Writer’s Digest Webinar for Ebook Authors, Critique Included Plus Q n A

Maximize Sales and Advance Your Writing Career With Ebooks

Register today to attend this live webinar!

Live Writer’s Digest Webinar Date: Thursday, April 10, 2014

Start Time: 1:00 p.m. EDT

Length: 90 minutes

Price: $89.99

Each registration comes with access to the archived version of the program and the materials for one year. You do not have to attend the live event to get a recording of the presentation. In all WD webinars, no question goes unanswered. Attendees have the ability to chat with the instructor during the live event and ask questions. You will receive a copy of the webinar presentation in an e-mail that goes out one week after the live event. The answers to questions not covered in the live presentation will be included in this e-mail as well.

ABOUT THE CRITIQUE

All registrants are invited to submit a choice of 1 of the 3 options below for evaluation and critique. All submissions will be evaluated and are guaranteed a written critique by Jason Matthews.

Option #1: An actual ebook’s formatting and design. Submissions in MSWord.

Option #2: Amazon or other retailer’s book link to ensure they’re discoverable in regards to keywords for titles, description and categories.

Option #3: A link to the blog/website that serves as your main marketing tool for a critique of what is presently useful and what’s missing or recommended.

Please Note: Even if you can’t attend the live webinar, registering for this live version will enable you to receive the On Demand webinar and a personal critique of your material. Purchasing the On Demand version after the live event will not include a critique.

ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Ebooks are revolutionizing the world of authors, readers and retailers. The advent of digital publishing enables any writer to reach her/his audience all over the world instantly and free of cost to the author. Royalties are far better than those of traditional publishing, with most retailers paying authors 70% of each ebook sale. Because of this, ebooks are exploding with opportunity. It’s never been a better time to be an author and sell ebooks, but it’s also necessary to do it wisely. The successful author must do more than just write a great book; they also need to understand aspects of book production and make themselves visible to a global population of readers.

This new live webinar teaches how to be successful with ebooks. Topics include the ingredients to a great ebook, formatting, cover design, uploading to retailers, using websites and social media. Discussion covers the art of doing-it-yourself when possible and also hiring out affordably for items like editing and cover design.

The instructor is Jason Matthews, a writer, how-to expert, avid blogger and self-publishing coach. He works with indie authors around the globe and speaks at writing conferences on these topics.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

  • How to stand out as an author in the global business of ebooks
  • Formatting essentials your book must have
  • How to make eye-catching covers that hook readers
  • Which retailers matter most and specifics when uploading there
  • How to use keywords so more readers find your book
  • Social media tips to limit time and maximize results
  • The key ingredients for a successful blog or website

INSTRUCTOR

Jason Matthews is a novelist, blogger and self-publishing coach. He works with writers around the world through every phase of book creation and marketing. His specialties include building author platform, selling at major retailers, social media, blogging and SEO. He’s the founder of a Facebook group with over 2,000 writers and hosts a weekly Indie Authors series on Google Plus discussing current topics and interviewing top indies. His novels and how-to guides include:

The Little Universe

Jim’s Life

How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks All for Free

Get On Google Front Page

How to Make Your Own Free Website: And Your Free Blog Too

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

  • Writers with books nearly finished
  • Writers who aren’t familiar with publishing options
  • Authors who want to sell more books
  • Writers who need to save money on hiring out
  • Authors who want to understand keywords better
  • Writers looking for resources for cover design
  • Writers who feel intimidated by the technology
  • Authors wanting new ideas for marketing

HOW DOES THE CRITIQUE WORK?

All registrants are invited to submit a choice of 1 of the 3 options below for evaluation and critique. All submissions will be evaluated and are guaranteed a written critique by Jason Matthews. Instructions on how to submit your work are sent after you officially register.

Option #1: An actual ebook’s formatting and design. Submissions in MSWord.

Option #2: Amazon or other retailer’s book link to ensure they’re discoverable in regards to keywords for titles, description and categories.

Option #3: A link to the blog/website that serves as your main marketing tool for a critique of what is presently useful and what’s missing or recommended.

