As much as publishers like to complain about Amazon I found it interesting that the retailer was taking orders while the publisher didn’t have any information whatsoever.

When you announce a book be ready to take orders.

(Image from Colbert’s publisher’s website the day of book release)

(store images from B&N and Amazon)

• iBooks Author is free
• It is relatively easy to use
• Anyone can upload their completed book to the Apple iBookstore

 The not-so-good news:

• The completed title can only be viewed on an iPad
• The only way to charge for it is to sell it through the iBookstore
• You need a Mac running OS X Lion to author your title

The program and tools is targeted at the K-12 educational market where Apple already has a strong presence. The question is whether the schools have the money to buy iPads and whether $15 per textbook per student per year is a business model that will work. Publishers are calling it ‘pilot pricing’ while Apple says otherwise.

Right now it isn’t clear whether this is a viable publishing option for non-educational publishers of books that rely on illustrations, photographs and other media elements. You already have a small market so limiting it to iPads (even though there are millions) slices it even finer. But I think it could serve as a great low-cost proof of concept or prototyping tool. Assuming you have a Mac to author it. 

One big benefit they added was the ability to upload your iBook title(s) into the iBookstore yourself. That’s not something a non-iBook author can do today, they must go through an aggregator.

David Wogahn: Heather, book marketing experts recommend that authors begin promoting themselves well before they publish their first book. When did you begin and what kind of marketing did you focus on?

Heather Hummel: Because I write in different genres and platforms, the preliminary marketing has been different for each book. My first book, Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw-Hill, 2008), was co-authored with Valerie Ramsey (my mother, who became a model at the age of 63). She had already been on the Today Show for her modeling and was welcomed back when the book released. In this case, she was the one who did all of television, radio, and in-person appearances. The marketing campaign was driven by Goldberg McDuffie (a top New York PR firm). As the co-author of this book, I learned a lot about behind the scenes marketing from working closely with Goldberg McDuffie and McGraw-Hill.

Gracefully released in 2008 when Facebook was just starting to take off and New York houses held the reins of the publishing world. Like almost everyone these days, I utilize Facebook, blogs and Twitter quite a bit. I have an author fan page on Facebook with a personalized link (http://www.facebook.com/heatherhummelfanpage) and a Twitter account that I started using a lot more in the past several months. Both have very different approaches, and if used right, the same results.

Because I’m a photographer as well, I’m able to provide aesthetically pleasing posts on Facebook. People respond to my photography as much (sometimes even more!) as they do my writing, so I’ve learned that a captivated audience makes for a happy author. I’ve recently coined myself a “Photonovelist” – no, that’s not a word, but it should be. By letting my audiences see who I am as both a writer and a photographer, I am constantly promoting my unique brand.

Once you have a few books under your belt and a continuously defining audience, the marketing becomes a lot easier. The bottom line of early marketing is having a content fan base who is happy to go along your journey with you and who is looking forward to your next book…and the next…and the next.

DW: What has been the result?

HH: Building a fan base takes consistent diligence! I currently have over 1,400 Twitter Followers, 654 fans and 2,670 friends on Facebook, 68 blog followers, as well as a consistently growing e-list that is in the several hundreds. Each of these numbers builds daily, but I am careful to build relationships with my niche audience. In other words, I don’t add people willy-nilly. I believe in quality rather than quantity when it comes to relationships, whether in person or online.

For example, I am participating in a website, www.womensliterarycafe.com, which gives authors the chance to share their Facebook Fan Pages with their niche audience and writing colleagues. Since joining last week, I’ve increased my fan base by over 100 fans…who are, for the most part, my niche audience. I also take part in blog tours, guest blog posts (such as this one), and giveaways. Being a guest on other blogs is a great way to connect with readers and develop a platform and following. It’s always better to have a third party, such as a blog or a media outlet or a reader, promoting your work…authors are in a Catch-22 with that. Authors have to promote, especially in the beginning of their career, and it’s tough being a genuine cheerleader for yourself! But, if you have a blog or other venue showing your wares, you’re golden! Or is it silver?

Another great way to build a fan base is to collaborate with other authors. Hay House is one publisher that I do a lot of cross promoting with. When one of their authors releases a new book, they collaborate with a few dozen authors who provide giveaways as thank you gifts for those who purchase the book on their release day. Often times, I’ve been one of the authors supporting the Hay House authors by providing a free gift, which is usually an eBook version of either my books GO BIKE & Other Signs from the Universe or Write from the Heart since these two books fall under the theme of what Hay House promotes. By working with Hay House, I’ve built both a readership and e-list.

