Category authors

Aug 25 2013

Authors: Where Is Your Happiest Place Online?

I’ll discuss a few places, then I’ll cast my vote in the last paragraph. I’d also like to hear your vote, if you’d be so kind as to leave a comment.

Let me start with Amazon, since it’s a huge website that authors are familiar with. I love shopping for books (and more) at Amazon and I love the support that Amazon has given to authors, including indies. It doesn’t win my vote with regards to happiness, however. For one, the current customer review and comment platform detracts a little from what would be a much more positive ambiance. It’s great that they promote freedom and independence, I just wish they could do that and still limit the occasional spitefulness. Another problem I see is that I sometimes find myself frustrated when trying to search for and discover new books by keyword or in a category. It’s sort of an inherent problem in trying to search through twenty million books. Maybe if we could see more than a dozen or so books on a page that would help speed up the process; sometimes, the way the results are ordered seems to make us scratch our heads, too. Still, I love Amazon and continue to use it.

There are many features that I enjoy at Goodreads, both as a reader and an author. Authors can connect with other authors, and friend reviews are allowed but clearly marked as such (I happened to see one on an author’s page recently, and thought it was an interesting option). You can see what friends have read, are reading, or intend to read. You can discover new books. However, there seems to be a little too much negativity (enough that some authors actually shudder at the mention of the website’s name), but not enough effort to try to make the ambiance more positive throughout. Again, perhaps the negativity is associated with the effort to provide independence and freedom. On the other hand, my vote goes to a website that seems to promote freedom and independence quite well, yet still appears to be a much more positive environment. If they can do it, why can’t others?

Another popular place among authors is CreateSpace. There may be a little room for improvement, but overall I like the way the website works as far as publishing books goes. I also love the wealth of free publishing and marketing information available to authors (if you haven’t checked it out before, you should). The community discussion forum is a nice place for authors to interact with one another, and a good place to look for publishing help. There are many helpful members there, some who are small publishers with many years of publishing experience. For the most part, the forum is very courteous (especially, compared to some community forums on other websites). Still, there are a couple of reasons that CreateSpace didn’t receive my vote. First, the file review process can be a little frustrating at times – even if you submit the interior or cover to specifications, there are sometimes unexpected changes (like telling you that your file is too complex, or resizing the cover on you). The defect rate may be a little higher than we may like (we can hope that they are working to improve this), yet there are defects with all publishers. Finally, eStore sales require the customer to setup a CreateSpace account and it’s not intuitive for customers to search for books on CreateSpace. Nonetheless, I still love CreateSpace and continue to use it, even though there are promising new rivals like Ingram Spark.

I’ll cast my vote now. WordPress is the happiest place online for me. Authors seem to enjoy ample freedom, independence, and creativity, while also in my experience it’s usually a very happy place online. The exception may be the occasional bitter rant, but that’s easy to ignore if you want. The comments section is often filled with positive interactions. The sense of community here at WordPress has been excellent, in my experience. WordPress draws me in like a magnet. I don’t hesitate, fearing negative experiences. I find myself spending way much more time writing posts and reading posts than I ever imagined, and I enjoy it. A positive ambiance attracts people, and the people make or break the place. Here’s a big THANK YOU to all the great people who make this place. 🙂 Please remember to cast your vote and share your opinions and experience.

Aug 25 2013

Selling Books Directly – How to Do It and Why You Should

Books

Some authors are highly successful with direct sales – i.e. copies they sell personally – as well as getting local booksellers to stock their books. There are a few simple things that anyone can do that would help with direct sales. You don’t have to be a car salesman to effectively move your books. We’ll return to this point shortly.