HOW DOES THE WEBINAR WORK?

The webinar is broadcasted via the internet with live audio delivered through your computer speakers or over your telephone. The live webinar’s visual presentation is displayed directly from the Presenter’s computer to your computer screen. The Q&A is managed through a chat-style submission system with questions being read and answered by the Presenter for the entire class to hear. In the event some questions are not answered during the live session, an e-mail with questions and answers will be sent to all webinar attendees. By attending the live webinar and/or asking questions, your full name may be stated during the live event and captured in the recording.

REGISTER HERE


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eBookSoda Daily Deals for Readers and Authors

eBookSodaeBookSoda has daily deals for readers and authors. With millions of books out there, it’s hard to find the stuff you like. eBookSoda emails you with great deals on highly rated ebooks in your favorite genres. So sit back and let us do all the hard work.

They’re currently accepting submissions for ebooks to promote at no charge. Once the site is established, the promotions will cost money–so get in while the offer lasts. They do add their Amazon affiliate tag for sales income though the site is presently without ads. You can include links to your book at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Apple, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Google Play and more. (Global Amazon links are always wise, and there is an “other site” option.)

Authors can apply to have their books featured. Books must be have a good cover, be free of obvious typos, average 3.5-star or higher reviews with 8 review minimum (unless brand new), priced at or under $4.99 and meet other requirements. Multiple titles are okay but they ask for a 2-week period between submissions and 60 days before the same title is resubmitted.

How to promote?

  1. Send us your title by completing the online submission form.
  2. We’ll review your book and let you know if it’s been selected.
  3. If successful, we’ll create your promotion, email it to our readers and feature it on our website.

For a limited time, eBookSoda won’t cost you a thing to promote your book. All we ask in return is that you spread the word to friends, fellow authors and readers on Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else you can think of! (Google Plus, Pinterest, more?)

With the explosion in new books, promotion sites pop up frequently. Some don’t last more than a few months. Does this one have a competitive edge–what are your thoughts?


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Smashwords 1st Update Since 2008

Smashwords 2013We’ve known and loved them since 2008. By internet standards, Smashwords was way overdue for a facelift. But this is more than a new look; this is welcome additions, hundreds of changes also behind the scenes to improve the indie author experience.

Mark Coker explains the highlights below.

  • The Smashwords home page – We doubled the number of books listed on the Smashwords home page from ten to 20, added 27 new book category filters to increase discoverability, added live stats for the number of books published and the number of free books, and organized the navigation elements around logical categories.
  • Responsive design – We adopted what’s called a “responsive design,” which among web designer circles refers to a design approach that optimizes the user’s experience across different browsers, devices and screen sizes.  View the site on your desktop computer and then resize your browser to see how every page’s content resizes and reorients as you make the width narrower or wider.
  • Dramatically enhanced mobile support – Our previous mobile version of the site was, to put it kindly, limited.  The new mobile experience – whether you’re accessing the site from a smart phone or tablet – is darn near beautiful.  Our improved mobile support is enabled by our responsive design.  It preserves user access to nearly all the same features you’d expect from a large browser on a desktop computer, making it easy for mobile users to browse and discover books without pining for a larger screen…. (Click here to continue reading the highlights.)

Indie authors have primarily loved Smashwords, except when complaining during the formatting lessons of the Style Guide. Please support them with a visit. And let us know your thoughts on Smashwords here in the comments section.

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SmartURL vs BookLinker for Amazon Books?

SmartURL vs BookLinkerAs of today, there are 12 Amazon countries selling your books (soon to be more). But are you missing potential sales in some of these nations? Below is a tutorial video for making links that direct customers to the right one. Think of it as a global Amazon link.

Example: Jane Reader visits your site, sees your book, wants to buy it, clicks on the link and visits Amazon.com. That’s great if Jane lives in the USA or an Amazon.com affiliated nation. But what if Jane Reader lives in a foreign country like Germany, India, Brazil, the UK or a host of other nations where people cannot buy directly from Amazon.com?