DW: When we spoke about the new KDP Select program you had a perspective formed from watching the evolution of the eBook marketplace. What was that?

HH: The self-published authors releasing new titles or promoting their existing titles on Kindle during 2010 and 2011 really caught the Big Kahuna wave of publishing! Breakout authors such as John Locke and Amanda Hocking blazed a trail by writing a handful of books and listing them for 99 cents (Amanda’s books range from free to $2.99, John tends to stick to 99 cents). Because of the sudden surge in sales of Kindle devices and the iPad, within a New York Minute these authors sold hundreds of thousands of books…something previously believed could only be achieved by authors from New York publishing houses. However, let me tell you, New York publishing houses do not release books at a New York Minute pace. What takes them over a year to produce, authors were now doing in weeks with Print on Demand books, and when Kindle et al came around, the timeframe became that true New York Minute.

When KDP Select was announced just in the nick of time for the Christmas holidays, I learned of the program from my author friend Van Heerling, who is the author of Malaika. I saw what he was doing with the program, so I joined…and I’m so glad I did!

In my research of the program, I read numerous posts on various websites from authors saying they were going to take the “wait and see approach” to joining the KDP Select Program. Many of them had concerns about opting in…some rightfully so if their sales on competing sites like Barnes & Noble were true competition for their sales on Amazon.

When you join Select, your eBook can not be for sale anywhere else (digitally speaking) for your 90 day commitment. This raised eyebrows on authors ranging from newly self published ones to Stephen King. The newly self published authors were afraid of limiting their sales to only Kindle, and the big name authors, such as King, were shaking fingers at Amazon for being the biggest beast in the jungle and utilizing their powers (and prowess!) to continuously keep the competition down, or at least in their place below Amazon.

Then there are authors, much like Van and myself, who saw this as an opportunity to catch the next wave in the set. We collaborated on the marketing of our books under the KDP Select Program. In addition to the five free promo days, our books are available to Amazon Prime members in the new Lending Library. The Lending Library allows the Prime Members to borrow one book per month for free on their Kindle. What authors didn’t know back in December was how much they would be paid per book for the “Borrows.” My books were borrowed 85 times in December, which was pretty darn good considering the program was new and I was mostly promoting the free downloads on the promo days and 99 cent specials, not the borrows.

All we really knew was that Amazon committed to a $500,000 pot for the Lending Library that we would share from later. Van and I, and I’m sure others, assumed the payout per book borrowed would be relatively low. However, this is where I’m glad I didn’t’ take the “wait and see” approach. Two days ago (early January) I received an e-mail from KDP announcing that the payout for Borrowed books for December is $1.70 per book. $1.70? That’s more than what I sell them for! Was I glad to have joined KDP Select? Absolutely.

In addition, KDP reported that, “Enrolled authors and publishers, such as yourself, on average received 26% more money in December for their KDP-Select enrolled titles from paid sales for the same titles. Also, our early results show that paid sales of enrolled titles are growing even faster than KPD titles.” They also let us know that they were adding $200,000 to the January pot for the Lending Library.

DW: So what did you do when Amazon announced KDP Select?

HH: Since I heard about it from Van, he and I collaborated from the get-go. We shared notes, numbers and marketing strategies. If something worked for me, i.e. specific wording in a Facebook post or for him, i.e. a Tweet thanking all the new readers¾we shared the success with the other, who then implemented it as part of their marketing strategy.

The “catch” of opting into the KDP Select agreement is that the eBook needs to be removed from other sites, such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Smashwords, making it only available on Kindle. Most of Van’s and my book sales were on Kindle, so it was no contest for us. For other authors, it clearly was. Fortunately, eBooks are pretty easy to “unpublish” from these sources, unlike paperbacks.

Once removed, we opted in and began using our free days as a promotional tool for our books. It worked great, and we’re doing another joint “free weekend” on February 11^th and 12^th as a Valentine’s promotion, which is perfect for titles like my Journals from the Heart series: Whispers from the Heart and Write from the Heart. Van’s Malaika will be free that weekend as well, and we will cross promote one another’s books.

DW: How have you utilized the five free promotional days that Amazon gives KDP Select participants?

HH: Yes, as mentioned earlier, Van and I did so with great success. When I signed up, I began to utilize my given five “promo days” right away. The promo days allow authors to list eBooks for free for up to five days in the 90 day commitment period. Because the days can be mixed and matched, I started off with using a free day for both of my novels the next Sunday. In the 24 hour period, I had just over 1,000 downloads, launching my books into the Best Seller categories. On Monday when the prices went back to 99 cents and $2.99 (Whispers from the Heart and Write from the Heart respectively), sales continued. By the next weekend Van and I decided to collaborate and run our books for free both days. We cross promoted through social media and both of my books had over 4,000 downloads, and Van’s was downloaded nearly 2,500 times. For us, this experience was a win-win situation.

DW: Has KDP changed how you price your eBooks?

HH: Both Van and I priced our books at 99 cents after the free promotion days for a few weeks. When we priced them up to $2.99 again, sales went down a little, so we re-priced them back to 99 cents and sales leveled out again. There are so many schools of thought on this topic, and essentially with little overhead, pricing an eBook at 99 cents and selling exponentially more than at $2.99 does have its benefits. The more copies sold, the faster the book shows up on the best seller lists where more people see it and buy it. It’s a cycle! I do know authors who do extremely well selling at $4.99 with an occasional discount, and then there are authors like John Locke who was the first to sell 1 million eBooks and his are all priced at 99 cents. It may depend on your specific book…the more niche, the higher you can price it.

DW: Do you think KDP Select is for all authors? Who might it not work for?

HH: Authors who do well on other sites like Smashwords and Barnes and Noble’s Nook are likely to not opt in to the Select program. 90 days is a long “trial period’ if your sales are equally good on these sites. But, I can honestly say, I’ve never heard an author brag about their Smashwords’ ranking, and I’ve only heard one or two mention their Barnes and Noble ranking. We all know Amazon is where it’s at. And since Amazon knows it, too, they are continuously looking for new angles.

Heather’s books have appeared in newspapers such as: Publishers Weekly, USA Today and the Washington Post; and in magazines that include: Health, Body & Soul, First, and Spry Living, a combined circulation of nearly 15 million. A graduate with High Distinction from the University of Virginia, Heather holds a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree with concentrations in English and Secondary Education. She is currently earning a Ph.D. in Metaphysical Sciences.

You can visit Heather’s website for more information: www.HeatherHummel.net

You may also be interested in our post about KDP Select and how to decide if it is for you.

But what happens when the costs to produce and distribute approach zero? How does it change the nature of media products and their consumption?

• Media can be used for marketing—as a thank you gift, to promote a performance, or to promote a business.
• Media is now collected (how many $0 or $.99 eBooks do you have on your eReader?).
• An artist can sell direct to their fans for a low price and “make it up on volume.”

That’s why I found it interesting that Billboard no longer counts albums selling for less than $3.49 when computing their Billboard 200 chart. Executive editor Bill Werde explains that “free or almost-free albums don’t represent a marketplace.”

In other words, the only fan that counts is one that’s paid at least $3.49.

In light of the race to digital media this seems like a rather antiquated and presumptive view. One thing is clear, all of these external measuring services will need to be reinvented to remain relevant once artists start selling direct to their fans.

Yet on December 29th Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos congratulated Chan for writing one of the “best-selling Kindle books of the year.”

It’s troubling to think that a best-selling author recognizes her book needs help but doesn’t take steps to make it what it could be.

And what does that say about reader standards? Are we unable to discern quality writing or worse yet, maybe we don’t care? Perhaps as readers we’ll adapt to self-edited writing, misspelled words and poorly “typeset” eBooks in the same way that we accept poor mobile phone voice quality.

I am not a writer but in my role as a technology consultant to publishers I do know this: look for quality to become a bigger issue this coming year. If readers won’t demand it the retailers like Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble will, at least when it comes to spelling and design.

As for editing there are many options for finding a good editor. One of those options is the Editorial Freelance Association. They have chapters around the US and in fact I’ll be speaking to the LA Chapter next Monday. I hope you can make it.

PS. Maybe we need to replace the “best” in best-sellers with the word “most”, as in most-sellers.

What do you think of Kindle Select? is the question I’ve heard several times over the past two weeks. When the market for eBooks is dominated by one company, and that company offers special promotions and cash, you need to pay attention.

Here’s how it works: the publisher appoints Amazon the only store where someone can buy their book and Amazon will share a pool of money based on how many times a person borrows that book from their new “lending library”. Similar to a traditional library where people can borrow books for free, Amazon’s lending library is available to their Prime members to read books for free. The publisher can also make this title available for free for up to five 24-hour periods during the minimum 90 day exclusive period.

I’ve highlighted below a number of considerations but the two most important questions a publisher should be asking themselves are:

1. Am I selling my title in other stores and if so, how much money am I making?

2. Do I believe that promoting my title at $0 will lead to increased sales or exposure?

Looking at question one participation is a no-brainer if you are not selling your title in another store and do not have plans to do so. Otherwise you’ll have to remove your title from the other stores during the exclusivity period. If you do you are hoping to make more money from the Amazon lending program than you’d make from selling via the other stores. Tough call.

The answer to question two is more complex. There is ample evidence that offering a book for free is a great way to introduce readers to an author. However, this works best when an author has several titles that their new readers can choose from. Offering a book for free is a great tactic when it is part of a larger marketing and promotions strategy.

Still undecided? Here are a few less obvious things to keep in mind.

1. If you don’t remove your books from other stores you are taking a chance. Amazon’s systems are sophisticated. If you get caught you run the risk of being cut off from the largest eBook retailer.

2. The program is available only to Prime members in the United States who own a Kindle. Amazon doesn’t release Prime membership subscriptions but a Wall Street analyst estimates it to be 5 million members. How many of them will find and borrow your book?

3. If you do opt-in Amazon will automatically renew the 90 day period if you don’t opt-out!

4. You can’t distribute your eBook from your website but you are not prevented from promoting your books on your website by referring people to Amazon. This is a key distinction.

5. It is important to understand the restrictions placed on people borrowing books because this limits the number of potential borrowings you might expect.

• Readers can read Kindle books on just about any device but only Prime members in the USA that own Kindles can borrow from the lending library. That means anyone using an iPad, PC, Android device, etc. is not eligible.

• Readers can borrow only one book per calendar month. They can keep it as long as they like but must “turn it in” to borrow a new one. If they borrow it a second time you won’t get a commission.

Like any new program there are going to be people who complain when terms and conditions seem restrictive or unfair. That’s why it is important to think through the trade-offs with this program before signing up. Also keep in mind that Amazon is making commitments to its customers based on your intentions. For more information be sure to read the Amazon KDP Select FAQ.

If the goal of your white paper is to spread a message, then you want to get that message in as many places as possible. Why then limit your white paper’s distribution to your website? Or make it available in only a PDF format?

Regardless of whether or not you want to call a white paper an eBook,  the millions of Amazon Kindles, B&N Nooks, Sony Readers and Kobo eReaders—not to mention the literally millions of iPad, iPhone, Android, PC and Mac devices with eReading software—are a “reading friendly” market for your white paper content. (We’ll call devices and software together “eReaders” for this post.).

What makes eReaders so ideal for reading? Here are four important features that benefit white paper authors:

1. Your readers can share passages with Twitter followers and Facebook fans.
2. Your readers can highlight and save passages for repeated reference.
3. You can follow which passages your audience finds most interesting (great market research!).
4. Your readers can annotate passages by adding notes.

(Besides, have you tried reading a PDF on a Smartphone?)

Several non-traditional publishers have already discovered the benefits of publishing internal documents as eReader compatible eBooks.

Hubspot and MarketingSherpa, two B2B marketing services firms, make their thought papers available for purchase in Amazon’s Kindle store. It’s the same content available on their website but by offering it for sale on the world’s largest ecommerce site they are reaching a completely different audience—someone that most likely would not have otherwise found their website.

Not appropriate for sale? You can still create an eReader eBook file so your audience can load it on their eReader. MailChimp does just this for their free email marketing guides by giving prospects and customers three files: PDF, Mobi (Kindle) and ePub (Nook, iBookstore, etc.).

