eBook Pricing Strategies – How Much Should I charge?

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

Usually I have an informed opinion on a lot of things in the publishing industry but I have to admit I didn’t have a clue how to answer an author’s query:

I am thinking of placing my new children’s book on Kindle and need to make informed decisions on the cost and whether it is a good decision at this point.

I turned to the publisher of my books that has140 eBooks titles, Victor Volkman of Loving Healing Press, to enlighten me as well as have a professional answer for the author.  He says:

My system is simple:

1.  Start with 50% off List Price as the basis for eBook price for Black-and-White books.  If this new amount is above $9.95, Amazon will punish you by cutting your royalties in half thus all our eBooks are $9.95 or less, even for printed books with a list price of $29.95.   In practice, this means our B&W eBooks are $7.95, $8.95, or $9.95.

2.  Color books (for children mostly) are priced at $5.95 because they are shorter.

3.  Magazines and Journals are $4.95.  Although this may seem “pricey,” our journals are 55,000 words so it is really not a lesser product than a book, other than its product-positioning.

4.  Monographs and shorts 2,000 to 10,000 words are priced at $2.99 because that is the lowest price that Amazon allows for maximum royalty (70%).  A few very short articles are bargain-priced at $0.99

We do not participate in KDP Select program because we don’t believe in monopoly marketing.
I don’t believe the extra bonus money would compensate for the loss in sales on B&N Nook, Kobo, iBook, eBrary (academic), and OVERDRIVE (libraries) combined.  I’ve seen publishers move 20,000 free eBook copies through KDP Select but I don’t have evidence that this causes paid sales later.  Also, I think there is a tendency for people to “binge” on free books that they never actually read or they have no commitment to read because they have nothing to lose.

Amazon tracks free book “sales” separately for a ranking basis so even they know that a free book isn’t as good as a paid copy.

After I read Victor’s model I kicked into the psychology mode. There are some established “rules” when it comes to pricing eBooks or in fact anything that you are going to sell:

1.  Always end your price with a 5, 7, 8, or 9.  Never end in a 1 or a 0.  Our brains seem to think that $9.99 is much less than $10.00 and 99 cents is a better bargain than $1.00.

2. Purchases are often made by emotions, especially non-necessities like books/eBooks.  This is referred to impulse buying.  Impulse buying is often determined by price – buying a 99 cent eBook rather than paying $9.99 gives justification of “saving” after the purchase.

3.  Buyers have a tendency to purchase a product if they feel they are getting something for free.  There are many sites, especially those for business gurus and those selling non-fiction books or children’s books, that will offer something for free if you purchase their eBooks/books.  For example, you will get white papers or “secrets” valued at $197 if it’s a business themed book.  Or, in a case of a children’s book, if you purchase the book/eBook you’ll get 15 free templates that you can print and have your children color the pictures.   Value could be $9.95 for the templates – not a bad deal when you “just” pay $5.95 for the eBook.

Fiction writers can “bundle” their series, for e.g., sell three eBook titles for the price of two.  If each eBook is priced at $9.99 then you would sell all three for $19.98. The buyer will perceive a bargain.  For those that have only one eBook title then you could team up with another author and offer his or her eBook for free.  The other author will do the same.  More than likely each of you have a different social network therefore your eBook will be accessible to a whole new world in the sphere. Get the idea?  (Granted, these ideas will only work if you are selling the eBooks on your own site but just because you have your book in Kindle or Nook format doesn’t mean you can’t market the eBooks from our own site.)

Back to you and pricing…if you are really, really, serious about selling your eBook and getting paid for what it is worth, then these are the questions you have to ask yourself:

How much is this thing really worth? How much am I worth?

You have options in this realm.  You can let peer pressure intimidate you into pricing the eBook for less than you are worth or you can be firm and decide you are going to charge a realistic value for your work.  And oh, “realistic value” needs to be based on the quality of your eBook which  means fantastic plot or information, professionally edited, and something that could easily stand by the best-of-the-best on the market.  (And, no…just because Aunt Gert “loves” the book it doesn’t mean it is a quality eBook.)

By-the-way, did you know majority of people don’t really buy books based on price?  They buy on value (and that means a really good book) and then rationalize the price they paid.  But…you are saying…yes, I know there are those that want everything for dirt cheap or for free.  Are those really the ones you want to spend your time and effort marketing to? They aren’t going to buy your book anyway because they are looking for freebees so I say, price the eBooks at what you are worth.  Is it 99 cents or is it $9.99 per eBook?

Did I stir up some “stuff”?  How are you pricing your eBooks? I’d like to hear from you here.

Have you noticed that almost every new movie that is being released lately comes with the tag “One of the best movies of the year”? And when you release a movie on January 1, you may truly call it “The best movie of the year so far!”

Sometimes you wonder about those people who are in the business of promoting movies and their display of lack of originality. It’s in the same class as, for instance, “But wait! If you order within the next five minutes…” My point is, those slogans, as much as they did their job the first few times, are being overused and thus lose their effectiveness to a point that they might as well read as “Handle with caution!” Now, there is a slogan that didn’t lose its verve…

Another new term, that is in the same danger of being annoyingly overused, is… Unputdownable!

Well, by maintaining this very website I am in the business of posting numerous book reviews during the day, and this term… Unputdownable… has come up more and more frequently.

Unputdownable…

Is this one of those unique and ingenious American-made terms that will have the same impact on a customer as a whole sentence (or even two) in previous times? Is it one of those modern-world words out of the management dictionary that (like manager, suicide, midlife crisis, flat rate, and more) will make it into the Duden, the German equivalent of Webster’s Dictionary? Should the person, who invented the word, trademark it? Think of the guy who trademarked “Are you ready to rumble?”

Unputdownable…

Just sit down, relax, close your eyes, and discover the emotions that evolve when you think of… Unputdownable…

Does it create a shiver of excitement that slowly and teasingly spirals down your spine? Or does it create an involuntary cramping of your stomach followed by pulsing, acid reflexes, and the desire to run into the kitchen to get some TUMS?

But, after all, it’s all a matter of taste, and I would be thrilled if you found my post “unputdownable.” But on second thought… Nuh! I will just thrive in humble delight, knowing you read my blabbering, and hoping you pass it on to a friend or even to somebody you don’t like.

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Is B & N competing with Amazon for Bad Customer Service?

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

You are probably well aware of the issues we’ve been having with Amazon.com removing our (along with many others’) reviews and banning us from posting.

We contemplated on posting all the reviews on BarnesAndNoble.com but their system is not user friendly nor are reviews a focal point. I contacted B & N to see if I can speak to someone that may consider making some changes to their site and actually was able to communicate with a person in their headquarters in the U.S.  She asked me to send her an email and she assured me it will be directed to the appropriate department.  Well, not to make this story long, it just didn’t happen.  My contact said she forwarded the email but it seems the suits aren’t interested in responding or talking to me.  End of story. Oh well, I tried.

Phony Book Reviews and How to Avoid Them

by Irene Watson, Reader Views

Authors need book reviews to sell books, and readers like book reviews that help them make informed buying decisions about what books to read. However, many fake book reviews and reviewers are out there, and when authors hire people to write reviews, not knowing the reviewer will not actually read the book, or when readers buy books based on fake reviews, the result can be displeased readers who might then be angry enough to post their own negative reviews about the book.

Print publications continue to discontinue running book reviews and are even going out of business as more and more readers turn to the Internet to get their information. In the past, advertising in print publications covered the cost of book reviews, but today, authors generally have to pay for publicity packages to receive book reviews, or give a nominal fee to compensate the reviewer for his or her time.

The result is that people can make money off writing book reviews, and some so-called reviewers are doing so without actually reading the books. Why would anyone write a fake book review? Because it takes many hours to read a book, and the more book reviews you can write, the more money you can make, so why not just save time by not reading the books and instead just write the reviews and collect the payments so you can make more money. Trust me; this situation happens all the time.

Check out the top reviewers on Amazon.com—some of them review several books a day—do you really believe they are speed-readers? In fact, I did a cursory check for August 30, 2011 and the Amazon’s top reviewer (now called Hall of Fame Reviewers) had posted 77 book reviews for that day. I suspect though she was behind in writing them, since she had only posted about two dozen in the previous week. She must have been too busy reading all those books to write about them each day. But, wait, on January 3, 2012 she posted a total of 67 reviews. The previous postings were on December 31st, 2011. Do you really think a human is able to read 67 books in a matter of two days? (And spend the time writing reviews on Amazon.com as well as her own blog and posting on other sites?)

Other reviewers do not charge for reviews but they request multiple copies of books. Why do they need multiple copies when they don’t read those books? So they can resell them online and make more money while writing fake reviews.

But won’t people catch on to these fake reviews? Yes, most people should, but not everyone does. Most of these fake reviewers consist of the so-called reviewer copying and paraphrasing what’s on the back cover and then adding some flowery caveat like “This book is a must-read for its thrilling action” or “An enjoyable and moving love story you won’t want to miss” to make it look like the reviewer actually read the book. Of course, whether the book is thrilling or enjoyable or not, the reviewer has no idea—he may not even have cracked open the book.

So how can you as an author, who wants legitimate reviews, or as a reader wanting a good book to read, actually tell if a review is legitimate? Here are five simple guidelines for spotting fake book reviews:

1. Ignore reviews written by authors, their friends, and family: I cringe whenever I see a five star review written by the author; usually it’s done under the guise of the author wanting to provide readers with more information about the book, but the place for that is in the product description. Any author who gives his own book five stars is clueless about the publishing industry and what is ethical, or he’s just tactless. Sometimes a legitimate review will be written by a colleague, such as “I have known Barbara for fifteen years and I know her business advice works because….” But I’ve also seen ones that say things like, “This book is a lot of fun because it describes the places the author and I used to hang out as kids when we were growing up.” That’s great but it’s not a reason why you should read the book.

2. Be skeptical of totally positive reviews. Okay, don’t be totally skeptical, but beyond the “Best book ever” and “a wonderful, compelling story” comments, look for signs that the positive review is legitimate—discussions of the characters and plot that make it clear the book was read. After all, there are good books out there that deserve positive reviews. Don’t be satisfied with “This wonderful story” but look for explanations of why the story is wonderful.

3. Be skeptical of totally negative reviews. Some reviewers and customers have axes to grind. I can’t tell you how many ridiculous reviews I have seen at Amazon.com where books are given one-star because “the book never arrived.” That’s Amazon’s fault, not the author or book’s fault. At other times, a person may just not like the author so he wants to slam the book, or he may not like the subject matter, saying something like, “Homosexuality is a sin and there’s a gay couple in this book so I gave it one star” or “The main character had an abortion. That’s wrong! One star.” You may even agree with the reviewers on these issues but are these reviews really fair? Do they take into account the book’s plot, characters, structure, style, originality, or themes to provide a thorough or accurate review?

4. Watch out for plot summaries. A book review is not an elementary school book report. Yes, there are lots of readers out there posting book reviews who don’t know how to write well or how to write a book review, but there are also phony reviewers who simply copy the text off the back cover that summarizes the plot to write a review. A good review will mention a detail in the plot or even quote an effective passage from the book. It will also tell you not only what happens in the book but how the reader felt (was moved) by what happened.

5. If a review looks like a fake, look to see what other books the person has reviewed. Are all the person’s reviews short and glowing? It’s possible this one review could just be a badly written, fake-looking one while other reviews look well-written and are legitimate. Has the reviewer posted more than one book review today, or been posting several every day? (Seriously, how many books can a person read in a week?) And don’t be afraid to google the reviewer to see whether you can find complaints about him or her online. When I googled Amazon’s top reviewer, I found quite a few articles dating back to 2003, complaining about how she is a fake. Unbelievable, yet all these years Amazon.com lets her get away with it!

Now that you know how to spot a fake review, and even that fake reviews exist, you may feel a bit outraged—I know I do. So what can you do about such reviews? Here are a few suggestions:

1. If you are an author and you get a fake review, call the reviewer on it—especially if you paid for a review. But even if the person reviews the book by his own decision, without having contact with you, if the review is fake, you can request that Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or wherever it was posted, have it removed. Decide whether the situation is worth getting into an argument with the phony reviewer. Will the review hurt your book’s credibility? If it is negative but shows evidence that the book was not read, it might. You might also feel called upon to fight the good fight for the rest of the authors out there who could suffer as a result of the reviewer’s behavior.

2. If you are a reader, check to see verification of purchase, which is a fairly new feature at Amazon and I suspect will appear in the future at other online bookstores. If the person bought the book, it’s likely he or she read it. That said, remember that reviewers generally receive complimentary copies. However, to get around this situation, I know some authors have requested reviewers purchase their books at Amazon and then the author has compensated the reviewer for the price of the book so the verified purchase notification shows up on the review.

3. If you are an author or a reader, often you can vote on whether the review was helpful or not, so go ahead and click that NO button. This form of voting helps determine the placement of the review as at the top or bottom of the reviews so it is more or less likely to be seen by others. And don’t forget to vote YES for the well-written positive reviews, or even the well-written legitimate negative reviews.
Fake reviews do not help anyone except for the con-reviewers (aka shysters and scoundrels) who write them. Even glowing fake reviews hurt authors and readers by getting people to buy books that turn out to be mediocre, which only then result in readers feeling misled and hurt and more likely to write their own negative reviews. Avoid phony reviewers and you will avoid a lot of frustration.