First, there are several benefits from selling directly:

  • Author copies are very reasonable for paperback books from CreateSpace, which allows you to discount the book and still make a significant royalty. Any discount you offer from the list price works as an incentive – like being on sale – for readers to buy your book.
  • You may sell some books to customers who wouldn’t have bought the book otherwise. This widens your exposure. The more people who read your book, the better your prospects for reviews and word-of-mouth sales.
  • People often buy on impulse. Once that moment has passed, you may have lost your chance. If you tell someone about your book, by the time they get home and log onto the computer, they might change their mind or forget about it. When you sell directly, you can avoid this delay.
  • Selling directly is a very personal form of marketing, and you combine the marketing and selling into a single step. Readers often enjoy the chance to meet and interact with the author, and this improves the chances for them to buy your book. You have the chance to charm them.
  • Nobody is as passionate about your book as you are. Therefore, you are your own best salesman. There is no salesman at all when customers shop online. When you sell directly, you have the opportunity to let your passion show through. (Instead, if you don’t show much interest in your own book, it will be difficult for readers to imagine enjoying your book.)
  • Holding a book in your hands is different from viewing the cover, blurb, and Look Inside online. A professional looking paperback or hardcover book can make a positive impression. People do buy books because they seem interesting (that’s why they have books lying around the house that they’ve never even opened, but intend to read someday).

Don’t view yourself as a salesperson. Think of it as marketing. You’re the author. Let your passion for your work show naturally (don’t overdo it). You’re trying to help people in your target audience discover your book, and by offering a discount (if you choose to do this – and check if you’re beating Amazon’s price, since that may be discounted, too), you’re helping them save money.

Here are some tips for selling books directly:

  • Put the book in the customer’s hands. Be discreet about this, and be insistent. Your goal is to get the book in the customer’s hands and keep it there. When the customer tries to hand the book back to you, you want to have your hands full or busy or to be positioned in such a way that the customer won’t simply hand you the book in return. But you have to be natural and smooth. If the customer succeeds in returning the book (setting it on a table, for example), at some point you want to naturally pick it up and try to put it back in the customer’s hands. If the customer gets the book out of his or her hands, the customer is more likely to walk away without buying it.
  • Offer to sign the book for the customer. This is a way that you can create a perception of added value to the product. It’s another incentive for the customer to make the purchase. If you succeed in getting the customer to hold onto the book, after the sale is made, get out a pen and ask the customer how he or she would like the book to be signed. Once the transaction is complete, you don’t have to worry about the customer letting go of the book temporarily. Don’t mention signing the book too early – you might be able to use it to help close the deal later.
  • Smile. Be confident (it’s very important that you appear to believe in your book – otherwise, why should the customer?). Be courteous. Let your passion show through naturally. Talking about some aspect of the book you love is a great way to take your mind off your nervousness and quench those butterflies. Let a little creativity show. Charm helps.
  • You can have too few books, but not too many. Keep a stack of nicely packaged books in the trunk of your car (well, maybe not in extreme heat or humidity). Whenever your book comes up in the topic of conversation, you want to have a copy handy. Being out of stock is a good way to lose sales.
  • Format your book so that the cover and interior look professional. The more professional your book appears and the more the cover fits the genre, the better your chances of making the sale.
  • Strive to have the voice of a confident author and not the voice of a desperate salesperson. If you don’t want to feel like a salesperson, the first step is to realize that you aren’t really a salesperson and shouldn’t feel that way. You’re the author. People have the chance to meet the author in person and get a signed copy.
  • Don’t be a pressure salesperson. Create a relaxed ambiance.
  • Very often, the customer wants to buy a product, but is kind of stuck in limbo. If you see this hesitation, that’s the moment you’re waiting for to say the magic words. Maybe they are, “How would you like me to sign this?” Don’t ask, “Would you like to buy this book?” If it’s a yes-no question, you give the customer a chance to say, “Not today.”
  • Every salesperson understands the value of add-ons. “Would you like a bookmark to go with that?” (Bookmarks are also helpful marketing tools, especially since they may actually get used by readers.) “Your daughter might enjoy this children’s book I’ve written.”
  • If your list price is $12.95, consider selling it for $10 in person. Round numbers make it easy for customers to pay and help relieve the issue of making change. Come prepared with denominations that you may need to make change. At a large event, you want to be setup with PayPal on a laptop, for example.
  • Offer a discount for buying multiple books. For example, $8 each or $20 for the trilogy. (Look at your cost – don’t forget shipping you pay to get the books – and potential royalties first – don’t just make up numbers.)

You don’t have to sell just paperback or hardcover in person. You can sell an e-book directly, too. Transfer the file directly. Once you figure out how to transfer the file successfully a couple of times, you’ll have the confidence to pull this off at the point-of-sale.

