding should be effortless. Because all you have to do is be yourself. Since you are here reading this blog we can use me as an example. If I were to think of words that I "hope" people would think about me they would be.

Intelligent
Passionate
Supportive

Did I do market research to determine if these words "resonate with people"? Then carefully craft this blog to showcase this? Nope. I'm simply doing what I do and trying to be self-aware as to my strengths.

But then again - I may be completely delusional. (I've been accused of this in the past). So tell me some of your impressions of me (good and bad) as it will help me to know if I'm on the right track or not and can be used as a baseline for as we go on to the next post on branding.

Branding...where to begin

noreply@blogger.com (Robin Sullivan) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:52:00 +0000

So, at BookExpo America, Dragoncon, and other writer's events I've been to lately all the experts are saying the same thing...branding...branding...branding. But I think many people don't know what means or where to start.

If you want to understand branding - you should be listening to Simon Sinek. (Go to the video page of this blog to see some great things from him. He's really got it right.

Simon points out that many companies or people decide their brand by looking at the marketplace and seeing what is hot or what people are looking for and then they build their brand around that to maximize income...WRONG....buzzer goes off thank you for playing.

Simon's key is that you don't make a brand and try to attract people to it. You find what you believe in, expose your own beliefs, find what gets you excited and what you are passionate about and tell others...this then IS your brand. It's not something you create it is something that you are. Then...and here's the magic...the people you attract will already be aligned with you and you don't need to convince them to do business with you...they'll want to because they belief what you believe.

Sounds simple right? Yes it is but trust me, I've been in business for 30+ years and I can't tell you how many people don't understand this very simple concept. I've worked for many companies that have paid thousands of dollars to bring in consultants to help them create a brand. I've had to pass by posters of "mission statements" that all sound the same...basically a pumped up variation of:

"To be the preeminent supplier of xyz by providing exceptional customer service".

Blah!

This is not a mission. A mission is something that drives you from your toes to your head. What gets you excited about getting out of bed everyday. It's what you enjoy doing more than anything else and devote your whole heart and soul to.

Anyone who had read this blog can see pretty quickly what my passion is:

"To help authors navigate the changes in publishing such that they can quit their day jobs and do what they want to do most ... write for a living and provide inspiration and entertainment for the people who love reading their creations"

So...today's assignment....think long and hard what gets you fired up and make this the cornerstone of your brand. I'll be posting more on brand building over the next few posts.