When Do Writers NEED Readers?

Question: When do writers need readers?

Are you laughing yet? I don't mean laughing like I said something funny, but laughing as in what kind of idiot would ask such a stupid question? The answer is obvious… ALWAYS.

Okay, so that was a silly question. But what I really want to know is, if the answer is so simple, why is it so hard for writers to find what they need the most? Why is it so complicated to get the masses to read our work? The answer to that question is simple; usually because no one knows who we are. If you don't believe me you should read the chapter "Why No One is Buying Your Book" in The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe. I hear the author knows his sh**.

Anyway, I've come up with a great way for all of you self-pubbed…. eh hem… I mean Indie Authors (with caps) to get noticed. And so far it's working. My new method is bringing in one new reader for every new author. That doesn't sound like much, but in the context of my method it is absolutely brilliant.

I love that word ~> Brilliant. Brilliant sounds so distinguished; especially when it rolls off the tongue of one of my UK pals. Anyway, I digress. Squirrel!

So what's the new method? What's the new marketing wiz kid come up with this time? Well, I'd tell you but I'd have to kill your neighbor. Why your neighbor? Because you'd be a suspect, and not me. And then you'd go to prison, because I'd fix it so all the evidence would point to you because I didn't really want to kill your neighbor in the first place. I just want to keep my marketing secrets private, not go to jail. Geesh.

Actually, I'm not like that. Actually, I'd only write about killing your neighbor, but I'd still tell you everything. LOL!

Okay, all jokes aside, I want you to know what I've come up with and why it's working. So now that I have your attention, I'm going to be serious for as long as I can stand.

The Marketing Blitz that I've constructed isn't new, but I'm using it in a new way. The tool is the writing contest I've initiated at The Kindle Book Review…. The Best Indie Books of 2012.

Here are a few ways this contest is going to help you sell your books:

• I've made it easy to be recognized. The contest is designed to weed out any books that miss the mark ~ poor editing, poor writing and story telling, etc. But it is also designed to recognize all of the books that make it through our initial screeners. Those who clear the screeners are entered as a "Semi-Finalist". So you can see how this can benefit you; your book gets screened, given a quality stamp, and you do not have to win. You can use the "Kindle Book Review's Best Books of 2012 Semi-finalist" title on your book page, giving you instant credibility. And in truth, if you make it past the screeners, you have accomplished a level of professionalism that your audience is looking for because our reviewers are avid readers and quite discerning.

•  We are Giving away Books. Freebies always grab reader's attention. Currently, we've received as many "reader submissions" to win the kindle and join our mailing list as we have author submissions. This is an excellent trend! This tells me that these folks are interested in indie books and viewing the books advertised on our site. Some have commented already that they are eager to find new authors. And that's what we all want. Isn't it?

• Most writing contests are strictly aimed at authors. This contest is aimed at both writers and readers. So not only can you follow the contest to see who advances, but so can readers. If you don't think our new mailing list followers aren't interested in who the best indie authors are, you are sadly mistaken. Kindle and Nook readers love buying books that are well written, and at indie authors prices (99¢-$4.99). And why shouldn't they when they can get equal pleasure from a quality indie author who sells for less.

• If you win, or at least make it to the finals, you will have some serious leverage working in your favor. Think of the glory. Think of the tweets! I can see it now... "Your Book Title ~ Winner of The Best Indie Books of 2012 - Your Genre!" Can you see the crowds swarming to your Amazon page? Okay. Slap, slap, slap. Wake up! It doesn't work like that, stupid. However, accolades and awards do help sell books.

So if I haven't convinced you yet, listen to this. We have made it easy to submit. We have made the process very simple. You'll need a Kindle formatted book. But if you don't have one, we've even provided a link to a site that can format your .doc file for free. We really tried to make this as simple and painless as possible. Never mind the fact that you could win a hundred bucks AND free advertising! We're also giving away a Kindle Fire, loaded with some of the best indie books out there. 

I truly hope you take advantage of this cross-promotional opportunity.

One more thing. PLEASE OH PLEASE, help us promote this contest with tweets, blog posts, facebook "likes" and shares. This contest is as "grassroots" as it can be and it will, in the end, help promote all indie and small press authors. So on behalf of all your fellow brothers and sisters in the indie author movement, and those registered in the contest, we thank you.

