Category Archives: Writing

AuthorsReading.com Will Offer Expedited Book Reviews Starting on January 1st 2014

AuthorReading.com will start offering expedited reviews to better serve the literary community. This year, small press and self-publishing has blossomed as never before, with self-publishing now very much a legitimate publishing option for authors. Today much of the literary community has shed its bias against those who have chosen to self-publish. Authors Reading welcomes this change and hopes it can be instrumental in helping those Indie authors in their uphill battle to promote and sell their books. As authors quickly learn, once a book is finished, tapping into a receptive audience is a formidable task. In the book publishing world, that is known as “discoverability.”

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Over 150 KDP Authors Sold More than 100,000 Thousand Books in 2013 EACH!

Amazon has announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime.  From the Amazon Media Room:

Amazon today announced a record-setting holiday season for Amazon Prime, the annual membership program offering unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items. More than one million customers around the world became new Prime members in the third week of December. On Amazon’s peak shipping day, more Prime items were shipped worldwide than ever before. The entire 2013 holiday season was the best ever for Amazon, with more than 36.8 million items ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday, which is a record-breaking 426 items per second, and millions of customers unwrapped Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets this holiday season. Continue reading

Indie Success Story: Maya Cross’s Intimate Connection with Readers

Alex Palmer has posted an article over at Publishers Weekly about the success Maya Cross is having reaching her readers.

From the article:

Among self-published authors’ major advantages over published big-names is often a more personal connection with readers. Whether exchanging comments on Twitter, posting updates to their blog, or taking other steps, these writers tend to ingratiate themselves with readers in a more direct way than a formal marketing blitz it likely to accomplish.

That has been part of the reason that Australian author Maya Cross has seen each installment of her three-part erotic romance Alpha Series become a bestseller. But while an unimpeded connection with readers has been key to Cross’s success, also important has been maintaining a certain privacy.

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Smashwords Signs Distribution Agreement with Scribd

Smashwords has announced they’ve signed a distribution agreement with publisher Scribd.  From the article:

Smashwords today announced a distribution agreement with Scribd, which operates one of the world’s largest publishing platforms and online reading communities.  Scribd receives over 80 million monthly readers to their platform according to their website.

There are two distribution components to the Smashwords agreement with Scribd.

    • Smashwords will supply books to Scribd’s new ebook subscription service, where for $8.99 per month subscribers can enjoy unlimited reading.
    • Smashwords ebooks will also be available for individual sale to Scribd customers under our standard retailer terms.

Ever since Scribd launched in 2007, I’ve admired their publishing platform, their social reading technology and their commitment to content creators.  Scribd has built a massive audience of millions of readers, and these readers are now accessible to the 70,000+ authors and publishers that distribute with Smashwords.

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How to get reviews for your book

A discussion topic between writers will almost always turn to book reviews.  It’s not easy to count on people who buy your book (or get it for free on a promotion day) to go back to the outlet that they bought it from and write about it when they’ve finished it.

This might be because they didn’t like it – an inevitability that every author has to face; not everyone thinks you’re as bright, witty, charming, creative, or as imaginative as you think you are – or it might be because it’s not terribly easy to post a review on many sites.  It’s getting better, but it can still be daunting for readers; it takes time, involves writing something (and for readers who read on eReaders or tablets with clunky keyboard interfaces it’s a pain in the butt to write anything beyond “LOL” or “:-)”), and it’s inconvenient.  When a reader finishes off a book just as they’re getting off the subway, there’s a good chance they’ll just not review it – even if they loved it and couldn’t put it down.  They might mean to, but it’ll never happen; out of sight, out of mind.

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