Book Marketing

Kindle Countdown: What’s the Deal?

Just some further explanation for Kindle’s “Countdown Deal,” following Katherine’s excellent article. We strive for complete coverage!

I got this awesome summary in a newsletter called “Self Publisher Daily,” which is put out by James Jones. James is the inventor of eBook Niche Explorer, an Amazon-specific keyword tool that I can’t recommend highly enough, so I’m not surprised that he also has a super-awesome newsletter.

James gave me permission to reprint this article, which I super appreciate. Enjoy!

Kindle Countdown Deals
By Ashley Zee

Want to entice potential customers to buy your book(s) with a great deal that only lasts for a limited time? Amazon recently announced the arrival of Kindle Countdown Deals, a type of sale that allows publishers to arrange for their books to be discounted for a set amount of time.

The Kindle Countdown Deals can last up to a week and are a very targeted kind of sale that is designed to boost conversion and purchases (the success of various flash-sales sites across the internet are testament to this sales model) but it has some stipulations. While the Countdown Deals definitely have the potential to be effective weapons in your marketing arsenal, here are some things to be mindful of…

First and foremost, there are two big KDP Select criteria your book must meet. The book MUST be enrolled in KDP Select for at least 30 days prior to the promotion. You can’t publish a book and then give it a Countdown Deal on the same day. The other KDP Select requirement is that the last day for your Countdown Deal must be at least 14 days before the KDP Select 90-day period ends.

Here’s your timeline…

Publish your book and enroll it in KDP Select. Wait 30 days. Out of your 90-day KDP Select enrollment period you now have 60 days remaining. For Countdown Select scheduling purposes completely disregard those first 30 days since you can’t do anything during that time. It’s like they don’t even exist….

Effectively, you have 60 days to use Kindle Countdown Deals when it is in KDP Select.

Your Countdown Deal must be over before the last two weeks of the KDP Select enrollment period, so out of those 60 remaining days 14 of those days must be subtracted immediately. You now have 46 days to utilize the Countdown Deal.

But wait! The promo must end on day 46, and since each Countdown Deal can last 7 days (it can be shorter, but let’s assume you want it to run the maximum amount of time), the latest you can initiate a week-long Countdown Deal would be on day 39 (of the remaining 60). If you want a shorter Countdown Deal you can initiate it after this time, but once there’s 14 days left in the KDP Select enrollment you cannot use Countdown Deals. So you have a total of 39 days to initiate a weeklong campaign for Kindle Countdown.

If you kept the first 30 days of Kindle Select in the equation, the last day to start a weeklong Kindle Countdown Deal would be day 69 of the 90 day period. If you want a shorter Countdown Sale these figures change a bit.

And one more curveball, just for good measure: According to Amazon, if “…you renew your book in KDP Select for another consecutive 90-day period, the latest end time of your Kindle Countdown Deals may be the last day of your current KDP Select period.” If this is your plan of action you can start your Countdown Deal with two weeks left to your current KDP Select period. You have a bit more freedom in when you want to initiate your Countdown Deal, but the trade-off is that your book will only be available on KDP Select for a longer period of time.

If you plan on continuously enrolling in KDP Select, keep in mind that you can only do one Countdown Deal every 90 days.

Here’s an informative example of how Kindle Countdown Deals work…

Let’s talk about the price criteria for Countdown Deals. To qualify for this sale, your book’s normal price must be $2.99 – $24.99. If your book is listed on the UK domain it must be priced from £1.99 – £14.99. Unfortunately only books listed on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk are eligible for Countdown Deals at this time. Don’t be surprised when Countdown Deals becomes available for Amazon marketplaces. It’s only a matter of time.

You cannot have a free promotion and a countdown promotion within the same 90 day Kindle Select period. Furthermore, the price of your book cannot have been changed for 30 days prior to the sale commencing, and you cannot change the regular price of your book for 14 days after the Countdown Deal has ended.

These are fairly strict rules but they are in place to prevent people from gaming the system – if a book is always on sale, it cheapens the perceived value of the book and of the entire Countdown Deal process. Once you set the parameters for the sale (duration and price changes) and start the sale you cannot stop or change it.