Jeff Bennington is the best-selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance, and The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

Get a Poncho. Barnes and Noble's Brains are Splashing.

Sell your Barnes & Noble stock! Seriously. Cash in your chips. Barnes and Noble is going to die. If you don't think it's possible, remember that we lost Borders in the not too distant past. 

Gone. 

Dead. 

Buried.

R.I.P

In my opinion, Barnes & Noble is next on the chopping block. I may be wrong, and I hope I am. But gosh darn it, there are just too many red flags flying for me to think otherwise. 

In B&N's recent announcement, chief merchandising officer, Jaime Carey said, "Their [Amazon's] actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content," Carey said. "It’s clear to us that Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest. We don’t get many requests for Amazon titles, but if customers wish to buy Amazon titles from us, we will make them available only online at bn.com.” 

STOP RIGHT THERE. Barnes & Noble has just announced that they are dying. Here's why:

B&N's shot in the left foot.

"Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content,"

Really? If B&N is upset that Amazon has "prevented millions of customers from having access to content", then why would they refuse to sell books that Amazon publishes? Isn't that preventing "customers" from accessing content as well? I'm not sure if Jaime wrote that press release, but that is a serious contradiction. Does B&N really want to make all books available? Do they really care about availability? Answer: No, they do not. They just don't want to be put out of business and made to be fools by smarter Ivy League grads. 

The truth is, Barnes & Noble isn't the least bit concerned about freedom of content. In fact, they have continued to squeeze books out of their inventories over the last few years, and have been closed off to providing "customers" with content in their stores. Ask any bestselling independent author who has been refused into their closed-off club of select publishers. I hate to tell you this B&N, but what goes around comes around.

B&N's shot in the right foot.

"It’s clear to us that Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest."

Wow! That is just laughable. Do the leaders at B&N actually think that Amazon and other book retailers are teaming up as a world-wide endowment of literature? No, they are not. They are in business to make money. Period. That's all they care about. That is their sole purpose. And duh, of course Amazon is in it "for their own self interest." What executive in his right mind would think otherwise. They sure as heck aren't in business for Barnes & Noble's interests. If that's the way the leadership at B&N thinks, their business is in serious trouble. Big business is not team work! It's about money and it's about trumping your competitor. 

B&N's shot in the heart.

"We don’t get many requests for Amazon titles, but if customers wish to buy Amazon titles from us, we will make them available only online at bn.com."

The bigger question is, is pulling the titles that Amazon  publishes from their stores a good business decision? Answer: NO, it is not. Just think about that declaration for a moment and let that sink in. Amazon is selling plenty of big name authors in their stores like King, Koontz, and Collins and titles like Steve Jobs  biography. The Hunger Games is Amazon's #1, #2, and #3 top selling books at this moment. And those titles are in BN.com's top six. King and Steve Jobs are in B&N's and Amazon's top twenty. The point is, the demand for books is mirrored in both stores. So if B&N chooses not to sell self-help author Tim Ferriss' books because he is published by an Amazon imprint, I 'd wager that readers will go somewhere else to buy it. This will not help B&N's bottom line. In fact, B&N will only exclude themselves from profiting from Amazon published titles. And that's their fix?

Let me get this straight. Amazon pushes for exclusivity, and B&N's response is to further exclude themselves from available and popular books? Is that a good business decision? No.

B&N's shot in the head.

"Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole…"

In my opinion, Barnes and Noble is committing suicide because Amazon is winning, and they're using a frickin' B-52 bomber. They are crying and pouting like little babies, when what they should be doing is figuring out what they are doing wrong, or perhaps use Amazon as a template for good business. They should look at Amazon's utilization of product cross promotion, author promotion, and customer buying patterns, and figure out how to implement those tactics in their own selling algorithms, not because they want to be like Amazon, but because it is working for Amazon. 

Businesses do this all the time; it's called benchmarking. It's called improving by looking at a standard, a point of reference. It's called getting off your rumpus, stop crying, and start reprogramming your stupid website! 