Have you experienced fake reviews? How did you handle them? I’d like to hear from you here.

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Book Marketing Techniques That Don’t Work

by Irene Watson

As authors, whether we are self-published or published by a publishing firm, small press, or a large publishing house, getting noticed is one of our primary challenges.  Some publishers offer marketing support, either as prepaid services or part of the publishing contract.  Yet, if you are self-published you are entirely on your own.

The Internet is inundated with promotional services, marketing companies, advice from other authors and publicity gurus.

And, there are hundreds of publicists offering their services.  Options range from expensive (most publicists charge between $10,000 to $30,000 for a three month contract) to overpriced (services offered by most publishing firms which could range anywhere between $500 and $10,000) to free (social media you do yourself.)  As well, arm-chair experts, through blogs, offer their expertise on “what you should do” usually for free.  Yet, much of this information is regurgitated from others’ and they offer nothing new.

I’ve noticed recently that email campaigns are re-emerging.  For awhile, when social media marketing was the “new” wave these campaigns slowed down but I assume most companies are finding that social media isn’t as effective as anticipated.  Beg to differ?  If you are an author and you are on FaceBook or Twitter, how many books did you buy from your “followers”?  And, I bet you are just as inundated as I am with posts about their fantastic books and that you should buy them, but how many of these people actually purchased your book?  Enough said.

Email campaigns come in different forms and from different sources.  There are many email blast companies online; even the credit score monitoring company Experian offers email campaigns. You can also buy your own software to send out blasts. And, you can purchase or rent email lists from the hundreds of companies online and send them out yourself.

As well, many of the self-publishing firms also sell email services. These could range anywhere from $350 for an eblast to $10,000 for a tailored campaign which would include 10 million addresses.
This all may sound fine-and-dandy, but are you aware of the CAN-SPAM ACTreleased in 2004, with updates in 2008, by the Federal Trade Commission?  It is the official law that governs the transmission of business related (yes, your book is a business) emails. SPAM is defined by the act as unsolicited marketing emails.  So…what does all this mean?  Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) (also known as Spam) is prohibited and email campaigns should only be sent to 100% opt-in lists. This means that anyone you send an email campaign to must have agreed to receive information from you. This also means that you can’t barter or purchase/rent lists to legally send out email campaigns.

Sure, you can possibly get around the spam aspect through one of these campaigns by using the campaign company to send out the emails but most of these lists wouldn’t be targeted, despite of what they might promise.  Do you really think that there are 10 million people that signed up to receive notification of a book published about making purple widgets? Doubtful.  Or do you think that 1000 book reviewers are eager to review your yellow widget book? Doubtful.  Also, be skeptical if you are told 10 million people opted-in to receive information about your book.  Doubtful.  I once heard someone saying that sending out an email campaign through a service is equivalent to dropping your book announcement off the top of building and hoping it lands in front of someone that might be interested. Be wary if you are swayed into buying an email campaign service because it’s doubtful the list contains a selective list of interested readers; it’s mainly a list of people that probably aren’t even interested in your book, or a list of harvested email addresses to pump up the numbers.

This is a technique that doesn’t work so don’t waste your money. But, there is a technique that could work and is a cheap way to get your message out to your potential readers.  First of all, start creating your own list of those in your personal email address list because these people have already consented to getting your emails. (Be discerning because not all of your friends or family want to get eblasted continually about your book. Put yourself in their place and ask yourself how often you want to hear from them about their book, and what should that email look like.)  Also, your website visitors are your potential readers so it’s important to provide them the option to subscribe to your mailings. (Remember to use the captcha to prevent bots filling out the form automatically.  The captcha requires a human to fill out.) However, just putting up a sign-up form doesn’t work; you have to give a solid reason to have the visitors give you their email address.  Explain clearly what they will receive for their email address: news, tips, promotions, etc.  Dismiss the skepticism and provide something of value. And when I say value, it doesn’t mean the first chapter of your book or a poem you have written. It has to be something the visitor wants or needs. For e.g., on my personal author website I provide a full version of an ebook to anyone that signs up.

If you do have a legitimate list (one that you created yourself from your opt-in list) there a few things you also need to know to comply with the CAN-SPAM ACT:

1.  The From “Address” and/or From “Name” must be recognizable by the recipient.
2.  Do not offer the recipient an incentive (awards, discounts, money) to forward the email to their list.
3.  The opt-out link must be available and not complicated.
4.  Your physical postal address must be visible in the message.
5.  Subject line must be straightforward and not misleading.

Yes, you have to put all those items in the email campaigns you send out – even if it is only 25 or 100 on your list; if you are promoting your book, you have to comply with the CAN-SPAM ACT.

Comments?  I’d like to hear from you here.

Ordering Info

List Price: $2.99

Published: Dec. 06, 2011
Category: Non-Fiction » Business & Economics » Publishing business
Words: 10078 (approximate)
Language: English

• Amazon Kindle Store
• Smashwords.Com – Kindle, epub, PDF, RTF, LRF, Palm Doc
• Copperhill Media (Publisher) – PDF

About The Book

Wilfried Voss is the president and owner of Copperhill Media, a small literature publishing company. He has written and published several books on technical topics (e.g. A Comprehensible Guide to Controller Area Network). In addition, he is the editor of FrogenYozurt.Com, a website promoting the books, fiction and nonfiction, he publishes and sells. FrogenYozurt.Com is also equipped with an e-commerce system, i.e. an online store. Mr. Voss sells his books through online bookstores, mostly through Amazon.Com, but also through his own websites.

This book, Creating Income From Home – Self-Publishing Technical Literature, represents his knowledge of the self-publishing process, specifically the business side of it. He shares a great number of insider tips & tricks, nothing that cannot be found through extensive research, but his book will save the potential self-publisher a tremendous amount of time, and, after all, he shares his experience and does not hold back with down-to-earth comments on various publishing options. His focus is on supporting the self-publishing beginner with a small (or even non-existing) budget.

Topics include: Why Technical Literature? What Should I Write About? Do I Need An ISBN? Publishing eBooks, Publishing Printed Books, Obtaining An ISBN, ISBN Barcode, Cover & Book Creation Manuals, Add Your Book To Amazon.Com, Managing Shipping & Handling, Promotion, Create Your Own Website, Press Releases, Social Networks, e-commerce System, and more.

From the Author

I know there are many people out there who are unemployed and are desperately searching for a chance to create some extra income. Many of them fall for Internet scams promising them easy money, and they all lose their money. The basic equation still applies: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true at all.

I wrote about these scams on my website, and I can proudly say that I saved a great number of people from being scammed. They were smart enough to search the Internet for more information, and that’s how they found me.

As much I wrote articles about these scams, I missed to provide the most-wanted information: how to actually make money online. I will try this now, but, again, be warned. Financial success comes only through hard work and it will take blood, sweat, tears, and time, time, time.

As an electrical engineer I am familiar with a number of technologies, including electrical motors and fieldbus networking, and back in 2005 I published my first technical book titled “A Comprehensible Guide to Controller Area Network,” and converted the business into a publishing company. Since then, I have written and published three more technical books and two novels. In addition, I publish a small group of authors from all over the world.

After I had finished writing my first technical book, I considered submitting it to a traditional publisher, but quickly dismissed the idea.

As a businessman I determined that I could sell my book at a better profit margin (30%) rather than receiving a low royalty per book (15% in the best case). Add to this situation that traditional publishers are extremely cautious when it comes to accepting new authors, and, most annoyingly, they work very, very slowly.

Honestly, I didn’t have the patience to wait for a year or two before I could start collecting royalties.

So, what I am proposing in this eBook (PDF) is to self-publish technical literature, and, after a necessary explanation of the ground rules, I will provide hands-on tips and tricks and real references that will enable you to create income from home.

“Stuff” in the Life of a Book Reviewer

by Irene Watson

Justifications by Editor Why Book was Published with Editing Issues

We recently reviewed a book and the reviewer pointed out the copious amounts of editing issues in the book.  I got a response from the editor of the book:

As her editor, I was aware that [author's name removed] book went to print containing grammatical flaws. However, it was my desire and intent to get her story out to the world as expeditiously as possible.

My response:

Your comment “As her editor, …” is disconcerting to me.  In fact, I’m appalled that an editor would even recommend to an author the book be published with grammatical flaws.  I do realize no book is perfect, even when it has two or three passes by different editors, but for an editor to allow a book to be published knowing there are errors is totally unfair to the author.
Unfortunately, readers don’t even consider that an editor may have allowed a book with editing issues  to be published but they would assume the author didn’t get the book edited at all. As I mentioned to the editor, this is unfair to the author. (btw – the email from the editor was riddled with typos.)

Accusing the Reviewer of Not Reading the Book
A few days ago, I got an extra long and an extra angry email from an author.  She made a point of writing in UPPER CASE (which denotes screaming in the Internet world) and large font, various colors of font, bold font, and yellow highlighting.  I guess she was on a mission to get her point across to me that “HE DID NOT READ THIS BOOK!”   (Dark fushia colored font – not only was this screaming, it was raging!)

I forwarded the email to the reviewer and his comment was:

I am very sorry the author was so upset by my review. Yes, I read the book… I enjoyed many of its gifts and I tried to mention, within the constraints of my honest, personal thoughts, my positive reactions to the book.

The author also took the opportunity to slam-blast a review that was given in 2008 on a previous book submitted in for review.  The book or review had nothing to do with the present review but accused the previous reviewer of a “negative crusade.”  Can you imagine living in a body that has bottled up anger about a review given back in 2008?

Furthermore, the author accused the current reviewer of taking content from the review of a book that was previously written.  The author also alluded that both reviewers referred to her as a male.  The reviewer’s response was:

Based on the title of the first book, [title removed,] my expectations were that this sequel would be an adventure as well. In fact, I found it to be more like a nature ramble. It is this personal perception, not the reference in the [reviewer's name removed] review of [title removed,] which prompted my comment. In fact, I did read her review, only because it was the only review of either book I could find. And my primary purpose for doing so was in hopes of finding some background on [author's name removed.] Her home page includes no bio or mention of the author’s sex. Nor is there a bio in the book.  I assumed [name removed] to be a male in the lack of any bio information and recall being confused by the references to [name removed] as “her” My confusion about this seemed not worthy of mention in the review.

Since this book was entered into our Literary Awards Program we had an extra copy of the book in the office so I decided to check on some of the issues present by the reviewer. Yes, the reviewer is right; there is no author bio and there is no indication the writer is female. As for the rest of the content I can’t comment because I haven’t read the book.  But, one thing I did notice is there is no content on the back of the book which I find odd since this is the second place (first being the front cover) that potential readers look at.  The artwork is lovely but gives no synopsis, no blurbs, and no bio.  It never ceases to amaze me that authors don’t adhere to industry standards when self-publishing their books.  Is it because they don’t read books themselves and have no idea what the standards are?

Not Being Able to Find a Posted Review
Oih vey!  At least once a week I get an email telling me that the author couldn’t find his or her review on our site.  This is usually in response to an email I sent to the author attaching the tear sheet and saying the review has been posted.

Searching any site is simple – it’s no different than going to a library years ago and looking at a Card Index.  Believe it or not, we all do the same thing – searching should be easy because most of us list the books by title and author’s last name.  Some of us even have genre listings of the books. Not only that, our site has a specific link to “search site.”

Not Being Able to Open Word Documents or View a Video
Yes, I know…it does seem odd that some people can’t open a Word document.  I find this specific issue with those that have extremely old computers and have not taken the time and effort to update them.  Most computers have a lifespan of about four years and need to be replaced or updated.

Granted, I am expressing some frustration here, and I have to admit I get frustrated myself with computers and how programs are continually being upgraded or you need to install new programs. Technology, however, is in many respects a necessary evil, and if we don’t keep up with it, we are going to fall behind, which will be detrimental for promoting our books and our author career.

Taking it Upon the Self to Tell the Website Owner How to Make it Look
Yep, you got it.  And no, this isn’t by a company that builds websites – it’s an author that couldn’t find the “contact us” tab.  To save future embarrassment the standard places this link goes is:

*upper right hand corner, or,
*on a tab in the menu bar, or,
*either on the right or left side bar, or,
*at the bottom of the page

I’ve had authors go on and on telling me how I should change the website.  The suggestions are nothing close to standards but reflections of a “homemade” website.  Homemade looking chocolate chip cookies are great but homemade looking websites are a turn-off.

Not Being Computer Savvy
Authors write me:

I don’t know how to attach a file. Please phone me and tell me how to do that.
I don’t know how to make a pdf file.
I don’t know how to make a zip file.

Yikes!   If you are one of these authors, please take note that your lack of computer skills are not the fault, priority, concern, or responsibility of others. We are not computer instructors and we have enough to do without having to get on the phone with you and spend an hour trying to help you figure out how to attach a file or make a zip file. Please use your “help” tab your program provides or do a search on the Internet on how to do specific things like attaching a file. Or, enroll in a simple Computer 101 class to learn the simple basics.

