Promoting your Indie eBook

The following list was compiled by GalleyCat and posted by Jason Boog

And -- be warned -- it mostly applies only if:

(a) your eBook is free

(b) you have at least 5 reviews on amazon.com

Free Sites for eBook Promotion

Addicted to eBooks: “This website is perfect for readers like me, who want to watch their book budget. This website also allows the author to rate some of the content of their book. I want to know before I buy if a book the level of profanity, violence or sex in a book. I’m excited that authors can now rate their books for the readers.”

AppNewser Free eBooks of the Week: Our editors pick a few free eBooks every week. To submit email your pitch to appnewser [at] mediabistro [dot] com.

Author Marketing Club: “No longer do you have to dig up your links to the best places to submit your books. We’ve put them all together here for you in one spot. Just click on the logos below to load each site’s form, fill in your details, and you’re done.”

Bargain eBook Hunter: “If your title is currently FREE on Amazon, we want to know about it! Simply use the Contact Form to let us know about your free title and we will consider listing it on our site. There is NO COST to you if you contact us and we choose to post your free book. We accept all genres except erotica.”

Books on The Knob: “Bargain reads, free ebooks and book reviews for the Amazon Kindle, nook, Kobo, Sony and other ereaders, Kindle Fire, nookColor, Kobo Vox, and other tablets, along with some games, music, technology and computers tossed in now and then.”

The Cheap: “This website was created in an attempt to let other Barnes and Noble NOOK users know that there really are plenty of deal priced books for NOOK readers. Here at the Cheap we, a group of deal scouting women, inform you of free and low-cost books. These change frequently so please be sure to check in often. We do our best to share only legitimate offers.”

Digital Book Today: Includes both free and paid options for writers looking to promote.

eReader News Today: Features bargain Kindle books and free Kindle books.

Flurries of Words: “we have both FREE and PAID advertising options (apologies but we do not accept porn or erotica books). There are currently five FREE advertising options available: 1) Free Book Find (for permanently or temporarily free books) 2) 99 Cent Book (for permanently or temporarily 99 cent books) 3) Bargain Deal (for books over $0.99 but under $4.99–either permanently or temporarily) 4) Indie New Releases (for books newly released within the past 30 days) … 5) BOOK OF THE DAY”

FreeBooksy: If you find an ebook you think our Freebooksy readers should know about please let us know in the form below. And if you are an author and you want to tell the world about your free ebook fill out the form in the Authors section and we’ll take a look at your book.

Frugal Reader: “Please use the form below to submit your FREE books to be considered for a featured FREEBIE post. Submitting your novel does not guarantee that your book will be featured. Please allow as much lead time as possible as I know these are limited time offers. Please note that I feature most genres, and while I may feature romance titles that include sexual scenes, I don’t feature titles that strictly fall under the erotica genre.”

Kindle Daily Deal: “Let’s get the word out about your wonderful books on Kindle to my 13,000+ followers. I am a fellow author and I’d love to help promote your books. I enjoy reading as much as writing, and feel it’s important to support my friends. Currently, this service is FREE to you, but in return for adding your book(s), I’m hoping you reciprocate by buying my latest book containing funny essays about relationships…”

Free Kindle Books & Tips: “If you are an author and would like to have your book promoted (for free) on our site, please fill out the form below: your book must be free in the Amazon Kindle Store and must have an average user rating of at least 4 out of 5 stars for consideration. Please note each book submitted cannot be promoted due to space limitations on a particular day, but if your book is selected we will contact you at the email address you provide below.”

Free eBooks Daily: “I love to hear from authors and readers! If you have a comment, suggestion, or free ebook you would like listed or if you just want to say hello, feel free to send me an email.”

Free Erotica: “This form is for erotic eBook submissions, ONLY. If you have more than one book to promote, fill out the form separately for each book. – If you have not scheduled all of your free dates, feel free to come back again and fill out the form. – Please give me at least two days advanced notice.”

GalleyCat Facebook Page: You can post your book in our New Books section, an easy way to share your book with our readers.

