Category publishing

Jun 13 2013

How to Use the Chapter Names as Even-Page Headers in Microsoft Word

Headers

Most traditionally published books have page headers running along the top of every page (don’t confuse headers with headings; at the beginning of every section is a heading, while at the top of each page is a header).

When the author is famous, the author’s name is likely to appear on the page header. For the rest of us, it’s probably more useful to put other information here.

Many books put the chapter name on the even-numbered pages and the book title on the odd-numbered pages.

Before you get started, save your file (in two or more places, like on your jump drive and email, in case one file becomes corrupt), then save it again with a different filename. This way, you’ll have a backup of the original, just in case. A file can be messy without you realizing it and become corrupt when working with the page headers, so having a backup of the original may turn out to be valuable.

There is a trick to using different header text in each chapter of the book. It’s the same trick that’s needed to use Roman numerals and Arabic page numbers in the same file. You can find a thorough, step-by-step tutorial with screenshots by clicking here.

The main idea is to use a Next Page section break for each section or chapter where you would like the header to be different. Don’t insert an ordinary page break; going to Insert and selecting Page Break or going to Page Layout and choosing Page won’t work.

Instead, go to Page Layout and select Next Page to make the page break in a way that will tell Word that a new section is beginning.

(In Word 2003 and earlier, the menu options are somewhat different, but the main ideas are still the same. I’ll describe how to use Word 2010 for Windows, specifically, which is similar to Word 2007 and onward.)

Remove ordinary page breaks and recreate them using Next Page anywhere a new chapter is starting (or anywhere else you wish to have different header text, including no header at all, such as front and back matter).

Start at the beginning of the document and edit the headers from the first page onward. If you don’t have page headers yet, add them from the Insert menu.

Place your cursor in the header area. Check the box for different first page if you wish to have a different header in the first page of the section. It’s common, for example, for the first page of each chapter and some pages of the front matter to have no header at all.

Check the box for different odd and even pages to allow the header text of odd-numbered and even-numbered pages to be different. It’s common to have the book title on odd-numbered pages and the chapter name on even-numbered pages.

The first section should be fairly easy, especially if you didn’t already have headers in place to begin with.

When you get to the second section, where you want the headers to be different, place your cursor in the header area and look for the ‘magic’ Link to Previous button. When you click this, the Same As Previous flag will disappear. This allows you to create a new header in this section (instead of copying the header from the previous section; more precisely, to avoid having the previous section change as you type the new header).

You needed those Next Page section breaks (instead of ordinary page breaks) to tell Word where each new section begins.

Remember to start at the beginning and work your way forward one section at a time. After you adjust a new section to your satisfaction, go back and ensure that the previous sections are still correct. If not, be thankful for that handy Undo button.

If your file is messy (it won’t look messy to you on the screen if it is), sometimes Word seems to be a little fussy about the page headers. If Word seems uncooperative, try undoing everything you did in the new section. Then remove the section break at the beginning of the new section, and reinsert it. See if that helps.

Sometimes you can play with it and persistence will pay off.

If you have a richly formatted book, or if the file is otherwise messy (again, without your knowledge), occasionally persistence makes the file even messier or it can become corrupt. (If you saved all of the section breaks and headers until your file was otherwise complete and went section by section systematically through the book, it may help to avoid these troubles.)

One solution to a corrupt file is reverting back to the original you saved as a backup prior to adjusting the headers.

A messy file can be cleaned up by stripping out the formatting. For example, copy and paste everything into Notepad and then copy and paste it into a new Word document. This is not a good option for a file that has numerous pictures, equations, bullets, instances of italics, or other formatting. And if the file mostly contained plain text, it was less likely to get so messy in the first place.

Opening the backup and trying the headers again may be worth the hassle (and far less hassle than stripping out the formatting for a richly formatted book), and it may work out better the second time.

In the worst-case scenario that you just can’t get the headers to cooperate, the simple way around this when your ultimate goal is to create a PDF file is to break your Word document up into smaller files (e.g. one file for each chapter, provided that the chapter count is reasonable). Then it will be easy to make different headers for each chapter.

In this case, you’ll have to manually start the page numbering from the previous chapter by inspection. If you make any revisions to your book, you’ll have to update the page numbering.

If you split the Word file into separate files, you’ll need a Word to PDF converter that allows you to compile separate PDF files together. With the number of free PDF converters available online, there is a good chance you can find one that fits your needs that has this option (but beware of possible viruses or spyware anytime you download programs from the internet).

Many books have been prepared in Word as a single file that have different headers for each chapter. Chances are that you’ll be able to do this in Word with your book, too, without having to resort to any drastic measures.

Publishing Resources

I started this blog to provide free help with writing, publishing, and marketing. You can find many free articles on publishing and marketing by clicking one of the following links:

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

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Jun 12 2013

How to Save Memory on Repeated Pictures in a Kindle eBook

Border Thin JPEG

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There are a few advantages of minimizing the file size of an eBook:

  • The minimum Kindle price depends on the converted .mobi file size (available on the second page of publishing with Kindle Direct Publishing). The list price can only be 99 cents to $1.98 if the file size is under 3 MB and between $1.99 and $2.98 if the file size is between 3 MB and 10 MB. Authors intending to price their books under $2.99 (for which the royalty will be 35%) need to be aware of these limits.
  • Each eBook publisher has a maximum file size. For example, Amazon’s Kindle is 50 MB, Sony’s Reader is 5 MB. If a file is a little above these limits, reducing the file size allows it to be published as a single volume.
  • The eBook takes up room on the customer’s device. Some customers may be reluctant to buy eBooks with larger file sizes. Large files also take longer to download, especially on older devices. Depending upon the formatting, they might also be more susceptible to file problems.

Books with images tend to have larger file sizes. Compressing the images is the simplest way to reduce file size.

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/fighting-words-picture-compression/

For Kindle, gray lines tend to show on one or more edges of the pictures when using Microsoft Word unless the file is saved as web page, filtered. After doing this, find the file in the saved folder, right-click the file, choose Send To, and select Compressed (Zipped) Folder. Then find the folder of picture files with the same filename and copy/paste it into the zipped folder. Upload this zipped folder to KDP. This should remove those gray lines.