And Then There is:
A friend of mines is building my web site for free, so is their still a charge for the free review. If not, I will mail the book out on tomorrow.

Huh?  What does this query mean?  Does it mean that since a friend is building a website for free we should review the book for free? But then, it says “If not…”  If not what?  If it’s not free she will mail the book but if it’s free she wouldn’t?  Your guess is as good as mine.  From an email like that I wonder what the content of the book is like.

There you go, a little glimpse into a reviewer’s life…but, let’s not discount the authors/publishers that are grateful, courteous, lovely, attentive, and are on a mission to produce the best product they possibly can. Those are the ones that make the end of my day feel like it has been worthwhile and I look forward to the next day.

Comments?  I’d like to hear them here.

We became victims of the removal/banning in May but after many communications back and forth we were reinstated and promised it would never happen again. Several months later, against their own word, Amazon.com removed/banned us. To this date we haven’t been able to find out exactly why they did this and why they didn’t stand behind their own word.

In the meantime, to my knowledge, 15 other sites have been banned. The surprising one is Midwest Book Review; one of the oldest and most respected review sites. I noted a review on one of my books is by MBR is still there, yet, when attempting to view them all a window comes up saying the reviews aren’t available and the profile page is empty, the same as Reader Views’. I know at one point Amazon.com removed at least 10,000 reviews posted by MBR. We had about 7500 removed.

Several months ago I contacted the other sites I knew were banned to see if they want to band together and attempt to deal with Amazon or go to the media. Eight out of the 15 responded, two saying they aren’t interested at all, 6 responded indicating they are on board, and the rest I didn’t hear from. I assume there was no interest. One of the reviewers set up a Yahoo group so that we could communicate. Each one was invited but in the end only 4 reviewers joined the group. We did hear from several others that had ideas of what “you should do” but neither was interested in spearheading the idea.

During this same time many authors contacted Amazon.com but either got a stock email that basically said nothing or didn’t get a response at all. Some even contacted the media and their legislators. But, I don’t think there is enough impact because most of the reviewers declined to contact their author/publisher list, explain the occurrence and ask them to make a noise. The support, or concern, just doesn’t seem to be there, either from other reviewers or authors/publishers. For example, Jim from Midwest Book Review posted on a self-publishing group that his reviews were removed and banned. I chimed in explaining what had happened to many others and asked for support from the group. A group “mom” rejected my post.

One author volunteered to create a FaceBook page and Twitter account titled Occupying Amazon. I, along with several other reviewers (I think,) let our list know but in the end only 16 “liked” the FaceBook page. In the meantime FaceBook removed the account and Twitter is removing the hash marks.

Personally, I’m exhausted in working diligently on attempting to get reinstated again or moving toward being noticed by the media or legislators of unfair treatment. In the end it seems like only one other reviewer and I are left to deal with the issue but I’m sure that if we were successful the others would be extremely happy and we may get a thank you…maybe. I’m not sure if it is worth it at this point. I’ve spent many hours dealing with this issue and several thousand dollars to pay staff to repost the reviews when we were reinstated the first time and then removed again.

Authors do have an option of posting an excerpt under Editorial Reviews through their Author Central account and those that have done so are happy. Some even said those seem to have more impact than the reader reviews, especially when they come from unknown people with pen names like “poop-doop” or “anonymous.” (Yes, those are for real!) Credibility in the end becomes important and Editorial Reviews offer credibility.

For us, not being able to post the reviews on Amazon.com hasn’t been an issue as orders continue to come in. I know that some of the reviewers are suffering because they aren’t asked to review books and they feel this is a direct result of not being able to post the reviews on Amazon.com. This is sad because it’s just another indication where a huge corporation can push out a small business owner in a click of a mouse.

Why we are removed/banned is still a mystery, especially when Amazon.com continues to favor some reviewers that don’t adhere to their guidelines, those that show signs of being a fake, for e.g. reviewing in the realm of 70 books per week (This is humanly impossible even for a speed-reader.), those that ask for huge charitable donations in exchange for a review or those that charge for reviews. My personal assumption is that review services like ours are in direct competition with Amazon.com for obtaining reviews since they are now offering outrageously expensive reviews through their own CreateSpace program.

So…what next? I really don’t know because two or three people can’t do it alone, and yet represent a whole gamut of others with great expectations that we can make changes. I do sincerely appreciate those of you that took the time to contact Amazon.com, write to your legislators, join the FaceBook page, sign up for Twitter, and give moral support to me. I thank you profusely.

At this point, if an occasion arises, I will make noise but I am refocusing to business at hand in creating more ways to support the authors, especially those that don’t get noticed otherwise because they are self-published, use self-publishing firms, or published by a small press and are on constrained budgets. In other words, I’m “movin’ on.”

Sincerely,

Irene

PS – be on a lookout for a “new” publicity package we will offer in the New Year. Susan, my assistant, has been diligently working on it and it will be ready to launch soon.

Qualifying a Book Reviewer: Which One do I Send My Book to?

by Irene Watson

Back in the twentieth century, when I started Reader Views, book review sites were hard to come by.  There was a handful to choose from and getting a review was like pulling hen’s teeth.  But, six years later it seems like new book review sites are popping up on a monthly basis, each one offering their service in whatever form it may be.  What I find interesting is many of the new ones are charging atrocious fees of between $400 and $500 just for a review.  What I find even more interesting is that authors are paying for them, or at least it seems like it because of the content on the site.

Because the Internet makes it possible for anyone to set up a website or blog and offer book reviews, authors should be a bit wary about whom they submit their books to for review, whether or not they are paying for a review. Below are a few guidelines for determining whether a reviewer is really qualified to review your book. Remember that these are only guidelines and while one reviewer may be a good fit for one book, the reviewer or review service may not work so well for another.

1. Find out who are the review service’s individual reviewers. In some cases, the reviewer may just be one person. In other cases, you might be contracting with a review service that has a team of reviewers. Check the reviewer’s “About Us” web page to see whether there actually is a team that reviews the books and whether the names are disclosed. If names are not disclosed, be leery. You’re better off having John Smith from Book Review Service review your book than just Book Review Service, and chances are that if names are not revealed, no one is actually reading the books.

2. Check to see where the reviews are posted. Look on the reviewer’s own website to see whether the reviews are posted there. Also check other websites where the reviewer says the reviews will be posted. If the reviewer doesn’t disclose the sites, chances are the reviews are not being posted. If the reviewer promises to send the review to 100 sites, ask for a list of the sites so you can double check that some old reviews are posted on those sites. Sending the reviews to another site and actually having them posted are two different things. In addition, the reviewer’s own website should include links to examples of reviews it has posted to other sites.

3. Check the reviewer’s past reviews. Be sure to look at multiple reviews, and preferably ones for books you may have read, to determine whether it looks like the book has been read or whether the review is merely a regurgitation of the back cover’s text—you can look at the book’s back cover yourself at online book stores to compare the back covers against the reviews. Even if there is an additional line saying how wonderful the book is, that doesn’t mean the book was read. Details about character plots or other items not obvious from the book cover are needed to verify the book was actually read. Also check to see whether there is an actual name of the reviewer on the review; if there isn’t, it’s probably a regurgitation.

4. Check whether the reviews all have 5-star ratings or whether they actually give other ratings. All 5-star ratings are a good sign the books are not read, or the reviewers are simply being paid to please the authors. If some reviews do have lower ratings, read the reviews to determine the reasons why—do they mention the books have grammatical or typographical errors, or plot issues? Or are they nitpicking and unfairly slamming the books? You want to make sure your book is read and also judged fairly by the reviewer. To find out if a review is legitimate, compare the review by this reviewer against reviews for the same book by other reviewers. A 5-star review on one site might mean the book was not read if another reviewer gives 2-stars due to editing issues, but a 5-star review by one reviewer who really liked the book compared to a 2-star by a reviewer who simply did not care for the book’s topic may reflect just a difference in readers’ opinions, making most reviews legitimate.

5. Double-check additional services reviewers offer to determine their legitimacy or value. Many review sites will offer additional services, such as written, radio, and TV interviews. If these services are offered and you are interested, ask for links to the interviews. Listen to the interviews and decide whether the interviewer sounds knowledgeable or interested in the books and authors to determine whether an interview is worth the price of the service for you.

6. Get references. Ask reviewers for references from other authors whose books they have reviewed. If they do not provide references, you may want to think twice about having the reviewer review your book. You may also decide to contact other authors on your own to see whether they have been happy with the review service and feel the contract was fulfilled. If the author is unhappy, discern the real reasons—is it because they didn’t get 5-star reviews for their books, and if so, why didn’t they? Or is it because the reviews were not posted on certain sites as promised or were there other failures to fulfill the contract?

7. Decide whether or not you want to pay for the service. Many review services charge to cover their overhead, while several others offer free reviews but recoup their expenses by selling the books. There is no getting away from expenses incurred by the reviewers, and just like you, they want to be paid for their time and work. Only you can determine whether the work they do for you, in reviewing your book or other services, is worth the price. Don’t forget to factor in both how many hours it will take the reviewer to read the book, write the review, and post it to various sites, as well as how likely you feel the review will be to increase the number of copies you sell and how many you will have to sell to recoup the cost of the review service.

8. Find out who is the book reviewer’s audience. Who reads the book reviews put out by this reviewer? Knowing the audience is vital for determining whether your review will be of value to you in selling your book. If you’re sending your book about physics to a mommy blogger, a review is probably not going to get you many sales, but if you submit it to a review agency that specializes in science-based books, with an audience of scientists and science enthusiasts, you may sell numerous copies. However, even if the reviewer’s audience may not be a good fit for your book, if the reviewer posts the review on multiple sites, and especially at online bookstores, it is likely that numerous readers beyond the reviewer’s primary audience will read the review and be persuaded to buy the book.

9. Ask about the reviewer’s correction policy. Ask the reviewer what happens if the review is negative and you would prefer not to have it posted. Is a refund offered? (In my opinion it shouldn’t be since the work is already done). What about if the review has a character’s name or even the author’s name spelled wrong or there are other errors in describing the plot? Will mistakes be corrected? Will you be allowed to approve the review before it is posted online to make sure it doesn’t contain typos or misinformation such as referring to your book as the second rather than fourth in your fantasy series?

10. Get permission to use the review to market your book. Reviews are the property of the reviewer, but the point of a review is to help readers determine whether or not to read a book, so find out upfront whether you are allowed to reproduce the review on your website or print it and mail it with your marketing materials. If you are only allowed to quote a portion of the review, how much can you use? Does the reviewer mind if you quote from the review on your website or on the back of future editions of your book? A review is not of much value if you can’t use it to help you sell your book. And believe me, I’ve had a reviewer review my personal book and then was told I couldn’t use it in whole or even an excerpt.

A lot of book reviewers are out there. By following these guidelines, you should be able to narrow down your list of reviewers to those who are legitimate and will help you get your book out to the reading public in a positive and effective manner. Oh, one more thing…be sure to look for the submission guidelines on the site first before you do anything else. Everyone has them.

What experience have you had in acquiring reviewers?  Do you have any tips to share?  I’d like to hear from you here.

Selling Books through Independent Bookstores vs. Selling through Major Online Sellers

by Irene Watson

I received an email from an angry independent bookstore owner saying:

I have unscubscibed as I resent your sending buyers to Amazon instead of independent book sellers and then have the nerve to send it to us to support.  I had assumed you were independent as well.  What a scam.

Ouch. My response was:

Your email was sent to me for attention and I’d like to respond. First of all, I appreciate your concern and know how frustrating it is to compete against sellers like Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com.  I’m very much for independent book sellers, buying local, as well as keeping jobs in our own country.

In the past I’ve attempted to work with independent books sellers but have experienced many problems in doing so.  Let me explain some of the issues:

1.  When I first started offering reviews we were listing some of the books to be purchased through an independent book seller that had the books in stock.  It worked just fine until one day they decided to close down the site because sales weren’t paying for their expenses.  Consequently, all the hundreds of pages on our site had broken links and it cost me a bundle of money to pay someone to re-link the pages to a reliable seller.  Each one had to be done individually. We spent more money correcting the links than our referral commission was since we started selling through them. Going through this once I’m not about to fork out money again.  It is doubtful that a company like Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com will shut down in any near future.

2.  You can ask any self-published author and most will give you a long rendition of how difficult it is to place a book in independent bookstores. This same goes for books published by a small press.  I’ve experienced this as an author myself, even with local independent book stores.  They tend to carry well-known authors’ books and only sometimes will carry local authors’ books. In most cases they will only order through specific distributors and require a return policy. Some will accept books on consignment from local authors.

3.  Independent bookstores don’t carry every book on the market, especially books by self-published authors.  Cathy Langer, lead buyer for the Tattered Cover bookstores in Denver, said she had been inundated by requests from self-published authors to sell their books. “People think that just because they’ve written something, there’s a market for it. It’s not true.” Even as large as Tattered Cover is, they don’t carry every book on the market but someone like Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com does. 

