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Category Archives: Special Postings
20 Quirks 7 Strange Habits – InfoGraphic
Everybody has some habits that might be intriguing and even weird. No famous authors are exceptions. Custom-Writing.org put together 20 of them in their infographic. Find out who was a fan of rotten apples and whose way of better writing is hanging upside down.
Authors Helping Authors end of Year 2017
![Grandma's Secret Blessings: A Memoir with a Twist by [JohnEgreek]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517awBDl8ML.jpg)
If American learned something from the Trump Campaign, the power of Social Media won an election. Why not capitalize on the lesson learned and begin a campaign geared toward Authors. Smashwords.com says “The first few days after Christmas mark the biggest ebook selling days of the year as millions of readers around the world unwrap their new e-reading devices and smart phones start loading them with new ebooks to read. Let’s help these readers read!” And what about all those gift cards for Amazon, Barnesandnoble, Apple iTunes and more?
As Authors, we can make the week between Christmas an New Years dedicated to Authors around the globe. Thic can become an annual Campaign for Authors. Here’s what I propose we do. First, I will jumpstart this campaign with this blog by posting it all over facebook via my Author page, on Goodreads , my webpage www.johnegreek.com and tweet on Twitter.
What we can do as authors/editors/writers/publishers, etc., beginning at 12:01 A.M. 12/26/17 through 12:01 A.M. January 1st is as follows:
- Tweet or Retweet an Authors tweet with his/her book link to Amazon, B&N, Apple, Smashwords, Goodreads, or others. Every tweet should start with: Author Helping Author –
- When that Author is notified that his book has been tweeted or retweet, he should identify the Author/person by name, go to one of the carriers listed, copy the link to their book and tweet or retweet their book. If the person tweeting is not an author, remember to identify and thank them by following them on twitter.
- Make sure twitter links are tied to Facebook, Instagram or Google+, only to name a few.
- Do not discriminate by genre or author. Retweet or tweet anyone’s book.
- If an author retweets or tweets your book, make sure you follow them. This is also a terrific way to build your twitter following. Do the same on Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram. Build your following.
- Make sure your tweets contain the following: The link to the Author’s book, your Twitter account name and your website/email address.
This can become an Annual campaign. Better yet, it can also become a Spring, Summer, Fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas Campaign. We can use the power of Social Media to build our Author following, increase our sales and increase our exposure.
Are you ready to begin… Authors Helping Authors end of Year 2017
it’s just about Mid-night 12/26/17 is around the corner.
Book Nomads
Some time ago my friends and I were sitting in a small restaurant near our office in Amsterdam. Food was great, the conversation was flowing, and even though I don’t exactly remember what we were talking about, a spontaneous and intriguing thought popped up in my head.
Are my books bored?
Of course, I love all my books, and every time I bought one I always treated it with the upmost respect but, was that enough? How boring must it be to sit on a bookshelf…. forever?
Some of them, like ‘The Courts of Chaos’, I keep re-reading every month, but most of them I just read once and it is over.
I thought a bit more about the reason why. I feel like it is related to latest data-driven optimizations and profiling trends in all entertainment. Movies, Video games, Anime and Books, big studios/companies/mangakas are producing so much, and so much of it looks good-ish, but turns out to be just exploitation of the market. Very few want to put themselves out there and push the boundary so they can make me re-live their story over and over again. Kind of depressing when you think about it. I am not saying that great work is less than before, it is just harder (for me) to find.
Anyway, this was a bit off topic. After I thought about my books sitting on that lonely bookshelf at home, I thought, how cool it will be if I could just share them with my neighbors?
First I would meet someone who reads things that I read, and, for purely selfish reasons, I could ask this person to recommend me some books that I might like, or at least books that I would want to get from his re-reading book list.
That seemed really awesome!
I shared the idea with my friends, and they also loved it, so we decided to build a platform to facilitate borrowing and lending books. We launched https://www.booknomads.com.
