Amazon Adds Valuable Features Likely to Aide Self-Publishing Authors - Kindle Pre-Order Buttons and Beta Kindle Pricing Support

Amazon has added two new features to its Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard, both of which should be a boon to authors choosing to self-publish. Self-publishing, or indie, authors can now had a pre-order button to their Kindle books, allowing readers to purchase the book before its publication date.

 

Authors now have the option to publish their Kindle edition immediately or use the pre-order button. In the example above, my book will go on sale on September 2, 2014. This has given me four weeks to promote the publication of the book.

To my delight, at the time of this blog posting, the book in question had an overall Amazon sales ranking of 190,012! Hardly a New York Times Bestseller, but given I am a niche author of non-fiction, it might be a good indicator this title is going to do well.

I have no idea exactly how many copies have been pre-ordered as these transactions do not appear on my KDP sales page. I will just have to wait until September 2nd to find out.

The other new feature is the Beta version of "KDP Pricing Support. This feature provides data from Amazon to help guide authors find the most profitable price point for their new Kindle title.

Amazon provides a little drop box that provides very limited information on how it calculates the estimated optimal price, but given the company's normal secrecy about data, it does provide a little insight into what helps drive sales for a title.

In addition to the graphic data, you have the ability, it appears, to do some research of comparable titles and to simply select the price Amazon believes to be the optimal price point for your book. You are also free not to choose the price and determine your own price.

 

This is the Beta version of this feature, but for those authors looking to maximize earnings, it could take the guessing and experimentation needed out of the pricing process, allowing authors to obtain the best possible earnings from the start.

Since you can have the KDP feature estimate your optimal price for your without having to adopt the price point suggested, you can go through your backlist and see what Amazon KDP thinks the optimal price for any single title is. To my delight, it suggested I raise some of my prices by a considerable amount!

For other titles that I have been struggling to promote, the feature not only suggested a lower price in an amount I would not have guessed, but provides estimates of how the price change will raise profits or impact sales in the form of +/- percentages. It is interesting to note how lower prices increase sales and profits. For some books, high prices decrease sales, but increase profits. 

Both of these features, particularly the pre-order button, are welcome additions for self-published and indie authors.

Following the Amazon-Hachette Dispute? Here are a few interesting posts!

Just trying to keep up with what is going on in the Amazon-Hachette contract negotiations can make your head spin. Amazon is being vilified by Hachette and some well known authors and author groups. Since high stakes contract negotiations are very seldom carried out in public, Amazon's letter published today is enlightening.

For some informative reading about this dispute and what it may mean to authors, both traditionally and self-published as well as the publishing industry in general, you may want to check the blog posts I have linked to below.

Amazon's Latest Proposal

Hachette Complains in Public

Amazon Makes Offer to Authors

Konrath Takes on Chuck Wendig

This fight seems to have divided authors and there is plenty to be concerned about for our industry in the long term. Even for those of us who are indies or self-published, the outcome of this fight will have some kind of impact on our publishing efforts down the road.

Updating Your Kindle Edition Book!

Since I write non-fiction, from time-to-time it is necessary to update the content of my books to reflect recent changes. With a traditional off-set press run this means selling out the entire press run or having to absorb the cost of remaindering the unsold copies.

One of the beauties of eBooks is this is not that big a problem. Books can be updated as necessary. Amazon even has information on its site to help in the process.

The great thing about this technical capability is you are able to update your books for prior customers! What a great "customer service" tool! Readers of non-fiction work who value the information will be impressed, or they should be, by the fact you as an author work to continue to provide the reader with the most current information possible. Over time this should result in more sales!

Rather than trying to tell you how each step in the process works, I have provided links to each of the above topics/pages on Amazon's site.

Changing Your Converted Text

Changing Your Cover Image

Changing Your Book Details

Notifying Customers of Book Updates

I have an updated edition of one of my best selling Kindle books that should be ready for re-release/updating in a month. I am interested to see how the process plays out and would love to hear from any readers who have successfully done this. Comments on the process, positive or negative, would be greatly appreciated.

DOJ Lawsuit Good for Authors! It Is Not Always About Amazon!

"I applaud the Department of Justice. The DoJ lawsuit is good for authors and good for readers. The alleged conspiracy wasn’t just intended to keep Apple down, the DoJ complaint makes clear it was intended to keep down the royalties paid to successful authors as well." (read post this quote was taken from)

When I first read about the Department of Justice class action lawsuit against Apple and the Legacy publishers who colluded (allegedly) to establish the agency model of pricing, I immediately thought here comes the conspiracy theories about Amazon being behind this to be followed with the bemoaning of the fate of the publishing industry if the DoJ wins the lawsuit.