I hate to sound cynical about all of this, because I'm a very positive person, and I really want book stores to survive and thrive. I just hate cry babies. Is it really Amazon's fault that B&N is failing? Is it Amazon's fault that B&N's online book shop is not as attractive to authors? Is it Amazon's fault that B&N can't seem to make good business decisions. No. It is not. Amazon has made smarter decisions than Barnes & Noble, simple as that. 

All to say, I'm buying a poncho from Amazon for two reasons:

#1. Barnes & Nobles doesn't sell them.

#2. There's going to be a serious blood bath when B&N pulls the trigger.

What do you think? I could be wrong. Maybe you can convince me otherwise.

###

Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion, Creepy and The Indie Authors Guide to the Universe. Please buy one of these; sort of like a tip. they are mostly 99¢!

Follow by email to get my weekly posts, and then check out The Kindle Book Review, my sister site. Then come back… The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe is coming soon and you won't want to miss it.

Layer Your Book Marketing Efforts for Better Results

Welcome back to The Writing Bomb. I'm posting another excerpt from The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe, and I hope you find my marketing strategy helpful. The following information helped propel me to the Amazon Top 100 in December 2011. I hope it works for you as well. 

My Favorite Marketing Strategy

One of my favorite strategies in my marketing plan is layering. Layering is the process of adding promotions in sequence. In other words, before you pay money to Kindle Nation Daily, schedule a giveaway, immediately followed by a two or three day blog hop, followed by a killer blog post at your blog, followed by a two day KDP Select giveaway. Then, wrap up your marketing blitz with a paid promotion from Digit Book Today, The Kindle Book Review, or Kindle Nation Daily, after you’ve invested some time in a series of free promotions.

Be sure to keep all of these events well publicized through Twitter and Facebook.

As I mentioned earlier, marketing isn’t about a single promotion and it isn’t always about money. Good promotion is about getting your book cover as much face time as possible. Stacking your promotions will help elevate your book into the public eye. 

When I think of layering, I imagine a video game character, like Mario, jumping on a gear that propels him upward, only to land on another gear that shoots him to another gear, and so on. The idea is that each gear lifts him higher with each spin of the cogs, getting him closer to that giant mushroom in the sky. You may or may not want a bucket of golden mushrooms, but you do want to get closer to readers and that's what layering has the potential of accomplishing.

The reason I like this strategy is because it works, and because it can make your paid promotions more effective. Layering your promotions is better than spending money on an ad, hoping that a single marketing tool will bring an onslaught of sales. Sites like Kindle Nation Daily have a pretty good track record, but just think how much more effective that ad could be if you raised your Amazon ranking from 80,000 to 25,000 the day before your ad went live. An ad with KND will do a better job if you work hard at getting your sales up before the ad starts. 

It’s not just important to sell more books. It’s important that you get your book on category bestseller lists where there are more eyes watching. These lists will lead you to the readers looking for your genre and your price point. 

Do whatever it takes to get there, because once you're there, the attention can hold you up for an extended period of time, even after the ad has expired. If you don't hit a category list, you'll drop out of sight much faster.

Don’t depend on others to work their marketing magic with your book. You have to do your part. And the more you can do prior to a paid promotion, the greater chance you’ll have of selling!

In the weeks prior to hitting the Amazon top 100, I paid for a featured ad with The 99 Cent Networks Twelve Day's of Christmas promo that ran from December 12th to December 24th. During the course of that promotion, I wrote a couple killer blog posts here at The Writing Bomb. I also placed Reunion on The Kindle Book Review’s marquee banner during the month of December. Finally, I scheduled my first two free book promotion days with Amazon’s KDP Select. The result, thanks to Lady Luck, was the #55 spot in Amazon’s paid best-seller list. I spent $50 for each of my books to be entered in the IBC promo, but the rest was free. I used every aspect of my platform, layering each step with tweets and Facebook notifications. It cost me a few bucks, and a few hours of my time, but the pay off far exceeded the expense.

Are you sequencing your marketing? Or are you trudging through individual promotions, separated by large blocks of time? The next time you schedule a paid promotion, try layering a sequence of free promotions and see what happens. Your book is hungry for mushrooms. It's time you shoot it into the sky where it belongs.

