FREE Writing Books for Your Kindle

If you have a Kindle, go now to get helpful books on the art and craft of writing at

http://dailycheapreads.com/2011/11/06/free-now-six-books-on-writing-from-writer%E2%80%99s-digest-books/

 

Autograph Your Kindle E-book

In this amazing age of technology, you can now e-sign or autograph your e-book! This digital age is just exploding with new ideas in the publishing industry. One of them is to use the Kindlegraph for actually signing a page and emailing it to your reader to add to the e-book.

No, I have no idea how it works…kind of like a car for me….I don’t care how the car works. All I need to know is to press the pedal and it goes. With the Kindlegraph you do need to be a twitter user. For more information about this, check out the Kindlegraph Demo.

Another idea is from Johnny Tangerine. Watch the video to see how to implement his idea.

Please leave a comment to let me know how you feel about e-signings. Is this a good or bad invention for authors? Why?

Related articles

• Kindlegraph?? (mybookaddictionandmore.wordpress.com)

Creating a Book Trailer

Yes, you CAN create a book trailer, a helpful promotional tool for your print or e-book. The photos and music in the video convey the feeling of your novel. The text intrigues the viewer by telling just enough of the story to make the viewer want to know more. So you must include the BUY link at the end of the video for more information AND to close the sale. Add your author website also especially if you have more than one book available. If your book release is in the future, your link will give the information the viewer will need.

Depending on your finances and your time, you may decide to pay a professional to make your trailer or you can do it yourself.  I have done a few vidoes just for the fun of it on the MS Movie Maker that is on my laptop. So I had minimal knowledge of how to deal with putting it altogether.  I have also experimented with the movie maker on Picasa. It is a simple one to use. I have seen some fantastic trailers as a result of using Animoto. I have not tried the service, so I have no first hand info on Animoto.

To create your trailer–

1. Write the text portion using your synopsis to guide you

2. Select the photos, clip art, and graphics and place them in a file which you can easily access to pull them into the movie maker. If you select photos from the Internet, be sure they are royalty free clips. Google free clip art to find some.

3. Music is fun to choose. You can listen to so many pieces trying to find just the right combination of notes for the background sound for the  mood of your story.  No, you cannot use your favorite tune from your favorite artist. It is probably copyrighted. Incompetech has a wide variety of free music for you and organized into genre themed songs. Kevin McLeod just requests you credit him for the music.

Now it’s time for you to put on your director and producer’s caps to create the perfect book trailer to sell your book. Have fun with it!

Here is the trailer for my mystery/horror e-book, Sunshine Boulevard.

Promotion and Marketing a Book–Which One for You?

Since Muse It Up Publishing published my e-book, Sunshine Boulevard, in March this year, and even before the release date, I have furiously promoted the book and myself as J Q Rose. Or have I marketed or promoted the book? Which do you use to explain this absolutely exhausting experience after writing a book and then signing a contract?

In dictionary.com promotion is defined as encouraging the sale of a product by advertising or securing financial support. Marketing is defined as the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.

I don’t know why we always say promtion and marketing when they actually mean about the same thing. Either way an author has to do most of it unless you are a big name like Stephen King and we won’t even go there for J K Rowling.  The usual methods of promotion is an author website, blog connected to website or not, blogs for your book’s characters or book cover, join yahoo groups such as coffee time romance or your genre’s groups, your publisher’s author group and readers group if available, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, Good Reads or Shelfari….  I’m exhausted just looking at all the places to connect. This list does not include advertising in online or print magazines. Some ads are within my price range. But as in most promotion, the author has no idea if all the time and money, even reaped a sale. I also did not include press releases to your local hometown paper. Of course, an author can always rely on Aunt Fanny or you mom and family and friends to advertise for you by talking up your “fantastic” book.

Book trailers are very popular and are becoming more sophisticated in their production. I actually enjoyed creating mine.  Check out the Sunshine Boulevard trailer.

I tried an “e-signing” with two local authors who had print books for sale. They sold their books, but so many people do not understand e-books or the idea of how to order one. (Oh yes, I helped a neighbor download my e-book on the Internet. When we were in the middle of the process, she told me she couldn’t wait till the book came in the mail. I was flabbergasted. She had no concept, like so many others, of this new technology.)

