When I was a younger man during those BK days (Before Kindle) I could seldom find a bookstore, be it a major giant brick and mortar place like B&N or a cozy independent bookstore that I truly felt a partnership with; I was never truly ever made to feel like anything other than a BOTHER in 99 percent of the bookstores I did signings in or dropped in on for a driveby signing. Now during these days of AK (After Kindle), I am in a true, strong partnership with a bookstore--the Kindle store which has expanded now beyond the UK and into Germany.The great thing about this partnership is that Amazon is a silent partner and yet they provide such excellent services. Reporting of sales top-notch, book returns no sweat--hardly know they exists, no one boxing up your book while you are still in the store signing! Distribution is worldwide. I can't enumerate all the wonderful pluses working with the Kindle Store. So I won't . Instead, I will draw your attention to the Kindle Community Forums, one of which I began called: What Mioves Kindle books off the shelf? (misspell and all - think iMoves). Here is a recent post I placed on the forum which you will likely find of interest if you are at all interested in ebooks sales or as an eReader, eReviewer, eFan, eAuthor, or ePublisher. The thread here has grown to 18,333 views, 550 posts, 38 pages.
Posted: Apr 20, 2011 3:22 PM:
. . . I can't tell you how many new readers, people who have never read any of my books before have discovered me--my sense of humor, my political rants, my self on facebook and twitter and have become readers of R.W. Walker's books due to getting t'know me through my tweets and remarks on facebook. In Bayou Wulf, for example, I have placed maybe ten or eleven facebook friends' names in the book after posting that I needed some extras on the "set" and to expect to be killed in a gruesome manner. I got all kinds of takers and all of them have family and friends, and all are anxious to see themselves in the book, and they will share their demise with friends and family. Hopefully, this translates into purchasing of more books, gifting to others, etc.
I belong to like ten chat groups, and many of the people on these groups, due to what I had to say, decided to check out my books. In other words, it is not entirely a "crap shoot" but more a good faith effort to convince eReaders that one's work--one's book--is worth anyone's time and money.
As to tagging book titles - what the hey -- it certainly can affiliate you with another author. First time I noticed this all of a sudden William Miekle and I were being treated like blood brothers. Checked out his work and sure enough...and Miekle is on fire, so I am associated with him, great. Associated with JA Konrath, what can it hurt? I've known Joe for years; he was best man at my wedding. But when his book pops up on my book page, and mine on his, I have to figure that does have an affect--my readers find him, his readers find me. We have also exchanged opening chapters of our books at the end of one another's kindle titles. (Now Kindle is po
9 Comments on My Silent Partner in Crime - Amazon.com/Kindle Store, last added: 4/24/2011
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I'm constantly amazed at your ingeniousness, Rob! Your mind is becoming more wily each day in ways to sell books, and your efforts are paying off.
I'm still playing catch-up, since I have nowhere near as many books to offer, and am asking for rights back on my first two books to offer them at more reasonable prices.
Thanks for all the free advice.
Morgan Mandel
http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel
Rob, this is great! The way your mind works if fascinating. I, for one, have taken your advice and seen a jump in sales. Like Morgan I still have to catch up, but I'm trying! Thanks for sharing all your wonderful advice.
Best,
June
Thanks for another good blog - Your good suggestions and shared experience are my encouragement bible :-)
BTW, I don't know what at tweet is or how to do it. Some other writers have asked for them on Twitter but I have no idea how to do them but would like to help.
Good luck and sales to all of us,
Jackie Griffey
Great advice as usual, Rob. You remind me of the saying, "do not follow where the path may lead, go instead, where there is no path and leave a trail."
DL Larson
Great article, great writing, Rob. You really "show, don't tell" the letting your own personality speak. Thank you so mcuh for sharing. Your energy encourages me to carry on.
I gather a great deal of my enthusiasm from those I share with; I hate seeing anyone having to go through what I have gone through throughout my admittedly "checkered" career.
When I hear of someone or see someone going down the wrong path in this so-called industry, this roulette wheel, I just want to shout stop - go back! Go another way. For the first time, truly, authors have another path.
Thanks to everyone who has dropped by. I'll check back later for any other comments.
rob
It's come along way's from the days spent sifting through publishers in a book and sending out query's into the abyss.
As far as wriitng, I do have to say I miss the day's when it was just me and my story, my characters and settings without the distractions of blogs, communities,facebook, and the nessesary self promotion. I just relesed a new novel in jan, "Sebastian Cross" and started a new one shortly after. Maybe I started it to soon. I love how it's going, the characters, the feel, but I'ts been the hardest 40.000 (so far) words I've ever written. I feel like like I'm cheating on it when ever I'm doing something that consist of promoting the last book, when I should be writing, concentrating, focusing. At some point I need to shut everything down and stay with my writing schedual. I've never been one of those who can multi-task at prose, to work on several books at once. I like to be in the current project completely.
I've done about all I can do for Sebastian Cross at this time anyway. Maybe just sit back and let it ferment now. It's a lot of work writing a book, and a lot of time promoting it. just can't seem to do both at the same time.
Amazon and social sites has made it possible for you to be a writer with out getting past a gatekeeper. careers can be made very fast, maybe to fast, but it's a great time to be a writer because of it. Where you can go straight to the potentual reader and say, "here I am, here's what I got."
Who knows-amazon's cooking up cool new stuff everyweek. The're the only ones that seem to have a crystal ball and it's only a matter of time before their services come full circle with editing, marketing, promotion in a very cheap if not free package. They have their finger on the pulse of todays buisness model for today's writer. less + less = more and more.
Amazon does seem like a great business partner in many ways, and you know how I celebrate your success.
Personally I relish the in person experience at a bookstore, too, and just hope the two can live together for a long, long time.
But the trails you are blazing in this world are inspiring indeed. Rants and all ;)
Say hi to Joe, I blogged about him (and you) (and Karen McQuestion) recently.
Thanks Jenny! Appreciate it, truly. You keep at it, hear? KEVIN, yeah, I understand what you mean and I feel your pain. In a perfect world, a writer could just WRITE, right? But in the real world where even if you do land a contract you RARELY see the author under contract happy with his or her publisher due to their doing nothing or if they do somethhing it is the wrong something like demanding a title change! So the alternative used to be NO Alternative, No choice save not signing the contract....but now a writer who had worked at his craft and is smart enough to get decent editing does have a choice - ebook indie publishing, but it comes with a price - you get the freedomn but it cost in Responsibilities and now you wear all the hats as you do not have an Art Director unless you hire a guy like my son to do your cover art - a graphics gurur, and editors - either you get early readers for free or you get out the checkbook and purchase the services of a good editor. I charge 2 bucks a page, way under what most NYC editors charge on a project.