A Pilgrim Book Lover's Confession

I have a confession to make-- one that might pass without much comment in much of the world, but will be akin to heresy here in this forum. 

I'm getting rid of many of my print books. Actually, I have been weeding them out for years. First I sold or gave away most of my collection of books about ancient Egypt. And I had a lot of them. The only ones I wanted to keep were the ones from my childhood and the art books.  Next were the paperback novels I don't think I will have time to read. I don't mean I won't have time this year or next. I mean I won't have time ever. And that applies to many other "dispensable" books on my shelves. Category by category, book by book, they are leaving my house.

When I was younger the very presence of books were my riches. I spent all my babysitting money, indeed all my money until my senior year of high school (when everything had to go toward college costs) on books, usually paperback and used. 

I hauled them with me when I became temporarily homeless, then to college. When I got married we bought bookshelves and went without a television for a while. I had my priorities.

Every house I've lived in was arranged around books. And now I am parting with them. At this point I probably have fewer than half of my books. Unless there is a reason for a print book, I am buying electronic ones. And of course the free ones, I've acquired some of them too. 

If my Kindle could bulge, it would. I don't know what its capacity is, but even its shelves are stocked with the temporary: I'm already mentally preparing to delete those whose allure has dulled. 

Though I am unaware of any health issues, I believe the truth of the outward wasting away that Paul spoke of--even as I am surely being renewed day by day, fitting myself for a great coming journey.

Something about the unsubstantial and weightless nature of electronic books is a sobering reminder. Not only am I passing away, the apostle John said that this world itself--not just its physicalities but its thoughts and its books-- is passing away too. 

Only what is eternal will last. I want ideas that are true in my knapsack for my journey. I don't want to carry around or dust things I won't read. And as for everything else-- I'm traveling light, my friends. 

Summer Reading Bookbag

We’re fast approaching the time of year when we pack our suitcases and carryon bags and travel to our favorite vacation spots. Whether we’re cruising to exotic locales, pitching a tent by a mountain stream or loading up the station wagon for a family reunion, we’re all focused on the same objective: to escape from life’s worries and stresses, if only for a short time.  And books fill the bill soooo well.

I recently returned from a sun-filled, sand-between-the-toes kind of getaway.  In the six days we were gone, I achieved that objective. Ahhh.  In that time, I finished two books and started two more. 

The first book was The Scarlet Pimpernel.  I found this classic at Target for $2.99. It was so different from my normal type of read - a rakish rogue saves innocents from the guillotine in the nick of time, with style and the love of a beautiful lady. I decided to save it for vacation.  (For awhile, I fought the impulse to read ‘P-P-P-Pumpernickel’ instead of ‘Pimpernel,’ thanks to Daffy Duck’s telling of the tale.) The book was a page turner and I will probably watch the movie (Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon) if it ever comes to Netflicks.  This story was the perfect escape, but I’m a sucker for characters like Robin Hood and Zorro.

From plot-driven to character-driven, the second book couldn’t have been more different: Sense and Sensibility.  I enjoyed this one, but Jane (Austen) made me work for it.  It’s amazing how much action she can create in her stories when you consider the lifestyle of her characters. Basically, their options for activity are walking in the lanes and fields, working needlepoint, visiting with neighbors, reading aloud and occasionally going to dances. But their futures are at stake, and she uses these largely sedentary activities to create tension between characters through dialogue, misinterpretation, expectations and misunderstanding.  I’ll admit, I did skim a teensy bit, but I was anxious to find out who the sisters ended up with.

Vacations give you permission to read something out of the norm.  To read a book in a flash, because you can.  With nothing pressing on the horizon, no job to interfere, no responsibilities to break up the flow, you can completely immerse yourself in the time period or the story world or the chain of events that make for great stories.

What books are in your summer reading carryon or loaded on your Kindle?  Do vacations give you ‘permission’ to change-up your reading choices? We’d love to hear.

Exploring the Ecosystem of Kindle for Marketing

Before I start with my topic for the day, I want to announce a new Novel Matters book club. I'm reading Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling by Donald Maas. I'm loving what he has to say so far about the death of genre, and I would love to chat with you, my most respected writing friends, about his ideas. The next couple of months aren't the best time to start a new project like this, so I'm thinking January. You can ask for the book for Christmas and read chapter one while munching on Christmas-tree shaped cookies. We'll talk in January.

Last time I posted here, I highlighted James Scott Bell's marketing book for ebooks. This is the journey I'm on with my next novel, so I'm happy to share what I'm learning along the way. After all, authors do most of the marketing for their books whether they're working with a legacy publisher or going indie like me.

Bell echoed the approach many of us have heard at writers conferences--building a platform and social media networking, plus pricing strategies and more--but with the knowledge to do a great job for our books. The book is full of wisdom I intend to use in marketing Goodness & Mercy.