Where and how should you be selling your books directly?

  • Readings and signings. You can’t set these up if you don’t try. Try to be professional. Prepare a press release kit. Some managers are just trying to gauge whether you’re an amateur or a professional. If you’re not having luck with bookstores, look elsewhere: local stores (antique stores, perhaps) that sell books, coffee shops that might like to sell some coffee to anyone who shows up, have a picnic at the park – be creative (arrange a zombie race and have your signing at the end of it). Work to populate these events so you don’t wind up with zero audience. Schedule your event on your AuthorCentral page, then add a photo of it there afterward.
  • Anyone you interact with who shows interest in your book. Remember to always have a stack of neatly packaged books nearby (e.g. in the trunk of your car). Print out a nice looking coupon with a discount code and your CreateSpace eStore in case you don’t have a book handy, or at least have a business card or bookmark with your website on it. However, you’re more likely to sell a book that you have handy than get a sale later from a website.
  • Booksellers. Not just bookstores and libraries. You may have better success in local shops that sell a few books. Start small and try to work your way up; you’ll gain experience with each attempt. A press release kit may come in handy. You prefer to sell copies directly (they’ll want a hefty discount, which should be okay since author copies are low cost), but they may prefer to do consignment (this gives them less incentive to sell, and your copies may be bruised or lost – plus what happens if the store goes out of business?). Consignment is better than nothing; there is a little risk, but all investments carry risk. They can order your books from Ingram or CreateSpace Direct, but selling your author copies may be the best option.
  • Seminars. Whenever you give a presentation, you want to have a table stacked with books when it’s over. You can arrange a workshop where you teach some valuable skill that relates to your book, you may get invited to give a seminar, you might volunteer to teach a skill at a senior center, etc. Where there is a will, there is a way.
  • Relevant stores. For example, if you wrote a grammar workbook, look for teacher supply stores, educational stores, and any other stores that sell workbooks. Schools may also have an interest. Look for home school teachers, too. Look online, too. For example, for workbooks, there is a website called Teachers Pay Teachers. If you didn’t write a workbook, think about what other kinds of stores sell such books. Try going to the store in person, first. If you contact them by mail, you want to prepare professional documents like those in a press release kit.

When people look on your AuthorCentral page or blog and see that you’ve been giving seminars on this topic or have a schedule for signings and readings, it looks impressive. It’s the sign of a serious author.

The more people in your target audience you interact with, the more people who may buy your book and the better the prospects for reviews and referrals. So the more people you meet through direct sales avenues, the better.

Plus, when you look at what makes people buy books, personal interactions is one of the main factors that applies to authors who don’t have big names. The other big factors include being on the bestseller list, referrals, and top search results. The most accessible factor for most authors is personal interactions. You have to aim for this (and if you succeed, it may help your book benefit from the other factors).

People like to buy books from authors they’ve met and interacted with where they enjoyed the interaction. By trying to sell books directly, you have a chance to make a big impact.

People you interact with personally are not just more likely to buy your book, they are also more likely to review it and refer it to friends. So you have every reason to try to meet people in your target audience and try to interact with them. You can do it. 🙂

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Aug 19 2013

Authors, What Are Your Writing Superstitions?

I’m very curious about this.

If you’re a writer and you have any superstitions, quirks, or rituals that relate to writing, please take a moment to share them.

Or if you know a writer with such habits, please share them.

Let me suggest a few examples for you to consider while think about this:

  • Do you check every chapter to make sure that it doesn’t have 13 pages?
  • Do you refuse to wash your underwear until the book is finished? (Well, that might explain why writing tends to be such a solitary experience…)
  • Do you read your horoscope before you decide to write that day?
  • Do you use a Ouija board to help get book ideas?
  • Do you insist on ending every book on page 451 (hoping that sales will be ‘on fire,’ in degrees Fahrenheit)?
  • Do you walk precisely one mile on the treadmill for every page you write?

Well, then, what do you do?

Aug 17 2013

Challenging How Big the Author’s Name Should Be

Name Pic

The consensus among critics is that the author’s name should be relatively small (compared to the title) unless you’re famous.