(When using Word, insert the picture using Insert > Picture and select the file. Then right-click the picture, choose Size, and change Width to 100%. If the picture doesn’t fit on the screen, don’t worry – it will fit on the device, which you can check in the preview. Place each picture on its own line and wrapped In Line With Text.)

If pictures are repeated in a Microsoft Word file, this wastes memory. Suppose, for example, a book features a decorative page border. A one-a-day book (of quotations, for example) might stand out by featuring a visually appealing wide, short border. But even if the picture size is small, with 365 such images, the overall file size may be significant. As another example, consider a book of shuffled flashcards, where there are several copies of each picture.

There is a simple way to avoid adding to the overall file size when pictures are repeated:

  • First, don’t copy/paste the image in Word. Just insert each different picture once. Where you want to insert a copy of a picture, put a short note, like PIC14. Then later on you can use find and replace.
  • Next, open the filtered webpage (described in a previous paragraph) before making the compressed (zipped) folder in Notepad. Don’t edit this file in Word because Word will probably mess up the HTML.
  • Don’t worry, you don’t need to know any HTML or programming.
  • Find the actual pictures in the HTML file. The code will look something like this:

<h1><img border=0 width=1116 height=153 src=”filename_files/image005.jpg”></h1>

  • The actual code may look different. It may have <p> tags instead of <h1> tags and it may have other statements not shown here.
  • If there is a statement like id=”Picture 19″, remove it. This is superfluous. But if you copy/paste the picture code with the id number, then the same id number will be used twice. Avoid this problem by removing it.
  • Copy the code for your picture, from <h1> to </h1> (or <p> to </p>).
  • Use find and replace to change things like PIC14 (which you should have placed on its own line) to the code for the actual picture. You should have something like <h1>PIC14</h1> (or with <p>’s).
  • Repeat this process for any other pictures that are repeated.
  • Preview your eBook carefully before you publish. If you make any mistakes, this is your opportunity to catch them before your customers do. 🙂

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

Jun 10 2013

Positive Visualization for Authors

Positive Pic

First of all, a positive attitude and outlook can significantly impact the future success of a book.

How so?

The positive author is confident and patient. The worried author is much more apt to impatiently act out of fear, which can quickly brand an author as unprofessional. An author who lacks confidence is also less likely to be motivated to polish the book to perfection and to invest time in marketing.

Positive emotions also affect personal marketing efforts. Confidence or the lack thereof shows. Passion attracts buyers. Concern about an author’s own writing deters sales.

Don’t simply try to trick yourself into being confident. Build confidence.

  • Research books in the genre in order to convince yourself that there is an audience for your idea.
  • Join a writing group if you need to develop confidence in your writing; and realize that criticism will help you improve your writing, which will help you become confident in the long run, if not sooner, provided that you simply approach it with the right mindset.
  • Solicit feedback about your cover, story, blurb, blog, social media, and so on so that you gain confidence in everything you do to succeed as an author.

Positive visualization can also help you perfect your book and succeed in marketing:

  • Visualize the kind of book that will succeed.
  • How do you want to succeed? If sales are important, visualize a book that will attract a large audience. Research top selling books in a genre that fits you well to see what tends to attract a large established audience. If something else is more important, visualize your book toward that end.
  • Work diligently to produce a book that meets these criteria. Visualize the content, storyline, characterization, writing style, writing techniques, grammar, and formatting that will appeal to your audience. Research or seek help in areas where you lack confidence.
  • Be positive that if you patiently work to perfect your book, it will pay off.
  • Receive feedback at various stages of your writing to help with your visualization, confidence, and to help build buzz for the coming book.
  • Visualize packaging that will attract your target audience. The cover, title, blurb, and opening chapter must send a unified message, be free of mistakes, and be attractive to your audience.
  • Solicit feedback on all areas of the packaging, especially from strangers in your target audience who are likely to provide honest comments.
  • Incorporate the feedback into your visualization, and not just that feedback that matches your own preferences. You want to balance establishing your own sense of style while also meeting the needs of your readers. The more important sales are to you, the more important it is to see what’s popular among your readers.
  • Visualize early sales and reviews of your book. Now work diligently to try to achieve this. Pursue premarketing by sending out advance review copies, trying to create buzz, getting your social media and blog together prior to publishing, contacting bloggers and websites related to your target audience about possible reviews on their sites, and beginning your marketing efforts months before your book is released.
  • Visualize good reviews. Think of what features of your book may stand out to readers. Polish your book to help the best features stand out. Imagine possible criticism that your book may receive. Improve your book to help minimize the chances for this.
  • Exercise patience. Sales may be slow at first. Market your book diligently. Don’t give up. It can take months for marketing efforts to really build up. It takes time for people to discover your book, read your book, and spread word about your book. Perfect your book to increase the chances of word-of-mouth sales. Market your book to help people in your target audience discover your book (but not through self-promotion). Work to brand a positive image as an author.
  • Be patient with reviews, too. Reviews can come very slowly. One or more reviews may be negative. It takes time to earn several reviews. Realize that an occasional critical review helps to achieve balance and may actually improve sales. (Nobody wants a bad review, and we get enough without having to try to get them, but occasionally they help, especially if they only come rarely and are offset by several good reviews.) If you get a bad review, don’t act on it. Be patient and see how things evolve. Do read it to see if there is any merit in any ideas that may help you to improve the book. Continue your marketing efforts, as more sales are the best way to earn more reviews. Remember, it can take hundreds of sales per review, depending on the type of book, good luck, and the nature of your marketing.
  • If sales or reviews become a problem at some point, visualize a favorable turnaround. Work on your marketing, reconsider your marketing techniques, strive to reach new readers, consider doing a promotion and marketing it, revise the book or packaging if needed, solicit more feedback, consider hiring editing or cover design help, and visualize improved sales and reviews.
  • Interact with other authors. Find things that other authors are doing well and visualize yourself doing those things well, too. Discover what works for others and see which of those things work for you. Learn new ideas and consider incorporating them into your visualization.
  • Imagine yourself as a potential reader in the target audience. Visualize what promotional efforts or marketing tools might work to catch your interest in the book. Imagine seeing the cover, title, and blurb for the first time. What would hook you as a buyer? How does your author page seem from this point of view?
  • Visualize marketing success. What can you see yourself doing to help stimulate sales? Research marketing techniques. Motivate yourself to learn about marketing and carry out many different ideas. Visualize your book’s success and work toward it.
  • Write your next book. Imagine readers liking one book and hoping to find your other books.