~ Jeff Bennington is the Amazon bestselling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance and Creepy

Why No One Is Buying Your Book

The following is an excerpt from The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe:

Why No One is Buying Your Book

Have you stared at your book ranking, and sales data, and wondered why no one is reading your work? Are you disappointed that your story hasn't caught fire, or hit USA Today's front page?

If you answered yes, I want to share a secret with you. I want to tell you something, and it might hurt your feelings. I don't mean to be cruel, but I have to be honest.

No one has ever heard of you.

Readers do not know that you exist.

That can change, but for now, you have to know the truth. You have to face the stark reality that you're not famous, you don't have a cult following, and you're not a New York Times bestseller, yet.

One of the biggest obstacles for indie and small press authors to overcome is finding readers. You may have a great book cover, and your prose may be razor sharp, but lets face it, you are one in a million. Hundreds of thousands of books are published every year, and as a new/newer author, it's not likely that readers will search your name or title.

Sigh.

Depressing isn't it? Well, it can be, if you're subject to resignation. But if you are the type of person who sees an obstacle as an opportunity, you may have what it takes to climb out of the literary abyss and into the public arena.

The problem with publishing is that unless you have a platform, or a method to reach out to readers, you are like a grain of sand on the beach. People will walk on you all day long, but never know you're there. If you publish on Amazon, your book is thrown into the ocean of ebooks and will splash around until readers start buying. When they purchase your book, it'll stay close to shore where other readers can see it. But if you don't plan for a beach party upon publication, your book will drift off to sea and eventually end up in the south pacific, stranded on a lifeless island. 

If you publish on Barnes & Noble's Pubit!, iTunes, or Smashwords, it's even harder to get noticed because the sheer weight of new books will push you deeper into the water.

So what can you do? What does it take to lift your book above the crowd and get the notoriety you deserve? Good question. When I have the secret formula, I'll bottle it and sell it to ya for a thousand dollars per ounce. Until then, it helps to know that you are not being flat out rejected by the world, but rather, unseen. Understand that, and embrace it. Knowledge goes a long way when you are problem solving. Don't take it personally. Accept your reality and work to improve your position in the crowd.

You need to figure out how you're going to be an author that readers recognize. You have to build a platform. You have to brand yourself. You have to go into the big world, put on a pair of stilts and start shouting, "Hey, everyone, look over here! I write suspense novels with jaw-dropping twists. Anyone interested?" When you do that, someone will turn around and say yes. If you wrote a good book, they might recommend it to someone else. They could also write a review and encourage others to buy. But don't stop there. You have to keep walking clumsily through the crowd, hand selling your work to readers, bloggers, and reviewers everywhere. 

If you're no good with stilts, try the trapeze. If that doesn't work, hop on a unicycle or put on a clown suit. You may not get it right the first time around, but with a little trial and error, you'll discover what works and what doesn't. Just remember, what works for me may not work for you. I'm a lion tamer and that's somewhat daunting to the vast majority, so I wouldn't recommend it. Besides, you could lose your head.

Getting noticed, especially when you only have one book published, can be a slow process, more so if you are not actively building your platform. The truth is, there is no quick answer to growing an audience. Building an author brand/platform takes time, it takes multiple books and it takes creativity. 

If you look at the top right-hand side of this blog, you'll notice that I recently hit four-hundred followers. I'm excited about that because several months ago I didn't think I'd reach one hundred. Four hundred looks like a lot, but there are other blogs with a whole lot more subscribers than I have. There is always a bigger duck in the pond. But don't compare yourself to anyone else. Take an honest assessment of where you are and chart a realistic course that will keep the wind to your back, blowing you toward shore where the readers are. You might hit a sand bar on occasion, but that's okay. Authors wearing clown suits, splashing around in the ocean are likely to get a little attention.

~ Jeff Bennington, author of Reunion, an Amazon bestselling supernatural thriller.

An Authors Guide to the Almighty 3% Rule

If you've been in business for an extended period of time, you've probably heard about the 3% Rule. If you're an author, you'll definitely want to get a handle on this treasured tool that businesses of all kinds have used as a measuring stick of their success.