Then I read Morris Rosenthal's weekly blog, the quote from which is posted above with a link to read the rest of Morris' blog post. It would seem there is an overlooked factor in the case that most self-published authors who dislike Amazon would do well to note. So would all of the traditionally published authors who take the side of the Legacy Publishers against Amazon.

Part of the alleged conspiracy included not only price fixing, elimination of competition, etc, among the parties involved, but an organized effort to keep payments to authors as low as possible. In other words, binding the mouth of the Ox who turns the grindstone!  

Authors, not publishers, create the content  that publishing companies sell. Yes, they have a hand in the editing, design, marketing, etc, but the publishers do not create the content. The only real value they have these days is some control of a distribution system, but with print-on-demand and eBooks, that is of little real value these days as well, at least for the self-published author.

Why shouldn't the authors receive more of the money from the sale of eBooks? There is almost no expense involved in publishing an eBook and there is certainly no expense for physical production or physical distribution. There is plenty of money for everyone, it would just seem the publishers don't want to pay a reasonable and fair share to the very people the publishers rely on for creation of the product the publisher sells.

It would seem a bit short sighted on the part of the publisher. If I was a traditionally published author whose books sold well, I would have to take a look at self-publishing if my publisher was trying to make certain that I, and other authors, did not receive fair compensation for creation of the product the publishers sells, book content.

Amazon and Barnes and Nobel may be just playing nice for now with their large royalty rates they currently offer to authors who self-publish their eBooks with these two online book retailers (70% and 65% respectively when following pricing guidelines established by these two competing companies) to get authors to publish content directly and with no middleman taking a cut. Who knows what will happen down the road in the future.

Given the lack of cost involved in the production and distribution of eBooks, it is inexcusable for publishers to collude to pay as little as possible to the content makers, authors. In fact, it might have seemed like a good idea at the moment, but it is a bad long term policy. These entities are biting the hand that produces what feeds them all, the authors.

Books still need editing, good designs and quality covers. But all of this can be done by the author by hiring freelance editors, artists and individuals skilled in book design. Most authors today, self-published or not, have to do the lion's share of promoting and marketing the book, so what real aid to a mid-list author does a legacy publisher provide?

If the allegations in the DoJ suit are true concerning the collusion to keep payment to authors as low as possible, the anti-Amazon crowd may need to rethink their position. At least Amazon recognizes where the content comes from and will pay authors better than the traditional publishers do.

This lawsuit bears following by all individuals who have a iron in the fire. The outcome will have significant impact on the writing/content creation as well as publishing sides of the industry.

Understanding the Discounting Process for Self-Published Books

Ever feel confused about how to "discount" your book to retailers, wholesalers and distributors? It can certainly be a difficult issue to understand.

Joel Friedlander has an excellent post, with many valuable comments from experienced self-published authors on his blog, The Book Designer. To read the post and accompanying comments, click here.

Updates on Self-Publishing

There are so many blogs about self-publishing it can be hard to keep up with reading about the industry. Of course, there is the added issue of which blogs are worth visiting on a regular basis. Aaron Shepard is one of the foremost experts on self-publishing. 

Periodically Aaron posts interesting articles about issues of importance or interest to self-publishing authors as well as updates to his books about self-publishing. To save the readers of this blog a bit of time, here are links to some of Aaron's recent posts about the industry as well as some updates to his books on self-publishing.

The "Biggest Problem with Lightning Source"

www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#LightningSourceproblem

Updates for "Perfect Pages"


http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#Pagesquickies


"Is Lightning Source Cheating You?"


http://www.newselfpublishing.com/LightningSourceCheating.html

Quickie Updates for POD for Profit

http://www.newselfpublishing.com/blog/#PODquickies


Plan B


http://www.newselfpublishing.com/PlanB.html

Morris Rosenthal is another interesting individual who is a valuable source of information on self-publishing and entrepreneurship as an author. Authors who sell their books online and offer non-fiction ebooks to specialty topics would do well to visit his site often to see what Morris has to say. Lately, Morris has been focused on the changes in Google and the impact this has on rankings for non-fiction authors, ebook sales and the impact on changes in use of information.