Good luck with your book. Try to stay positive, patient, and confident. You can do it. 🙂

Chris McMullen, coauthor of Negative/Positive Antonym Word Scrambles Book: A fun way to practice turning negative thoughts into positive ones

BookCoverImage Antonym

Jun 8 2013

The Importance of Facial Expressions for Authors

Facial Expression

There are a few ways that facial expressions are very valuable tools for authors:

  1. People pictured on the book cover.
  2. Author photos online and in the book.
  3. Interacting with people in the target audience.

Body gestures go hand-in-hand with the facial expression, even in still photos.

(1) Book Covers

A simple, subtle thing like a facial expression can make the difference between an amazing cover that attracts attention and a lousy cover that gets passed by. I’ve seen covers with eye-catching colors, amazing imagery, interesting fonts, and did everything right except for the facial expression. Unfortunately, the facial expression can be quite influential.

Would the following facial expressions compel you to buy a book that you discovered?

  • Blank expressions make prospective buyers feel dull and lifeless. Is that what the book will be like?
  • Lack of emotion makes the model seem bored. The model wasn’t too interested in the book, huh?
  • If the displayed emotion doesn’t fit the theme, it can have an adverse impact on sales.
  • If you want to design an awful cover, just photograph somebody who is yawning. (Unless perhaps you’re selling a book that relates to boredom…)

The right facial expression can put the potential reader in a good mood. Many shoppers are impulsive to the point that the right facial expression can actually help to inspire sales; whereas the wrong expression can greatly deter sales. Even an expression that usually puts people in a good mood is poorly suited if the writing is horror. Everything has to fit.

The expression has to match the content. For example, a model would have a different expression for historical romance than romantic comedy.

Remember, gestures are just as important as facial expressions. The pose has to look realistic. It shouldn’t look like the model is posing for a family picture. For an action book, it should look like an action shot; but it has to look real. The pose has to fit the genre; an action shot won’t look appropriate on many other kinds of books.

Study the facial expressions, poses, and gestures of the models on top selling books in the genre that have highly attractive covers. Get plenty of honest feedback about the cover prior to publishing.

The answer is not that three-letter word. There may be plenty of magazines and other items selling that three-letter word effectively. But if the book isn’t erotica or doesn’t include such scenes, it’s not really selling that three-letter word. Instead, this sort of appeal on the wrong book can create buyer confusion, which deters sales. Very often, it is overdone on a book where the audience really isn’t look for it, and it doesn’t have the intended effect. (There is also possible embarrassment if someone else sees what they are currently reading.)

Think about this: If a girl is dressed up like a barbarian in combat, does it look better if she is smiling flirtatiously at the audience or if she looks like she is focused on the battle? Should she have bright red lipstick on her lips and a clean face, or should she appear battle-scarred?

(2) Author Photos

Many authors include their photos on their books’ Amazon detail pages. They may also appear on their blogs, social media sites, and an About the Author section inside the book itself.

Just like front cover characters, the facial expression and gestures are important on the author’s photo. These help convey whether or not the author should be taken seriously, and seems like someone who could write such a book. A professional looking author photo helps to send the message that the author is, in fact, professional. The photo can convey a sense of personality, but only if it fits the kind of writing that the author sells.

Would you feel compelled to buy a book from an author who looks bored or disinterested?

(3) Personal Interaction

Potential readers can meet authors at book readings and signings. Anytime authors interact with people who might read their books, their facial expressions and gestures can influence sales.

When people from the target audience sense an author’s passion, knowledgeability, devotion, preparation, and genuine interest in them (i.e. they feel special), such things impact sales.

Just like great characters can sell books, authors’ personalities can also help to encourage or discourage sales. The personality also needs to fit the writing.

Imagine an actor or actress who is so passionate about a part that he or she is playing that it carries over to his or her interactions with friends, family, and acquaintances. Similarly, an author’s passion for his or her own book can carry over this way, showing through facial expressions and gestures.

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

Jun 7 2013

Why We Should Love Self-Published Authors

Love Indies Pic

There are many reasons to be thankful for self-published authors.

Unfortunately, some people – most notably, some discussion forums – like to stress the features of the worst indie books. But the worst books don’t define self-publishing; the best books do. Many more people are reading the best indie books because they sell much more frequently than the worst books.

Perhaps if we focus on the benefits of self-published books, and spend some time marketing features that make the best indie books stand out, this will help to improve the image of self-publishing and help to offset some of the negative marketing out there.

(Any self-published authors who may be advertising negative aspects of self-published books are actually hurting their own marketing efforts. If you sell eBooks, for example, but spend time convincing others that most eBooks are awful, then you’re telling people not to invest in eReaders and to buy just traditionally published books. How will this affect your very own sales?)

You can choose to focus on the number of self-published books that need editing and better covers. You can focus on how awful the worst books are. You can focus on the bad behavior of a few indie authors. But why? It’s a choice.

Especially, if you’re an indie author, you should help to show others that there are some quality indie books out there. Marketing positive features of indie books helps your own marketing efforts.

The worst books are very rarely selling. Any sensible buyer will avoid books that have features that they don’t like. So why worry about the worst books?

Why not focus on the best indie books that are selling frequently.

Okay, maybe there are a few indie books that are selling very well, which maybe shouldn’t be. But who are we to judge? If they are selling well, they must be appealing to some buyers, right? All books that please one set of readers are detested by other readers. I bet we can all list some extremely popular, traditionally published books that we detest and explain what’s wrong with them. Obviously, thousands of other people loved them.

So why should be thankful for self-published books?