As an author I have a bad habit of reading my reviews. I probably shouldn't, but it is what it is. I take my words very seriously and personally, so when I read a review that is singing my praises I feel good. Knowing that my work had struck a chord with a reader means everything to me. Conversely, when I read a review that more or less bashes my work, I take it personally. Yeah, yeah, I know, literature is subjective, to each his own, blah blah blah. I've heard it before and have probably written it even more. But bad reviews are still a bit cutting to me. I didn't work that hard on a book that hundreds loved, just to be told that it wasn't worth $1 by a few. Really? A buck? Who says that? What kind of person---?

Anyway, Back to The 3% Rule.

As an author, indie or otherwise, you need to understand statistics. There's a rule that has rolled into common business practices called the three percent rule. This rule says that out of 100 customers, there will always be an average of 3% who are never happy, never satisfied, inconsiderate, lawsuit happy, etc.

Businesses use the 3% rule to determine when it's okay to let customers go, as in drop them from their mailing list, or to determine if they are doing something wrong. In other words, the closer their customer satisfaction rate is to 97%, the better they are doing. The further away they are from 97% satisfaction, there is a greater chance that they need to make some changes.

How does this apply to authors? Simple. Authors can use this rule to determine if their book is actually a quality product, or if it needs another round of edits, re-write, etc. Also, if you have a quality product, you don't have to take your bad reviews as personally, because you can trust that 3% of your reviews are trash worthy.

This is a statistical fact. Look it up. Good to know, huh? I thought so anyway.

So here's the deal. I took a look at Reunion, did the math, and discovered that out of 79 reviews, 70 were good to great, and nine were okay to bad. Now here's how the math works. To determine the TRUE level of customer satisfaction, you automatically throw out 3% of the bad reviews. That's right. Pitch 'em. Lose 'em. Get 'em out of your head forever. They don't count. They are the same people who live miserable lives, make everyone around them miserable and wouldn't have it any other way. Their bad review is simply a reflection of themselves.

I bet you're feeling good about yourself now, huh? Good. You should.

Anyway, Once you know the true level of dissatisfied customers, you can discover the actual quality of your product or service.

I can feel fairly confident that some of those reviewers simply picked a genre that doesn't fit their interest or got something different then what they expected. In fact, those stats are a pretty good indicator that I did a damn good job.

On a side note, I will mention that of that half of the bad reviews came after I hit The Amazon Top 100, thereby getting a much higher level of exposure. After doing a little investigation, I found that most of the reviewers who gave Reunion bad marks did not have any other reviews to their credit. Not one. They talked about how many books they've read, but they didn't have a single review, except mine.

Do you see me scratching my head? I've chatted with other bestselling indie authors and they had a similar experience. We call those reviewers "The One Hit Wonders" because they hit and run. This happens all too often.

Not sure about you, but that seemed a bit questionable to me. Made me wonder if there are peeps out there seeking indie authors, spying out free, 99¢, and $2.99 books by no name authors and targeting them, to squash the indie movement. Just a thought. But I'm moving on.

WARNING: Never, ever, ever, comment on a bad review that you receive. That is bad form. Remain silent, bite your tongue, and then smile and wave. My #1 rule of author PR:  Stay as far away from drama and negativity as possible. Learn it. Live it. If you get a bad review, bite your tongue; it's comes with the territory.

All to say, the 3% rule is a great tool to help you take an honest look at your work and the value it brings to the ebook market place. If your average customer satisfaction is bordering on the 80% and under, you might want to take a good hard look at what you're doing wrong. And I'll be honest, I do listen to my reviewers, because they can have valid complaints as well as compliments.

No matter which way the wind blows your reader response, I hope the 3% rule helps you get a handle on your quality. And I wish you the very best of success in 2012. If you need any help with your books, check out my author services page. I do a few things that can make your life a bit easier. Also, watch for my soon to be released book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

~Jeff Bennington best selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance & Creepy

What's Your Story?

It is my firm belief that there is a writer in each of us – a writer with a very unique story to tell. And how you tell it, is what makes you unique.