Some blog articles of interest:

ebook Sales Multipliers

http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1706

The Disposable Information Culture

http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1469

Using Free Kindle Books for Marketing

http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1661

I hope you find these links interesting and helpful.

Some Blog Posts to Read: eBook Pricing, Bookflation and JA Konrath Stirs the Pot!

These three blog posts were interesting, informative and in the case of some of Mr. Konrath's post, entertaining. Worthwhile reading regardless for authors who self-publish.

Interesting blog piece from Ireland on pricing for eBooks:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/0221/1224312113036.html

Morris Rosenthal's look at book prices and book sales over the past ten years:

http://www.fonerbooks.com/selfpublishing/?p=1644

In his own unique style, eBook pioneer J.A. Konrath stirs the pot for those who think legacy publishing is a good deal. The comments are worth reading as well.

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/02/do-legacy-publishers-treat-authors.html

Is Self-Publishing Still Self-Publishing?

Morris Rosenthal, one of the "godfathers" of the self-publishing industry has a really thought provoking blog post this week. He makes an interesting argument that many self-publishers are really Amazon publishers or write for Amazon Publishing. 

It is well worth reading and thinking about what Morris has to say.  Click here to go to his blog post.

The Law of Supply and Demand and the Increase in Popularity of the Kindle

I began offering Kindle versions of some of my books when CreateSpace initially offered their Kindle Conversion service for the low price of $69. This service is for books already published using CreateSpace so my lone book with Lightning Source had to be converted by another service. I choose to use eBook Architects for that project and while it cost more, the results were excellent and I received a file for the Nook as part of the purchase.

Kindle sales have grown to the point that I sell more Kindle books per month than POD and the revenue is starting to add up. Despite my fears, and the fears of some authors, offering both POD and Kindle versions does not seem to have hurt sales of the more profitable print versions.

So, as I prepare for the three peak months of the year for sales, I have been considering which of my  unconverted back list  titles are worth the investment of converting to Kindle. Since I have sold a grand total of one book for the BN Nook, the cost of having a title converted to a Nook friendly format is just not worth the investment at the moment.

Why not just have all of the titles done by CreateSpace? Well, it would seem there is a catch now. The conversion is just $69 IF you don't have charts, photographs, graphics, etc. Most of my books do and this dramatically increases the cost.

I have been shopping around looking for a balance between quality, cost and time required to do the conversion. CreateSpace is still the best bet for me. I have been happy with the results thus far and the price is still the best. Working with the customer service people and the actual teams that do the conversion work has become easier now that phone service is readily available.

What I have noticed in prices and waiting periods for work to be done seems to indicate the future in self-publishing is in ebooks if not the Kindle. The law of supply and demand says if demand outstrips supply, price goes up. This certainly seems to be the case with Kindle conversion services. The reputable companies that have positive references have all increased their prices and the time required to perform the conversions.

This would indicate more and more books are being converted to Kindle editions and the demands placed on the reputable companies for their services are driving prices and conversion times upward. If this trend continues there are some important implications for self-publishing authors.

First, as more books are offered in the Kindle format, the competition for Kindle sales will increase. For me, this means I need to convert my books to Kindle as soon as possible so I can promote my books and build their sales rankings at Amazon. As new books entire the market, the new books have to compete with mine for sales ranking position, not the other way around.

Print-on-demand will become the second option in printing, although it will remain to be more profitable until the Kindle pricing structure offered by Amazon changes. I doubt off-set printing will be used by self-publishing authors in the future.

Last, the low entry costs of publishing books in the Kindle format will increase as the demand for conversion services increases. The only way around this cost increase is to learn to do the conversion yourself. After several attempts, I have given up and will simply pay for the service. My time is too valuable to me.

Who knows what self-publishing ebooks will be like in just one calendar year from now. As much as I love paper books, I have not purchased one in nearly a year. I carry around about 100+ Kindle books in my small Kindle device.

Now if I can just figure out how to project material from my Kindle in my classroom for my students, that will be something.

What's Going on With Amazon and Lightning Source? I'll Be Moving My Book to CreateSpace

I really don't like being treated like I am irrelevant, even if I am. I don't like being told what to do. Does anyone? For the most part, I like Amazon. As an Amazon customer I have no complaints. Amazon deserves its reputation as a customer centric business. 