  • They give us something different to read. Something different from the kinds of books that traditional publishers are accustomed to publishing. Traditional publishers usually don’t like to publish material that is too different.
  • We can read books that were driven by creative writers who were driven by passion, writing with the freedom to write as they choose. Self-published authors didn’t have to follow a business model in order to get published. Traditional publishers are businesses that want to publish books that are most likely to sell.
  • It can be a far more personal experience. Indie authors sell many books through personal marketing efforts. Therefore, many of the readers have actually met and interacted with the author. You’re much more likely to know a self-published author than a traditionally published author. Chances are that you already know several. This allows us to read books by authors we already know. Since they are more likely to have a small readership, they are more likely to give you personal attention should you wish to meet and interact with them.
  • The very, very best self-published books are really quite amazing. For example, there are some highly stunning covers. Traditional publishers tend to have good covers; most will sell well just by being good. Many self-published authors seek incredible, eye-popping covers to help get their books noticed. As a result, there are some fantastic self-published covers out there. There are great traditionally published covers, too, but most of my all-time favorites have been self-published.
  • Self-published authors took a risk for our benefit. Most self-published books only benefit a small number of readers. Authors have better prospects for having their books stocked on the shelves of chain bookstores through traditional publishing. The next time you discover a gem that was self-published, take a moment to appreciate the risk that the author took to make this book available to you.
  • Who doesn’t enjoy the experience of discovering a diamond in the rough? People like to go to flea markets and yard sales hoping to uncover something incredible. There are also many readers (like myself) who love to browse through self-published books, hoping to discover an as-of-yet unnoticed masterpiece.
  • If you read a self-published book, consider how much time has been put into it. First of all, the author probably has a full-time career (but not as a writer), and put this book together as a hobby during spare time. Next, the author didn’t just write the book, but proofread the book, designed the cover, marketed the book, and so on. The author may have even invested a large sum of money for help with editing, illustrations, eBook conversion, or other services. Most successful indie books had much time, blood, and sweat put into them. Even when one component may be lacking (e.g. cover design), a great deal of time and effort may have been put into the rest (especially, preparing the storyline and choosing words with care). You can see the best parts of the book or the worst parts of the book; it’s a choice.
  • Many self-published books fill a need for a niche audience, or for a useful nonfiction topic that traditional publishers wouldn’t invest in. The next time you read a book written for a specialized audience, or the next time you search for a book on an unpopular nonfiction topic, if a self-published book fills your need, take a moment to appreciate that such a book even exists.

There are millions of people who have self-published a book. There are many more indie authors than traditionally published authors. Most of us know many indie authors – family members, friends, acquaintances, but also people who had been strangers until we discovered their books. Most of us have good reasons for supporting the self-publishing industry.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t support traditional publishing. They provide a great service, too. Especially, if you’re looking for popular books, traditional publishers help to deliver well-written, well-edited books, help us find such books easily among millions of books on the market, and support valuable businesses like brick and mortar bookstores and libraries.

What I am saying is that we should support self-published authors in addition to traditional publishing. In this case, we don’t have to make a choice. Both are quite valuable.

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

May 31 2013

How Special Editions Can Help Authors

Most self-published writers publish one paperback edition with a print-on-demand service such as CreateSpace and one eBook edition with a variety of eBook publishing services like Kindle, Nook Express, Kobi, and Smashwords.

There can be benefits of publishing multiple paperback or eBook editions of the same book.

A special edition can be made for free using CreateSpace (though it would be wise to invest in the author copy plus shipping charges to order one test copy). PDF’s and eBooks can also be made for free. So money isn’t the obstacle to making a special edition. It just takes a little more time; but not much, since it’s just slightly different from the original.

(1) Advance Review Copies

Authors send out advance review copies to local press, bloggers in the same genre, and potential reviewers. Some accept eBooks in PDF, epub, or mobi format, while others only accept hardcopies. Occasionally, these advance review copies are resold (e.g. as a used book on Amazon).

Why not put the words ADVANCE REVIEW COPY in large letters across the front and back cover, title page, and last page of the paperback, and the cover page of the eBook file? This can even be put on the header of the paperback and PDF versions.

(2) Draft Copy

Similarly, the word DRAFT can be used for copies distributed to proofreaders and members of a loyal fan club. This can even be used as a watermark for paperback and PDF editions.

(3) Large Print

For a novel or other book that mostly consists of plain text, it’s very easy to change to a size 16 or so font to qualify as large print on Amazon. Note that the paperback book will cost more if this increases the number of pages (unless the overall page count is still under 100 pages for black and white or 40 pages for color at CreateSpace, in which case the cost doesn’t change).

Add the words LARGE PRINT to the title. Only the regular print edition will show in Amazon search results unless the customer adds the words “large print” to the search. The large print edition will show on the regular edition’s product page, possibly hidden under a + sign (Amazon often uses this to hide other paperback editions, instead of listing every paperback edition separately). A note could be added to the product description that the book is also available in large print.

Large print only affects physical books (except for fixed layout Kindle eBooks).

A possible disadvantage of a large print edition is that when customers buy this edition, it doesn’t improve the sales rank or affect the Customers Also Bought lists of the regular edition. However, the large print edition may not sell enough for this to be a significant concern. It may also be offset by customers who would never have bought the book if the large print edition hadn’t been available.

(4) Color vs. Black and White

Sometimes an author wants to publish a paperback book in color, but the list price would be much higher than it would be for black and white. Instead of choosing one or the other, the author could publish both color and black and white editions.

However, in this case, the special edition could backfire. This presents a difficult choice to the buyer. Would you rather have the better book, or would you rather save money? Unfortunately, some buyers will actually walk away because of the choice, who would have bought the only edition available otherwise.

If color is essential, don’t make black and white. If color isn’t essential, just go with black and white.

Exception: A special color edition can be put on the author’s website. The Amazon customer won’t see it and be troubled by it. Someone who has met the author is more likely to buy the special color edition, and that’s how this customer will be shopping at the author’s website instead of Amazon.

Of course, there isn’t any extra charge for making an eBook in color. But sometimes an eBook that looks great in color looks lousy in grayscale. For example, two colors that contrast well might look nearly the same in grayscale. In such cases, it could be beneficial to make separate color and grayscale editions of eBooks.

(5) Omnibus or Anthology

Authors who have series or multiple titles that are similar can put the collection in a special edition. If the omnibus is discounted compared to buying the books separately, this discount may inspire sales. The author also gets paid for the entire series up front, instead of waiting for the customer to buy each book in the series one at a time over several months.