The visitors at the signing who said they had a Kindle, etc took my business cards and post cards from the table, but I’ll never know how many actually ordered the e-book. I did have coupons from my publisher so that if someone wanted to purchase it that minute while I sat at the table, I could take her money and give her a code to use when ordering the book online at the publisher’s bookstore.  Ummm, yes very complicated and almost impossible for folks to understand in this setting, so I quit trying to explain it, especially if they already had an online account with an e-book retailer already established.

I am very excited that I have had the opportunity to publish a book and to go through all the steps needed to write, query, get the contract, and to experience the release date. In fact through the promotion I have met so many wonderful folks by being a guest on fellow authors’ blogs and to host authors on my blog.

I write this blog post as a cautionary tale. When sitting alone writing your book, I do not think the writer realizes the amount of work left to be done once the contract is signed and the book is published. To get your work into the reader’s hands, you must promote/market it. So be prepared for that extra duty.

After all is said and done, I know such a cliche, I would do it all again. Writing, publishing and selling my book has been a learning experience and a thrill enriching another chapter in my life.

Promotion takes a LOT of time especially when the book is launched. Once caveat I have learned too late is that most reviewers want to review the new releases. Once the book is over two months old, there are not many reviewers interested in talking about the book.

In fact, since March I have let all my works in progress (WIP) slack off. I have just begun to pick up and write again on a story and do research. (BTW the next mystery involves finding the church music director dead in the basement of the church.)

Speaking of Promotion–Here’s MORE shameless promotion!!  LOL

My e-book is available at Muse It Up Publishing Bookstore http://tinyurl.com/2c53noz

and Amazon.com http://tinyurl.com/4czwr6h

and bn.com http://tinyurl.com/4442b94

 and major online booksellers.

J Q Rose Website http://www.jqrose.webs.com

J Q Rose Blog  http://www.jqroseauthor.blogspot.com

I always keep this info handy so it is easy to find. You should too when your book launches. Best wishes on your writing journey!

FREE Recipe Collection Promotion

Authors are always trying to think of a way to promote their books. In my book, Sunshine Boulevard, I included the fact that my main character, Gloria Hart, was not much of a baker, but she could develop tasty recipes withveggies from the garden her husband, Jim, grows in their back yard. I asked my Muse It Up Publishing editor, Karen McGrath, if it would be okay to add that so I could use the recipes from my Garden for Eatin’ gardening blog in a collection as a free gift to promote both the book and blog. She loved the idea…that meant she HAD to keep that info in the story!( Karen is a great editor and worked with me on any changes in the story.)

As I put the recipes together I thought how blessed we are in this country to have food available and the resources to grow it in our own backyards. This led me to the Foods Resource Bank, an organization who is funded by businesses, churches, individuals, and  local farmers. They produce crops to sell in order to donate the monies to  develop local resources that support sustainable food production for the best agricultural practices in underdeveloped countries. Farmers are taught the skills to grow food for their families and eventually to expand farms to produce food to sell for income.

I decided to include a link in the book for people to donate to this great organization

http://www.foodsresourcebank.org/

to help stamp out world hunger.

 

Today, my character, Gloria Hart, introduces Gloria Hart’s The Garden for Eatin’ Recipe Collection on Ginger Simpson’s Dishin’ It Out blog. Check it out.

If you are interested in receiving this collection whether you are a gardener or not, please email me at janetglaser@yahoo.com and I will send you the e-book collection of recipes as a  gift of appreciation as a reader of this blog.

How to Autograph an E-book

How can the author of an e-book autograph the book? This question has stumped me. My e-book, Sunshine Boulevard, was released on March 1 and I have already had requests for signings. I have to explain that the book is out in cyberspace and I have no way of signing it. Until now…

According to the Bay News 9 reporter, a local FL author and inventor T.J. Waters and his friend developed Autography, a software package that will offer a place for the author’s signature in the e-book.

“Basically, what you do is pull up a copy of your book as the author, and it inserts a blank page behind the cover and you sign whatever you’re going to personalize for somebody,” Waters said.

The plus side of this is the author can be sitting anywhere in the world and can sign a book and it will be delivered to the reader as an autographed copy. The one drawback is the author needs to have an iPad to use the software.

For more on this amazing idea author, check out Local Inventors Create a Way to Sign an E-book .

 

Sunshine Boulevard Available Today!

Today is the day to celebrate!

 

Sound the trumpets! Sunshine Boulevard marches onto the world-wide stage of e-books today! Muse It Up Publishing releases this mystery/horror with humor e-book March 1, 2011, along with a great line-up of books full of interesting stories sure to intrigue and tantalize all readers.