As a CreateSpace customer I have no complaints. There have been problems at times, but CreateSpace has always resolved the problem to my satisfaction. Today, in a day and age where talking to a human on the phone to resolve a customer problem is rare, I talked to not one, but three, CreateSpace employees! Questions answered and issue resolved in less than 7 minutes!

Right now I am not very happy with Amazon as a tiny self-publisher. My best selling book, Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball, is my lone book with Lightning Source. June is a terrible month for books sales for me, yet this title sold briskly. In fact, Amazon sold out its entire stock of the book.

At the time, I watched with interest as the number of books listed as remaining in stock dwindled, and in the month of June no less! Then it happened. The dreaded notice of ships in 2 to 3 weeks appeared. Amazon did not order copies to replace those it had just sold.

To make matters worse, August is when coaches go back to school and sales for this title begin to pick up with a peak for the year in the months of October, when practice starts, November and December. Now is not the time for this book to not be available.

Thank goodness for the Kindle version as it is selling well, but I still sell about 4 POD copies to each Kindle copy. At least I did until Amazon seemingly pulled the plug on Lightning Source.

It would seem I am not the only author experiencing this change with books printed and distributed through Lightning Source. Amazon has quietly been allowing its stock of books from LSI to sell out and then list as shipping in two or three weeks. Amazon is not talking about this current business tactic and there are quite a few self-published authors who use LSI and rely on Amazon for the bulk of their sales. LSI, when asked, is not more forthcoming with details either.

After following the ongoing discussion at the POD Publishers group on Yahoo, I have decided to utilize what Aaron Shepard refers to on his blog post on this important subject as Plan B. I am moving my book to CreateSpace for Amazon sales and leaving the title at LSI for Barnes and Nobles sales. I won't make as much per copy, but I will be selling copies.

Barnes and Noble does not generate very many sales for any of my titles and I doubt, after spending 2.5 years of "Aiming at Amazon" I can drive my sales to B and N in time to take advantage of the annual peak buying season for this title. I think my time and efforts are better spent writing more books and doing other things.

I have worked to hard to let this book die before it is ready. As of this morning it held the number four spot in the search rankings for books on the topic of coaching basketball. With no sales in the last three weeks, it won't be long before the title begins to decline in its sales ranking.

One consolation is I will be able to obtain copies directly from CreateSpace at a lower cost per copy than LSI. I sell copies when I speak at coaching clinics so this is an advantage of sorts. At least that is what I am telling myself.

More than the slightly lower profit per copy, I don't like being forced to go to "Plan B." I don't like being not informed by Amazon what is going on and I like even less like my tiny publishing firm are unimportant (though in the grand scheme of things it is and I know it). This is my business. I have worked hard and invested many hours and money that could have been spent elsewhere.

I am certain I am not the only self-published author who has watched in horror the events of the past four to six weeks as Amazon has put this plan into effect. Our efforts matter to us and Amazon could at least communicate in some form what is happening and if this is a permanent change or not.

In the mean time, I don't feel like I have a choice. This book is too valuable to me to let it die because of a change in Amazon stocking policy. So, I will do what must be done and make the change.

Amazon, love it and hate it. What's a self-publisher to do? Even if CreateSpace is owned by Amazon, at least I like them and you can talk to someone at CreateSpace.

A Glitch at Lightning Source? CreateSpace Chugging Along! Thank Goodness for Kindle!

My best selling book, Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball, has hit the skids at Amazon. The glitch appears to be with Lightning Source and no one can seem to give me an answer as to what is going on. Normally, you will see in red letters an encouragement from Amazon to buy the book as only so many copies are left in stock! Nice push from Amazon.

In the past, as soon as the number of copies Amazon had sitting in a warehouse got down to two or three Amazon would stock up again, especially in the months of October, November and December. Now, sales have come to a screeching halt and an examination of the product listing shows the book will ship in 2 or 3 weeks.

The issue seems to be with Lightning Source and not Amazon. July is a slow month for books sales to begin with but when the book is your best selling title, you never like to see anything stand in the way of sales any time of the year.

All of my titles at CreateSpace are listed as available, in stock or with so many copies remaining in stock. A quick check of my Member Dashboard shows the books that usually sell this time of year are doing so and are selling through Amazon for the most part.

While I make less per sale, at least my Kindle edition of Game Strategy and Tactics for Basketball is still selling. Note to self, finish converting your remaining titles to Kindle editions as well.

CreateSpace is so much easier to use than Lightning Source that if it were not for the ability to set a short discount I would not use Lightning Source at all. I also had a support question for CreateSpace that was answered with in 12 hours. I still do not know what the issue at LSI is and it has been over a week since the issue cropped up.