The omnibus also makes for a great promotional tool. Discount the price over a short period of time and announce this on the author’s blog, social media, and elsewhere and this might result in a sudden burst of sales.

(6) Hardcover

CreateSpace actually has a hardcover option (just contact support). Alternatively, use Lightning Source or Lulu to make a hardcover edition. A few customers actually prefer hardcover editions. The question is whether or not the added costs to the author are worthwhile.

Some books, like textbooks, stand the test of time much better when they are hardbound.

(7) Limited Edition

Sell a limited edition with valuable bonus material (not promotional material) from the author’s website.

(8) Translations

Books can be translated into Spanish, French, Chinese, and other languages. Multilingual authors can take advantage of this, and may be more likely to develop a significant following in other countries. There are also translation services available.

(9) Audio Books

The Kindle Direct Publishing newsletter advertises the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX). It’s an Amazon platform. An author who has a book that may be a good fit for truck drivers and who may be able to market toward this audience may be able to draw a significant number of sales through this medium.

(10) Clean vs. Adult Content

Movies often come out in both rated and unrated editions. No reason authors can’t do the same.

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

May 22 2013

Are Amazon Customer Reviews Helpful?

Amazon Reviews Pic

Introduction

Have you ever stood in a bookstore aisle, trying to choose a book in your favorite genre? You weren’t influenced by customer reviews posted next to each book. The only customer input you saw was incredible praise for how awesome the book was on the back cover or first pages. There wasn’t anything negative posted about any of the books.

In the pre-internet days, if you wanted to see a written review, you had to browse newspapers and magazines. The only way to receive input from other customers who read the book was to meet them in person and ask them.

How times have changed! Now Amazon allows all customers to share their feedback, and this information is publicly posted on the book’s detail page.

Is this helpful? Let’s consider some of the major criticism. Note that Amazon has recently released an article clarifying, to some extent, what is or isn’t allowed in customer reviews. You can find this in Reference 1 at the bottom of this blog post.

(1) Authors and customers have abused the system with sock puppets and shill reviews.

A sock puppet is a false account that someone creates in order to deceive others with a false identity. Some authors have created sock puppets to give several good reviews to their own books, and some customers have created sock puppets to give multiple bad reviews to a book.

A shill review is written by someone else to help the agenda of another. Some authors have compelled family, close friends, and people with a financial interest in the book’s success to help promote their books by leaving shill reviews, and some customers have used shill reviews to bring a book down.

Fortunately, Amazon has taken steps to block and remove reviews suspected of being sock puppets or shills. A very large number of reviews have actually been removed. See Reference 2.

It’s not just authors trying to get good reviews of their own books that poses a problem. See Reference 3 for an example of large-scale swarming of negative reviews against a book about Michael Jackson. This shows that abuse with negative reviews can also be a major problem.

While sock puppets and shill reviews are a problem, Amazon’s actions to limit this have greatly improved the customer review system. Amazon has access to a great deal of information in its database, and apparently runs cross-references to help catch much of the possible abuse. When customers report possible abuse, Amazon also looks into this manually.

(2) Amazon is more likely to remove positive reviews than negative reviews.

Many authors have complained about the loss of four- and five-star reviews, and many authors have complained of one- and two-star reviews that seem to violate Amazon’s review guidelines which Amazon has refused to remove.

Some of the removed four- and five-star reviews that disappeared were removed because the reviewer was suspected of having a financial interest in the book. Yet, some legitimate reviews appear to have been removed as casualties in the process.

There are many one- and two-star reviews that are quite spiteful, and many others that spoil the ending. According to Amazon’s customer review guidelines (see Reference 4), spiteful remarks are not allowed, yet there are several reviews that make very spiteful remarks about the book or author that haven’t been removed (despite requests by authors and readers).

Highly spiteful remarks ruin the ambiance at Amazon. Wouldn’t it help Amazon’s image to remove these? Amazon could choose to remove the spiteful remarks, rather than removing the entire review. That would be a step in the right direction. Perhaps it would take too much manpower to remove all of the spiteful comments. When it’s well-known that most spiteful reviews won’t be removed, authors are less inclined to report them.

Is it helpful to leave reviews that spoil the ending? If a customer reads a review that gives the ending away, that customer is far less likely to buy the book. Wouldn’t it benefit Amazon to prevent this?

Is it helpful when suspicious four- and five-star reviews are much more likely to be removed than one- and two-star reviews that seem to clearly violate Amazon’s policies?

Customer reviews are most helpful when there are ample reviews that provide a good balance of opinions. When good reviews are more likely to be removed than bad reviews, doesn’t this offset the balance?

There may be two reasons behind this practice. First, four- and five-star review abuse is probably much more common than one- and two-star review abuse. Amazon has removed four- and five-star reviews because the abuse was out of hand; many customers were complaining and there were high-profile articles written on this subject. Perhaps negative review abuse hasn’t reached nearly the same level to demand such attention.

Also, it’s much easier for Amazon to block and remove abusive four- and five-star reviews. It’s easier for Amazon to cross-reference their database and see if a four- or five-star reviewer may have a connection with the author. It’s much more difficult to determine if a one- or two-star review has an agenda.

The vast majority of one- and two-star reviews come from customers who simply didn’t like the book. Most of the one- and two-star reviews were not written with ulterior motives in mind.

Fortunately, many of the one- and two-star reviews that arguably should be removed don’t have much credibility. Many customers can see through spitefulness, for example. Some of these reviews don’t explain what is wrong with the book. These types of negative reviews may actually help the book’s credibility, by adding balance to the reviews (if there are already good reviews present), while not being effective at persuading customers not to buy the book.

(3) No qualifications or experience necessary.

Anyone can review a book. You don’t need expertise to review a technical book. It isn’t necessary to be an avid romance reader to review a romance novel.

But that’s okay. You don’t have to be an expert to form an opinion. Many customers themselves aren’t experts, and would like to hear from other customers like themselves.

A reviewer who has expertise can mention this in the review, although there evidently isn’t any fact-checking. A customer reviewing a workbook might say that she has been a teacher for twenty years, but there is generally no way for potential buyers to know if this is true.