4.  Although independent bookstores offer to order books, it often takes 2 weeks, or longer, to receive the book. If we send potential buyers to your store you would have to order the book, have it sent to you, and then re-ship it to the buyer.  Total time could take up to 3 weeks, maybe more.  Many readers are impulse buyers and when ordering online expect the book to be delivered within a few days.

5.  Librarians, the major target of the First Chapter Plus eCatalog, will not buy books from an independent bookstore at full price. They will order through a distributor or through an Amazon reseller who often sells the book for less than the distributor.  It is doubtful that you can complete with these resellers.

I looked on your website.  Your website doesn’t provide us a quick way to download the book information – there is no automatic way of doing so.  Remember, we make very little referral fee and everything has to be done automatically and easily.  I, no different than you, have overhead and have to make enough money to pay for staff to do the work; manual referral is out of the question.

I attempted to download your catalog and wasn’t successful in doing so.  I have a high-powered computer with high-speed internet.  The first time the download timed out, and the second time it froze my computer.  I can’t send potential readers/customers where downloading a catalog is unsuccessful. As well, the last catalog on your list is for “2011 Summer.”  Your winter catalog has not been uploaded yet and should have been by now.

You don’t have an affiliate program on your site for us.  As I said, we also have overhead and we need to make money to pay for it.  Without an affiliate program we don’t get paid. If we don’t get paid, we can’t pay our staff; if we don’t have staff, we can’t run a site.

From what I can see on your site it is not updated regularly.  The last posting for the Book of the Month Club was February 2011.  We are now in November 2011. As I looked around, other areas of the website have not been updated. 

I can understand this independent bookstore owner’s frustration but on the other hand she isn’t providing a service either. It’s much easier for her to get angry at me and call me scam rather than take her own responsibility in meeting the needs of the consumer.   And, she’s not the only one.  I’ve checked many online independent book stores’ websites that have contacted us to send potential buyers to them and they fall into the same category as above.  Not only that, many are shutting down.  I do feel for them because it’s not easy to compete against large corporations when you’re a little fish in the huge pond of barracudas.  However, the bottom line for the author or publisher to consider is who will provide the best service but more so who will have the books available for impulse buyers.

By the way, the person that sent me the angry email didn’t respond to my email and she didn’t upgrade her website either.

What has been your experience with independent bookstores, as a seller or a buyer?  Would you solely list your book with an independent online bookstore that doesn’t have an updated site?  I’d like to hear your comments here.

PS – Update on Amazon.com 
Well, interestingly enough Midwest Book Review has been victimized and by the looks of it (as of this writing) 10,000 reviews removed. It’s very confusing because they left a large number of reviews intact but when attempting to get the list a window comes up saying they aren’t available. Sounds like a mind game to me.

One of the banned reviewers received an email from an author saying:

I got a “nastygram” from them [Amazon.com] two days ago telling me that if I promoted any of my book titles again in my closing of a review (I only noted one book title!) that they would permanently disengage my ability to post anything on the site. They clearly stated that promoting anything via a review or even a comment on a forum post would be grounds for revocation of my posting ability. 

An author joined our forces and has set up a FaceBook page titled Occupying Amazon.  Please go tohttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupying-Amazon/241822895879606?sk=info  and “like” it.   She has also set up a Twitter account so please go tohttp://twitter.com/#!/occupyingamazon and “follow. “Your voice needs to be heard!  As well, pass these links on to all your friends, family, followers and other authors.  We need voices. We need the reviews back up! Email address for Occupying Amazon is occupyingamazon@yahoo.com.

PSS - Be on the lookout for our Super-Duper Black Friday Special. I’ll give you a hint – it will be three-fer, meaning you can get three of something for the price of one. The only catch is that the sale is one day only so be sure you check your email box on Friday morning.

Book Advances: What Are They Really For? (And Amazon.com Update)

by Irene Watson

Hearing about an author getting a book advance from a traditional publisher, especially from a  major one, often stirs up wishful thinking in first time or unknown writers.  As authors, our ultimate goal would be to land a contract with one of these publishers and get a substantial advance.

But, there are misconceptions that revolve around an advance.  Basically, an advance is just that; it’s an advance on something to happen. Many authors don’t understand that the word “advance” means advance against royalties. This means royalties for the actual sale of books will offset the advance.   The publishers take an estimate on their projected sales for the first year.  As well, they try to estimate how much it’s going to cost them to do the editing, make the cover, pay for binding/printing, and shipping costs. Then they figure out how much the author might make based on the royalty percentage ending up with the advance they offer.  Keep in mind the typical royalty rate for paperbacks is 7.5% although some do pay as much as 10% or even as high as 12.5% if the author is very well known.  Depending on how much the book is sold for, the average royalty could be anywhere between $1.00 to $2.00 per book sold. The average royalty for a hardcover is about 15% for important authors but range between 10% to 12.5% for all the rest.

But, that’s not where it stops.  The huge misconception is that traditional/big time publishers promote authors.  They don’t…unless you have an important name.  When the author gets an “advance” it doesn’t mean the money goes into her or his pocket and he or she can take a trip they’ve always wanted to make.  It means that the marketing/publicity expense has to come out of it.  The author is expected to hire a publicist, attend signings/events (sometimes even arranged for by the publishing company,) travel, stay in hotels, promote, promote, promote, and it all has to come out of the advance. As well, the agent takes 15% off the top.  So, when we hear that an author got $800,000 advance, that’s all it is; it’s an advance for all the expenses and the higher the advance, the higher expectations for promotion by the author will be.

For example, an article in The New York Times  says:
As for his profits, Mr. Eggers’s ”Acknowledgments” provides a rough breakdown of the costs that consumed most of the $100,000 advance from his hardcover publisher, Simon & Schuster. He promised to distribute some of the remaining $39,567.68 by sending $5 checks to the first 200 readers who mailed in a proof of purchase.

The percentage of authors that make a living off writing books is pathetically small unless the names are Brown, King, Evanovich or Steel.  Because of the dismal income in the end it’s one reason many savvy writers turn to self-publishing or, those that do have traditional publishers, keep their day jobs.  After chatting with a few agents about this they all agreed that the authors get to keep less than 10% in the end.  If the author gets $8 – 10,000 out of the $100,000 advance into his or her pocket it’s exceptionally good. But, from what I hear publishers pay an average of $15 – 20,000 in advances but as low as $3 – 5,000 for first time authors.  So…do the math – in the end your take is pocket change and just blows out the window for those unbudgeted incidentals and before you know it, you’ll be dipping into your own pocket to support a book that is published by a publisher you received an advance from.

And remember, no royalty checks will be paid out to the author until the total amount of royalties and other income generated from sales exceeds the amount of the advance. This is called earning out. This means if you have a $10,000 advance, and your royalty statement shows that you have sold enough books to generate royalties of $8000, then you will not get any royalty payments until you have earned an additional $2000 to offset the advance. And, depending on the sales of your book it may not happen.

But, there are possibilities as well. An article in Writers Weekly says:

Many best-selling authors achieved their success by investing their advances in their own campaigns. Hiring your own publicist will cost $10,000. Purchasing mailing lists can cost more. By spending all or most of an advance on self-promotion, an author is banking on his or her long-term future. It’s a common practice – one that publishers are coming to expect. Dorothea Benton Frank spent over half of her $50,000 advance on postcard and flyer mailings to over 80,000 addresses and on her own regional book tour, a strategy which premiered her first novel at number nine on the New York Times best-seller list. She then signed a two-book contract for $100,000 each. 

But that outcome is rare. Peter Lance, a novelist who also began in mass paperback, spent similarly, exceeding his $8,000 advance four times over in order to pay for his own ads, travel expenses, mailings and even a personal assistant. He sold out most of his 55,000 first run quickly, but to little effect. He lost money, and his press was slow to issue a second edition. 

So…yes, an advance sounds prestigious and gives you bragging rights but the reality of it isn’t prestigious at all.  Bottom line: keep your day job.

I’d sure like to hear your comments on this topic here.

PS - Amazon Update
I received an email from Amazon UK last week telling me that we are violating the guidelines and the reviews have been removed.  The only difference from the US Amazon stock email was the writer actually had a last name.

Out of the 15 banned review sites (that I know of) only five of us want to move forward and keep making noise. (AllBooksReviews, BookPleasures,FeatheredQuillReviews, ReaderViews, RebeccasReads.)  Two declined, one has no time to get involved, two originally said they will get involved but we haven’t heard from them since even after several attempts, and the rest haven’t even responded.  I find this extremely frustrating and disheartening. Actually, it’s very discouraging but I guess I have to accept not all of us have the same goal in mind when it comes to providing reviews for authors and the reason we are here.

What’s even more disheartening is that individual reviewers are being removed/banned.  I got an email from an individual that had posted 200 reviews but isn’t connected to any site or blog. He Googled and found my article about the issue and contacted me.  In fact, he was even a Vine Reviewer (special invitation by Amazon) and got removed for “violating the guidelines.”  However, like everyone else he isn’t told what the violation is.

I also got an email from an author that posted a book trailer she had made on an author’s book page.  She received an email from Amazon.com indicating “Our posted Guidelines prohibit Paid review sites from submitting reviews. As a result, we’ve removed the reviews for these titles. Any further violations of our posted Guidelines may result in the removal of your title from our website.”  That is a blatant threat!!!  And, oh, the tagline for the signature is “Your feedback is helping us build Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.”  Huh?  A what?  An Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company??  Well…[you fill in the rest.]

Backstory on Amazon.com fiasco.

This morning I received an e-mail from one of my authors, Joy J. Kaimaparamban:

Dear Wilfriedji,

How are you?

I received a mail from a new international publishing house, JustFiction! Edition. They wrote they are interested in my novel, ‘The Wildfire’.

I wish to know your valuable advice regarding this matter.

The mail was from Evelyn Davis (Evelyn Davis)

Note: Yes, he addresses me as Wilfriedji, which I consider an honor.

But getting back to the matter at hand: JustFiction Edition. The e-mail he received, was:

Dear Mr Kaimaparamban,

I am writing on behalf of a new international publishing house, JustFiction! Edition.

In the course of a web-research I came across a reference of your manuscript The Wildfire and it has caught my attention.

We are a publisher recognized worldwide, whose aim it is to help talented but international yet unknown authors to publish their manuscripts supported by our experience of publishing and to make their writing available to a wider audience.

JustFiction! Edition would be especially interested in publishing your manuscript as an e-book and in the form of a printed book and all this at no cost to you, of course.

If you are interested in a co-operation I would be glad to send you an e-mail with further information in an attachment.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards
Evelyn Davis
Acquisition Editor

Just Fiction! Edition is a trademark of:
LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing GmbH & Co. KG
Dudweiler Landstr. 99
66123 Saarbrücken
Germany

Phone: +49 681 3720-310
Fax: +49 681 3720-3109
Email: e.davis@justfiction-edition.com
www.justfiction-edition.com

First of all, JustFiction Edition is a legitimate business based in Germany. Their very professional looking website contains a writing style that definitely has some slight “Germlish” elements. I should know; I am German. My thought was, if they are serious about a professional appearance, they should hire a professional whose native language is actually English. Heck! They could hire me, and I would do a better job…;-)

As I wrote, they are a legitimate business, but I strongly advice not to fall for their scheme! Remember: If it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn’t good at all.

Let me just make my case:

Most importantly, it is highly suspicious when a publisher approaches an author, saying they are interested without even having seen the manuscript.

They are interested in publishing your work as eBook. Well, go to Amazon Kindle and smashwords.com, and you’ll get the same thing. As that woman wrote, it won’t cost you a thing. Zip. Zero. Well, wait, JustFiction Edition takes their profit share on top of Amazon and smashwords.com…

The JustFiction Edition website contains virtually no information in regards to author compensation or even general terms & condition (there is a brief blurb regarding plagiarism, though).

Here comes the catch: I checked out their offerings, i.e. the attached e-commerce website. The first book I found (no specification whether it was an eBook, paperback, or hardcover; no information on book size) contains 208 pages for roughly 20 Euros. That is roughly 28 US dollars for a mere 208 pages! Even if this book is, hypothetically, a hardcover (I doubt it, though), it is definitely overpriced.

Each author should be aware that your chances of being successful as a writer are effectively terminated by such an obscene pricing policy. Remember, as an aspiring author, nobody knows you, nobody knows the product you provide, and nobody knows what quality to expect. The obstacles are high, however, not unsurmountable. But add an obscene price to the scenario, and you’re outta here.

Yes, I do believe, they will publish your book and list it at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, and other online bookstores (Their cost for an ISBN is probably under $1 per publication). However, they are nothing else but a POD (Print-On-Demand; they call it PTO, but it’s the same thing) publisher with a LightningSource (an Ingram business unit) account. Nothing wrong with that. I do the same. But I don’t make it sound like it is a unique and absolutely wonderful feature.

JustFiction Edition copied their business model from PublishAmerica, however, with a European touch (big deal!). They will publish virtually everything; good or bad, who cares? Their focus is high-volume sales. If you can’t find a few authors with great potential like a traditional publisher, you hire a myriad of authors with low or even non-existing potential. With a 100,000 authors at hand, selling in average two books per author per month, you sell 200,000 books per month. You make roughly 10 Euros (~US$ 14) profit per book, which translates into (now I need my calculator…) 2 million Euros (~2.8 million dollars) per month!