The minimum discount you can give your book is $1 (though if you are only offering a dollar off your normal price don’t expect to see a boost in sales. That’s stingy and it won’t be rewarded). You can arrange for 5 different prices over the course of your Countdown Deal, but each price must be “live” for at least one hour.

Yet despite these rules and quirks there are some huge potential benefits to participating in Kindle Countdown Deals.

The biggest reason is that you get the full 70% commission, even on books that are discounted to 99 cents (which is the lowest price you can discount to, by the way). That’s a nice commission rate for a deal which should generate lots of traffic and conversions.

Furthermore, Amazon will make sure the Countdown Deal is clearly visible on the sales page. One of the best buying-triggers for potential customers is to see the sale “countdown” price in relation to its normal retail value. It forces people to act quickly.

Amazon has also mentioned that some of the books featured on the Kindle Countdown Deals page will have automated Amazon campaigns too.

Stay tuned for more information regarding this – Amazon hasn’t said too much more on the subject yet, but if it is possible to increase your chances of getting your book featured in this way we at Self Publisher Today will definitely let you know.

Until next time!

Ashley Zee

http://www.SelfPublisherToday.com

https://www.facebook.com/SelfPublisherToday

Book Marketing

Wattpad’s Dark Side!

No Comments

In comments to my first Wattpad post, I was asked about the age demographic on Wattpad and whether it is appropriate for all content. It is true that the age group most heavily represented on Wattpad appears to be the younger readers, in specific young female readers. This is not by any means ALL of the users, but it is a large number. As a result, Wattpad has (wisely) taken steps to ensure the content is clearly labeled and managed such that under-age eyes are not given access to inappropriate materials in a willy-nilly fashion. The restrictions are clearly listed out in their Content Guidelines but are pretty simple if you are familiar with the movie/TV rating system. Ratings can be G, PG, PG-13 or R. Yes, you have correctly noticed that there is no X rating. Erotica is prohibited on Wattpad at present. So let’s look a little closer at Wattpad’s dark side.

Writers are asked to rate their content as it is being uploaded, however, it is clear based on what I read on the support forum that Wattpad systems often police the content, and will adjust the rating accordingly.

Additionally, should a certain post or content be deemed in appropriate, it will be removed, or locked down. Locked down content can only be seen by the followers of an author, and/or sent to followers privately. In other words, largely negates the entire point of being on Wattpad as no one can find the content without having already found it.

From a conversation I had with the Wattpad crew, my understanding is that content not suitable for all eyes will also not be chosen as featured content. If it is truly considered adult, it will not even be discoverable, and will only be accessed by a direct link (assuming it is allowed to remain in the system at all).

All of which means to me, that like almost anything we advise regarding book marketing, there is no one size fits all here either: not all books or all authors will be happy and successful on Wattpad. Certain material will do better than others, and certain people will be more successful than others.

Additionally, material that is deemed as copywritten (copywrited?) by someone other than you, will also be deemed unsuitable. I am not speaking to plagiarism here (which is obviously also not permitted), I am referring to phrases and/or product names. One example I found in the customer service forum indicated that a user had used the term “Emerald City” in their piece, and the post was not permitted. In fact, she did not mean the Oz version at all (so changed it), but algorithms are only so smart, after all!

Perhaps it goes without saying, but certain content is completely restricted and will be removed – details are here per the Content Guidelines:

RESTRICTED MATERIAL:
Do not submit any material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially offensive, or is otherwise inappropriate. We will promptly remove any such material submitted to the service.

So, what happens if you go in not understanding all the rules and/or choose to do what you do, regardless? Well, I will let author Duke Miller tell you in his own words. Duke has, by the way, found his niche there and is having a grand time, regardless of stumbling into a mature restricted status! If mature content does not offend you, I highly recommend checking him out.

Duke Miller Says:

Wattpad has nothing labeled “Adult” it is only “Non-teen” and everything else is TEEN. So if you are writing about(for) teens, welcome to the ice-cream parlor. My abnormal uploads quickly earned me a “restricted mature” status. I was put into a box with all the other degenerates. It is hard to find me on Wattpad. My name and title produce “no matches”….