Indie Books List: “If you submit an excerpt with less than 1,500 words, we will delete it. Due to the high number of submissions we receive, we may not have time to email every person who submits a shorter excerpt to ask for another one. Please – look at your word count before uploading. If you would like to be considered for both Indie Books List, and Only Romance…you must submit using each site’s submission form. There are now two separate submission forms, when there used to be just one.”

Meet Our Authors Forum: A place on Amazon where writers can talk about their work.

Pixel of Ink: “If your book will be listed as Free ($0.00) on Amazon.com in the next 30 days, then please let us know by filling out the form below. Pixel of Ink may attempt to feature your book on the day it is free, time and space permitting.

Spicy Romance: Fill out the submission form, send a 600 to 3,000 word excerpt and a cover image.

New Simon's Cat book

Yes, Simon's Cat is between the covers again

The new book is called Simon's Cat vs the World and you can win your own copy, according to the latest post from the maestro



Colouring Competition

On Thursday October 4th, we will see the launch of Simon’s 4th book - ‘Simon’s Cat Vs THE WORLD!’

This latest addition is particularly special, as it is the first Simon’s Cat book to be in full, glorious technicolour!

To celebrate the book’s launch and to give fans the opportunity to win a signed copy, Simon Tofield will be running a colouring competition throughout October.

To enter simply download the uncoloured image from HERE , then colour it either digitally or by hand. Then scan or photograph your finished work and upload it to our Community Page with ‘Col. Comp / Name / Age’. Alternatively, if you would prefer not to set up a Simon’s Cat website account, you can enter via email or standard post. Please read the Competition Rules for full details.

GOOD LUCK!

Story of a Renoir, lost and found

It looked like the bargain of the year, but then it turned into Oops! 



The BBC reveals the unravelling of a truly marvellous story of riches found and then lost

Back on September 8, it was reported that a painting bought at a flea market in Virginia might turn to be a work by French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

It was bought by a woman as part of a box lot that included a doll and a plastic cow, and cost about $50.  Taking a close look at the tiny painting after she got home (it is so very pretty) she noticed a plaque on the gold frame announcing that it was a Renoir, so she took it to a local auction house. Excited, they took a closer look themselves, and decided it was Renoir's "Paysage Bords de Seine" - a river scene - painted about 1879.  Measuring just 14 by 23 centimetres, it seems it has a romantic story, having been painted on a linen napkin at a restaurant on the banks of the River Seine, and presented by the painter to his mistress.

According to the rest of the story delved up by the experts at the auction house, it had been bought from a Paris gallery by an American collector, Herbert May, in 1926. 

Even more excitingly, they announced that they expected it to sell for up to $100,000.

Enter the investigative reporter.

Ian Shapira, of the Washington Post, did some digging in the records, and discovered it had been loaned to the Baltimore Museum of Art by Mrs. Saidie May in 1937.

At that stage, the mystery deepens. According to the Museum's records, the painting was stolen in 1951, just after the death of Saidie May, who left her entire collection to the museum.  But, there is no evidence of a police report.

This has led to some embarrassment. "Obviously, we take our responsibility for our collections and the things entrusted to us very seriously," the museum's director, Doreen Bolger told Mr Shapira. "We have to do more research and get to the bottom of the real story, and we're still in the midst of that process.

So there are murky details still to come.  Meantime, the painting has been removed from the catalogue of the auction house.  And the lady who bought the Renoir for a song has been hit with a dose of harsh reality.

MICE

Downton Abbey prequel planned

Julian Fellowes, the writer behind the hit series Downton Abbey, is writing a prequel which follows how the Earl and Countess of Grantham first met.

"I do actually have an idea of doing a prequel of the courtship of Robert and Cora, when all those American heiresses were arriving in London.

"They had a slightly troubled courtship, because she was in love with him before they married, as we know, and he married her entirely for her money," said Fellowes, speaking at the Bafta Screenwriters' Lecture series.

"I sort of feel there's something quite nice in there because he's a decent cove, and so he feels rather guilty about this which has affected their marriage beyond that."

Fellowes spoke of the prequel in book form, but - given the success of Downton Abbey - a TV adaptation seems almost certain.

The period drama, now in its third series, has proved a huge hit for ITV, and the broadcaster is keen to extend Downton's longevity - though it is rumoured that leading characters such as Dan Stevens are likely to leave the show at the end of the current series.