Well, I don’t believe, they have 100,000 authors at this time, but I am sure, they’re working on it. Even if they have only 10,000 they make an annual profit (after costs of goods sold) of 2.4 million Euros (~3.4 million dollars). Believe me, that number is not unreasonable. PublishAmerica (according to their website) rapes almost 50,000 (fifty thousand) authors. After all, you now got the picture of their business model.

The side effect for you, the author, is that they don’t give a damn about you and your success.

I wrote back to Joy:

I would not try to hold you back in case a traditional publisher offers you a contract and possibly a downpayment, but in this case I suggest that you do not sign up with them. If they were, in fact, a trustful business, they would provide you more information upfront.

That being said… Stay away from JustFiction Edition! It’s a rip-off!

Click above to download the FREE PDF document - No questions asked...

Let’s Write A Novel: The Monty Python Code

By Wilfried F. Voss

Author of The Bleeding Hills and American Male Prostitute – How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

A Practical Guide To Writing Your Own Novel
Tips & Advice from the real Writing World

Download the PDF document by clicking on the image to the left. Downloading is absolutely FREE, and there will be no entry form asking for your email-address, etc.

For further Information check out these websites:

http://www.wilfriedvoss.com

http://www.themontypythoncode.com

So, you had an idea. You want to write a novel. The story line is already in your head, and you are itching to get your hands on that keyboard. In your mind, you have already sold thousands of copies, and you are thinking about who will play the lead role in the movie version. Been there, done that, and still like it…

The harsh reality is that most aspiring authors never finish the first draft of their novel, and some start a second before the first one is not even close to completion. I personally managed to finish my first novel and publish it, but I also started writing my third novel after the second was only half finished. The major problem is that we all have too many good ideas, and it is hard to focus on one story, especially when writing it turns out to take more time than we estimated. I once calculated that, due to abundance of ideas, I could (theoretically) write four novels per year… if only I could write eight hours per day. In reality, I do have a daytime job and a family. The thought of quitting my job and leaving my wife and son didn’t appeal.

Before I explain a solution to the problem, let me add more obstacles to this Mission Impossible:

First, a good novel should have at least 60,000 words, and that will take time. When your work is finished, you need to hire an editing service to review and improve your work. Otherwise you won’t have the hint of a chance of being accepted by agents or publishers. Editing will cost you $800+.

I have written numerous posts about the daunting task of finding an agent or publisher, or, in case you self-publish, market and sell your first novel.

Promoting and selling your first novel is the most difficult task in the business world. Even traditional publishers won’t help you there, unless you have a definite Dan-Brown-Potential. So, writing should not be your only talent.

The solution to the problem is first of all perseverance, focus, and a major investment of time. And don’t ignore the much-needed blood, sweat, and tears. You may notice that I did not add talent to the formula. Talent does definitely help, but all aspiring writers believe they have it, and I won’t judge who has and who does not.

From my personal experience I can say that writing my first novel was nothing short of exciting. It was a trip into a different dimension, a different life and time. I had a good outline of my story, but it also took some surprising turns that I did not expect. A story develops while you write it, and that simple fact is absolutely fascinating. For that experience alone it was worth writing it.

So, here, based on my personal experience, are some tips:

• Don’t expect your first novel to be a bestseller. I always say that the best marketing tool for your first novel is the release of the second.
• Write for yourself, not for commercial success. Have fun!
• Write plenty! The more you write the better your style will be in the end. You don’t necessarily need to write on your novel all the time. Watch people or events and write a story about it. Post it on your blog.
• That being said, run a blog!
• Read plenty! Read online versions of the New York Times, Washington Post, etc. Read from Hemingway to Sarah Palin (Yikes!). Reading will help improving your style.
• Pace yourself to 3,000 to 5,000 words a week (some do better, some do worse).
• Don’t edit your own writing over and over. You’re losing too much time. Keep the editing for the time after your first draft is done.
• Find a place and time to do your writing on a regular basis.
• Last, but not least, download my document “Let’s Write Novel”!

Learn how to get from:

Igor Feldman kills student Hillary Pinton
Scene in a basement. Hillary is tied to a chair, blind-folded. Igor uses 20-inch knife to pierce her heart.

to:

The Monty Python Code – Chapter One

The full moon of a bitterly cold January night shed its eerie glow on the scenery in the smelly basement of the 19^th century villa on Elm Street in Grand Fenwick’s most noble neighborhood. A blindfolded girl, still dressed in her cheerleader uniform, the pom-poms lying next to her on the dirty floor, was tied to an old, wooden chair, and she started crying. If they, whoever they were, would not release her like within the next two hours, she would like miss the party at Margaret Hatcher’s house, and that was just not fair. She could lose her status as the coolest girl in college. After all, she was Hillary Pinton, daughter of Horatio Pinton, owner and editor of the Grand Fenwick Observer.

She listened to the noise around her, the groaning of the old house, the howling wind from outside, the barely noticeable tapping feet of rats looking for food, but there was nothing that would reveal a clue of what was going to happen. Then, suddenly, she felt the presence of another person in the room.

“Hello?” she called out. “Can I like go home, please? I don’t wanna play anymore.”

The short, ugly creature, dressed in a filthy black robe with a large hood hiding his blemished face, shrugged his shoulders and skillfully wiped his runny nose with his long tongue, but he did not respond to his victim’s plead. Igor Feldman was not in the mood for a conversation.

The master will be pleased, he thought. I will do what he asked me for, and he will grant me my wish.

The sweat running from his back had caused his hump to slide, and, angry about the inconvenience, he groaned and started adjusting it.

“I really need to go home, like soon,” he heard Hillary again. “It’s like late, you know.”

“In time,” he calmed her with his raspy voice. “In time, my dear.”

He weighed the twenty-inch blade, an ordinary kitchen knife he had stolen from the house, in his hands, and, dragging the black shoes over the worn basement floor, he limped toward the chair.

Pretty she is, he thought as he cocked his head and curiously watched the young woman for a few seconds. He took a deep breath as his right hand went under Hillary’s sweater, and he started counting the ribs until he found the perfect spot.

“What are you doing?” Hillary giggled.

Feldman’s pulse accelerated in anticipation as he positioned the head of the knife, maintaining an accurate ninety-degree angle to her chest.

“Ooh,” she swooned. “You pervert! I guess, we have like time for a quick…”

Using swift and powerful force Feldman thrust the cold steel into her heart. Hillary’s body surged for a fleeting moment within the restraints of the tight ropes, and then it slumped back into the chair. The killing had been fast and effective, and, besides the hissing of air leaving her body, not a single sound had left her mouth. The eyes under the blindfold were open wide, filled with terror as if she were still alive

Feldman felt her blood streaming down his wrist, warm, red, rich, and tasty. He pulled the knife as swift as he had during the killing, and he held it close in front of his face. His long tongue caressed the cold steel, and he moaned with pleasure. Then he looked at the dead body

Maybe I could, he thought, but he mastered the growing desire, suspiciously scanning the surroundings. The master’s eyes are everywhere. He knows everything.

Igor had accomplished the task as he was asked, and he was confident the master would reward him generously.

###

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How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Stuart Martin Berry has only three months left to find a publisher for his first novel. In a desperate attempt to reach his goal he leaves his home to live in New York. His wife has given him free rein to do whatever it takes to get a book deal. Her only request was not to give her any details on how he got there. If he fails he will be forced to give up his dream of being a famous writer and take a regular forty hour a week job. For Stuart this is sufficient motivation to start a three month adventure full of sex, lies, and deceit, without losing focus of the ultimate goal. When he finally reaches the finish line, he has evolved and become a top expert in the publishing world.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

American Male Prostitute is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

###

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The Bleeding Hills

A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

What is this all about, you may ask? Well, as a writer, my mind is full of ideas for new novels. Some of these ideas make it (The Bleeding Hills and American Male Prostitute), others are either put on hold or don’t make it at all. The day has only 24 hours. You may add the night, which makes another 12 hours, and you skip lunch hour. That makes 37 hours per day… if you catch my drift. Not enough time for all ideas to make it into a novel. I have kept three titles in a basket, and here are eight ideas for book titles that didn’t make it:

My Love Affair With Osama Bin Laden

What? You think, the man is not attractive? Read this book, and you will find a few secrets that even the CIA would like to learn.

Diary of an Obsessive Compulsive Bitch

Does bad sex justify murder? Doesn’t it drive you crazy when the service at Starbucks denies you your decaf soymilk latte? How do you get even with a roommate that puts glass chips into your toothpaste? This book addresses social issues not yet recognized by today’s society.

The Poop About Pregnancy

Before you read “What To Expect When You’re Expecting,” and especially before you give birth, you should read this book. There are many aspects about pregnancy that your doctor doesn’t want to tell you.

Victoria Beckham’s Interviews With Famous Authors

Yes, Victoria has never read a book in her life, but that doesn’t mean she can’t maintain a conversation (or publish her memoirs). If you are curious about how she weasels herself out of a precarious situation, you must read this book.

All US Interstates Lead To Exit

A US travel guide to almost every town in America.

Maintain Your Erection

Now that you have erected the swing for your three-year-old… What? You think the title is misleading? But it sells. Right?

Have You Filed Reincarnation Form RI-98726?

This is the true story of spirit T5648R, its quest for reincarnation, and the struggle with the “Other Side’s” bureaucracy. T5648R wants to be reborn as a human male anywhere outside of Greenfield, Massachusetts, a wish requiring proper filings of the proper papers.

The idea spawned after reading the New York Times on April 29, 2009, “Hans Holzer, Ghost Hunter, Dies at 89.” Hans Holzer was an Austrian-born, American pioneering paranormal researcher and author. He wrote well over 100 books on supernatural and occult subjects. What caught my attention was his conclusion that “the other side” is very much like this side, only with more red tape. The dead who wish to return to earth have to get permission from “spirit guides”, then wait in a queue and register with a clerk.

The Dead Candidate

One morning I read an intriguing article in the New York Times. Let me state upfront that it is not my intention to show any disrespect to the victims of the Jan. 8, 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona that left 6 people dead and 13 injured. I feel, nevertheless, disturbed by the before-mentioned article:

An Arizona Senate Race Waits to See if Giffords Emerges to Run

The New York Times, March 30, 2011 (Excerpt)

TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords is still in the hospital, but some of her most ardent backers are so enamored of the idea of her running for the Senate that they describe the inevitable campaign commercials: the deep-voiced narrator recounting what happened to her, the images of her wounded, then recovering and speaking into the camera alongside her astronaut husband to call on Arizonans to unite.

:

…several of Ms. Giffords’s longtime aides are whispering behind the scenes that she just might recover in time to run for the seat that Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, is vacating next year.

While it might be wishful thinking, Ms. Giffords’s noncampaign is already having a major effect on Arizona politics; other prospective Democratic candidates say they feel compelled not to jump in unless she bows out, allowing Republicans to get a head start organizing their campaigns.

:

With a question mark beside her name in the Senate race, other Democratic hopefuls are working behind the scenes as carefully as they can, lining up support in case Ms. Giffords decides to stay out while taking care not to appear disrespectful to the candidate that the Democratic establishment here believes would have the best chance of winning.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/us/politics/31giffords.html

I, personally, find all these rumored behind-the-curtain activities despicable, to put it diplomatically. But it also shows the ruthlessness of the political system in these United States. I mean, how far will these politicians go to assure victory? And just for the record, I call myself a moderate liberal, and my wife is a registered Republican, meaning, no, I am not out to point at a specific party.

Nevertheless, here is enough material for a new novel to write for someone with knowledge of the political scenery. Being the cynic that I occasionally am, I have come up with the perfect title: The Dead Candidate, in the nature of Dead Man Walking. I believe, it would be pure fun to write about the background activities of the MYMN (Maybe Yes, Maybe No) party waiting for their candidate, who lies in a coma, to either die or run for election, while the KEA (Kill ‘em All) party is having a ball raising funds for their candidate.

In the meantime I wish Ms. Gifford and the other victims a quick recovery, physically and mentally. My thoughts are also with the people who were killed and their families.

The Monty Python Code

Professor Hubert Ringtone, America’s top specialist on religious sects, becomes an unwilling conspirator in a plot to reveal the deepest secrets of the Thetan Society, the fastest growing religious movement in the history of the world.

No! Wait! That title is already in progress… See http://frogenyozurt.com/…the-monty-python-code/

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AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the infinite supply of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent. Vanity publishers accept everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

Stuart Martin Berry has only three months left to find a publisher for his first novel. In a desperate attempt to achieve his goal, he leaves his home to live in New York. His wife has given him free rein to do whatever it takes to get a book deal. Her only request was not to give her any details on how he got there. If he fails, he will be forced to give up his dream of being a famous writer and accept a regular forty-hour a week job. For Stuart, this is sufficient motivation to start a three-month adventure full of sex, lies, and deceit, without losing focus of the ultimate goal. When he finally reaches the finish line, he has evolved and become a leading expert in the fantasy world of writers, literary agents, and publishers.