Two essential ingredients to a successful foray into Wattpadland are good content and time. When you go to upload your stupendous work, ONLY LOAD LITTLE CHUNKS, this is an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT. Attention spans are low, particularly on Wattpad. The reading font is simple text. So, build a following first, leave bits of cheese by the hole and then when the mice are milling around, let the cat attack. Time is more problematic. In the beginning, if you can’t devote at least 2 or 3 hours a day to Wattpad, your effort will be questionable. I would recommend scheduling a full week to get the account up and running and then an hour or so per day for maintenance. You are going to war. Wash your hair, wear a cap or helmet, get things in order before you sit down in front the computer. You must play music. It is REQUIRED. Also keep the drinks and food nearby. Once you get going, stick with it. Wattpadians quickly suss out dead accounts and nobody likes to be dead. After 9 days, I’m up to 520 reads, 86 comments, 25 Followers, 33 Following, and 55 Votes after eight days of turmoil. Buzz: it’s all about the exponential buzz of social networking. There is a price to be paid.

So, come look for me on Wattpad. If you can find me, tell me how you did it. It is a mystery to me how new people just entering the vast land of Wattpad can even find their own butts, much less a specific, toxic, restricted, mature only account like mine. Anyway, I am the guy handing out death like party invitations; looking for death in the corners of my room and knowing that it comes to me in small doses, in the flashes of my past. “Living and Dying With Dogs” is the way I die and I am dying in fragments, just like all of us: by the breath, heartbeat, thought, and word. It’s all there, on Wattpad, waiting for somebody to read the f—ing thing and vote.

Here, I will make it easier – Duke can be found here: http://www.wattpad.com/user/ddduke

What about you, what has your experience on Wattpad been?

Book Marketing

Interview With an Agent: Vicky Bijur

No Comments

First of all, here is a little bit about today’s interview subject, agent Vicky Bijur:

Vicky Bijur runs the Vicky Bijur Literary Agency, which she started in 1988. Vicky has served as president of the AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives) and is currently chair of its Ethics Committee. Among her clients are NY Times bestseller Laura Lippman, whose novel EVERY SECRET THING was just filmed with Dakota Fanning, Diane Lane, and Elizabeth Banks; NY Times bestseller Lisa Genova, author of STILL ALICE, chosen for 2013 World Book Night; James Sallis, whose novel DRIVE was the basis of the film starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan; NY Times bestseller Larry Gonick, who created THE CARTOON HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE; food blogger Ed Levine of Serious Eats.com; food blogger Kenji Alt of The Food Lab; Stella Parks of Bravetart.com; Steven Greenhouse, NY Times labor reporter; Margaret Maron, just chosen as Grandmaster by Mystery Writers of America; and the Estate of Patrick Dennis, whose AUNTIE MAME was just optioned for film by Tilda Swinton.

Q: When taking on a new author, how important is their internet/ social media presence? Is this now a “make or break” thing for you?

Whether or not a new client has a blog and website and Facebook Fan page and Twitter account is important. I need to know how internet-savvy the writer is. Is he or she aware of how much an author today has to do on his or her own? Is he or she up for, if not tweeting and blogging and posting, then at least one or two of those activities?

Q: When taking on a new author, do you look at sales/ reviews of their self-published books on Amazon?

If someone has self-published of course I’m going to see what the book’s rank is on Amazon. And ask the author about the sales. I am less interested in readers’ comments on Amazon, although perhaps I should pay more attention.

Q: How much do you work with authors in the digital space? That is to say, if an author can’t find a publisher, do you now consider it normal to help them put a book out themselves, or do you (like some agents) help your authors with that now?

We are all doing more and more of this: either working with digital publishers or advising authors on digitizing or sending out books ourselves to be digitized.

Q: How has agenting changed in the past five years?

Actually, I am not sure agenting has changed. We still strive to represent our writers to the best of our abilities. What has changed is the rate of change of information an agent has to keep up with, whether it’s the DOJ suit against publishers or ebook pricing or the effect on authors of the shrinking number of brick-and-mortar stores or the constant evolution in internet marketing.

Q: Are you seeing your authors selling more electronic books or print books?

I am seeing the whole range: fiction with surprisingly low ebook sales and fiction with more copies sold digitally than in print. Ebook sales of non-fiction depend so much on whether a book is mostly text or is heavily illustrated or is design-intensive that it is harder to generalize about non-fiction.