The spin-off drama would cast a pair of younger actors in the roles, currently played by Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, as his American wife.

Inter alia: Elizabeth McGovern is very sweet to look at, but let's hope the "younger" actress has somewhat more emotion in her face, and eloquence in her voice.

Read the BBC story

New Zealand's clocks go forward

Just in case you are phoning New Zealand next week

Even New Zealanders don't know about it.

The paper doesn't consider it news, and neither, as far as I can tell, does television.

So it is up to me to tell New Zealand and the world.

New Zealand daylight saving commences on Sunday 30 September, when at 2 a.m. the clocks go forward one hour.

Did you know that New Zealand was one of the first countries in the world to officially adopt a nationally observed standard time? New Zealand Mean Time, adopted on 2 November 1868, was set at 11 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. Greenwich Mean Time was established by British Railways in the 1840s but was not made Great Britain's standard time until 1880.

Origins of Daylight Saving in New Zealand

Entomologist and astronomer George Hudson was the earliest known advocate of daylight saving in New Zealand. Hudson presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895 advocating for seasonal time adjustment. However society members ridiculed his idea. It was not until 1909 that the issue was next raised, by Parliamentarian Hon Sir Thomas Sidey who argued for putting clocks forward by one hour during summer so that there would be an additional hour of daylight in the evenings.

In that year he introduced a Member’s Bill to put this idea into effect. The Bill was rejected, but Sidey was persistent, reintroducing it every year for the next 20 years. It almost became law in 1915 and again in 1926 when it was passed by the House of Representatives, but was rejected by the Legislative Council (which was New Zealand’s upper house of Parliament until 1951).

During the second reading of his Summer Time Bill in 1926, Sidey argued that:
the extra hour of daylight after working-hours during the summer months is of especial value to indoor workers and the community as a whole as it gives one additional hour for recreation of all kinds, whether playing games or working in garden plots…one cannot overlook the economic advantages that will also accrue. There will be a saving in the consumption of artificial light.

Much of the debate in the House of Representatives centered on the impact on people in rural areas
and women in particular.

Opponents of the Bill commented that:
[Summer Time] will bring no happiness to the women of New Zealand who live in the backblocks. [the Bill] does not make the case for now requiring the wife of the working-man to get up an hour earlier in order to get her husband away to his work.

In 1927 Sidey was successful. The passing of the Summer Time Act that year authorised the advancement of clocks by one hour between 6 November 1927 and 4 March 1928. The Act was only operative for one year, and when the Summer Time Act 1928 was passed extending the period of summer time from 14 October 1928 to 17 March 1929, the period of advancement was changed to just half an hour. This made New Zealand Summer Time 12 hours in advance of Greenwich Mean Time.

The Summer Time Act 1929 enacted the provision of a 30-minute time advance from the second Sunday in October to the third Sunday in March the following year. In 1933 the period was extended from the first Sunday in September to the last Sunday in April of the following year. This continued until 1941, when the period of Summer Time was extended by emergency regulations to cover the whole year. This change was made permanent in 1946 by the Standard Time Act.

Cartoon of T.K Sidey from New Zealand Free Lance, 30 September 1911. Courtesy of www.nzhistory.net.nz

Romance rules in Indie eBook sales

Amazon Self-Published Bestsellers for the Week of Monday, September 24, 2012

(List compiled by GalleyCat. Last week’s rank in parentheses)

1. On Dublin Street by Samantha Young: “Burying the grief, ignoring her demons, and forging ahead without any real attachments has worked well for her so far but when Joss moves into a fantastic apartment on Dublin Street, her carefully guarded world is shaken to its core by her new roommate’s sexy older brother.” (2)

2. Our Husband by Stephanie Bond: “Three women from different walks of life–a doctor, a socialite, and a stripper–find out they have one thing in common: a husband!” (1)

3. Better Off Without Him by Dee Ernst: “Mona Berman is a best-selling Romance writer and happy endings are what she does best. So when her husband of twenty years leaves her for somebody 15 years younger, 20 pounds lighter, and French, she’s got a lot of adjusting to do.” (3)

4. Naked by Raine Miller: “An American art student at the University of London and part-time photographic model, Brynne Bennett’s putting her life back on track with school and lots of hard work. When ultra successful London businessman, Ethan Blackstone, buys her nude portrait, he isn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer.”