Will keep you informed when this is resolved.

The Truth About Creating Brands People Love - A Book Review

The Truth About Creating Brands People Love, by Brian Till and Donna Heckler, is available from Amazon as a Kindle book, retailing for $9.99, and as a trade paperback selling for about $14. I purchased the Kindle version of this book, not thinking of it as a book for authors, but rather for the other parts of my fledgling business.

I was wrong to think creating a brand was not something important for a writer to consider. For fiction and non-fiction writers, brand creation is an important issue for one simple reason, we all want repeat customers! Readers who purchase books written by a single author have identified with the brand created by the author.  How many of us have waited with anticipation for the next novel by our favorite fiction writer or have purchased everything written by a non-fiction author who is an expert on a topic of concern or interest to us? These authors have successfully created a strong brand readers identify with.

Brand management, and brand creation, is not a common sense topic though it seems like it should be. Successful brands have behind them a great deal of planning, research and hard work. Companies, and authors, with successful brands work hard to maintain and protect the carefully crafted brand. A successful brand is worth more than its weight in gold!

The authors share a total of 51 truths about creating successful brands. Each of these truths is essentially a stand alone chapter in its own right yet the authors have sequenced the chapters in a logical order.

Each chapter is well written, easy to understand and provides useful information for the reader, regardless of the whether the reader has a background in business and marketing or not.

Without being a spoiler, I will say the material in this book makes very good sense, yet it is not "common sense" information for the most part. I am reading the book for a third time and have nearly filled up a legal pad with notes on things I need to do or change with my business and approach to self-publishing. It has been money well spent.

The Self-publishing Revolution: POD Paperbooks and eBooks - How Big Is The Change?

I write non-fiction books for a niche specialty market. Initially, all of my books were available as trade paperbacks only and were printed utilizing print-on-demand technology. Three of those titles are now available as Kindle books with two more titles in the process of being converted. Five years ago, for me to have published my books would have required a contract with a traditional publisher or an expensive outlay of capital on my part to have a off-set press run of books printed if I chose to self-publish.

Technology has changed everything and Amazon and Barnes and Noble have given me access to customers I could not have obtained any other way. eBooks are further changing the publishing industry and self-publishing does not bear the stigma it once did. In fact, I expect in the future to see larger and larger numbers of authors self-publishing, either via Amazon's Kindle or another format or with POD services such as Amazon's CreateSpace.

Amanda Hocking and J.A. Konrad have made names for themselves as self-publishers who are experiencing success writing genre fiction and selling their work themselves via outlets such as Amazon's Kindle. A quick read of Konrad's blog for authors will let you see just how big an advocate Konrad has become of self-publishing. Mr. Konrad is making a living as a self-published author and not looking back and encourages others to consider self-publishing as well.

How big of an impact has self-publishing and eBooks made on the publishing industry? It is hard to tell. In fact, the big players in the industry do not know the answer to that question themselves. One thing is for certain, self-publishing using either print-on-demand technology or eBooks is here to stay. The publishing houses who make peace with this fact and adapt will survive. Those publishing houses who do not, will go the way of the dinosaur.

What does this mean for the average self-published author? Who knows. We all dream of our book becoming a bestseller, or at least making a reasonable sum of money, but for most of us, the truth is we will be lucky if we sell a few hundred copies of our book. The public, and not the large publishing houses, are the "gate keepers" of quality in books, a fact the large publishing houses seem to not understand.

Some things in the industry will not change. If the book is not a good one, it won't sell. The author must have a sound marketing plan and execute the plan with vigor and aggression. Technology is making this easier than ever before for self-published authors, but the fact remains, there is no substitute for a good book, a good marketing and promotional plan and hard work. As authors we live in interesting times.

Bashing Amazon

I enjoy reading the Yahoo POD Publishers Message Board. I have learned a great deal of helpful information from the other authors, small publishers and self-publishing authors who visit and post on this message board. The board is well moderated with an even hand on allowing authors communicate to preventing flame wars from starting.

Periodically a string of posts will start with the purpose of bashing Amazon. The stream of thought ranges from Amazon is an evil corporate giant whose only goal is monopolistic control and domination of the publishing industry or to loot the reading public and authors of every dime possible. Other threads include how Amazon cheats small publishers and/or self-publishers and when Amazon is done destroying the legacy publishers their next target will be to crush the little guys.