Why? There are two popular reasons for this:

  1. The marketing view says that if the author’s name appears too large on the cover, it will distract the shopper’s attention from more important keywords in the title. If you’re famous, then it’s important to throw your name out there because your name has sales value.
  2. The critical view feels that the author’s name should take on a humble role on the cover (i.e. out of the way) if the author doesn’t have name recognition.

But is this correct?

Maybe not.

There are a couple of reasons to reconsider this point:

  1. Do you primarily expect to sell books to family, friends, acquaintances, coworkers, social media followers, and people you interact with personally through marketing? If so, then you do have name recognition with your target audience. Make your name larger for their benefit and disregard the potential critics. Why not?
  2. Are you branding your name in your marketing efforts? If you are effective at this, then you want your name to be easily visible (but perhaps not dominating) on the thumbnail image of your cover. Potential customers who recognize your name from your marketing endeavors who see your name in the thumbnail may check out your book.
  3. Part of marketing is about creating a perception. If you’re thinking big, then you want to create a big name for yourself. If you’re going all out to try to make it big, then starting out with a big name on your cover might be a good fit. Make that big name for yourself and prove the cover critics wrong.
  4. If you’re a nonfiction author with a title (Dr., Ph.D., M.D., etc.), you may want your qualifications to be visible in the thumbnail image. However, if you don’t have a relevant title and aren’t well-known in your field, it may be better to place emphasis on a few important keywords instead of your name.

What is your personality? What fits you? A big name? A small name?

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon

Aug 16 2013

Publishing Tip: Change the Publication Date

If you hope to sell many books online through discovery in search results, the publication date is very important.

Why?

At Amazon, customers can filter search results by clicking the ‘Last 30 Days’ or ‘Last 90 Days’ new release links. These filters give your book a window of opportunity. Customers looking for new releases in their favorite genres may discover your book this way.

Now consider the following scenario.

You go through the entire publishing process. You set the publication date to be today’s date, since it won’t let you enter a date in the future. Then you discover one or more typos in the proof. After correcting those, there is suddenly a problem with the cover. When you fix the cover, you find more typos. A few weeks later everything seems to be just fine. So you click the magic button to approve your proof.

Oops!

You forgot to update the publication date. Your book won’t be listed in the ‘Last 30 Days’ results for an entire month. If it took three weeks to fix all of those problems, your book will only appear in the ‘Last 30 Days’ results for about a week.

Unless you remember to change the publication date before you publish.

If you’re debating whether to enter the publication date as ‘today’ or some date in the past, there is a distinct advantage to using ‘today.’ If the book you are publishing now is a new edition, for example, then why not give this edition a new publication date?

When you explore the ‘Last 30 Days’ and ‘Last 90 Days’ filters, you may also notice a ‘Coming Soon’ filter.

How do you get your book listed under ‘Coming Soon’?

First, you have to publish a paperback or hardcover. You won’t be able to do this if you publish exclusively an e-book edition.

Next, you must learn how to setup preorders at Amazon Advantage. There are some very helpful discussions on this very topic at the CreateSpace community forum. Check them out.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon

Aug 12 2013

Thank You, Reviewers

Thank You Pic

Thank you, Readers

For taking the time to review books,

To express what you enjoyed,

To suggest what could be better.

 

Thank you, Shoppers

For reading customer book reviews,

For trying to sort out which comments are helpful,

For comparing feedback to the Look Inside.

 

Thank you, Customers

For not being afraid to share your feedback,

Despite the few who don’t handle criticism well,

For realizing that most authors aren’t this way.

 

Thank you, Bloggers

For investing so much time to read many books,

For posting book reviews on your blogs,

For helping out so many authors.

 

Thank you, Authors

For not reviewing your own books,

For not blasting the competition,

For not lashing out at reviewers.

 

Thank you, Everyone

Who has taken time to post a review,

Who hasn’t abused the review guidelines,

Who supports the wonderful world of books.

 

We need you,

Readers, Customers, Bloggers, Reviewers.

We would be nowhere without you.

Thank you so much.

 

Chris McMullen

Aug 11 2013

Wow, What an Amazing Book!