If customers want to find expert reviews, they can search online for professional book reviewers.

Not requiring expertise helps Amazon generate millions of reviews. More input is probably better than less input, in general. If only experts review books, then experts will basically be telling people what to and what not to read (kind of like editors who, prior to the self-publishing explosion, decided what was or wasn’t fit for the public to read).

(4) You don’t have to read a book in order to review it.

Just to be clear, you don’t have to read a single word of the book in order to be eligible to review it. We’re not talking about people who read the first two chapters and stopped reading in disgust. You don’t even have to open the cover. You don’t even have to buy the book. You don’t even have to see the book.

In Reference 2 at the bottom of this article, you can find this quote from an Amazon spokesman: “‘We do not require people to have experienced the product in order to review.’”

If you’re shopping for a book, it may be useful to know what other customers who have read the book (or at least tried to read the book) have to say about it.

But is it helpful, at all, to read the opinion of a customer who never even opened the cover? How does this help anyone?

This is a highly controversial point. Part of the reason for this may come down to proof: How do you know if a customer has read the book or not?

Occasionally, a customer review starts out, “Although I haven’t read the book yet…” In this case, it’s very easy to tell that the customer hasn’t read the book. Wouldn’t it be nice if Amazon would remove the reviews where there is no doubt that the customer hasn’t even opened the book? How can this opinion be useful to other customers?

This problem is abused two ways. Some popular authors (or their publishers) send out advanced review copies, encouraging customers to post reviews on the release date. Some customers actually leave a review before they read the book, knowing that they will love the book because they love the author’s other works. Does it really help other customers to do this? Why not actually read the book first and then post the review?

It is also abused with negative reviews from competing authors or publishers, jealous rivals or enemies, and anyone who doesn’t like the author personally. To be fair, if these reviewers actually read the book first, it probably won’t change their reviews.

Many people wonder why Amazon doesn’t require customers to make an Amazon Verified Purchase in order to leave a review. At least this way, people reading the review would know that they have bought the book.

The problem here is the large number of people who buy the book in a bookstore or read it in a library. Amazon doesn’t want to prevent this large group from posting reviews.

What about eBooks? Well, customers don’t have to buy them on Kindle. Amazon still wants their reviews. Plus, if the eBook and hardcopy are linked, a review on either edition shows up on both editions.

Customers who have bought the book from Amazon can lend their reviews more credibility by choosing to let Amazon mark them as Amazon Verified Purchases. Potential buyers can choose to just look at Amazon Verified Purchase reviews if they want to know who has actually purchased the book.

Here is what Amazon may be thinking (of course, only Amazon knows for sure). Customers who want to leave a good or bad review without actually reading the book will probably leave pretty much the same review whether or not they are required to read part of the book first. It might infuriate numerous authors and even some readers, but all in all, policing this would generally be very difficult and quite a hassle, and probably isn’t worth the effort.

If you force customers to buy a book in order to review it, guess what will happen. People will buy the book and return it for this privilege. It’s not in Amazon’s best interest to encourage returns. If you want to remove a customer’s review if he or she returns the book, now you run into the problem where the customer is returning the book because the book was bad: Amazon will want these customers to be able to express their opinions, too.

Simply encouraging anyone to review a book provides more input to the consumer. More input is generally better than less input.

(5) The review doesn’t have to be truthful.

It’s kind of like politics. A candidate for office can say anything, true or not. Somebody might check and report the facts, but the lie itself generally doesn’t get the candidate disqualified from the competition.

A customer can say that there are fifty typos on the first page, and the review will stand even if this is clearly false. In many cases, potential readers can cross-check a reviewer’s comments by reading the blurb and Look Inside. If the review complains of typos, but the Look Inside is very well written, the reviewer will lose credibility. On the other hand, many customers may not bother to check a reviewer’s statements. Some sales may be gained or lost by blatantly false reviews.

This has been abused with both good and bad reviews. A review can make a lousy book look great or a great book look lousy simply by bending the truth. There are tens of thousands of books with contradictory reviews. Almost all of the bestsellers seem to have inconsistent reviews.

From Amazon’s perspective, it would be a nightmare to try to check the facts of all of the reviews. Some things are easier to check than others. If a review is clearly false, other customers may vote it down with No votes (although the voting itself has been abused). It would take a great amount of resources just to check the facts where someone complains that a review may be false. It probably isn’t practical to enforce review truthfulness.

Most statements aren’t facts, but opinions. Readers will definitely differ in opinions. Any book that is read enough will have a large group of readers who love it and another large group who hate it. This is true among virtually all popular, bestselling authors. No book can please everyone. If you want to require all reviews to be honest, you will quickly find yourself in the gray area between facts and opinions.

Amazon wants to solicit all opinions. You can’t argue that an opinion is wrong. Most review statements aren’t clear-cut facts that are clearly right or wrong; most are opinions.

Again, more input is generally helpful, even if some of it is contradictory. Potential buyers can check the blurb and Look Inside to help determine which statements are correct. They can also try to judge the character of the reviewer from the writing sample. Any comments and the number of Yes versus No votes may also be helpful, although the voting system can also be abused.

Conclusions

Amazon’s review system isn’t perfect. There is room for improvement. However, the system does result in a great deal of feedback. The more reviews, the better for shoppers, authors, and publishers. Amazon’s customer review system, as it is, provides much more information than not having any reviews at all – like the pre-internet days of standing in a bookstore aisle. We just have to take the good with the bad.

References

  1. http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/816983/47a12f62f7/1497798605/9bce9ac8db/#4
  2. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/technology/amazon-book-reviews-deleted-in-a-purge-aimed-at-manipulation.html?pagewanted=all
  3. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/business/a-casualty-on-the-battlefield-of-amazons-partisan-book-reviews.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
  4. http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-reviews-guidelines

Comments

Please feel free to share your opinions, even if you disagree, by posting a comment or replying to a comment. Your input is encouraged. What is your experience as a customer or author? What would you suggest to improve the system?

Author

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

May 19 2013

Is Amazon Our Friend?

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked this question by an author on the KDP community forum.