But to become a market genius before March--that's my goal--I can't stop at one book or opinion.

Trust me, there are tons of ebooks out there to help you sell your ebooks on Amazon. And you have to be careful which ones you bet the success of your book on. Some of these how-to books are written by authors who have experienced major success with their Kindle ebooks. One book. One big success? Is their success a fluke? Do they come from a large family that owns many Swiss bank accounts?

I chose a book by Michael Alvear because he takes a totally different approach to marketing ebooks. Also, his book has the longest, most specific title ever. I knew what I was getting! Check this out: Make a Killing on Kindle without Blogging, Facebook and Twitter: The Guerilla Marketer's Guide to Selling Ebooks on Amazon.

Phew! Of course, we have to ask, "Just how do you sell books on Amazon without social media or full-page magazine ads?"

Alvear believes it's all about understanding the ecosystem of Kindle with the objective of optimizing the position of your book. That way the readers who are most likely to buy the book will see it as they browse.

This kind of thinking is so rare in book marketing that Alvear gives an example with his own book. At first, he tried to market conventionally through social media. After five years of work, he got 25,000 unique visits to his blog per month. Of those, 5,000 went to his book page. To determine the "conversion rate," meaning how many views it took to make a sale, he divided the number of sales by the number of visitors. Alvear came in right in the middle of the industry average at 1%.

That's only 50 books per month for all those years of work.

Ugh.

And so, Alvear systematically goes through every aspect of developing your book for market to make it rise to the top of pile. He promises everything can be done in 18 hours. This also appealed to me. But you have to start with a stellar book that you believe in. Otherwise, all the marketing in the world won't produce satisfactory results.

So far, I'm listening carefully to this guy.

Here are some of the topics he examines in his confident, been-there-more-than-once voice. I should tell you that he has 20 years of marketing experience. Ya gotta love credentials.

Okay, let's get on to the topics:

1. Create an attention-getting title. If the title doesn't work, you can always change it. That's one nice thing about digital publishing.

2. Hire a professional to design you book cover. Really? In an ideal world, yes because your cover in all of its 7/8" x 1" glory in Kindle-land needs to make a punch, a promise, and a come-hither message.I hired a photographer and a graphic designer, but I'm the art director. Probably a bad idea. I'm hoping not.

Alvear does give guidelines for hiring these professionals, depending on your budget from low to high.

"If you have already passed that hurdle of having a customer be attracted to the cover, and then they pick up the books," said Patricia Bostelman, vice president for marketing at Barnes & Noble, "an enormous battle has been won."

3. Once you have a visual hook for your potential reader, you want to set up your book to gain top search engine results every time someone looks for a book in your category. I sure hope I understand this better by the time I'm launching my book. Alvear isn't stingy on pointing authors to places where keyword phrases can be embedded, so the chances of your book popping up in the first page of results increase. Keyword phrases, who knew?

"You are destined to fail if you don't use keyword phrases that lead to your book."

So, I guess I better learn.

4. Beyond keyword phrases, Amazon lets you choose two categories for your book. "Think of [categories] as the section of the bookstore you'd like your book placed (literature, fiction, history, etc.)." From working in both a bookstore and a library, I know how important these categories are. Most reader beeline to their favorite genre and do very little browsing. There are browsers--God bless 'em!--who wander the whole store. That makes your cover and title even more important.

Alvear's book gives me hope. There are things I can do to get my book before the reader. For instance, he explains how to put a billboard for your book on a competitors pages. And he talks about the power of great reviews, even how many you need to make your book page a powerful selling tool.

One chapter deals with how to write ocean-front book descriptions, another highlights the importance of formatting and using the "Look Inside" feature.

And then he tells about a feature in Kindle I'd never seen before that will definitely effect the way I format my book. It's the "Before You Go" feature. If your reader's Kindle or other reading device is set up to Facebook and Twitter, you can ask your reader to kindly rate the book and share with their friends right there and then.

Aha, there is a place for social media!

Alvear does recognize the value of social media once the book is successfully launched and selling. Your readers will be curious about you and will want to find you online. Then a blog makes tons of sense.

I plan on using Alvear's ideas to optimize the chances that Goodness & Mercy will have its best chance of finding an audience.

Michael Alvear doesn't write the kind of books (other than this one) most of us read, but he seems to have a good handle on what it takes to sell on Amazon. I appreciate that about him very much.

Next time, I'll be talking about yet another marketing philosophy. And then I'm formulating a plan for full speed ahead marketing. My brain is getting full.

Have you worked with a graphic professional? What's your take on Alvear's approach, knowing that I was only able to present the briefest details? I'm looking at this information as power, not an insurance police, success isn't following a formula, but it is knowing how the game is played. Can you recommend what I should read about marketing next?