5. The Mighty Storm by Samantha Towle: “It’s been twelve years since Tru Bennett last saw Jake Wethers, her former best friend and boy she once loved. Jake Wethers, sexy, tattooed and deliciously bad lead singer, and brains behind The Mighty Storm, one of biggest bands in the world, left Tru with a broken heart.” (6)

6. Taking Chances by Molly McAdams: “Eighteen year old Harper has grown up under her career Marine of a father’s thumb. Ready to live life her own way and experience things she’s only ever heard of from the jarheads in her father’s unit; she’s on her way to college at San Diego State University. ” (4)

7. I Think I Love You by Stephanie Bond: ”Sisters share everything in their closets, including the skeletons…”

8. License to Thrill by Stephanie Bond: “He wasn’t the man she wanted to trust…but when the stakes turn deadly, it’s nice to have a hard body between her and trouble!”

9. Let Me Be The One by Bella Andre: “an unexpected friends-to-lovers romance might not only turn out to be so much hotter than anything bad boy pro baseball player Ryan Sullivan has ever known … but much, much sweeter, too.” (8)

10. This Same Earth by Elizabeth Hunter: “Beatrice De Novo thought she had left the supernatural world behind… for the most part. But when the past becomes the present, will she leave her quiet life in Los Angeles to follow a mystery she thought had abandoned her?”

Wellington is like the Tardis...

The Lonely Planet and the Coolest Little Capital in the World

"Like the Tardis, it looks small from the outside, but inside it holds big surprises"

--Lonely Planet 

The bestselling guide to our planet has raved about our town again.

After declaring Wellington the "coolest little capital" last year, the 16th edition praises the city's "compact and vibrant" downtown for its stimulating mix of theaters, galleries, boutiques, and museums, along with its "cocktail-and-caffeine" cafe scene that "fizzes and pops" with energy.

There are five must-sees, they say.

Of course, Weta Cave comes first, being the mini-museum of no less than The Lord of the Rings and all the other mind-boggling Peter Jackson productions.

Our harbor ferry is also highly recommended.  Personally, I love a day at Matiu Island in the middle of the harbor, followed by the spectacular return to Queen's Wharf.

Wellington shows off a number of intriguingly off-beat living sculptures.  My favorite is the silver fern-leaf ball that floats above Civic Square, but the Lonely Planet people love the Len Lye water whirler.

And of course a day trip to the wine region of Martinborough in the Wairarapa is a must.

The Dowse Art Museum gets the big mention. Te Papa is always popular, too, but my favorites are the Museum of Wellington, City and Sea in the Bond Store on Queen's Wharf, and the Pataka Museum in Porirua.

There are six other recommendations:

Unity Books In Willis Street -- "Setting the standard for every bookshop in the land."

Sweet Mother's Kitchen -- "it's clean, cute, has craft beer and good sun"

Malthouse (more beer)

Shinobi Sushi Lounge "Japanese training and Kiwi flair combine to create the most exciting sushi joint in town"

Hunters & Collectors -- "off-the-rack and vintage clothing"

Bats Theatre -- "Wildly alternative"

Admiral Nelson artifact found in jammed drawer

Horatio Nelson is eternally newsworthy

If a cribbage board owned by just about anyone else was accidentally discovered, it would be non-news.

But a cribbage board with provenance linking it to not just Admiral Nelson, but the Battle of Trafalgar, too, was serendipitously found, then it's breathtaking.  Like the junior royals of today, the hero of the Nile, the subject of scandal in his time and countless books since, is always worth a headline.

Cribbage board Nelson used before he pegged out at Trafalgar is found in jammed drawer of Victorian desk bought for £30

Blares the Daily News online.

The story itself is one of those great human interest tales.  A small museum wanted to get a few items into working order so they would be easier to sell.  Included in those items was a Victorian desk with a jammed drawer.  Toby Jenkins, a helpful staff member at the auction house, prised it open, and lo and behold, there was a neat little cribbage board.

