Is it time to fire Kindle?

Open the book or I won't get paid for writing it!

Amazon announced a new way to pay authors for Kindle book sales... Based on pages read. So you better start writing great books and bigger books if you want to earn more than a few pennies.

Direct quote from Amazon site: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A156OS90J7RDN

Beginning July 1, 2015, we'll switch from paying Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners' Lending Library (KOLL) royalties based on qualified borrows, to paying based on the number of pages read. We're making this switch in response to great feedback we received from authors who asked us to better align payout with the length of books and how much customers read. Under the new payment method, you'll be paid for each page individual customers read of your book, the first time they read it.

Royalty payments under the new program

As with our current approach, we'll continue to set a KDP Select Global Fund each month. Under the new payment method, the amount an author earns will be determined by their share of total pages read instead of their share of total qualified borrows.

Read more if you wish. And consider the challenges ahead, as we ask people to turn pages, not just store books on their device. If they don't read it, you don't get royalties!!!

If you are the optimist who finds something good about this, please add a comment below to enlighten the rest of us.

Patient Confidential

Happy to see a client's book zoom into the top 100 in his category!   Congratulations to Rich Lang, author of Patient Confidential.

·         Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

   #99 in Books > Business & Money > Insurance > Health

Essential reading for your first and every hospital/doctor interaction.

Amazon launches Kindle for Kids

This might be a good time to re-issue a children's book in digital format.

Amazon has announced https://kdp.amazon.com/kids

Kindle Kids' Book Creator: 

Import illustrations, add pop-ups and preview your illustrated kids book with Kindle Kids' Book Creator.

 

Age and Grade Tools: 

Help parents choose the right books for their kids. Use our Age and Grade tools to reach the right audience.

 

Marketing Tools: 

Benefit from Amazon's powerful marketing tools and global distribution. Enroll in KDP Select to get more promotional benefits.

Here’s the link… https://kdp.amazon.com/kids and a “Get Started” button with more details. 

Learn how now... https://kdp.amazon.com/how-to-publish-childrens-books?ref_=GS

 

Author marketing ideas to last all through 2014

This collection of 89 good marketing ideas comes from Caitlin Muir, a social media maven.

http://www.authormedia.com/89-book-marketing-ideas-that-will-change-your-life/

Instead of being overwhelmed by 89 more things you should be doing, consider tackling just one category per week or month.  The categories themselves will help keep you organized...

1. Increase your web presence

2. Build your fan base
 
3. Cultivate community
 
4. Make some extra money:  (Note her reference to MyBookTable, a WordPress plug-in you can use to sell books and make affiliate money from online book sales.)

Also, on a related topic, Amazon previously refused to keep Illinois authors in their Associates program, where you could earn money by leading people to amazon to buy your book. They have now reached an agreement with Illinois to allow authors back in the program. This would be in addition to what you might do using the MyBookTable plug-in from WordPress, which would allow you to also sell your books directly, not just through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. 

Good luck!
 

Oh, say it isn't so...

This just in from Publishers Weekly today...

Amazon Poised to Sell Used E-books

Amazon’s business model has long been dependent on resellers of used books and other merchandise. But a U.S. patent that Amazon Technologies in Reno, Nev., received last week indicates that the mega-retailer has its sights on digital resale, including used e-books and audio downloads. According to the abstract, Amazon will be able to create a secondary market for used digital objects purchased from an original vendor by a user and stored in a user’s personalized data store.

Comments?

If you have a book on Amazon, make sure you use your free Author Page

Amazon Author Pages   (courtesy of Amazon)

Amazon Author Pages are a great way to keep your readers up to date about you and your work. You can create your Author Pages on Amazon.com and many of its European websites though Amazon Author Central. You must create a separate Author Page on each of the websites you want to appear. You can sign up for your Amazon Author Pages at each of the following sites:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.fr

On your Author Pages, provide a concise and meaningful author biography to help your readers get to know you. You can also upload a photograph and videos, add your Twitter handle, and even highlight events you may be attending. Author Pages also bring together all of your work as an author in one place, which helps customers discover more of your books. Use Amazon Author Pages to make a direct connection with your audience.

My author page is nothing special, but you can view it here if you want a sample:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BMFK78

Helen Gallagher

A quick holiday tip from Amazon to get your books noticed for fast holiday sales...

Here's a quick holiday tip from Amazon on getting your books noticed for fast holiday sales...

From Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing Newsletter

Tip of the Month:
Prepare your Book(s) for the Holidays

The holidays are fast approaching, and that means millions of Kindles will be delivered over the next several weeks. There are some simple steps you can take to be sure your book(s) are ready for all these new readers that will be looking for books to read. First, publish your book! Be sure that it is well edited, proofread, and properly formatted. Upload a compelling cover and write a great book description. Once your book is published, join Author Central and set up your profile to introduce yourself to your readers, then start promoting your book online through social networks, a website for your book, message boards, and other communities. Remember that your books can be read in color on Kindle Fire, Kindle Cloud Reader, and on Kindle apps. For additional KDP help resources, click here.

News from Amazon about your book's sales rank

At a recent library workshop, I reminded the audience that they can always check their book's sales rank on Amazon, both in direct sales and by tracking how it compares to similar titles.  Now, Amazon has announced, Amazon Author Rank, They call it "the definitive list of best-selling authors on Amazon.com." They use BookScan sales data to display your ranking. While the list of top 100 authors and top 100 books in specific genres is intended to help readers find best-selling books, it is also a useful tool for you as an author.

Your Amazon Author Rank: 151785 in Literature & Fiction

You can see your Amazon Author Rank trending over time in Author Central. You can find your Amazon Author Rank in Author Central under the Rank tab.  Historical rank data is new, since the service just started on September 28, 2012, but it should be fun to track your book's success over time. Here's a snapshot...

Amazon power...

Author of Flat-Out Love, Jessica Park, is a major cheerleader for the power of Amazon to help Indie authors reach great sales levels on their own.

She wrote a (very) long article at IndieReader.com --- here's the take-away you'll appreciate.

"Because of Amazon and other sites, I’m making enough money that I can continue writing. I’m averaging sales of 3,500 books a month, not including the month that Amazon featured Flat-Out Love in a list of books for $3.99 and under. That month I sold 45,000 Kindle copies, and sold over 10,000 the next month. Those numbers are insane to me. Absolutely insane. The fact that I continue to sell well a year after the book’s release is humbling. Yes, I wrote a book that has earned me excellent reviews, so I take credit for that, and I worked myself to death finding bloggers to review my book (God bless my loyal bloggers who took a chance on me!), but I have to credit Amazon with giving me such a strong platform with such overwhelming visibility."

Read more, much more, in her full article at IndieReader entitled "How Amazon Saved My Life."  You, too, can put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and get everything working for you and for your book.

Helen Gallagher

Finally... Amazon reveals your book's sales ranking

I've had a behind-the-scenes resource for years to track book sales, and I get monthly royalty statements from my publisher, Virtual Bookworm. But many clients wait 6 months or more to know what their book is doing in the market.

Now, Amazon lets you see this information for your own books, in your Amazon Author Central pages. If you don't have an Author Central page at Amazon yet, better get going...

Then follow this link, sign in and track your weekly sales. https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/metrics

Thanks for the early Christmas present, Amazon !!

Amazon offers royalties on Kindle book sales

This from MediaBistro...

Amazon Announces 70 Percent Royalty Option for Kindle Publishing
By Jason Boog on Jan 20, 2010 10:23 AM

This morning, eBookNewser broke the news that starting on June 30, 2010, Amazon (AMZN) will offer a new 70 percent royalty option for works published on the Kindle.

Here's the official language: "For each Kindle book sold, authors and publishers who choose the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of list price, net of delivery costs. This new option will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option."

The new revenue split resembles a rumor about the Apple Tablet from last December. Some insiders believe that Apple (AAPL) will strike a 30/70 revenue split with publishers.

BookSurge either shrinks or expands

Amazon, owner of the BookSurge print-on-demand company, is merging Book Surge with CreateSpace, its Lulu-like publishing option.

Amazon doesn't make many visible mistakes but this seems like a big one. BookSurge has, to the public, a very good reputation as a high-end POD firm. CreateSpace is, well... a lot like Lulu. I think they could get the same resulting cost savings, synergy, unified brand, if they went with the Book Surge name, but we'll see how well they do.

For now, will BookSurge shrink into the lower-level product or expand into more products, more avenues, more market share. POD is a thriving, dynamic business, so stay tuned.

Booktour.com walks on the moon!

Okay, maybe not that far out, but the folks at Booktour.com have done something great. They combined an author's upcoming event calendar with the author's Amazon free blog page, making a stunning place to promote your events with exposure to your books at the same time.

More details are posted [naturally...] on my Amazon blog page here.

Selling your books on Amazon Kindle

If you want your books available on the Kindle ebook reader platform, you need to:
upload a PDF of your book on Amazon, and set the Kindle selling price. Ask your publisher for a PDF of the final book if you don't already have it.

Here's the hard-to-find link to the digital text platform upload area:
https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin.