The Dilemma of Dumbing It Down for e-Book Sales

Self-publishing a book can be a labor of love and for some of us, it’s what we live for. But why is it so many people now fancy themselves an author? And why is it that so many simple and frankly unreadable works are hitting the Amazon e-book charts? Should we all join in and get stupid?

Many books are intelligently written and beautifully constructed, but it is the pulp romance thriller that used to be a throwaway holiday read that catches the “public”‘s attention. Young Adult fiction, mostly about reckless sixteen year-olds fancying each other are leaving the digital […]

Cate Baum2014-01-07T22:54:25+02:00August 1st, 2013|Categories: Features, Lead Story|

Book Marketing Using Paid Advertising – A Study

The current buzz in book marketing is paid on-line advertising. Some authors report excellent results, other complete disappointment. This study is divided into two parts: the Good News and the Bad News, as reported by authors who have paid to promote their books.

The study started with a conversation with a fellow author whose blog helps support fellow authors for a nominal fee to cover the costs. Her newsletter has a modest membership and provides a good service to authors.

While discussing paid on-line book advertising, one of her first question to me was “Is there a payback to the

[…]

James Moushon2020-02-21T04:35:31+02:00July 24th, 2013|Categories: Features, Lead Story|Tags: Book Marketing Advice and Tips|

Excerpt: The American Book of the Dead

Here’s what I hope to be a new feature on SPR: book excerpts. If you’re interested, follow these instructions to post an excerpt. The novel can be purchased here.

This is the introduction to the novel. People either love this book, or they’re mystified – which is to be expected, as I was going for some level of mystification. Some have criticized that I should get to the action sooner. Some haven’t. The point for me is to get inside the narrator’s head and to set up the scope of the story.

Eugene Myers is working on a novel

[…]

Henry Baum2013-06-18T16:54:51+02:00June 15th, 2013|Categories: Book Excerpt, Lead Story|

Free eBook Promotions Can Be Pure Gold for Authors

Well it’s time for another Free Book Promotion. The last one pushed by mystery novel, Black Mountain Secrets, up the Amazon ranking ladder to number ten. But it was definitely a learning experience.

One lesson I learned was you needed more than a general goal of being a successful writer. Giving your work away for nothing had to have a purpose for me. I know some authors refuse to give their books away. Being a relatively new author, I needed to get my work out in the reader’s hands.

As I always do in this type of situation, I […]

James Moushon2020-02-21T05:52:27+02:00June 3rd, 2013|Categories: Features, Lead Story|Tags: Book Marketing Advice and Tips|

What Amazon’s Acquistion Of Goodreads Means For Self-Publishers

So what does the news that Amazon is to acquire Goodreads actually mean for us self-publishers? Most of us relish Goodreads, and actively star each other’s work, as Goodreads proves to be a more successful platform for honest consumer review than Amazon in some ways – less glitchy than the strange process used by Amazon’s over-zealous non-bookish reviewers in that it tends to attract real bookworms with literary brains.

With 16 million members, it’s no wonder Amazon was grappling for control. So will Amazon complete its domination of everything book?

My worry would be that Goodreads up to now, has […]

Cate Baum2013-11-04T18:21:52+02:00March 30th, 2013|Categories: Lead Story|Tags: Amazon News and Tips, Goodreads Articles|

An Interview with Bestselling Author Tara Sivec

Today I have a recent interview with Bestselling Author Tara Sivec. She is the author of the Chocolate Lovers series and the top ranking novel, A Beautiful Lie, the first book in the Playing with Fire series.

Author Genre: Romance/Suspense, Humor, Chick Lit

About the Author:

Tara Sivec is a wife, mom, chauffeur, soccer coach, babysitter, short-order cook, genius and the funniest person she’s ever met. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two kids. In her spare time she likes to write and make people spit Diet Coke out of their nose. Most of her material comes […]

James Moushon2019-02-19T06:21:46+02:00February 25th, 2013|Categories: Interviews, Lead Story|

A Name and a Face: Exorcising My Anonymity

I want to tell you about something that happened to me a couple of months ago. After spending most of 2012 working on the edits of my second novel and putting off multiple opportunities to visit family in the process, the prospect of killing two birds with one stone—visiting family and promoting the book—seemed like a good idea. Near the end of October, my wife and I packed up the car with our suitcases and a huge box of books. We hit the road.

In the weeks leading up to our departure, I did what any other author is supposed […]

Todd Keisling2014-05-05T22:34:16+02:00January 29th, 2013|Categories: Features, Lead Story|Tags: Book Promotion Articles|

Free Books: Just Give it Away?

I have a Free Book Promotion coming up and I keep hearing the George Strait song ‘Give it Away’ playing in my ears. (Now you know where I get some of the inspirations for my posts). It was time for me to do some research and talk to several successful authors on how to do this and what their experiences were in giving their books away.

Free books have been a custom in traditional paper books for as long as book reviews have been written. They came with the territory. They were sent directly to a person or an […]

James Moushon2019-02-18T12:10:40+02:00December 20th, 2012|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|Tags: Amazon News and Tips|