Shortly after, I shared my first book ‘The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System’ (https://www.booknomads.com/browse/book/165/1) and it felt great. I learned so much from it, it was a shame for it to sit all day long, bored and ignored on a bookshelf. Now it is on an adventure by being a booknomad 🙂
BookNomads is still quite young and you can help us improve it by giving us feedback, or adding your books.
Any feedback is invaluable.
Thanks in advance!
PS: My daughter(6 yo) also loves it, and now she is waiting for someone to borrow her books so she can make new friends.
PPS: I wonder if there is a name for that feeling you get after you finish a book, the more the book resonates with me the stronger it is. It feels like emptiness and completeness at the same time, as if I am stretched into the abyss. I want to get the books that made you feel like that!
Borrow books around you
because books deserve to travel
The Ultimate List of Fiction Books You Should Read At Least Once in Your Life
Finding the next “good read” is never easy. Sometimes you want to read something in your genre. Other times you want to read something that’s completely different. Sometimes you have no clue what you want to read. No matter what “reading” mood you’re in, This is Writing has got you covered with in-depth book recommendation list.
Below you will find the top book recommendations from the five major genres of fiction (like romance) or you can get super specific with 104 sub-genres (like the Top 5 Reads in Chick Lit). If you need a quick recommendation for a fiction book, you can probably get started with one of the books from these set of booklists. Now get reading!
BEST HORROR BOOKS TO READ
TOP THRILLER/SUSPENSE NOVELS
ROMANCE NOVELS WE RECOMMEND
MYSTERY BOOKS YOU HAVE TO READ
SCIENCE FICTION BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
FANTASY BOOKS FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS
A Snapshot of American Reading Habits in 2017
As Dr Seuss said “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Reading opens up a vast world of knowledge, pleasure and fun. It also comes in many forms. What books do you love to read?
Old favorites
According to Global English Editing’s latest infographic, a few well-known, well-loved authors tend to top the charts. Writers like JK Rowling, John Grisham and Stephen King, who have published page-turner after page-turner, were among the highest paid authors of 2017.
But one reader’s trash is another’s treasure, and we don’t all want to read the same things. Every state in the country had its own favorite books and writers this year, from Hilary Clinton in Rhode Island to Dan Brown in Arkansas.
New beginnings
Reading has been framed as an old-fashioned pleasure, even a dying one. But the evidence shows that younger people are reading more than older people, and we’re all reading just about as much this year as we did last. The death of the book will be a long time coming.
Ready to read?
If it’s been a while since you picked up a book, that’s not surprising. We’re all constantly distracted by a world that throws information at us from every angle. Given that, it’s a surprise that books still mean so much to so many of us.
Then again, maybe it’s not. Can you imagine a world without books? Neither can we. Check out Global English Editing’s infographic below for all the fun facts about America’s reading habits in 2017.
50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading – Finalist
Author Ruth Finnegan
Author Ruth Finnegan is a finalist in the Authors show 2017/18 ’50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading’. Show your support by casting your vote.
Cast Your Vote
2017 Contest for the 2018 Edition of
“50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading”
Your Book Launch Timeline —What to Do When to Launch a Book That Sells
What’s your launch strategy?
95% of authors I ask this question to reply “I don’t have one” or say “I’ll post a link to my book on social media and hope for the best”.
Hope is not a strategy and won’t get your book on the bestseller lists.
But you know what will?
A carefully orchestrated book launch.
Here’s what you do:
Assumption: the entire execution time from idea to launch is 5 months.
5 MONTHS BEFORE LAUNCH – POSITIONING
You start with the end in mind. What do you do when you want to launch a successful business? You look for a niche that you can dominate. You look for a blue ocean. It’s the same with books.
The majority of books fail because nobody sat with the author to help them them find a category which they can both fit in (so that librarians know how to categorize their book) and stand out (blue ocean).
Take my book How I Sold 80,000 Books. This is my big business card.
How does it fit in? It answers the question “How do I sell more books?”, just like its competing titles.