To put it in a nutshell, today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the infinite supply of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent. Vanity publishers accept everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit.

About the Author

Wilfried F. Voss is a different sort of author. He is also the president and owner of a small publishing business, Copperhill Media. Copperhill Media was initially established to publish technical literature. After several years in business (Copperhill was established in 1993) Mr. Voss wrote his first novel The Bleeding Hills with the mere intention of getting a look & feel of publishing fiction literature. Within two years after publishing The Bleeding Hills, Mr. Voss has now published several fiction titles by authors from all over the world including the United States, the United Kingdom, and India. Ironically, Mr. Voss’ second novel American Male Prostitute – How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit reflects the experience gained during the promotion of his first novel.

From the Author

“I note that you are putting together another masterwork, entitled American Male Prostitute. Might I suggest that you direct a little of that “research” towards yourself, and your own fantasy life?” – From an angry reader of my website FrogenYozurt.Com

The idea for American Male Prostitute came after reading my favorite, most useless writers’ magazine whose title shall not be uttered here. But thinking about it, it was not totally useless, since it enlightened me with enough information to learn about the bizarre world of book publishing.

To put it in a nutshell, today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the vast pool of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent, but the use of the wrong font in a manuscript, an insufficient query letter, or other minor shortcomings. Vanity publishers will publish everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

Now, take a wild guess which of the two can afford to put serious money into full-page advertisement in writers’ magazines. These magazines, like all other publications, sit between a rock and a hard place. They are not only obligated to please their readers but also their advertisers. And here we go again; the sharks keep the upper hand. Aspiring writers are on the losing side, one way or the other, whether they consider the traditional or vanity publishing method.

On top of all that, the majority of writers’ magazines are – excuse my French – full of crap. They are full of motivational nonsense to keep their readers happy enough to continue their quest for stardom. At the same time, they keep feeding the sharks.

Just the other day, I found yet another grossly misleading advertisement that made my blood boil, and I was ready to get my hands on that computer keyboard and add a flaming entry to my blog. Maybe, I thought, I’ll make this a series and share my experiences with every new, aspiring author.

Then I remembered the saying “Don’t anger me or I will write a novel about you”, and that is exactly what I did. There is no better weapon than writing a novel about the industry. They deserve it.

And just for the record, no, I never submitted any manuscript to a literary agent or publisher. I didn’t have the time for that nonsense. Consequently, I was never rejected. My point is, my motivation to write this novel does not stem from frustration but mere perverse curiosity.

And, no, I did not get a book deal through sex, lies, and deceit. I don’t have the mandatory luscious looks, and I am very happily married, and, after all, I run my own publishing business.

Yet, I wondered, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you’re running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Advertisement

AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the infinite supply of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent. Vanity publishers accept everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

The idea for American Male Prostitute came after reading my favorite, most useless writers’ magazine whose title shall not be uttered here. But thinking about it, it was not totally useless, since it enlightened me with enough information to learn about the bizarre world of book publishing.

To put it in a nutshell, today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the vast pool of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent, but the use of the wrong font in a manuscript, an insufficient query letter, or other minor shortcomings. Vanity publishers will publish everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

Now, take a wild guess which of the two can afford to put serious money into full-page advertisement in writers’ magazines. These magazines, like all other publications, sit between a rock and a hard place. They are not only obligated to please their readers but also their advertisers. And here we go again; the sharks keep the upper hand. Aspiring writers are on the losing side, one way or the other, whether they consider the traditional or vanity publishing method.

On top of all that, the majority of writers’ magazines are – excuse my French – full of crap. They are full of motivational nonsense to keep their readers happy enough to continue their quest for stardom. At the same time, they keep feeding the sharks.

Just the other day, I found yet another grossly misleading advertisement that made my blood boil, and I was ready to get my hands on that computer keyboard and add a flaming entry to my blog. Maybe, I thought, I’ll make this a series and share my experiences with every new, aspiring author.

Then I remembered the saying “Don’t anger me or I will write a novel about you”, and that is exactly what I did. There is no better weapon than writing a novel about the industry. They deserve it.

And just for the record, no, I never submitted any manuscript to a literary agent or publisher. I didn’t have the time for that nonsense. Consequently, I was never rejected. My point is, my motivation to write this novel does not stem from frustration but mere perverse curiosity.

And, no, I did not get a book deal through sex, lies, and deceit. I don’t have the mandatory luscious looks, and I am very happily married, and, after all, I run my own publishing business.

Yet, I wondered, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you’re running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Advertisement

AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Stuart Martin Berry has only three months left to find a publisher for his first novel. In a desperate attempt to reach his goal he leaves his home to live in New York. His wife has given him free rein to do whatever it takes to get a book deal. Her only request was not to give her any details on how he got there. If he fails he will be forced to give up his dream of being a famous writer and take a regular forty hour a week job. For Stuart this is sufficient motivation to start a three month adventure full of sex, lies, and deceit, without losing focus of the ultimate goal. When he finally reaches the finish line, he has evolved and become a top expert in the publishing world.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

American Male Prostitute is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

For a short time after my failure, literary agents, snobby bastards that they are, treated me like I was the carrier of a deadly disease. But they turned around and started kissing up to me as soon as I got my job as editor for the above-mentioned magazine. Until then, during an intense three-month period of shamelessly promoting my book, I had learned my lesson on persuasive bull-shitting.

Suddenly, if you believed my job description, I was not a failed novelist, but an accomplished author, who had decided to share his knowledge with the aspiring writer, to provide advice and encouragement. These days you see my photo in various publications, printed or online, identifying me as a top expert on all aspects of fiction writing. My job included, among many other things, writing about writing without being allowed to write something substantial like, let’s say, a novel.

Another essential part of my work as an editor was keeping up a fantasy world for the tens of thousands of wannabe-writers who made the mistake of subscribing to our magazine or the even more useless online forum.

Let me explain to those not familiar with the publishing business, a writers’ magazine cannot exist without the vast number of delusional writers who will never have the slightest chance of ever being published. In order to have your book published, you need to be talented and, as I was told from day one, the vast majority of our subscribers weren’t.

I was also directed to keep the information in my articles at a fairly superficial level and use ample motivational nonsense to keep our readers happy, everything to convince a dying man that he will live a long and prosperous life.

My personal favorite was an article series on dealing with and recovering from rejections, and you can bet, most of our readers have been rejected numerous times by agents and publishers alike.

Besides advertisement, we made our main revenue through online writers’ workshops, and the depthless articles filling our magazine ad nauseam were the best marketing tools. And for God’s sake, I was not to write anything that might interfere with the dubious business of the sharks that paid substantial fees for full-page advertisements in our magazine.

All that wasn’t difficult for me. As I said, bull-shitting was one of my acquired talents.

Jilly Cooper once said, the male is a domestic animal, which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things. I am living proof to validate that statement.

Well, the bull-shitting life is finally over, and, honestly, I hated every single day. Deep in my soul I am an honest guy. Unfortunately, honesty doesn’t pay the bills.

Fortunately, though, about four weeks ago, my wife Sophie had accepted a job offer for a $150,000 annual salary plus benefits, and I had offered to be a stay-at-home Dad.

Our daughter Magda is now almost two years old, and my wife was itching to get back to her former job as the head of the Human Resources department of a leading insurance company based in Washington, D.C.

I have not yet decided what I will do during the copious spare time between play-group-mornings and afternoon walks in the park. I still maintain my blog and make a few bucks on the side with online advertising, just enough to cover the operating costs. I might start writing paid literature reviews or even start an editing service. With my connections to the publishing and writing industry that shouldn’t post a problem.

Llysha, another aspiring author and a dear friend of mine, had jokingly suggested starting our own publishing business, and she touted BBS, Inc. as the business name. BBS stands for “Baffle them with your Bull-Shit”, and, believe me, the name alone was a guarantee for success in the publishing industry.

To stay with the truth, I am done with writing. I am with Groucho Marx who once said, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” Nevertheless, I am burning to take a final hit at the system. It deserves it.

While we’re at it, my name is not Stuart Martin Berry, and events and names have been changed to protect my family, specifically my wife. I will tell you about that grotesque period of three months, during which I tried to find a publisher for my book. My wife had given me totally free rein to do whatever it would take to get a book deal. Her only request was not to share any details of how I got there.

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AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the infinite supply of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent. Vanity publishers accept everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

By Wilfried F. Voss

Published by
Copperhill Media
A Copperhill Technologies Corporation Business Unit
158 Log Plain Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
USA

Copyright © 2011 by Copperhill Media

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

Disclaimer

Needless to say but, nevertheless, enforced by legal counsel, what you are about to read is based solely on the author’s dirty fantasies and vivid imagination.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblances to real persons, living or dead, and events are purely coincidental.

Shame on you if you believe the nonsense I write!

Also needless to say, writing and publishing this book was absolutely possible without the support of the so-called experts in the writing and publishing industry.

Nevertheless, I do thank businesses like Amazon.Com and specifically Lightning Source – An Ingram Business Unit – for their vision and support of future publishing.

My narrow view is without a doubt not representative for the entire world of writing and publishing, but I am certain of the great number of new writers who have made similar experiences.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all writers, talented, but ignored by the system.

Also credits to Yolanda Campbell who came up with the business strategy of “If you can’t impress them with your knowledge, baffle them with your bull-shit.”

Foreword

“I note that you are putting together another masterwork, entitled American Male Prostitute. Might I suggest that you direct a little of that “research” towards yourself, and your own fantasy life?” – From an angry reader of my website FrogenYozurt.Com

The idea for American Male Prostitute came after reading my favorite, most useless writers’ magazine whose title shall not be uttered here. But thinking about it, it was not totally useless, since it enlightened me with enough information to learn about the bizarre world of book publishing.

To put it in a nutshell, today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and secondly the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the vast pool of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent, but the use of the wrong font in a manuscript, an insufficient query letter, or other minor shortcomings. Vanity publisher will publish everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

Now, take a wild guess which of the two can afford to put serious money into full-page advertisement in writers’ magazines. These magazines, like all other publications, sit between a rock and a hard place. They are not only obligated to please their readers but also their advertisers. And here we go again; the sharks keep the upper hand. Aspiring writers are on the losing side, one way or the other, whether they consider the traditional or vanity publishing method.

On top of all that, the majority of writers’ magazines are – excuse my French – full of crap. They are full of motivational nonsense to keep their readers happy enough to continue their quest for stardom. At the same time, they keep feeding the sharks.

Just the other day, I found yet another grossly misleading advertisement that made my blood boil, and I was ready to get my hands on that computer keyboard and add a flaming entry to my blog. Maybe, I thought, I’ll make this a series and share my experiences with every new, aspiring author.

Then I remembered the saying “Don’t anger me or I will write a novel about you”, and that is exactly what I did. There is no better weapon than writing a novel about the industry. They deserve it.

And just for the record, no, I never submitted any manuscript to a literary agent or publisher. I didn’t have the time for that nonsense. Consequently, I was never rejected. My point is, my motivation to write this novel does not stem from frustration but mere perverse curiosity.

And, no, I did not get a book deal through sex, lies, and deceit. I don’t have the mandatory luscious looks, and I am very happily married, and, after all, I run my own publishing business.

Yet, I wondered, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you’re running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Prologue

My name is Stuart Martin Berry and, until last week, I was an associate editor for one of the largest magazines dedicated to the dream world of writers and poets. Like many of my ex-colleagues, I am also a failed novelist. My first and so far last novel, a thriller titled Rules of Extortion, never made it into print. That was almost two years ago, and, with my pregnant wife pressing me to get a job that, in fact, created sufficient income, I considered my writing career as being over and done with.

For a short time after my failure, literary agents, snobby bastards that they are, treated me like I was the carrier of a deadly disease. But they turned around and started kissing up to me as soon as I got my job as editor for the above-mentioned magazine. Until then, during an intense three-month period of shamelessly promoting my book, I had learned my lesson on persuasive bull-shitting.

Suddenly, if you believed my job description, I was not a failed novelist, but an accomplished author, who had decided to share his knowledge with the aspiring writer, to provide advice and encouragement. These days you see my photo in various publications, printed or online, identifying me as a top expert on all aspects of fiction writing. My job included, among many other things, writing about writing without being allowed to write something substantial like, let’s say, a novel.

Another essential part of my work as an editor was keeping up a fantasy world for the tens of thousands of wannabe-writers who made the mistake of subscribing to our magazine or the even more useless online forum.

Let me explain to those not familiar with the publishing business, a writers’ magazine cannot exist without the vast number of delusional writers who will never have the slightest chance of ever being published. In order to have your book published you need to be talented and, as I was told from day one, the vast majority of our subscribers weren’t.

I was also directed to keep the information in my articles at a fairly superficial level and use ample motivational nonsense to keep our readers happy, everything to convince a dying man that he will live a long and prosper life.

My personal favorite was an article series on dealing with and recovering from rejections, and you can bet most of our readers have been rejected numerous times by agents and publishers alike.