(Save 92% Sell Ebooks on Amazon and Major Retailers)

Some Jane and John Readers know to visit their local Amazon, but they are savvy shoppers while others are not. How many others will simply leave your book page, wrongly assuming it is not available to them?

Hence the need for a global Amazon link, one that takes Jane and John directly to their proper Amazon countries to buy your book. This will convert more browsers into paying customers, get more international sales and even get more reviews.

There are several outfits for help with this (and for free). BookLinker (formerly ViewBook) and SmartURL are among the most popular, though Georiot is a good choice too. The video below demonstrates step by step how to use them and lists pros and cons of each service.

There are different suffixes for each Amazon nation. For example, here are links for the same book in the US and in Germany:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Market-Sell-Ebooks-ebook/dp/B00LXH4KIW/
http://www.amazon.de/How-Make-Market-Sell-Ebooks-ebook/dp/B00LXH4KIW/

Just apply the proper suffix after Amazon, followed by the book name, dp, and ASIN. Delete all the ref stuff that often follows.

United States: US – .com
United Kingdom: GB – .co.uk
France: FR – .fr
Japan: JP – .co.jp
Canada: CA – .ca
Germany: DE – .de
Spain: ES – .es
Italy: IT – .it
India: IN – .in
Mexico: MX – .com.mx
Brazil: BR – .com.br
Australia: AU  – .com.au

The good news is all of these link-builders allow you to use your Amazon Associates Affiliate tags for an extra approx. 5% commission on sales. If you don’t use one, they’ll use theirs which is how they make money. Note that you must apply to each Associate country individually:

US: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
UK: https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/
DE: https://partnernet.amazon.de/
FR: https://partenaires.amazon.fr/
IT: https://programma-affiliazione.amazon.it/
SP: https://afiliados.amazon.es/
CA: https://associates.amazon.ca/
JP: https://affiliate.amazon.co.jp/

Part 2 of this post (see below) explains how to implement these links at your website and within your books. First, watch this step by step video for how to make the links.

Pros and cons:

BookLinker is designed specifically for Amazon, is fast and has a slightly better custom URL upon creation. But it only works with product (book) pages and author pages, while it does not work with review pages. Currently BookLinker only shows 9 flags; newcomers India, Mexico and Australia’s flags aren’t visible. Not to worry, an email to the admin confirmed those countries will work. “We are currently in the process of updating the ‘My Links’ page of our website to display statistics from some of the newer Amazon’s – and you can expect this feature to be available within the next few weeks.”

SmartURL works with all Amazon pages including reviews, which is wise to do in my opinion. But it takes a bit longer to use and you have to reinsert affiliate tags for every single product instead of just once.

Ultimately, both of these are great. BookLinker is nice because it is designed to be used only with Amazon, but since SmartURL also works with reviews pages, if I had to choose only one–that factor would cause me to go with it. For now, I’m using both with a memo to BookLinker Admin to add Amazon review pages to their platform.

Part 2 of this post teaches how to implement these links at your website, in your document and upload to Amazon.

Do you have a preference or additional thoughts about all this? Please share in the comments.


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Indie Authors #65 Lynne Spreen Amazon Bestseller Dakota Blues

Coming of age for Mid-Lifers? Award winning author, Lynne Spreen of Dakota Blues, discusses her bestselling novel. Hosted by Jason Matthews and Marla Miller. Join us live or watch later on YouTube: Indie Authors #65 Lynne Spreen. Please share with writers, coming of agers and Mid-Lifers.

Amazon author pages:
http://www.amazon.com/Lynne-Spreen/e/B008MYC9Z0/
http://www.amazon.com/Jason-Matthews/e/B004A8W4BG/
http://www.amazon.com/Marla-Miller/e/B000APJYSE/

Websites:
http://anyshinything.com/
http://www.thelittleuniverse.com
http://marlamiller.com/

G+ Pages:
Lynne Spreen – https://plus.google.com/108093093727152582406/posts
Jason Matthews — http://gplus.to/JasonMatthews
Marla Miller — https://plus.google.com/104880672110890238358/posts

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