Many people are quick to criticize Amazon, and there may be some room for improvement, but I wholeheartedly believe that Amazon is highly beneficial to shoppers, writers, and small businesses.

I’ve been a customer at Amazon from the very beginning. I appreciate the convenience, selection, savings, and free shipping on qualified orders. I also have Amazon Prime.

You can even find out what other customers have to say. The customer review system isn’t perfect, but some input beats no input.

I’ve written and published several books. If not for CreateSpace and KDP, writing would just be a hobby for me.

Amazon opened the door for any and all authors to make their writing available for millions of potential customers around the world. Anyone can publish a book and share with others this way. Amazon similarly opened the door for small businesses to sell online at a very popular website.

Amazon represents freedom and opportunity. Amazon gives the small guy a fighting chance. Amazon regularly features success stories on their homepage of indie authors and small business owners. Self-published books and small business products are available beside traditionally published books and bestselling products by big businesses.

Where would we, the small guys, be without Amazon?

Let’s take a look at some of the criticism:

The book is not visible in search results.

  • There are 20 million books on Amazon. They can’t all be first in search results. Does it benefit customers to have new books by new authors show up before books that have established successful sales?
  • Amazon provides the opportunity. Diligent, motivated authors can take advantage of this through effective premarketing and packaging (relevant and attractive cover design, blurb, and Look Inside), and quality books that earn good reviews and word-of-mouth sales.
  • Amazon’s system tends to reward authors who scrupulously help themselves. Authors who work hard to generate sales through marketing can gain exposure through a better sales rank, early reviews, Customers Also Bought lists, and top 100 lists.
  • It’s not easy to produce a great book cover to cover. The books that best attract and fit an established target audience are more likely to be successful. Only the top couple hundred thousand books, out of millions, sell one or more copies per day on average.

Amazon removes 4- and 5-star reviews, but not 1- and 2-star reviews.

  • Unfortunately, a significant number of authors and small publishers had been taking advantage of customer reviews by leaving 4- and 5-star reviews written by the author, publisher, editor, family members, paid reviewers, and other parties who had a financial interest in the book’s success. There were several books with dozens to hundreds of fake reviews, sometimes for lousy books. Customer complaints and high profile articles led Amazon to block and remove 4- and 5-star reviews that they suspect of being fake.
  • There are some 1- and 2-star reviews from competing authors and publishers, people who loathe or are jealous of the author, and people who are otherwise upset. Some of these reviews are very spiteful, some spoil the ending, and some outright lie. But the fact is that most of the 1- and 2-star reviews out there are legitimate reviews from customers who simply didn’t like the book. No book can please everyone. There are many such reviews on bestselling books by popular authors, so it’s unreasonable not to expect this on all books by all authors.
  • Fake 4- and 5-star reviews had been more numerous and posed a much greater problem for Amazon than fake 1- and 2-star reviews. It’s also easier for Amazon to block and remove potential fake 4- and 5-star reviews than it is to catch fake 1- and 2-star reviews. The Amazon bot can cross-reference information in the 4- and 5-star case, but it’s really difficult to distinguish between disgruntled customers and fake 1- and 2-star reviews. As much as authors and product owners don’t like them, the 1- and 2-star reviews do help to provide balance. Customers are often suspicious of books or products that only have good reviews.

Do KDP and CreateSpace cheat authors on their royalties?

  • Amazon is a huge business. Almost everything is automated at Amazon – even grabbing products in the warehouse. It’s only logical for the sales and royalty reports to be automated, too. There is the possibility of an occasional glitch, but it’s highly improbable.
  • There are many authors and publishers who sell thousands (or more) books everyday. They check their sales reports, Nielsen Bookscan data, and royalty reports carefully, closely corroborating the results. Amazon has millions of dollars at stake. They can’t afford to cheat authors, publishers, and businesses. All large businesses, like Amazon, also have audits.
  • The royalty doesn’t show instantly, and this is probably what creates concern among self-published authors who only sell a few books. The royalty often appears within a few days, but sometimes it can be delayed for a couple of months. Paperback returns may be resold, and in this case the royalty doesn’t show at all on the CreateSpace report because it was already paid once before. Amazon may have books preprinted to stock in their warehouse, in which case they pay the royalty in advance, not when the book sells. Occasionally, Amazon sources a sale through a third party seller, and CreateSpace then reports it correctly as a full royalty, but not for a couple of months, when expanded distribution royalties show up. Because of this, an author may be aware of an occasional sale, but not see the royalty show up.
  • CreateSpace customer service is willing to track data regarding royalty questions. Authors can report the sales information to CreateSpace, and they will track the sale to help the author understand why the royalty didn’t show up immediately. It’s obviously in Amazon’s best interest to correctly report sales and royalty information to authors.
  • An occasional complaint about royalty payments shows up on the CreateSpace or KDP community forum. Most authors monitor their sales rank and royalties closely. If there were significant issues with this, complaints would be much louder and more numerous.
  • There are also complaints about royalty payments from traditional publishers. Small publishers are more likely to have manual rather than automated systems, they have less to lose than Amazon by cheating authors, and some of the stories involve much greater discrepancies than any complaints about Amazon’s royalty payments. Unless you own your own publishing company and print your own books, you simply have to trust someone. I haven’t observed any discrepancies in my reports, and over the years I’ve come to trust Amazon both as a customer and as a writer.

It’s easy to demand more and better. Amazon gives us an opportunity, and the opportunity is free. What we get for free is pretty awesome. We can’t expect Amazon to do all of the work for us (with 20 million books to manage, it’s not reasonable to expect Amazon to do much work for free). Preparing an excellent product, packaging it for the right audience, and marketing it are all up to us. The harder we work and the better job we do, the better Amazon helps us.

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

May 18 2013

Book Pricing Strategies

Many authors who self-publish aren’t happy with their sales. So what do they do? Lower the price! When that doesn’t boost sales, then what? Figure out how to make the book free. If that doesn’t work, what will they try next? Surely, they won’t pay people money to read the book…

99 cents is just a price. Even free is just a price. Readers aren’t shopping for prices; they are searching for books in their favorite genres that show strong potential for engaging their interests.

A book with a lower price suggests lesser quality. Many readers who are hoping to find something professionally done and worthwhile stay away from the lower price point.