How does it stand out? It solves the question “How do I sell more books?” using the 4Ps marketing mix framework.
4,5 MONTHS BEFORE LAUNCH – OUTLINE
Writers often label themselves as planners vs. pantsters. I’m a huge believer of planning.
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
YOU know where you are going — you want to hook your readers, give them an unforgettable reading experience and get them to take action.
To be able to achieve that, you need an outline.
4 MONTHS BEFORE LAUNCH – WRITE
NaNoWriMo gives you one month to write a 50,000-word manuscript. Thousands of writers manage to reach that goal.
If you don’t love to write but still want a book, you can speak it to your phone and then get a ghostwriter to shape it into book material.
3 MONTHS BEFORE LAUNCH – DEVELOPMENTAL EDIT
Wow! You should now be holding a first draft of your professionally written manuscript in your hands. Congratulations!
Do you run and publish it? No, not just yet.
You need to know if there are any gaps or loose ends.
That’s what a developmental editor does.
If they find room for improvement, the manuscript goes back to the ghostwriter. If you get all green lights, you’re off to… no not quite to the races… you’re ready for copy-editing.
2,5 MONTHS BEFORE LAUNCH – COPY-EDITING
This is the fun task of going through your manuscript as many times as necessary to make sure that every comma and period is in place.
This is a must. It shows respect for your reader and it should also completely eliminate any future negative reviews regarding writing style.
2 MONTHS BEFORE LAUNCH – A STUNNING COVER
The first thing people will judge your book by is its cover. The cover consists of two main elements: the title and the artwork.
With the title of a non-fiction book you want to show people what results they will be able to achieve when they read your story.
A great example is Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace. If anybody is in a financial struggle, even just holding the book entitled Financial Peace in their hands will bring a sense of peace to them.
Another great approach is a “How to” title. They’re oldies but goodies. They work. For example, when someone buys How I Sold 80,000 Books what they are really buying is that result.
Next is the artwork. Most of your readers won’t be looking at your book in real size. They will be looking at a thumbnail next to other similar book as they search Amazon.
That’s why your book needs to fit into the other books in its genre but also stand out as being unique.
The most important thing to remember is that the title needs to occupy at least one third of the cover. It needs to be clearly visible as a thumbnail. Then you want one big image.
I recommend you order two or three different covers and then let your target audience choose the one that works.
1,5 MONTHS BEFORE LAUNCH – LAUNCH TEAM AND ENDORSEMENTS
- a) You should now have an ARC – an advanced review copy to build your launch team and get endorsements.
Create a landing page where people sign up and get a free review copy of your upcoming book as soon as they leave their email.
This allows you to build your email list and gives you the ability to mass mail all your team members during launch (crucial for the success of your launch).
Where do you get your launch team members? Anywhere your target audience hangs out. Reach out to Amazon reviewers who reviewed books similar to yours, write relevant articles on blogs (guest posts) and invite people to your launch team, appear on podcasts and tell listeners about your upcoming launch, reach out to existing connections.
Remember that about 30 percent of the people who join your launch team will actually leave a review, so if you want to launch with 50 reviews, you need more than 150 people who committed to do so.
You keep building the launch team until about a week before launch (where the time to read the book becomes too short).
- b) Simultaneously you want to reach out to people who could endorse your book so that you can add their quotes on your cover, inside the book and on your Amazon page.
Reach out to your connections, ask for introductions. It’s easiest to get an endorsement from someone you’ve already got an established relationship with but if you don’t it can be a good reason to start engaging with someone.
1 MONTH BEFORE LAUNCH – FUNNEL IN PLACE
Book royalties are great, but you will almost always generate more revenue on the back end than on the front end.
That’s why you need to have a link inside your book that will take your readers to your landing page so that they can subscribe and you can offer them your other books, products or services.
2 WEEKS BEFORE – OPTIMIZE FOR ONLINE SALES
Amazon looks like a bookstore but in reality it’s a search engine. That’s why your book needs to be optimized for online sales.