If you’re an author, don’t you wish you were reading a post entitled, “Wow, What an Amazing Book,” that was about your book? Don’t you wish people were telling this to their friends, family, acquaintances, and coworkers? Don’t you wish the reviews were saying this? Don’t you wish readers were contacting you to tell you this?

(Well, of course, you want more than this. You want them to explain why it’s amazing, not just say that it’s amazing. But that’s not the point of this article.)

There are tens of millions of books out there. People aren’t going to think that they’re all amazing. Amazing is relative. To amaze people, your book must do something much better.

Only the top couple hundred thousand books sell once a day or more on average.

There are two ways to have a top-selling book: (1) Market your book effectively and (2) write an amazing book.

It’s important to realize that these points go together. People won’t realize how amazing your book is if they don’t discover it. And no matter how well you market your book, if the book isn’t good, it won’t matter much.

If you take the extra time and effort to make your book amazing in some way, this should help give you some motivation and confidence in your marketing.

What makes a book amazing?

What will cause readers to slam your book on the table and dance around, thinking, “Wow! That was unbelievable! Where can I get more of that?”

Let’s begin with what won’t make your book amazing:

  • It won’t be amazing simply because you hope people will be amazed by it. (You need to work for it, not just hope for it.)
  • It won’t be amazing just because your name is on the book, and you think you’re amazing. (You probably are amazing, but people won’t judge your book by judging you.)
  • It won’t be amazing merely because you completed the monumental task of writing and publishing a book. (This is worthy of my applause, but isn’t enough to impress readers.)
  • It won’t be amazing only because you have a talent for writing. (There are millions of talented writers. You need to stand above the crowd.)
  • It won’t be amazing solely because you put much effort into preparing a very good book. (This is what readers expect. To amaze readers, you must go beyond their expectations.)

Self-publishing isn’t a lottery. In a lottery, every ticket has an equal chance of winning. In publishing, some books are simply better than others. (Furthermore, some books have a wider audience than others, some books are packaged better to help the audience find them, and some books are marketed more effectively than others.)

So how can a book amaze readers?

  • Highly creative problem-solving. For example, the protagonist gets in a jam, the readers think there is no possible way out, and the author does something creative to get the protagonist out of it. The bigger challenge is pulling this off in a way that satisfies readers. You don’t want them thinking that it’s unrealistic or broke the rules of the game, for example.
  • Incredible characterization. This includes heroes and supporting characters that people will fall in love with, but also includes villains. Think about characters that amaze you and especially why they amaze you, and how you can achieve this effect in your own writing.
  • Crowd pleaser. Study the kinds of things in books and movies that tend to please crowds. The better you understand people – especially, your target audience – the greater your chances for amazing them with your book.
  • Impressive formatting. I don’t mean avoiding formatting mistakes or knowing about things like widows, orphans, and rivers. Good formatting is expected, not amazing. Maybe the book is beautifully decorated with little professional touches that fit the theme of the book and don’t distract the reader. Impressive formatting (combined with good editing) helps to put the reader in a good mood. If people know you’re self-published through your marketing efforts, yet your book looks highly professional, they will be amazed that you’ve produced something beyond their expectations.
  • Unique and creative in a pleasing way. If you write a romance that’s very similar to countless other romance novels, that’s not going to amaze anyone; it may please many readers, but this meets their expectations, rather than exceeding them. Do you want people saying, “That’s another good book,” or, “That book is incredible”? But let me warn you that this is both challenging and risky. Much of the time, novelties displease readers. They won’t be amazed by anything that’s different. You have to really know your audience well (focus or writing groups may help). Will people love this change, or will they hate it? If you have a gift for answering this question correctly, you can write an amazing book that will sell well. (Warning: Something new that doesn’t fit into a well-defined genre or that doesn’t have a significant audience will be a very hard sell.)
  • Eye-catching cover that clearly identifies the genre and content. This helps to attract your target audience, create interest in your book, and put them in a good mood every time they see your cover. You don’t want the cover to be the only impressive feature of your book, but if your book amazes readers in other ways, a great cover can really pay off.
  • Make their dreams come true. First, you have to know your audience. Many teenagers, for example, wish they suddenly discovered that they had special powers and that their lives had much more meaning. There are many books that fill this need, however, so you must pull it off in an amazing way.
  • Do something better. Research similar books. Can you make a book like those, only do something much better? It’s not easy. In nonfiction, there are many books written by renowned experts. But maybe you can explain things more clearly in layman’s terms. In fiction or nonfiction, if you can find a way to do something better, this may amaze readers.