Authors instinctively expect to sell more books when they lower the price, but often discover that they sell fewer books when they try this. Fewer sales with a lower royalty for each sale – that’s not what they were expecting.

These authors are thinking about the concept of supply and demand. The problem is that there must first be a demand before the price can affect the demand. Authors who don’t market their books effectively so as to create a demand probably won’t benefit from lowering the price.

Readers know what price range is typical for the type of books they read. Anything below this price range is screaming low quality; anything above this price range will seem risky. It makes sense to research this price range among established competition (i.e. not among other self-published authors who haven’t yet achieved success) for similar books.

However, it is possible to use lower prices effectively.

For example, if the low price appears to be temporary, then customers may view it as a “sale” instead of an inferior product.

Simply lowering the price won’t give the impression that the book is on sale. If the book is normally $5.99 and the price is dropped to $1.99, Amazon will just show it as a lower list price; Amazon will not show it as regularly $5.99, now on sale for $1.99. (Amazon does sometimes put books on sale at their own discretion. For example, CreateSpace paperbacks are sometimes discounted this way, and Amazon pays the full royalty based on the list price. The author has no role in these discounts.)

Yet the author can still make a temporary discount appear as a sale. The way to achieve this is through marketing. Authors can spread the word in person, on their blogs, on their websites, and via social media (but 90% of the posts must provide useful content geared toward the target audience, otherwise the promotion is likely to be tuned out), for example.

Authors may also find other blogs and websites that match their target audience and gain a little exposure for their promotions through them.

If people see that a book is highly discounted for a limited time, then the low price appears as a good deal. An author can use a low price to increase demand in this way.

There are many ways to spin this. Authors can add “special earlybird pricing” to the top of the description when the book is first published, promoting an initial sale price with their premarketing materials. They can periodically discount the book and promote the sale. They can offer special holiday pricing.

But beware: If the sale is too frequent, word will spread. Customers will wait for the sales, and few books will sell at the regular price.

Remember that price changes may not show up immediately. It’s not easy to change the price and time it perfectly for a one-day sale, for example.

Another opportunity comes with series of books. This strategy works best for series where the reader is very likely to be drawn into the next volume, but not nearly as well when there are unrelated stand-alone books.

One way to benefit from a series is to have a discounted omnibus. If you can buy each of 4 volumes for $2.99, or the entire series for $6.99, the omnibus is a good deal. When pricing the omnibus, keep in mind that some readers will buy volume 1 by itself to try it out. With this in mind, it might be desirable if volume 1 plus the omnibus together are discounted compared to buying each volume separately.

New readers are more likely to start with volume 1; referred customers might be confident enough to head straight to the omnibus.

Putting volume 1 or the omnibus on sale and promoting the discount can help spur sales. Some authors price volume 1 very cheaply (even going to great lengths to permanently price it for free), showing confidence that it will hook the reader.

But remember that free is just a price. Free doesn’t sell books; marketing sells books.

If the book is just free, it might be perceived as worthless. If the free price is promoted effectively, then many readers may view free as a great value.

Note that the series is currently in fashion. Numerous authors are publishing series and trying this tactic. A series is a big commitment for the reader. If it’s known (through reviews, for example) that the first volume isn’t fulfilling in itself, readers may not want to take a chance on the series. Ideally, each volume will provide satisfaction for a reader who wants to walk away, but be good enough so that most readers will want to continue the series.

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

May 14 2013

Hy-phen-a-tion: How a Teeny Weeny Line Can Make a Huge Impact

Almost all traditionally published books and eBooks are justified – i.e. a computer program varies the width of the spaces between the words such that the right and left edges of the text are aligned. Books that are instead aligned left are said to be “ragged right” because they are not aligned at the right.

Left-aligned books often give an impression that the work is amateurish. Many new writers do this intentionally because they don’t like the gaps that they see between words when the text is justified (others do this accidentally, simply using Word’s default settings). On the other hand, setting the alignment to left doesn’t remove the gaps – it simply puts the spaces at the end of the line instead of spreading them out between the words. Book designers and editors prefer the look of justified text.

Large spaces in justified text do pose a formatting problem. There is, however, a simple way to reduce them: hyphenation.

Manually hyphenating a word at the end of a line where the gaps are large reduces the gaps. Don’t hyphenate manually until the manuscript is complete, edited, revised, and perfected. Otherwise, after revisions to the text, words that had been hyphenated may no longer appear at the end of a line, and new lines may need to be hyphenated. Consult a dictionary to find the natural breaks between the syllables.

Watch out for Word’s AutoCorrect tool: If this tool is on, one or both fragments of the word may automatically be respelled when the hyphen is inserted. For example, if a hyphen is inserted in the word “invented” to make “inven-ted,” Word will change this to “invent-ted.” Why? Because Word sees this as two separate words, “inven” and “ted.” Word automatically corrects (so it thinks!) the spelling of “inven” to make “invent.”

It isn’t actually necessary to hyphenate manually. Microsoft Word, for example, has an automatic hyphenation feature that can be activated. In Word 2010, find this on the Page Layout tab.

When using Word’s hyphenation tool, go into Hyphenation Options and increase the Hyphenation Zone to about 0.3” to 0.4”. Otherwise, there will be hyphens all over the place (including headings that span multiple lines).

Those who have used WordPerfect and Word may be aware that WordPerfect’s hyphenation is aesthetically a little more appealing. But it’s not necessary to buy WordPerfect: Word actually has an option to hyphenate like WordPerfect. In Word 2010, go to the File tab, scroll down below Help to find Options, select Advanced, click Layout Options at the bottom of the list, and search for the line that starts, “Do full justification…”

Note that Word won’t hyphenate words that its dictionary doesn’t recognize. It’s necessary to search for lines where it may be possible to hyphenate a word at the end of a line for which Word doesn’t have a hyphenation key.

Also making an eBook? If so, it’s necessary to make a different edition of the file without hyphenation. Therefore, any manually hyphenated words must have their hyphens removed. Some eReaders actually hyphenate words for the reader, but not the Kindle. Since an eReader can have a large font and a small screen, the gaps on justified text are nicely reduced on the screen when the device automatically hyphenates it for the reader.

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