Q: For the most part, are you finding that authors are being more business-like in their approaches? That is to say, when authors come to you, do they already have their websites and networks in order, or do you help develop this?

I think most authors have become much more savvy. Most have websites, many of them blog. A lot of them tweet. They mostly have Facebook pages.

One thought: I think authors have to educate themselves about metadata. A useful exercise for authors: plug in relevant keywords (whatever themes/subjects your novel discusses) to Google and see if the Amazon link to your title comes up. Yes, other bookstores are important, but the Amazon link seems to be the litmus test. If it takes more than two pages to reach the Amazon link to your book you need to talk to your publisher about updating the metadata. Another exercise: plug in those keywords on Amazon to see if your book pops up.

Book Marketing

Interview with an author: Stephen Elliott

No Comments

Today we’re talking with author Stephen Elliott. In case you don’t already know his work, here’s a little about him:

Stephen Elliott is the director of the movie About Cherry. In 2013 he will direct an adaptation of his novel Happy Baby.

He is the the author of seven books including The Adderall Diaries and the novel Happy Baby. His writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, The Believer, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 and 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006.

He is also the founding editor of the popular online literary magazine The Rumpus.

For up to date information follow Stephen on Twitter or sign up to receiveThe Daily Rumpus, an email newsletter from The Rumpus.

BP: How did you get your first book published? How did you promote your first book? I think it was out through a small publisher, so did you set up a tour?

My first publisher, Boneyard Press, didn’t really promote my first book. It was a very small publisher and the book, Jones Inn, was mostly only available in comic book stores. I did two or three readings, mainly as a featured reader at open mic nights. Also a radio interview at KUSF.

SE: When did you feel like you were gaining traction as an author?

I had written three books— Jones Inn, A Life Without Consequences, and What It Means To Love You. I’d published Jones Inn with Boneyard but they’d misspelled my name so I was treating A Life Without Consequences as my first book. I sent them to the slush pile at MacAdam/Cage and they offered me $18,000 for each book. So that was a big deal. A month or two later I was awarded a Stegner Fellowship for emerging writers at Stanford. So it all really happened very quickly. Suddenly I thought I was a writer and this was something I could do with my life, which I had not thought before.

BP: Any noteworthy successes/ roadblocks in your career? For instance, if you got rejected a lot of times or when your publisher went out of business, or if people said mean stuff to you about your writing.

You can’t publish a book without people saying mean things about it. If nobody says anything mean about your book then very few people are reading it. Since I didn’t use an agent and I didn’t do an MFA I wasn’t well connected and was frequently rejected. I had to rely on/have faith in the slush pile.

The biggest success might have been Happy Baby, my fourth novel. It was edited and designed by McSweeney’s but distributed by MacAdam/Cage. That turned out to be a really bad idea. The book was basically not marketed at all, with very few reviews. You couldn’t purchase it at Borders if you wanted to, you couldn’t even order it (that used to matter). To make matters worse I was writing a book about the 2004 election and wasn’t available to do readings or really promote the book.

But it kept gaining momentum. There weren’t many reviews but the one’s that ran were pretty over the top. People that liked the book really liked it. At the end of the year it made a bunch of best of the year lists. I learned so much. I learned the importance of writing someone’s favorite book, and how that’s different from writing a book that people like. And I learned that if you do that you can break through the noise.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t work to get their stuff out there, but you’ve got to create a piece of art that at least some people love. If you don’t do that then all the marketing in the world won’t help. I’ve written books that a lot of people like but nobody is deeply passionate about. Those books have a limited lifespan.

BP: You have an organized presence online: a website, stephenelliott.com, Facebook fan page, twitter account, the Rumpus daily email. What’s your overall philosophy on marketing?

I think you should approach marketing the way you approach writing. You have to be creative. There’s no point in doing something that everyone else is doing. Also, play to your strengths. Don’t start a twitter account if you hate twitter. Don’t try to sell your book to people you don’t respect.

Q: Advice to authors just getting started?

Write every day, but don’t beat yourself up. If you write every day for at least 20 minutes you’ll become a good writer and people will want to publish your work.

Q: Any advice to people going it alone, i.e. self-publishing or going with an indie publisher so they’ll need to do all of their marketing themselves? You seem to do a lot of readings/ signings. Do you set those up yourself?

I’ve set up a lot of readings, definitely. Mostly because I like being on a stage. On my last book, The Adderally Diaries, I chose a smaller publisher, Graywolf, over a larger publisher, Norton, because I liked the editor at Graywolf. He seemed very real and he wanted the book more and we had similar viewpoints. Graywolf gave me $10,000 less than what Norton was offering ($20,000 instead of $30,000). But if I believe the book is the best it can possibly be then I don’t regret leaving money on the table. I do think The Adderall Diaries is a better book for having worked with Ethan at Graywolf, though part of me feels he owes me $10,000.

Book Marketing

Email Newsletter Tips for Authors

No Comments

I’m often asked by my author clients if they should include email newsletters as part of their self-promotion strategy. The answer is always an emphatic yes—if done the right way. Below, I identify tips to help you choose the right platform, build your list, and send out emails that will engage your readers—and never annoy them.

Choosing the Right Platform
As with pretty much any Web service, there are no shortage of options for email newsletters. Campaign Monitor is, in my opinion, the best email newsletter management system available. Newsletters are built and sent all through a simple Web interface, and after sending a newsletter, you can access robust results about who is reading your newsletters and what they are clicking on.

But I think Campaign Monitor’s best feature is the control it gives you over creating a unique template. If you have Web design experience, you have complete control over the HTML structure and style sheets. If you’re not, their robust template builder is a powerful tool that allows you to create a custom template through your browser. You can choose to pay monthly or by campaign. And prices vary based on the size of your list and number of times you wish to send.

MailChimp is another popular Web-based email newsletter service. It offers many of the same features as Campaign Monitor, but I have found that it is a little bit more difficult to create a custom design or break out of their template design offerings. But they are also less expensive than Campaign Monitor.

Building Your List
The key here is not to be a jerk. Because if you simply upload your entire address book into your email newsletter platform, that is exactly what you’re being. The CAN-SPAM laws define explicit rules for sending emails. Specifically, you must include a valid postal address, give the option to opt out of your list, and honor those requests promptly.

But most reputable email newsletter systems go further, requiring you to establish some sort of explicit permission before using their service. A good rule of thumb for whether your contacts are indeed kosher are if they are: obtained through a subscription form or an opt-in form; if they are emails from customers whom you have done business with during the past two years; or from business cards that you have received direct from the source. It might be tempting to dump in all the emails you can find, but keep in mind that you will do yourself no favors by sending people who haven’t given your consent unsolicited emails.

What Kind of Content?
Your templates must be built around the content that you include. So, consider the type of information you want to include and remember that you should never have more than 300 words per newsletter.

Consider creating unique templates for different types of content. If you are sending out an announcement exclusively to promote an author appearance or promotion, this might be best handled by a no-nonsense one-column template, like this one that HarperOne created to promote their top 10 Easter books.

If you have a lot of different pieces of information to include, you might want to have a template that includes different blocks and columns, like this one veteran mystery author Sara Paretsky used to promote the launch of her new book (above). Front-and-center is the cover and description. News about a recent appearance is in the block below. To the right, she uses her portrait and description to orient subscribers to her site and brand. Below that, she promotes her tour dates. Remember that copy works best in short blocks accompanied by a link.

Gretchen Rubin has done an exemplary job communicating and connecting with her readers through her email newsletter. Rubin offers a variety of options for email communication, depending on the level of engagement her readers wish to have. There is a monthly newsletter (with content like hot topics, useful tips, resolutions, and always an invitation to connect). There are daily inspirational quotes. Plus, there’s the opportunity to engage further as a super fan, join the book club, or just receive blog posts by email.

Engage Your Readers
This is an opportunity to engage your readers beyond the written page. Write from the heart and speak directly to your readers. Include information they are not likely to find in any interview or publisher materials. Invite them to engage with you through social media or email. Done right, your newsletter will help you connect with readers on another level and inspire them to delve deeper into your work.

Lisa Hazen is a Chicago-based Web Designer specializing in author sites. You should totally subscribe to her newsletter. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, or the WWW. lisa@lisahazen.com