The more your book seems amazing to readers, the much greater your prospects for the most valuable sales of all – word of mouth referrals.

Your book has to have the goods, not just the advertising. If you advertise that it’s better in some way, but it doesn’t live up to the expectations that you create, readers are likely to be frustrated and disappointed. You want a book that delivers beyond the readers’ expectations. This will amaze readers and lead to referrals and good reviews.

Think of how you can put a wow-factor in your book.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon

Aug 9 2013

Dealing with Writing Stress

It’s amazing how much anxiety authors tend to experience:

  • Trying to reach daily writing goals.
  • Wondering if the book will ever get finished.
  • Hoping that people like it.
  • Doubting whether it will sell.
  • Learning how to format.
  • The frustrations of the publishing process itself.
  • Searching for professional help.
  • Monitoring sales reports.
  • Waiting for reviews.
  • Receiving critical feedback.
  • Cyberbullying.
  • The scary world of marketing.
  • Deadlines (often self-imposed).

(So you want to be an author, huh?)

Authors can manage this anxiety.

One trick is to not let yourself get frustrated over things that are beyond your control. You just have to let those things go. First you have to realize that you just can’t do anything about them. The only thing you can do is get upset, and that doesn’t help at all.

You can’t control what other people say or do.

(No doubt, if you could, that universe would be incredibly boring to live in.)

You can do your best. If you do, this knowledge should provide its own satisfaction. Remind yourself of this.

Your behavior can also limit your anxiety.

If you frequently monitor your sales reports and product pages (looking for reviews), emails, blog activity, etc., you’re more likely to be disappointed.

Suppose for example you sell an average of 4 books per day. This means that you sell an average of 1 book every 6 hours. If you check your sales report every hour, 83% of the time you will be disappointed.

I know, when you see that sale, it gives you a temporary euphoria. But being disappointed by no sales most of the time isn’t worth it.

If you sell 4 books per day, just check your sales report once a day, and most of the time you will be happy to see some activity.

Try to wait long enough to see at least 10 sales, and don’t monitor your reports more frequently than that.

When you receive critical feedback, try to stay offline for a couple of days and engage in healthy activities. Keep your mind busy with those. Then see if the criticism offers something that you can use to improve. If so, use it and consider the matter settled. If not, discard it and forget about it.

Diet and exercise are highly important for writers.

We don’t get much exercise while writing. Think about that. We sometime keep irregular hours, staying up overnight to finish our thoughts. We sometimes don’t eat well – taking whatever is convenient – and eat in a rush.

Lack of exercise, poor diet, and especially anxiety can lead to stomach aches, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, and a host of other serious problems.

Exercise is a great way to help your mind deal with stress, besides being something that your body needs. Walk (but don’t pace), jog, ride a bike, play tennis, or go golfing, for example. If you can’t leave the house, buy an elliptical or treadmill and make like a hamster.

Balance. The more you check your sales reports and read reviews, the more you should exercise.

Avoid nervous habits like biting your nails.

Writing should be fun.

It is. Remember that.

We tend to make it far more stressful and less fun than it really is.

Focus on enjoying the art of writing. It may help to think of something far worse that you could be doing instead. A little perspective never hurts. 🙂

And here is something I’ve said before: Don’t compare yourself to others. Instead, compare yourself to your former self.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon

Aug 5 2013

Show and Tell

Show and Tell Pic

If you go out on a date, would you like to be told a good time or shown a good time?

Similarly, readers expect books to entertain them. They shop for books that will show them a good time.

This is true even for nonfiction books that provide instruction or knowledge. Given two books comparable in the level of knowledge and clarity of instruction, the book that entertains the reader is more likely to attract and engage the interest of the audience.

Also, people are more apt to remember what they are shown versus what they are told.

A writer could simply say that a girl is furious. That’s telling.