Besides advertisement, we made our main revenue through online writers’ workshops, and the depthless articles filling our magazine ad nauseam were the best marketing tools. And for God’s sake, I was not to write anything that might interfere with the dubious business of the sharks that paid substantial fees for full-page advertisements in our magazine.

All that wasn’t difficult for me. As I said, bull-shitting was one of my acquired talents.

Jilly Cooper once said, the male is a domestic animal, which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things. I am living proof to validate that statement.

Well, the bull-shitting life is finally over, and, honestly, I hated every single day. Deep in my soul I am an honest guy. Unfortunately, honesty doesn’t pay the bills.

Fortunately, though, about four weeks ago, my wife Sophie had accepted a job offer for a $150,000 annual salary plus benefits, and I had offered to be a stay-at-home Dad.

Our daughter Magda is now almost two years old, and my wife was itching to get back to her former job as the manager of the Human Resources department of a leading insurance company based in Washington, D.C.

I have not yet decided what I will do during the copious spare time between play-group-mornings and afternoon walks in the park. I still maintain my blog and make a few bucks on the side with online advertising, just enough to cover the operating costs. I might start writing paid literature reviews or even start an editing service. With my connections to the publishing and writing industry that shouldn’t post a problem.

Llysha, another aspiring author and a dear friend of mine, had jokingly suggested starting our own publishing business, and she touted BBS, Inc. as the business name. BBS stands for “Baffle them with your Bull-Shit”, and, believe me, the name alone was a guarantee for success in the publishing industry.

To stay with the truth, I am done with writing. I am with Groucho Marx who once said, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” Nevertheless, I am burning to take a final hit at the system. It deserves it.

While we’re at it, my name is not Stuart Martin Berry, and events and names have been changed to protect my family, specifically my wife. I will tell you about that grotesque period of three months, during which I tried to find a publisher for my book. My wife had given me totally free rein to do whatever it would take to get a book deal. Her only request was not to share any details of how I got there.

Sunday, September 21

I woke up with a headache and checked the alarm clock. It was Sunday at 2:24 in the morning. Sandie and I had been partying all night, and the mixture of alcohol and cigarette smoke was never a fortunate combination for me.

Sandie lay beside me, and, as usual, was fully covered with the light-blue silk blanket. I leaned over and cautiously removed the cover to take another look at her huge, heaving breasts, and I shook my head. Sandie was a remarkably attractive woman, and I was sure her breasts, in their original size and shape, were as perfect as the rest of her body. Why a beautiful woman like her would mutilate her body and have a pound of plastic added to either side, is still beyond me. Her argument was, of course, the pursuit of an acting career, and I didn’t question her. After all, she still believed I was the son of the executive director of MGM Studios. I had made the title up on the fly, and I had to play the game.

I pulled the blanket back over her and cautiously stepped off the bed to go to the bathroom. I glimpsed my reflection in the mirror and shook my head. I had looked better than the man who stared at me from the other side. I turned to open the bathroom closet and retrieved a bottle of Advil.

For a moment, I felt tempted to swallow the entire contents but decided against it. I took two pills, walked over to the kitchen area of my Manhattan studio where I threw in the pills and gulped down a glass of water. I shook my head in disgust, and then I just stood there to decide how to go from here.

The choice was between going back to bed or doing something else. That something else, I decided, was to sit on the couch with a large glass of seltzer and start up my laptop. I had to be quiet. From where I was sitting I could see the large bed at the other end of the studio, and I was not in the mood to talk to her right at that moment.

As a matter of fact, I was already thinking about a way to get rid of her. I still had some confectionary sugar and some bendable straws, which, when arranged in the proper way, would hopefully reveal a drug addiction. Honestly, I don’t have any experience with sniffing cocaine, but I have had my fair share of Law & Order on TV.

The trick had worked with Erin, knowing that her first boyfriend had overdosed a few years ago. It would be a crapshoot with Sandie, though. Chances were, she would never notice the set-up, and even if she did she might not know what it was. Another possibility was that she would be thrilled and jump to get herself a sniff. I determined there were too many unknowns, and I had to come up with a more sinister plot.

I looked at the computer screen for a few moments, unsure what to do with it. Then I decided to take a last look at the notes I had made during these past three months. Despite the prevailing headache, I couldn’t help but grin when I read the first entries. My status as a successful writer was bleak when I arrived here, but on Monday morning I would sign a contract with Sandie’s boss, Jonathan O’Keeffe, one of the heavyweights in the book publishing industry.

That same day I would return to my home and my pregnant wife in Montgomery Village in Maryland. Roughly two weeks later, if everything went according to the doctor’s prediction, we would have our first child, and I was looking forward to it.

Sandie grunted under the silk blanket and turned around, interrupting my frantic typing on the computer, while I was adding to my notes. Then I shook my head. There was no way the barely noticeable clicking would wake her. She was not a morning person either. She would sleep until the afternoon if I didn’t wake her, but at the same time I toyed with the notion of simply leaving the studio later this morning. Maybe I should spend some leisure time in Central Park without her, however, not without leaving a romantic note saying something like I didn’t dare to wake the sleeping beauty. She always fell for this kind of stuff. The idea of kicking her out today, or even at this very moment, was tempting, but I needed to wait until I had signed that contract.

I turned my attention back to the computer. It is remarkable how the memories and emotions of past events are refreshed when you keep a written record. Some emotions come back as they were, others, in view of the time passed, are different. I also realized how naive I was then. That had changed profoundly. My experiences with the people in the publishing industry had turned me into a ruthless bastard, and I was brilliant at it. I had truly learned playing their game.

Another look at the screen, checking the date of the entry, and I realized that it was three months earlier to the day when we met with Steve, a good friend of ours, to discuss our plan.

Before you start blogging, have a long talk with your favorite shrink or best friend.

Honestly, I just need to vent. I had written a number of posts about dealing with comments on your blog, but it still gets to me when people try to pull me into a – excuse the French – “pissing contest.”

Just for the record, I do understand that we all have the right to disagree on topics, and, honestly, I do appreciate comments even when they disagree with my view or even better, when they contribute valuable information that I was not aware of. That additional information might even prove me wrong. That’s a blogger’s life, and I can live with that.

Nevertheless, most comments I receive are friendly and, after all, fair. Those who do not agree with my view are, however, mostly aggressive. As a blogger you might make the mistake of striking back with full force, because it’s easy to do just that without facing your opponent. I did it, too, but I have also learned that it’s a waste of time. It doesn’t help anybody.

In general, it is my blogging policy to NOT block comments, unless they are scam (i.e. useless content not related to the post, but pointing to dubious websites). As of lately I have added another condition to block comments: Insulting comments. And yes, in some cases my posts are designed to provoke – that is in the nature of the business – but I won’t engage into fruitless fights.

Let me just refer to the most recent incidents:

I had started (and posted) research on the topic of the Irish Troubles, specifically the events of Bloody Sunday. During that research I became aware of one British officer, who, according to numerous reports in English and Irish resources, engaged into killing sprees all over Northern Ireland, shooting at Protestants and Catholics alike. His partner-in-crime was another British officer who was described as “a nasty bit of work — a psychotic … He bit his fingernails down to the white half-moons and was living on his nerves continually, possibly taking drugs.” That quote came from an article in an Irish newspaper, and the reporter, in turn, quoted yet another British officer. And yes, I did reference the article. It is available online.

Understandably, I received some heat from people in the United Kingdom, specifically from the daughter of the so-called “psychotic.” The comments I received were insulting- and I mean each of them – and I made the mistake of striking back (without returning any insults, though). Again, it was a mistake fueled by the impression that such a dialog might direct more attention to my website. First of all, it doesn’t. Secondly, all comments that were written back and forth did not add any additional value. The thought of disabling comments on the topic came to mind, but that didn’t seem right, so I didn’t.

The other recent case involved a post I had written about moving my blog to a new server, which turned out to be a negative experience. My blog (this very website, FrogenYozurt.Com) started to crash frequently, and it was time to switch to a more advanced server, which also invokes higher costs. One person, apparently an engineer who worked 20+ years as a service technician, took offense on my conclusion that the new server was better suited to manage my website (which it does. Really!). In his view, I was looking down on everybody who can only afford a low-cost server. All I intended was sharing my experience and conclusions, because, as I found out through extensive research, many website owners experience exactly the same problem as I did. Initially, I answered the comment starting with a “I am in the programming business since 1980…” (which is the truth and nothing but the truth), but his next entry started with a “I don’t know where you get your information from…” That was the point where I removed his and my comments on the subject.

Many bloggers will recognize the pattern, and everybody will probably handle the negative-comment-scenario differently. I, personally, am just tired of the aggressiveness, and, ergo, I will not allow any more. I can do that. It’s my blog.

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Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Being a publisher and writer and having way too many ideas, but hardly the time to write all books that come to mind, I have developed a list of my favorite, yet unpublished titles. Please feel free to use them. I even gave you some idea what the content could be. If you need more information, and if you need a publisher please feel free to contact me.

My Love Affair With Osama Bin Laden

What? You think the man is not attractive? Read this book, and you will find a few secrets that even the CIA would like to learn.

Diary of an Obsessive Compulsive Bitch

Does bad sex justify murder? Doesn’t it drive you crazy when the service at Starbucks denies you your decaf soy milk latte? How do you get even with a roommate that puts glass chips into your toothpaste? This book addresses social issues not yet recognized by today’s society.

The Poop About Pregnancy

Before you read “What To Expect When You’re Expecting,” and especially before you give birth you should read this book. There are many aspects about pregnancy that your doctor doesn’t want to tell you.

Victoria Beckham’s Interviews With Famous Authors

Yes, Victoria has never read a book in her life, but that doesn’t mean she can’t maintain a conversation (or publish her memoirs). If you are curious about how she weasels herself out of a precarious situation, you must read this book.

All US Interstates Lead To Exit

A US travel guide to almost every town in America.

Do you have any additional suggestions?

Please share them here by commenting below.

Supplement – More of my own titles…

Maintain Your Erection

Now that you have erected the swing for your three-year-old… What? You think the title is misleading? But it sells. Right?

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Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

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Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

You call your host’s tech support, and you get the feeling that these guys have been lacking human contact for too long. They check your website and determine it is running just fine. If you push a little harder they’ll find it’s all your doing, and they might even give you a list of actions to repair your WordPress system.

• You should check your database user name and password – Well, those were assigned automatically by the installation program and have not been changed since the beginning of time.
• Have a look at the database error reports and determine what the problem is – Sorry, I am just a blogger, not a database expert.
• Disable the visual editor when writing. You should only edit in HTML mode – What?
• Clean up your database. Your overhead is too large – How do I do that? Is that documented somewhere?

I could go on, and as you may have guessed, I have been there, done that, and lost my sanity over finding a solution just to find that there is no solution. I have moved my websites from a shared host to a dedicated server. I have 2 GB of RAM just for me, and I have increased the WP and PHP memory limits. Yet, my system still crashes occasionally, but it comes back after a short while, and I have learned to live with that.

I might add another GByte of RAM to the system, and I am sure that will improve the actual runtime, which is in average roughly 98 – 99%.

And here we come to my conclusion as to what the problem with “Error Establishing A Database Connection” message is: Insufficient memory resources.

First of all, I do believe that there is a great number of error conditions causing this message. Invalid password and/or user name are the most obvious ones, but I do believe that a lack of resources (memory) is the main factor that triggers the error. Yes, it is all a theory, but after months of research I have found a myriad of comments from bloggers asking for help, the majority of them unanswered, the rest answered with … well, the user name and password “issue.”

Just have a look at this very website, FrogenYozurt.Com. FrogenYozurt.Com, at the time of this writing, contains of roughly 50 pages and close to 2,800 posts. In addition I am using roughly 20 plugins that I deem crucial for the success of this website. Most of them have to do with search engine optimization and spam protection; others add to a professional appearance. Without these plugins I wouldn’t be where I am right now, i.e. roughly 3,000 page reads a day.

However, to get there I had to push the system to its limits, which, ultimately, under shared hosting resulted in frequent crashes. Just for kicks, I deactivated a number of plugins, and the system stabilized. Yet, I didn’t want to do without these valuable functions.

As I wrote before, I don’t believe there is a general solution to the problem, but you can administer some adjustments to improve the performance.

1. Maintaining the WordPress Database: It may be documented somewhere in the vast WordPress help system, but most bloggers are unaware that they need to occasionally optimize or even repair the WP database. Of course, the majority of bloggers wouldn’t know how to do that, and fiddling with the MySQL database system is not everybody’s cup of tea. But there is a simple solution: Get the WP-DBManager plugin. It allows you to optimize/repair databases and, most importantly, backup/restore your WordPress database from within WordPress. No need to invoke phpMyAdmin. No username and password required, either, to get in. See the corresponding documentation for more information. Just upfront: The most important data is the Overhead of a database table. If it is greater than zero, the database table needs optimization, and that can be done with just a click of a button. You can also schedule optimizations and backups. The backup/restore feature might be helpful when it comes to migrating to a new server. I will follow up on that later.