What this means is that you need to know what readers are looking for and make sure your book pops up at the top of search results when they are looking for answers your book provides.
That’s why I start with keyword research before I even come up with the titles. The full title and subtitle of How I Sold 80,000 Books is packed with keywords, which I found using dedicated software.
Another aspect is choosing the right category. We already touched upon it in positioning. By choosing the right categories you will be visible to those readers who want to read your book most.
You also need a captivating book description and an outstanding bio.
LAUNCH – IT’S SHOW TIME!
Your Amazon page looks stellar (great cover, title, description, bio, author pic, endorsements). Your book is optimized for online sales (keywords, categories) and it’s a book people will want to buy (and continue their relationship with you via your funnel that’s in place).
The #1 strategy here is successful communication with your launch team that you’ve been building up.
I recommend doing a free launch where you make your book free for a few days and urge your team members to download the book from Amazon (even if they already have the ARC) and leave a review which will be marked as “verified”.
Mail your launch members daily, giving them updates on the progress of the launch and sharing milestones, such as copies downloaded, number of reviews written or bestseller rank reached.
After the free days are over, set your book at $0.99 for a week or two and monitor sales. Increase your price every week or two (be consistent) by a dollar with all other factors unchanged and that will allow you to know (not guess) at which price point you make the most in royalties.
As soon as you’ve got your price point right, move to paid advertising (AMS ads, FB ads) and PR opportunities as well as partnerships to keep sales coming, build your list and increase your world domination!
LAUNCH DONE – NOW WHAT?
For more strategies on selling books by the truckload go to http://www.authorwisdom.com/ and download your free copy of my award-winning guide “How I Sold 80,000 Books” now.
Alinka Rutkowska is a multi-award-winning and #1 international best-selling author.
She’s a coach who transforms struggling writers into profitable authorpreneurs.
She’s the founder and CEO of LibraryBub (http://librarybub.com/authors/), which connects librarians with award-winning and bestselling books from independent publishers.
She’s the founder and host of the 5-Figure Author Challenge (http://www.5figureauthorchallenge.com/ which gives authors winning strategies to get to 5 figures in 5 months.
She’s been featured on Fox Business Network, affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS, Author Marketing Club, The Author Hangout, Kindlepreneur, Book Marketing Mentors, Examiner, She Knows, She Writes, The Writer’s Life and many more.
She’s a sought-after speaker. She’s been voted top 5 speaker and named most creative book marketer at the Bestseller Summit Online.
Download Alinka’s free award-winning guide “How I Sold 80,000 Books” at http://www.authorwisdom.com/
Inkitt launches a free program to help you turn your idea into a novel within 30 days
Have you ever thought about writing a novel? There are millions of people in the world who have ideas floating around in their heads that they want to write down but never find the time.
Inkitt, the world’s first reader-powered book publisher, will be launching their first ‘Writers Write Program’ on November 1st to help you turn your idea into an original novel. The 30-day program is completely free and filled with special benefits such as:
- Free, 30 min private sessions with professional writing coaches (including the editor of The Martian)
- Events and tips with bestselling authors like Andy Weir, Lauren Kate, and Gayle Forman
- A variety of community features such as the choice to get a writing buddy who you can exchange manuscript feedback with
“Our intention is to enlarge the writing community by encouraging more people to become writers,” said CEO of Inkitt, Ali Albazaz. “The program is completely free so for us this isn’t about making money; it’s about encouraging talented and committed writers to keep going and finish what they started.”
If you are serious about taking on the challenge or want to finish (or start!) a manuscript then make sure to get your spot in the program now. There is less than a week left before it starts.