There are six basic steps to prepare your white paper to be read on an eReader:

1. Use Word and follow best practices in formatting your document. Use style sheets, avoid extra lines and don’t use spaces for tabs.
2. Download a copy of Calibre, a free (donations welcome) eBook library manager. This tool will help you convert your document to Mobi and ePub file formats.
3. Save your Word document as a filtered HTML file. If your white paper has images you’ll need to combine the HTML document and image folder into a zip file before importing into Calibre.
4. Invest in a book cover that looks professional. It is true what they say about judging books by the cover. Shoppers usually do.
5. Spend time compiling your metadata, aka “information about information”. This is your title, description, keywords, categories and other elements that classify and help you sell your eBook. Google’s keyword tool is helpful in this regard.
6. If you plan to sell your white paper eBook, now is the time to setup your account. Visit Amazon’s self-publishing portal KDP or Barnes & Noble’s Pubit to do that.

You can also review my comprehensive pre-publishing checklist. Otherwise, your file is done. You can check it by downloading one of the free software eReaders or load it on your eReader to see how it looks.

By the way, still wondering if someone will buy an eBook containing information that is otherwise freely available? Last July Ars Technica sold 3,000 copies of their Kindle eBook Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: the Ars Technica Review in 24 hours. That’s net revenue of $10,500 for something they were giving away for free on their website.

There is no question that offering your white paper in three file formats is extra work. But that extra work can make a difference in generating interest and exposure for your message.

I lectured about the overall state of eBooks and eBook publishing, touched on corporate eBook publishing, and covered the basics of eBook marketing, preparing your manuscript, eBook conversion and using KDP-Kindle Direct Publishing.

Last week 1,100 visitors from more than 100 countries attended the 63rd World Newspaper Congress and 18th World Editors Forum hosted by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in Vienna.

Considering the enormous challenges and transformations taking place with newspapers I thought it would be instructive to follow several of the presenters and their comments.

Here is a collection of interesting quotes and observations based on their blog posts. More about the conference can be found here.

“If you do business with clients, you have to deal with clients” and clients do not necessarily have the taste or competence that you as a professional publisher do.
- Soheil Dastyari, managing director, Gruner & Jahr Corporate Editors, Germany
Opportunities in Corporate Publishing

“You can get your money back many ways. It doesn’t only have to be cash. Sometimes partnering with your client delivers a great deal of value back to yourself.”
- Ravi Dhariwal, CEO of the Times of India
Equity in Exchange for Advertising

“Is the iPad going to do to newspapers what the digital camera did to consumer film?”; and, “If you look at [the consumer film] business today, it’s gone from $10 billion to $100 million [in 10 years]“.
- Douglas Edwards, vice president, Eastman Kodak Company
What Newspapers Can Learn from Kodak’s Digital Transformation

“One of the legacies of Steve Jobs is that he’s taught us to pay for content.”
Adam Bird, director, McKinsey & Company
More Social, More Personal, More User Generated

“We are in an era of experimentations, and making mistakes is not important. What is essential here is how fast you correct them.”
- Madhav Chinnappa, strategic business partner development manager, Google News & Books
In Digital Process is More Important Than Outcome

“Most Indians will first experience the web on their handset, not on PCs.”
- Mariam Mammen Mathew, chief operating officer of Manorama Online
Online in a Print World Video

“Circulation is like the sun. It continues to rise in the East and decline in the West.”
Christoph Riess, CEO, WAN-IFRA

World Press Trends: Newspapers Still Reach More People Than the Internet

As I prepared for a corporate eBook presentation last week I was struck by what I noticed when you compare distribution to eBook sell-through: distribution to Apple, B&N, Kobo and Sony totals 47% but delivers only 5% of sales. To make it easier to visualize I combined chart 9 and chart 10 in the slide below:

A few observations:

1. This comparison seems like an accurate representation of what I hear from authors. It may be an over generalization but its important to note when determining where to invest your distribution dollars.

2. Apple is not selling eBooks. Not shown here is chart 8, a look at the devices that publishers target when publishing their eBooks. The Apple iBookstore is #4 (15%) followed by the Apple Store with 7%. If you publish for an Apple device, and distribute to the Apple stores, you don’t necessarily sell many eBooks. It would appear that most Apple device users use Amazon or another reading app. Of course this may change in the next survey which will reflect the discontinuance of in-app purchasing.

3. Selling direct appears to be a viable model. This has been less effective for trade publishers but perhaps the Pottermore model will catch on. In the meantime corporate, STM and education publishers are having success.