When I read this sort of stuff I have to wonder what these authors/publishers are thinking. Yes, Amazon takes a chunk of the sale. Why shouldn't they? If it had not been for Amazon, the sale would not have taken place! How many self-published authors are able to sell their books in a traditional brick and mortar bookstore? 

How can a self-published author make the existence of his or her book known and available to literally millions of customers? How much money does Amazon save self-publishers with its shipping and distribution system? 

I use CreateSpace, owned by Amazon, as my POD service and most of my sales come from Amazon, which means Amazon makes money off me printing the book and gets a cut of the sale. Once a month Amazon electronically deposits my profits in my bank account. Once the book is in print, I don't do anything except promote the book, which I would have to do if the book were sold in traditional bookstores. Then there are the sales of my Amazon Kindle books as well and the income generated from this revenue stream is growing slowly but steadily each month.

Amazon also provides us with tools to market our books and through Associate sales to make a little bit extra as well. Why do some people have a hard time understanding Amazon is entitled to its share of the take? Amazon's investors have a lot of money tied up in the infrastructure that makes all of this possible. Amazon does its share of the work in the process of selling and delivering our books to readers. Amazon has earned the right to get paid.

If it were not for Amazon, I would not be able to make money writing and selling books. It is that simple. Why do some authors and publishers want to bite the hand that feeds when Amazon provides the little guy with something the old publishing system never allowed, access to customers on a level playing field? Human nature is a strange thing at times.

Graphics on the Kindle by Manuel Burgos - A Review

Like many self-publishing authors, I entered the industry when print-on-demand made it possible for us to make decent money by self-publishing. Amazon gave us accesss to readers and the ability to market and promote our books. The Amazon Kindle has given us another profitable means to access readers and sell our work. 

In the seemingly endless learning curve self-publishers face, I have been spending time learning as much as I can about the new technology of the Amazon Kindle, how to create books for Kindle, pricing and marketing strategies. 

My three books now available as Kindle books had very little in the way of graphics. The fourth book in my list of books I plan to convert has nearly 80 diagrams. In order for readers to readily understand the content, the diagrams need to be clear and easy to understand. I plan to pay to have this book converted to a Kindle ready file.

With an eye towards understanding how to better prepare graphics for future books, both Kindle and print-on-demand versions, I obtained a copy of Manuel Burgos Kindle book, Graphics on the Kindle, now in its 2nd edition. Like most short Kindle books, the price is low, a reasonable $3.99.

The book contains and introduction and four chapters. These segments include a basic overview of how e-ink in the Kindle works, the shades that can be reproduced and the needed technology. Also covered how to prepare images, using clip-art, special effects and file preparation.  Burgos provides a section that includes sample images and the book itself has graphics interspersed throughout.

What the book does not provide is ideas about the creative use of the technology to produce the best possible graphics. How does an author determine the best way to present the graphic? I realize this is the artistic part of graphic design, but it is certainly the area I struggle with the most.

Did I get my money's worth? I feel like I did. Is this book the final answer to everything you will need to know about creating and using graphics for your Kindle book file. I don't think so.

If I decide to tackle creating my own files for Kindle, I feel like this short book is a good start to learn how to produce the diagrams my books require. For anything beyond placing the graphics in the file, I will probably have to resort to a source of information dealing with the creative use of graphics to obtain the best possible means to convey information.

Goal Setting and Self-Publishing - Ten Goal Setting Guidelines

Simply deciding to self-publish a book is a necessary first step in becoming an author. Moving in the direction of actually getting the manuscript written, book production accomplished, developing a distribution and marketing plan and finally getting the book sold and making money is another issue all together. Each of these stages requires a great deal of work and at any point in the process the author may despair and give up. Using a well defined set of goals aides greatly in the process of motivating an author to finish these tasks AND  doing a good job in a timely manner. 

Years of experience as a coach have taught me the great value of appropriate use of goals. While setting goals is not rocket science, it is not as simple as saying I have a goal to self-publish a book. There is more to it. What follows are ten simple guidelines for authors to use in setting goals to aid in the goal setting process.

Ten Goal Setting Guidelines for Self-publishing Authors

1) Set Challenging but Realistic Goals

Goals that too easy are not motivating and will cause the individual to lose interest. Goals that are unrealistic will have the same effect. Find the balance between the two types and the goals will be powerful motivators to achieve the desired outcome or performance.