2. Memory Usage: The biggest restriction of running a WordPress installations comes with the default memory limit, which is not suited for larger websites with high traffic. First, if your WordPress website/blog seems to slow down, check your memory limits by installing the TPC! Memory Usage plugin (There are others, but this one worked fine for me). It shows you, among other data, the peak memory usage compared to the WP Memory Limit. You can also set a warning limit, i.e. the plugin will send you an email when the memory limit was exceeded. I found out that my WP Memory Limit was 32M, while the peak usage was almost 40M. So, here is one reason why the website wouldn’t respond at times.

The next question is, now that we know that the memory is insufficient, how do we increase it? Easy enough: Using your FTP program download the wp-config.php from the WordPress root directory. Use a regular text editor to add the line define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’); and upload it back to the website. If necessary you can increase the limit to ’128M’. It may make sense to check the amount of RAM on your server by asking your host’s tech support. In my case I saw an immediate improvement by going with the 64M setting.

If you have more than one website/blog accessing the same WP database (like under shared hosting) it makes sense to increase the PHP Memory Limit. To do so look for the php.ini file, download and edit it. Find the line that starts with memory_limit = and change it to a higher value. For instance, from memory_limit = 64M to memory_limit = 128M. However, be careful with that setting. I crashed my websites and changed it back to 64M. In order for the setting to become active you need to reset the database server. Please contact your tech support to find out how.

Note: On the 1&1 dedicated server that I am using I don’t have direct access to the php.ini file. When I called tech support the guy told me that this was outside of tech support, indicating he knew what to do, but wouldn’t tell me. However, the PHP Memory Limit is at 128M. The next problem was the Maximum Upload of 10M, which is a major restriction when it comes to importing WordPress posts. I will follow up on that issue later.

3. Plugins: Avoid extensive use of plugins. Make a decision which ones you need and which ones you can do without if necessary. Some plugins require little resources, others require a ton.

4. RSS Connections: I found that a major contributor to a slow website and frequent database crashes is an RSS plugin that loads posts from other websites. In my case I copy posts between my websites, rather than manually copying and pasting. Please note that while the RSS plugin connects to another website, it will definitely slow down your website or even deny access.

5. Cache Plugins: One of the “magic” solutions I found was the implementation of a cache plugin to speed up your website. And yes, my website became blazingly fast, but my web traffic fell by at least 30%. A decreasing web traffic is not necessarily caused by the cache plugin per default, but more likely by setting the wrong parameters, especially when you don’t fully understand their meaning. In my case I determined I didn’t have the time (and patience) to research the proper setting of the cache plugin. I am doing just as fine without.

In general, if your WordPress blog reaches a certain size, you will most certainly run into problems, unless you engage into a number of corrective actions. And even then you may not be fully satisfied. Further actions (like switching to a dedicated server) depend on how important your WordPress blog is to you and how much you are willing to invest. In my case, I spend currently $60 per month for the dedicated server, but I also earn roughly $100 per month through advertisement. The main purpose of FrogenYozurt.Com, however, is to create attention to my product line, i.e. the literature I publish. I need the 3,000 page views per month (and hopefully more in the future) to keep and improve my sales.

For further articles on blogging see Professional Blogging.

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Vampire Ascending

by Lorelei Bell Sabrina Strong is a Touch Clairvoyant who knows a secret. She knows her mother was turned into a vampire when Sabrina was ten. Now that she is grown up, a powerful magnate in the Chicago business world hires her to reveal the identity of who relentlessly murders vampires in his ultra-modern stronghold of a hotel. [Read More...] – Including an excerpt of the first chapter.

Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

I found the following on the website of the Cornell University Law School:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Source: Cornell University Law School

Note that I included a hyperlink and referenced the source.

Images

As a blogger you should know better than scraping images from other websites. If you write an article on a specific topic try to find proper images through free resources such as Google or Wikipedia, who include proper copyright information. I, personally, get many of my images through bigstockphoto.com. Yes, it does cost me roughly a Dollar or two per image, but it comes with a piece of mind.

Articles

Let me just produce another example of what I understand as fair use:

Enforcing Copyrights Online, for a Profit

The New York Times – May 2, 2011 (Excerpt)

DENVER — When Brian Hill, a 20-year-old blogger from North Carolina, posted on his Web site last December a photograph of an airport security officer conducting a pat-down, a legal battle was the last thing he imagined.

A month later, Mr. Hill received an e-mail from a reporter for The Las Vegas Sun who was looking into a Nevada company that files copyright lawsuits for newspapers. The e-mail informed Mr. Hill that he was one of those that the company, Righthaven, was suing. Though the airport photo had gone viral before Mr. Hill plucked it off the Web, it belonged to The Denver Post, where it first appeared on Nov. 18.

Mr. Hill took down the photo. He was too late. A summons was delivered to his house. The lawsuit sought statutory damages. It did not name a figure, but accused Mr. Hill of “willful” infringement, and under federal copyright law up to $150,000 can be awarded in such cases.

“I was shocked,” Mr. Hill said. “I thought maybe it was a joke or something to scare me. I didn’t know the picture was copyrighted.”

Over the last year, as newspapers continue to grapple with how to protect their online content, Righthaven has filed more than 200 similar federal lawsuits in Colorado and Nevada over material posted without permission from The Denver Post or The Las Vegas Review-Journal. [Read the full article...]

Note that I included a hyperlink and made clear that this is only an excerpt from a New York Times article.

Nevertheless, as the New York Times article proves, fair use is not a protection against some ruthless sharks in the business. After reading the article I amended my disclaimer on the bottom to:

All content on this website has been posted under the impression that they do not infringe any copyrights. However, if this site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner, we believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Should you suspect a copyright infringement or any other legal issues with posts on this website, please contact the editor through the contact form as indicated on the top navigation bar, and we will remove the post immediately. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

If you are a blogger, please feel free to copy my version of a disclaimer. However – and there are many “howevers” – the disclaimer as shown does not guarantee full protection from law suits, and it does definitely not protect you from ruthless copying and pasting. As a blogger you must always be double cautious when it comes to citing external resources. There is no secret formula to protect you 100%.

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Vampire Ascending

by Lorelei Bell Sabrina Strong is a Touch Clairvoyant who knows a secret. She knows her mother was turned into a vampire when Sabrina was ten. Now that she is grown up, a powerful magnate in the Chicago business world hires her to reveal the identity of who relentlessly murders vampires in his ultra-modern stronghold of a hotel. [Read More...] – Including an excerpt of the first chapter.

Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

This morning I read an intriguing article in the New York Times – and yes, I reached the 20 pages-for-free-limit and I still read more without paying. How? Well, that’s another story and shall be told another time… Anyways…

Let me state upfront that it is not my intention to show any disrespect to the victims of the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, Arizona that left 6 people dead and 13 injured. I feel, nevertheless, disturbed by the before-mentioned article:

An Arizona Senate Race Waits to See if Giffords Emerges to Run

The New York Times, March 30, 2011 (Excerpt)

TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords is still in the hospital, but some of her most ardent backers are so enamored of the idea of her running for the Senate that they describe the inevitable campaign commercials: the deep-voiced narrator recounting what happened to her, the images of her wounded, then recovering and speaking into the camera alongside her astronaut husband to call on Arizonans to unite.

:

…several of Ms. Giffords’s longtime aides are whispering behind the scenes that she just might recover in time to run for the seat that Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, is vacating next year.

While it might be wishful thinking, Ms. Giffords’s noncampaign is already having a major effect on Arizona politics; other prospective Democratic candidates say they feel compelled not to jump in unless she bows out, allowing Republicans to get a head start organizing their campaigns.

:

With a question mark beside her name in the Senate race, other Democratic hopefuls are working behind the scenes as carefully as they can, lining up support in case Ms. Giffords decides to stay out while taking care not to appear disrespectful to the candidate that the Democratic establishment here believes would have the best chance of winning.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/us/politics/31giffords.html

And bla, bla, bla… I, personally, find all these rumored behind-the-curtain activities despicable, to put it diplomatically. But it also shows the ruthlessness of the political system in these United States. I mean, how far will these politicians go to assure victory? And just for the record, I call myself a moderate liberal, and my wife is a registered Republican, meaning, no, I am not out to point at a specific party.

Nevertheless, here is enough material for a new novel to write for someone with knowledge of the political scenery. Being the cynic that I occasionally am, I have come up with the perfect title: The Dead Candidate, in the nature of Dead Man Walking. I believe, it would be pure fun to write about the background activities of the MYMN (Maybe Yes, Maybe No) party waiting for their candidate, who lies in a coma, to either die or run for election, while the KEA (Kill ‘em All) party is having a ball raising funds for their candidate.

If you feel inclined to write that novel, please feel free to contact me (or not), and if it’s good, I might even publish it for you.

In the meantime I wish Ms. Gifford and the other victims a quick recovery, physically and mentally. My thoughts are also with the people who were killed and their families.

Regards,
Wilfried F. Voss

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Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

With all the Tweeting, Facebook Liking, and LinkedIn connecting going on, it’s easy to forget about blogging and finding the time to do so. Blogging, however, can be extremely useful for more reasons than just populating your website with content (although that’s important too). Let’s look at some reasons why you must blog and why it should matter to you!

Blogging gives “voice” to a website: In an age where there are millions of websites and millions more coming online each month, how can you stand apart from the crowd? One way is to get a great-looking site, but as we all know, sometimes budgets allow just the basics. A blog can then step in and (through your voice) give content and character to any website, regardless of how fancy or plain it might be. In fact, some of the best blogs have carried the success of many a less-than-spectacular website.

Content marketing: We all know that we need to create content and lots of it, but who has the time? Well, now you can use your blog as a content-creating machine. You can develop original content there and push it out to different areas. For example, I will sometimes use my blog posts for Twitter updates, Facebook updates, and article syndication.

Search engine candy: Blogs are great optimization tools. Search engines (especially Google) love sites that are updated frequently. One easy and quick way to do that is via a blog. Each time you update your blog it pings the search engines and tells them the content on your site has been updated.

Social media must: If you’re going to tweet, or want to be liked on Facebook, there’s no two ways about it, you must have a blog. That’s the site you send them to for your complete content, where they can comment, become a follower and help you grow your tribe.

Blogger friendly: If you’re going to pitch bloggers, you must first have a blog. Love bloggers? Be a blogger first. Similar to the step above, you can become active on other blogs, commenting and sharing ideas, and attract them back to yours where they can return the favor. By the time you pitch them, you’re not just another email in an inbox, you’re someone they know and like.

Be an industry leader: It’s hard to be a leader in the industry if you don’t have a voice. A blog can give you a voice. Also, by blogging on your market, you can stay in touch with your market and hot topics much easier. Stay dialed in, stay current: a blog can help you do that.

Media, speaking: I’ve gotten media interviews and speaking gigs from my blog. If you blog enough and on interesting, relevant issues, you can gain some serious momentum for not only your website, but your career as well.

The competitive edge: No matter what category you publish under, there is always a lot of competition. Yes, you can compete with a better cover, a better book, but on your website a blog will help define you as the author in a unique way that a book category can’t. When you’re in a cluttered market, like dating, dieting, or finance, a blog can really help to define and refine your message.

Credibility: Blogs are great credibility builders. Getting on topic and giving your opinion (and yes, being different) can really help to build your footing and credibility in the marketplace.

Site traffic/SEO: Aside from what a blog can do for your site as it relates to Google, an active blog can also help to increase site traffic and help further optimize the site. It’s a fantastic tool for getting your site better links, traffic, and a higher ranking in search engines.

So now that I’ve convinced you to blog, I want to refer you to another piece I’ve written on blogging called “How to Become a Powerhouse Blogger in 15 Minutes,”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/how-to-become-a-powerhous_b_765327.html. I hope that this piece, along with the tips provided above, will help you launch or reinvigorate your blogging campaign.

Good luck and Happy Blogging!

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

You might be surprised how big your author’s platform might be already. There are many different types of platforms, but they all basically mean that you have a built-in audience or fan base of people who are poised and ready to buy your book as soon as it comes out.

As Marcela Landres says in her book, How Editors Think: The Real Reason They Rejected You, “It’s not who you know, but who knows you.” That idea is at the core of having a strong platform.

It’s important to think about this from the publisher’s point of view in order to see just how crucial your platform is in landing you a book deal. Publishers are in the business of selling books; thousands of dollars are poured into printing costs and overhead, so they want to be sure that this book will pay off. After all, their jobs are on the line.

If you are a blogger that has at least 10,000 readers who make a point to read your work daily, or someone who regularly goes on the speaking circuit, talking to thousands of people at a time, it’s likely that you have a strong enough platform for an agent and publisher to back up. Other examples of platforms include: if you had a previously self-published book that sold at least 5,000 to 10,000 copies, or if you were once the president of a large company, association or non-profit, and continue to have the support of others in your group.

There are tons of ways that you can create a platform for yourself, but no matter which approach you take, you have to make sure that there is enough publicity and buzz surrounding you to guarantee the success of your work.

Tip by Jeff Rivera, who is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com. With over 100 clients to date, he has a 100% track record of getting at least 10 literary agents to request to read his client’s manuscripts and proposals.