 

I want to thank so many people who have helped me along this journey to reach the title of “published author.” From my grandmother, Ma, to my sister-in-law, Sandy, who encouraged me to write as far back as when I was in high school. After selling our retail floral and greenhouse business, I screwed up my courage to ask our regional newspaper editor, Rich, if he would be interested in some ideas I had for articles for the paper.  When I turned in my first one, he actually ran it in the paper with my byline. Thanks, Rich, and the staff at the Times-Indicator! 

Through the years editors, my writing group who meets at the library, and writers online such as Audrey Shaffer and the gang at The Writers Chatroom and Lea Schizas’ free Muse Online Writers Conference have provided valuable information and encouragement. The welcoming, warm authors and editors at Muse It Up Publishing have shepherded me through the process of editing and answered so many questions from this newbie novelist with patience and humor. I am blessed to have my daughters and husband walking this new path with me. Thank you Sara, Lee Ann, and Ted.

It is my pleasure and great honor to offer you, my readers, this entertaining, quick read for you to enjoy. Thank you!

Sunshine Boulevard is available at Muse It Up Publishing bookstore, amazon.com, bn.com, and e-book retailers online.

E-book Download Confusion?

 

So many formats and options for reading e-books make it confusing when purchasing an e-book for your reading device. David J. Normoyle has made it simple. Click here to find what you need to buy to make it work for you–http://ping.fm/Sc6v9

E-book Pricing

The battle rages over how much to pay for an e-book.  Andrew Burt at Critters.org put up a poll on e-book pricing. After taking the poll, click over to the forum which cusses and discusses e-book pricing. Each commenter does not say if he is coming from the writing side, the publishing side or reading side of the book business. I am sure there are folks who are both authors and publishers, but many comments are colored toward favoring their specific interest.

Granted there are no costs associated with printing, shipping, or returns for an e-book publisher, but the costs are there similar to a printed book version when it comes to contracting authors, artwork, editors, office expenses, internet hosting, time relinquished for promotion…yes, some small presses actually help the author network and get reviews…

In the poll Burt asks what the reader would pay for an e-book. In another section, he puts forth the idea of NOT paying for the book until after the reader actually reads it. Then, as in tipping the waitress at your favorite restaurant for good/bad service, the purchaser will pay for the book based on how much he enjoyed it. This idea boggled my mind. I wish I could pay the doctor as to how well he cured me or the electric company for how bright my lights are. Actually I would love to pay the gas stations after I used their gas for a big or small trip!

I am sure you can tell where I stand on this utopian idea. Publishers would be out of business in no time. Not because the books are bad, but because a reader will never return in three days or two weeks to pay the piper after reading a book. But it would be a great experiment to see how well this would go. Perhaps the ABC show, What Would You Do?, could try this exercise in human nature?

Tell me now, how much are you willing to pay for an e-book? Should it be close to the amount of the major publishers hardback or paperback book? Why or why not? It is interesting to get many views, but please keep them polite. Thanks.

What Makes a Great Publishing House?

How do you know what publishing house you should submit your work to? You have worked diligently to submit your best story you can write, so you need a publisher who cares about the author and is enthusiastic about the book business. You want someone who is experienced and connected to a publishing network.  You need a cheerleader on your side with editors who will gently shepherd your manuscript into a book with easy-to-read sentences/paragraphs, distinct point of view, correct grammar, and no spelling errors.

That sounds like a lot of points to check out before submitting, doesn’t it?  How do you, the author, find out about a publisher? If you find a book you like to read that is the same genre you write, try to contact the author and ask what her experience was with that publisher.  Talk to authors and  join forums such as the Writers Chatroom to see what the buzz is about a particular publisher. Preditors and Editors is a site with information on publishers.

Go to the publisher’s webpage and see the tone of the site. Cordial, friendly, or snarky and demanding? As a writer you will be able to get the feel of this publisher by checking through the site. Look at the cover art and decide if you would like your book cover to appear in their bookstore.

I believe publisher, editor, author Lea Schizas of Muse It Up Publishing sums up what a publishing house needs for a winning combination:

•  a good writer’s voice/storyteller
• an editor to partner with the writer
• a cover artist who understands each book
• readers who share in our glee and cheer us on

All the best wishes for success in submitting to a publisher. Oh yes, it’s a process with many rejections, re-writes, and lots of hope. Keep at it. Don’t give up.

I have been happy with the publishing process at Muse It Up. My mystery/horror ebook, Sunshine Boulevard, will be released March 1.