2) Goals Must be Specific and Focused

Broad general goals have little to no impact. Set very specific goals that are focused on a single objective, skill or task.

3) Goals Must be Measurable

Goals that cannot be measured are goals that cannot motivate. How can you tell if you have achieved the goal or are making progress towards the goal unless it is measurable?

4) Goals Must be Written

Write your goals down. Post the goals somewhere prominent where they can be seen. Review the written goals. There is something about the act of writing goals down and seeing the goals that makes them more real and important.

5) Effective Goals Have a Deadline

Set a realistic deadline. This provides a sense of urgency to accomplish the tasks necessary to achieve the goal.

6) Effective Goals are Flexible

Things happen. Sometimes goals, deadlines or the focus of a goal need to be changed. It is not the end of the world. Be willing to be adaptable and flexible.

7)  Effective Goal Setting Utilizes a Series of Smaller, Sequential Goals Progressing Towards the Ultimate Goal

Finishing a book and getting it to market is a big goal. It is so big and so distant it can seem unachievable. To prevent becoming discouraged, and to truly use goals effectively, set intermediate goals that lead to the achievement of the ultimate goal. Set a goal of a specific number of pages a day to be written, a goal to have the marketing plan finished by a specific date or to set up your Kindle publishing account or POD service account. All of these are steps in the process of ultimately seeing your book in print and in the hands of your readers.

8) Effective Goals are Performance Oriented

Outcome goals are important. But failure to achieve an outcome goal can crush the dream. Performance goals are more helpful and provide guidance in the process of performing the tasks required to achieve the ultimate outcome goal.

9) You Must Determine Your Own Goals

You have to set your own goals. Goals established for you by someone else do not have the same meaning or motivation.

10) Effective Use of Goals Requires Evaluation and Follow-up

Once you have succeeded, or sadly failed, in achieving your goal, effective goal setting requires evaluation and follow-up. Which goals worked and which failed? Why? Follow-up on everything you learn in this stage of the process. The information obtained will be valuable for the next project.

Amazon and the Self-Publishing Author

Why is Amazon the friend of the self-publisher?

Amazon allows self-publishing authors the same access to customers as the major publishing houses. Unlike bookstores who often shun self-published books, Amazon not only allows self-published books to be sold from its site, it allows self-published books to be sold on an equal footing as traditionally published books from established publishing houses.

Why should I target all of my sales at Amazon?

Self-publishing authors are treated as equals by Amazon; there is no discrimination or bias against self-published books. Access to Amazon customers is equal for every book listed. Another major reason for directing sales to Amazon is the more a book sells, the more Amazon will promote the book. The more Amazon promotes the book, the higher the book shows up in searches increasing the number of sales of the book. It is called a virtuous cycle, a sales multiplier. Combined with POD printing and distribution through either Lightning Source or Amazon’s own CreateSpace, self-publishing authors do not have to maintain inventory, handle order fulfillment or other tasks that can tie up capital, time and create overhead expenses.

This is just a very limited answer to this important question. To fully understand the answer to this question three books are suggested: Aiming at Amazon and POD for Profit by Aaron Shepard and Print-on-Demand Book Publishing by Morris Rosenthal.

What is Author Central?

It is the access point for authors to communicate with Amazon. It is the site where authors may make corrections to information concerning their books, list their books and set up their Author Page for interested readers to visit.

The above information was excerpted from 301 Frequently Asked Questions About Self-Publishing

New Resource and Guide for Self-Publishing Authors!

Christy Pinheiro is the author of the blog about self-publishing titled the The Publishing Maven and the book The Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing for Profit. Christy has taken the time to assemble a valuable resource for self-publishing authors titled the The Indie Book Reviewer Yellow Pages: A Low Cost Marketing Resource for Independent and Self-Published Books. 

Rather than describe this useful resource, it is much simpler for me to direct you to Christy's blog where you can read her announcement of the upcoming release of the second edition of this resource.

Pricing and Marketing a New Kindle Title

Since posting about my efforts at marketing my two Kindle titles and the next title seemingly to be ready by mid-March, I have spent even more time considering approaches to launching a new Kindle, but old POD title.

The idea of selling a book at a greatly reduced price to launch it is not one I embrace for print titles. Please note, when I discuss pricing strategy to launch a new title, I am referring to sales on Amazon. I have adopted the sales strategy advocated by Aaron Shepard in his excellent book Aiming at Amazon. Simply summarized, this strategy advocates driving all sales to Amazon. The more the book sells on Amazon, the more Amazon's computers promote the book. It has the added benefits of Amazon collecting the funds and handling fulfillment of the order as well, reducing costs on my end.