LEARN MORE
Motivation To Finish Your Novel
Receive motivational tips from successful authors such as Andy Weir, Lauren Kate, and Gayle Forman. See your public ranking based on how fast you’re writing and compete with other writers to reach the finish line
Structure
You can join our Writing Buddy Program – We’ll match and connect you with another writer within your genre so you have someone with you every step of the way
New Release This Week: A First or Final Mischief (Fayborn #3) by J. Aleksandr Wootton
If you’re new to the Fayborn series, grab yourself a copy of Her Unwelcome Inheritance to get started – and DON’T read on until you do, because the Sneak Preview below contains ***Spoilers***
Sneak Preview: A First or Final Mischief
Her aunt’s been abducted.
Her mother is missing.
Her enemy is waiting.
And the person she counted on for help is dead.
Too late to free the Faerie Queen, Petra Godfellow and her allies face a terrible choice: Either Petra surrenders and swears to serve James Oberon, or he will torture her Aunt Penny.
If she agrees to James’s demands, the Faerie kingdom will be restored… with James on its throne, and Petra condemned to eternal servitude. Any alternative abandons Penny to torture and her mother to an unknown fate.
Unless, of course, the Cat chooses to intervene…
A First or Final Mischief is available from Amazon here.
About the Author
Aleksandr Wootton is a self-confessed bookworm (“hoards books in shelves and spare rooms; likes to sleep surrounded by them”), fairytale enthusiast, and poet. He pretends to chair the Folklore department at Lightfoot College, but much prefers writing, gardening, & long conversations accompanied by a well-brewed pint.
You can contact him at www.jackwootton.com or connect with him at Goodreads.
Treasure on the Southern Moor
Treasure on the Southern Moor is set in the eighteenth century, during the golden age of sail, and shows how gentlemen sailed the raging seas. Written by Joshua A. Reynolds, this historical fiction novel takes the faithful crew from Plymouth, to West Africa, and back to Plymouth, with only the guidance of an old map that was given to the captain by an old sea friend.
Back Description: The thrill of the sea – the song of the ocean winds – out sails and up anchor! – guided by the compass and stars – as a poet once said, “to the lonely sea and sky”. It is the eighteenth century, and the sailing vessel is the only way to travel the raging seas. The Southern Moor sets sails from England to Africa with a crew of forty-two persons, guided by a captain with his son and daughter, where those of the trusted crew hope to find treasure with only the guidance of a map an old friend of the captain’s had given him and a handful of the treasure itself, brought back from the African shoreline. With the smell of cooking from the galley, you may find them about on the weather decks reefing the sails or lashing down the ship’s boats, or listen to the captain play on his fipple flute with the accompaniment of the cello and violin. Hear the ocean waves lap against the bows, or have cataracts of sea water come flooding over the main deck in the midst of a raging storm.
In Plymouth, England, there are those few friends of the captain who wonder if he will ever return. Is the Southern Moor, newly finished vessel and never before tested in the ocean waters, strong enough to sail through storms and cannon fire to reach the warm lands of the African shoreline and make the same journey back? With all of its rectangular sails billowing in the wind, bowsprit brass tip of heather shining in the sunlight, and the polish of the wood shining without a fingerprint to be seen, the Southern Moor leaves the harbor of Sutton Pool to test itself in the ocean and plough the stormy seas. . .
Treasure on the Southern Moor is expected to be in print within two weeks’ time! Check out his website for purchases and updates.
Recommended for family reading. They were specially written for children but have something that all ages can enjoy.
Joshua A. Reynolds
Joshua A. Reynolds writes to restore Christian virtues and family values back into society. He is a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and holds to the reformed faith of Christendom. Russell Kirk’s conservatism most closely aligns with his political views, and his desire is to redeem the innocence of the “permanent things” in literature. One of his main goals in storytelling is to allow the reader to understand better theology, history, and more wholesome ways of living in a simple imaginative way. Some of the authors that have inspired his imagination are C. S. Lewis, Edith Nesbit, Frances Burnett, Mary Dodge, Beatrix Potter, Kenneth Grahame, and Lewis Carroll.
To find out more about Joshua A. Reynolds, please visit his website at www.conservativecornerstones.wordpress.com.
