Blogger Katherine Owens just announced her favorite books of 2011. She rated my novel, Screwing Up Time, as the best action/adventure book she's read this year. Squee!! If you want to check her blog for her other favorites, here's the link. http://
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Giving E-books As Gifts
It’s Christmas time, and I’ve gotten emails asking if it’s
possible to give Screwing Up Time as
a gift. The answer is YES. “Gifting” e-books is very simple—no trips to the
store, no waiting in line at the post office, no hoping it gets there on time. Delivery
is immediate.
Here’s what you do. On the right hand side of the screen, is
the “Give as a gift” button. (It’s light orange—check out the screen shot below. Click the screen shot and it will enlarge so you can see the gift-wrapped button.)
All you have to do is go to Amazon page for SUT
and click the button. Then you type in the recipient’s email address.
Amazon will send them an email telling them they’ve been gifted a book. (Which reminds me, if you get an email from
Amazon, make sure it’s actually spam before you delete/ignore it because it may
well be a gift announcement. We gifted a book to a relative who just thought it
was another advertising email, and it wasn’t until we asked how they liked the book
that we realized they hadn’t opened the email.
One more announcement. I took the big step forward. Screwing Up Time is now available for
lending to Amazon Prime members. And if you'd like to buy the book, it's still on sale for 99 cents at Amazon.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Changes: Just When You Thought You'd Figured It Out
If you're an indie writer, you've probably heard about the latest Amazon offer. If you're a reader, you might not have. But this affects all of us, so keep reading. Amazon now has a program to allow free "borrowing" of e-books to Amazon prime members. (Amazon prime members also get free 2 day shipping and the ability to stream movies.) It's a win-win for those who pay the yearly fee--two of my adult kids are Amazon prime members.
Of course, Amazon had to sweeten the pot for writers to participate. They have a pile of gold at the end of the rainbow--they've set aside a pot of money to be split by participating writers based on the number of times their book gets "checked out." However, there's a catch. In order to qualify for Amazon's lendability, you have to sell your e-book only through Amazon. So if you're book is available through Smashwords or B&N, you have to take it down.
Honestly, the money isn't that much of an issue. I don't have any illusions that I'd get a big chunk of the cash. But what attracts me is the publicity/promos associated with it. The most difficult thing for me as an indie writer is letting people know my book is out there and that they'd like it. (Maybe it's because I have a tendency to be shy. I don't meet people and say, "Hey, I'm Connie. I wrote a book and you should buy it because you'd love it." But I'm learning.) Amazon used to do more promotions for indie books, but that changed. And with that, writers saw their sales tumble. It's like being in a book store. It used to be that Amazon would put your book out on the display rack at the front of the store or on the endcaps. Now you get a couple of days there, and then you're shelved in the back corner where the lighting's poor--no one find you unless they're looking. (If you're a reader, you can help indie writers by telling your friends about books you love and writing book reviews on Amazon and GoodReads, etc.)
After thinking these things through and reading lots of opinions, every indie writer has a strong opinion, I've decided to take Amazon up on their offer. I'll be taking Screwing Up Time down from Barnes and Noble's site for three months. (If you've been planning on buying the novel for Nook, do it today.) During the three months, you can buy it Amazon (on sale for 99cents) or borrowing it if you're an Amazon Prime members.
So wish me luck and stay tuned, I'll let you know how it goes.
Of course, Amazon had to sweeten the pot for writers to participate. They have a pile of gold at the end of the rainbow--they've set aside a pot of money to be split by participating writers based on the number of times their book gets "checked out." However, there's a catch. In order to qualify for Amazon's lendability, you have to sell your e-book only through Amazon. So if you're book is available through Smashwords or B&N, you have to take it down.
Honestly, the money isn't that much of an issue. I don't have any illusions that I'd get a big chunk of the cash. But what attracts me is the publicity/promos associated with it. The most difficult thing for me as an indie writer is letting people know my book is out there and that they'd like it. (Maybe it's because I have a tendency to be shy. I don't meet people and say, "Hey, I'm Connie. I wrote a book and you should buy it because you'd love it." But I'm learning.) Amazon used to do more promotions for indie books, but that changed. And with that, writers saw their sales tumble. It's like being in a book store. It used to be that Amazon would put your book out on the display rack at the front of the store or on the endcaps. Now you get a couple of days there, and then you're shelved in the back corner where the lighting's poor--no one find you unless they're looking. (If you're a reader, you can help indie writers by telling your friends about books you love and writing book reviews on Amazon and GoodReads, etc.)
After thinking these things through and reading lots of opinions, every indie writer has a strong opinion, I've decided to take Amazon up on their offer. I'll be taking Screwing Up Time down from Barnes and Noble's site for three months. (If you've been planning on buying the novel for Nook, do it today.) During the three months, you can buy it Amazon (on sale for 99cents) or borrowing it if you're an Amazon Prime members.
So wish me luck and stay tuned, I'll let you know how it goes.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Kindlegraph
If you've been reading this blog (or my other blog) for very long, you know that I'm not the most tech savvy person. In fact, I rely on my in-house techies to do just about everything for me. When I don't, bad things happen. The last bad thing happened a couple of weeks ago when I tried to change my GoodReads account. I ended up emailing a LOT of literary agents in NYC and asking them to be my "GoodReads friend." Uh, yeah. I so did not mean for that to happen. Of course, the amazing thing is that some of them friended me.
All that to say, I "did" a tech thing by myself this morning and (fingers crossed) it hasn't backfired yet. I'm now officially registered on Kindlegraph. That means you can get my autograph. Honestly, I'm not hugely clear on how this works. All I know is that I'm registered and my book is listed along with 10,000 others novels that can be Kindlegraphed. If you request a autograph, then I'm notified and I can give you a signature. Here's a link to my author Kindlegraph page: http://www.kindlegraph.com/authors/CMKellerWrites
Kind of cool. The next step in electronic books.
(For authors who are interested, here's a link: http://www.kindlegraph.com/.)
All that to say, I "did" a tech thing by myself this morning and (fingers crossed) it hasn't backfired yet. I'm now officially registered on Kindlegraph. That means you can get my autograph. Honestly, I'm not hugely clear on how this works. All I know is that I'm registered and my book is listed along with 10,000 others novels that can be Kindlegraphed. If you request a autograph, then I'm notified and I can give you a signature. Here's a link to my author Kindlegraph page: http://www.kindlegraph.com/authors/CMKellerWrites
Kind of cool. The next step in electronic books.
(For authors who are interested, here's a link: http://www.kindlegraph.com/.)
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