For some reason, changing a price of a POD book does not result in a quick price change on Amazon and it can have a negative impact on the amount of the discount Amazon provides for the title. On the other hand, when I changed the price of my Kindle titles the price change went into effect quickly and since neither of the two titles was discounted it had no impact on the level of discount offered by Amazon.

This leads me to believe introductory offers of a new Kindle title with an announced short life span might be an effective strategy to drive early sales of a new Kindle title. Readers who are interested in the topic or genre of the book are encouraged to make the impulse purchase knowing the low introductory price is only available for a short period of time. A good amount of early sales will help to drive the search results in the Amazon computer's in a positive direction, resulting in better long term sales results.

My quandary is should this approach be used for the introduction of a Kindle title that is my best seller in POD format and already has an excellent ranking in search results?  Why is this an issue when this marketing tactic worked effectively for my other titles? The answer is those two titles were not selling in the POD format. Kindle sales are what has driven the improvement in POD sales. This title already sells well and in the back of my mind I have concerns the Kindle version might rob the POD sales. 

The linking of the Kindle version with the POD version will take place fairly shortly and should help drive early Kindle sales as well.

When I reach my final conclusion, I will share it with the readers of this blog and I will also share the results of my initial marketing efforts in terms of sales.

Formatting Your POD Book for Amazon’s Kindle – Obtaining the Needed Skills

There are costs in self-publishing. An author can pay large sums of money to have a book typeset, edited, marketed, a unique cover and interior designed, cover scribing created among a few services available for a fee in the self-publishing world. Now the cost of converting the interior file from a print version to a Kindle ready version can be added to the list of cost considerations for authors.

As with nearly everything in the self-publishing world, an author can learn how to do almost any task involved in preparing a book for publication, if the author is willing to invest the time, and in some cases money, to acquire the skills necessary to do the job. I do believe editing one’s own manuscript is not the best approach to creating the best possible book, so plan to have someone else edit the manuscript.

Self-publishing is a business and costs are important. Saving money in the production of a book can cost money in the long run if the quality of the book’s design is poor, resulting in fewer sales than possible. Kindle readers can be quite harsh in their reviews on Amazon if they don’t like the quality of the interior of the book. Poor reviews can kill sales of an otherwise good book for sale on Amazon.

I currently have two titles available in Kindle versions. The first title I converted myself and loaded it on the Amazon Kindle Direct Platform. To my horror, when I opened the file to examine how the book would look on a Kindle, the results were disastrous. I quickly shelled out the money to pay CreateSpace to do the conversion work and the results were professional. My original effort is now where ever it is electrons go when they have been deleted on the internet.

As a matter of adapting to the ever changing world of self-publishing, my business model has been modified to plan for the costs of paying for professional conversions of my print files into Kindle ready files for all new titles I self-publish.

In looking at my backlist of nearly fourteen titles, some of which have not sold well in POD format, I am wondering which are worthy of the investment of limited funds to have a professional conversion done. I believe the content contained in each is worth what I charge for the book, but as anyone in the publishing industry will tell you if they are honest, some books will simply be duds in terms of sales.

It is my hope low priced Kindle versions will create sales where there have been few and some positive reviews will increase both Kindle and POD sales. Or course this is a gamble. The money invested in creating the Kindle version does not mean the title will sell, in any version.

My decision as the CEO of my little empire is I will invest money in my backlist titles that have sold enough POD copies to earn a profit. The rest, I will attempt to convert the files myself to create Kindle versions. 

All things technical cause me some stress. I readily admit to not being a techie and it takes this old dog a bit of time to learn new tricks on the computer. My youngest daughter could probably learn how to complete the conversion in a few hours (perhaps I should get her to learn how to do it!). So, I have set out to learn as much as I can about the conversion process in hopes of acquiring the needed skills.

Fortunately, there are several inexpensive books available in Kindle format on exactly how to do the needed conversion! I plan to read, review and share my thoughts on the three books on creating Kindle ready files I have obtained in the coming weeks and hope the readers of this blog find the reviews helpful.

The first book I plan to review is Morris Rosenthal’s Kindle Formatting in Word: Illustrated Kindle Tag Tips to Accompany a Blog Post.