It was made of bone, which makes it intriguing.  Even more rivetingly, there was a note attached claiming that this was the very same cribbage board used by "Victory" Nelson and Admiral Quilliam during the run-up to the Battle of Trafalgar.  Well, it can be so boring waiting for a big battle to happen.

On the reverse there was a handwritten label dated around 1940s in appearance stating the name of the donor as Byron S.G Penn.

 

Handwritten in ink next to that label were the words: 'The cribbage board used by Victory Nelson & Admiral Quilliam'

At first, as Mr. Jenkins admitted, it seemed too good to be true.  Then a search through National Archives turned up Byron S.G. Penn.  Hopefully, this is provenance enough, as the auction could fetch many, many thousands more than the usual cribbage board, even one made of bone.


You can read the full story, plus pictures, HERE.

How much should you charge for your eBook?

Ninety-nine cents or eight dollars, ninety-nine?

BookBaby has an excellent guide to eBook pricing. An interesting extract follows. Apply for the entire guide (at no cost) HERE.

Think about percentages

One of the biggest factors to consider in pricing your eBook is the percentage of sales you’ll receive from the retailers. Amazon pays out a royalty of 70% on all Kindle titles priced between $2.99 to $9.99. For eBooks priced below $2.99 and above $9.99, Amazon pays out only 35%. Most of the other eBook retailers have similar price banding.

To encourage more readers with a low price and still get the 70% royalty, you would set your price to $2.99. Every sale will yield you a net royalty of $2.09 per sale.

If you opt to maximize your exposure and price your book at $0.99, then you’ll get 35 cents per sale. In order to get $2.09 in royalties with a book priced at $0.99, you’ll have to sell 6 books. If you sell 1,000 books at $2.99, then you’ll make $2,090. If you are contemplating a price drop to $0.99, then you’ll have to sell 5,972 books to make the same net royalties you did when it was priced at $2.99.
But writing and publishing an eBook is more than just numbers, dollars, and cents. These kinds of royalty calculations are only one factor in the success of an eBook. Why do some author’s price their book at 99¢ when the math seems to be so against that model?

A few reasons to price your book at 99¢:

• It’s only 99¢, what’s the risk? An impulse-priced book allows a reader take a chance on a book that looks interesting. If you’re an unknown author trying to build your readership base, this might be the answer. While $3.99 doesn’t sound like a lot, it does mean the difference between 1 book and 4 books for the purchaser.

• an easier path to best-seller status. To rise atop the Amazon rankings is the Holy Grail quest for most every author. Amazon counts book sales units, not revenue. Setting your price at the impulse level of $0.99 could help you creep up in the ranking and gain visibility there — visibility you might not have gotten if you kept your book price higher.

• Success begets success. When you visit your book page, you’ll see a section that says “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought.” The real value for you is when your book appears in that section on other successful books. Amazon will list up to 100 books in this section and readers will often scroll through that list to discover other books that look interesting. Again, a drop of 99¢ may be the catalyst to increase your sales enough to land you in that section on some popular books.

Those are a few of the arguments for dropping your Kindle book price to 99¢. Of course pricing is only one factor in the success of a book. There’s no guarantee your 99¢ book will attract hundreds of new readers — that’s why it’s important to continue to market your book and actively seek out ways to get it in front of new readers.

So what should you charge for your book?

As the back-and-forth pricing arguments attest, there is no easy answer. It depends on your genre, your commitment to marketing, and the prevailing winds of the marketplace at any given time or place. New authors who are trying to find a readership can use the low price strategy to great success.
If you have a series, you may want to lower the first book in the series to entice people to give you a try. Other books can then be priced higher because you are no longer a new author to those who have purchased your book.

And if you’re an established author finding success with eBooks, think long and hard about changing your book pricing strategy. If you are seeing success at one price, think hard before trying to cash in on a higher price. You don’t want to kill the momentum of your sales which may be a hard thing to restart if you do.

Like the rest of the eBook world, we’re in a rapidly evolving environment when it comes to eBook pricing. Things are so new, and changing so quickly, that pricing strategies can be outdated in the blink of an eye. One of the great things for authors who self-publish their eBooks is the ability to change the price, test different price points, and react to the market demand.