When I realized I enjoy writing enough that I should do it on a regular basis, something clicked inside me, like a cog, perfectly inline with my inner workings. It felt right, and I have since discovered how much of my story is in the stories I write. The ideas flow in and out of my mind as I live with my wife and four children. The words often come from those crazy moments when we are all packed into our Chevy Impala. You heard right. All six of us cram into an Impala (with a bench seat of course): 2 adults, 3 rapidly expanding boys and our darling little girl, who incidentally gets mercilessly squashed more often than not. Poor thing!

Sometimes, I think, “What if _________?” (fill in the blank) and off I go, musing over another idea.  If I’m lucky, the idea is entered into my black book. From there I make a few scrambled notes, and organize a general plot summary, and then I walk away (“Break the wrist and walk away” – Napoleon Dynamite. Sorry I had to add that). It’s like writing has become a third arm, second head, or some other dimensional extension of who I thought I was. The story is always on my mind. It’s always moving through me, questioning my last paragraph, my last line, my last scene of dialogue – almost as if it’s genetic. And perhaps it is. People have always been storytellers, verbally passing down histories, and ancestral narratives. I’m no different, I guess.

Today we love movies and books and magazines. Stories are what entertain us and keep our minds busy when we decide to put our feet up and look at the world from a different perspective – from the eyes of the storyteller. I think that explains why we are so interested in reality TV. We crave the story, fact, fiction, or grossly unrealistic, it doesn’t matter. The wilder the better!

Don’t feel bad, or less if you’re a reality TV junkie! I love the story too. In fact, as much as I love writing fiction, I actually prefer true stories! But for some strange reason, I love the mystical, spiritual, and paranormal realities of this world. I love writing about the spiritual angst that we all feel and wonder and worry about. What if there are ghosts? Where exactly is Heaven and Hell? How do we co-exist if these dimensional realities clash directly with our own existence? And how do our inner struggles move us closer to, or further away from God? These are all questions that are part of my story and likely part of yours.

I know first hand that writing has given me a sense of myself that I’ve never known.  What about you? Have you started your own story, or tucked your writing away? If so, I’d urge you to get back to it, for your sake and for the sake of anyone who needs that word that only you can give them – a word written from your heart, that’s meant for others to read.

Let me know about your long lost story. What’s it about? How were you inspired? What keeps you from going forward? Maybe this blog was written just for you, to encourage and inspire you. I hope so! BOOM!

Sleepy Little Boogers!

I should really be in bed right now, but I'm a blogger, and bloggers never sleep! Do they? Anyway, speaking of sleep, I have to hand it to my wife; she's a real trooper. She had a girls night out last night and made a "To Do" list for a couple of the kids to take care of. And here's what she found upon her return...

1) None of the items on the list were completed.
2) Two out of four kids hadn't eaten dinner (by 10:00 pm).
3) The house was trashed.
4) The only food the 2 kids mentioned previously put in their bellies was a 2 liter of Coke!

You heard right...Coke for dinner. Needless to say it was a late night for poor wifey. She did an after-midnight clean until 1:30 a.m., made omelets and toast for the two famished coke drinkers and lovingly snuggled them all to bed around 12:00 a.m. Now I wasn't there, but I'm almost certain she did all that with a smile on her face...the whole time! Well, that may be stretching the truth just a little, but I talked to her at 1:30 a.m. from work and she seemed to be in pretty good spirits. That is if the words, slam-dunking those sleepy little boogers to bed is a term of affection. There were other four letter words that came out of her mouth, I think, but I'm not sure, she was talking pretty fast and I don't think I got it all. But what I do remember hearing after she completed her pleasant monologue was, "They're so sweet."

So here I sit, at 6:55 a.m., finally home from working the midnight shift. I'm exhausted and absolutely beaten down from my toilsome labor. I walk in the door and see a mound of adolescent flesh piled up in my living room, making a variety of noises, some that I probably shouldn't mention, and yet, as wifey said, they do look sweet and content, like little angels. It just makes me realize how quickly they grow up and helps me to remember how much trouble I was at their age. Sleepy little boogers? Yes, they are. But they're my little boogers and I do love them. And uh, before I forget - I'm taking bets that they wake up before 7:30 a.m! Any takers? BOOM!