Alternatively, the author could state that the girl kicked a metal pail so hard that it bounced off the corrugated tin roof, waking up all of the neighbors. That’s showing.

It’s not worth showing everything. Showing minor details, instead of telling them briefly in passing, could be quite an interruption, for example.

Rather, if you find yourself telling, consider whether showing may have been more effective. Writers tend to tell more and show less than they should. It takes a conscious effort to overcome this.

It’s often not what you say, but the way you say it, that really matters.

You must also know your audience well enough to know what your audience prefers.

Asking for a hand in marriage is telling. Getting down on one knee beside a dinner table with a beautiful ocean view at sunset just after arranging a mariachi band to sing is showing.  But if your fiancée prefers the simple proposal to the fancy one, then telling is better than showing. Know your audience.

Inertia is the natural tendency of an object to maintain constant momentum. That’s telling.

When the skateboard hits the curb, the monkey flies forward because of inertia. That’s showing. Even in nonfiction, showing can be more effective than telling.

However, if your audience consists of mathematicians who crave abstract concepts and the challenge of showing themselves with what they are told, then telling may be better than showing.

Showing more and telling less doesn’t mean that you need to add pictures and links to websites and videos. Pictures and links can be highly useful, but don’t add them for the sake of showing more. You’re not trying to turn your book into a movie. Also, those links can be distractions – or worse, diversions (i.e. someone who is reading your book may click on it to go elsewhere).

Do you think that movies show more than books?

Actually, a book can show much more than any movie. Have you ever watched the movie of a book you’ve read and thought that the book was better?

One advantage that books have is the imagination of the reader. Movies don’t leave much room for that. Well-crafted stories and characterizations effectively harness the reader’s imagination.

Another advantage that books have over movies is that they are not restricted by budgets, special effect capabilities, and manpower. In fantasy, they aren’t even constrained by the laws of physics. Anything is possible in a book.

The question isn’t what you can do; you can do anything.

The question is only how best to show it to your reader.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon

Aug 4 2013

Which Edition Is It?

After publishing, it’s almost inevitable that at some point you’ll want to make changes:

  • You might discover a typo yourself, or have some pointed out to you.
  • The formatting of the Look Inside often doesn’t come out quite as expected (even if the book looks great on Kindle).
  • After writing another book, you may want to include a short sample of the first chapter at the end of your previous book.
  • You might want to add your website, email, or other author information to your books.
  • As you learn more about publishing, you may find good ideas or inspiration that you’d like to incorporate into your existing books.

Revising your book is fairly painless: You simply revise your files and resubmit them. (If you were wise enough to keep track of which version of the file was your latest file and where you saved it, that will be quite handy. The last thing you want to do is introduce mistakes by accidentally using the wrong file.)

Beware that a tiny change can create a domino effect, messing up the formatting on dozens of pages that follow. Take the time to inspect the formatting throughout the book, no matter how small the change is.

Where the fun begins is after your revise the book. You check out the product page, wondering if the changes have been made. If they occur in the beginning, you might be able to see them on the Look Inside. You might be wondering if you should buy your own book just to see if it has been corrected, but then you’ll be really disappointed if you invest in this just to discover that it hasn’t been.

Suppose a customer brings a paperback copy of your book to you. It might be handy for you to know which edition of the book that customer has read – i.e. did the customer buy it before or after you made the changes?

Fortunately, there is a simple solution: When you revise your interior file, simply place something that will show up in the Look Inside that will distinguish one version from another.

If the copyright page shows up in the Look Inside (it should, unless you move it to the back matter, which some authors and publishers do with eBooks in order to maximize the free sample), you could simply write Edition 4, for example. Then when you check out the Look Inside on Amazon, if you see Edition 3 instead, you know that the old Look Inside is still showing.

If you added new material and made corrections, you could write Revised and Expanded Edition instead of the edition number. You can even write a brief note like Revised to Include…

It’s not necessary to make it appear like a new edition has been made. If you only made a few small corrections, for example, you might not want to advertise that it has been updated. If you don’t want to advertise the update, but want to be able to tell yourself that it has been updated, then you just need to make some subtle change to the Look Inside that will help you tell which edition you’re seeing when you see your book.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon