The Book Marketing Network

For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers

Authors Working Together to Sell More Books

"Your life changes when you meet people." - Sterling Valentine

I want to encourage the authors and publishers on this Book Marketing Network to work together to help each other to sell more books. That's the main reason I created this network in the first place.

There are so many ways that you can help each other. For example, I wrote an article on 30 Ways to Help a Book Author You Love - http://www.bookmarket.com/loveawriter.htm. Most of those ways apply not only to your friends but also to authors helping each other.

In addition, you can do joint ventures, Amazon Bestseller Campaigns, blog tours, and more.

Please use this forum right here to list your requests for partners as well as your responses or offers to help other authors.

You'll be amazed at what you can accomplish if you work together rather than alone.

For example, I'd love to see a fiction writers co-op promotion where each novelist promotes the other members in the co-op on their blog or website or social network. Tweet about each other. Like each others' Facebook page. Do joint blog tours.

Poets can do the same thing. So can business book authors. Spiritual authors. Christian authors. Cookbook authors. Etc.

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Theresa, I am interested in reviewing for you.  I'm working on expanding my review section of my blog and want to highlight indie authors as much as possible.  Send me a note.  I've looked over your catalog and am willing to review whatever you would like to have the attention brought to.  I usually post reviews on GoodReads, Amazon and my blog but can post elsewhere as well if you have another site you use.  Thanks so much!  I look forward to working with you :)

If you have a 99 cent or free ebook and would like to get the word out, please stop by my April 6 blog post and add your  information to the comments.  I will be featuring this post in my upper right sidebar and promoting it through May 8 so that visitors from the Spring Carnival Blog Hop will also have the opportunity to take advantage of the offers in addition to my regular blog traffic. 
 
Here are the instructions:
Authors, if you have a 99 cent title on Kindle, Nook or Smashwords, (or a free download somewhere) I’d love to have you list it in the comments of http://bit.ly/e5g1P2 . Here’s how:

1. Your sale must last through at least May 8.
2. Please leave a one paragraph description and no more than two links in your comment.

3. You can leave multiple books, but my spam filter only allows two links per comment so please leave additional comments if necessary. If you have several titles and formats on sale, it may be easier to steer visitors toward your web site or Amazon author page rather than to individual retail links.

4. Please use the Share icons for Facebook and Twitter if you leave a link to help spread the word to readers about this post.
 
Thanks! I hope it will lead to selling some extra copies of your titles.
 
 

No offense, Stacy, but this is one of the major hurdles for indie authors - those undercutting our work by selling books for 99 cents or making free offers.

 

Sure, you, Amanda Hocking and others sell books, but I don't think you realize the detrimental impact it has on the rest of us struggling to market our books. We price our e-books at the normal accepted market price of $2.99 to $9.99 and these offers undercut us. To compete we are forced to match those prices. Yes, free market and all, but this also adds fuel to the argument against indie authors producing quality that is worth market price.

You're right on, Shawn. Case in point: Look on the Smashwords site and click on the Smashwords Top 100 option, and you'll quickly see that around 80 of those 100 ebooks are free, three or four are priced at $2.99 or less, and the rest are $3.99 or $4.99. I saw only one book priced at $9.99, and it was accompanied by a promotional video. Yes, this is definitely undercutting us, and I see no reason to spend months slaving over a full-length novel, just to give it away.

 

This infuriates me to no end. Not only lowering the standard and perception of indie authors as only being good enough to give away our books, but the reading public is being conditioned to either pay nothing or 99 cents.

 

How is an author to make a living? As you said, I'm not working long hours and months to hand-over a free book!

I'm a new Indie author who has been considering how to price my first novel, which I intend to release in September.  It is well-researched, well edited, and offers a great story -- I think easily at the level of fiction I buy at my local Barnes and Noble. 

 

I am soliciting opinions about pricing.  To me, it seems that by pricing low and providing free copies as so many are doing, I stand a better chance of someone actually taking a chance on a new author, as I am only just introducing myself to a new industry.  Question: how should someone like myself price a book? 

 

Thanks for taking a second to answer thoughtfully.

 

Yours,

 

David 

David, I think it depends on what you are hoping to do with your novel. 

I'm in the same boat as you and will be (hopefully) releasing my first novel in the fall.  I have a short story out there for $0.99 and it's selling ok, I don't think I would even consider pricing a book 10 times as long the same! 

I'm thinking about $4.99 for the ebook and $8.95 for the paperback.  I'm a few months away but that's where my brain is at right now.

Honestly, I worked so hard for what I have and am intending on outlaying some cash for editing/marketing/etc.  I'm willing to spend the money but not willing to short change the book as just another dimestore novel you know? 

Hi Theresa,

 

Here's a link explaining the business strategy for anyone curious.  I know it isn't news to you Theresa, but I found this an interesting read.

http://www.tabletpc-news.com/?p=285

Here's an excerpt from above link:

Amazon Will Take a Hit on its Hardware
With pricing so low on the Wi-Fi-only Kindle 3, Amazon will probably manage to entice new waves of consumers into the world of eReaders, even in today’s cautious economy.

Amazon stands to take a loss on its eReader hardware, though. Even before the advent of the third generation Kindle, Amazon and B&N were both at the break-even point for materials and manufacturing costs, said William Kidd, director and principal analyst for financial services at iSuppli.

Given zero profitability from their hardware, both companies are now hoping to make their money in this market through the sale of e-books, said Kidd.

“This is the same ‘razor/razor blade’ business model successfully employed in the video game console business, where the hardware is sold at a loss and profits are made on sales of content,” he noted, in a recent report

Will other eReaders Survive?
Not every company in the e-reader space is a book-selling giant, however. Smaller companies have been standing in line to sign up for deals with publishers and book sellers for distributing content ranging from newspapers to textbooks. Yet if they aren’t able to make a profit on their hardware, too, how many of them will be able to survive?

Devices that look particularly vulnerable include Plastic Logic Cue’s reader, still priced at $650 for the basic version, and the Kobo E-Reader, no longer the least expensive reader around at pricing of $150.

On the other hand, other low-cost eReaders are also on the way. Also on Thursday, for example, Copia announced the Wave5, a 6.7-oz, 5-inch e-reader with a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen LCD (800-by-480), 64 MB RAM, 2 GB onboard storage, and an SD card slot, priced at $99.99. Copia’s new Wave7 — a similar e-reader outfitted with a 7-inch screen — will sell for $129.99.

Hey Theresa :)  I had commented about being interested but didn't hear back.  Shoot me an email :)

PavartiDevi at gmail

I can attest to the fact that Theresa doesn't bite.  Much.  ;)

 

db

But I do :)

John:

You are so right. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a group of dedicated authors to promote each other successfully.

I have a bi-monthly newsletter that features children's authors, illustrators, publishers, and editors entitled (picture books to young adult novels), Write What Inspires You. If anyone is interested in being interviewed for both the newsletter and my blog www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com I'd be delighted to chat with you.

The April/May issue will be released in the comming days. You can opt-in at my website: http://www.donnamcdine.com for my FREE newsetter.

My email: donna@donnamcdine.com

Looking forward to staying connected.

Best wishes,

Donna

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


Donna M. McDine

Children's Author

NWFCC Publicist and Editor-in-Chief, Guardian Angel Kids

Member of SCBWI and Musing Our Children

The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. http://www.guardianangelpublishing.com/pathway.htm ~ Global e-Book Awards Nominee


Donna’s Website: http://www.donnamcdine.com 

Write What Inspires You Blog: http://www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com 

The Golden Pathway Blog: http://www.thegoldenpathway.blogspot.com

Write What Inspires You! FREE Newsletter: opt-in @ http://www.donnamcdine.com and receive FREE e-book “Write What Inspires You Author Interviews”

Don't have time to write and post your media releases? Contact: Dynamic Media Release Services: http://www.donnamcdine.com/dynamicmediareleases.

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